hitopadesha

Many of you know that the three main Gods in Hindu mythology are Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. They are most often referred to as Brahma the creator, Vishnu the protector and Shiva the destroyer. These references to their roles, even though correct from one perspective, is not a perfect representation of thier significance in the Hindu culture. More details about their roles in detail in another post.

One day Vishnu and Brahma were debating as to who is greater among the two of them. Each had their own argument to prove their greatness. Brahma said he was the creator of all beings and if he did not do his job then Vishnu would have no one to protect. To this Vishnu replied that Brahma himself was ‘created’ by Vishnu from Vishnu’s navel after the Pralaya. Pralaya is considered in the Hindu cosmology as a particular point of time in the cycle of life of the universe where activities stops and some consider it as the time when colossal disintegration of universe takes place paving way for a new beginning. If you see a traditional representation of Vishnu, you would notice that a lotus flower arises out of Vishnu’s navel and you will also notice Brahma sitting on top of the lotus flower.

Since the argument was not taking them anywhere near to conclusion, they decided to measure Shiva each from one direction and whoever reaches one end of him first will be considered the greater of the two. Now even though all the three Gods are considered equal in their position, Shiva is the most powerful of the three and is one of the three persons in the Hindu mythology with the title of Eshwara (the other two being Shani, the Saturn planet and Ravana, the rakshasa (or demon) in the Ramayana epic). Shiva is so powerful and his presense is so mighty that one can never the find the beginning or the end of Him. But Vishnu and Brahma decide to attempt it and Vishnu assumes the form of a wild boar and goes in the direction of Shiva’s feet and Brahma assumes the form of a swan and tries to reach the head of Shiva.

According to the mythology, they travel for many years trying to fathom the depth and height of Shiva but he seems to be infinite in his presense. As Brahma is flying upwards towards his head he sees a flower called Thalampu (in Tamil, a language spoken in Southern India) which is one of the favourite flowers of Shiva which he likes to keep it on his head. Brahma immediately gets an idea and entices the flower to tell him how far ahead is Shiva’s head. Now the flower is a proud flower since it is favoured by Shiva himself and to show off that it knows where his head is since it has been residing there, tells Brahma as to where he can finally reach Shiva’s head. Brahma then meets up with Vishnu who is still digging his way to reach the other end of Shiva and tells him that he has found Shiva’s beginning and hence he is the greater of the two.

Of course, this is cheating and Shiva, the knower of all, gets very upset with Brahma. He appears before them and in his anger curses Brahma for his vile behaviour that he would never be prayed and he would never have a temple on his own. True to the words of Shiva, there is no temple for Brahma in India even today (except for one, I guess but I am not very sure) and he is never hailed in anyone’s prayer or does anyone perform any ‘puja’ to Brahma. He also curses the flower Thalampu for being proud and taking its position for granted among the rest of the flowers, that the flower will no longer be offered to Lord Shiva and to this day Thalampu is never offered to Shiva during the puja.

This story is a little deviation from the type of stories I would like to write. One might find this story to be quite difficult to accept about the physical size of Shiva but we have to remember to put things always in a different perspective and look for underlying meanings and interpretations when it deals with the Hindu culture.

I hope you enjoyed this and do pass it to your friends who might like to read such stories about the culture in the Indian sub-continent.

peace,
aditya.