The Secret of the Veda

The Eighth Hymn to Mitra-Varuna

The Holders of the Luminous Worlds

[The Rishi invokes Mitra and Varuna as the upholders of the worlds or planes of being, especially the three luminous worlds in which the triple mental, the triple vital, the triple physical find the light of their truth and the divine law of their powers. The strength of the Aryan warrior is increased by them and guarded in that imperishable law. From the luminous worlds the rivers of the truth descend with their yield of bliss. In each of them a luminous Purusha fertilises a form of the triple thought-consciousness of the Truth; these, which make the luminous day of the soul, found in man the divine and infinite consciousness and in that the divine peace and the activity by which in the extended universality of our being there is the rich felicity and the creation of the godhead. The divine workings are impaired and restricted by the gods in the ordinary life of the vital and the physical being, but when Mitra and Varuna uphold in us the luminous worlds in which each of these finds its truth and power, they become complete and firm for ever.]

त्री रोचना वरुण त्रीँरुत द्यून्त्रीणि मित्र धारयथो रजांसि ।
वावृधानावमतिं क्षत्रियस्याऽनु व्रतं रक्षमाणावजुर्यम् ॥१॥

1) 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.

इरावतीर्वरुण धेनवो वां मधुमद्वां सिन्धवो मित्र दुह्रे ।
त्रयस्तस्थुर्वृषभासस्तिसृणां धिषणानां रेतोधा वि द्युमन्तः ॥२॥

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2) Your fostering cows¹ have their streams, O Varuna, O Mitra, the rivers milk out their honeyed yield. There stand wide three luminous Bulls² and cast their seed into the three Thoughts.

प्रातर्देवीमदितिं जोहवीमि मव्यंदिन उदिता सूर्यस्य ।
राये मित्रावरुणा सर्वतातेळे तोकाय तनयाय शं योः ॥३॥

3) In the dawn I call to the divine Mother infinite, 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 all³ for felicity and for the creation and the begetting.⁴

या धर्तारा रजसो रोचनस्योतादित्या दिव्या पार्थिवस्य ।
न वां देवा अमृता आ मिनन्ति व्रतानि मित्रावरुणा ध्रुवाणि ॥४॥

4) Because you are the upholders of the luminous sphere of the mid-world and the luminous sphere of the earth, O divine Sons of Infinity, O Mitra and Varuna, the immortal gods impair not your workings which are firm for ever.⁵

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