Name: ____________________________________________________

Grade: 7
Date: _____________________________________________________
Subject: Religious Education
Topic: Hindu Creation Story
Instruction: Read and answer the questions below
The Hindu understanding of time, however, is different and seems rather

strange to people who were not born on the Indian Sub- Continent. Time runs in

cycles. Brahma, the Hindu god of creation, creates the world, which then runs

its course before it is destroyed. Another cycle of creation and destruction is the

set in motion. Within each cycle there are four clear ‘ages’. Each cycle begins

with the age of righteousness, in which goodness and righteousness are

uppermost. The fourth age, the dark age pits the power of righteousness against

the powers of evil. At the end of the fourth age everything ends before the next

cycles, which go on forever.

Hindu believe that the world is created by Brahma, the universes are

looked after by Vishnu (preserver) and Shiva (destroyer). From destruction

comes new life, so Shiva is both the destroyer and the recreator of life. The

creation story starts with Vishnu appearing floating on a vast ocean, resting on

the coils of a great serpent Ananta. A sound emerges from the ocean. The sound

is Aum. It grows louder and louder. Vishnu wakes up, and from his novels

springs a lotus flower. From this flower comes the god Brahma.
 Vishnu commands Brahma to create the lotus flower is split into three

parts and from them Brahma makes the heaven, the skies and the earth. Brahma

also populates the earth with insects, fish, birds, animals, and humankind.

We are living in the first universe or the first world. There will be more

worlds and more universes than there are drops of water in the River Ganges, as

one of the Hindu holy book puts it. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva together are the

trimurti in Hinduism under the supreme leadership of Brahman.

Questions

1. Who is the Hindu god of creation?

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2. Who is the Hindu god of destruction__________________________?

3. Which three Hindu gods form the trimurti?

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4. What are the different stages within each Hindu cycle of time?

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5. How are the three members of the trimurti involved in each creation of

the world? __________________________________________________

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