Theos-Talk Archives (December 2002 Message tt00743)

FOR YOUR COMPARISON BELOW ARE BOTH PROF. R. PANIKKAR'S AND HPB'S 
PUBLISHED VERSES FROM THE RIG VEDIC HYMN THE NASADIYA SUKTA. 



Prof. R. Panikkar's Version

NASADIYA SUKTA - RigVeda 


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At first was neither Being nor Nonbeing.
There was not air nor yet sky beyond.
What was wrapping? Where? In whose protection?
Was Water there, unfathomable deep? 
There was no death then, nor yet deathlessness;
of night or day there was not any sign.
The One breathed without breath by its own impulse.
Other than that was nothing at all. 

Darkness was there, all wrapped around by darkness,
and all was Water indiscriminate, Then
that which was hidden by Void, that One, emerging,
stirring, through power of Ardor, came to be. 

In the beginning Love arose,
which was primal germ cell of mind.
The Seers, searching in their hearts with wisdom,
discovered the connection of Being in Nonbeing. 

A crosswise line cut Being from Nonbeing.
What was described above it, what below?
Bearers of seed there were and mighty forces,
thrust from below and forward move above. 

Who really knows? Who can presume to tell it?
Whence was it born? Whence issued this creation?
Even the Gods came after its emergence.
Then who can tell from whence it came to be? 

That out of which creation has arisen,
whether it held it firm or it did not,
He who surveys it in the highest heaven,
He surely knows - or maybe He does not! 

-Translation by Prof. Raimundo Panikkar (Ref. 3, pp 58) 
Prof. Raimundo Panikkar, "The Vedic Experience- Mantra-manjari" Pub. 
by Motilal Banarasidas 

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HPB's version in THE SECRET DOCTRINE.



The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1 
Theosophical University Press Online Edition 

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[[Vol. 1, Page 25]]
PART I.
COSMIC EVOLUTION.
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SEVEN STANZAS TRANSLATED WITH COMMENTARIES
FROM THE
SECRET BOOK OF DZYAN.

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[[Vol. 1, Page 26]]
Nor Aught nor Nought existed; yon bright sky
Was not, nor heaven's broad roof outstretched above.
What covered all? what sheltered? what concealed?
Was it the water's fathomless abyss?
There was not death -- yet there was nought immortal,
There was no confine betwixt day and night;
The only One breathed breathless by itself,
Other than It there nothing since has been.
Darkness there was, and all at first was veiled
In gloom profound -- an ocean without light --
The germ that still lay covered in the husk
Burst forth, one nature, from the fervent heat. 

. . . . . . . . 

Who knows the secret? who proclaimed it here?
Whence, whence this manifold creation sprang?
The Gods themselves came later into being --
Who knows from whence this great creation sprang?
That, whence all this great creation came,
Whether Its will created or was mute,
The Most High Seer that is in highest heaven,
He knows it -- or perchance even He knows not." 

"Gazing into eternity . . .
Ere the foundations of the earth were laid, 

. . . . . 

Thou wert. And when the subterranean flame
Shall burst its prison and devour the frame . . .
Thou shalt be still as Thou wert before
And knew no change, when time shall be no more.
Oh! endless thought, divine ETERNITY." 


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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 27 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
COSMIC EVOLUTION.
In Seven Stanzas translated from the Book of Dzyan. 

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STANZA I.