Legend of God Brahma
God Brahma is not to be confused with the Supreme Soul of the Veda-s known as Brhmn.
Brahma Samhita 5.1 states:
“Krishna who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.”
God Brahma is the Hindu creator god and one of the Trimurti, the others being God Vishnu and God Shiva. God Brahma has 4 heads, 4 faces, and 4 arms. With each head, he continually recites the Veda-s which he had received from Aum, the Supreme Soul. After meditation Brahma created the universe and many living beings came there in 84,00,000 kinds of material bodies according to their past desires. He is the father of Manu, and from Manu all the human beings descended. God Brahma’s manas-putri is Saraswati. His wives are Savitri and Gayatri.
The temples of God Brahma are at:
- Pushkar and Asotra, both in Rajasthan state
- Thirunavaya and Thiruvallam in Kerala
- Uttamar Kovil in Srirangam, and one in Kumbakonam, both in Tamil Nadu
- Khedbrahma in Gujarat
Legend of God Vishnu
Bhagavata Purana lists 24 Avatara-s of God Vishnu. His different manifestations came to Earth to destroy wickedness.
Some of the important Vaishnava pilgrimages are at:
- Ayodhya, Mathura, and Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh
- Badarinatha in Uttarakhand
- Tirupati Balaji in Andhra Pradesh
- Dwaraka in Gujarat
- Padmanabha Swamy temple and Guruvayur in Kerala
- Jagannatha Puri in Odisha
Legend of jyotirlinga
As per Shiva Purana, once God Brahma and God Vishnu had an argument in terms of the supremacy of creation. To test them, God Shiva pierced the 3 worlds as a huge endless pillar of light, the jyotirlinga. Vishnu and Brahma split their ways downwards and upwards respectively to find the end of the light in either direction. Brahma lied that he found out the end, while Vishnu conceded his defeat. Shiva appeared as a second pillar of light and cursed Brahma that he would have no place in ceremonies while Vishnu would be worshipped till the end of eternity.
The jyotirlinga is the supreme reality, out of which Shiva partly appears. The linga represents the beginningless and endless, or the infinite nature of Sadashiva. Different manifestations of Shiva appeared at the 12 jyotirlinga sites:
- Bhimashankar, Triambakeshwar, and Grishneshwar, all in Maharashtra
- Somnath and Dwaraka-Nageshwar, both in Gujarat
- Mahakaleswar and Omkareshwar in Madhya Pradesh
- Mallikarjuna at Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh
- Kedarnath in Uttarakhand
- Vishwanath at Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh
- Vaidyanath at Deogarh in Jharkhand
- Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu
Shiva’s some other important pilgrimage places are:
- Panch Kedar in Uttarakhand
- Panch Kailash in Uttarakhand, Himachal, and Tibet
- Amarnath in Jammu and Kashmir
- Arunachalam in Tamil Nadu