This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Dhaval Agr'vat
Let's look into The Birth of Questions 🔮❓
So I'm currently reading the book called Sophie's World 📖, a beginner entry-level book for philosophy.
And if you want to start reading and learning about philosophy, this is something you should start with.
Well, at the staring of book there were questions. First one was:
Who are you? 🪞
Which led me to think for quite a few days - knowing who I am actually, apart from these fancy job titles 👔 and self-proclaimed mysterious terms defining my nature, which I assumed or my perception of what others think of me. But actually, who am I as an entity or a living being 🌱? I've wrote about this in one of my blogs.
But the main turning point was the statement:
As we grow older, we forget to be amazed. We get so tangled in ourselves, our work, our routines ⏳, that we stop questioning our surroundings 🌍.
Why does water from different places taste different? 💧
Why does a chameleon change its color 🦎 - what's happening in its nervous system that makes it possible?
And why am I still thinking about all this on a Sunday midnight 🌙, when I've got work tomorrow and barely enough sleep 😴? I'm going to be cooked… but I just can't let go.
So the thing was - we should start asking why again ❓.
And then, like some mysterious old sage emerging from the darkness 🧙♂️, whispering wisdom, I felt the urge to learn. The first thing I wanted to know was:
Where does this "why" come from?
This sounds stupid at start 😅, doesn't it? But it gets exciting as you dig more 🔍.
So for answers, I thought - why shouldn't I start with my own religion? 🙏
I'm a Hindu, born into a family of priests (sādhu lineage) 🕉️. My father and forefathers deeply believed in gods and the Vedic roots 📜. And so do I. But I've always tried to make logic out of it.
🌌 The Multiverse in Hinduism
Let me fascinate you with something: Hinduism described the multiverse long, long ago.
It begins with the great Lord Vishnu.
In the beginning, in the endless cosmic ocean (Kṣīra Sāgara) 🌊, there lies a serpent with countless heads - this is Ananta Śeṣa, the eternal one 🐍.
On the coils of this serpent rests Lord Vishnu himself, the preserver of all that exists 🙏.
From the navel (nābhi) of the Lord emerges a lotus 🌸. And on each petal of that lotus lies a universe 🌍. Think of it as countless bubbles, each floating in the vast sea of eternity.
Inside every universe, the divine trinity takes form:
- Brahmā, the creator 👷♂️
- Vishnu, the preserver 🌿
- Mahesh (Shiva), the destroyer 🔥
Brahmā begins the cycle of creation in his universe. He gives birth to stars ✨, planets 🪐, beings 👤, and the endless play of life. Vishnu maintains the balance ⚖️ - nurturing worlds, guiding dharma 📖, sustaining the flow of existence. And when the time ripens, Mahesh dissolves it all back into the cosmic nothingness 🕉️.
But here's where it gets really mind-bending 🤯: this isn't a one-time story. Each universe breathes in cycles.
- A single day of Brahmā (called a Kalpa) lasts billions of human years ⏳.
- His night lasts just as long 🌑.
- When he wakes ☀️, creation begins anew.
- When he sleeps 😴, the universe dissolves into the great ocean 🌊.
Now imagine this: Brahmā lives for 100 of his own years. At the end of that lifespan, even the entire universe he governs comes to an end 💨. This is called a Maha-Pralaya - the great dissolution 💀, only to be reborn again with the cosmic breath of the ultimate Vishnu.
✨ With one breath of the Great Lord Vishnu, infinite universes emerge, and with another, infinite universes dissolve.
Creation, preservation, and destruction - it's an infinite cycle, like breathing in and out 🌬️. Universes are born, live out their time, and fade away, only to be reborn with the next breath of Vishnu 🙏.
In this vision:
- Brahmā → Personification of Creation
- Vishnu → Personification of Preservation
- Mahesh (Shiva) → Personification of Destruction
- Supreme Vishnu → Personification of the Multiverse itself
Honestly, this is the closest religion-based description I've ever found that comes near modern science's theory of a multiverse 🧬🔭.
Science says: there may be countless universes, each with its own laws ⚛️, its own birth and death 🌌. Hinduism has been telling a very similar story for thousands of years, wrapped in symbols, poetry, and philosophy 📜.
But now you're thinking: what does this have to do with the origin of why? 🤔
Well, this leads to the next question:
- If Brahmā, Vishnu, Shiva 🕉️ and the cosmic ocean 🌊 all exist - where did they come from?
- Who created them?
- Is there an entity above them? ✨
To find answers to these questions, I started looking back at where it all began - or at least, where it was first written down: the Vedas 📜.
Now, in Rig Veda you'll find the Nasadiya Sukta, also called the Hymn of Creation 🌌.
And this answers our questions - or let me say, it's going to create more questions 🔄.
So let's dive deep into what the oldest book's Hymn of Creation says about the origin of why ❓
The Nasadiya Sukta - The First "Why" 🔮❓
Unlike later scriptures, the Nasadiya Sukta doesn't tell you what to believe. It doesn't hand over fixed answers. Instead, it asks questions with such raw honesty that even today, 3,000 years later, they feel alive, urgent, and modern.
Let's walk through its verses.
Verse 1 🌌
नासदासीन्नो सदासीत्तदानीं
नासीद्रजो नो व्योमा परो यत्।
किमावरीवः कुह कस्य शर्मन्न
अम्भः किमासीद्गहनं गभीरम्॥
"Then, there was neither existence nor non-existence.
There was no air, no sky beyond it.
What covered it? Where? In whose protection?
Was there water, deep and unfathomable?"
The hymn begins by breaking our logic. We usually think in pairs: existence vs. non-existence, light vs. dark, life vs. death. But here, the seer says there was neither. Nothing to hold on to. No sky, no ground, not even space.
This sounds strangely close to what modern physics suggests about the state "before" the Big Bang: even time and space themselves did not exist. Asking "before" the Big Bang is meaningless, because time itself hadn't yet begun.
Verse 2 🕉️
न मृत्युरासीदमृतं न तर्हि
न रात्र्या अह्न आसीत्प्रकेतः।
आनीदवातं स्वधया तदेकं
तस्माद्धान्यन्न परः किंचनास॥
"There was no death then, nor immortality.
No sign of night or day.
That One breathed without breath, by its own power.
Beyond that, nothing else existed."
Now Here appears a mysterious principle: "Tad Ekam" - The One. Not a god in human form, but an unnamed, undefined force or reality that simply was.
This can be seen as the singularity in cosmology - the unified state before the universe expanded. Not material, not immaterial, just a potential.
Even "death" and "immortality" are human categories. Before creation, those words had no meaning.
Verse 3 🌑🔥
तम आसीत्तमसा गूळमग्रे
प्रकेतं सलिलं सर्वमा इदम्।
तुच्छ्येनाभ्वपिहितं यदासी
त्तपसस्तन्महिना जायतेऽकम्॥
"Darkness was hidden by darkness at the beginning.
All this was an unillumined sea.
The void was hidden in emptiness.
By the power of heat, the One arose."
Now, pause for a second. Doesn't that sound strangely familiar?
In the hymn, the word "tapas" is used. It literally means "heat" or "austerity," but here, we can imagine it as a cosmic energy - a raw, infinite potential waiting in silence.
Out of that void, this energy began to stir.
With imbalance, with chaos, something had to give - and in that burst, universes were born.
Science today calls this the Big Bang: an unimaginable explosion of heat and density, from which space, time, and matter unfolded.
💡 In one breath, the sages were describing what modern physics took millennia to catch up with - the idea that everything we see comes from nothing, ignited by energy.
Verse 4 💭🌱
कामस्तदग्रे समवर्तताधि
मनसो रेतः प्रथमं यदासीत्।
सतो बन्धुमसति निरविन्दन्
हृदि प्रतीष्या कवयो मनीषा॥
"Desire came upon that One in the beginning.
It was the first seed of mind.
The sages, searching in their hearts with wisdom,
discovered the bond between being and non-being."
This verse takes things to another level.
Up until now, we were talking about existence and non-existence. But here something new appears - Kāma (Desire).
Before creation, there was no form, no sound, no light.
Then, a spark appeared - not physical, but mental.
That spark was desire. The universe itself, in a way, wanted to exist.
Think of it like this:
Desire → Motion → Creation.
The will to "become" led to movement, and movement unfolded into everything we see.
The Vedic seers saw Kāma as the bridge between nothing and something.
Even today, cosmologists ask the same question: why did the universe not just remain empty? What pushed it into existence?
The hymn gives a poetic answer: it was Kāma - the primal urge, the first intention.
So, according to this vision, the very first act of creation wasn't material at all. It was consciousness stirring with purpose.
🔥 In one line: The universe didn't just happen - it desired to happen.
Verse 5 🌌
तिरश्चीनो विततो रश्मिरेषामधः
स्विदासीदुपरि स्विदासीद्।
रेतोदा आसन्महिमान आसन्
स्वधा अवस्तात् प्रयतिः परस्तात्॥
"Across them stretched the cord of creation.
Was there a below? Was there an above?
There were seed-bearers, mighty forces.
There was self-power below, and impulse above."
This verse imagines creation as if a cosmic thread or cord was stretched out across the emptiness - like weaving or tying the universe together.
It asks: Was there an "above" and a "below"? - suggesting the first sense of direction, order, or structure being formed.
There were forces carrying seeds - meaning sources of life or beginnings of creation.
Beneath was self-power (raw energy), and above was impulse (drive, intention).
So in short Creation wasn't random chaos. It began like a web being stretched, with energy below and purpose above, setting the stage for life to appear.
Verse 6 ✨
को अद्धा वेद क इह प्रवोचत्
कुत आजाता कुत इयं विसृष्टिः।
अर्वाग्देवा अस्य विसर्जनेनाथा
को वेद यत आबभूव॥
"Who truly knows, and who can here declare it?
Whence it was born, whence came this creation?
The gods are later than this world's formation.
Who then knows from where it first arose?"
This verse is strikingly humble.
It says: Nobody really knows the origin of the universe.
Even the gods we worship came after creation, so they can't tell us how it all began.
The question remains: Where did it all come from?
In short: The mystery of the beginning is deeper than even divine knowledge. It reminds us to stay humble in our search for truth.
Verse 7 - The Bold Ending ⚡❓
यो अस्याध्यक्षः परमे व्योमन्त्सो अङ्ग वेद यदि वा न वेद॥
"He, the overseer in the highest heaven - only He knows.
Or perhaps, even He does not know."
This is the most powerful and daring verse of the hymn.
It asks: Was the universe made by a higher being - or did it just happen by itself?
Even if there is a supreme overseer (God, Brahman, or cosmic intelligence) …
The hymn admits: Maybe He knows, or maybe even he doesn't!
And it ends with a stunning paradox. The highest being - the overseer - may know the truth of creation… or perhaps even he does not.
This is the radical courage of the Nasadiya Sukta: the recognition that uncertainty may be the ultimate truth.
The Lesson of Nasadiya Sukta 🕉️🔮
What I like most about the Nasadiya Sukta is its honesty. It doesn't tell you a story to memorize or a belief to follow. Instead, it hands us questions that are timeless, probing, and almost defiant.
The hymn teaches us:
- Uncertainty is natural. Not knowing is not weakness - it's the starting point.
- Questions are sacred. Even before creation, there was a "why." Inquiry itself is essence of existence.
- Creation is intentional yet mysterious. Desire, tapas, and the cosmic impulse set the stage, but the final "answer" remains elusive, leaving room for wonder, imagination, and exploration.
In short, It reminds us that asking why is not only natural but essential to our existence.
Bridging Vishnu and the Nasadiya Question 🌌🙏
Now, let's connect this back to the multiverse story of Vishnu. In the lotus that emerges from Vishnu's navel, countless universes exist. Each universe has its own cycles of birth, preservation, and dissolution. And yet, the Nasadiya Sukta asks: where did even that cosmic breath come from?
Vishnu's imagery gives us symbolic understanding.
The Nasadiya Sukta gives us skeptical probing.
Both exist side by side in Hindu thought. One gives us a vision to hold on to, the other reminds us not to hold too tightly. Together, they show that Hindu philosophy embraces both imagination and inquiry, the mythic and the analytical, the heart and the mind.
So, what's the origin of why? 🤔
The first "why" was born with the universe itself. Or maybe, with the multiverse 🌌.
And the biggest why:
Why did the universe not just remain empty?
The Hymn of Creation doesn't hand us clear answers. Instead, it leaves us with deeper questions:
- What is this mysterious Tad Ekam, the One beyond existence and non-existence?
- Who is the Overseer - the great one watching over creation?
- Does this overseer even know about our existence… or perhaps not?
- What exactly is tapas, the cosmic energy, that gave rise to everything?
The beauty of the Nasadiya Sukta is that it doesn't force a belief on you. It invites you to wonder, to think, to explore. It opens doors rather than closing them.
For me, the takeaway is simple yet profound: the "why" is part of creation itself. From the very first spark of desire, from the cosmic heat, from the breath of Vishnu - questions have always been woven into existence.
And maybe, that's the point. The universe doesn't just exist to give us answers. It exists to make us ask better questions. 🌱✨
I'd love to know what you think. Do you believe the universe has a purpose, or is it all just a beautiful accident? Share your thoughts in the comments.
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Dhaval Agr'vat
Dhaval Agr'vat | Sciencx (2025-08-24T13:02:48+00:00) The Origin of Why 🤔. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/08/24/the-origin-of-why-%f0%9f%a4%94/
Please log in to upload a file.
There are no updates yet.
Click the Upload button above to add an update.