02 – How Did It Start and Grow

Hi Friends!

As promised last time, in this post we shall try and cover the various ways the world started, as per Indian mythology. As we discussed, the stories of creation are cyclical. In another post we shall look at the highly number-centric way they thought things repeated. It’s awesome fun, but it can wait.

In this post, we will try and cover one way the world started/re-started, and was populated. The Legend Zero. In later posts, we shall try to cover two stories (Legend One and Legend Two), which are also creation myths, but in disguise.

But what comes before 0? Let’s take a small detour with Legend Minus One (-1).

There is an awesome poem in the Rig Veda (the first book, some believe). It is called the Nasadiya Sukta. Literally the Song of Non-Existence. I could tell you what it is, but there is a better way. In my childhood (and your parents’ maybe) there came a TV Series called “Bharat Ek Khoj”, or the Discovery of India. This (click on the “this”) is its title track. Go ahead, listen to it. I will wait…

Back? Awesome, right! Seriously, a religion (and its knowledgeable people) telling that they don’t know, they don’t even know if any one knows, or even if it is knowable! The takeaway for me was:

“Who knows what this universe is made of,  
And who created it, 
And from where has it come from. 

Does anyone know this, 
Or more importantly can he/she tell us. 

The gods don’t know surely 
As they themselves came after creation. 

Whoever created this universe, 
Who knows or created that One

The Supreme One, who presides over this Universe 
Maybe He knows about this, 
But maybe even he doesn’t know. 

Even this point of him knowing or not knowing 
Is not knowable by anyone.” 

Now THAT is pretty awesome, right!

While others scampered around scared of the gods, these people are outright doubting the very knowledge of the Supreme God (uppercase), and not just the gods (merely lowercase). Now, if I could have had the self-confidence these forebears of ours showed, and went and confronted my teachers (or our leaders/rulers) what a wonderful world it could have been. Too strange? Just take this away if you may, that questioning any story is the “right” of the listeners, as they are stories and not Ultimate Truths. Umm… other than what your mothers tell you to do. Let’s not push our lucks, ok!

Next, let’s tackle Legend Zero.

In the start there was nothingness. The vast “ocean” of nothingness. This ocean was not on Earth. In fact it wasn’t water, exactly. Some call it the KshirSaagar. The Sea of Milk. Which ain’t milk either! Just a name for the nothingness.

In this Sea of Nothingness nestled the Serpent, sometimes called Sesha, or the Remainder; sometimes called Adi-Sesha, or the Initial Remainder; and sometimes even Ananta-Sesha, or the Unending Remainder. Within the coils of this Initial, Unending and Final, lies Vishnu. While Vishnu is still and asleep, and Sesha is coiled up, time stands still. Nothingness. Then Vishnu wakes up, and Adi-Sesha starts to uncoil. Some versions say, He heard the sound of ॐ (“Om”). If He did, that raises the question, who or what made the sound? Spooky! Let’s leave that out for now.

So, Vishnu wakes up of his own accord, and looks around in the Nothingness. Then from his navel (“belly button”) grows a stalk, at the end of which is a Lotus Flower. Inside this flower sits the Creator God, Brahma.

Now Brahma starts the creation work. He throws a petal towards a direction he decides as “beyond”, and it becomes “heavens”. He throws a petal towards a direction he decides as “up”, and it becomes the sky. He throws a petal towards a direction he decides as “down”, and it becomes the earth. He created a lot of stuff on it, geological (mountains and valleys, islands and seas), botanical (trees, shrubs, herbs and such like) and zoological (animals, birds and other things… but this one I am not that sure).

Then he decides he needs consciousness, helpers to take this ahead.

Round 1. So out of his purity of thought he creates his first set of “sons”. They were his maanasputras as they were born of his mind. The First Four were born as young boys or “kumaras”. Called as the Ancient One (“Sanaka”), the Eternal One (“Sanatana”), the Ever-Joyful One (“Sanandana”), and the Ever-Young One (“Sanatakumar”). The four young one’s, the Kumaras, were so knowledgeable and spiritual, that they decided that they don’t want to create anything, as nothing really matters, and would spend their time in enjoying internal contemplation. We will meet these four young one’s once more when they became the cause of few of the most interesting fights in our mythology. So, Brahma’s first attempt of getting his kids to follow his instructions kind of failed.

Round 2. Brahma created a few more sons. The number of these sons is not consistent, but let’s say ten (main one’s). These ten sons were together called the Prajapatis, or the masters of creation.

There are many lists of the name of Brahma’s sons, so here is mine.

Firstly was a son, called Narada. Narada, just like his elder brothers, the Kumaras, becomes cause of fights and troubles. He was the News Channel (the one your Dad keeps watching) and Gossip Magazine (the one’s your Mom… just glances… never reads!) so we will keep meeting him in his mischiefs work.

Next were the Seven Sages, or Saptarshis. In every iteration there is need for knowledge to be brought back and given to humans. This is done by the Saptarishis. They are also denoted by the seven stars of the Big Dipper Constellation. As the Big Dipper constellation helps to locate the pole star, and hence helps ships to reach their destination. Similarly the Saptarishis help mankind find knowledge, which in terms helps us to reach our destinations.

Now to the awkward part. The names of the Saptarishis would be (alphabetically) (1) Angiras, (2) Atri, (3) Bhrigu, (4) Kratu, (5) Marichi, (6) Pulaha, (7) Pulastya, and (8) Vasishtha. Yes. there are eight names of sons of Brahma who are considered as Saptarishis, as per different lists. So I included them all.

I would say let all eight be of same stature. Though if push comes to shove, we can give a separate place for Bhrigu, who doesn’t have one of the stars in the saptarishi constellation, but is credited to have written a compendium (or samhita) on the science of astronomy (and the art of astrology).

Along with them was one more prajapati. He is never part of the Saptarishis, and the only “master of creation”, who has his function in his name. He is addressed as Daksha Prajapati, meaning “highly skilled master of creation”.

In addition Brahma, created a female version of himself as well. She was Saraswati, or the Goddess of Learning. This may be seen to represent the idea that creativity (Brahma and his Sons) and learning (Saraswati) both are required, for civilisation to be created and grown. There is a story about Saraswati, and the number of heads of Brahma, which we may or may not come back to. It is interesting, I will leave you with that.

Oh, and there is another son, whom we will meet in great detail in a separate post (the one with a lot of numbers). He was the first of the non-divine one’s, maybe the first who could be called human. He was named Manu, specifically Self-Created or Swayambhu Manu. In fact the word for humans in Sanskrit is Manu-shya, i.e. (children) of Manu. Interestingly in Persian (and Urdu) the word for humans is Aadam-i, i.e. (born) from Aadam, the first man as per the mythology of their culture.

Round 3. One of the Prajapatis, Marichi had a son called Kasyapa. Please remember his name, as we will get back to him in the Legend 2 in a later post. Similarly Daksha Prajapati, had many daughters. Out of which quite a few got married to Kashyapa. Let’s list out a few of them.

Kashyapa with his wife Aditi, had 33 sons, whom we counted out in the last post. These were the gods (lower case), collectively called the Devas. Remember Nasadiya Sukta above. The gods came much after creation, hence they cannot be expected to know how it was all done by their father and his cousins; grandfather and his brothers; and the Great Grandfather Brahma. The Devas are the masters and embodiments of the things above (sun, natural phenomenons, elemental powers, such things), and hence live in their svarga-loka above.

Kashyapa with his wife Diti, had many strong sons. They were called Asuras or Daityas. They were fierce opponents of their half-brothers, the gods. There are many stories of them being the “villains”, but a few which makes one doubt whether they are truly “evil”, or just “competitors”. When the stories (and names) are analysed, it seems Asuras are masters and embodiments of things below (gold, minerals, crops that grow from soil, such things), and hence live in their patala-loka below.

Kashyapa with his wife Danu, had many sons, the Danavas. They were sometimes helping their half-brothers the Asuras fight the other half-brothers the Devas. Sometimes they challenge the Devas alone. When the story (and names) are analysed, it emerges that the Danavas are masters and embodiments of waters below, sometimes in its terrifying forms and in the form of dams.

A few more daughters of Daksha married Kashyapa, and became mothers of the other semi-divine creatures, including Muni, the mother of celestial nymphs or apsaras (denoting the delicate form of water, such as springs and clouds).

One last set of sisters who are daughters of Daksha and wives of Kashyapa, are Kadru and Vinata. From Kadru came the Uragas or divine snakes, the forebears and leaders of all the snakes. And from Vinata came divine flying demigods Aruna/Aruni (will explain later) and Garuda, together the forebears and leaders of all birds. Again warring half-brothers. I cannot underline it more, but the stories coming from these two sisters and their progeny is majorly awe-some, and we shall visit their story separately.

Next time around we will try and cover a few more creation myths, especially those which are trying to hide from us. Let’s say the Story of the Fish, and the Story of the Turtle.