Brahma

Brahma. As a neuter noun, in Hindu theology, the word signifies the world-spirit, eternal, all-pervading and infinite, out of which all things proceed, and into which they are eventually resolved. It is not worshipped, but is an object of that meditation practised by Hindu sages, with a view to their ultimate reabsorption into it. As a masculine noun, Brahma signifies the first person of the Hindu Trimurti or Trinity, the Creator, as contrasted with Vishnu the preserver, and Siva, the destroyer, who destroys in order that he may reproduce. According to one account this personal Brahma arose from the water which was the first of existences: according to another, he came from a golden egg deposited by the impersonal Brahma, the world-spirit. Each day of his life lasts 2,160,000 years. At the beginning of every such day he creates the world, which, at its close, is resolved into its elements. Next day he creates it afresh, and so on till the end of his life of 100 years. Then, together with the gods and sages, who have survived the preceding destructions, and with Brahma himself, it is resolved into the original world-spirit. Brahma is especially the father of mankind, whom he begat by his own daughter Saraswati (Speech). He is represented as red in colour, with four heads and four arms. He is invoked in worship, but is not worshipped himself, except at Pokhar, near Ajmir, in Rajputana. Indeed, some of his attributes and most of the honours paid him seem to have been transferred in the course of time to Vishnu and Siva. Thus some accounts treat him as a mere form of Vishnu, and he is sometimes said to have sprung from a lotus flower which grew from the navel of that deity.