Brahma
This article concerns the Hindu creator god, Brahma. For the Buddhist deities, see Brahma (Buddhism). For similar terms with different meanings, see Brahman (disambiguation). ) is the
Hindu God of Creation, and one of the Hindu Trinity -
Trimurti, the others being
Vishnu and
Shiva. It must not be confused with the Supreme Cosmic Spirit of Hindu philosophy
Brahman (the root of both words is the same). BrahmÄ is identified with the
Vedic deity
Prajapati.
At the beginning of the process of creation, BrahmÄ created ten
Prajapatis (used in another sense), who are believed to be the fathers of the human race. The
Manusmriti enumerates them as
Marichi,
Atri,
Angirasa,
Pulastya,
Pulaha,
Kratu,
Vasishtha,
Prachetas or
Daksha,
Bhrigu, and
Narada. He is also said to have created the seven great sages or the
Saptarishi to help him create the universe. However since all these sons of his were born out of his mind rather than body, they are called
Manas Putras or mind-sons.
BrahmÄ only occasionally interferes in the affairs of the gods, and even more rarely in mortal affairs. He did force
Soma to give
Tara back to her husband,
Brihaspati. He is considered the father of
Dharma and
Atri. BrahmÄ lives in
Brahmapura, a city located on
Mt. Meru.
BrahmÄ is an agent of
Brahman, the
Supreme Being or
Absolute of Hinduism.
BrahmÄ is usually depicted with four heads. The reason given is as follows. When BrahmÄ was creating the universe, he made a female deity known as
ShatarupÄ (one with a hundred beautiful forms). BrahmÄ was immediately infatuated. ShatarupÄ moved in various directions to avoid the gaze of BrahmÄ. But wherever she went, BrahmÄ developed a head. Thus, BrahmÄ developed five heads, one on each side and one above the others. In order to control BrahmÄ, Shiva cut off the top head. Also, Shiva felt that ShatarupÄ was BrahmÄ's daughter/son, being created by him. Therefore, Shiva determined, it was wrong for BrahmÄ to become obsessed with her. He directed that there be no proper worship in India for the "unholy" BrahmÄ. Thus, only Vishnu and Shiva continue to be worshipped, while BrahmÄ is almost totally ignored. Ever since the incident, BrahmÄ has been reciting the four Vedas in his attempt at repentance.Another legend of the lack of worship of BrahmÄ is as follows: Once, harth Vishnu and BrahmÄ approached Shiva and requested to find his beginning and end. Vishnu was appointed the end, and Brahma the beginning. Each took their journey, and neither could find their appointed destination. Vishnu, satisfied, came up to Shiva and bowed down to him as a swarupa of
Brahman. BrahmÄ did not give up so easily. As he was going up, he saw a
kaitha flower, dear to Shiva. His ego forced him to ask the flower to bear false witness of BrahmÄ's finding Shiva's beginning. When BrahmÄ told his tale, Shiva, the all-knowing, was angered by the former's ego. Shiva thus cursed him that no being in the three worlds will worship him. There is another legend which relates BrahmÄ's not being worshipped to a curse by the great sage
Brahmarishi Bhrigu. Once a great fire-sacrifice (
yajna) was being organised on Earth with Bhrigu being the high priest. It was decided that the greatest among all Gods would be made the presiding deity. Bhrigu then set off to find the greatest among the Trinity. When he went to BrahmÄ, he was so immersed in the music played by
Saraswati that he could hardly hear Bhrigu's calls. The enraged Bhrigu then cursed BrahmÄ that no person on Earth would ever invoke him or worship him again.
However, these are just tales in the puranas (hindu history books). In Valmiki's Ramayana, Brahma is shown to have instructed the sage to worship Rama incarnation of Vishnu or Shiva as recounted to in the story of the Ganges.
India today has but two temples dedicated to Brahmdev alone as opposed to the thousands of temples dedicated to the other deities in the Trinity namely Shiva and Vishnu. The more famous one being at Pushkar in Rajasthan state.
According to
Puranas he is self-born (without mother) in the lotus which grows from the navel of
Vishnu at the beginning of the universe. This explains his name
Nabhija (born from the navel). Another legend says that BrahmÄ created himself by first creating water. In this he deposited a seed that later became the golden egg. From this golden egg, Brahma the creator was born, as
Hiranyagarbha. The remaining materials of this golden egg expanded into the Brahm-anda or Universe. Being born in water, BrahmÄ is also called
Kanja (born in water). BrahmÄ is said also to be the son of the Supreme Being,
Brahman and his female energy,
Maya. The beginning of the universe was the sound .
|
A handcoloured engraving of Brahma |
BrahmÄ is traditionally depicted with four heads and four faces and four arms. Each head recites one of the four
Vedas. He is usually depicted with a white beard, to match the near eternal nature of his existence. He is shown as having four arms, with none holding a weapon, unlike most other
Hindu Gods. One of his hands is shown holding a scepter in the form of a spoon, which is associated with the pouring of holy ghee or oil into a sacrificial pyre - indicating the fact that BrahmÄ is the lord of sacrifices. Another of his hands holds a water-pot (sometimes depicted as a coconut shell containing water). The significance of the water is that it is the initial, all-encompassing ether in which the first element of creation evolved. BrahmÄ also holds a string of rosary beads that he uses to keep track of the Universe's time. He also is shown holding the Vedas, and sometimes, a lotus flower.
His vehicle is the
Swan. This divine bird is bestowed with a virtue called
Neera-Ksheera Viveka or the ability to separate milk and water from a mixture of the two. The significance of this is that justice should be dispensed to all creatures, however entwined it might be in a situation. Also, this virtue indicates that one should learn to separate the good from the evil and then accept that which is valuable and discard that which is worthless or evil.
His consort is
Saraswati, the goddess of learning.
Although BrahmÄ is prayed to in almost all Hindu religious rites, there are only two temples dedicated to him in India, the more prominent of which is at
Pushkar, close to
Jaipur. Once a year, on the full moon night of the Hindu lunar month of Kartika (October - November), a religious festival is held in BrahmÄ's honour. Thousands of pilgrims come to bathe in the holy lake adjacent to the temple. There is also a famous
murti of BrahmÄ at Mangalwedha, 52 km from
Solapur district in
Maharashtra.There is one more temple for Brahma in the temple town of Kumbakonam, (Thanjavur District) Tamil Nadu. Regular pujas are held for Brahma and during Navrathris, this temple comes to life with colourful festivities.
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