Hymn of Creation

Beat 1

Late in the Ṛgveda, in its tenth maṇḍala, a seer asks the oldest question of all: how did anything begin? The hymn is known by its first words, nāsad āsīt, "there was not non-being".

Nāsadīya. The hymn's name comes from its opening, nāsad āsīn no sad āsīt: "there was neither non-being nor being".

From the scripture · Ṛgveda 10.129 (anukramaṇī: ṛṣi Prajāpati Parameṣṭhin)

Beat 2

Before anything, there was neither being nor non-being, no air and no sky beyond it. No death and no deathlessness, no sign of night or day.

From the scripture · Ṛgveda 10.129.1–2 · rigveda/10.129.1

Beat 3

Darkness lay hidden in darkness, a sea without marks. Then, through the power of heat (tapas), That One was born.

Tapas. Heat, glow, the effort of austerity. In the Vedas it is a creative force, the same word later used for ascetic practice.

From the scripture · Ṛgveda 10.129.3 · rigveda/10.129.3

Beat 4

Desire arose in it, the first seed of mind. Seers searched in their hearts and found the bond of what is in what is not.

From the scripture · Ṛgveda 10.129.4 · rigveda/10.129.4

Beat 5

But who truly knows? Even the gods came later than this creation, so who can say where it came from?

From the scripture · Ṛgveda 10.129.6 · rigveda/10.129.6

Beat 6

The one who watches over it in the highest heaven surely knows, the hymn ends. Or perhaps he does not know. Three thousand years on, the question is still open.

The seer: Or perhaps he does not know.

From the scripture · Ṛgveda 10.129.7 · rigveda/10.129.7