50) Exploring bible – Decoding Genesis

With the success of the article on 49) Exploring Bible – Decoding Solomon, I am thrilled to go back to the chapter-1 of book of genesis – the very first canto of Bible, and decode some of the mysteries involved therein. Proper intuition and a good grasp of the keys explored in this blog should form necessary instruments in helping us understand the cryptic statements of Bible. Yesterday, as I was just reading the book of Genesis, line by line, I could continuously and consciously unveil the hidden meaning, as an underlying thought current. I can not explain how, but that’s how I was inspired for today’s article. 

Without further delay, let us go into the utterances of Genesis . You can find the original lines in the following link: https://www.bible.com/bible/1/GEN.1.KJV

Genesis:

Genesis means “that which relates to birth of something“. The book of genesis, then, implies a treatise on creation of creation. This book like any other scripture on creation starts with “In the beginning …” which itself is a key line that suggests us to go back to the roots when ALL IS ONE. From there, the first chapter describes the creation in 6 days and it says that on 7th day, God took rest (the correct and real interpretations can be seen below). This is the scheme of 1st chapter of Genesis.

Number 7:

So, in all its totality, the process of “something” coming from an “apparent nothing” is explained as the “theory of 7-day creation“. 7 is God’s number for this reason and 7 is indeed always reverberated in scriptures relating to creational aspects:

• In Bible – it is 7 days creation (stages).
• In Vedās it is 7 planes of creation (vyāhritīs).
• That is the reason why in Nāsadīya Sūkta – the hymn of creation, in Rig veda, has exactly 7 stanzas – no more or no less.
• The 7th stanza of Purusha sukta speaks about 7 layers (steps or stages) a 3×7 fuel sticks (or bricks of creation).
• This is why Blavatsky, in her secret doctrine speaks of 7 root-races and 7×7 each sub root races.
• The story of SUN god being shaved his head except for 7 tufts of hair, in purāṇa, also suggests the descent of Solar consciousness in 7 stages.
• It is on parallel lines to 7 days of creation that the whole year is divided into basic unit-weeks of 7 days. 

So, whenever a creation aspect is to be suggested, scriptures bring in the NUMBER-7. 

7-Days or 7-Stages?:

Many have a problem with the word “Day” in bible. They seem to feel ultra-intellectual and ask a redundant question – “If there was no sun or moon until 4th day of creation, how did GOD count the days of creation until then?“. By asking this they seem to self pat and be happy to have bullied a theist. But in truth, they were self deceived. The moment they put a question, to not ask but to bully, they lost the dignity of respecting others. It is to protect true wisdom from these people, until they evolve over lifetimes in their perception, that such cryptic and seemingly illogical wordings are used in scriptures.

Imagine yourself and a mosquito. By the time you go to office and come back, for a mosquito it must have been few days (in its perception). So, perception of time by mosquito is different from that of us. What we call day is many days for it. Now, let us consider the aspect of “creation”. The creation, as it unfolds, occurs in vast sweeps of TIME, which vēdās call YUGĀS or eons of time (in our perception). But for creation itself, it is very very small. To suggest this difference in perception of time, bible says that creation occurs in 7 days. The day there, is not a solar day but the “duration or sweep of time” for creation to undergo the transformation pertaining to n-th day of creation (as in 1st day or 2nd day). So,it is easy if you replace the “day” with “stage” when you read. That does not mean “DAY” is wrong. It only shows our lost ability to read scriptures and hence these small mental replacements are necessary for proper understanding.

This point is very crucial to understand the following lines and that is why I had to put it upfront. Let us now go into the details:

0th DAY (stage) or Before creation:

• 1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
• 2. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Remember Mystic Passages 4: Nāsadīya Sūkta – Hymn of Creation (part-1) ? The exact same “Abyss” and the “Deep” that we discussed there is being spoken here. When it is said “In the beginning GOD …”, the ever existing nature of GOD is implied indirectly. The following terms need special attention:

• GOD: Here, GOD is equivalent to vēdāntic “Parabrahman” or “Brahman”. Because, IT exists before creation and from IT creation emerges. That constant background is called here as GOD. This GOD is not a person, not a thing but is beyond attributes. That is why no more line exists as to describe him, just like no more liens exist in vēdās to describe IT. That which has no attributes, what can be spoken of? 
• Heaven and Earth: These are not what you think generally as heaven and earth. Here, Heaven means the principles of heaven (as in the permeating agent) and earth (as in matter). That is why they had no forms.
• Spirit of God: This is the “about to be hatched” principle. It is the first stir or the first  ripple of dynamism that spreads through the waters. They said it was moving on “waters (ambha of Mystic Passages 4: Nāsadīya Sūkta – Hymn of Creation (part-1)“

So the starting point, as in Nāsadīya, was the DEEP, VOID. Ever existing GOD was anyway there. In IT,  are dissolved the principles of later creation. Just like a tree, its branches, leaves etc., are embedded in  a seed, the same is the case with this deep seeming void. Now, If it is all are void, how can we separately  speak of heaven and earth as two entities – i.e., can you distinguish them? It means that heaven and Earth, existed as principles and not as entities. These principles are later manifested and thus we assume that they must have existed in this void before. It also means that they existed, but “we” were not to realize its existence – NO DUALITY yet. Does tree exists in seed? Same answer is applied here.

It seems that in this void, which was deep, was waters. What are these waters?? They are the waters of life or Āpas of vēda. It is inevitable – the similarity of theory of creation, no matter the source, should match, as it is universal truth. So, just like in Nāsadīya, the pre-state of creation is waters+deep+void+GOD. So, what was hovering these waters? The spirit of GOD. This is the element that is akin to thoughts in us. Just like we get thoughts, spirit of GOD moves in these waters to stir them into vortices of rotational dynamism causing the “CHURN of MILK OCEAN (Bhagavata)” giving rise to the following “days of creation”. I hope you see how similar and grand the beauty is here!

This in essence, is the 0th stage or pre-state of creation. From here everything begins and into this everything culminates.

1st DAY (stage) of creation:

• 3. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Now, from the deep void, it seems that GOD “Spoke”. When it is said that “God SAID”, it implies the exact same thing of Brahma uttering forth “Saraswathi, the goddess of WORD”. The word “said” is the direct implication of WORD or rather, “Utterance”. Here, instead of vocal utterance, GOD is uttering LIGHT. By the purāṆic analogy, it is not hard to see that this LIGHT is “Consciousness”, for, Saraswathi => flow of consciousness. So, the birth of individual consciousness from the ONE (0th stage) is encapsulated in this line. 

• 4. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

In purāṇic allegory, we have a story of incarnation of Boar-lord: “Varāha“. The story suggests that this boar lord lifted up Earth from the waters on his two white tusks. This seems illogical. If Earth was not there where are waters? The story implies that from “deep-abyss”, Varāha – boar lord brought out “LIGHT” (which are his two tusks) from darkness of void (his form which is in between his tusks is black). This exact analogy is seen in this line of bible. It seems that GOD first emerged LIGHT from darkness i.e., the background is as is, just like the 0th stage, but now, there is a new manifestation of consciousness or LIGHT.

• 5. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

The moment there is this “first differentiation”, there arose the first “DUALITY” of this cosmos. As we saw in 45) Myth or a Symbol? – Story of Puranjana – Part-1., morning, night, evening, etc., are terms associated with consciousness. Here, due to birth of consciousness, the creation now has two entities – DAY of LIGHT: Birth of consciousness and NIGHT of DARK: The background on/in which this periodically emerges and submerges. (the same is infused into us as wake and sleep states). 

This birth of first impulse – light/consciousness is called 1st day of creation.

2nd DAY (stage) of creation:

• 6. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
• 7. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

What next? It seems that there arose SPACE amidst waters. If waters are dormant consciousness (space-invisible) and LIGHT is the awakened consciousness, the “field of action” for this awakened consciousness to act is “Firmament or Space”. In saying it is midst of waters, it is meant that SPACE visible is permeated by SPACE-invisible.

In saying “let it divide …“, the suggestion of further divisions of space into its elements i.e., what we call as space inside a room and space outside a room, has occurred. This division is necessary for further creation. This exact principle is infused into formation of human heart. The space peareating emerges an individual space, called “heart ( as in the word heartless or heartening etc.)”. Around this individual space is woven the physical heart by law of gene. That is why this physical heart pulsates, as a direct property of SPACE pulsating (this creation being periodical – see 0th stage). This is meant by division of waters from waters – division of individual consciousness from Universal consciousness. The same is meant by waters above and waters below – ABOVE=Universal and BELOW=Individual or localized. It is a way of saying the quality of the separation scheme.

(PS: This division of space is what lets us to realize the concept of “1st person, 2nd person and 3rd person”.)

• 8. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

See? The heaven here is different from the heaven in 0sth stage. Here, this firmament or “SPACE divided” is HEAVEN, not the void or anything else. This is what we use when we say “Marriages are made in heaven” (related to astrology). 

Thus, the formation of space-divided took place on 2nd day of creation!

3rd DAY (stage) of creation:

• 9. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
• 10. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

The first stage being the impulsive thought and second stage being the first differentiation of space bound from space unbound, the third stage is speaking about condensation of this separated space into a cloudy creation. This is like a blueprint. This stage of creation is the necessary transition through which perceivable creation is conceived from unperceivable. That is why it is said that from the (divided) waters, dry land appeared. This is NOT at all about the physical Earth, but the condensation of space-unbound oozing the seed elements which later grow to be Stars and Planets. Thus, many myriad of seeds of matter/energy are separated from the space-bound. But when you remove something from space, space is still space. When you build a house, you have space as room and space that permeates. That is why, the waters remained waters, but newly “dry-land” appeared. 

The “seas” here are akin to “Samudra” of vēdās. Samudra=Sa+Mudra => that which has the impressions or molds of creation (sa) in it. Because dry lands (condensed seeds) appeared from the waters, waters here are called SAMUDRA or Seas. The Separated seeds will transform into that which “support” later life forms and hence are called -“BHŪ” in vēda or “Earth-dry land” here. This is how we need to link up.

• 11. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
• 12. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

This line acts as KEY to what I just said – concept of “Seeds“. The other elements of this line suggest the seeds of animal and plant kingdom (all-life) and the principle of “Egg-Hen-Egg-…..” or “Tree-deed-tree-….” i.e, cyclical pro-creation. Because they all emerge from this differentiated cloud of condensed space, they are said to be “in itself”. “after his kind”, means that all that is being created, started with the one material-IT or GOD and thus is verily GOD in essence, hence his kind.

• 13. And the evening and the morning were the third day.

Thus, the formation of condensed seeds from space-divided took place on 3rd day of creation!

4th DAY (stage) of creation:

• 14. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
• 15 .And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

Already it was said that LIGHT was created in 1st day of creation – “let there be light“. Then again, why is GOD saying “let there be light in firmament” ? This is where we need to thoroughly understand the scriptural language and symbols. The first light is not the LIGHT we know (perceive) but the light due to which we are able to “know” i.e., it is the cause of our existence. This second light is the “physical light” which we perceive every day and which is the cause of letting us know everything else.

How can we differentiate the two? Is there a key? Yes. The key is in the way they are described. The second light is said to be in firmament/space divided. Also, this light is causing:

• Days and Nights
• Signs – Zodiac
• Seasons
• for calculating days and years
• Light for Earth

Now, the important thing to see is, while on 3rd day, everything was cloudy and seedy in its state of existence, the fourth stage is more concrete and final. There is birth of Physical LIGHT which gives birth to many a planets, Earth being one. In saying that let there be LIGHT in divided space for the sake of seasons and days on Earth, manifestation of first the SUN and later the planets is inherently implied.

• 16. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
• 17. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
• 18. And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

What are the two great LIGHTS? First understanding is the SUN-the higher and the MOON-the lower. Nut a deeper understanding implies the Solar and Lunar light which are responsible for birth of “Souls” and “Bodies” respectively. This exact bifurcation of TWO lights in vēda is known by the names “Sūrya Vamśa” and “Chandra Vamśa”. The epics Ramayana and Mahabharata extensively deal with each of these. Here, in genesis, they are stated in a compact and encapsulated way. Also, note that in saying higher light – it is meant “self realization” and hence solar in nature (solar=self effulgent) and in saying lower light-it is meant “materialization” and hence lunar in nature (reflection of solar light).

Along with solar and lunar principles, their magnificent manifestation on grand scale of Universe implies the formation of millions and millions of Stars of zillions of galaxies, having their own solar systems and Suns, planets and moons. This is the reason in saying ” god set them in firmament to give light ” – meaning, they exist in the visible space (space divided) with their own life spans. Because the light from different STARS and of our own solar system affects the LIFE on Earth – the basic principle of astrology, the statement of “…to rule the day and night ….” is uttered. To rule implies to influence and impel but not compel. To divide light from darkness implies by understanding this language of astrology/LIGHTS in firmament, one can achieve highest states of discrimination and thus the zones of ultimate TRUTH (later in bible this is known through tree of life which gives wisdom of good from bad).

• 19. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

Thus, the formation of perceivable and visible states of creation- Stars, Suns, Earth, life there on, etc., is the fourth stage of creation!

5th DAY (stage) of creation:

• 20. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
• 21. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
• 22. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
• 23. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Now that basic four stages of creation are completed, what remains is the formation of physical beings on Earth. Remember that the above four days is equivalent to many million years over which the stages of manifestation took place. The above four stages can be called – “Cosmo-Genesis” i.e., evolution of cosmos. The rest of the three stages describe what we can call “Anthropo-Genesis” i.e., evolution of life in cosmos. 

Where was the first life created? According to bible, it is in “waters of Earth”. According to vēda too the same is affirmed. The concept of first sunray hitting the Earth to germinate life exists in Rig Veda as well as purāṇās. Science too, at later stage, discovered the same fact. This is the immutable truth – LIFE originates in water. That is why, water brought forth life. Also, FISH is always symbolic for first life (movable) in water in any ancient allegory. In bible also its fish (though translated as whale) and in PurāṆa it was “Matsya Avatār” and in terms of astrology, sign pisces explains it all. 

So, the creation of life on Earth (in waters) and their ability to multiply or procreate encompasses the 5th day of creation.

6th DAY (stage) of creation:

• 24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

Formation of terrestrial life

• 25. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

This line is ultra cryptic. What does it mean by beast in his kind, cattle in their kind and creepers in his kind? Let me put it in simple language. Beast is human. Humans are formed in his image i.e., they have potential to realize themselves as GOD (aham brahmasmi or tatvamasi etc.). Cattle implies COWS and other animals. These animals drink waters on Earth and give life sustaining milk. SO they are symbolic to the LIFE that sustains us and helps us. These cattle or more precisely animals can “know” other animals’ existence but not of their own (except for minimal instincts like fear, hunger, etc.). But a human does know “I AM” – may not be in its true glory, but upto some extent at least. The law of :

• God sleeps in minerals
• God dreams in plants
• God wakes in animals
• God realizes in humans

is very subtly explained by this line. What about the creepers or “SNAKES/Seprents, etc.” ? They symbolize the loss of consciousness. In a way, beast-birth of consciousness, cattle-sustenance of consciousness and creepers-end of consciousness is the symbol to be understood. Rest, I leave it to your intuition.

• 26. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Here, “image” means a reflection. Reflection of inner I AM is the egotic “I AM” with which we address ourselves. Image also means that all principles through GOD that occured in these 6 stages of creation, does exist in us too. We are his image indeed, in this way! Dominion over all other species implies our evolutionary rank i.e., we have already passed through those beings at one of the sub sub stages of these 7 stages and thus rank higher. Actually potentially higher (only few humans prove themselves to be humans).

• 27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Formation of male-female subdivision of ONE man that was in above line. So, first MAN was formed and then MAN became MAN and WOMAN. This is how even Vēdic evolution goes – “Arthanārīśwara” from “Sadā Śiva”. This implies that when MAN was in ethereal planes, he was having no gender difference. But later as evolution progressed, he was pushed into physical body which had two genders (related to genitals alone).

• 28. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Ability to procreate was bestowed.

• 29. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

Just like in Mystic Passages – 3: Purusha Suktam (stanza 2 – Glory of Puruṣa), we can see the ability to multiply is given by consuming other beings. this is the LAW of Earth. But in bible, here in this very line, a nice message is included. For the sake of our body meat, it is favourable to eat the plant kingdom over animal kingdom.

• 30. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

The same for all the kingdoms – each of them formed food for others.

• 31. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Thus the “plan of creation” is completed by 6th day.

 

(PS: I could go deeper into exploration of 5th and 6th days of creation, but I feel the article has grown too big by now and I have to preserve extra details for a future-review article or answering any questions)

7th DAY (stage) of creation:

• 2.1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
• 2.2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
• 2.3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Most people think that GOD was fatigued by this day and sp he took rest on 7th day. That is not correct view of bible. If you understand the above lines to be “God then rested himself in the whole creation …..”, a whole new dimension opens up. Resting implies “Establishing oneself at a place forever (as long as rest lasts)”. Thus, GOD established himself i.e., even though he permeated the whole, i.e., he plugged the whole creation into himself. This is concept of “One in ALL” becoming “ALL in ONE”. He sanctified implies by very association of the creation into him, the creation became verily HIM and therefore, in essence, no dual exists (though to a separated mind it does as long as the separation lasts).

Thus, on 7th stage oc creation, the whole scheme of creation got completed!!

 

Extra Notes:

• When it is said GOD said and it was so, it means that the whole creation is just an utterance of GOD – like utterance of Śabda Brahma. 
• When every stage of creation ends with “evening and morning …”, it is to suggest that many eons of times have passed. Evening and morning implies rise and fall of consciousness into many modes of this creation finally resulting in the present state.
• The first 4 days of creation are exactly the four stages of utterance of WORD – Para (impulsive), paśyamti (cloudy), madhyama (blue-print) and vaikhari (physical) vāk. Understand this concept better by reviewing the article: Mystic Passages – 3: Purusha Suktam (stanza 3- stages of creation). It helps a lot to understand the first four stages or days of creation here in Genesis.
• 5th and 6th days of creation need more exploration. Let us preserve it for future.
• The cover pic – CROSS, which is symbol of christ is actually an old symbol before Jesus. This symbol is the state of union of horizontals and verticals i.e., divine-active and divine-passive forms which permeate the creation. That is why I chose this symbol for this article. When this symbol rotates i.e., dynamizes, we get a sacred symbol – SWASTIKA. It is the dynamism of creation.

Conclusion:

You have seen a different and an old approach brought to light through my interpretation, of the first chapter of Bible. This is how one needs to start exploring this scripture to get as much as they can, instead of ignoring it due to the redundant seeming fallacies. The harmony that exists between different scriptures also is brought to light in this article. I hope you all enjoyed this ride. Please do ask your doubts or suggest your comments below. All the best!

Thank You!

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