The Hindu Creation Story

What is the Hindu creation story? We have to look at the tradition of the Aryans and specifically the Veda, Hinduism’s holy book. The Aryan civilization honored how this world came into being and the Veda offered several different explanations. It doesn’t seem to be a problem that the stories of the world’s creation are often at odds with one another. Even today, the Hindu tradition contains dozen of different accounts of creation.

One of the most intriguing of the cosmogonies is a short hymn that is intended to astound and confuse rather than to explain. It has been the subject of hundreds of commentaries throughout Hindu history. As I write here an English translation I will also give my own commentary. This is called the hymn of creation:

“There was neither non-existence nor existence. There was neither the realm of space nor the sky which is beyond. There was neither death neither immortality. There was no distinguishing sign of day or night. That One breathed by its own impulse. Other than that, there was nothing beyond.”

This Vedic cosmogony opens by taking us to the limits of our capacity to think. Our ordinary ways of thinking depend on dualities: yes and no, subject and object, is and isn’t. This song presses beyond this duality by invoking a time that is no time, a place that is no place. It is a time and place where there is neither nothing nor not-nothing.

The hymn introduces an entity only known as That One. The identity of That One is not clear, but we do know that it breaths by its own power:

“Darkness was hidden by darkness in the beginning. With no distinguishing sign, all this was water. The life force was covered with emptiness. That One arose with the power of heat.”

The story gets more complicated and obscure. It now suggests that there were primordial waters with no distinguishing marks, similar perhaps to that water and chaos of the Biblical account of creation. That One now appears to be identified with the life force. The heat is a creative energy that is associated with the god Agni.

“Desire upon That One in the beginning. That was the first seed of mind. Poets, seeking in their hearts with wisdom, found the bond of existence in non-existence. Their cord was extended across. Was there below? Was there above?”

With these verses the hymn seems to have become impenetrable. Perhaps it is suggesting that That One began to desire as a result of his creative heat. Desire and heat are often associated with one another. Desire is the seed of thought, the beginning of the process by which the world was brought into being.

When we think we see some clarity in the hymn it introduces poets. Percy Bysshe Shelley said that poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, but even Shelley didn’t imagine such a grand role for poets in the world’s creation. These poets, however, are more that just word smiths. They are sages, saints and philosophers.

Where they came from and what role they played in the world’s creation is not clear. Some commentators have suggested that the hymn maintains that the poets bring That One into existence through their meditating powers. Others think that the poets merely discern the structure of existence through wisdom after the world’s creation.

Then, rather surprisingly, the hymn takes an unexpected turn. After making these pronouncements, it becomes profoundly humble:

“Who really knows? Who here proclaim it? Whence was it produced? The gods came afterwards. Who then knows whence it has a reason. Perhaps it formed itself or perhaps it did not. The One who looks down upon it in highest heaven, only he knows, or perhaps he does not know?”

There is something refreshingly honest about these concluding verses. Without reaching a point of cynicism or nihilism it reminds us that thoughts about the origin of the cosmos remain speculative. From the beginning we are enveloped in a mystery.

Hinduism’s Holy Book

The Aryans gave Hinduism its priestly language, Sanskrit; and what could be called Hinduism’s holy book: The Veda. The Veda is a rather unusual collection of literature. It is not narrative like the Bible. It tells no grand story of gods and humans. The Vedas are more like a liturgy manual. It includes hundreds of hymns addressed to various deities, as well as myths, some spells and a bit of philosophical speculation.

It is clear that the Veda is concerned primarily with rituals and it was probably composed to be recited at sacrifices. The term Veda means “wisdom”. It derives from the Sanskrit root ved which means simply to see. You may recognize an English cognate in the word video. Seeing is an extremely important dimension for Hindu religious experience.

According to the beliefs of most Hindus today, the wisdom embodied in the Veda is timeless because it has no origin. It existed prior to this world and embodies an eternal law that transcends even the gods. The words of the Veda, according to traditional conviction, were revealed to ancient sages called Rishis in a distant past.

Some Hindus even maintain that the Veda contains all knowledge, even the principles of nuclear physics and the distance between heavenly bodies. A few even claim that the reason the West attained such rapid technological and scientific progress is because Westerners appropriated Vedic knowledge when its contents where revealed in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Today, the Veda is regarded as the most authoritative and sacred Hindu scripture. So important is the Veda that Hinduism is sometimes called Vedic Dharma: the religion of the Veda. Acceptance of the authority of the Veda has been a criterion for determining which schools of Indian thought are orthodox and which are heterodox.

Despite this fact, the Veda has never been widely read in India. The vast majority of Hindus have never read a fragment of them. For the daily life of ordinary Hindus, writings such as the Mahabharata, the Puranas and the Bhagavad Gita are far more significant.

The Vedic World View

Presenting the Vedic world to you I fear I’ll be making it seem more systematic and coherent that actually was. The collection of Vedic writings is not systematic theology. It wasn’t written with modern categories of thought in mind. There are passages whose entire meaning is totally obscure.

We should remember also that because the Veda represents the perspective of the priestly cast in the Aryan society. We cannot be certain of how widespread these views were. Lower classes did not keep records or had anything comparable to the Veda.

The Veda is divided into four Samhitas or collections, each concerned with a particular aspect of ritual. The oldest and most important of these is called the Rigveda. The Rigveda contains over a thousand hymns to various gods and goddesses. The word rig means praise, so this collection is aptly named.

Some scholars have argued that the Rigveda may be over 30000 years old. Most of them, however, believe it to be of much more recent origin, between 2300 and 1200 B.C. The Rigveda contain Mantras or sacred words that are used during rituals.

The other Samhitas include the Yajurveda, which contains instructions for sacrifices; the Samaveda, which contains melodies to be sung during sacrifices; and the Atharvaveda, which offers spells and incantations for rituals. In order to understand what the Vedas say about the nature of the world, you might be interested in reading the following articles:

• The Hindu Creation Story: The Aryan civilization honored how this world came into being and the Veda offered several different explanations. It doesn’t seem to be a problem that the stories of the world’s creation are often at odds with one another. Even today, the Hindu tradition contains dozen of different accounts of creation.

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