Nasadiya Sukta!

The So-called Creation Hymn!

Hymn 10.129 of RigVeda!

Translation by Kant

!

This is a very famous hymn. Often called the Creation hymn or the “nasadiya sukta”, it has been

used even in television programmes (Bharat ek Khoj). Unfortunately, as I show below, the hymn is

not about Creation at all, but rather a prayer to the creator - the lord almighty.

!

1. You have no bodily form, 


but you have always existed, 

just as dust, that sits in the air. 

Who can capture you, who can kill you, 

whose arrows can make you subservient, 

who else exists that’s so inexplicable and mysterious?

2. You cannot die, you are immortal, 


for you, day and night have no meaning. 

People light fires to worship you, 

everyone, those that are rich, and those that are not.

3. You exist where nothing can exist, 


you are invisible, too enigmatic to be perceived, 

infinite, most ancient of all. 

You are hidden where nothing can be concealed. 

No heat can diminish your power, 

nothing can exist without your wish.

4. Our wishes we present to you, 


bless the humankind with continued existence, 

o' foremost that exists. 

You are the truest friend that all look for, 

heartily accept this poet’s prayer.

5. With your might that spreads like rays, 


issue us wealth, unending, copious. 

Generate and distribute, through your powers, 

for our lasting pleasure, 

imperishable, unlimited prosperity.

6. Who knows for sure, 


what all that’s being spoken about here, 

whence it came, when was it created? 

Apart from the lord, the master of all creation, 

who else can know, that what has occurred earlier?

7. It’s the creator that decides, 


that what is to be preserved, 

and that what is not to be. 

O’ chief of the highest heaven, 

help make known to us, 

that what is yet unknown.

!

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