Kāṇḍa 3 · Chapter Overview
From The Krishna Yajurveda — The Taittirīya Saṃhitā, taught by Acharya T Krishnatrey. This lesson is free to read.
<pre data-block="statement"> The third kāṇḍa is the Veda's book of repair. Where Kāṇḍa 1 gave the regular rites and Kāṇḍa 2 the rites of desire, Kāṇḍa 3 supplements the Soma sacrifice and — most characteristically — supplies the prāyaścitta, the expiations: what to do when a drop is spilled, when a vow is broken, when something has gone wrong. That concern produces some of the most humane mantras in all the Vedas. Here is the formula for a spilled drop of Soma (3.1.8); the prayer that Agni, Indra and Sūrya place wisdom, offspring and splendour in the worshipper (3.3.1); the celebrated vow of honeyed speech (3.3.2); the plea to be free of debt — even the debt owed to Yama (3.3.8); the great adhipati litany naming each god's domain (3.4.5); the Vāstoṣpati house-blessing (3.4.10); and the loosening of Varuṇa's noose (3.5.6). Ten of them follow. Read them as the Veda's answer to a question every tradition must face: what happens when we get it wrong? </pre>