What came first, the chicken or the egg? Can an egg ‘come’ for it has no legs! But one can expand imagination to think there is a squirrel like form causing circular running within to cause an egg to roll and come first. But come from where? One can say ‘someone’ invented the egg first and put a chicken inside, then sat on it and hatched. Taking the jovial side of life, can the egg ‘cum’ by itself as it has no penis? So that takes you to Darwin or the theory of organs and stretching that, you may ponder the Linga-Yoni. In all, it has been perfect and balanced so far like the self-fertilizing Yin and Yang egg.
The egg must have come from the Universe, or is it the other way around for the Universe to be the creation of a Cosmic Egg? Pralaya, in Hindu cosmology, is an aeonic term for Dissolution. The Matsya Purana stated that after Mahapralaya, the great dissolution of the Universe, there was darkness everywhere. Everything was in a state of sleep. There was nothing, either moving or static. Then Svayambhu, Self-manifested Being arose, which is a form beyond senses. It created the primordial waters first and established the seed of creation into it.
The Hiranyagarbha Sukta from Rig Veda 10.121 states that the seed turned into a Golden Womb, into which Svayambhu entered into the egg. According to Manu, Hiranyagarbha was Brahma, the first male, formed by the indiscernible eternal First Cause in a golden egg resplendent as the sun. "Having continued a year in the egg, Brahma divided it into two parts by his mere thought, and with these two shells he formed the heavens and the earth; and in the middle he placed the sky, the eight regions, and the eternal abode of the waters."
While Iswara is the causative principle -karanabhutam, Hiranyagarbha is the dynamic or the active principle - karyabhutam. He is also called Brahma who as the creative and dynamic principle uses the forms existing in Him and brings forth the Beings.
The word 'brah' means “bursting out or bringing forth” and 'ahm' means ego. Brahma is therefore he who brings forth many 'ahms' or egos or beings into this world using his divine power and matter and pouring life breath into them. Hiranyagarbha is not an eternal being, but comes into existence at the beginning of creation and becomes dissolved in Iswara at the end of creation.
The Cosmic Egg, as prana-producing entity, is the absolute symbol that describes the concept of the co-existence of the dual forces of Prakriti and Purusha. Thus Ardhanarishvara form represents the biological unity of the outward duality, which the human mind has perceived in all things and in the entire creative process. Together, Shakti and Shiva blend as One as they go about the functions of creation, protection, sustenance and destruction of the material world.
One need not pay much attention to puns that Hindu cosmic eggs are intelligently designed to spawn penises in a million years. We will just accept the pun to be Lingas and there you have the Hiranyagarbha which came first, which stretching will lead to the philosophy of the Yin and Yang of Ardhanasirshwara!
Hara Hara Mahadeva
by Yogi Ananda Saraswathi