voices of faith q&a

The Kansas City Star (TNS)

Q. How did it all begin, according to your faith’s texts?

Arvind Khetia, Hindu engineer:

A. Various accounts of creation are found in the spiritual and mythological texts of Hinduism.

In the Rig Veda, a famous “Hymn of Creation” speculates about the origin of life.

It observes that the mystery about creation will always remain a mystery: “Who knows when came this creation? Perhaps the Gods may know, but even they may not know, for they came after creation.”

The “Hymn of Creation” describes the undifferentiated state preceding evolution as “Then even nothingness was not, nor existence. There was no air then, nor the heavens beyond it. What covered it? What was it? In whose keeping?.... At first there was only darkness covered by darkness.”

According to the Vedas, in the beginning there was pure consciousness in a tranquil state. This state is recognized as divine and not physical matter.

In one of the Upanishads, this is echoed: “In the beginning was only Being, One without a second. Out of himself he brought forth the cosmos and entered into everything in it.”

Thus, creation originates from the ultimate reality (Brahman) and is also pervaded by it. Therefore, there is an underlying unity in all of existence and all beings.

In the process of evolution, pure consciousness, Brahman manifests itself from subtle to gross forms of life and proceeds from cosmic evolution to organic evolution and ultimately to human evolution.

Human evolution continues with moral, ethical and spiritual evolution because the embodied soul (Atman) has its innate desire to be free from the physical bondage and to attain the union with Brahman, which is its true original nature.

2014 The Kansas City Star