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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.]
(1)
TO THE OMNISCIENT CREATOR
l. 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.
2. He spread out the mid-air on the tree-tops, he put strength in
Page – 544 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.
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.
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.
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.
1 Sayana explains, either the electric fire in the water of the clouds or the submarine fire in the ocean. 2 Virah, the Heroes, here the Maruts as storm-gods. 3 Maya, with a strong sense of its root-significance, to measure, form, build or plan out.
Page – 545 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.
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.
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.
(2)
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
4 Or, stranger.
Page – 546 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
5 The two epithets are intended to give the two sides of the divine being, all-knowledge and all-power; māyām āsurasya śutasya. Man divinising himself has to become in the image of the godhead seer and king. 6 The limitations of the physical mentality are rolled away and it is spread out in a great wideness to receive the revelations and inspirations of the light of the gnosis. 7 The forests or delightful growths of earth (vana means also pleasure) are the basis of the mid-world, the vital world in us which is the realm of Vayu, the Life-God. That is the world of the satisfaction of desires. This also is spread out in its full wideness, free from limitation, to receive the Ananda or divine delight by means of the knowledge and law of the Truth. 8 Arvatsu, meaning both “battlers, strivers” and “horses”. 9 Usriyāsu, meaning both “bright ones” and “cows”. 10 Kratu, the will to the divine work, the sacrificial will. 11 Agni, the fire of the divine Will which receives the sacrifice and becomes its priest. 12 The ocean of being or else the waters of Truth which descend from above. 13 Our existence is compared always to a mountain with many plateaus, each a level or plane of being.
Page – 547 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.
14 The gnosis opens upward to receive the Infinite in its will and knowledge; here its doors open downwards to flood the lower being. 15 The milk of the Cow Aditi, the infinite consciousness. 16 The Maruts as life-powers attaining to full thought-knowledge; they help Indra to break the cloud or coverer, Vritra, and pour out the waters of Truth and also to bring the light hidden by Vala, that of the hidden sun. Here the two ideas are combined in another image. 17 Man lives in the physical being; Varuna brings the light of the gnosis into it and measures it out, that is, shapes and plans out our earth-existence in the measures of the Truth by means of the mind enlightened by the sun of gnosis: he takes his stand as the Asura in our vital plane, the link between mental and physical, there to receive the light and pass it on to the earth as a creative and determining force. 18 The seven rivers that descend from the Truth-plane, here called avanayah, which has the same root-sense as dhenavah, the fostering cows. 19 Against the Dasyus.
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