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“We did formerly, O Varuna, and do now, and shall in future also, sing _ 
praises to thee, 0 Mighty One! For on thee, unconquerable hero, rest all 
statutes, immovable, as if established ona rock. 
“ Move far away "from me all self-committed guilt, and may I not, O King, 
suffer for what others have committed! Many dawns have not yet dawned! 
grant us to live in them, O Varuna!” 
The theology of this is very wonderful; if it were only 
generated by the conception by primitive man of the fact of 
infinity (I say ‘‘ fact,’ because even to us infinity is but a 
negative term), by thoughts engendered by the contemplation 
of the sky and the light, and, we should not forget, aided by 
“dreams of ghosts.” 
Another passage relating to Varuna, of which Professor 
Max Miller says, ‘‘it is as beautiful, and in some respects as 
true as anything in the Psalms,” is as follows :—“ Varuna, 
the great lord of these worlds, sees as if he were near. If a 
man stands or walks or hides, if he goes to he down or to get 
up, what two people sitting together whisper to each other, 
King Varuna knows it, he is there as the third. 'his earth, 
too, belongs to Varuna, the king, and this wide sky with its 
ends far apart. The two seas (the sky and the ocean) are 
Varuna’s loins; he is also contained in this small drop of 
water. He who should flee far beyond the sky, even he would 
not be rid of Varuna, the king. His spies proceed from 
heaven towards this world; with thousand eyes they over- 
look this earth. King Varuna sees all this, what is between 
heaven and earth, and what is beyond. He has counted the 
twinklines of the eyes of men. Asa player throws down the 
dice, he settles all things (irrevocably). May all thy fatal 
snares which stand spread out seven by seven and threefold 
catch the man who tells a lhe; may they pass by him who 
speaks the truth.” * 
Varuna, then, is the supreme, omniscient, sovereign; the 
source of law ; the king of righteousness ; the dispenser of 
human life ; the forgiver as well as the punisher of sin. He 
has, in short, the characters that the Christian Church attri- 
butes to Jehovah. 
Under another aspect the Deity is Agni, fire—with special 
reference, I believe, to the sacrificial fire. He is the supreme 
god, the “ progenitor and father of heaven and earth, and the 
maker of all that flies, or walks, or stands, or moves on earth.’’ 
One of the Vedic poets says, “‘I place Agni, the source of all 
ne the father of strength.” + He is also the forgiver of 
* Atharva-Veda, iv. 16, quoted by Max Miiller, India, p. 199. 
+ Rig- fe ili. 27, 9, 
