We have a frog crossing in Yoga Vidya and I have always been enchanted with the concept. When I was a little girl, my friends and I would catch the tiny frogs and slip them down the tunic of our classmates, who were frightened of them. The frogs hatched only after the rains.

There is a very famous hymn dedicated to frogs in the Rig Veda. CIII. This hymn has been composed by Rishi Vasistha. The frogs have been quiet for a year, and are awaiting the rain. Two frogs are described as Green and Spotty. One is inspiring the other and he is learning the language. They are growing with the knowledge. One learns that it is a formal lesson by repetition. Then the frogs are further compared to the Brahmans participating in the famous Soma rite. The rain time is taken seriously and the heated kettle means the buildup of heat. And the rains set them free from this heat. The rain brings wealth to the farming community. The message is relief which is expressed by both man and beast as the first rains arrive.

Frog Hymn

1. They, who lay quiet for a year, the Brahmans, who fulfil their vows,
   The Frogs have lifted up their voice, the voice, the voice Parjnya hath inspired.
2. What time on these, as on a dry skin lying in the pool’s bed, the floods of heaven descended,
   The music of the Frogs comes forth in concert like the cows lowing with their claves beside them.
3. When at the coming of the Rains the water has poured upon them as they yearned and thirsted,
   One seeks another as he talks and greets him with cries of pleasure as a son of his father.
4. Each of these twains receives the other kindly, while they are reveling in the flow of waters,
   When the Frog moistened by the rain springs forward, and Green and Spotty both combine their voices.
5. When one these repeats the others language, as he learns the lesson of the teacher,
   Your every limb seems to be growing larger as ye converse with eloquence on the waters.
6. One is Cow-bellow and Goat-bleat the other, one frog is Green and one of them is Spotty.
   They bear one common name, and yet they vary, and talking modulate the voices diversely.
7. As Brahmans sitting round the brimful vessel, talk at the Soma rite of Atiratra,
   So, Frogs, ye gather round the pool to honor this day of all the year, the first of Rain time.
8. These Brahmans with the Soma juice, performing their yearlong rite, have lifted up their voices;
   And these Davarius seating with their kettles, come forth and show themselves, and none are hidden.
9. They keep the twelve month’s God-appointed order, and never do the men neglect the season.
   Soon as the Rain-time in the year returneth, these who were heated kettles gain their freedom.
10. Cow-bellow and Goat-bleat have granted riches, and Green and Spotty have vouchsafed us treasures.
    The Frogs who give us cows in hundreds lengthen our lives in this most fertilizing season.

Aim Hrim Klim

Photo by Jelle de Gier on Unsplash