Description
वो अब भी है.
He still is.
The seventh song for Indra, and this one is in plain Hindustani, the language most of us actually speak.
It is the middle of the night and the moon has set. A young man wakes to a gust of wind that seems to be saying something. He lights a lamp and sets out a cup for a god everyone has forgotten. Later he runs barefoot into the dark because he is sure someone called his name. It was only the wind. He laughs at himself, and he keeps the light anyway.
People have been asking this for over three thousand years.
The Rigveda itself says of Indra: they ask "Where is he?", and they say "He is not." (RV 2.12.5)
This is not a prayer for someone to come and save us. Look at what he actually asks for: an edge of iron in his mind, the serpent in his own head killed, courage for his people. और जो उठ खड़ा हो, उसमें वही है. Whoever rises to their feet, he is in them.
On the eve of Diwali, light your lamp.
The light locked in stone, the river in chains and the falcon fleeing across ninety-nine rivers all come from the Rigveda (RV 1.32). The scars that became eyes come from the later tradition.
Lyrics and Illustration: Ashris
Music: La Casa De Las Flores · Yamil Misael Rezc Goméz
Best heard with headphones/good earphones 🎧
Part of the India in Pixels multilingual Indra series:
▶ Hindi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCgu9wubWyM
▶ Vedic Sanskrit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-QY3xwSb68
▶ Persian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwCDO782EvM
▶ Tamil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8b01k-UCiU
▶ Awadhi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LknwnmRRegM
▶ Bengali: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSVGFUgBEHc