The cold air of the high Himalayas, sharp with the scent of pine and glacial melt, settled around the hermit's cave. This was no ordinary cave, but a sanctuary nestled deep within the foothills, a world away from the clamor of men.
Inside, bathed in the faint, ethereal light filtering from the entrance, sat the venerable sage Vyasa.
He had purified his body in the icy stream, and now, seated upon a kusha grass mat, his mind—calm, disciplined, and utterly tranquil—was plunged into deep meditation. In that state of profound Yoga, the pious soul of Vyasa did not merely think of history; he saw it. He entered the flow of time and space, observing the profound truths of the great history of Bharata (India).
The Unfathomable Beginning
He saw beyond the known world, beyond all light, to the very moment of creation.
In the abyssal void, where existence and non-existence were one, where all was shrouded in eternal, impenetrable darkness, the primordial seed of all life rested. From that boundless gloom, a colossal Cosmic Egg (Brahmānda) was spontaneously manifested. This divine, luminous sphere became the dwelling place of the Sanātana Brahman—the Eternal, Unborn Reality—which resided within as the inner, all-pervading light.
Vyasa understood the essence of the Unmanifest:
"It is the Unseen, the Cause, the Subtle, embodying both the existing (Sat) and the non-existing (Asat)."
This was the ultimate Supreme Being—Brahman: unmanifested, inconceivable, subtly pervading all things equally, yet the very essence from which all matter and spirit spring.
From that self-born Egg, the first forms of creation erupted. First came the primal, body-bearing entities—the progenitors:
- Pitamaha Brahma : (The Grandsire, the Creator)
- Rudra (Shiva)
- Manu
- Prajapati
- Parameshthi
Following them, twenty-one other great Prajapatis (Lords of Creation) were manifested to govern the expanding cosmos. The Rishis knew that all these forms, whether Viśvedevas, Adityas, Vasus, or the Aśvinī Kumāras, were but magnificent manifestations (Vibhūtis) of the ImmeasurableSoul, Puruṣa, whom all sages knew and worshipped. This was the Vishnu-form, the preserver, who would, in ages to come, descend as the Fish (Matsya), the Tortoise (Kūrma), and countless other avatars to sustain the universe.
In the ever-unfolding drama of existence, there arose the hosts of celestial and semi-divinebeings: the Yakṣas and Sādhyas, the dark Piśāchas and the hidden Guhyakas, and theveneratedPitṛs (Ancestors).
From the same limitless Source that gave rise to the great progenitors, flowed all the countless elements of reality
The noble Rājarṣis (RoyalSages), rich with prowess and all sublime virtues, arose in great numbers.
The very spheres of existence took their form: first Water, then the Earth, the Atmosphere, and the Directions themselves.
Then came the precise measures of time that govern the cosmos: the Year (Saṃvatsara), the Seasons (Ṛtu), the Months (Māsa), the twofortnights (Pakṣa) of waxing and waningmoon, the Day, and the Night.
Everything that could be seen or heard by the inhabitants of the worlds, all that moves and all that is stationary—every tree, every stone, every creature—sprang forth from that primeval Cosmic Egg. Creation was now complete, intricate, and perfect.
But perfection was only a stage in the eternal play. Vyasa saw the inevitable conclusion of thisgrandepoch:
"All that is seen—the movable and the immovable—is again gathered up into its own cause when the timeofDissolution (Yugakṣaya) arrives."
Just as the seasons manifest their beautiful signs—the new leaves, the blossoms, the fruits—and then recede and vanish with the change of the Ṛtu; so too, when the Kalpa (anepochoftime) ends, all the worlds and all created things, both seen and unseen, are absorbed back into the original, unmanifestcause.
This process, he realized, was Beginningless and Endless (Anādinidhantam). Like a river, the Wheel of Time turns incessantly through the worlds, creating and destroying creatures in a perpetual, unborn and undying cycle.
As the vision dimmed, the sage saw the assembly of divine beings that manage the vast machinery of existence. He counted the totality of the Gods (Devas), and knew their number precisely:
"Thirty-three thousand, thirty-three hundred, and thirty-three Gods were created, whose purpose is the preservation of the worlds."
They were the mighty spirits, chief among them the Sun, radiant with the light of its own being, whose splendor fills the celestial realm.
With this ultimate vision of the entire universe, from its subtle, eternal core to its grand, repetitive cycles of life and death, the great Sage Vyasa completed his meditative review.
He was now ready. The infinite story of the cosmos had been fully imprinted on his soul, and the time had come to translate this profound truth into the words that would become the Mahābhārata.
Vyasa watched as the entire panorama of cosmic and human history—the wars, the philosophies, the triumphs, and the spiritual yearning—unfolded before his inner eye.
He saw that this knowledge, this history (Itihāsa), was destined to become a great source of wisdom established across all three worlds. It was to be held by the learned, passed down through generations of scholars, and rendered in both brief summaries and expansive detail.
He vowed that his work would be adorned with auspicious and delightful language, a tapestry woven with divine and human narratives, structured by varied poetic meters like Anuṣṭup and Indravajrā, making it a treasure beloved by the wise.
The sage, his concentration absolute, began the divine task. The profound vision became the word.