KarmaVaani
Vedic tradition
वरुणVaruna
Jalapati · Pashi · Prachetas
The Vedic sovereign of the waters and of cosmic order, who sees all truth and guards the west.
- Abode
- Pushkara, his city beneath the western ocean
- Consort
- Varuni
- Vahana
- Makara, a crocodile-like creature of the sea
- Colour
- Fair, like water in light
- Arms
- 2
Varuna is among the oldest gods of the Rigveda: a sovereign who upholds rita, the moral and cosmic order, sees every truth and falsehood, and binds wrongdoers with his noose; the poet Vasishtha's hymns to him ask forgiveness for sins known and unknown. In later tradition he rules the oceans and rivers and is the guardian of the western direction. The Gandiva bow that Agni gave Arjuna was Varuna's.
Mantra
ॐ वं वरुणाय नमः
Om Vam Varunaya Namaha
Salutations to Varuna.
How Varuna is shown
A fair, crowned god riding a makara, holding a noose.
- Noose (pasha)
- Binding the untruthful; the law that cannot be escaped.
- Makara
- The waters and their creatures.
- Pot of water
- Rain and the rivers.
Stories
The Gandiva
When Agni wished to consume the Khandava forest, Indra kept putting out his fire with rain. Agni asked Krishna and Arjuna for help and, to arm them, fetched from Varuna the bow Gandiva, inexhaustible quivers and a chariot with white horses. With the Gandiva Arjuna held back the rain.
