[3] To this extent, the conventional English title Hymn of Creation is perhaps misleading, since the verse does not itself present a cosmogony or creation myth akin to those found in other religious texts, instead provoking the listener to question whether one can ever know all the details of origins of the universe.
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.
[5] The hymn, as Mandala 10 in general, is late within the Rigveda Samhita, and expresses thought more typical of later Vedantic philosophy.
[6] 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.
[7] Astronomer Carl Sagan quoted it in discussing India's "tradition of skeptical questioning and unselfconscious humility before the great cosmic mysteries.
In verse 3, being unfolds, "from heat (tapas) was born that one" (tápasaḥ tát mahinâ ajāyata ékam).
Verse 4 mentions desire (kāma) as the primal seed, and the first poet-seers (kavayas) who "found the bond of being within non-being with their heart's thought".
[citation needed] 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.
"[9] Brereton (1999) 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 (see sphoṭa), equating poetic utterance and creation (see śabda).
[10] Nasadiya Sukta consists of seven trishtubhs, although para 7b is defective, being two syllables short, Brereton (1999) 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: नासदासीन्नो सदासीत्तदानीं नासीद्रजो नो व्योमा परो यत् |
यो अस्याध्यक्षः परमे व्योमन्त्सो अङ्ग वेद यदि वा न वेद ॥७॥ 1. nā́sad āsīn nó sád āsīt tadā́nīṃ nā́sīd rájo nó víomā paró yát kím ā́varīvaḥ kúha kásya śármann ámbhaḥ kím āsīd gáhanaṃ gabhīrám
3. táma āsīt támasā gūháḷam ágre apraketáṃ saliláṃ sárvam ā idám tuchyénābhú ápihitaṃ yád ā́sīt tápasas tán mahinā́jāyataíkam
4. kā́mas tád ágre sám avartatā́dhi mánaso rétaḥ prathamáṃ yád ā́sīt sató bándhum ásati nír avindan hr̥dí pratī́ṣyā kaváyo manīṣā́
In the beginning desire descended on it - that was the primal seed, born of the mind.