Soma or Chandra

 
Soma: The Nectar of the Gods

Night to the Soma-drinker come, for his enjoyment, these pure drops,
The Somas mingled with the curd.
Thou, grown at once to perfect strength, wast born to drink the Soma juice, Strong Indra, for preeminence.
O Indra, lover of the song, may these quick Somas enter thee:
May they bring bliss to thee the Sage.

— Rig Veda, HYMN V. to Indra

Soma is the Amiritam or Nectar that descends from heavens by blessings by Indira, during deep meditation. This is very intoxicating and powerful. Achieving this by the blessings of God is a boon. The drink that is formally made during Yagnam or Yagam is symbolic in nature. 

Soma is the God of inspiration, the intoxicant who stirs the minds, lures the Gods and brings them to the place of worship. The God Soma is one of the prominent deities of the Veda. He is the one of the most popular Gods of the Rigvedic hymns; the entire Ninth Mandala of the Rigveda is dedicated to him. Since the Soma sacrifice forms the main feature of the ritual of the Rigveda, the God Soma is naturally one of the most important deities of that Veda. In the Rigveda, the Soma held the third position following Indra and Agni from the point of view of the total number of hymns dedicated to them. He is also known as  Indu or Pavamana; he brings joy into the lives of people. He gives strength not only to mortals, but to the Gods as well. Because of him, Indra was able to slay Vritra. Because of him Agni maintains his sway. Soma caused the Sun to shine, caused the lights of the sky to shine and produced the Sun in the waters^. He caused the Sun to rise, impelled it, obtained and bestowed it and caused the dawns to shine. He makes his worshippers participate in the Sun and finds light for them. He found the light and wins light and heaven.

Soma being regarded as a divine drink which bestows immortal life. Hence it is mythologically called amrita, the draught of immortality. It is an immortal stimulant, which the Gods love and of which, when pressed by men and mixed with milk, all the Gods drink, for they hasten to exhilaration and become exhilarated. Soma is immortal and the Gods drank him for immortality^[ The Gods were originally mortal. They obtained it by drinking Soma, which is called the principle of immortality. He confers immortality on the Gods and on men. He places his worshippers in the everlasting and imperishable world where there is eternal light and glory and makes him immortal where king Vaivasvata lives. In the heavenly world Soma is united with the Fathers (The blessed dead) as the ground of their immortality. Soma is called the father of the Gods; which seems to mean that as the life-giving drink, Soma is creative of the real abiding existence even of the Gods. Soma is described as equivalent to the Fathers, doubtless in the sense that the continuous existence of the blessed dead was due entirely to Soma as the principle of immortality.

The intoxicating effect of Soma most emphasized by the poets is the stimulates it imparts to Indra in his conflict with hostile powers. The Soma drink was considered the most effective of all medicinal preparations. The Soma drink was an elixir that worked both psycho actively upon the brain and nervous system to induce an altered state of consciousness as well as medicinally upon the human body to cure it of various diseases.

Soma is the ‘soul of Sacrifice’, a priest (Brahma) among the Gods and apportions to them their share of sacrifice. Soma’s wisdom thus comes to be predominantly dwelt upon. He is a wise seer. He knows the races of the Gods. He is a wise man seeing wave. Soma with intelligence surveys creatures. Hence he is many eyed and thousand eyed. Soma is participated in the ritual. The Soma drinkers are always respected, but if the ritual is not well performed and if there are errors in its performances, the Soma drinkers become unworthy of sacrificial gifts. The power of Soma is at the basis of many uses of Soma in the magical rites.

Soma is a great fighter. He is a victor, unconquered in fight, born for battle. He is the most heroic of heroes, the fiercest of the terrible, ever victorious. He conquers for his worshippers’ cows, chariots, horses, gold, heaven, water, a thousand boons and everything. Without reference to his war like character, he is constantly said to bestow all the wealth of heaven and earth, food, cattle, horses, and so forth. Soma himself is occasionally called a treasure or the wealth of the Gods. Soma is a fighter against darkness. He can also afford protection from foes. He drives away goblins and like some other deities but more frequently, receives the epithet of goblin slayer (rakshoham). Soma is the only God who is called a slayer of the wicked. In the later Vedic literature the statement occurs that Brahmans who drink Soma are able to slay at a glance.

Soma in Vedas YouTube LInk: https://youtu.be/60xNqrTc99Q

The Soma Plant Myth

The Soma plant is once in the Rigveda described as maujavata, which according to later statements would mean produced on Mount Mujavat. Soma is also several times described as dwelling in the mountains (giristha) or growing in the mountains (parvatavridh). Mountains are also called ‘Soma backed’, a term which, perhaps by ritual symbolism, is applied to the pressing stones (adrayah) in the Rigveda. All these terms point to the abode of the Soma plant being on terrestrial mountains. Since the Soma plant actually grew on mountains, it is probable that this fact is present to the mind of the poet even when he says that ‘on the vault of heaven sweet tongued friends milk the mountain dwelling bull’. Terrestrial hills may also be intended when it is said that ‘Varuna has placed Agni in the waters, the Sun in heaven and Soma on the rock or that Matarishvan brought the one (Agni) from heaven, while the eagle carried off the other (Soma) from the rock.

The abode of the Soma plant being on terrestrial mountains. Though Soma is a terrestrial plant, it is also celestial, in fact its true origin and abode are regarded as in heaven. Thus it is said that the birth of the plant is on high; being in heaven it has been received by earth. The intoxication juice is the ‘child of heaven’, an epithet frequently applied to Soma.

The Soma plant may be classified into twenty-four species according to the difference of their habitats, structures, epithets and potencies. They are as follows: Amshuman, Munjavan, Candramah, Rajataprabha, Durva-Soma, Kanjavan, Shvetaksha, Kanakaprabha, Pratanavan, Talaurinta, Karavira, Amshavan, Svayamprabha, Maha-Soma, Garudahrita, Gaya-trya, Traishtubha, Pamkta, Jagata, Shamkara, Agnishtoma, Raivata, Yathokta and Udupati. All these kinds of Soma secure for the user a mastery of the Gayatri and are known by the above auspicious names mentioned in the Vedas.

A Soma plant of whatever species is furnished with fifteen leaves which wane and wax with the waxing and the waning of the Moon. Thus one leaf grows every day in the lighted fortnight attaining the greatest number (fifteen) in the night of the full moon and then the leaves begin to decrease in number dropping one by one every day till the bare stem of the creeper is lift on the night of the new moon. The growth of the plant depends upon the luner phases of the Moon. The leaf develops one by one during Shuklapaksha and become fifteen leaves on fullmoon and subsequently lose leaves one by one during Krishnapaksha and it remains leafless stump at Amavashya that is no moon day.

The branches of the Soma plant were used for the extraction of the juice but not the fruits. The part of the Soma plant which is pressed is called amshu, shoot or stalk. The shoots swelling give milk like cows with their udders. As distinguished from the stalk, the whole Soma plant seems to be intended by andhas, which is said to have come from heaven and to have been brought by the eagle; it is even called food and very often honey, a term which is applied also to milk and to ghee.

The Soma plant may be classified into twenty-four species according to the difference of their habitats, structures, epithets and potencies. They are as follows: Amshuman, Munjavan, Candramah, Rajataprabha, Durva-Soma, Kanjavan, Shvetaksha, Kanakaprabha, Pratanavan, Talaurinta, Karavira, Amshavan, Svayamprabha, Maha-Soma, Garudahrita, Gaya-trya, Traishtubha, Pamkta, Jagata, Shamkara, Agnishtoma, Raivata, Yathokta and Udupati. All these kinds of Soma secure for the user a mastery of the Gayatri and are known by the above auspicious names mentioned in the Vedas.

A Soma plant of whatever species is furnished with fifteen leaves which wane and wax with the waxing and the waning of the Moon. Thus one leaf grows every day in the lighted fortnight attaining the greatest number (fifteen) in the night of the full moon and then the leaves begin to decrease in number dropping one by one every day till the bare stem of the creeper is lift on the night of the new moon. The growth of the plant depends upon the luner phases of the Moon. The leaf develops one by one during Shuklapaksha and become fifteen leaves on fullmoon and subsequently lose leaves one by one during Krishnapaksha and it remains leafless stump at Amavashya that is no moon day.

The branches of the Soma plant were used for the extraction of the juice but not the fruits. The part of the Soma plant which is pressed is called amshu, shoot or stalk. The shoots swelling give milk like cows with their udders. As distinguished from the stalk, the whole Soma plant seems to be intended by andhas, which is said to have come from heaven and to have been brought by the eagle; it is even called food and very often honey, a term which is applied also to milk and to ghee.

Soma is the name of a mysterious plant from which a drink is pressed that is said to have a certain effect on the mind. Soma juice is glorified as a drink of longevity. The Ninth Mandala of the Rigveda contains a number of references to the colour of Soma. The colour of the plant and juice as well as of the God is narrated as brown (babhru) or ruddy (aruna) or most often tawny (hari) and in accord with this, it is the rule that the cow, with which in the rite the Soma is purchased, must be brown or ruddy and that any substitutes used for Soma must be similar to it in colour. It has been described as ever green and green hued. Its colour has also been described as golden hued. The plant is made to yield its juice by being pounded with a stone or pressed with stones, which lie on a skin and seem in contravention to the ritual usage to be placed on the altar. It is quite possible that these variations in colour may have been due to the specific variety of the Soma plant available and the process of extraction and stage of storage. Whatever the colour, there is no doubt that the juice radiated feelings of power, potency, divinity. The Rigveda describes it as bright and shining. Soma is narrated as purified with the hands, by the ten fingers or figuratively by the ten maidens who are sisters. Soma is the lord of the wine of delight, the beverage of immortality. Like Agni he is found in the plants, the growths of the earth and in the waters.

The real soma experience from heavens is totally different compared to the one artificially generated by drugs or plants. The soma experience in meditation is just a glimpse of it like when you take psychedelic drugs like LST, marijuana plant etc. The yagna priests were making this drink and by consuming it, experienced a kind of bliss which is not same as that naturally happens in meditation. Basically the soma that you drink from plant will make you a drug addict. This is not the real spiritual experience. Many who claim as Yogis, Rishis or Shamans will blabber out, which was interpreted as words of God under influence of drugs. Which was/is is very dangerous. 

The symbolic meaning of soma is an achievement, blessing and heavenly inexplicable experience that blessed by king of heavens Indra which is mind, which connected to heavens or higher dimensional worlds. So we pray for real soma from heavens, which is Aanandam.