The Four Kings, Part 2

Continuing from where I had left of earlier. . .

The second King, complementary to varuna is mitra, the harmonizer. It is he who effects the right unity of which varuna is the substance. An opening verse of the rg veda seeks their combined assistance for attaining a rich and bright intellect. In mitra and varuna, we find a vast harmony, by them we increase in ourselves purity without defect and a love that is faultless in its wisdom.

To paraphrase Sri Aurobindo, “. . . mitra’s psychological function is one of love and compassion, a divine friend and a kindly helper of mankind, . . .whose assistance is founded on harmony. . . He brings within our reach the divine enjoyment and leads us to the perfect happiness. . . It is said of him that all perfected souls are firmly fixed “to the bliss of this Beloved in whom there is no hurt.” He fashions in gods and men impulsions whose actions spontaneously fulfil all the soul’s seekings. . .”

Again, his vigilance and perfect ordinances create in us sumatiṁ, meaning “a happy rightness of mind and feeling accompanied by a gladness in our soul” a state of grace, we might almost say. This summarily is his law of working – the well-accorded happiness of the Truth. It is upon Truth and divine Knowledge that harmony and perfect temperament are founded – they are formed, secured and guarded by . . . mitra and varuna.

As the vedic phrase goes, “mitrasya dharmabhiḥ mitrasya dhāmabhiḥ”, mitra’s dharma is the law that holds things together and to which we hold; dhāma, the staus is the placing of the law in a founded harmony, one that creates for us our plane of living and the character of our consciousness, action and thought.

Among the several such in the rg veda to these two kings, I found the hymns of the atri ṛṣis among the more eloquent.

At 5.62.6, the ṛṣi śrutāvit ātreyaḥ exhorts both varuna and mitra thus:

अक्रविहस्ता सुकृते परस्पा यं त्रासाथे वरुणेळास्वन्तः ।
राजाना क्षत्रमहृणीयमाना सहस्रस्थूणं बिभृथः सह द्वौ ॥

akravihastā sukṛte paraspā yaṁ trāsāthe varuṇeḻāsvantaḥ
rājānā kṣatramahṛṇīyamānā sahasrasthūṇaṁ bibhṛthaḥ saha dvau

You protect the beyond for the doer of perfect works, without sparing any effort
You deliver him and he dwells within the wide revealing of knowledge
Kings of hero-force free from passion, together you uphold a thousand-pillared strength

Again at 5.64.6, the ṛṣi ārcanāna ātreyaḥ prays to these two Kings for the formation of a wide world within.

युवं नो येषु वरुन क्षत्रं बृहच्च बिभृथः।
उरु णो वाजसातये कृतं राये स्वस्तये ।।

yuvaṁ no yeṣu varuna kṣatraṁ bṛhacca bibhṛthaḥ
uru ṇo vājasātaye kṛtaṁ rāye svastaye

With the might and the vastness which is brought by you two, O Varuna
Form in us the wide world for the conquest of our plenitudes
For bliss (and) for our soul’s happiness

In 5.65.1-.6, the ṛṣi rātahavya ātreyaḥ invokes these two increasers of truth in our being to lead us to the plenitude and vastness of our true existence.

यश्चिकेत स सुक्रतुर्देवत्रा स ब्रवीतु नः ।
वरुणो यस्य दर्शतो मित्रो वा वनते गिरः ॥

ता हि श्रेष्टवर्चसा राजाना दीर्घश्रुत्तमा ।
ता सत्पति ऋतावृध ऋतावाना जनेजने॥

ता वामियानोऽवसे पूर्वा उप ब्रुवे सच ।
स्वश्वासः चेतुना वाजाँ अभि प्र दावने ॥

मित्रो अंहोश्चिदादुरु क्षयाय गातुं वनते ।
मित्रस्य हि प्रतूर्वतः सुमतिरस्ति विधतः ॥

वयं मित्रस्यावसि स्याम सप्रथस्तमे ।
अनेहसस्त्वोतयः सत्रा वरुणशेषसः ॥

युवं मित्रेमं जनं यतथः सं च नयथः ।
मा मघोनः परि ख़्यतं मो अस्माकमृषीणां गोपीथे न उरुष्यतम् ॥

yaściketa sa sukraturdevatrā sa bravītu naḥ
varuṇo yasya darśato mitro vā vanate giraḥ

tā hi śreṣṭavarcasā rājānā dīrghaśruttamā
tā satpati ṛtāvṛdha ṛtāvānā janejane

tā vāmiyāno’vase pūrvā upa bruve saca
svaśvāsaḥ cetunā vājām abhi pra dāvane

mitro aṁhościdāduru kṣayāya gātuṁ vanate
mitrasya hi pratūrvataḥ sumatirasti vidhataḥ

vayaṁ mitrasyāvasi syāma saprathastame
anehasastvotayaḥ satrā varuṇaśeṣasaḥ

yuvaṁ mitremaṁ janaṁ yatathaḥ saṁ ca nayathaḥ
mā maghonaḥ pari khyataṁ mo asmākamṛṣīṇāṁ gopīthe na uruṣyatam

Sri Aurobindo has translated this entire verse and I merely reproduce it here.

“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 are the kings most glorious in light and most far in their hearing
They are the masters of being in all creatures
They are the increasers of the Truth in us for the truth is theirs.

Travelling on the path, I call to them, the two together, the ancient and first
As we travel with perfect steeds, we call to them, the perfect in knowledge
For the giving of the plenitudes

Even out of our narrow existence, Mitra conquers for us the vastness
He conquers the path to our home
For the perfect mind is of Mitra when he hastens forward through to the goal and harmonises all

May we abide in the increasing of Mitra which gives us our perfect breadth
Then we are free from hurt and sin
Fostered by thee, children of Varuna

You two, O Mitra, set this [human] travelling on your path and wholly you lead him
Set not your hedge around our lords of plenitude and our seers of the truth
Guard us in our drinking of the light”

Thus are we exhorted to labour and travel for this bright and beautiful lord, who comes into us with luminous force and bears in his wideness all the gods – Mitra, the blissful one, the possessor of purified understanding, who sets and leads all mortal creatures upon the path and the Second King.

Peace
S

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