The raptures of the wine come to you entirely, to you with Indra companioned by the Maruts and with the Kings, the sons of Aditi.XI. The Ribhus, Artisans of Immortality
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Rig-veda 1.20
1.20.1
अ॒यं दे॒वाय॒ जन्म॑ने॒ स्तोमो॒ विप्रे॑भिरास॒या ।
अका॑रि रत्न॒धात॑मः ॥१॥
ayam devāya janmane stomaḥ viprebhiḥ āsayā
akāri ratna-dhātamaḥ
Lo, the affirmation made for the divine Birth with the breath of the mouth by illumined minds, that gives perfectly the bliss;
1.20.2
य इन्द्रा॑य वचो॒युजा॑ तत॒क्षुर्मन॑सा॒ हरी॑ ।
शमी॑भिर्य॒ज्ञमा॑शत ॥२॥
ye indrāya vacaḥ-yujā tatakṣuḥ manasā harī iti
śamībhiḥ yajñam āśata
Even they who fashioned by the mind for Indra his two bright steeds that are yoked by Speech, and they enjoy the sacrifice by their accomplishings of the work.
1.20.3
तक्ष॒न्नास॑त्याभ्यां॒ परि॑ज्मानं सु॒खं रथ॑म् ।
तक्ष॑न्धे॒नुं स॑ब॒र्दुघा॑म् ॥३॥
takṣan nāsatyābhyām pari-jmānam su-kham ratham
takṣan dhenum sabaḥ-dughām
They fashioned for the twin lords of the voyage their happy car of the all-pervading movement, they fashioned the fostering cow that yields the sweet milk.
1.20.4
युवा॑ना पि॒तरा॒ पुनः॑ स॒त्यम॑न्त्रा ऋजू॒यवः॑ ।
ऋ॒भवो॑ वि॒ष्ट्य॑क्रत ॥४॥
yuvānā pitarā punariti satya-mantrāḥ ṛjū-yavaḥ
ṛbhavaḥ viṣṭī akrata
O Ribhus, in your pervasion you made young again the Parents, you who seek the straight path and have the Truth in your mentalisings.
1.20.5
सं वो॒ मदा॑सो अग्म॒तेन्द्रे॑ण च म॒रुत्व॑ता ।
आ॒दि॒त्येभि॑श्च॒ राज॑भिः ॥५॥
sam vaḥ madāsaḥ agmata indreṇa ca marutvatā
ādityebhiḥ ca rājabhiḥ
The raptures of the wine come to you entirely, to you with Indra companioned by the Maruts and with the Kings, the sons of Aditi.
1.20.6
उ॒त त्यं च॑म॒सं नवं॒ त्वष्टु॑र्दे॒वस्य॒ निष्कृ॑तम् ।
अक॑र्त च॒तुर॒: पुनः॑ ॥६॥
uta tyam camasam navam tvaṣṭuḥ devasya niḥ-kṛtam
akarta caturaḥ punariti
And this bowl of Twashtri new and perfected you made again into four.
1.20.7
ते नो॒ रत्ना॑नि धत्तन॒ त्रिरा साप्ता॑नि सुन्व॒ते ।
एक॑मेकं सुश॒स्तिभि॑: ॥७॥
te naḥ ratnāni dhattana triḥ ā sāptāni sunvate
ekam-ekam suśastibhiḥ
So establish for us the thrice seven ecstasies, each separately by perfect expressings of them.
1.20.8
अधा॑रयन्त॒ वह्न॒योऽभ॑जन्त सुकृ॒त्यया॑ ।
भा॒गं दे॒वेषु॑ य॒ज्ञिय॑म् ॥८॥
adhārayanta vahnayaḥ abhajanta su-kṛtyayā
bhāgam deveṣu yajñiyam
They sustained and held in them, they divided by perfection in their works the sacrificial share of the enjoyment among the Gods.
Commentary
The Ribhus, it has been suggested, are rays of the Sun. And it is true that like Varuna, Mitra, Bhaga and Aryaman they are powers of the solar Light, the Truth. But their special character in the Veda is that they are artisans of Immortality. They are represented as human beings who have attained to the condition of godhead by power of knowledge and perfection in their works. Their function is to aid Indra in raising man towards the same state of divine light and bliss which they themselves have earned as their own divine privilege. The hymns addressed to them in the Veda are few and to the first glance exceedingly enigmatical; for they are full of certain figures and symbols always repeated. But once the principal clues of the Veda are known, they become on the contrary exceedingly clear and simple and present a coherent and interesting idea which sheds a clear light on the Vedic gospel of immortality.
The Ribhus are powers of the Light who have descended into Matter and are there born as human faculties aspiring to become divine and immortal. In this character they are called children of Sudhanwan,1 a patronymic which is merely a parable of their birth from the full capacities of Matter touched by the luminous energy. But in their real nature they are descended from this luminous Energy and are sometimes so addressed, “Offspring of Indra, grandsons of luminous Force” (IV.37.4). For Indra, the divine mind in man, is born out of luminous Force as is Agni out of pure Force, and from Indra the divine Mind spring the human aspirations after Immortality.
The names of the three Ribhus are, in the order of their birth, ṛbhu or ṛbhukṣan, the skilful Knower or the Shaper in knowledge, vibhva or vibhu, the Pervading, the self-diffusing, and vā̍ja, the Plenitude. Their names indicate their special nature and function, but they are really a trinity, and therefore, although usually termed the Ribhus, they are also called the Vibhus and Vajas
. Ribhu, the eldest is the first in man who begins to shape 
by his thoughts and works the forms of immortality; Vibhwa gives pervasiveness to this working; Vaja, the youngest, supplies the plenitude of the divine light and substance by which the complete work can be done. These works and formations of immortality they effect, it is continually repeated, by the force of Thought, with the mind for field and material; they are done with power; they are attended by a perfection in the creative and effective act, svapasyayā, sukṛtyayā, which is the condition of the working out of Immortality. These formations of the artisans of Immortality are, as they are briefly summarised in the hymn before us, the horses of Indra, the car of the Ashwins, the Cow that gives the sweet milk, the youth of the universal Parents, the multiplication into four of the one drinking-bowl of the gods originally fashioned by Twashtri, the Framer of things.
The hymn opens with an indication of its objective. It is an affirmation of the power of the Ribhus made for the divine Birth, made by men whose minds have attained to illumination and possess that energy of the Light from which the Ribhus were born. It is made by the breath of the mouth, the life-power in the world. Its object is to confirm in the human soul the entire delight of the Beatitude, the thrice seven ecstasies of the divine Life.3
This divine Birth is represented by the Ribhus who, once human, have become immortal. By their accomplishings of the work,– the great work of upward human evolution which is the summit of the world-sacrifice,– they have gained in that sacrifice their divine share and privilege along with the divine powers. They are the sublimated human energies of formation and upward progress who assist the gods in the divinising of man. And of all their accomplishings that which is central is the formation of the two brilliant horses of Indra, the horses yoked by speech to their movements, yoked by the Word and fashioned by the mind. For the free movement of the luminous mind, the divine mind in man, is the condition of all other immortalising works.4
The second work of the Ribhus is to fashion the chariot of the Ashwins, lords of the human journey,– the happy 
movement of the Ananda in man which pervades with its action all his worlds or planes of being, bringing health, youth, strength, wholeness to the physical man, capacity of enjoyment and action to the vital, glad energy of the light to the mental being,– in a word, the force of the pure delight of being in all his members.5
The third work of the Ribhus is to fashion the cow who gives the sweet milk. It is said elsewhere that this cow has been delivered out of its covering skin,– the veil of Nature’s outward movement and action,– by the Ribhus. The fostering cow herself is she of the universal forms and universal impetus of movement, viśvajuvaṃ viśvarūpām, in other words she is the first Radiance, Aditi, the infinite Consciousness of the infinite conscious Being which is the mother of the worlds. That consciousness is brought out by the Ribhus from the veiling movement of nature and a figure of her is fashioned here in us by them. She is, by the action of the powers of the duality, separated from her offspring, the soul in the lower world; the Ribhus restore it to constant companionship with its infinite mother.6
Another great work of the Ribhus is – in the strength of their previous deeds, of the light of Indra, the movement of the Ashwins, the full yield of the fostering Cow – to restore youth to the aged Parents of the world, Heaven and Earth. Heaven is the mental consciousness, Earth the physical. These in their union are represented as lying long – old and prostrate like fallen sacrificial posts, worn-out and suffering. The Ribhus, it is said, ascend to the house of the Sun where he lives in the unconcealed splendour of his Truth and there slumbering for twelve days afterwards traverse the heaven and the earth, filling them with abundant rain of the streams of Truth, nourishing them, restoring them to youth and vigour.7 They pervade heaven with their workings, they bring divine increase to the mentality,8 they give to it and the physical being a fresh and young and immortal movement.9 For from the home of the Truth they bring with them the perfection of that which is the condition of their work, the movement in the straight path of the Truth and the Truth 
itself with its absolute effectivity in all the thoughts and words of the mentality. Carrying this power with them in their pervading entry into the lower world, they pour into it the immortal essence.10
It is the wine of that immortal essence with its ecstasies which they win by their works and bring with them to man in his sacrifice. And with them come and sit Indra and the Maruts, the divine Mind and its Thought-forces, and the four great Kings, sons of Aditi, children of the Infinite, Varuna, Mitra, Aryaman, Bhaga, the purity and vastness of the Truth-Consciousness, its law of love and light and harmony, its power and aspiration, its pure and happy enjoyment of things.11
And there at the sacrifice the gods drink in the fourfold bowl, camasaṃ caturvayam (IV.36.4), the pourings of the nectar. For Twashtri, the Framer of things, has given man originally only a single bowl, the physical consciousness, the physical body in which to offer the delight of existence to the gods. The Ribhus, powers of luminous knowledge, take it as renewed and perfected by Twashtri’s later workings and build up in him from the material of the four planes three other bodies, vital, mental and the causal or ideal body.12
Because they have made this fourfold cup of bliss and enabled him thereby to live on the plane of the Truth-Consciousness they are able to establish in the perfected human being the thrice seven ecstasies of the supreme existence poured into the mind, vitality and body. Each of these they can give perfectly by the full expression of its separate absolute ecstasy even in the combination of the whole.13
The Ribhus have power to support and contain all these floods of the delight of being in the human consciousness; and they are able to divide it in the perfection of their works among the manifested gods, to each god his sacrificial share. For such perfect division is the whole condition of the effective sacrifice, the perfect work.14
Such are the Ribhus and they are called to the human sacrifice to fashion for man the things of immortality even as they fashioned them for themselves. “He becomes full of plenitude and strength for the labour, he becomes a Rishi by power of self-expression, he becomes a hero and a smiter hard to pierce in the battles, he holds in himself increase of bliss and entire energy whom Vaja and Vibhwa, the Ribhus foster.... For you are seers and thinkers clear-discerning; as such with this thought of our soul we declare to you our knowledge. Do you in your knowledge moving about our thoughts fashion for us all human enjoyings,– luminous plenitude and fertilising force and supreme felicity. Here issue, here felicity, here a great energy of inspiration fashion for us in your delight. Give to us, O Ribhus, that richly-varied plenitude by which we shall awaken in our consciousness to things beyond ordinary men.”15
1 “Dhanwan” in this name does not mean “bow” but the solid or desert field of Matter otherwise typified as the hill or rock out of which the waters and the rays are delivered.
2 Arya, vol. 1, No 10; CWSA, volume 15: the Vajas
3 ayaṃ devāya janmane, stomo viprebhir āsayā; akāri ratnadhātamaḥ.
4 ya indrāya vacoyujā, tatakṣur manasā harī; śamībhir yajñam āśata.
5 takṣan nāsatyābhyāṃ, parijmānaṃ sukhaṃ ratham.
6 takṣan dhenuṃ sabardughām. For the other details see Rv. IV.33.4,8; IV.36.4 etc.
7 Rv. IV.33.2,3,7; IV.36.1,3; 1.161.7.
8 Rv. IV.33.1,2.
9 Rv. V.36.3.
10 yuvānā pitarā punaḥ, satyamantrā ṛjūyavaḥ; ṛbhavo viṣṭy akrata.
11 saṃ vo madāso agmata, indreṇa ca marutvatā; ādityebhiś ca rājabhiḥ.
12 uta tyaṃ camasaṃ navaṃ, tvaṣṭur devasya niṣkṛtam; akarta caturaḥ punaḥ.
13 te no ratnāni dhattana, trir ā sāptāni sunvate; ekam-ekaṃ suśastibhiḥ.
14 adhārayanta vahnayo, abhajanta sukṛtyayā; bhāgaṃ deveṣu yajñiyam.
15 Rv. IV.36.6-9.