Brahma

According to the other there have always existed two principles the one material but without form the other spiritual and capable of compelling inert matter to develop its sensible properties.

This development of matter into individual and visible existences is called creation and is assigned to a subordinate agent or the creative faculty of the supreme being embodied in the person of Brahma.

In the first chapter of the Ordinances of Menu above alluded to we meet with the following passages relating to former destructions and renovations of the world.

The being whose powers are incomprehensible having created me Menu and this universe again became absorbed in the supreme spirit changing the time of energy for the hour of repose.

The being supremely exalted performs all this with as much ease as if in sport again and again for the sake of conferring happiness.

No part of the eastern cosmogony from which these extracts are made is more interesting to the geologist than the doctrine so frequently alluded to of the reiterated submersion of the land beneath the waters of a universal ocean.

ocean.In the beginning of things, we are told, the first sole cause, quote, with a thought created the waters, end quote, and then moved upon their surface in the form of Brahma the Creator, by whose agency the emergence of the dry land was effected, and the peopling of the earth with plants, animals, celestial creatures, and man.

Afterwards, as often as a general conflagration at the close of each Manvantara had annihilated every visible and existing thing, Brahma, on awakening from his sleep, finds the whole world a shapeless ocean.

As with Rama and Krishna, these are divine descents with a purpose, to restore dharma in a world gone astray.

For example, the Bhagavata Purana includes a dramatic story of Vishnu descending as a fish to rescue the Vedas, which were stolen from the creator Brahma by a demon.

Looking at the ten manifestations of the Dushavatara, some Hindus noticed what appeared to be an evolutionary progression.

And in the 1800s, they developed a belief that scholars call avataric evolutionism, the belief that the ten avatars of Vishnu parallel and foreshadow the modern theory of Darwinian evolution.

Now, the Buddha is not included in all lists of Vishnu's avataras, and he seems to be a late addition, added around 550 CE, if not later.

But his status as an avatar is widespread and is mentioned in several different texts.

But why would Vishnu descend as the Buddha, someone who denied the existence of Brahman? the Hindu concept of the supreme reality, the source of all knowing and being, someone who denied the divine origins of the Vedas.

Well, there is some controversy, and Hindus throughout history have offered different theories.

They did everyone a favor.

Tato'ham megha-sankasha stapt-kanchan-kundalah balidatta-varodar-pada-jagam tada-ashramam tena drishtaḥ pravishṭo'ham saha saivodyata yuddhah matu drishtva dhanuḥ sajyam asambhram taschakar saha Quote, Then I, resembling a cloud and having molten golden earrings, made my way into Vishvamitra's ashram, for I was very proud of my strength due to the boon given to me by Lord Brahma.

As soon as I entered, Rama quickly noticed me and raised his weapon.

Though he saw me, Rama strung his bow without any fear.

yeah so in one of the questions that i i asked myself was Do I need to translate everything or can I leave certain words in their original form? So let's take the word Maya, for example.

Do you need to translate the word Maya and explain everything or do you just leave it as it is? And in my sort of various iterations, I realized there were certain words I didn't want to translate, like Shiva, Brahma.

I'm not going to translate them.

They just, they're the gopis, you know? So there's certain things like that.

And I think this is so important.

We really downplay what the gurus did.

The gurus were actively targeted and challenged when they were doing their work and saying, how dare you teach Brahmavidya, the divine knowledge, in a language that is inferior? How dare you do it not in Sanskrit, which is the only language that's good enough for this? And the Guru's response, I think Guru Amardas Ji says something very beautiful.

He says, Sanskrit is like an ocean.

But a lot of these characters offer something that is really very different.

The Pantheon of the Vedas and the Pantheon of Brahma, these are some very different ways of looking at the world.

Not only do you have some incredibly fascinating art style... and representations for some of these beings.

Every single one of these beings seems to have multiple arms, for example.

And part of the explanation here is.

is because the Greek gods encountered the Indian gods and they battled with each other.

And Zeus and Brahma did not quite agree with each other.

And they just decided, all right, we're going to go off in our own directions.

Yoga is a deeply spiritual practice, right? And there is no fixed definition of God in the Yoga Sutra.

It doesn't say Krishna, Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma.

It doesn't give a name.

It just says Ishvara, which has a sense of choice and agency.