Brahma
Brahma created the worlds, yet in all of India there are only a handful of temples to him. Born on a lotus that rose from Vishnu's navel, four-faced, carrying the Vedas — who is the creator, and why is he rarely worshipped?
The verse
The lotus at the beginning
Before anything existed, the Puranas say, Vishnu lay on the waters of the cosmic ocean. From his navel rose a lotus, and on that lotus sat Brahma, alone, with no idea where he had come from. He looked in every direction — and as he looked, four faces appeared, one for each quarter of the sky. Then he heard a voice: "Tapa" — practise austerity. From that inner fire, creation began.
Brahmā and Brahman are not the same
This is one of the most common confusions. Brahmā (masculine, with a long ā) is the creator god with four faces. Brahman (neuter) is the Upanishads' name for the ultimate reality — infinite, beyond all forms, the ground from which even Brahma arises. Brahma is a god within creation; Brahman is that which everything, including the gods, is.
Why so few temples?
In a land with countless temples to Shiva, Vishnu and the Devi, the creator has only a few — the most famous at Pushkar in Rajasthan. The Puranas give more than one reason, and each is a story of the creator himself making a mistake…
The journey continues for members
- The stories behind the missing temples
- Creation in the Vedas
- His symbols
- A day of Brahma
- What Brahma teaches
Sources
- Rigveda — 10.90, 10.121, 10.129
- Shiva Purana — Vidyeshvara Samhita
- Padma Purana — Srishti Khanda (Pushkar)
- Bhagavata Purana — Canto 3