The Golden Womb / Cosmic Egg (Hiraṇyagarbha & Brahmāṇḍa)
A golden seed upon the primal waters from which all worlds are born — the universe as a cosmic egg.
Vedic cosmogony pictures the origin of the world as a 'golden womb' or golden embryo, Hiraṇyagarbha — the luminous seed that arises first upon the cosmic waters and from which all things are born. A kindred image is the cosmic egg (brahmāṇḍa, 'the egg of Brahmā') that divides to become heaven and earth. In later Vedānta the term takes on a more philosophical sense: Hiraṇyagarbha becomes the cosmic mind or world-soul, the first and subtlest stage in which the one reality begins to manifest as an ordered universe.
Key passages(14)
He , the creator and supporter of the gods, Rudra, the great seer, the lord of all, he who formerly gave birth to Hiranyagarbha, may he endow us with good thoughts.
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He, the creator and supporter of the gods, Rudra, the great seer, the lord of all, who saw , Hiranyagarbha being born, may he endow us with good thoughts.
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Âditya (the sun) is Brahman, this is the doctrine, and this is the fuller account of it:— In the beginning this was non-existent. It became existent, it grew. It turned into an egg . The egg lay for t
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Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)
Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)
Verily Day arose after the horse as the (golden) vessel , called Mahiman (greatness), which (at the sacrifice) is placed before the horse. Its place is in the Eastern sea. The Night arose after the ho
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Again, he who meditates with this syllable AUM of three Mâtrâs, on the Highest Person, he comes to light and to the sun. And as a snake is freed from its skin, so is he freed from evil. He is led up b
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My womb is the great Prakriti; in that I place the germ; from thence, O descendant of Bharata, is the birth of all beings.
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They who know (the true measure of) day and night, know the day of Brahmâ, which ends in a thousand Yugas, and the night which (also) ends in a thousand Yugas.
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(He who knows) Aditi also, who is one with all deities, who arises with Prâna (breath or Hiranyagarbha), who, entering into the heart, abides therein, and was born from the elements. This is that.
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