Within the Rigvedic vision, Soma stands at once as a sacred plant, a potent ritual drink, and a deified presence. The hymns portray Soma as a golden or tawny juice pressed from a stalky plant that grows in the mountains, its sap flowing like a luminous stream. This juice is carefully extracted, filtered through wool, and often mixed with water or milk, so that its purity and brilliance are ritually heightened. Soma’s effects are repeatedly praised as intoxicating in a sacred sense: it invigorates, expands consciousness, and grants strength, courage, and poetic inspiration. It is associated with health, vitality, and the overcoming of death, often described as amṛta, the nectar of immortality. In this way Soma becomes not merely a substance but a principle of life, vigor, and transcendence.

At the same time, Soma is addressed as a god, frequently honored as a king among plants and as a powerful deity in his own right. The hymns speak of Soma as a lordly being who dwells in the highest heaven and who grants divine vision, inspiration, and heroic power. Soma is closely allied with Indra, whose great cosmic deeds are repeatedly said to be empowered by copious draughts of Soma, and is also linked with Agni and other deities who partake of this sacred offering. Entire clusters of hymns, especially in the ninth maṇḍala, are devoted to Soma’s pressing and purification, celebrating the juice as it flows, is strained, and becomes fit for the gods. Through these chants, Soma is praised as both the offering and the divine recipient, the medium and the presence.

Ritually, Soma stands at the center of some of the most important Vedic sacrifices. The preparation of Soma involves cutting and collecting the stalks, pressing them with stones on wooden boards, filtering the juice, and then offering it in three daily pressings—morning, midday, and evening. Priests recite and chant Soma hymns as the juice is offered into the sacred fire and also consumed, so that humans and gods alike are nourished by the same sacred essence. In this sacrificial context, Soma becomes a living bridge between the human and the divine, a flowing link that sustains cosmic order and opens the way to spiritual insight. Through Soma’s worship, the Rigvedic seers envision a reality in which plant, drink, god, and cosmic law are woven together in a single, luminous current.