History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c95.22

v7.c95.22

Ṛg. X. 129 (called Nāsadīya-sūkta from the opening words) is a unique hymn.²⁴⁴¹ Several passages of his hymn are yet very obscure in spite of the labour bestowed upon it by eminent scholars. In this hymn the First Principle or Creator is not given any name but is simply spoken of as 'tad-ekam', as done in the Upaniṣads in 'Tat-tvam-asi' or 'ekam-evādvitiyam' (Chān. Up. VI. 2.1-2.). The important and tolerably clear passages are translated here: "There was then neither 'asat' (what is not, non-being) nor 'sat' (what is); there was no sky nor the heaven which is beyond; what was it that covered all? Where was it and under whose shelter? Was there deep unfathomable abyss of waters?; (2) There was no death, hence nothing immortal; there was no consciousness (distinction) of night and day; that one breathed by its own nature (power) without there being any air, really nothing other than that existed; (4) desire came into being, that was the first flow (seed, offspring) of the mind: (6) who knows directly, who can proclaim it here whence this creation came into being, (7) He from whom arose this creation, whether he made it or did not make it, the Highest seer in the highest heaven, he indeed knows or even he does not know?