Invocation: Summary and Questions with Answers

Introduction

The poem instils the morals of collective living through mutual love and understanding. There must be a feeling of solidarity among every single person. In this manner, an invocation has been made to unite the entire mankind.

Summary in English

‘Invocation’ is an extract from ‘Hymns from the Vedas’ a book of selected translations from the Atharva Veda by Dr Avinash Chandra Bose. The speaker has propounded the ethics of collective living through mutual love and understanding.

An invocation has been made to all the people of the world to be united and live with mutual love and understanding among themselves as well as with the strangers. The poem gives us an example of Asvins. They are twins gods. They are said to be the gods of health and medicine. They create between us and the strangers the unity of hearts. They are actually the blend of horse and the human body. The head of human and the body of horse. In this way, they show a harmony between two creatures. They symbolise perfect unity and harmony. The poem emphasis the fact that when they can unite the horse and the human body, so we also establish harmony between us and the strangers.

There should be solidarity in thoughts and purposes. Every human has divinity within him. So it not correct to create a divide with others. We ought not to battle against the divine soul inside us. We must keep ourselves away from was and cries.

Q.1 What is the message of the verse?
Ans. The Poem’s Invocation is a work of translation from the Atharva Veda by Dr Abinash Chandra Bose. The poem appears in his book “The Vedas Hymns” which is a collection of selected Vedas translations. The poem describes the principles of Indian culture. It emphasizes the collective sense of life through shared love and understanding. The poem conveys a message of peace, brotherhood and solidarity among all the people of the world. The speaker invokes the Asvins gods to establish harmony between the hearts of the natives and the strangers. He wishes to pervade harmony between these two groups of people. He wishes their thoughts and actions united. He wants them to get united in their views, opinions and intentions. The poem is relevant for its mass appeal of unity, love, peace, harmony and mutual cooperation.

OR

The verse ‘Invocation’ has a very sound message. In the present context, the poet feels that there is a need for coordination among people. This coordination should be extended to foreign people also. We should have cordial relation and peace among our own men and also with strangers. This is the only way that can bring peace and harmony everywhere.

Q.2 Why does the speaker not want the battle cry to be raised?
Ans. In this poem, the speaker invokes the gods Asvins to create peace and brotherhood among all the people of the world. He wants the natives and the immigrant to live untimely, ignoring all their differences. In his thoughts and intentions, he wants them to be one. He says that differing opinions and motives contribute to incomprehension and misunderstanding ultimately results in battles and conflict. He doesn’t want to hear the scream of battle. According to him, the scream of battle is the symbol of death and destruction. It is a huge shame for mankind. During conflicts, many innocent people are killed and many others are suffering their entire lives. Battles between two groups or countries are fought but the human race has to pay the price. So the speaker desires that god shouldn’t punish humanity with anything like bloody war. He just wants to hear the song of peace and harmony.

OR

The poet intends to establish peace in the world. He wishes for the unity among people by having concord among ourselves and also with the aliens. He denigrates battles because battles are the root cause for all ruins. People are victimized. Battles never resolve any problem but add many more leaving a lot of unanswered questions and cries without end. We have already suffered a lot. Any more cry will finish us completely. Hence we should make an effort to resolve our differences by peaceful ways.

Q.3 How does the speaker wish to achieve concord.
Ans. The speaker in this poem is a native who wants to pervade unity and peace between the natives and the strangers. He hopes all the people of the world could live in peace and harmony. He invokes the gods of Asvins to create a love for peace and fraternity between these two types of people. He states two ways to achieve concord. He states that there is to be concord first in views and then in intentions. If we become unified in our beliefs and expectations, there will be no gaps in our hearts to build misunderstandings. If we have the same view he says that we will always consider living together, leaving behind all our contradictions and conflicts. If we all have the same purpose, we shall all work together for the unity and progress of the world.

OR

This poem is an invocation for the establishment of concord in the world. First, we should have concord with our own people then with strangers. Here ‘own people’ refers to our countrymen with whom we live and share all our joys and sorrows. All the time is with us. Then we should have concord with the strangers i.e., the aliens who contribute to our global vision. We can achieve concord by resolving our disputes or issues through peaceful ways because battles only ruin us. We should condemn them.

Q.4 Which are the 2 kinds of people referred to in the verse.
Ans. The poem ‘Invocation’ has been translated from ‘Atharvaveda’ and appears in the book ‘Hymns from the Vedas’ by Dr Abinash Chandra Bose. The speaker wishes to achieve friendship and peace between kinds of people in the world. The two kinds of people referred to in the verse are the natives and foreigners. The natives are our own people who live within the same country. The foreigners are those people who live in other countries and are unknown to us. The speaker wishes both kinds of people to get United in their hearts.

OR

The verse is an invocation to the worldly people. The two types of people are referred to here. The first type of people are those who surround us and who we know well. Will live among them. They are our own people. The second type of people are those who are strangers who do not belong to us. We don’t know them. It means they belong to different culture and land. They are foreign to us.
In short, the first type of refers to our countrymen while others refer to foreign people.

Q.5 “Let ………………. the day” what is implied in the lines.
Ans. The speaker doesn’t want battle cry to be raised in these lines. He invokes gods Asvin not to punish mankind with anything like war. He doesn’t wish to hear the cry of innocent people getting killed on the battlefield. He says that battles and wars bring the only destruction for mankind. So he urges god not to create war among people. He doesn’t wish to start the day hearing the battle cry.

OR

These lines imply that we have already fought many battles. There are a lot of war victims. We have already lost a lot of life and property. The cries still haunt us. So we should not let any more cries caused by battles. Instead, we should resolve all issues peacefully.

Q.6 In how many ways in the unity sought?
Ans. The speaker prays to gods Asvins to create unity between the natives and the strangers. He seeks unity first among the natives and then between the natives and the strangers. He wants the two kinds of people to get united in their opinions & intention.

OR

Unity has been sought in many ways. First, we should have concord with our own people as well as with strangers. We should unite in mind and purposes. We should not let anymore battle-cry rise.

Q.7. Why does the speaker invoke the gods Asvins?
Ans. In this poem, the speaker invokes the gods Asvins. He prays them to create unity between the two kinds of people that is the natives and the strangers. In Hindu mythology, Asvins are dual gods who are joint by their bodies. They are two but considered as one. The poem lays emphasis on the unity of natives and strangers. The speaker wants them to live as one. Them of the poem makes it relevant that the speaker invokes the gods Asvins for the unity of hearts between these two kinds of people.

OR

Asvins are the dual gods (devas) who symbolise perfect unity of the natives and the strangers. the poet here, while making invocation for unity, invokes the gods-Asvins in order to establish perfect concord and harmony between our countrymen and the foreigners.

Extra Questions

Q.1. Who is the speaker in the poem?
Answer. The poet is the speaker of the poem.

Q. 2 What does ‘Concord’ mean?
Answer. ‘Concord’ means friendship and peace among people and countries.

Q. 3 Whose concord is wished for it first?
Answer. Concord with our own people is wished for at first.

Q. 4 Who are the Asvins?
Answer. Asvins are the dual gods (devas) who symbolise perfect unity of the natives and the strangers.

Q. 5 What shouldn’t be fought against?
Answer. The divine spirit within us shouldn’t be fought against.