The Secret of the Veda

Hymn to Varuna

[In this hymn there is throughout a sustained double sense. In the exoteric Varuna is hymned as the Asura, omniscient and omnipotent lord and creator, the Godhead in his creative wisdom and might forming the world and maintaining the law of things in the earth and mid-air and heavens. In the esoteric, in which the physical phenomena of the exoteric become symbols, the infinite Godhead is hymned in his all-pervading wisdom and purity opening the three worlds of our being to the Sun of knowledge, pouring down the streams of the Truth, purifying the soul from the falsehood of the lower being and its sin. The hymn is rendered here successively in its exoteric and its esoteric significance.]

To the Omniscient Creator

प्र सम्राजे बृहदर्चा गभीरं ब्रह्म प्रियं वरुणाय श्रुताय ।
वि यो जघान शमितेव चर्मोपस्तिरे पृथिवीं सूर्याय ॥१॥

1) Sing thou the word vast and profound and dear to renowned Varuna, the All-ruler, to him who clove away, even as the cleaver of beasts a skin, that he might spread out the earth under the sun.

वनेषु व्यन्तरिक्षं ततान वाजमर्वत्सु पय उस्त्रियासु ।
हृत्सु कतुं वरुणो अप्स्वग्नि दिवि सूर्यमदधात्सोममद्रौ ॥२॥

2) He spread out the mid-air on the tree-tops, he put strength in

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the battle-steeds and milk in the cows; in hearts he put will, the fire in the waters,¹ the sun in heaven and the Soma-plant on the mountain.

नीचीनबारं वरुणः कवन्धं प्र ससर्ज रोदसी अन्तरिक्षम् ।
तेन विश्वस्य भुवनस्य राजा यवं न वृष्टिर्व्युनत्ति भूम ॥३॥

3) Varuna poured forth over earth and heaven and the mid-air the holder of the waters whose windows open downward; by him the King of all the world floods the earth as the rain floods a field of barley.

उनत्ति भूमिं पृथिवीमुत द्यां यदा दुग्धं वरुणो वष्टयादित् ।
समभ्रेण वसत पर्वतासस्तविषीयन्तः श्रथयन्त वीराः ॥४॥

4) Varuna floods the wide earth and heaven, yea, when he desires the milk of heaven, he pours it forth; the mountains are clothed utterly with cloud, the heroes of storm² put forth their strength and all is cast down before them.

इमामू ष्वासुरस्य श्रुतस्य महीं माया वरुणस्य प्र वोचम् ।
मानेनेव तस्थिवाँ अन्तरिक्षे वि यो ममे पृथिवीं सूर्येण ॥५॥

5) I have declared this vast creative wisdom³ of the famous and mighty One, even Varuna, he who stood in mid-air as with a measuring-rod and wide he measured out the earth with the sun.

इमामू नु कवितमस्य मायां महीं देवस्य नकिरा दघर्ष ।
एकं यदुद्ना न पृणन्त्येनीरासिञ्चन्तीरवनयः समुद्रम् ॥६॥

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6) Vast is this wisdom of the divine and the greatest of seers and there is none who can do violence against it; therefore the Ocean is one, yet all these rushing rivers pour themselves into it and cannot fill it.

अर्यम्यं वरुण मित्र्यं वा सखायं वा सदमिद् भ्रातरं वा ।
वेशं वा नित्यं वरुणारणं वा यत्सीमागश्चकृमा शिश्रथस्तत् ॥७॥

7) Whatsoever sin we have done against the law of Aryaman or the law of Mitra, against brother or friend, against constant neighbour or enemy,⁴ cast it away from us, O Varuna.

कितवासो यद्रिरिपुर्न दीवि यद्वा घा सत्यमुत यन्न विद्म ।
सर्वा ता वि ष्य शिथिरेव देवाऽघा ते स्याम वरुण प्रियासः ॥८॥

8) The sin we have done like cunning gamesters who break the law of the play, or have done against the truth or what we have sinned in ignorance, all these cleave far from us, O god, like loose hanging fruits: then shall we be beloved of thee, O Varuna.

The Mighty Master of Infinite Wisdom

[The Rishi hymns Varuna as the Lord of infinite purity and wisdom who opens our earthly being to the unclouded light of the sun of knowledge, pours out the waters of the Truth upon all our triple existence mental, vital and physical and by its power removes all sin and evil and falsehood from our lives. He creates the free wideness of our vital being above our broken search for the delightful objects of our desire, sets the plenitude in our battling life-forces, the yield of heaven in the shining herds of

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thought; he has put will in our hearts, Agni the divine force in the waters of existence, the Sun of divine knowledge in the highest heaven of mind and the plant that yields the wine of delight on the many-plateaued mountain of our being. All these are the means by which we attain to immortality. He plans out all our physical existence by his wisdom according to the truth light of the sun of knowledge and creates in us the unity of his own infinite existence and consciousness with all the seven rivers of the Truth-plane pouring their streams of knowledge into it without filling its infinity.]

1) To Varuna of the far-heard inspirations, the all-ruling,⁵ sing bright the inspired word of the soul in its vastness and depth and delight; for he has cloven wide away the darkness, as one that cleaves away a skin, that he may spread out our earth under his illumining sun.⁶

2) He has spread wide the mid-world above the forests of earth delight;⁷ he has put his plenitude in our battle-steeds of life⁸ and their heavenly milk in our shining herds of knowledge.⁹ Varuna has put the will¹⁰ in our hearts, the divine fire¹¹ in the waters,¹² the Sun of Light in our heavens, the plant of Delight on the mountain of our being.¹³

3) Varuna has poured forth over our earth and heaven and

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mid-world the holder of wisdom with his doors opening downward;¹⁴ with him the king of all our being floods our earth like rain flooding the barley.

4) He floods our earth in its wideness and our heaven, yea, Varuna when he desires that milk,¹⁵ pours it forth; the mountains are covered with the cloud, his heroes¹⁶ put forth their strength and cast it away.

5) Vast is this wisdom which I declare of Varuna the far-heard, the mighty Lord, for he stands in our mid-world as with a measuring-rod and wide he measures out our earth with his illumining Sun.¹⁷

6) Vast is this wisdom of the godhead greatest in seer-knowledge and none can do violence to it; for into him, the one, the ocean, the bright fostering rivers¹⁸ pour their waters, yet they cannot fill him.

7) All the sin that we have done against thee in thy power of Aryaman or thy power of Mitra or as brother or friend or the eternal indweller or the warrior,¹⁹ that cast away from us.

8) The sin we have done as cunning gamesters offend in their play, our sin against the truth and our sin by ignorance, all these cleave away like loosened things; then may we be dear to thee, O Varuna.

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