10. 10. 2019 Brahma - Wikipedia Brahma Brahma (Sanskrit: , IAST: Brahmā) is the creator god in मा Brahma Hinduism.[1] He is also known as Svayambhu (self-born) or the creative aspect of Vishnu,[2] Vāgīśa (Lord of Speech), and the creator of the four God of Creation, Creator of Vedas, one from each of his mouths. Brahma is consort of Gayatri and he is Vedas, Wisdom, Moksha the father of Four Kumaras, Narada, Daksha, Marichi and many more.[3][4] Member of Trimurti Brahma is sometimes identified with the Vedic god Prajapati, he is also known as Vedanatha (god of Vedas), Gyaneshwar (god of Knowledge), Chaturmukha (having Four Faces) Svayambhu (self born), Brahmanarayana (half Brahma and half Vishnu), etc, as well as linked to Kama and Hiranyagarbha (the cosmic egg).[5][6] He is more prominently mentioned in the post-Vedic Hindu epics and the mythologies in the Puranas. In the epics, he is conflated with Purusha.[3] Although, Brahma is part of the Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva Trimurti, ancient Hindu scriptures mention multiple other trinities of gods or goddesses which do not include Brahma.[7][8][note 1] Brahma with his wife, Gayatri. Several Puranas describe him as emerging from a lotus, connected to the navel of Lord Vishnu. Other Puranas suggest that he is born from Shiva or Other Vedanatha, his aspects,[10] or he is a supreme god in diverse versions of Hindu names Gyaneshwar, Virinchi, mythology.[5] Brahma, along with other deities, is sometimes viewed as a Chaturmukha, form (saguna) of the otherwise formless (nirguna) Brahman, the ultimate Svayambhu metaphysical reality in Vedantic Hinduism.[8][6] In an alternate version, Affiliation Parabrahman some Puranas state him to be the father of Prajapatis.[11] (Brahmanism), Trimurti, Deva, Tridev According to some, Brahma does not enjoy popular worship in present-age Hinduism and has lesser importance than the other members of the Abode Brahmaloka or Trimurti, Vishnu and Shiva. Brahma is revered in ancient texts, yet rarely Satyaloka [12] worshiped as a primary deity in India. Very few temples dedicated to Mantra ।। ॐ वेदामनाय वहे him exist in India; the most famous being the Brahma Temple, Pushkar in हरयगभाय धीमह तनो [13] Rajasthan. Brahma temples are found outside India, such as at the मा चोदयात ्।। (oṃ Erawan Shrine in Bangkok.[14] vedātmanāya vidmahe hiraṇyagarbhāya dhīmahī tanno brahmā Contents pracodayaṭ), Weapon Brahmastra, Origin and meaning Brahmashirsha astra, History Brahmanda astra Vedic literature Post-Vedic, Epics and Puranas Symbol Padma, Vedas, Japamala and Iconography Kamandalu Avatar Mount Hamsa (bird) Temples India Festivals Kartik Purnima, Srivari Southeast Asia Brahmotsavam East Asia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma 1/10 10. 10. 2019 Brahma - Wikipedia Difference between Brahma, Brahman, Brahmin and Brahmanas Personal information See also Consorts (Gayatri) Notes and references Children Manu, Four Kumaras, Notes Narada, Daksha, References Marichi, Aathri, External links Pulastya, Vashishtha Origin and meaning Left: Brahma at the 12th century Chennakesava Temple, Somanathapura; Right: Brahma at a 6th/7th Aihole temple. The origins of Brahma are uncertain, in part because several related words such as one for Ultimate Reality (Brahman), and priest (Brahmin) are found in the Vedic literature. The existence of a distinct deity named Brahma is evidenced in late Vedic text.[15] A distinction between spiritual concept of Brahman, and deity Brahma, is that the former is a genderless abstract metaphysical concept in Hinduism,[16] while the latter is one of the many masculine gods in Hindu tradition.[17] The spiritual concept of Brahman is far older, and some scholars suggest deity Brahma may have emerged as a personal conception and visible icon of the impersonal universal principle called Brahman.[15] In Sanskrit grammar, the noun stem brahman forms two distinct nouns; one is a neuter noun bráhman, whose nominative singular form is brahma; this noun has a generalized and abstract meaning.[18] Contrasted to the neuter noun is the masculine noun brahmán, whose nominative singular form is Brahma.[note 2] This singular form is used as the proper name of the deity, Brahma. History Vedic literature One of the earliest mentions of Brahma with Vishnu and Shiva is in the fifth Prapathaka (lesson) of the Maitrayaniya Upanishad, probably composed in late 1st millennium BCE. Brahma is first discussed in verse 5,1, also called the Kutsayana Hymn, and then expounded in verse 5,2.[19][20] In the pantheistic Kutsayana Hymn,[19] the Upanishad asserts that one's Soul is Brahman, and this Ultimate Reality, Cosmic Universal or God is within each living being. It equates the Atman (Soul, Self) within to be Brahma and various alternate manifestations of Brahman, as follows, "Thou art Brahma, thou art Vishnu, thou art Rudra (Shiva), thou art Agni, Varuna, Vayu, Indra, thou art All."[19][21] In the verse (5,2), Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are mapped into the theory of Guṇa, that is qualities, psyche and innate tendencies the text describes can be found in all living beings.[21][22] This chapter of the Maitri Upanishad asserts that the universe emerged from darkness (Tamas), first as passion characterized by action qua action (Rajas), which then https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma 2/10 10. 10. 2019 Brahma - Wikipedia refined and differentiated into purity and goodness (Sattva).[19][21] Of these three qualities, Rajas is then mapped to Brahma, as follows:[23] Now then, that part of him which belongs to Tamas, that, O students of sacred knowledge (Brahmacharins), is this Rudra. That part of him which belongs to Rajas, that O students of sacred knowledge, is this Brahma. That part of him which belongs to Sattva, that O students of The 10th-century artwork from Bihar sacred knowledge, is this Vishnu. showing the trinity of Vishnu, Shiva Verily, that One became threefold, became eightfold, and Brahma. elevenfold, twelvefold, into infinite fold. This Being (neuter) entered all beings, he became the overlord of all beings. That is the Atman (Soul, Self) within and without – yea, within and without! — Maitri Upanishad 5.2, [19][21] While the Maitri Upanishad maps Brahma with one of the elements of Guṇa theory of Hinduism, the text does not depict him as one of the trifunctional elements of the Hindu Trimurti idea found in later Puranic literature.[24] Post-Vedic, Epics and Puranas The post-Vedic texts of Hinduism offer multiple theories of cosmogony, many involving Brahma. These include Sarga (primary creation of universe) and Visarga (secondary creation), ideas related to the Indian thought that there are two levels of reality, one primary that is unchanging (metaphysical) and other secondary that is always changing (empirical), and that all observed reality of the latter is in an endlessly repeating cycle of existence, that cosmos and life we experience is continually created, evolved, dissolved and then re-created.[26] The primary creator is extensively discussed in Vedic cosmogonies with Brahman or Purusha or Devi among the terms used for the primary creator,[26][27] while the Vedic and post-Vedic texts name different gods and goddesses as secondary creators (often Brahma in post-Vedic texts), and in some cases a different god or goddess is the secondary creator at the start of each cosmic cycle (kalpa, aeon).[10][26] Brahma is a "secondary creator" as described in the Mahabharata and In Vaishnava Puranic scriptures, [28][29][30] Puranas, and among the most studied and described. Born from Brahma emerges on a lotus from a lotus emerging from the navel of Vishnu after emerging on order of Vishnu's navel as Vishnu Shiva, Brahma creates all the forms in the universe, but not the primordial (Mahavishnu) creates the cosmic universe itself.[25] In contrast, the Shiva-focussed Puranas describe cycle, after being emerged by Shiva, Shiva told Vishnu to create, Shiva Brahma and Vishnu to have been created by Ardhanarishvara, that is half ordered Vishnu to make Brahma.[25] Shiva and half Parvati; or alternatively, Brahma was born from Rudra, or Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma creating each other cyclically in different aeons (kalpa).[10] Thus in most Puranic texts, Brahma's creative activity depends on the presence and power of a higher god.[31] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma 3/10 10. 10. 2019 Brahma - Wikipedia In the Bhagavata Purana, Brahma is portrayed several times as the one who rises from the "Ocean of Causes".[32] Brahma, states this Purana, emerges at the moment when time and universe is born, inside a lotus rooted in the navel of Hari (deity Vishnu, whose praise is the primary focus in the Purana). The scriptures assert that Brahma is drowsy, errs and is temporarily incompetent as he puts together the universe.[32] He then becomes aware of his confusion and drowsiness, meditates as an ascetic, then realizes Hari in his heart, sees the beginning and end of the universe, and then his creative powers are revived. Brahma, states Bhagavata Purana, thereafter combines Sculpture of Brahma flanked by Yama Prakriti (nature, matter) and Purusha (spirit, soul) to create a and Chitragupta, Tamil Nadu, 10th dazzling variety of living creatures, and tempest of causal nexus.[32] Century The Bhagavata Purana thus attributes the creation of Maya to Brahma, wherein he creates for the sake of creation, imbuing everything with both the good and the evil, the material and the spiritual, a beginning and an end.[33] The Puranas describe Brahma as the deity creating time. They correlate human time to Brahma's time, such as a mahākalpa being a large cosmic period, correlating to one day and one night in Brahma's existence.[31] The stories about Brahma in various Puranas are diverse and inconsistent.