English »   Malayalam »  

Does Lord Datta exist with three heads all the time, or is it just a symbolic representation?

[An online spiritual discussion was conducted on Datta Jayanti Day i.e., December 07, 2022, in which several devotees participated. The questions of devotees answered by Swāmi are given below.]

[Shri Divakar Rao asked: Paadnamaskaram Swami, Does Lord Datta exist with 3 heads all the time or is it just a symbolic representation for Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva as we see in images? Thank you, Swami. Regards, Your Servant, Divakara Rao.]

Swami replied:- If you take God Datta as a single person with single head doing all the three duties, you can imagine that the single head is doing all the three activities. Actually, when God Datta’s energetic body was created by Parabrahman (unimaginable God), it was with single head and two hands. The single head was having the three potencies of creation, maintenance and dissolution of the world. Later on, God Datta created the energetic bodies of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and merged with them separately to make them God Brahma, God Vishnu and God Shiva. God Brahma created the creation and this means that God Datta present in God Brahma created the creation. After this, God Vishnu started ruling the world. After this, God Shiva dissolved the world (Dissolution means transferring the world in gross state to subtle state and subtle state means the plan existing in mind. This is done by not withdrawing the gifted absolute reality but by decreasing the concentration of gross state.). Then, God Brahma is again creating the world (World is brought from the stage of mental plan to the stage of physical reality by not withdrawing the gifted absolute reality of the world but by increasing the concentration of the mental plan.). Like this, the cycle gets repeated again and again, which is just like putting the cinema show on the screen and at the end, storing the film reel for the next show.

During the first cycle, after the creation, souls got confused by the Veda, which tells that God is one doing all these three activities whereas the sages are seeing three forms of God such as Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva separately. To remove this confusion, God Datta appeared with three faces and six hands showing the single personality of God doing the three duties. God Datta wanted to show this concept very clearly and hence, the three heads were the heads of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva famous in doing these three activities. Since then, God Datta’s energetic form remained with those three heads and six hands forever so that this concept is very clear permanently. Hence, it is actually the representation of the concept only. When God Datta comes as human incarnation, He always comes with single head and two hands in accordance with the nature of humanity. The human incarnation must be understood as three headed God since the three heads are only the personifications of this concept. The human incarnation sometimes appears as energetic incarnation having three heads and six hands.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★