hindu-cosmosWe're still mapping where this idea was first discussed. Key passages and related ideas below.
The Golden Womb / Cosmic Egg (Hiraṇyagarbha & Brahmāṇḍa)
A golden seed upon the primal waters from which all worlds are born — the universe as a cosmic egg.
Vedic cosmogony pictures the origin of the world as a 'golden womb' or golden embryo, Hiraṇyagarbha — the luminous seed that arises first upon the cosmic waters and from which all things are born. A kindred image is the cosmic egg (brahmāṇḍa, 'the egg of Brahmā') that divides to become heaven and earth. In later Vedānta the term takes on a more philosophical sense: Hiraṇyagarbha becomes the cosmic mind or world-soul, the first and subtlest stage in which the one reality begins to manifest as an ordered universe.
Key passages(14)
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Vivekacūḍāmaṇi 289↗applies
Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)
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Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1,1.2↗explains
Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)
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