Shivoham Vs. Aham Bramhasmi

In Hinduism single God Parabrahma divided Himself into 330 million creators of major Galaxies . The 3 nearby galaxy creators are Gods Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma ( Later as Ganesha ) of Milky way, Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies resp . All creator Gods are self contained like the prime God. Their major creations are stars in billions and planets from the cosmic dust . The position of these 3 Gods in the universe and where and when to see them is well documented and very close to the science.

On the right side Milky way galaxy. Small Triangulum orbiting Andromeda galaxy (Photo from Wikipedia) Some people may doubt whether they are inert objects of nature . So far the science is not able to penetrate and see what is in these massive center black holes and from where so much mass is coming out to form the stars which themselves have abundant mass and energy . They seems to have infinite density and no light can escape from it . In Hinduism these facts are brought out and tells further that all the stars and planets and humans have been made with the same elements.

That is the reason in Hinduism you can pray to God through any medium or no medium since God is in everything . In some medium He brings Himself out in energy form and they get special attention like in Sun , some stones , some hills, fire etc. Shiva is the subtle infinite omnipresent “energy”, the source of our consciousness, the substrate on which all material cycles (birth-death-rebirth) manifest. Brahma is the “layer” of pure knowledge that we can experience in the higher states of consciousness when we attempt to access the ultimate reality through practices.

Brahma is perfect knowledge. That is to say, Brahma is the essence of Vishnu. Or in other words, the essence of the ultimate reality is knowledge. And all inspired knowledge is derived from perfect knowledge. There is no known language in which perfect knowledge or “scripture” can be expressed. The best we can do with language, is to express our knowledge, thoughts and feelings from that experience. It is this body of valid knowledge that is referred to as the Veda.

When we speak about the difference between Brahma and Shiva (and Vishnu) we actually do not speak about the “difference” between them as such. We speak about particular (different) human cognitive attitudes (in their complexity) towards the phenomenon of projection of universe. The ancient sages were observing universe and came to conclusions about how the universe was projected, how is it existing and how is it coming to its fulfillment (of all possible projections) and how this everything is going on in circles. The sages reflected the reality and described it by “personifications” of eternal laws and truths.

It is mentioned in the Bhagavatam that sage Atri did lot of penance to find out the one single God, who alone is doing creation, maintenance and destruction of the world in contrary to the concept that Brahma, the Creator; Vishnu, the Ruler and Shiva, the Destroyer are separate personalities doing these three works independently. Atri did not accept these three separate personalities and hence, all the three were united to appear as the original single God. This single God was born as the three sons of Atri indicating that one single God appeared as the three divine personalities separately.

The story says further that the Moon gave His divinity of Brahma and Durvasa gave His divinity of Shiva to Dattatreya and went away. Since then, Dattatreya is treated as the single personality in whom all the three personalities co-exist. Now, the definition of God given by the Veda is fulfilled since one God only is doing all these three works (Yatova imaani bhutaani) and the God is not divided into three but remains as one single God only (Ekamevaadvitiyam...). This means that same one unimaginable God is appearing as three separate Gods by entering the three different visible energetic forms.

Appearance as three does not break the unity as said in Shrimad Bhagwad Gita (Avibhaktam Vibhaktheshu). All this is the deep explanation to clarify the doubt of Atri, who represents every Vedic scholar. If you take this as external story only without analysing the inner divine essence, by tomorrow, Swamiji will also say that Adi Shankara is just a young scholar hailing from the family of Nambudri Brahmins staying in Kerala. You can realize Him as the Incarnation of Lord Shiva, only if you view His life and commentaries through inner sense. Shivo"ham" brahmasmi