Atharvaveda 9.9

Of this pleasant (vāmá) hoary invoker—of him the brother is the midmost stone (? áçna); his third brother [is] ghee-backed; there I saw the lord of the people who hath seven sons.

Seven harness (yuj) a one-wheeled chariot; one horse, having seven names, draws (vah) [it]; of three naves [is] the wheel, unwasting, unassailed, whereon stand all these existences.

The seven that stand on this chariot—seven horses draw it, seven-wheeled; seven sisters shout at [it] together, where are set down the seven names of the kine.

Who saw it first in process of birth, as the boneless one bears (bhṛ) him that has bones? where forsooth the earth's life (ásu), blood, soul? who shall go to ask that of him who knows?

Let him who truly knows ⌊here⌋ tell (brū) the set-down track of this pleasant bird; the kine extract (duh) milk from his head; clothing themselves in a wrap, they have drunk water with the foot.

Simple, not discerning (vi-jñā) with the mind, I ask about the thus set-down tracks of the gods; over the yearling (? baṣkáya) calf have the poets stretched out seven lines (tántu) for weaving.

I, not understanding (cit), ask here the understanding poets, I unknowing (vid), them that know; he who propped asunder these six spaces (rájas), in the form of the goat (? ajá)—was that also alone?

The mother portioned the father in righteousness, for with meditation (dhītí), with mind, came together in the beginning she, repugnant, womb-sapped, pierced; paying homage, verily, they went unto encouragement.

The mother was yoked to the pole of the sacrificial gift; the embryo stood among the wiles (? vṛjanī́); the calf bleated, looked after the cow of all forms, in the three distances (yójana).

The one, bearing three mothers [and] three fathers, stood upright; verily they do not exhaust him; on the back of yon sky the all-knowing ones talk a speech not found by all.

On the five-spoked circumvolving wheel on which stood all existences—its axle, much-burdened, is not heated; even from of old it is not severed with the nave.

The five-footed father, of twelve shapes (-ā́kṛti), they call rich in ground (purīṣín) in the far (pára) half of the sky; then these others call [him] set (árpita) in the lower outlook that is seven-wheeled, six-spoked.

The twelve-spoked wheel—for that is not to be worn out—revolves greatly about the sky of righteousness; there, O Agni, stood the sons, paired, seven hundred and twenty.

The unwasting wheel, with rim, rolls about; ten harnessed ones draw upon the outstretched one (fem.); the sun's eye goes surrounded with the welkin (rájas), in which stood all existences.

Them, being women, they declared (ah) to me to be men; he who hath eyes may see, [but] the blind will not distinguish (vi-cit); the son that is a poet, he verily understood (ā-cit); whoever knows those things apart, he shall be [his] father's father.

Of those born together the seventh they call sole-born; six, they say, are twins, god-born seers; the sacrifices (? iṣṭá) of them, distributed according to their abodes, quake in their station, being altered (vi-kṛ) in respect to form.

Below the distant (pára), thus beyond the lower, bearing (bhṛ) her calf with her foot, the cow hath stood up; whitherwards, to what quarter (árdha) hath she forsooth gone away? where giveth she birth? for [it is] not in this herd.

Below the distant whoever knows his father, below the distant, thus beyond the lower—who, playing the poet, shall proclaim [him] here? from whence [is] heavenly mind produced?

Them that are hitherward they call off-ward; them, again, that are off-ward they call hitherward; what things, O Soma, thou and Indra have done, those they draw, harnessed as it were with the pole of the welkin.

Two eagles (suparṇá), joint companions, embrace the same tree; of them the one eats the sweet berry; the other looks on all the time, not partaking.

On what tree the honey-eating eagles all settle and give birth—what they call the sweet berry in the top of it, that cannot he attain who knoweth not [his] father.

Where the eagles, with counsel (vidátha), sound incessantly (ánimeṣam) unto the draught of amṛ́ta,—thus the shepherd of all existence, he the wise one entered there into me that am simple.