Lord varuna god of water

lord varuna god of water 
varun devata

In Vedic religion, Lord Varuna Deva or Lord Waruna Deva is a god of the sky, of waters and of the celestial ocean, as well as a god of law and of the underworld. Lord Varuna Deva is one of the most prominent Devas in the Rigveda, and lord of the heavens and the earth. In later Hinduism, he continued his dominion over all forms of the water element, particularly the oceans. He was the son of Kashyap by his wife Aditi. He was appointed by Brahma as the lord of the waters and regent of the western quarter. Varun is mostly associated with the AdityaMitra. Varun had many wives and children. He was married to Devi, the daughter of Shukra and had by her a son named Bal and a daughter namedSurd. He was also married to Gauri and Parnasa. Parnasa and he had a son named Shrutayudh. At the request of his mother Shrutayudh received a divine mace from his father. The sons, Agastya and Vasishth were the sons of Mitra and Varun together. Varun also had two more sons, Pushkar and Vandi. Once, enamored by Bhadra, the wife of sage Utathya, Varun abducted her, but Utathya obliged him to submit and restore her. At Lord Agni Deva's request, Lord Varuna Deva presented the Pandav prince Arjuna with a chariot yoked with horses, the Gandiv bow and two inexhaustible quivers, and Lord Krishna with the Kaumodki mace and the Sudarshan Chakra for the burning of the Khandav forest. With the blessings of Varun, Harishchandra had a son.

 

• The monkey Sushen was also a son of Lord Varuna, created by the latter on the command of Brahma to help Lord Rama. 

  Varuna 'the one who encompasses the whole world,' is one of the oldest Vedic deities. May be he is the personification of the sky; but he is also associated with clouds and water, rivers and ocean. He is sometimes clubbed with Mitra and praised (Mitravaruna).

   Varuna is the king of the universe and lives in the highest world. His knowledge and power are unlimited. He has thousand eyes and oversees the whole world. Hence he is the lord of the moral law. He punishes those who transgress this law but forgives them out of compassion if they repent and pray. By activating Vayu, the lord of the wind, he sustains life by giving rain and crops.Though Varuna was the chief deity in the beginning, he seems to have yielded his place later on to Indra and Prajapati.

• In the subsequent mythological literature Varuna is described as the presiding deity of the western quarter and as the lord of oceans, water and aquatic animals. In some of the temples he is depicted as riding on a crocodile. In two of his four arms he holds the serpent and the noose (pasa). Sometimes he is pictured as riding in a chariot drawn by seven swans and holding the lotus, the noose, the conch and a vessel of gems in the four hands. There is an umbrella over his head. 

  
  Vasus: Vasus are a class of deities, eight in number, chiefly known as attendants of Indra. The word Vasu is derived from 'vas' ('to dwell,' 'to cause to dwell,' 'to shine') and hence Vasus are deities representing all spheres of extension or space, and height. They were perhaps personifications of nature and natural phenomena.

  
  The eight Vasus are: Dhara (the earth), Anala (the fire), Ap (the waters), Anila, (the wind),. Dhruva (the polestar), Soma (the moon), Prabhasa (the dawn) and Pratyusa, (the light).

  Though he only has about a dozen hymns addressed to him in the Rig Veda, Varuna seems to be one of the most important of the Vedic gods. In pre-Vedic times, he was the supreme lord of the cosmos, the keeper of divine order, the bringer of rain, the enforcer of contracts. He is called omnipotent and omniscient; he is responsible for the sun to move in the sky, for day and night to stay separate, and for the earth to keep its form; he watches the flight of every bird, is present at every gathering, and knows every thought.

  
  

  His name means "he who covers", and this probably refers to the sky. Varuna is the keeper of the cosmic order, a force called rta. It is rta which keeps everything working as it should, and Varuna's role as the one who governs rta makes him very important indeed. He is very closely linked to the god Mitra. Varuna is one of the Adityas and considered to be an asura, when those beings were still god-like and had not yet degenerated into demons. He is also associated with the moon and Soma, in Soma's incarnation as the drink of the gods. Varuna is seen as a white man in golden armor riding a Makara (a sea monster), holding a noose or lasso made from a snake.

  
  

  Varuna is the keeper of the celestial waters, those which flow from the openings in the sky in the form of rain. He was worshiped with veneration and a healthy amount of fear, for as an asura Varuna did have his sinister aspects and was known to punish mortals who did not keep their word. He was the cosmic hangman and his usual method of punishment was to capture the offender with his noose. He was also a lord of the dead, a position he shared with Yama, and could confer immortality if he so chose.

  
  

  In Vedic times, the worship of Varuna fell off as he was supplanted by Indra as king of the gods. One possible reason for this may go back to Indra's most famous exploit. When Vritrastole all the waters of the universe, the waters which Varuna was in charge of, it was Indra who had to fight the demon and get them back. It may have been because of this that Indra was able to supplant the overlordship of Varuna and become lord of the gods himself. Varuna then became god of the oceans and rivers; still important, but with hardly the grandeur he once had. The souls of those who drowned went to him, and he was attended by the nagas.

  
  

  Varuna faded away with the ascendancy of Shiva and Vishnu. His lofty position may have lived on, however, for he may be the same as the Zoroastrian supreme god Ahura Mazda.