The Four Kings, Part 1

“Drifting to the Light fantastic, [I] lose a step but never give up. . .”

The rig veda comprises two main [ and intertwined] parables – the Angiras legend and the Vritra myth – the first dealing with the recovery of the lost sun by our human forefathers, the Angiras ṛṣis, and the second dealing with the forces of Ignorance that constantly seek to withhold this sun from us. These twin parables occur and re-occur throughout the veda and around them the rest of the vedic symbolism is interwoven.

The Angiras ṛṣis themselves are the divine seers who assist in the cosmic and human workings of the gods and their earthly representatives, the ancient fathers who first found the wisdom of which the vedic hymns are a chant and a memory, literally a renewal of experiences, long forgotten.

What then is this lost sun that is spoken of constantly through the veda? Symbolically, it is the Sun of Truth, the herds of which are the illuminations we seek, revealing to us night-hidden world after night-hidden world all the way up to the highest beautitude. In the imagery of the vedic seer, Surya, the Sun, is the master of that supreme Truth – Truth of being, Truth of knowledge and Truth of action.

The goal of the Rig Veda is to enable the sun of Truth to mount high in the heaven of our mentality – the establishment of a Godhead in man. It is this conception that Surya embodies, he is the light of Truth rising on the human consciousness. Surya means “the illumined or luminous, as also the illumined thinker is called ‘sūri’; but the root means. . . to create or, more literally, to loose, release, speed forth – for in the Indian idea, creation is a loosing forth of what is held back, a manifestation of what is hidden in the infinite Existence.”

Surya, a primary deity in the vedic pantheon, has other deities associated with him who fulfil functions that arise out of his own. As Sri Aurobindo writes, “For if the truth of Surya is to be established firmly in our mortal nature, there are previous conditions that are indispensable — a vast purity and clear wideness destructive of all sin and crooked falsehood,— and this is Varuna; a luminous power of love and comprehension leading and forming into harmony all our thoughts, acts and impulses,— this is Mitra; an immortal puissance of clear-discerning aspiration and endeavour,— this is Aryaman; a happy spontaneity of the right enjoyment of all things dispelling the evil dream of sin and error and suffering,— this is Bhaga. These four are powers of the Truth of Surya.”

Viewed superficially, Varuna is the master of the oceans and the sky, the maintainer of laws on earth, in the heavens and the middle regions and a punisher of transgressors. On a more esoteric level, Varuna is the divine power that creates pathways for the Sun in our being, so that the Sun may pour his knowledge into all the dark corners of our being. Varuna is उरु शंस or “uru shamsa”, meaning “wide expression”. Indeed he grants us a broader vision, removes the narrowness of our outlook, so that we may express our aspirations for the attainment of infinity.

The crude conception of sin, as a consequence of evil acts, did not have a place in the thoughts of the vedic thinkers. What they perceived however, was a force of Ignorance – an absence of correct perception of the Right and the Truth in the mind or non-seizing of it in the will or an inability of action to follow after it or the sheer inefficiency of our physical being to rise to the greatness of the Divine Law. To the vedic seer, sin was a violation of the divine Right and Truth. Varuna, the punisher of transgressors delivers us from this sin. Accordingly, their prayer to Varuna was with the underlying sense of a chain and bondage, “Cleave away sin from me like a cord.”

At 1.24.6, the ṛṣi śunaḥśepaḥ ājīgartiḥ prays to Varuna, of matchless strength, to release him from the triple bonds of limited mind, inefficient life and obscure physical animality. When Varuna comes and sunders this triple restraint, he is freed towards riches and immortality, towards a life in the infinitude.

नहि ते क्षत्रं न सहो न मन्युं वयश्चनामी पतयन्त आपुः ।
नेमा आपो अनिमिषं चरन्तीर्न ॥

nahi te kṣatraṁ na saho na manyuṁ vayaścanāmī patayanta āpuḥ
nemā āpo animiṣaṁ carantīrna

Your might, your strength of endurance or your fury cannot be attained by the soaring birds.
Neither the incessantly flowing rivers nor the wind can affect your strength.

śunaḥśepaḥ then continues at 1.24.8 as follows, praising Varuna as the repeller of afflictions:

उरुं हि राजा वरुनश्चकर सूर्याय पन्थामन्वेतवा उ ।
अपदे पादा प्रतिधातवेऽकर् उतापवक्ता हृदयाविदश्चित् ॥

uruṁ hi rājā varunaścakara sūryāya panthāmanvetavā u
apade pādā pratidhātave’kar utāpavaktā hṛdayāvidaścit

The regal Varuna prepares the wide pathway for the Divine Sun to follow
In the unlit parts [of the human] he prepares for the treads of his feet
He is the repeller of whatever afflicts the heart

And again at 1.24.13-15,

शुनःशेपो ह्यह्वद् गृभितस त्रिष्वादित्यं द्रुपदेषु बद्धः ।
अवैनं राजा वरुनः ससृज्याद्विद्वाँ अदब्धो विमुमोक्तु पाशान् ॥
अव ते हेळो वरुन नमोभिरव यज्ञेभिरीमहे हविर्भिः ।
क्षयन्नस्मभ्यमसुर प्रचेता राजन्नेनांसि शिश्रथः कृतानि ॥
उदुत्तमं वरुन पाशामस्मद् अवाधमं वि मध्यमं श्रथाय ।
अथा वयमादित्य व्रते तवानागसो अदितये स्याम ॥

śunaḥśepo hyahvad gṛbhitasa triṣvādityaṁ drupadeṣu baddhaḥ
avainaṁ rājā varunaḥ sasṛjyādvidvān adabdho vimumoktu pāśān
ava te heḻo varuna namobhirava yajñebhirīmahe havirbhiḥ
kṣayannasmabhyamasura pracetā rājannenāṁsi śiśrathaḥ kṛtāni
uduttamaṁ varuna pāśāmasmad avādhamaṁ vi madhyamaṁ śrathāya
athā vayamāditya vrate tavānāgaso aditaye syāma

śunaḥśepaḥ, who was held captive and bound to the tree in three places invoked the Son of Aditi
May he, the king Varuna who knows, deliver him
May the unassailable Varuna release him from the bonds

O Varuna, we avert your disregard by surrender, by yajña and by offerings
O Supreme Knower and Mighty One, dwelling in us
Loosen for us the bonds of our sins

O Varuna, loosen for us the bond above, the bond below and the one in the middle
O Son of Aditi, in your law may we live faultless, for the sake of Aditi

Ignorance or falsehood in our existential being is the cause of wrong and suffering – so states the Veda in symbolic form. Knowledge or Truth is the liberating agent. This liberation is the purport of the parable of śunaḥśepaḥ and his two great hymns to Varuna – the cleaver of sins and releaser from the cords – the first King and the master of an all-embracing Infinity.

More later

Peace
S

PS: Sri Aurobindo’s writing quoted above (c) Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1999.