Nasadiya Sukta:
Hymn to That Which Is Not Non-existent

By Srinjay Chakravarti

Verse 1:
At that time of chaos
there was not what is
nor what is not; there was
neither non-existent nor existent.
There was no world, no underworld,
no firmament, nor heaven beyond it.
What did it encompass,
what did it cover,
where did it lie?
Were there depths
of fathomless water?

Verse 2:
Then there was neither death
nor immortality.
There were no signs
of night and day,
no distinctions
of light and darkness.
The One breathed, windless,
by its own impulse and energy.
Only the One was,
there was nothing beyond.
Brahman was inseparable
from Its own creative energy;
apart from the One
there was nothing distinct,
as in a created universe.

Verse 6:
Who really knows
and who can here assert
how this creation
of manifold forms
came to be born?
Is there anyone in the world
who can describe its causes?
The gods themselves are later
than this universe.
Then who can know whence
it first came into being?

Verse 7:
The Creator who is
the material origin
of the universe,
He might have been
its efficient cause,
or He may not have been.
He who is established
in His own Self of Truth,
manifest in the pure
unblemished sky;
He orders all of creation,
and if anyone knows,
He alone knows; or then,
perhaps, even He knows not . . .

Composer: Unknown.
Translated from the pre-Sanskrit Vedic language of the Rig Veda's 10th mandala (circa 1450 to 1000 BC).
Partly based on translations by Juan Mascaro, R.C. Zaehner, Wendy O'Flaherty, M. Winternitz and others