Great Indian Religion

Author(s): G T Bettany
Publisher: Ward Lock Bowden and Co

Page 19

MITRA AND VARUNA.
(even) he does not know." From this we see that man in the ancient Vedic times had progressed almost, if not quite, as far in speculation as to the origin of things as the latest and most advanced of men, and with as little definite result.
Leaving aside Aditi, apparently a personification of universal Nature or Being, the mother of the gods (Adityas), and capable of setting people free Mitra and from sin, but confessedly a difficult personifica- Varuna. tion to explain, we pass to consider the characters of Mitra and Varuna, sons of Aditi, frequently associated, and often interpretable as day and night. Varuna is sometimes represented as visible; and the two deities are said to mount on a car drawn by horses, and soar to the highest empyrean, and behold all things in heaven and earth. Sometimes the sun is called the eye of Mitra and Varuna; and both jointly and separately they are termed king of all and universal monarch. Varuna has attributes like those of the Greek Ouranos, Latinised as Uranus. He made the sun to shine; the wind is his breath; river courses are hollowed out by his command, and the rivers pour their water into the one ocean, but never fill it. He knows the flight of birds in the sky, the path of ships on the ocean, the course of the far-travelling wind, and beholds all the sacred things that have been or shall be done. He beholds as if he were close at hand. Whatever two persons sitting together, devise, Varuna the king knows it, as a third. He has unlimited control of men, and is said to have a thousand remedies; hence he is besought to show his deep and wide benevolence, and drive away evil and sin. Muir's verse translation, almost literal, is so attractive that it demands quotation. "The mighty Lord on high, our deeds as if at hand, espies; The gods know all men do, though men would fain their deeds
disguise. Whoever stands, whoever moves, or steals from place to place, Or hides him in his secret cell-the gods his movements trace. Wherever two together plot, and deem they are alone, King Varuna is there, a third, and all their schemes are known. This earth is his, to him belong those vast and boundless skies; Both seas within him rest, and yet in that small pool he lies.