Introduction

My name is Trace Youngman, and this Storybook is for Indian Epics at the University of Oklahoma. The name of the Storybook is Creationism Stories based off the Indian stories telling about how the Universe was made billions of years ago. There are a lot of Indian stories relating to the creation of the Universe, but I am choosing to write about the creation story that the Universe developed from a cosmic being named Purusha. Purusha is everything and will be everything that will ever exist. The being brought life to the Universe in the form of a golden egg. The first story will delve into the meaning and significance of the golden egg. According to the Hindu religion, Purusha's being now resides in everyone and everything on this earth. There is no distinct timeline for when this began, but different Hindu stories based on this creation story say that it may have been trillions of years ago.

Cycles are important in the Hindu religion. From time periods that end and immediately begin again, to Purusha forming and destroying life over and over again until the end of time, cycles are important themes. For this reason, the storybook is cyclic. Hopefully the beginning and end will follow perfectly into one another making it feel like the end of the storybook is the beginning as well. The end of my creation stories will feature a cyclical way of telling time called Hindu Eschatology. In Hindu Eschatology, time is split up into an 8 billion year cycle that continues in cyclically with no definitive end or beginning. Each 8 billion year time cycle is called a kalpa. Within each kalpa there are four time periods called yugas which last different amounts of time depending on the individual yuga. For example, we are living in the Kali Yuga time period right now which is the end of the four cycles in each Kalpa. In the middle of my creation stories, I will talk about the important events in the Hindu religion. One of them is called Samudra manthan. Samudra manthan is a story of Gods and Demons fighting over the Nectar of Immortality. The Demons gained control of the universe in a fight with the Gods, and to get control of the universe back, the Gods used a mountain to churn the ocean to draw up the Nectar of Immortality. Now I will tell you the story of Purusha, the cosmic being that brought about life to this universe in the form of a Golden Egg.