LALITHA SAHASRANAMAM 264-265

Srshti-kartri (264) From this nama till 274 the five actions of the Brahman are being discussed. Earlier the five stages of consciousness were discussed. Now the five acts of the Brahman are being described. Vak Devis have formulated this Sahasranamam in such a way that it talks about every aspect the Supreme Brahman (saguna form of the Brahman). If one could understand the meaning all the namas in this Sahasranamam, it is equivalent to knowing all the Upanishads. Bagavad Gita is yet another treasure in Self-realization and we will discuss about Gita, verse by verse once our discussion on this Sahasranamam is over. In this nama, the creative aspect (srshti) of the Brahman is referred. The creation happens out of Her tamo guna. (Every interpretation of this nama says that the creation happens out of rajo guna. Raja guna means action and disharmony. Tamo guna means inertia and delusion. The first point is that a creation cannot happen in disharmony. The condition for creation should be harmonious. Such a situation prevails only in tamo guna and not in rajo guna. The second point is that the God of creation Brahma is always associated with tamo guna. He is inactive and goes on creating living beings and writing Vedas. The third point is that the creation takes place from the golden egg known as ‘hiranyagarbha’ and an egg cannot be kinetic. Therefore, I am of the view that tamo guna is the cause for creation and not rajo guna.) We have already seen that the three main acts of the Brahman viz. creation, sustenance and destruction are represented by three forms of God viz. Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra. Though in reality these forms do not exist, lay man can understand the concept of the Brahman only through forms and attributes. But who is called a lay man? A man without the knowledge of the Brahman is a lay man. The knowledge of the Brahman becomes absolute only when one sheds the illusion of duality. Of course this happens over a period of time and in the initial stages of spirituality, one has to be associated with rituals, japa recitations, meditation, etc. The progress in spirituality has to be gradual, firm and steady. Soundarya Lahari verse 24 talks about the three actions of the Brahman. “Brahma creates this universe. Vishnu sustains it and Rudra destroys it. But Shiva holds these three Gods within and fades out. The Supreme Sadashiva absorbs Shiva into him and waits for the movement of eye brows (literally it means that She gives orders to Sadashiva by simply making movements of Her eye brows) to re-create, sustain etc.” Since all the forms of Gods merge into Her, it is said any God can be worshipped in Sri Chakra. Brahma-rupa (265) She is in the form of the God of creation Brahma. Brahma has four heads. The four heads could mean the components of anthakkaranam mind, intellect, will and ego. Without these four creation is not possible. There are many stories about Brahma’s four heads. He had five heads, possibly meaning the five elements or five pranas that are needed for creation. The fifth head was cut off by Shiva for having shown disrespect to him. There is yet another story which says that Brahma had split his body horizontally into two, a male and a female form (different from Arthanarishvara form of Shiva where Shiva’s body is split vertically). Brahma is said to be the great-grandfather, Vishnu the grandfather and Shiva the father of this universe.