Sri Aurobindo’s rendering of eleven Vedic hymns dealing with Varuna and Mitra reveals their greatness, of the mighty and lordly powers. They are the two who along with Aryaman and Bhaga carry sacrificial action and bring to human soul excellent felicity. These are the Four who did rigorous creative tapas, such deep self-concentration that they lost contact with the Origin itself. As a result of this deep extreme self-concentration they became their own opposites. Seeing the horror of this separation, the Supreme himself took a plunge into the state in which they had fallen. That marked the beginning of the evolutionary creation in which there is endless progress, first progress in Ignorance to be followed by progress in Knowledge when the divine potentialities shall manifest in manifold ways, the great Infinity expressing itself infinitely. It might sound all a story, but what a way of making a new beginning! What sacrifices of the kingly Four! And what Sacrifice of the Fourfold Supreme himself! The hymns of the Atris belonging to the fifth Section of the Rig Veda speak of the glories of Varuna and Mitra in various respects, glories in their transcendental action in relation to man and the vast creation; in it they, covered by the Truth, stand ever in the Truth. Summary of the eleven hymns to Varuna and Mitra by the Atris presented here is based on Sri Aurobindo’s translation of the original text as we have in The Secret of the Veda, pp. 465-88. It must of course be understood that the language of the mystic composers of the Veda is a symbolic language, the symbols often deriving their connotations from the roots of the original Sanskrit words, a language which had a living contact with the spirit of the things which cannot be rendered into any other expression, a revelatory language which discloses itself when one is in contact with that spirit of the things. It is necessary to enter into it if one is to benefit from the Vedic hymns. It is this language which narrates the Story of Creation to give us the process of the progressive manifestation of the Divine in this material world.

V.62

By the Truth is veiled the ever-standing Truth and in it are the embodied gods. That is the utter vastness of Mitra and Varuna, they who uphold earth and heaven. Mitra and Varuna increase the growths of earth, nourish the shining herds of heaven, they of swift in strength pour forth the rain of its waters. In their coming the Rivers flow in the front of heaven. Even as they increase the strength and guard by sacrifice the wide realms, they dwell in the house of revealing knowledge. Kings free from passion, together Mitra and Varuna uphold a thousand-pillared strength. Its form is of golden light, and may we win possession of the sweet honey which is in that home. To that home whose form is of the gold, in the breaking of the Dawn, in the uprising of the Sun ascend Varuna and Mitra, and thence they behold the Infinite and the Finite. “That bliss of yours which is most large and full and without a gap,” cries the Rishi, “O strong guardians of the world, so that none can pierce through and beyond it, by that cherish us, Mitra and Varuna; may we be victorious, who would take possession of that peace.” The aspiration is, based on that thousand-pillared strength, of golden form, hiraņyarūpam, we should move in all our movements in which their powers can express themselves, express freely and vastly.

V.63

Varuna and Mitra, Masters of the wideness and the harmony, uphold the Law of the Truth, satyadharma, even as in their car they move in the supreme ether. They are seers of the realm of Light, and from them we desire the rain, the felicitous wealth, the immortality. They pour down Heaven by the power of the knowledge of the Mighty One. The Rain speaks its language rich and varied and full of the light and the movement; the Life-Powers put on thier clouds for raiment. “O Mitra and Varuna illumined in consciousness, by the Law, by the knowledge of the Mighty One you guard the workings; by the Truth you govern widely all the world of our becoming; you set the Sun in heaven, a chariot of various splendour.”

V.64

Here is the call to Varuna and Mitra sent forth by the word of illumination. They should stretch out to the human being their arms of awakened knowledge, even as their bliss shall reach through all our earths. Let men cling firmly to the bliss of that Beloved in whom there is no wounding. Let their highest possession be held by the thought in the illumining word. “O Mitra, come to us with thy perfect givings and Varuna in the world of our session, for increase in their own home of the masters of plenitude and for increase of your companions.”

V.65

"He who has awakened to the knowledge, becomes perfect in will; let him speak for us among the gods: Varuna of the vision and Mitra take delight in his words.” They the most glorious in light and most far in their hearing; they are the masters of being in creature and creature, jané-jané, and the increasers of the Truth in us, for the Truth is theirs, they the ŗtāvān. Mitra conquers for us the vastness, he conquers the path to our home, he harmonises all and makes us hasten forward through to the goal; he guards us in our drinking of the light.

V.66

“O mortal who awakenest to knowledge, call to thee the two godheads who are perfect in will and destroyers of thy enemy. Direct your thoughts to him of whom Truth is the form and to the great Delight.” The transcendent godheads conquer the seer-wisdoms by the illumined discernment; they perceive knowledge for these human creatures by a perception in which the judgment is purified. May we in it arrive to perfect empire spread out widely open, spread within and without, to swarājya and sāmrājya.

V.67

Varuna, Mitra, Aryaman possess most abundant force of the Vastness for which we offer our sacrifice. When Varuna and Mitra enter into their original home of golden light, hiraņya yoni, the golden womb, they reach for men the bliss. “Universal and all-knowing are Varuna and Mitra and Aryaman; they keep firm to the law of their workings, even as to the seats to which they arrive, and guard mortal man from his foes.” They touch the Truth, ŗtsparşa, and hold the Truth, ŗtāvān, in creature and creature; perfect leaders in the journey, perfect in force for the battle, they create the wideness even out of this narrow being.

V.68

“Sing ye to Mitra and Varuna with the word that enlightens; because they have that great force, theirs is the Truth, the Vast. All-rulers are they, yes, both of them, Mitra and Varuna, homes of the clarity, gods, manifested by the word in the gods.” They should put forth strength for our great felicity, heavenly and earthly. By the Truth they attain knowledge of the Truth. They take possession of thier vast home.

V.69

“Three worlds of the Light you two uphold, O Varuna, three heavens, three mid-worlds, O Mitra, and you increase the might of the Warrior and guard him in the imperishable law of your working. In the dawn I call to the divine Mother infinite, Aditi, in the mid-day and at the rising of the sun. I desire of Mitra and Varuna the peace and the movement in the forming of the all for felicity and for the creation and the begetting.” They are the upholders of the luminous sphere of the mid-world and the luminous sphere of the earth, Mitra and Varuna, the immortal gods, impair should they not their workings which are firm for ever.

V.7O

Varuna and Mitra foster by the wideness of the infinite Truth the manifold wealth of our being, to which comes the grace of the gods, sumati. In it we enjoy their complete force of impulsion for our founding. May we in our embodyings break through the Destroyers. “O transcendent in will-power, let us not in our embodyings suffer the control of any, nor in our begetting, nor our creation.”

V.71

Destroyers of the Enemy, Varuna and Mitra should come with their greatenings to our delightful sacrifice, cārumadhwaram. They govern every man, they the wise thinkers; they are the rulers and they should nourish our thoughts. “Come, O Varuna, O Mitra, to our Soma-offering, to the sacrifice of the giver, that you may drink of this wine.”

V.72

“With the words we sacrifice to Mitra and to Varuna as the Atri. Sit on the seat of the largeness for the drinking of the wine. By your working you keep firm the gettings of good and you make men to walk the path by your law. May Mitra and Varuna take delight in our sacrifice that we may have our desire. Sit on the seat of the largeness for the drinking of the wine.”