Atharva Veda · 113 of 724

HYMN XVI

On the omnipresence and omniscience of Varuna 1. The mighty Ruler of these worlds beholds as though from close    at hand,   The man who thinks he acts by stealth: all this the Gods    perceive and know. 2. If a man stands or walks or moves in secret, goes to his lying-    down or his uprising,   What two men whisper as they sit together, King Varuna knows:    he as the third is present. 3. This earth, too, is King Varuna's possession, and the high    heaven whose ends are far asunder.   The loins of Varuna are both the oceans, and this small drop of    water, too, contains him. 4. If one should flee afar beyond the heaven, King Varuna would    still be round about him.   Proceeding hither from the sky his envoys look, thousand-eyed,    over the earth beneath them. 5. All this the royal Varuna beholdeth, all between heaven and    earth and all beyond them.   The twinklings of men's eyelids hath he counted. As one who    plays throws dice he settles all things. 6. Those fatal snares of thine which stand extended, threefold,   O Varuna, seven by seven,   May they all catch the man who tells a falsehood, and pass un-    harmed the man whose words are truthful. 7. Varuna, snare him with a hundred nooses! Man's watcher! let    not him who lies escape thee.   There let the villain sit with hanging belly and bandaged like a    cask whose hoops are broken. 8. Varuna sends, and drives away, diseases: Varuna is both native    and a stranger,   Varuna is celestial and is human. 9. I bind and hold thee fast with all these nooses, thou son of such    a man and such a mother.   All these do I assign thee as thy portion.