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Examples of how the origins of the universe are explained in Hinduism include the following.

• A lotus flower grew from Lord Vishnu's navel with Brahma sitting on it. Brahma separated the flower into three parts: the Heavens, the Earth and the Sky.
• Out of loneliness, Brahma split himself into two to create a male and a female and from this all beings were created.
• Another story makes reference to life coming from the cracking of an enormous egg, which is the life from which the universe is born.
• The 'hymn of creation' from the Rig Veda concludes that nobody knows how the universe came into being and even questions whether Brahman knows.
• Some Hindu texts offer a more 'scientific' explanation based on the evolution of primary elements from a single source.

These accounts, and others, were written many centuries ago in or around what we now know as India. They were not necessarily intended to be taken as literal scientific truth, but are indicators of the complexity and infinite nature of the universe.

Many Hindus understand religious teachings about the universe in the following ways.

• Brahma is the creator god who works with Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva to maintain an unending cycle of universes. All three are aspects of Brahman.
• Time is not a straight line but eternal cycles, universes being created, existing and 'dying', followed by recreation, existence and death, with no beginning and no end. This is mirrored in the belief in reincarnation.