"Naasadiyaa Sukta" from Rig Veda



There was neither non-existence nor existence then,
Neither the realm of space nor the sky which is beyond.
What stirred? Where? In whose protection?
Was there water, bottomlessly deep?

There was neither death nor immortality then,
No distinguishing sign of night nor of day.
That one breathed, windless, by its own impulse.
Other than that there was nothing beyond.

Darkness was hidden by darkness in the beginning,
With no distinguishing sign, all this was water.
The life force that was covered with emptiness,
That one rose through power of heat.

Desire came upon that one in the beginning,
that was the first seed of mind.
Poets seeking in their heart with wisdom
found the bond of existence in non-existence.

Their cord was extended across.
Was there below? Was there above?
There were seed-placers, there were powers.
There was impulse beneath, giving-forth above.

Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it?
Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation?
The gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe.
Who then knows whence it has arisen?

Whence this creation has risen -
Perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not.
The one who looks down on it, in the highest heaven,
Only he knows or perhaps he does not know.

- Rig Veda, Mandala 10, Sukta 129

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