An imperfect creator? Understanding Lord Brahma. What we can learn from the imperfections.

According to Hindu philosophy, Brahma is regarded as one of the manifestations of the all pervading reality the brahman. His responsibility was to create the material world as we know it (the Brahma Lokas). Brahma is responsible for creating 14 worlds of brahma including the one we are in. There are a lot of verses glorifying Brahma in the scriptures. But there are also a few narratives which show some of his imperfections. Even not many Hindus, engage in an active worship of Brahma the creator. Nobody goes around building temples for Brahma. There are just two to three temples dedicated to Brahma in India and these are very ancient temples (Brahmapureswarar in the south and Pushkar in the north). Why is that?

All of Brahma’s creations (including his so called ten sons ) are called mind-born i.e created by the mind of Brahma. According to the narrations, they are not biological. In yet another incident, Brahma creates a beautiful woman and falls in love with her. He is censured for that. He ogles at Sati, Rudra’s consort, and again is chastised for that. There are deep symbolisms to these narratives. Shakti is the sacred feminine, the primordial creative force. So from the Puranic narratives we see that Brahma has a lot of ego, he lies, and he lusts after objects he created.

What is the symbolism of all these imperfections? To begin with, Brahma’s imperfection is that he is a creator who constantly falls in love with his own creations.

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