3 gods and a Competition

We awoke early today in order to be at the Sri Kapaleeswarar temple for the beginning pujas of the day. (BTW, that long name is yet another name for Lord Shiva; the Hindus are a tricky lot!) It was a peaceful and interesting experience. We saw worshippers of Shiva, marked with 3 horizontal lines on their forehand, sitting around the temple and also bringing flower garlands such as those at the right. As you can see from the picture, the temple is as colorful and full of deity iconography as any stained glass window in a cathedral, and similar in splendor. I asked our guide why I hadn’t seen or heard of any temples dedicated to Brahma (he’s one of the 3 main gods of Hinduism, remember) and he told me a great story in reply that will serve as today's deity story, as it involves all 3 of the main gods.
It seems Lord Brahma is a bit of a storyteller (secretly Irish?) and sometimes he went too far, which was not always appreciated, to say the least. One day Brahma and Vishnu were talking about who was a more superior god (they were quite the competitive trio) and a pillar of fire arose. Brahma decided to become a swan and fly to the top to investigate, while Vishnu decided to become a boar and go to the bottom of the pillar. At one point during his flight Brahma saw a flower petal, and asked about its origins. It said it had been falling from the top of the pillar for over 1,000,000 years. Brahma got the idea that he could “bluff” Vishnu by telling he had gone to the top of the pillar and brought a flower petal from the top. However, the moment he spinned that story, the pillar turned into Shiva, and he called him out for his untruthfulness to Vishnu. In fact, Shiva got so mad that he took off one of the 5 heads of Brahma, which is why he only has 4 (although in most pictures you can really only see 3; don’t ask me why, it’s not my story or religion). It gets even better because Brahma’s head was stuck to Shiva’s hand, because Shiva shouldn’t have taken a head of a Brahmin (Lord Brahma, could this get more confusing???). Shiva put a curse on Brahma and said because of his deceitful ways he would have no temples dedicated exclusively to him, although actually there are 2 or 3 somewhere in the country.

WHEW! All of this story as a way to explain why I haven’t seen any temples dedicated to Brahma. Moral of the story? Don’t mess with Shiva, and be careful to what extent you’re prepared to stretch the truth in order to win a competition.