On the omnipresence and omniscience of Varuna

Hymns of the Atharva Veda, by Ralph T.H. Griffith, [1895], at sacred-texts.com

HYMN XVI

On the omnipresence and omniscience of Varuna

1The 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.
2If 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.
3This 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. p. a124
4If 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.
5All 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.
6Those 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.
7Varuna, 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.
8Varuna sends, and drives away, diseases: Varuna is both native
   and a stranger,
  Varuna is celestial and is human.
9I 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.