Adi Shankaracharya: Hinduism's Greatest Thinker

by Pavan K. Varma

The Rig Veda, written sometime between 1200 and 900 BCE, has this remarkable hymn (Nasadiya Sukta) on creation: There was neither non-existence nor existence then; there was neither the realm of space nor the sky which is beyond. What stirred? Where? In whose protection? Was there water, bottomlessly deep? There was neither death nor immortality then. There was no distinguishing sign of night or day. That one breathed, windless, by its own impulse. Other than that there was nothing beyond. Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it? Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation? The gods came afterwards with the creation of this universe? Who then knows whence it has arisen? Whence this creation has arisen—perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not—the one who looks down on it, in the highest heaven, only he knows—or perhaps he does not know.1

Rig veda’s verse on the universe. Translated by Wendy Doniger