By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik - Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist
In Vedic times, 3,000 years ago, Brahma referred to ‘brahman’, the impersonal divine energy linked to consciousness, spirit and meaning. Gradually, in Puranic times, 2,000 years ago, the idea of a God named Brahma emerged. This God created all life and established codes of civilised conduct, and dharma. This shift can be seen as the result of two factors: the rise of monastic orders like Buddhism and Jainism, and the increasing participation of common folk who had little patience with complex rituals and abstract ideas.
