The demigods ask Brahma for help

The demigods ask Brahma for help

Often, when there is a problem that can’t be solved by ordinary means, the demigods travel to Satyaloka and pray to Lord Brahma for help. Sometimes, Brahma knows the solution to the problem and directly helps the demigods; at other times, he brings the problem to the final hierarchical level, taking the demigods with him to the shore of the milk ocean to pray to Lord Viṣṇu.

One of these cases when the demigods approached Brahma was during the crisis created by Hiranyaksa and Hiranyakashipu when they were still inside the womb.

It happened that when Diti understood that her sons were two powerful demons who would cause great suffering all over the universe, Diti started postponing their birth, keeping them inside her womb for 100 years. However, despite Diti’s efforts, Hiranyaksa and Hiranyakashipu started creating trouble even from inside the womb, by blocking the light of both the sun and the moon. In this way, the whole universe was plunged into darkness. The demigods were deeply disturbed by the darkness and went to Lord Brahma: “What is this expansion of darkness in all directions?” “Please look upon us mercifully, for we have fallen into a miserable condition; because of the darkness, all our work has been suspended.”

In their prayers to Brahma, they mentioned that “the influence of time cannot touch you”, “you know the intentions of all living entities, in both the spiritual and material worlds”, “O original source of strength and scientific knowledge”, “you are the cause of this universe”, and so on. These are praises that describe qualities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, which do not directly apply to Lord Brahma.

This is consistent with other passages of the Puranas, where other demigods, such as Surya, are also addressed as the Supreme Lord. The reason is that such great personalities are empowered by the Lord, and thus the prayers address them as representatives of the Lord, stating that the potency of the Lord manifests through them. In these prayers, Brahma is not being addressed as an ordinary demigod, but as an empowered incarnation. This is similar to what we can observe in the prayers to King Prthu, later in the Srimad Bhagavatam. Prthu is a saktyavesa avatara, an empowered incarnation, but he is also referred to as being the Supreme Lord, just as Brahma in this passage.

These prayers reveal more details about the position of Lord Brahma:

a) Brahma is a guna-avatara, the incarnation of the Lord who takes charge of the mode of passion. Brahma is normally a jiva, but sometimes, when there is no qualified jiva to occupy the post, the Lord Himself becomes Brahma.

b) The is tri-kāla jña, being able to see past, present, and future. In other words, the whole history of the universe is known to Brahma since the beginning.

c) Brahma is the head of all demigods, and thus, although he is not directly omniscient, it is not dificult for him to understand all that happens over the cosmos.

d) Brahma is called avyakta-yonaye, because he is born from the unmanifested, the Supreme Lord. “Unmanifested” in this case doesn’t mean He doesn’t have a form or doesn’t exist, but just that He has no material form. In this context, Brahma is also called “Aja” (unborn), not because he was not born, but because he has no material father, being born directly from the Lord.

e) The Vedas were originally transmitted to Brahma, who in turn spread this knowledge through the universe with the help of his sons. The injunctions of the Vedas thus control the inhabitants of different planets of the universe, just like a bull is controlled by a rope that passes through the ring pierced through his nose. No one can be happy in this life or the next without following the instructions of the Vedas.

Being pleased with the prayers from the demigods, Brahma proceeded to explain the origin of these two great demons who were inside the womb of Diti. In reality, they were none other than the two extremely powerful gatekeepers of Lord Narayana in Vaikunta, Jaya and Vijaya, who had been cursed by the four Kumaras to take birth in this material world.

Brahma described that because the Kumaras are so pure, they can travel through the different planets of the universe and even to the spiritual world. Once, they went all the way to the Vaikunta-lokas.

There, they could see that all inhabitants have similar forms to the Supreme Lord, with four hands, and are engaged in devotional service without desire for sense gratification. In fact, there are no other engagements there apart from serving the Lord, and through this service, all desires are satisfied.

The Vaikunta planets are also completely free from passion and ignorance. Everything there is spiritual and personal, and the forests are full of desire trees. Just like Lord Vishnu has Lakshmi Devi as His consort, the other inhabitants can be seen in the company of their wives. Just like the men look like Lord Vishnu, the ladies look like Lakshmi. They travel in spiritual airplanes singing the glories of the Lord, and although they are all extremely beautiful, there is no sexual attraction between them. Their relationships are pure and centered on service to the Lord.

In the Vaikunta, there is no difference between the human residents and the animal residents. They are all perfect souls who take different forms according to their relationship and service to the Lord. Just as the associates of the Lord, all birds, bees, and other beings, constantly sing the glories of the Lord. Sometimes one stops singing to hear the other. Not only the animals but also the plants are fully conscious, and there is no envy between these different inhabitants.

Brahma concluded his narration by describing that although the abode of the Lord is so wonderful, materialistic people, as well as impersonalists, are not interested in hearing about it, preferring instead to talk about mundane topics and mental speculation. According to Brahma, such people are thrown into the darkest region of ignorance.

Brahma explained that human life is so important and valuable that even he desires to be born as a human being on Earth because, in the human form, one can easily obtain perfection. In the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, we hear that Lord Brahma had the opportunity of taking birth on Earth during the pastimes of Lord Caitanya as Srila Haridasa Thakura, giving the perfect example of a Vaishnava. It is said that the human form is like a boat that can cross the material ocean. The spiritual master is the captain of the boat, and the instructions of the scriptures are like favorable winds. Not to take advantage of such facilities is like committing suicide.

In this way, Brahma wanted to make the demigods aware of the glories of the supreme abode and of its inhabitants, and at the same time inspire them to seriously practice the process of devotional service to eventually reach there. Typically, demigods have to go through a very long path before they can go back to Godhead, remaining as demigods for the whole reign of Manu (306.72 million years), then being promoted to Maharloka and from there gradually progressing to the higher planetary systems, and only eventually, after an extremely long period, finally going back to Godhead. Brahma emphasized, however, that there is a faster way.

Brahma was aware that the Lord was going to appear soon to deal with the demons, and shared this with the demigods. In this case, there was nothing to do; the demigods would have to be patient and avoid fighting with the two demons until the Lord appeared. Apart from the Lord, no one could fight them.

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