The Nāsadīya Sūkta, also known as the Hymn of Creation, is the 129th hymn of the 10th mandala of the Rigveda. It is concerned with cosmology and the origin of the universe. Nasadiya Sukta begins with the statement: "Then, there was neither existence, nor non-existence." It ponders over the when, why and by whom of creation in a very sincere contemplative tone, and provides no definite answers. Rather, it concludes that the gods too may not know, as they came after creation. And maybe the supervisor of creation in the highest heaven knows, or maybe even he does not know!
Interpretations
The hymn has attracted a large body of literature of commentaries both in Indiandarsanas and in Western philology. The hymn, as Mandala 10in general, is late within the Rigveda Samhita, and expresses thought more typical of later Vedantic philosophy. Even though untypical of the content of the Vedic hymns, it is one of the most widely received portions of the Rigveda. An atheist interpretation sees the Creation Hymn as one of the earliest accounts of skeptical inquiry and agnosticism. Astronomer Carl Sagan quoted it in discussing India's "tradition of skeptical questioning and unselfconscious humility before the great cosmic mysteries." The text begins by paradoxically stating "not the non-existent existed, nor did the existent exist then", paralleled in verse 2 by "then not death existed, nor the immortal". In verse 3, being unfolds, "from heat was born that one". Verse 4 mentions desire as the primal seed, and the first poet-seers who "found the bond of being within non-being with their heart's thought". Karel Werner describes the author's source for the material as one not derived from reasoning, but a "visionary, mystical or Yogic experience put into words." Werner writes that prior to creation, the Creation Hymn does not describe a state of "nothingness" but rather "That One " which is, "Spaceless, timeless, yet in its own way dynamic and the Sole Force, this Absolute..." Brereton argues that the reference to the sages searching for being in their spirit is central, and that the hymn's gradual procession from non-being to being in fact re-enacts creation within the listener, equating poetic utterance and creation.
Metre
Nasadiya Sukta consists of seven trishtubhs, although para 7b is defective, being two syllables short, Brereton argues that the defect is a conscious device employed by the rishi to express puzzlement at the possibility that the world may not be created, parallel to the syntactic defect of pada 7d, which ends in a subordinate clause without a governing clause:
