Scepticism in Ancient Vedic Literature

May 15, 2004, 12.00am IST
Kailash Vajpeyi.

The paradox of our existence is that we live and yet constantly keep questioning, why? Perhaps we suffer from an eternal anguish or divine discontent. We want to believe in the existence of a higher agency but at the same time refuse to accept it.


We take pride in our scepticism. Scepticism is a philosophical conception. Consistent scepticism is close to agnosticism. As doctrine we find the resonance of scepticism even in Vedic literature. In Greece it emerged as a reaction to the preceding philosophical systems which had tried to explain the sensual world by means of contemplative arguments and in so doing had often displayed inherent contradictions.


There are a number of texts and hymns in Vedic literature which describe the mystery of the universe. The supreme divine produces everything that is within. Modern research has proved that we all have a complex system of 100 or more internal clocks. Everything from our heartbeat and body temperature to reaction time and memory is connected to that internal clock.


Almost all thought systems have agreed that ‘belief’ per se is the promise around which all existence revolves but questions regarding the existence of God always end in doubt. I have tried to transcreate the Nasdiya Sukta of the tenth canto of the Rigveda:


“In the beginning when/ There was no before/ There was neither being nor Nonbeing/ Neither space nor time/ Not even the sky beyond/ Neither death nor Non-death/ No distinction/ Between night and day/ No protection by anyone/ Only shadows/ In the absolute dark/ Were concealed by shadows/ In the ocean of nothingness/ That one arose through the power of heat/ By its own propulsion/ The nameless one, enwrapped in the void/ Breathed./ And then there was/ The Big Bang.

“Primordial sound in space/ Reverberated for how long/ No one knows/ Speech does not know/ Who inspires speech?/ The broken silence had/ Soothing impact/ Slowly and slowly/ It all cooled down/ Galaxies were formed/ In the dark recesses/ A milky way crowned by/ Suns and the moons/ Millions of stars appeared/ And amidst this ordered chaos/ There floated into being/ A tiny planet — our earth.

“The cosmic forces formed/ Cyclical patterns/ Air, water and biospheres/ Gave off heat and fumes/ Life drew its components/ From these elements/ Galactic to subatomic/ Order replicated itself./ Life appeared on earth/ Gover-ned by one grand principle/ Which embraces/ Every living being./ Insects, plants, animals/ And of course Man/ Very terse poem/ Written by the genes./ As a living organism/ The universe came into existence.


“From blazing Ardor/ Cosmic order came riddled with/ Light and Rta, the rhythm of order./ From thence was born obscure light/ And the ocean with its billowing waves/ In the river of life/ Everything is attuned to everything./ Each part inheres the whole/ And the whole embraces the parts./ All are connected in a very subtle way/ All are a part, none is apart...


“From oceans were born seasons.../ Patterns emerged ..../ The same life force/ Pulsated in butterflies/ Circles within circles swirled/ And blew apart.


“Rivers flowed into oceans/ And oceans misted into skies/ The skies reached down/ To touch the earth/ And eternity could be glimpsed/ In a grain of sand/ The universe danced/ In the ‘artifice of eternity’/ And nobody can know/ The dancer from the dance/ For all is governed by Rta/ the rhythms of order.