You mean, anyone who has read the Ninth Mandala in the translation TM uses will know that's how the Ninth Mandala in that translation describes soma. But they won't necessarily know to what degree that description is symbolic/poetic/metaphorical rather than literal, or even whether the original has been translated accurately (from the ancient Sanskrit to German, then from German to English).
Indeed, and why bother? Anyone who has read the 9th Mandala of the Rig Veda will know it's a drink made from plant extracts. Soma (Sanskrit सोम sóma), or Haoma http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haoma (Avestan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avestan), from Proto-Indo-Iranian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-Iranian *sauma-, was a Vedic ritual drink[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soma#cite_note-1 of importance among the early Indo-Iranians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Iranians, and the subsequent Vedic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedic_civilization and greater Persian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Iran cultures. It is frequently mentioned in the Rigveda http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigveda, whose Soma Mandala http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soma_Mandala contains 114 hymns, many praising its energizing qualities. In the Avesta http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avesta, Haoma has the entire Yašt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ya%C5%A1t 20 and Yasna http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasna 9-11 dedicated to it. It is described as being prepared by extracting juice from the stalks of a certain plant. In both Vedic and Zoroastrian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrian tradition, the name of the drink and the plant are the same, and also personified as a divinity, the three forming a religious or mythological unity. There has been much speculation concerning what is most likely to have been the identity of the original plant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botanical_identity_of_Soma-Haoma. There is no solid consensus on the question, although some Western experts outside the Vedic and Avestan religious traditions now seem to favour a species of Ephedra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephedra_(genus), perhaps Ephedra sinica http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephedra_sinica http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soma http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soma Sounds speedy!
