Creative Response To The Hindu Creation Myth

Genesis and “The World on the Turtle’s Back”, two folklore myths, illustrate the contrasting universal archetypes of one supreme being and multiple god figures. Genesis depicts one male supreme being who created the entire universe, while “The World on the Turtle’s Back” shows numerous gods who created different things within the universe. God, from Genesis, created everything that exists; “the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1.1), day and night, and “every living creature that moveth” (Genesis 1:21). God made the Sun and the Moon (Genesis 1:16), and he made “man in his own image” (Genesis 1:27). He made “every herb-bearing seed” (Genesis 1:29), and the rain that waters them (Genesis 2:5). All of life and nature and creation was crafted by God. In contrast,

created the heavens and the earth.” This means there was nothing to this world until He created

“Creation Myth” is a Lakota Sioux legend that depicts the creation of the Earth, per this tribe’s tradition. The world, as it is known today, was not the Creating Power’s first creation: “There was another world before this one”. The Creating Power had created a world before but was displeased with how the people behaved so he sang songs to the rain that caused it to pour so hard that the earth split apart and water filled the surface, drowning almost every creature; only Kangi the crow survived. Creation began when, after Kangi pleaded for a place to rest, the Creation Power gave four animals, that he selected from his pipe bag, a task: “He sent each in turn to retrieve a lump of mud from beneath the flood waters.” The loon, the otter, and the beaver failed; but the turtle, who spent a long time underwater, succeeded in collecting the mud. The Creating Power modeled the mud while laying it out in the water, and then, with two eagle feathers, he spread it out so it would cover the water’s surface; like this, he created the Earth. Filled with sadness after seeing the dry land, he created lakes, oceans and streams by crying. At last, he created men by using black, white, yellow and red earth. He gave men his pipe and told them to live by it and warned them of the consequences if they strayed from honorable behavior: “But the world would be destroyed again if they made it bad and ugly.”

We now see these theories as inaccurate, due to the fact that they have been replaced by newer scientific models. In a modern light, it can be stated that creation myths describe not the origin of our cosmos but rather these myths allow us to gain a broader understanding of ancient theories and beliefs. During the time of their invention however, these myths were precisely an honest interpretation of the outer world, and therefore they served the exact purpose which is stated in their title, to explain the process of creation.

The Lord God created man in his own image. He used the dust from the ground and molded it to create the first ever human, Adam. The

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. …the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” In the Christian faith the world was created by God in the sequence of seven days. Throughout those days he made light and darkness, water and sky; he made the animals of the water and the animals

We all know that our mothers and fathers gave us birth, and grandmothers and grandfathers gave our parents birth. However, what about the beginning? What does the beginning look like? Who created the sky, the earth, the mountains and rivers, the plants, the animals, and the human beings? How was the world created? What happened to the creator? These questions have puzzled and are asked by every people. However, no one has yet found the answers, and I have heard people saying that the creation of life is as impossible as the natural creation of an airplane from a stack of waste. With the willingness of knowing the self, ancient people tried to create mythological stories

There are many motifs in mythology. A motif is a repeating idea. Learning these myths are challenging, but they explain so much about how the Earth, time, and humans were created. Explaining the myths, or even the motifs, could be hard considering there are many different ideas on why and how the motifs are included. Three motifs caught my attention, which were the destruction from gods, humans created from organic materials, and family trees, and I am here to explain them.

Many years ago, the Gods of the heavens came together for an important meeting. They came together for the creation of the earth. It was exactly what they wanted. It was full of land with many trees and flowers. They made several creatures, starting with the biggest elephants and then going to the smallest frogs.

There was only water and bare, empty land. In the center of this nothingness was a great mountain. This mountain stood tall and proud and it reached all the way into the heavens. At the very top of this mountain lived a pair of every kind of animal. In the center of this heaven grew a tree. This tree was not just any tree, it was the sacred tree of life, and it was not to be harmed in any way.

One of the fundamental questions that religions seek to answer is that of origin. How was man put on earth? Why and from what was he created? Who created him? What does his creation imply about the status of human beings? Some or all of these questions are answered by a religion’s creation stories. Every religion’s creation myths attempt to give solutions to problems present to that religious society. Because of this, each religion may have one or more creation stories, each of those different from one another in the questions they ask and the answers they give.

Who made who? Did God create humans or did humans create god? At first thought one

A creation story is a supernatural story or explanation that describes the beginnings of humanity, earth, life, and the universe. Religion plays a significant role in the establishment of Creation for both the Native Americans and the Puritans. “The people known collectively as the Iroquois were made up of the Mohawk, Seneca, Oneida, Onondaga, and Cayuga nations.” (Cusick 21) “The Iroquois creation myth exists in some twenty-five versions.” (Cusick 22). However, there was no concrete indication from a Native American that coincides with the Iroquois’s belief as of how and when the creation of the world began until David Cusick, transcribed and translated an Iroquois cosmogonic myth in the nineteenth century. David Cusick became the first Native American to record on Atotarho. Grounded in nature the Iroquois religion portrays the natural foundations of the world and continue to believe that all things/people should live in harmony. The Iroquois believes that The Great Spirit would indirectly guide the lives of ordinary people and opposed that The Great Spirit and other forces of good were Evil Spirit and other lesser spirits responsible for disease and other misfortune. Corn, beans, and squash were referred to as the three sisters and thought of as deities or spiritual beings. The Iroquois believed that ordinary humans could not communicate directly with Great Spirit but could do so indirectly by burning tobacco, which carried their prayers to the lesser spirits

Throughout the Hindu myth Brahmanas, the idea of birth and creation is heavily emphasized as the beginning of the universe and time. An egg was produced from devotions and the god Prajapati came about. His existence and first speech revealed several words. The events of time were recorded in human activities and considered sacred. In the myth, it was mentioned that at the end of his year, Prajapati rose to stand on his words. This act symbolized the act of a child standing up at the end of the year. As a desire of offspring, Prajapati created the gods as he had the “power of reproduction into his own self” (185).He went on to create the daylight and other creatures.

The word of God brought everything into being: heaven, earth, mountains, rivers, and every living thing. In the beginning, God called into existence the heaven and earth. Within six days and he shaped a world of order and beauty.