One of the most popular Hindu creation myths from the Rig Veda talks about Purusha, the one beyond all as the creator of all the elements that constitute the earth and the universe. The word Purusha in the Sanskrit language means cosmic man. This creation myth portrays Purusha as a part of all aspects of earth.
According to Hindu mythology Purusha was sacrificed to create the world. His body formed the castes of the Hindu society, his mouth being the highest caste, that of the Brahmanas who were the priests and the leaders. His arms became the second highest caste, of the Kshatriyas who were known to be the warriors. His thighs were next forming an even lower caste comprising of the Vaishyas who were the prostitutes, the farmers and merchants. Finally the lowest caste was that of the Shudras which was created from Purushas feet and was meant to serve all higher castes.
Purusha's body went on to form the rest of the known Universe in Hindu mythology. His mind became the moon, his eye became the sun, his mouth was the fire gods Indra and Agni, his breath was the wind, his head was Heaven, his feet the earth, and his navel the atmosphere.
If I were one amongst the people created a during this era, when people relied on stories passed on over generations as the truth about creation and life, I would believe the existence of a certain powerful figure called God and that all life, the earth, the sky and the waters was his creation. In the story above this powerful figure was in the form of Purusha. The Hindu mythology is a vast collection of interconnected stories that manages to explain most theories of life if only one has faith in magical powers possessed by most characters who constitute these stories. If one believes in the existence of any kind of magical powers, it is no doubt that the Hindu mythology has been written with great care to answer most questions of life, devoid of any loop holes. In such a case it seems to the common man a much easier path to depend on God, a powerful being to help solve their problems.
Another great cause of this blind faith was the distinction in caste that made the masses believe that certain people were more learned, powerful and closer to God than others. This distinction often led to the words spoken by the so called higher beings to be taken as the gospel truth by the rest. To me this seems like a vicious cycle where the creation myths caused the castes and the existence of the castes caused people to believe in certain creation myths. It was back then that people were satisfied by these stories as answers to how the world was created. They believed what they saw such as the sun and the rain giving life to everything on earth and what they did not see was taken to be a chamatkar (miracle) which was believed to be the doing of the mighty powers that controlled the earth.
In today’s world where science has a huge impact on the people’s lives and in a society where one can find enough people who do not believe in the existence of some mighty power called God, it is difficult to fall back on these creation myths for answers. Science has come with its own answers about the creation of the earth, the sky, waters and human beings and has challenged us to think beyond these mythological stories passed on to us over thousands of years. Science gives reasons and proofs and today people only believe what they see. Miracles are rare and in fact everything that is considered to be a miracle is backed up with scientific proof.
Today there is also something between believing blindly and not believing at all which is the process of reasoning and finding a proof which is what science constitutes of and is a major cause of the turnaround of belief systems.
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