Meaning -
Mighty brave is this Audumbara mani, worthy of the brave to wear and bear. Let it make our share of wealth for body, mind and soul full of honey sweets. May it give us wealth, honour and excellence wholly worthy of all the brave. Note: As the theme of Audumbara-mani grows in this Sukta, it becomes clear that this ‘jewel’ is not simply a magical amulet from the Udumbara tree. It is a valuable extract from the tree, very efficacious in home yajna too for the growth of health and development of animals (verses 1-5). Then it becomes the source of health, wealth and progeny (6-8). Then the thought moves on to Sarasvati (mother of knowledge), Vanaspati (preserver, developer and manager of forests, also the sun), and Gramani (village leader), which are all human and divine variations of the source of health, wealth, honour, excellence and enlightenment. At the end the ‘mani’ becomes the sole source of humanity’s share of food, energy and excellence for body, mind and soul, Lord Supreme, diversifier as well as the unifier of all that is. The Sukta is a mystical vision of the concrete, moving up to the mysterious. Darbha ordinarily is Kusha grass, specially white, different from ordinary Kusha and Kasa. But derived from the root ‘dr’, ‘to break’, in Vedic language it would mean ‘the breaker of negativities and joiner of positivities to wholeness’, a giver of invulnerable strength. Darbha, then, is to be understood as both medicinal and metaphorical.