Nonpareil

The Nasadiya Sukta stuns us with its terrifying imagery and its total disregard for the rational in us. May be it is because of this that I like it to distraction. I am yet to find something which goes beyond it. Some say it supports the Big Bang theory. The problem is some others believe that there was no big bang at all.
There will be as many views as there are men/women.

The two groups ( bangists and no-bangists) are currently banging away at each other. It’s a kind of war of the roses and hopefully would never end.

Whether there was big bang or it is steady state or it is very much pulsating –oscillating, one thing remains, in mystical literature this sukta is nonpareil.

Here it is,

1.nAsadAsIn no sadAsIt tadAnIM nAsId rajo no vyomAparo yat |\
kimAvarIvaH kuha kasya sharmannambhaH kimAsId gahanaM gabhIram ||\

The real then existed not, nor the non-real:
Breath did not exist; or space beyond it.
Was there movement? But where? By whom directed?
Was water there or fathomless abyss?


2.na mRtyurAsIdamRtaM na tarhi na rAtryA ahna AsItpraketaH |\
AnIdavAtaM svadhayA tadekaM tasmAddhAnyan na paraH kiM canAsa ||\


Death then was not, nor life immortal:
Of neither night nor day was any semblance.
The ONE breathed by self impulse, calm and without air:
There was not any other beyond it

3.tama AsIt tamasA gULamagre.apraketaM salilaM sarvamAidam |\
tuchyenAbhvapihitaM yadAsIt tapasastanmahinAjAyataikam ||\


Darkness at first was covered by darkness:
This universe was indistinct and fluid.
The empty space was hidden by void:
That ONE was by the force of heat engendered.


4.kAmastadagre samavartatAdhi manaso retaH prathamaM yadAsIt |\ sato bandhumasati niravindan hRdi pratISyAkavayo manISA ||\

Desire then at first arose within it,
Desire which was the earliest seed of spirit.
The sages divined, searching with insight in their hearts,
The bond of being and non being.


5.tirashcIno vitato rashmireSAmadhaH svidAsI.a.a.at |\
retodhAAsan mahimAna Asan svadhA avastAt prayatiH parastAt ||\

They divined what was above and below

By casting their thread across the nothingness

They saw vital forces imbued with authority

It was potent below and impulse ridden above


6.ko addhA veda ka iha pra vocat kuta AjAtA kuta iyaMvisRSTiH |\
arvAg devA asya visarjanenAthA ko veda yataAbabhUva ||\

Who knows it truly? Who can here declare it?
Whence was it born? Whence issued this creation?
And did the gods appear with its production?
But then who knows from whence it has arisen?


7.iyaM visRSTiryata AbabhUva yadi vA dadhe yadi vA na |\
yo asyAdhyakSaH parame vyoman so aN^ga veda yadi vA naveda ||\

This universe, whence it has arisen,
Or produced or has not,
He who surveys it in the highest heaven,
Even he does not know it.