Multiple creation narratives. Rigveda's Nasadiya Sukta questions even whether creation can be known. Brahman as ultimate reality from which the universe emanates and into which it dissolves. Cosmic cycles (kalpas) of creation, preservation, and destruction governed by Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Each kalpa spans 4.32 billion years.

Dharma varies by caste (varna), life stage (ashrama), and individual nature (svadharma). Multiple paths: knowledge, devotion, action, meditation.

Four goals (purusharthas): dharma (duty), artha (prosperity), kama (pleasure), and moksha (liberation from samsara). Ultimate purpose is realization of the Self (Atman) as identical with Brahman.

Suffering results from karma — the accumulated consequences of actions across lifetimes. Ignorance (avidya) of one's true nature as Atman causes attachment, desire, and suffering. Not a 'problem of evil' in the Abrahamic sense, since the divine is beyond good and evil at the ultimate level.

We are currently in Kali Yuga, the age of darkness and moral decline, the last of four yugas. At the end, Kalki (the final avatar of Vishnu) will appear to destroy the wicked and inaugurate a new Satya Yuga (golden age). The cycle then repeats. At the cosmic level, Shiva's dance of destruction (tandava) dissolves the universe before Brahma creates it anew.