नासदीय सूक्तNāsadīya Sūkta

निदिध्यासन Nididhyāsana · AbsorbStep 4 of 5

Nāsadīya Sūkta · Ṛgveda 10.129

Questions to sit with

There are no right answers below. They are the questions the hymn seems to want its listeners to carry away.

  1. Neither being nor non-being. Can you imagine a state that is not even “nothing”? What does the hymn gain by refusing both words?

  2. “That One breathed.” Why might the poet choose breath, rather than light, sound or thought, as the first sign of life?

  3. Desire before mind. Verse 4 puts wanting before thinking. In your own experience, does a question start as a thought, or as a want to know?

  4. Searching the heart. The seers find the bond of being in non-being within. Is looking inward a way of learning about the universe, or only about ourselves? Is there a difference?

  5. Partnership. Verse 5 pairs forces: seed-bearers and great powers, own-power below and impulse above. Why might creation be pictured as a partnership rather than a single act?

  6. The gods came later. If every observer arrives after the beginning, can any observer ever describe it? What does this say about our instruments, from eyes to telescopes?

  7. “Or perhaps he does not know.” Does this line feel like doubt, humility, irony, or something else? How would the hymn change if it ended one line earlier?

  8. Ancient and modern. Where do you see real overlap between the hymn and modern cosmology, and where is the overlap something we read into it?