Why are there very few temples of Brahma
In most cultures, the god who created this world is worshipped extensively, however Hinduism is a little strange. In Hinduism Brahma is said to have created the world and yet this god is rarely worshipped by Hindus. Why? You will have an answer to this question by the end of this article.
In the Hindu trinity of Gods, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, Brahma is the creator of this world, Vishnu is the sustainer and Shiva is the destroyer. There are numerous temples dedicated to Vishnu and Shiva, but very few for Brahma. The only famous one is the Brahma temple in Pushkar Rajasthan. It is rather strange that there are far more temples in Hinduism dedicated to Shiva who is the destroyer of this world and almost nothing for Brahma, who is the creator. Going by the western Judeo Christian tradition, one would expect Shiva to be like the Satan, who should be avoided and Brahma to be the God, who gives life, but for some reason Hindus seem to do the opposite! Why?
To understand the reason for it, you need to understand the way Hinduism views the world. The western Judeo Christian tradition looks at world on the outside, while Hindu tradition looks at the world on the inside. I think this might be a little confusing so let me elaborate. All of you must have seen the movie matrix, if not then please watch it, it is a great movie and portrays this aspect beautifully. In the movie we are shown the futuristic world where machines have taken over the world and humans have been enslaved. The machines keep humans inside a pod attached to a computer. This computer creates an illusion for the humans that they are living in a normal world, while in reality they are just dreaming. In other words the world that these humans experience is only inside their brain. Hinduism looks at the world with this perspective.
In the modern times due to the dominance of the European culture, the worldview is that of external world, and it might appear to you that the Hindu worldview is just mysticism and fantasy, but don’t be so quick to discard it. There is a lot of wisdom in this perspective. The same thing can appear very different for different people, for example a painting can look beautiful to one person and ugly to other. A person might appear good to one person and bad to the other. That is why in Hinduism the world is called Maya, as we do not see the reality, instead we just see the world from our own point of view. Since our point of view is influenced by our own desires, prejudices and opinion it is very difficult for us to know the reality.
Therefore the world we experience really does exists only inside our brain, separate from the real world. I recommend watching the movie Rashomon by Akira Kurusawa, it beautifully portrays this phenomenon, where the same event is portrayed repeatedly from different people’s perspective. Hinduism does not deny the existence of the real world outside, it warns you to be careful not to consider the world you experience as the absolute truth.
Ok so now that we have understood this difference, lets go back to the movie matrix, where the protagonist Neo is offered a blue pill and a red pill. Blue pill will keep Neo in his dreamy state without realizing the reality, while red pill will awaken him and he will realize the truth. Think of Brahma as the blue pill and Shiva as the red pill. Brahma will create this illusory world for Neo, while Shiva will destroy this world and make Neo realize the truth. That is why Shiva is worshipped in Hinduism and Brahma is not.
To further understand this idea let us refer to a story in Matsya Purana, about Brahma. The story mentions that when Brahma created this world, he created a Goddess named Shatarupa (which means the one of 100 forms). Brahma was so mesmerized by the Goddess that in whichever direction she went Brahma developed a head to look at her. Therefore Brahma developed 4 heads. Shatarupa then decided to go up and Brahma developed a 5th head to look up when Shiva arrived and he severed Brahma’s fifth head. Since Brahma developed carnal desire for Shatarupa, therefore Brahma is not worshipped. This makes for a wonderful story, but there is a deeper meaning to this story.
The story is actually symbolic, Shatarupa here represents the world of maya, which has so many different forms. Brahma represents an unenlightened being, who is enchanted by this world. We as human being are always on the look out for threats and opportunities in this world and therefore we develop so many heads to keep an eye on this world, lusting over it. We might think that we have understood this world but that is just a delusion and in the end the pure consciousness, that is Shiva, free from opinions, prejudices and biases comes in and cuts of our head to make us realize that there is more to this world then just material things. All this pursuit of worldly things is just a wastage of time and nothing else.
So in conclusion, if you worship Brahma then you want to stay in your own world, entangled in your own desires, prejudices and opinions, trying to control this world, while if you worship Shiva then you will destroy your illusions and look at this world objectively through the lens of reality, without any prejudices and preconceptions.
Originally published at https://stoicsadhu.com on April 30, 2019.
