WHY DOES LORD BRAHMA HAVE FOUR HEADS ? 

 Indian philosophy is rife with mythology. Most of the innumerable ‘gods’ in the Indian Mythology are symbolic and indicate a deep-rooted philosophy which defies comprehension by the ordinary folk. Hence many of the gods in Indian mythology are given very bizarre forms and incarnations. You will find that Lord Ganesha who is depicted as the remover of all obstacles has been given the head of an elephant. Similarly, Lord Brahma has been given four heads. 

Unless one understands the philosophical principles on which these images are based, they may seem very incongruous, if not downright ridiculous. 

Who is Brahma? Lord Brahma is the ‘Creator’ in Indian Mythology. He is depicted with four faces (heads), each facing in the four cardinal directions of North, East, West and South. He is said to be sitting in meditation in a lotus which springs from the navel of Lord Vishnu who is the Supreme Being or Universal Intelligence, who ultimately controls all life, creations, maintenance and destruction. 

Now let us look at what the four faces of Brahma represent. Psychologists state that the mind has three levels namely the Conscious, the Subconscious and the Unconscious. 

In the Indian philosophy which has been propounded lucidly in the ancient texts like Srimad Bhagavatham, Bhagavad Gita etc., four planes of the human thought have been described. They are : 

 Manas ( The Mind ) 

 Buddhi ( The Intelligence ) 

 Chittam (The Intellect ) 

 Ahamkara ( The Ego ) 

Manas is the mind and is highly fickle and wandering. It is said that about six thousand thoughts pass through one’s mind daily. Emotions like love, anger, jealousy etc., occur in the mind. 

Buddhi is intelligence which is the ability to acquire knowledge and skills and the ability to solve problems, is the next level in one’s psyche. It finds answers to questions and doubts. 

hittam is the Intellect which is the faculty of reasoning and understanding objectively especially in regard to abstract matters. It is what makes a person ‘clever’. It denotes how much intelligence one has. It is a collection of memories. 

Ahamkara is the ego which is one’s sense of self-esteem and self-importance. It varies from person to person. It is the view a person has of himself. It is the “I” in a person. His recognition of ‘Self’. Ego is responsible for one’s personality and identity. Ego motivates one to work hard to achieve greater things and reach greater heights in one’s calling. Hence it is a necessary and important part of our psyche. 

This quartet constitutes one’s mental faculties. Any creative idea needs the active involvement of all these four faculties — the mind, intelligence, intellect and the ego. When they act in unison in a coordinated and sequential manner, we are able to create things. 

A musician creates notes of music and renders and excellent composition. His mind first decides to create a piece of music. His intelligence tells him how to do it, what instrument to use and so on. His intellect gives him the storehouse of memories from its abundant repertoire and his ego goads him to create the best composition ever and present it to the world. 

The same holds good with an author who creates his masterpiece — a book, an artist who paints his best picture ever, a scientist who invents a new machine or a robot, and so on. 

Before an engineer commences to construct a building, he has to conceive the architecture and the plan in his psyche, and it is the sum total of the mind, intelligence, intellect and ego that help him in his creative work. 

So, folks, you would agree with me that for creating anything we need these four faculties. 

Brahma is the designated creator of the Universe and everything in it and he does it with the help of this quartet. And this is symbolically represented as his four heads — the mind, the intelligence, the intellect and the ego, called Manas, Buddhi, Chittam, and Ahamkara in Sanskrit. 

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