What follows is the Song of Creation from the Rig Veda from the
translation by Max Mueller. Notice the
element of doubt that pervades the whole poem. Where and when did
we lose that spirit?
The Song of Creation - Rig Veda
Then there was not non-existent nor existent; there was no realm of
air, no sky beyond it.
What covered in, and where ? and what gave shelter ? was water there,
unfathomed depth of water ?
Death was not then, nor was there aught immortal: no sign was there,
the day's and night's divider.
That one thing, breathless, breahed by its own nature: apart from it
was nothing whatsoever
Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness, this All was
undiscriminated chaos.
All that existed then was void and formless; by the great power of
warmth was born that unit.
Thereafter rose desire in the beginning, Desire the primal seed and
germ of spirit.
Sages who searched with their heart's thought discovered the existent's
kinship in the non-existent.
Transversely was their severing line extended: what was above it, and
what below it ?
There were begetters, there were mighty forces, free action here and
energy of yonder.
Who verily knows and who can herre declare it, whence it was born and
whence comes this creation ?
The gods are later than this worlds production. Who knows, then,
whence it first came into being ?
He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or
did not form it,
Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it,
or perhaps he knows it not.
This site is maintained by Lakshman.
Last Modified: May 1997 lakshman@nssl.noaa.gov
