Hiranyagarbha, the Golden Womb, Universal Germ

Our similarities as creatures of a divine creator who imbued us with the Holy Spirit that moves our better parts and makes us the envy of all the immortals, being part divine but also tasting and fearing death and therefore cherishing life all that much more, transcend all cultures. Below some Indian philosophy and food for thought:

(Courtesy: Wikipedia)

Hiranyagarbha, literally the 'golden womb' or 'golden egg', poetically rendered 'universal germ' is the source of the creation of the Universe or the manifested cosmos in Indian philosophy

The Hiranyagarbha Sukta of the Rig Veda declares that God manifested Himself in the beginning as the Creator of the Universe, encompassing all things, including everything within Himself, the collective totality, as it were, of the whole of creation, animating it as the Supreme Intelligence.

Below is the English translation of the Sanskrit verse:

Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?
It is He who bestows soul-force and vigor, whose guidance all men invoke, the Devas invokes whose shadow is immortal life and death.

Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?
It is He who by His greatness became the One King of the breathing and the seeing, who is the Lord of man and bird and beast.

Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?
It is He through whose glory the snow-clad mountains rose, and the ocean spread with the river, they say. His arms are the quarters of the sky.

Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?
It is He through whom the heaven is strong and the earth firm, who has steadied the light and the sky's vault, and measured out the sphere of clouds in the mid-region.

Who is the deity we shall worship with our offering?
It is He to whom heaven and earth, placed in the light by his grace, look up, radiant with the mind while over them the sun, rising, brightly shines.

Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?
When the mighty waters came, carrying the universal germ, producing the flame of life, then dwelt there in harmony the One Spirit of the Devas.

Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?
It is He who in his might surveyed the waters, conferring skill and creating worship - He, the God of gods, the One and only One.

Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?
Father of the world - may He not destroy us who with Truth as his Law made the heavens and produced waters, vast and beautiful.

Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?
Lord of creation! No one other than thee pervades all these that have come into being. May that be ours, for which our prayers rise, may we be masters of many treasures!

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