The Creation

The Great Sages approached and told Manu:

Please explain to us the duties of all castes and intermediate castes.

You alone know what should be done according to the Veda which is eternal, inconceivable and not directly cognisable.

Manu replied.

This universe existed in dense Darkness, unperceived, undifferentiated, incogitable, hence incognizable as it was wholly merged in deep sleep.

Thereafter, the supreme being Hiraṇyagarbha, self-born, unmanifest and bringing into view this universe, appeared.

He dispelled darkness and having his (creative) power operating upon the Elemental Substances and other things.

He,—who is apprehended beyond the senses, who is subtile, unmanifest and eternal, absorbed in all created things and inconceivable,—appeared by himself.

He wanted to create the several kinds of things.

So by mere willing, he produced, out of his own body, Water.

In that he threw the seed.

That became the golden egg, resplendent like the Sun.

In that egg, he Hiraṇyagarbha himself was born as Brahmā, the ‘Grand-father’ of the whole world.

Water is called ‘nara.’ Water is the offspring of nara since water was the first thing created by that being.

He is, on that account, described as ‘nārāyaṇa.’

^1-11 That which is the cause—unmanifest, eternal and partaking of the nature of the existent and the non-existent,—the being produced by that (cause) is described among people as ‘brahmā.’

^1-12 That supreme lord, having dwelt in that egg for a year, himself, by his own thought, broke that egg into 2 parts.

Out of those two pieces of the egg he formed Heaven and Earth. Between them, the Ākāśa, the 8 quarters and the eternal receptacle of water.

From out of himself he brought forth the mind, which partakes of the nature of the existent and non-existent.

Before the mind, he brought up the all-powerful principle of egoism, whose function consists in self-consciousness.

Having combined the subtile components of the said six principles of illimitable potency with their own evolutes, he created even all beings.

Because the 6 subtile components of the frame (of primordial matter) enter into (produce) these, therefore the wise ones have described the frame of that (primordial matter) as ‘body.’

The great elemental substances, along with their functions, as also the mind, along with its subtile components, enter into that which (on that account) is the generator of all things and imperishable.

From out of the Subtile constituents of the frames of the said exceedingly potent principles is produced this (Gross Body)—the perishable proceeding from the imperishable.

Among these (Elementary Substances), each succeeding one acquires the quality of what precedes it; and each elemental substance is endowed with as many qualities as the place it occupies (in the order in which the said substances are set forth).—(20)

At the outset he designated distinct names for add things; and devised acts and Laws, on the basis of the words of the veda.

For the sake of living beings intent on action, he created the eternal sacrifice; as also the host of Gods and the subtile multitude of the lesser divinities, the Sādhyas.—(22)

From out of (the three deities) Agni, Vāyu and Ravi, he extracted, for the due fulfilment of sacrifices, the eternal Brahman, threefold, in the forms of ‘Ṛk,’ ‘Yajuṣ’ and ‘Sāman.’—(23)

He created also Time, the Divisions of Time, the Lunar Mansions, the Planets, the Rivers, the Oceans, the Mountains and the tracts of land, plain and rugged.—(24)

Being desirous of bringing into existence these creatures, he created this entire creation (comprising) austerity, speech, happiness, desire and anger.—(25)