The Secret of Creation

   “In the beginning arose the Golden Germ: he was, as soon as born, the Lord of Being, sustainer of the Earth and of this Heaven. What God shall we adore with our oblation? He who bestows life-force and hardy vigor, whose ordinances even the Gods obey, whose shadow is immortal life--and death-- What God shall we adore with our oblation?  Who by his grandeur has emerged sole sovereign of every living thing that breathes and slumbers, he who is Lord of man and four-legged creatures What God shall we adore with our oblation?  To him of right belong, by his own power, the snow-clad mountains, the world-stream, and the sea. His arms are the four quarters of the sky. What God shall we adore with our oblation?  Who held secure the mighty Heavens and Earth, who established light and sky's vast vault above, who measured out the ether in mid-spheres--What God shall we adore with our oblation?” [Rk Veda X, 121, 1- 5].

THE SECRET OF CREATION

    “Who really knows? Who can presume to tell it? Whence was it born? Whence issued this creation? Even the Gods came after its emergence. Then who can tell from whence it came to be? That out of which creation has arisen, whether it held it firm or it did not, He who surveys it in the highest heaven, He surely knows or maybe He does not!” [Rk Veda X, 129, 6 – 7]

   From blazing Ardor Cosmic Order came and Truth; from thence was born the obscure night; from thence the Ocean with its billowing waves. From Ocean with its waves was born the year which marshals the succession of nights and days, controlling everything that blinks the eye. Then, as before, did the creator fashion the Sun and Moon, the Heaven and the Earth, the atmosphere and the domain of light. [Rk Veda X, 190, 1 – 3].

THE BEGINNINGLESS BEGINNING

   At first was neither Being nor Nonbeing. There was not air nor yet sky beyond. What was its wrapping? Where? In whose protection? Was Water there, unfathomable and deep?

  There was no death then, nor yet deathlessness; of night or day there was not any sign. The One breathed without breath, by its own impulse. Other than that was nothing else at all. Darkness was there, all wrapped around by darkness, and all was Water indiscriminate. Then that which was hidden by the Void, that One, emerging, stirring, through power of Ardor, came to be. In the beginning Love arose, which was the primal germ cell of the mind. The Seers, searching in their hearts with wisdom, discovered the connection of Being in Nonbeing.  A crosswise line cut Being from Nonbeing. What was described above it, what below? Bearers of seed there were and mighty forces, thrust from below and forward move above. [Rk Veda X, 129, 1 – 5].

   With the sacrifice the Gods sacrificed to the sacrifice. Those were the first established rites. These powers ascended up to heaven where the ancient Gods and other beings dwell. O Lord of the Holy Word! That was the first beginning of the Word when the Seers fell to naming each object. That which was best and purest, deeply hidden within their hearts, they revealed by the power of their love. The Seers fashioned the Word by means of their mind, sifting it as with sieves the corn is sifted. Thus friends may recognize each other's friendship. An auspicious seal upon their word is set. They followed by sacrifice the path of the Word and found her entered in among the Seers. They led her forth and distributed her among many. In unison the seven Singers chant her. Yet certain ones, though seeing, may not see her, and other ones, though hearing, may not hear her. But to some the Word reveals herself quite freely, like fair-robed bride surrendering to her husband. [Rk Veda X, 71, 1 – 4]

  Let’s see what the scriptures say about creation (srushti).

   “You have no knowledge of him who created these worlds; some other thing has interposed between you. The reciters of hymns who ravish life in their ritual proceed with their muttering, enwrapped in confusion and ignorance.” [Rk Veda X, 82, 7]

   “Endowed with gunas, the jiva performs action, seeking its fruit; and again, it reaps the fruit of what it has done. Assuming all forms and led by the three gunas, the jiva, ruler of the pranas, roams about following the three paths, according to its deeds.” [Yajurveda, Svet. Upa, Part I, Chapter V, 7].