Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/139

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The Prehistoric Gods
123

"The great guardian among these gods sees as if from anear. He that thinketh he is moving stealthily – all this the gods know.

"Whoso stands, walks, or sneaks about, and whoso goes slinking off, whoso runs to cover; – if two sit together and scheme, King Varuna is there as the third and knows it.

"Both this earth here belongs to King Varuna and also yonder broad sky, whose bounds are far away. The two oceans are Varuna's loins; yea, in this petty drop of water is he hidden.

"Whoso should flee beyond the heavens far away would yet not be free from King Varuna. From the sky his spies come hither; with a thousand eyes they do watch over the earth.

"All this King Varuna does behold – what is between the two firmaments, what beyond. Numbered of him are the winkings of men's eyes. As a (winning) gamester puts down the dice, thus does he establish these (laws)."

Another hymn, Rig-Veda 7. 86, depicts Varuna as guardian of moral order, hence angry at the misdeeds of men. The contrite attitude of his suppliant, a singer of the family of the Vasishthas, the authors of the seventh book of the Rig-Veda, has a strong Hebraic flavor, and, like the preceding hymn, suggests many a passage of the Psalms:

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