Brahma

Brahma's most famous stories

• Who's Who of Indian Mythology Part 1: The podcast's introduction to the Trimurti, Brahma's four heads, his swan, and the strange story of his fifth head.
• Valmiki and the Story Behind the Ramayana: Brahma appears to the sage Valmiki and asks him to write the story of Rama in the verse form he has just invented.
• Vishwamitra vs Vasishtha: After almost a thousand years of effort, Brahma himself declares Vishwamitra a Brahma Rishi, the highest rank of sage.
• Hanuman Special Part 2: When Indra strikes a little monkey boy out of the sky, Brahma revives him, names him Hanuman, and grants him immunity from all weapons.
• Prahlad and Narasimha: Brahma grants Hiranyakashipu a boon that makes him almost impossible to kill, which sets up Vishnu's wildest avatar.
• Varaha: A tiny boar jumps out of Brahma's nose and grows bigger than a mountain to lift the Earth out of the ocean.
• Tulsi and Shankhachuda: Brahma grants Tulsi her wish to marry Vishnu, gives Shankhachuda Krishna's golden armor, and then plays matchmaker.
• Matsya and the Great Flood: At the end of his long day Brahma yawns, the Vedas slip out of his mouths, and a demon steals them into the deep ocean.

Why Brahma keeps granting wishes

In almost every Brahma story, someone sits in the forest or on a mountain and prays until the heavens shake. Brahma is the god who answers that kind of effort. Hiranyakashipu, Ravana, and the asura brothers Sunda and Upasunda all got their boons this way. Brahma does keep one rule, though: nobody can be made immortal. Everything that is born must end. So the clever ones ask for loopholes instead, like "no god, man or beast can kill me, not inside or outside, not by day or by night." Vishnu's answer to that loophole is the man-lion Narasimha.

The same generosity has a kind side. Brahma blessed Valmiki with the first poem, Vishwamitra with the title he had worked a thousand years for, and baby Hanuman with the strength to survive anything. In the podcast he is the god of second chances and finished homework.

Fun facts about Brahma

• A single day in Brahma's life lasts more than four million of our years, so his calendar is a little different from ours.
• His vehicle is Hansa, a swan or goose that the stories say can tell right from wrong.
• The Brahmastra, the most feared weapon in the epics, and the Brahmadanda, the staff Vasishtha used to absorb it, both carry his name because they hold his creative energy.
• Brahma has very few temples today. One famous one stands at Pushkar in Rajasthan. The podcast tells one story behind that: a curse from Saraswati after their marriage fell apart.