Brahma Kapalam- Story of Lord Brahma's 5th Head
When one comes across statues of the Hindu God Brahma, the God of Creation, he is dripping in symbolism. Brahma is unique in that he has four faces and four hands. He often carries a book and prayer beads. In all Hindu sculpture the things the gods carry; weapons, books, bowls, the amount of faces and arms the god has, how they wear their clothes, the crown or jewelry they wear each have symbolic meaning going back centuries to the origins of Hinduism. Lord Brahma the creator is no different
Brahma’s Four Hands: Brahma's four hands symbolize each of the four Vedas: Rig, Sama, Yajuh, and Atharva. The Vedas are a body of ancient Sanskrit texts originating in India.
Brahma’s Four Faces: Brahma has four faces that point in the four main directions north, south, east, and west. In a more figurative sense they represent the more virtuous qualities of the mind, intellect, ego, and self-confidence.
Brahma, the creator of the universe, is depicted as having four heads, though originally he had five.
In Hindu mythology, when Brahma was creating the universe, he made a female deity known as Shatarupa (literally śata-rūpā, she of a hundred beautiful forms). According to the Matsya Purana, Shatarupa was known by different names, including Satarupa, Sandhya, or Brahmi. Brahma created a woman named “Shatarupa” to help him with his job of creation.
Brahma made a beautiful woman and named her Satarupa. But Shatarupa was so beautiful that Brahma became completely infatuated with her and stared at her wherever she went. Shatarupa was embarrassed by this attention and tried to escape his gaze, but in every direction that she moved, Brahma sprouted a new head until he had developed four. The frustrated Shatarupa became desperate and began to jump to try to escape his gaze. This prompted Brahma to sprout yet another head on top of the others in order to keep her in sight.
Lord Shiva, the destroyer, was watching all this and Brahma's actions greatly angered him. He felt that as Brahma had created Satarupa, she was like his daughter and it was his duty to protect her.
He felt that it was wrong on Brahma's part to be in love with her and to teach him a lesson Shiva struck off Brahma's fifth head. It is said that Shiva admonished Brahma for his “unholy” behavior towards Shatarupa and chopped off his fifth head as punishment. Brahma had given into the cravings of the flesh and abandoned the work of the soul and for this Shiva’s curse was that people should not worship Brahma.
He did it for good. The 4 heads of Brahma represent 4 Yuga's knowledge of 4 Vedas.
Fornext time do you all want to know What is difference between Shiva and Shiv? One is Lingam and other is Human form? If you want to know such other Hindu Mythological Facts tell me in comments below ...
