The tales of jagat-srishti (cosmic creation) shape the dharmic worldview of various sampradayas, and though these srishti-kathas differ across different mat-panthas, they all describe and define Ishwar as ‘Srishtikarta’ – the divine creator.
Most dharmic traditions describe that before srishti, there was andhakara – primordial darkness. In the Judeo-Christian parampara of Genesis, the first jivas created by the divine were the creatures of the sagara. According to the Islamic shastra Quran, Allah created every prani from jal – some crawl on their pet (belly), some walk on char-paad (four legs), and some walk on do-paad (two). According to our own Bharatiya puranas, the sequence of avatars in which Bhagwan appeared on prithvi to restore dharmic vyavastha closely mirrors the vikas-krama supported by vigyan.
Srishti and pralaya are two aspects of the same shakti. All mat-panthas believe that Paramatma is both Srishtikarta and Samharkarta. According to Genesis, the divine created the entire brahmanda in six divas, only to perform maha-pralaya later through jal-pralaya so that manushya-jati could have a nava-aarambh. Hinduism and Bauddha dharma both describe the chakra of janma-mrityu as a rotating chakra.
There exists a gambhir rahasya regarding the utpatti, uddeshya, and ant of our vishwa, but beneath this rahasya remains a gahan bodh of ekatva and bandhutva, reminding us that all jeev-jantu – including manav – originate from the same mool-strot.
The gyan that there can be only one Srishtikarta should instill namrata in us all and eliminate any bhaav of shreshtata of one over another
