d emptiness lay hidden
Alone by power of fervor was developed.

4. Then for the first time there arose desire,
Which was the primal germ of mind, within it.
And sages, searching in their heart, discovered
In Nothing the connecting bond of Being.

6. Who is it knows? Who here can tell us surely
From what and how this universe has risen?
And whether not till after it the gods lived?
Who then can know from what it has arisen?

7. The source from which this universe has risen,
And whether it was made, or uncreated,
He only knows, who from the highest heaven
Rules, the all-seeing lord--or does not He know [Footnote ref 1]?

The earliest commentary on this is probably a passage in the
S'atapatha Brahma@na (x. 5. 3.I) which says that "in the beginning
this (universe) was as it were neither non-existent nor existent;
in the beginning this (universe) was as it were, existed and did
not exist: there was then only that Mind. Wherefore it has been
declared by the Rishi (@Rg-Veda X. 129. I), 'There was then neither
the non-existent nor the existent' for Mind was, as it were, neither
existent nor non-existent. This Mind when created, wished to
become manifest,--more defined, more substantial: it sought after
a self (a body); it practised austerity: it acquired consistency [Footnote
ref 2]." In the Atharva-Veda also we find it stated that all forms of
the universe were comprehended within the god Skambha [Footnote ref 3].

Thus we find that even in the period of the Vedas there sprang
forth such a philosophic yearning, at least among some who could

____________________________________________________________________

[Footnote 1: _The Rigveda_, by Kaegi, p. 90. R.V.x. 129.]

[Footnote 2: See Eggeling's translation of _S'.B., S.B.E._ vol. XLIII. pp.
374, 375.]

[Footnote 3: _A.V._ x. 7. 10.]

25

question whether this universe was at all a creation or not, which
could think of the origin of the world as being enveloped in the
mystery of a primal non-differentiation of being and non-being;
and which could think that it was the primal One which by its
inherent fervour gave rise to the desire of a creation as the first
manifestation of the germ of mind, from which the universe sprang
forth through a series of mysterious gradual processes. In the
Brahma@nas, however, we find that the cosmogonic view generally
requires the agency of a creator, who is not however always the
starting point, and