The topic idea I'd like to explore more here (see this post) for my originial brainstorming) is that of Creationism.
Before I get into specific Creationism stories, I wanted to learn a little more about Hindu teachings on Creation and the Universe.
A couple of articles I read for reference:
The belief is that the universe is cyclically created and destroyed. There is no start or end to time or the universe, because it is infinite and cyclic.
1 Brahma day = 4.32 billion years (1 Kalpa) = 4 Yuga (krita, treta, dvapara, kali*)
Except that 1 cycle of the four Yuga's = 1 Maha-Yuga which is 4.32 million years, making 1 Brahma day = 1000 Maha-Yuga so that makes no sense.
In this article, it says that "all of creation will contract to a singularity and then again will expand from that single point, as the ages continue in a religious fractal pattern" I wanted to find an image that elicits that feeling, so I found a fractal that to me really embodies the feeling of coming together in a point and then expanding back out again:
There's no single story of creation. Seems to support evolution, some stories have a creator, others say gods were created later, the cycle of creation and destruction comes up a lot. (Most of the Creation stories I mention below stem from this article).
The "triple deity of supreme divinity": Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, Shiva the Destroyer. I think the fact that Hinduism has a trinity is super interesting and definitely want to learn more about it.
The Rigveda is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns. What I think is really interesting about it is that the hymns appear to acknowledge humanity's lack of knowing how the world came to be-- not many people are comfortable with admitting they don't know, and I think that's really cool. Here's an example of what I mean:
Before I get into specific Creationism stories, I wanted to learn a little more about Hindu teachings on Creation and the Universe.
A couple of articles I read for reference:
The belief is that the universe is cyclically created and destroyed. There is no start or end to time or the universe, because it is infinite and cyclic.
1 Brahma day = 4.32 billion years (1 Kalpa) = 4 Yuga (krita, treta, dvapara, kali*)
Except that 1 cycle of the four Yuga's = 1 Maha-Yuga which is 4.32 million years, making 1 Brahma day = 1000 Maha-Yuga so that makes no sense.
In this article, it says that "all of creation will contract to a singularity and then again will expand from that single point, as the ages continue in a religious fractal pattern" I wanted to find an image that elicits that feeling, so I found a fractal that to me really embodies the feeling of coming together in a point and then expanding back out again:
 |
| Fractal Art (Source) |
There's no single story of creation. Seems to support evolution, some stories have a creator, others say gods were created later, the cycle of creation and destruction comes up a lot. (Most of the Creation stories I mention below stem from this article).
The "triple deity of supreme divinity": Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, Shiva the Destroyer. I think the fact that Hinduism has a trinity is super interesting and definitely want to learn more about it.
The Rigveda is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns. What I think is really interesting about it is that the hymns appear to acknowledge humanity's lack of knowing how the world came to be-- not many people are comfortable with admitting they don't know, and I think that's really cool. Here's an example of what I mean:
Who really knows, and who can swear,
How creation came, when or where!
Even gods came after creation’s day,
Who really knows, who can truly say
When and how did creation start?
Did He do it? Or did He not?
Only He, up there, knows, maybe;
Or perhaps, not even He.
How creation came, when or where!
Even gods came after creation’s day,
Who really knows, who can truly say
When and how did creation start?
Did He do it? Or did He not?
Only He, up there, knows, maybe;
Or perhaps, not even He.
— Rig Veda 10.129.1-7
Right now I'm having trouble finding links to actual stories I'd like to use, but big-picture here's a list of a few:
- Brihadaranyaka Upanishad- This tells the story of Purusha. In the beginning, Atman (the Self) only existed as Purusha. Feeling lonely, the Purusha divided itself into 2 parts, male and female. The female felt weird about it and so kept changing into various animals, with the male following suit, creating everything that exists in pairs.
- Shatapatha Brahmanas- This is the egg creation story (Hiranyagarbha) I think, where Prajapati performs tapas to reproduce himself, and then enters the waters in the form of an egg and then emerges from said egg to create the earth, middle regions, and sky.
- I'm not sure where this one is, but there's also a Great Flood story, in which Manu, the only surviving human, offers a sacrifice from which Ida is born, leading to the current human race.
- Rigveda- There's an awful lot in this I think, but the one I want to find is about the universe being created from the dismemberment of the Purusha, who is sacrificed by the gods.
- Samudra Manthan- The churning of the ocean. Can also be found here .
One way I'm thinking about how to present these stories is as a round-table argument, maybe of some of the major deities, and having each of them present their own Creationist tale. That'll acknowledge the contradictory/diverse nature of all of these stories, while still allowing all of them to be told in a way that flows naturally (ideally).
Also, this page from Indian Epics readings specifically talks about Creation, and within it has some of the links I've listed throughout this post, as well as some Wikipedia pages on some of the stories I've mentioned (leaving this here mostly for reference).
Comments
Post a Comment