Billion years ago, before there was ever such a thing called Earth or prithvi, before the sparkling sun or the majestic moon shone in the sky, there was mere emptiness. And in that emptiness, there was an endless Sea of Milk. The white waves of the Sea rolled endlessly as hundreds and thousands of years went by.

A huge snake, Shesha, lay coiled on the Sea of Milk. Shesha’s coils made a great bed and on this bed lay God Vishnu, who was there before there was the Earth. When the time came for the world to begin, God Vishnu gave himself a shake, and when he did, out of him Earth, sky, fire, air and water were born.

Out of his stomach, a lotus bud begin to grow.

Slowly the bud grew bigger and bigger and its stalk reached higher and higher. It grew for a thousand years. At the end of these years, the bud opened into a lotus.

In the centre of the lotus, there sat Brahma, the creator of the universe. He is one of the three gods in the triumvirate. The other two gods comprising the triumvirate are Vishnu, who sustains the Creation and Shiva, the destroyer of evil.

Unaware and alone, God Brahma begin to do tapas; he prayed for one thousand years, counting the years not as we count them, but as the gods count them.

To the gods, our one year counts as one day; and three hundred and sixty human years make just one year for them. Brahma prayed for a thousand such years.

At the end of this time, God Vishnu cropped up in front of Brahma and told him how to make the world.

Subsequently, Brahma drank up some liquid from the Sea of Milk. Now the land could be seen; and then he started to make the world.

He created the Seven Worlds. He created the Rishi Kashyapa and his two wives, Diti and Aditi.

Then Brahma created all other things- men, animals, trees and flowers, fishes and birds.

And thus was created the world.