Interpret Mitra as the complementary polarity of Varuṇa— the principle of harmony, light, and relationship within the vast field of truth. While Varuṇa symbolizes the infinite and the law in its silent totality, Mitra represents the same law made luminous in order, affection, and mutuality. Varuṇa is depth; Mitra is radiance. One is the background of unity, the other its expression in love.
- Adhidaivika: Cosmically, Mitra is the principle of concord (saṃgati), the harmonizing power of ṛta that binds gods, men, and worlds into a living unity. He is the “sun of agreement” (saṃvid-bhānu), the force through which the infinite reveals itself as relation rather than isolation. Anirvan describes Mitra as “the smile of Varuṇa,” the divine delight that makes the rigid vastness of law tender and luminous. Together, Mitra-Varuṇa embody the twin poles of the being: truth and love, immensity and intimacy.
- Adhibhautika: On the material plane, Mitra is associated with the sun’s mild, life-giving warmth, as distinct from its dazzling blaze. He represents the balancing power of light, the gentle radiance that nurtures life rather than consumes it. Nature’s mutual interdependence— its cooperative balance of forces— is an expression of Mitra’s principle.
- Adhyātmika: Within man, Mitra is the conscience behind friendliness, goodwill, and clarity— the harmonizing force that unites thought, emotion, and will into one rhythm of truth. If Varuṇa is the moral conscience that enforces truth, Mitra is the inner empathy that loves truth and sees it in all. Thus, Mitra becomes the psychological light of relation, the feeling of unity underlying diversity. “When love becomes the mode of truth,” writes Anirvan, “Varuṇa transforms into Mitra”.
Symbolically, Mitra is the law of divine relationship, the luminous correspondence between all parts of existence. In the aspirant’s inner world, he manifests as serenity, friendliness (maitrī), and the power to see unity through compassion. Together with Varuṇa, he completes the synthesis of the cosmic order— ṛta as truth in essence and love in expression.
