21 May 2015 - QA 17

Gurudev, we have the Rudra Puja and Vishnu Puja in our tradition, but why is it that we do not have any practice of Brahma Puja (worship of Lord Brahma)?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Well, that is because Lord Brahma’s task of creating the Creation is over (laughter). Lord Brahma is present in Lord Shiva, and Lord Brahma is also present in Lord Vishnu. He (Lord Brahma) resides in everything. So when you worship Lord Vishnu, you are also worshipping Lord Brahma. The essence is to see that One Divinity in everyone and everything, and to also see everyone and everything as a part of the Divine. This is the point.

There is a term called as Brahmavadin. One is Lord Brahma, the other is the Brahman (the formless, eternal, all-pervading One Consciousness or Divinity). Do not confuse the two. There are no puja rituals to be done for the Brahman, that is the Paramatma or the One Divinity. You can only contemplate and meditate upon the Brahman. In order to prevent people from getting confused between Lord Brahma and the Brahman and treating formless Divinity as an object or deity of worship, our ancestors may have made a distinction between Lord Brahma and the Brahman.