Decoding Mythology: Defining "God"

Decoding Mythology: Brahma in Bangkok
Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik (author, speaker, illustrator, mythologist)
A form of [Vedic Brahmanism] exists in South East Asia. Fifty years ago, the construction of the Erawan Hotel in Thailand was in trouble.

Every stage of the construction was delayed, and it seemed as if everything was going wrong. The construction up country workers had an uncanny knack for sensing when something was wrong; they refused to work until something was done to appease the guardian spirits.

A distinguished local astrologer discovered that the foundation stone for the hotel was not laid at an auspicious time. To undo the damage, a shrine had to be constructed to the land spirit [bhumi deva]. This was done and the image installed in the shrine was that of the four faced Than Tao Mahaprom ("Great God") as it was the most auspicious and would counter the oversight with the foundation stone. With the shrine in place, the rest of the construction of the hotel was completed without a hitch.

Than Tao Mahaprom is believed to be a "god" [powerful extraterrestrial entity] full of kindness, mercy, sympathy, and impartiality [the four Brahma Viharas in Buddhism, so named because the Buddha said this is how the brahmas abide]. Each virtue is represented in the four faces of the image, radiating serene grace.

His name for most foreign visitors was too hard to remember let alone pronounce. So with time he came to be known as Erawan Shrine [vimana, or a platform, mouth, spacecraft, flying ship], named after his personal vehicle, the three-headed Erawan Elephant, who served as the mount of the Buddha after his enlightenment. In time, this shrine became famous for fulfilling the wishes of people. It became, and still is, a tourist magnet. More>>

Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand (Michael LaPalme/Flickr)

Defining "God": Brahmas in Buddhism
Wisdom Quarterly (ANALYSIS)
There is no ultimate "creator god" in Buddhism. People imagine that this means the Buddha did not talk about creative brahmas. These well-born beings are sometimes described in translation as divinities, deities, even glorious "gods."

In the sense of being powerful, wise, and creative (sometimes wielding power over the creations of others), there are "creator gods." What there is not -- and this is emphatic -- is a God who created the cosmos, who stands outside of karma, who is controlling everything, who is omniscient, omnipotent, or omnipresent.

While there is no such being, that is not to say there is no such state-of-consciousness. There is a non-dual state that gives rise to a sense of connectedness and Oneness, intuition, bliss, and even procreative power. There is "magic" and mysterious physics that trump our mundane theories.

We are linked, interacting, and completely interdependent even in our deluded sense of isolation.

The Buddha often (e.g., Metta Sutra) advised meditators to develop the four Brahma Viharas -- the "Divine Abidings," Sublime Attitudes, Immeasurable Expressions, or Universal Outlooks -- which we conjecture relate to Brahma's four faces. The Buddha explained that this is how the brahmas abide all the time, in the bliss and equanimity of absorption:

1. Universal loving-kindness (metta)
2. Unlimited compassion (karuna)
3. Infinite joy in the joy of others (mudita)
4. Immeasurable impartiality (upekkha)

Even a superficial practice is helpful. But the real benefits he described are attained by entering the meditative absorptions (jhanas) through the four portals. Learning these meditations is very good karma, and much merit (punya) is made by frequently practicing them. The Buddha was hard pressed to give a simile of how much merit was produced and what was to be gained from adopting these exalted and unbounded heart/mind states.

Furthermore, the Buddha described one being called Maha Brahma or "Great Brahma." This being, by virtue of good karma, is the first to be born at the beginning of a world system. This being -- who is not a "he" since the brahma world transcends sexual dimorphism and gender differentiation -- This being is in fact a station more than an individual; anyone may be born in this position given that one masters the absorptions and becomes able to enter these states through various means.

Ordinary good karma (keeping the Five Precepts) leads to rebirth as a human being in fortunate circumstances, not necessarily immediately after this life but when such karma has the opportunity to ripen and serve as death-proximate or rebirth-linking karma. It may also lead to "heavenly" states as a lower deva. Extraordinary good karma (keeping the Eight or Ten Precepts) leads to rebirth as a higher deva.

To become a brahma, it is essential to master at least the first absorption. A weak or unsteady attainment is sufficient -- if held at the time of passing -- to be reborn in the retinue of Maha Brahma. Interestingly, brahma means "supreme," and was widely used in the Buddha's time when the "religion," or pervasive dharma, in India was Vedic "Brahman-ism." (Brahman, the ultimate reality, is related but different from brahma, which is a kind of being).

Extraterrestrial devas honoring the more powerful Brahma (sanatansociety.org)

Lack of Brahma worship in India
Wisdom Quarterly Brahma Wikipedia edit
Although Brahmā is one of the three major gods or aspects of God in Hinduism, few Hindus actually worship this great being. India today has very few temples dedicated to Brahma, as opposed to the tens of thousands dedicated to the other two deities in the Trinity (Trimurti) that includes Vishnu and Shiva.

Among the few that exist today, the most famous is the temple in Pushkar in Rajasthan. The idol of Lord Brahma is often fully covered with turmeric every morning.

Various stories in Hindu mythology talk about curses that have supposedly prevented Brahma from being worshiped on Earth. Interestingly, the Bhavishya Purana states that, certain demons (daityas) had begun to worship Brahma.

Therefore, the celestial devas could not defeat them. In order to lead the demons away from such worship, Vishnu is said to have appeared on Earth as the Buddha and Jainism's Mahavira, who were contemporaries who rejected the Vedas and Vedic Brahmanism.

With various arguments Vishnu convinced the demons to abandon the practice. Having done so, they lost power and were hence defeated.

• One way to "worship" Brahma
  Paramahansa Yogananda, the founder of the Self Realization Fellowship, seems to indicate one way to invoke or honor Brahma through a Sanskrit hymn:

Brahm-ā-nan-dam
Pa-ra-ma su-kha-dam,
Ke-va-lam gyān-a murtim;
Dwan-dwā ti-tam,
Ga-ga-na sa-dri-sham,
Tat-twa ma-syā-di lak-shyam
E-kam ni-tyam
Vi-ma-lam a-cha-lam,
Sar-va-dhi sā-kshi bhu-tam;
Bhā-vā ti-tam tri-gu-na ra-hi-tam,
Sad-gu-rum-tam na-mā-mi.

• The translation of this mantra is: "Full of bliss, giving joy transcendent, of higher knowledge the abode; dual no more, clear as the heavens, known to all as 'Thou art That.' [Brahmā] is pure, permanent, unmoving, the everlasting seer of all; far, far beyond qualities and thought, guru, I bow to thee."

The Bhavishya Purana lays out that altogether giving up the worship of Brahma was unacceptable in Hinduism. This is because Brahma signifies a personification or manifestation of Brahman (GOD or godhood).

According to a story in the Shiva Purana, at the beginning of [yet another cycle of] cosmic time, Vishnu and Brahma approached a huge Shiva linga and set out to find its beginning and end.

Vishnu was appointed to seek the end, Brahma the beginning. Taking the form of a boar, Vishnu began digging downwards into the Earth, while Brahma took the form of a swan and began flying upwards.

However, neither could find what they sought. Vishnu, satisfied, came up to Shiva and bowed to him as a true form (svarupa) of Brahman. Brahma did not give up so easily. As he was going up, he saw a ketaki flower dear to Shiva. His ego forced him to ask the flower to bear false witness about the discovery of Shiva's beginning. When Brahma told his tale, Shiva the "all-knowing," was angered by this display of ego and thus cursed him that no being in the three worlds will worship him.

According to another legend, Brahma is not worshipped due to a curse by the great sage Brahmarishi Bhrigu. It is said that the high priest Bhrigu was organizing a great fire sacrifice (yajna) on Earth. It was decided that the greatest among all gods would be made the presiding deity.

Bhrigu then set off into space to find the greatest among the Trinity. When he went to Brahma, the god was so immersed in the music played by Saraswati that he could hardly hear Bhrigu's calls. The enraged Bhrigu then cursed Brahma that no person on Earth would ever invoke him or worship him again.

In the Brahma Purana and Hindu cosmology, Brahma is regarded as the creator but not necessarily as God. Rather, he is regarded as a creation of Brahman.

The lifespan of Brahma is 100 brahmā years, equivalent to 311,040,000,000,000 solar years (311 trillion and 40 billion Earth years). At the end of his lifespan, there is a gap of 100 brahmā years, after which another Brahma or creator [since it a just a station not a unique individual] begins the process of creation anew. This cycle is thought to repeat without end.

Anti-India sentiment grows amid Kashmir unrest

Policemen chase demonstrators during victory celebrations in Jammu 8/31/08. Hindus in Indian Kashmir called off their two-month protest after the government allowed them temporary use of land at the center of a religious dispute for an annual pilgrimage, officials said (Reuters/Amit Gupta).

Indian paramilitary frisks the bag of a woman during curfew in downtown Srinagar, India, 9/1/08. Authorities in Indian Kashmir relaxed a nine-day curfew allowing residents to buy food and other supplies as protests demanding an end to Indian rule continued in Muslim-majority areas of the state (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan).

Aijaz Hussain and Matthew Rosenberg (AP, 8/22/08)

SRINAGAR, India -- The crowd's hostility was unmistakable. Each time they passed Indian soldiers, thousands chanted the name of one of South Asia's most violent Islamic groups.

"India, your death will come. Lashkar will come," they chanted, harking back to the early 1990s when militants from groups like Lashkar-e-Tayyaba roamed this predominantly Muslim region's towns and villages and even Kashmir's peaceful separatists openly defied New Delhi.

Those days seem more like the present than the past in Kashmir, where a dispute over 99 acres of land for a Hindu shrine has prompted protests by hundreds of thousands, reviving the separatist movement and threatening to further undermine the India-Pakistan peace process.

While the militants may still be underground, a new generation of Muslim Kashmiris has loudly taken up the separatists' old slogan of "azadi" — freedom — from Hindu-majority India, long viewed by many here as an occupying power.

The latest and largest protest came Friday as an estimated 200,000 people streamed into central Srinagar, shutting down this city once famed for its cool summer weather and sweeping Himalayan panoramas.

They chanted "Death to India!" and "We want freedom!" while soldiers and police kept their distance, hoping to avoid a repeat of clashes that have killed at least 34 people in recent weeks.

Such scenes have pierced the notion, widely held throughout India just months ago, that a semblance of normal life was returning to Kashmir after 19 years of rebellion. Militant attacks were down, separatist politicians appeared sidelined, and tourists were back lounging on houseboats on Srinagar's Dal Lake.

That is all gone now, pushed aside by the anger at Indian rule that many here say was subsumed but never extinguished.

"This is a freedom movement, a people's movement," said Salman Ahmed, a 27-year-old protester. "We are united to fight India until we get freedom."

Supporters of Pakistani largest Islamic group Jamaat-e-Islami take part in a rally to condemn alleged government atrocities in Indian-controlled Kashmir, 8-31-08 in Lahore, Pakistan. Hundreds of the supporters an Islamic group rallied in Lahore to express solidarity with Indian Kashmiri Muslims and against the target killing of the leaders of All Parties Hurriyat Conference in Indian controlled Kashmir (AP Photo/K.M.Chaudary).

The timing could not be worse. Divided between India and Muslim Pakistan, Kashmir lies at the heart of their rivalry. The unrest is straining already tense relations between the nuclear-armed neighbors, who have fought two wars over Kashmir.

Statements from Islamabad supporting the protesters have prompted angry responses from New Delhi. They've also raised suspicions of a Pakistani hand in the unrest, reflecting India's belief that recent political turmoil in Pakistan is allowing hawkish elements there to renew the struggle against India after four years of peace talks.

Such fears are being stoked by repeated skirmishes along the heavily militarized frontier that divides Kashmir — each side blames the other — and the bombing of India's embassy in Afghanistan, an attack New Delhi charges was orchestrated by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency. Islamabad vehemently denies the allegations.

One top Indian security official, A.K. Mitra, chief of the paramilitary Border Security Force, recently told reporters that the ISI plans to use the unrest to sneak 800 Islamic militants into Kashmir.

But on the streets of Kashmir, it is India's continued claim to the region — and the presence of an estimated 500,000 Indian soldiers — that is seen as the problem.

"We are a separate people, we were never part of India," Shabir Hussain, a 30-year-old protester in Srinagar, said Friday.

It's a widely shared sentiment, and its roots can be traced to 1947, when Britain gave independence to its Indian colony by dividing it into largely Hindu India and overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan.

Kashmir, then technically a British protectorate and not a part of colonial India, was caught in the middle. Its Hindu king insisted he wanted to remain independent, dithering until tribal raiders attacked from Pakistan. When he asked New Delhi for help, there was a steep price: union with India.

War broke out between India and Pakistan, and the verdant Kashmir valley, the region's heart, ended up under Indian rule.

In the ensuing decades, separatist movements ebbed and flowed in Indian Kashmir, where the sight of soldiers on patrol became part of everyday life, fueling resentment.

Most of the separatist movements were peaceful until 1989, when Islamic insurgents took up arms hoping to win independence for India's part of Kashmir or see it merged with Pakistan. The rebellion has killed an estimated 68,000 people, most of them civilians.

Few Kashmiris blame the militants for the deaths. "The Indian army has unleashed a reign of terror in Kashmir," said Nissar Ahmed, a 35-year-old government worker. "This is a reaction and response to their atrocities."

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Demonstrators run towards police during a protest in Jammu 8/30/08. The protest was against the government's backing down from the transfer of forest land to a Hindu shrine trust (Reuters/Amit Gupta).

The spark for the latest unrest was a plan to transfer land to the Amarnath shrine — a cave to which millions of Hindu pilgrims flock every year to see a phallic-shaped icicle revered as an incarnation of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and regeneration.

Authorities said bathrooms and shelters for the devotees were going to be built on the land. But Muslims alleged the land transfer would alter the religious balance in the region, comparing the move to Israeli settlements in the West Bank and prompting authorities to scrap the plan.

That, in turn, sparked protests in Jammu, the region's only Hindu-majority city, which were countered by more protests in Muslim-dominated areas such as Srinagar.

While Hindus are still protesting in Jammu, it is the Muslim demonstrations that have taken center stage, threatening India's grip on its only Muslim majority state.

"The peace process between India and Pakistan failed to change the ground situation in Kashmir," said Noor Mohammed Baba, a professor at the University of Kashmir.

"Now this festering wound is manifesting itself on the streets. This is a mass uprising and in many ways more serious and comprehensive than the early 1990s."

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Associated Press writers Aijaz Hussain reported this story from Srinagar and Matthew Rosenberg from New Delhi.