The God of all creation, Lord Brahma has a very unique relationship with Mahadev as per many ancient scriptures & pauranik stories. In some of them, Brahma is portrayed as the devotee of Lord Shiva whereas in others Brahma is portrayed by his ego of knowledge. Though many of us know the story of Brahma getting the curse of not being worshipped, very few know the devotional relationship between Lingaraj & Brahma.
गुरुर्ब्रह्मा ग्रुरुर्विष्णुः गुरुर्देवो महेश्वरः ।
गुरुः साक्षात् परं ब्रह्म तस्मै श्री गुरवे नमः ॥
Meaning: Guru is Brahma, Guru is Vishnu, Guru is Shankara; salute to the Guru who is the real Supreme Brahman.
Besides this one shloka that we were taught in our early stage of education, there is very little interaction of Lord Brahma in mythological stories & folklore. The concept of the Trinity is there in all forms of transcriptions of Vedas & Puranas. However, the involvement of Lord Brahma in human/earthly affairs is quite less than the other two Gods, i.e Vishnu & Shiva. There is a story that claims that Lord Brahma, due to his ego & false acclaim has been cursed by Lord Shiva to never be worshipped.
The story is interpreted keeping the Shaivite belief of Shiva being the centre of the Universe in focus. As the story goes, in the early stage of the Universe, Lord Brahma & Lord Vishnu underwent a challenge to prove who is the mightiest & most powerful among them. During their disagreement, a fire born from the Shunya (meaning ‘Space’ in Purana) rose high & took the form of a lingam, expanding itself vertically beyond heaven & earth. The two gods decided to find one of the source ends of the pillar & decide their mightiness by discovering the end first. Lord Brahma took his Vahan (mount) Swan & flew upwards whereas Lord Vishnu took the form of Varaha and started going down the earth to find the lower end.
After going for miles & miles, both of them failed to find the end of either side of the glowing pillar. Lord Vishnu accepted his failed attempt & came back to the surface. While going up, Brahma saw a Ketaki flower, dear to Shiva, floating down. Ketaki told Lord Brahma that she had been present since the beginning of the creation, but was unable to know about the origin of the ‘Pillar of fire’ & advised Lord Brahma against making any effort in that direction which will be of no use.
Surrendering to his ego, Lord Brahma asked Ketaki to be his false witness that Brahma has found the top of the pillar. Ketaki agreed to it. When Brahma claimed his victory infront of Vishnu, Lord Shiva emerged from the fiery pillar & discarded his claim. However, he was pleased with Lord Vishnu’s honesty & accorded him the same status as his own. With anger, Lord Shiva opened his third eye & from it manifested ‘Bhairava’ & ordered him to kill Lord Brahma. Bhairava severed the fifth head of Lord Brahma with his sword. Seeing the miserable state of Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu took pity on him & requested Lord Shiva to have mercy on him. Shiva cursed both Brahma to never be worshipped on earth and Ketaki to never be used in holy & religious rituals.
When both Brahma & Ketaki begged for forgiveness, Lord Shiva allowed Brahma to be the presiding deity of all the yagnya whereas Ketaki was allowed to be used during Shiva Puja once a year, i.e on Mahashivaratri.
As per the legends of Ekamra, Lord Brahma came to the coronation ceremony of Lord Lingaraj as the head of Brahman. Everyone requested Brahma to stay in Ekamra to which he couldn’t agree. However, he promised to come every year on Rukuna Ratha Jatra & be the charioteer for Lord Lingaraj. The Brahma Temple near the banks of Bindusagar is built to commemorate Lord Brahma’s arrival in Ekamra Kshetra. Jagati, the temple situated in the middle of Bindusagar is often rendered Brahma Temple by the locals.
Do you know any other stories behind the relationship between Brahma & Shiva? Let us know in the comment section below.
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