In the beginning there was nothing. There was no sun, no moon, no stars. Only the waters stretched endlessly; from the darkness of the primordial chaos, which rested without movement, as if in a deep sleep, the waters arose before any other creation. The waters gave birth to fire. The Golden Egg was born within them by the great power of heat. There was not yet a year then, for there was no one to measure time; but for as long as a year lasts, the Golden Egg floated in the waters, in the boundless and bottomless ocean. A year later, Progenitor Brahma emerged from the Golden Embryo. He broke the Egg and it split in two. The upper half of it became Heaven, the lower half became Earth, and between them, in order to separate them, Brahma placed airspace. And he established the earth among the waters, and created the countries of the world, and laid the foundation for time. This is how the universe was created.
But then the creator looked around and saw that there was no one but him in the entire universe; and he became scared. Since then, fear comes to anyone who is left alone. But he thought: “After all, there is no one here but me. Who should I be afraid of? And his fear passed away; for the fear may be of someone else. But he did not know joy either; and therefore the one who is alone does not know joy.
He thought: “How can I create offspring?” And by the power of his thoughts he gave birth to six sons, six great Lords of creatures. The eldest of them was Marichi, born from the soul of the creator; from his eyes the second son was born - Atri; the third - Angiras - appeared from the mouth of Brahma; fourth - Nulastya - from the right ear; fifth - Pulakha - from the left ear; Kratu, the sixth, is from the nostrils of the Progenitor. The son of Marichi was the wise Kashyapa, from whom came gods, demons and people, birds and snakes, giants and monsters, priests and cows and many other creatures of divine or demonic nature who inhabited the heavens, the earth, and the underworlds. Atri, the second of Brahma's sons, gave birth to Dharma, who became the god of justice; Angiras, the third son, laid the foundation for the line of holy sages Angiras, the eldest of whom were Brihaspati, Utathya and Samvarta.
The seventh son of Brahma, the seventh of the Lords of creation, was Daksha. It came out of the big toe on the Progenitor's right foot. From the toe of Brahma's left foot a daughter was born; her name is Virini, which means Night; she became Daksha's wife. She had fifty daughters, and Daksha gave thirteen of them as wives to Kashyapa, twenty-seven to Soma, the moon god - these became twenty-seven constellations in the sky; Daksha's ten daughters became Dharma's wives. And more daughters were born to Daksha, who were destined to become the wives of gods and great sages.
The eldest of Daksha's daughters, Diti, the wife of Kashyapa, was the mother of formidable demons - daityas; Dana, the second daughter, gave birth to powerful giants - the Danavas. The third, Aditi, gave birth to twelve bright sons - Adityas, great gods. Varuna, the god of the ocean, Indra, the god of thunder and thunder, Vivasvat, the god of the sun, who is also called Surya, were the most powerful of them; but the youngest of Aditi’s sons, Vishnu, the guardian of the universe, the lord of space, surpassed everyone in glory.
Since ancient times, the sons of Diti and Danu - they are usually called asuras - were the enemies of the gods, the sons of Aditi. And the struggle between the asuras and gods for power over the universe lasted for many centuries, and there was no end to their enmity.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru