Hiranyagarbha (, , poetically translated as 'universal womb') is the source of the creation of the universe or the manifested cosmos in Vedic philosophy. It finds mention in one hymn of the Rigveda (RV 10.121), known as the Hiraá¹Âyagarbha Sà «kta, suggesting a single creator deity (verse 8: ', Griffith: "He is the God of gods, and none beside him."), identified in the hymn as PrajÃÂpati. The concept of the "golden womb" is first mentioned in the Vishvakarma Sà «kta (RV 10.82.5,6) which picturized the "primeval womb" as being rested set upon the navel of Vishvakarman. This imagery was later transferred to Vishnu and Surya.
The Upanishad calls it the Soul of the Universe or Brahman, and elaborates that Hiraá¹Âyagarbha floated around in emptiness and the darkness of the non-existence for about a year, and then broke into two halves which formed the Svarga and the Pá¹Âthvi.
In classical PurÃÂá¹Âic Hinduism, Hiraá¹Âyagarbha is the term used in the Vedanta for the "creator". Hiraá¹Âyagarbha is also BrahmÃÂ, so called because it is said he was born in a golden egg (Manu Smá¹Âti 1.9), while the MahÃÂbhÃÂrata calls it the Manifest.
Some classical yoga traditions consider a person named Hiraá¹Âyagarbha as the originator of yoga, though this may also be a name for Sage Kapila.
The Matsya PurÃÂá¹Âa (2.25âÂÂ30) gives an account of initial creation. After MahÃÂprÃÂlaya, 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 seed turned into a golden womb, Hiraá¹Âyagarbha. Then Svayambhu entered into that egg.
The NÃÂrÃÂyaá¹Âa Sà «kta exclaims that everything that is, visible or invisible, all this is pervaded by NÃÂrÃÂyaá¹Âa within and without.
The êà Âvara Upaniá¹£ad says that the universe is pervaded by êà Âvara (God), who is both within and without it. He is the moving and the unmoving, He is far and near, He is within all these and without all these.
The VedÃÂnta Sà «tra further states that Brahman is That from Whom this Universe proceeds, in Whom it subsists, and to Whom, in the end, it returns.
The Saá¹Âkhya school holds that there are only two primary principles, Puruá¹£a and PrÃÂká¹Âti, and creation is only a manifestation or evolution of the constituents of PrÃÂká¹Âti due to the action of Puruá¹£a's Consciousness.
The Bhagavata states that NÃÂrÃÂyaá¹Âa alone was in the beginning, who was the pious of principles of creation, sustenance, and dissolution (also known as the Hindu Trinity of BrahmÃÂ, Viá¹£á¹Âu and Shiva) - the Supreme god, multi-headed, multi-eyed, multi-footed, multi-armed, multi-limbed. This was the Supreme Seed of all creation, subtler than the subtlest, greater than the greatest, larger than the largest, and more magnificent than even the best of all things, more powerful, than even the wind and all the gods, more resplendent than the Sun and the Moon, and more internal than even the mind and the intellect. He is the Creator, the Supreme. The term can also mean as He who, having become first the Creator, has come to be considered as the womb of all objects.
The Hiraá¹Âyagarbha Sà «kta of the Rigveda declares that God manifested Himself in the beginning as the Creator of the Universe, encompassing all things, including everything within Himself, the collective totality, as it were, of the whole of creation, animating it as the Supreme Intelligence. In the Rigveda (RV 10.121) it is also mentioned that at the creation of the world the cosmic egg was separated in to two halves, one part became the sky and the other the sun.