Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.1952

c9.1952

1) Birth. The seers or spiritual giants of India imagined three forms to God, dividing all the activities into three departments, i.e. creation, sustenance and destruction or annihilation. Brahmā, for creation, Viṣṇu, for sustenance and Śiva, for annihilation - they are the Trinity. Viṣṇu was born first, Brahmā next and Śiva last. The essence of Indian spiritual thought is that these three visible forms of God will, at the close of the Kalpa cease to be and become one with the cosmic power, and that the trinity will be born again at the commencement of the Kalpa and will take up their respective functions.