The Gods came later

Indeed a delight when I read that hymn 129 (Nasadiya Sukta), Mandala X, Rigveda says 'The Gods came later..'

कॊ ।आद्धा वॆद क‌।इह प्रवॊचत् कुत ।आअजाता कुत ।इयं विसृष्टि: ।
अर्वाग्दॆवा ।आस्य विसर्जनॆनाथाकॊ वॆद यत ।आबभूव ॥६॥
But, after all, who knows, and who can say
Whence it all came, and how creation happened?
the gods themselves are later than creation,
so who knows truly whence it has arisen?

इयं विसृष्टिर्यत ।आबभूव यदि वा दधॆ यदि वा न ।
यॊ ।आस्याध्यक्ष: परमॆ व्यॊमन्त्सॊ आंग वॆद यदि वा न वॆद ॥७॥
Whence all creation had its origin,
he, whether he fashioned it or whether he did not,
he, who surveys it all from highest heaven,
he knows - or maybe even he does not know.

 

Though at first I was a bit surprised, yet within a minute I was open to thinking about it because I know the way the texts, books and historical and mythological articles have been interpreted. Many a times in wrong ways.

 

So over a cup of tea, I started to think. Basically my ancestors didn't believe that the lords of fire, the Indra, Varuna, Agni, Kama created this universe, they all came after the world was created. They were sort of managers, the owners being someone else, considering someone above the "gods" created this world. Or are there any owners?

 

Did some searching on it, people say that this Nasadiya Sukta has been particularly added to create controversy. Well the writers of Rigveda were really intelligent ! For they said the lords look upon everything and then agreed to not give them absolute powers. What were they thinking ? Keeping gods open for interpretation- which religion does that? Wait I am wrong here. Rigveda does not imply Hindu religion or any religion. In fact it is the only veda which does not mention "brahminical" ways and is in my view a relatively purer text devoid of religious implications at all (assumption being that you are open enough to consider Agni, Varuna etc as forces of nature and not specially related to Hinduism).

 

Feels kind of proud in some sense.

1- The oldest book of my land doesn't preach Hinduism. Brownie points for secularism!

2- It does not hold the supremacy of gods, even gods can make mistakes and are open for interpretation. Extra points for allowing democratic belief system and room for atheists.

3- It lays few boundaries - to respect forces of nature - but most of all without preaching any religion, emphasizes on ethical conduct and behavior.

4-  Women writers ! Now that's really respectable considering some of the other text books ( read shastras, vedas etc) go on to restrict shudras and females to even read them.

 

 

Hoping to find many more good things on the way to reading Discovering the Rigveda, A bracing text for our times by G.N.S. Raghavan