The debate about father of the three supreme deities of Hindus- Lord Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma- has been settled finally. The following story was told by Lord Hanuman, the God who is said to be immortal. Lord Hanuman is alive from the Ramayana period and He visits a tribal community called Mathangs every 41 years. Recently this year when He came to visit them, He had long conversations with the community. This story is part of those conversations. This story is small but very important because of the fact that various Puranas (ancient Hindu texts) make contradictory claims about the origin of the three supreme deities. The reason of the contradictions is the various interpretations and misinterpretations of the Puranas done by many people over the generations. This story is first hand information told by Lord Hanuman hence it settles this debate for a long time until it also gets distorted over the course of communication from one generation to another. Lord Shiva once thought, “If I am the destroyer, can I destroy everything? Can I destroy Brahma and Vishnu as well? Is my power effective on them too?” When this thought came in Shiva’s mind, He did not speak but Brahma and Vishnu understood what He was thinking inside His mind. They started smiling. Lord Brahma said, “Mahadev, why dont you try your powers on me? I am also curious to know whether your powers are effective on me or not?” When Lord Vishnu also insisted, Shiva hesitatingly tried His powers on Lord Brahma. He burnt Him down to ashes. As soon as He unleashed His powers, Lord Brahma disappeared and only a pile of ashes remained. Lord Shiva got worried, “What did I do? Now what will happen to the universe?” Lord Vishnu was smiling. His smile broadened when Shiva knelt down in remorse. When Lord Shiva was about to pick up the ashes in remorse, Lord Brahma reappeared from it. He said, “Mahadev, I have not gone anywhere. I am right here. See, my destruction resulted in creation of these ashes. And wherever there is a creation, I am there! Therefore I cannot be destroyed even by your powers.” Lord Vishnu smiled and said, “Mahadev, I am the protector of this universe. I want to see whether I can protect myself too from your powers. Please unleash your powers on me.” When Lord Brahma also insisted, Shiva burnt Vishnu down to ashes by His powers. There was a pile of ashes in place of God Vishnu but Vishnu’s voice was still there. His voice was coming from the ashes, “Mahadev, I am still here. Do not stop. Unleash your powers on the ashes too. Do not stop until every particle of the ashes is finished.” Lord Shiva intensified His powers. The ashes started reducing. Finally only a very small particle of the ashes remained. Even with all His powers, Lord Shiva could not burn the ashes further from that particle. Lord Vishnu reappeared from that particle of ashes and proved that He cannot be destroyed by Shiva. Lord Shiva thought in His mind, “I am convinced that I cannot destroy Brahma and Vishnu directly. But If I destroy myself, they will be destroyed automatically because If I am not there, there will be no destruction. Without destruction, creation cannot take place. When creation is not there, Brahma is not there. Without creation, there is no protection hence Vishnu will also disappear.” Brahma and Vishnu understood what Shiva was thinking. They smiled. Lord Shiva self destroyed Himself and it exactly happened the way He was thinking. As soon as He burnt Himself down to ashes, Brahma and Vishnu also turned into ashes. For a moment everything became dark. There was nothing except the eternal ashes of supreme three. From those eternal ashes, a voice emerged, “I am Brahma. I recognize that there is creation of the ashes. Where there is creation, I am there!” Thus first Lord Brahma appeared from the ashes and then Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva followed because creation is always followed by protection and destruction. Shiva realized that the supreme three are eternal and they cannot be destroyed. As a reminder of this incident, Lord Shiva put the eternal ashes (Bhasma) all over His body. Lord Hanuman told this story to Mathangs till Here only. But according to human understanding, we can say that the supreme three- Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva- appeared from the eternal ashes (Bhasma) which Shiva wears on His body. [This story is part of the conversations between Lord Hanuman and the tribal community when He came to visit them recently. Therefore this story first appeared on setu.asia , the official website of Setu Asia; the spiritual organization which is translating these conversations in modern languages. It also helps the devotees of mainstream society to participate in the powerful rituals performed by the ttribal community.] More on This Story
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 06:47:58 +0000
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