Creation in the Rig Veda

My blog post is going to be in response to the "Creation Hymn" from the Rig Veda. I found it to be the most intriguing part of this weeks reading. I was raised by parents who both subscribe to the Christian beliefs on creation but I myself have always been skeptical. I really enjoy how the Hymn is very upfront about the complexities of the creation of the world. Instead of coming up with a concrete story to explain what to many seems unexplainable, the Veda plays upon the deep questions of how this vast world could be created out of nothing.

The text does refer to the overall event as "creation" implying that it was purposeful. However the Hymn also states that "perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not." The writers of the Veda do not pretend to know more than they actually do. There are however a few points that the Hymn and Genesis in the Bible seem to agree on; that the beginning was dark, covered in water, and that what started with one became two. Section four of the Hymn discusses when the one became two. Instead of portraying the necessity of two humans as a system or reproduction, the Hymn characterizes the creation of a woman as a desire for a bond sparked from the loneliness of existence.

The lines in the Hymn serve not as answers and "facts" for believers to memorize, but as literal questions to provoke the mind and soul of the reader. For me, the fact that the Veda openly admits to not have concrete knowledge of the details of creation is much more impressive than the Christian notion that the words in the Bible are fact with no room for outside interpretation. What I especially like about this part of the Rig Veda is that uncertainty is not something that is shunned or covered up. The Veda instead embraces the uncertainty of creation and existence, and to me that makes life all the more valuable.