Hiranyagarbha
Hiranyagarbha ( Sanskrit हिरण्यगर्भ , Hiraṇyagarbha golden egg, golden womb ) is a creator deity in the cosmogony of Hinduism .
In the Rigveda , Hiranyagarbha is venerated as the otherwise unknown creator of heaven, earth and gods, in a later added stanza he is equated with the creator god Prajapati . In the Atharvaveda , Hiranyagarbha is a germ that arises in the primordial ocean and is surrounded by a golden shell.
An abundance of specifications has been made in the various stages and forms of Hinduism. In Indian philosophy , which is shaped by Samkhya , the golden egg is the product of the interaction of the spiritual principle Purusha with the material principle Prakriti . In the Upanishads it is reinterpreted as the macrocosmic equivalent of the human soul to the soul of Brahman , the actual creator of the world. In the Puranas it appears as a name of the Brahman, since this originated from a golden egg, or rather as the cosmic egg from whose water the primeval ocean is formed. In Shivaism , Hiranyagarbha is considered to be an aspect of the god Shiva , who causes the world to arise through the whirling of the ocean of milk .
literature
- Constance Jones, James D. Ryan: Encyclopedia of Hinduism . Infobase Publishing, New York 2006. ISBN 0816075646 , p. 188.
- Volker Moeller: Hiraṇyagarbha . In: Hans Wilhelm Haussig , Heinz Bechert (Ed.): Gods and Myths of the Indian Subcontinent (= Dictionary of Mythology . Department 1: The ancient civilized peoples. Volume 5). Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-12-909850-X , p. 84.
- Carl Anders Scharbau: The idea of creation in Vedic literature. A study of the history of religion on early Indian theism . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1932, pp. 128-134.