Please pay keen attention and listen

Grade: 7A

Religious Education

February 4, 2013

The Hindu Creation Story

The Hindu Creation Story

The Hindu understanding of time is different from that of the Jewish, Muslim and Christians’ own and seems rather strange to people who were not born on the Indian sub-continent. Time runs in cycles. Brahma, the hindu god of creation, creates the world, which then runs its course before it is destroyed.

BrahmaThe Hindu God of Creation

Hindu Creation Story cont’d Another cycle of creation and destruction

is then set in motion. Within each cycle begins with the “age of righteousness”, in which goodness and righteousness are uppermost. The fourth age, the “dark age”, pits the power of righteousness against evil. At the end of the fourth age everything ends before the next cycle begins. There is no end to these cycles, which go on forever

The cycle of creation & destruction

We are not living in the first universe or the first world. There will be more worlds and more universes than there are drops of water in the River Ganges’ as one of the Hindu holy books put it.

Map showing River Ganges

River Ganges

River Ganges

River Ganges

Made by the god Brahma (the creator), the universes are looked after by Vishnu (the preserver) and destroyed by Shiva (the destroyer).

The Hindu god Vishnu

The Hindu god Shiva

From this destruction comes new life, so Shiva is both the destroyer and the re-creator of life. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva together are the trimurti in Hinduism under the supreme overlordship of Brahman.

Picture showing the Hindu Trimurti

How long then does each universe last? Its duration is totally beyond imagination. One day to Brahma is longer than 4000 million human years. When Brahma has lived a lifetime of such days, the universe is destroyed by Shiva. Then, for an imaginable length of time, chaos and water are all that exist.

Then, Vishnu appears, floating on a vast ocean and resting in the coils of the great serpent Ananta. A sound emerges from the depth of the oceans. This sound is aum. It grows louder and louder. Vishnu wakes up, and from his navel springs a lotus flower and from this comes Brahma – and the cycle of life, death and destruction begins all over again

Picture showing the Hindu god Vishnu lying on the serpent “Ananta”

The sacred Aum symbol, loved by Hindus because it recognizes the sound of God at the very heart of creation

Aum or Om

Vishnu commands Brahma to create. The lotus flower is split into three parts and from them Brahma makes the heavens above, the skies and the earth beneath. Brahma also makes all forms of life to populate the earth: insects, birds, fish, animals and humankind. The new cycle is under way.

Like Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Hinduism teaches that it is God who makes the heavens and the earth. Unlike these other religions, however, the universe does not have a single length of time to exist, it is continually renewed.

The religions also agree that human beings are the most important creatures on earth and have a great responsibility for its welfare. Their greed and selfishness will be punished after a while by God.

Definition of Terms

Brahma – Hindu god of creation. River Ganges – Hindu sacred trans-

boundary river that is found on the boundaries of India and Bangladesh.

Vishnu – Hindu preserver god who is the guardian of dharma which is the principle that protects all that is good in the world.

Shiva – Hindu destroyer god who has the power to destroy the universe.

Trimurti – ‘having three forms’, the triad of the three main Hindu gods, Brahma (creator), Vishnu(preserver) and Shiva (destroyer)

Brahman – The supreme god in Hinduism.

Ananta – ‘without end’; a serpent on which Vishnu lies after the destruction of the universe

Aum - a sacred and important sound of Hindu origin;

The Hindu sacred Aum/Om