A one-minute narration sample. Every book in the library is narrated end to end — hear the rest in the app.
Rig Veda · 417 of 1027
Mandala 5: HYMN LXIII. Mitra-Varuṇa.
1.GUARDIANS of Order, ye whose Laws are ever true, in the sublimest heaven your chariot ye ascend. O Mitra-Varuṇa whomsoe’er ye: favour, here, to him the rain with sweetness streameth down from heaven.
2.This world’s imperial Kings, O Mitra-Varuṇa, ye rule in holy synod, looking on the light. We pray for rain, your boon, and immortality. Through heaven and over earth the thunderers take their way.
3.Imperial Kings, strong, Heroes, Lords of earth and heaven, Mitra and Varuṇa, ye ever active Ones, Ye wait on thunder with the many-tinted clouds, and by the Asura’s magic power cause Heaven to rain.
4.Your magic, Mitra-Varuṇa, resteth in the heaven. The Sun, the wondrous weapon, cometh forth as light. Ye hide him in the sky with cloud and flood of rain, and water-drops, Parjanya! full of sweetness flow.
5.The Maruts yoke their easy car for victory, O Mitra-Varuṇa, as a hero in the wars. The thunderers roam through regions varied in their hues. Imperial Kings, bedew us with the milk of heaven.
6.Refreshing is your voice, O Mitra-Varuṇa: Parjanya sendeth out a wondrous mighty voice. With magic power the Maruts clothe them with the clouds. Ye Two cause Heaven to rain, the red, the spotless One.
7.Wise, with your Law and through the Asura’s magic power ye guard the ordinances, Mitra-Varuṇa. Ye by eternal Order govern all the world. Ye set the Sun in heaven as a refulgent car.
Asked of Guide
Why do the hymn's speakers call Mitra and Varuṇa 'Guardians of Order' and ask them for rain?
The hymn portrays Mitra and Varuṇa as rulers who “by eternal Order govern all the world,” so the poets appeal to them because cosmic law (ṛta) links moral rule and natural phenomena. Summoning the gods as Imperial Kings and as those who “cause Heaven to rain” ties their safeguarding of social and cosmic order to the concrete need for fertility and survival.
The poets invoke the Maruts and Parjanya as agents who, with the Asura’s magic power, clothe the sky and bring showers, making rain a manifestation of divine governance. This reading echoes themes in other Rigveda hymns where cosmic order and weather are inseparable, and it matches what Sayana’s and Griffith’s translations emphasize about ṛta binding ritual, kingship, and nature.
Guide is the guide inside the Gnosis app, where every book on these shelves is free to read. Guide is the part you pay for — your guide has read all of them, and answers about the passage you’re actually on. Ask your guide your own question.