That germ primeval did the waters cherish,
Wherein the gods together all assembled,
The One that in the goat’s[1] source is established,
Within which all the worlds are comprehended.
Ye cannot find him who these worlds created:
That which comes nearer to you is another.
In a cosmogonic poem (x. 121) of considerable beauty the creator further appears under the name of Hiraṇyagarbha, “germ of gold,” a notion doubtless suggested by the rising sun. Here, too, the waters are, in producing Agni, regarded as bearing the germ of all life.
The Germ of Gold at first came into being,
Produced as the one lord of all existence.
The earth he has supported and this heaven: