Varuna's omniscience is often dwelt on. He knows the flight of the birds in the sky, the path of ships in the ocean, the course of the far-travelling wind. He beholds all the secret things that have been or shall be done. He witnesses men's truth and falsehood. No creature can even wink without him. As a moral governor Varuna stands far above any other deity. His wrath is roused by sin, which is the infringement of his ordinances, and which he severely punishes. The fetters with which he binds sinners are often mentioned. A dispeller, hater, and punisher of falsehood, he is gracious to the penitent. He releases men not only from the sins which they themselves commit, but from those committed by their fathers. He spares the suppliant who daily transgresses his laws, and is gracious to those who have broken his ordinances by thoughtlessness. There is, in fact, no hymn to Varuna in which the prayer for forgiveness of guilt does not occur, as in the hymns to other deities the prayer for worldly goods.
With the growth of the conception of the creator, Prajapati, as a supreme deity, the characteristics of Varuna as a sovereign god naturally faded away, and the dominion of waters, only a part of his original sphere, alone remained. This is already partly the case in the Atharva-veda, and in post-Vedic mythology he is only an Indian Neptune, god of the sea.
The following stanzas from a hymn to Varuna (vii. 89) will illustrate the spirit of the prayers addressed to him:--
May I not yet, King Varuna, Go down into the house of clay: Have mercy, spare me, mighty Lord.
Thirst has come on thy worshipper Though standing in the waters' midst: [4] Have mercy, spare me, mighty Lord.
O Varuna, whatever the offence may be That we as men commit against the heavenly folk When through our want of thought we violate thy laws, Chastise us not, O God, for that iniquity.
There are in the Rigveda five solar deities, differentiated as representing various aspects of the activity of the sun. One of the oldest of these, Mitra, the "Friend," seems to have been conceived as the beneficent side of the sun's power. Going back to the Indo-Iranian period, he has in the Rigveda almost entirely lost his individuality, which is practically merged in that of Varuna. With the latter he is constantly invoked, while only one single hymn (iii. 59) is addressed to him alone.