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Author: Victor Epand
Even in this world most of the believers in God lament and pray to God when they are in trouble and they forget to worship Him when they are living comfortably. The mentality is the same among the demigods. The level of enjoyment is so high in the heavenly planets that the demigods forget to worship God. They realize their precarious position when the demons attack them and take over the heavenly planets. At that time they run to Lord Vishnu for help. When they offer heartfelt prayers to Lord Vishnu and beg Him, the Lord would finally say a few words of encouragement. A similar situation emerged when Hiranyakashipu overtook heavens. He was on the throne of Indra, the king of heavens. All the demigods including the sage Narada were praising Hiranyakashipu.
One may ask why he was praised. The reason is that when there is low resistance, the enemy calms down. That was the technique they used to pacify Hiranyakashipu. The oppression went on until Lord Narasimha appeared and killed the demon.
The demigods can also be devious sometimes, especially Indra. Whenever someone on earth would engage in staunch austerities the demigods would start to panic. They fear that they might lose their position due to the power of the austerity. In this way they devise plans to disturb the meditation of the aspirant.
The demigods have unbelievable opulence. They have women known as the apsaras who dance and entertain them in different ways. They drink a kind of intoxicant called the soma rasa and in this way they get drunk. But there are also higher demigods who stay away from these. Lord Shiva cannot be considered a demigod. His position is between the marginal and spiritual potency of Krishna. In the Brahma Samhita Lord Shiva is referred to as no different from Krishna, just like milk and yogurt. Krishna is compared to milk from which Lord Shiva, yogurt, came. There is also Lord Brahma. He is known as the great grandfather for he is the first living entity in this universe.
Lord Shiva is very austere. He lives on mount Kailash. He has no house or any such shelter. He has got animal skins as clothes, skulls and bones around his neck and on his chest. He has got serpents wrapped around the neck and ghosts and spirits as followers. The amazing thing is that his wife, goddess Durga, is the personification of material nature and she can provide any type of comfort to her husband. But still, as a pure vaishnava, Lord Shiva lives a simple existence. After all, he is "vaishnavanam yata sambhu". He is the greatest vaishnava. As such he sets the example that real happiness doesn't lie in material enjoyment but in devotional service to Lord Krishna. Lord Shiva uses his time to meditate on his Lord, Sri Krishna.
Victor Epand is an expert consultant for Krishna art, religious gifts from India, and Hare Krishna
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Brahma has four face though only three can be seen. He has matted hair, wears a pointed beard and the eyes are usually closed in meditation. He has four hands which may hold a variety of objects such as a rosary, a water-pot, a book (the Vedas), a sceptre, a spoon, a bow or a lotus. Sometimes two of his hands may be in a boon-giving and protective attitudes. His four faces represent the four Vedas and the four hands the four directions. The rosary which he is counting represents time. The whole universe evolves out of water, therefore Brahma carries water in the water-pot.
He may wear a tigerskin or the skin of a black antelope as a garment and the sacred cord over his left shoulder. If coloured, he is pink or red. He is sometimes shown riding the goose, or sitting in the lotus position in a chariot being pulled by seven swans. The swan which is the symbol of knowledge, is his vehicle.
In the Rig-Veda the word Brahman (or Brahma) was used to indicate the mysterious power contained in sacred utterances. Later, this was associated with the skill of the priest who spoke the 'words' and he was described as a Brahmin. In the Upanishads, by a further development, this power was regarded as being universal and forming the elemental matter from which everything (including the gods themselves) originally emerged. Eventually this supreme creative spirit became fully personalized under the name of Brahma.
Since this idea is linked with the origin of the universe, it was inevitable that Brahma should become associated with Hindu cosmogony. Many legends grew, particularly in the later texts, surrounding the connection with the origin and control of the universe. In one of them the supreme soul and self-existent lord created the waters of the earth and deposited in them a seed which became the golden egg, out of which He was born as Brahma. According to other texts, he became a boar who raised the earth from the primeval waters and thus created the world. He is described as assuming the appearance of a fish or a tortoise at the beginning of the ages. In much later developments of Hindu mythology these aspects are attributed to Vishnu and Brahma assumes a secondary role. His worship slowly declined and has not been widespread since the 6th century
Images of Brahma are still made. Many temples include one somewhere in their scheme of sculptural decoration, although it is only in extremely rare cases that he occupies the position of the main icon. In the whole of India there are very few temples of Brahma. There is one at Pushkar, near Ajmer (Rajasthan) and another in Orissa.
In Hindu cosmology the basic cycle which through the cosmos, passes through all eternity, is the Kalpa or the Day of Brahma, equivalent to 4320 million years. A night is of equal length, and 360 days and nights of this duration form one year of Brahma's life. This is expected to last 100 years.HANDICRAFTS
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