We know them as the masters of the cosmos: The Creator, the Preserver, and the Destroyer. Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva—the great Trimurti. The trinity that runs the endless cycles of life and death. For ages, they’ve ruled from their celestial dimensions, directing the grand story of the universe. But what if their absolute power was just the beginning of a story so much bigger than they could ever imagine? What if the creators themselves… were created? This goes way beyond a simple “what came first” question. This is a cosmic mystery that cuts to the very heart of reality. The Devi Bhagavatam, which sings glories of Adi Parashakti, tells a story of a moment when the gods themselves had to face a power that dwarfed their own. A power that revealed their entire universe was just one of countless others. Today, we’re taking a journey across these parallel universes to uncover the shocking secret of who, or what, truly created the creators.
The Unquestioned Order
For a time so long it’s beyond measure, the cosmic order seemed perfect. Lord Brahma awoke on a magnificent lotus that blossomed from the navel of a sleeping Vishnu. Facing the four corners of the universe, he began the sacred act of creation, bringing all life into being. Lord Vishnu, the preserver, kept this new reality stable. From his home in the Vaikuntha, he would descend to Earth in different forms, or avatars, whenever cosmic balance was threatened, to restore order and guide humanity. And then there was Shiva, the meditating ascetic god on the icy peaks of Mount Kailash. He is the great destroyer, the transformer. But his destruction isn’t an end. It’s a necessary cleansing that makes way for Brahma to begin creating all over again. Together, they were a perfect, self-sustaining loop—creation, preservation, and destruction. They thought they were the beginning, the middle, and the end. Their power felt absolute. They were the architects of everything. Or so they believed.
The Puranas, which are ancient Hindu texts, actually give different versions of their origins, sometimes saying they were born from each other in different cosmic ages. This is our first clue that their own beginning is more complicated than it looks. The initial chapters in the Devi Bagavatham provides a where a newly born Vishnu floating on a banyan leaf in the infinite ocean of Ekarnava wonders how He had arrived there. It was just a hint of a much bigger revelation waiting for Him.
The Trinity Questions Their Creation
The Trimurti, even with all their cosmic duties, were stuck with a question that hit them at the core of their being. Before they even knew their roles, the three gods found themselves floating in a great, empty ocean, with no memory of where they came from. They asked the most basic questions: “Who are we? Why are we here? Who made us?” Their all-powerful nature suddenly felt empty, their existence a riddle without an answer. It was a moment of pure, divine humility—the realization that even gods can be lost.
Determined to find their source, they began to meditate, focusing all their power on the void around them. As they did, a celestial vehicle, a Vimana made of shimmering crystal and light, descended from some unknown place. A beautiful, feminine voice echoed through the emptiness, inviting them to come aboard. It promised them answers but warned them that the truth would shatter everything they thought they knew. Together, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva entered the ship. This wasn’t a normal trip. They weren’t moving through space, but through the idea of reality itself. The Vimana was a vessel of consciousness, built to travel beyond the edges of their universe and into the great unknown. Their quest wasn’t about who was the strongest anymore; it was about where they came from. They were heading into a mystery far deeper than a cosmic pillar of fire, looking for the one who designed them all. Adi Parashakti, that Devi Mahamaya, was watching everything from beyond.
The Journey Through Infinite Brahmandas (Multiverse)
This journey into the multiverse reveals layers of reality that challenge everything we think we know. If your mind is spinning with these cosmic secrets just like ours, this is a great time to hit that subscribe button and like the video. Your support helps us explore more of these incredible mythological mysteries. Now, let’s get back to the Trimurti’s unbelievable voyage.
The crystal Vimana rose, not into the familiar starry sky, but into a space between realities. What they saw next was… breathtakingly impossible. Before them lay an endless ocean of cosmic bubbles, and each bubble was a complete universe, a Brahmanda. The Bhagavata Purana explains that countless universes like these are born from the pores of Mahavishnu, a higher form of Vishnu, every time he breathes out, and they all disappear when he breathes in. Each of these universes lasts for just a single breath of this massive cosmic being.
The Multiverse of Creations
As their ship drifted through this cosmic sea, they looked into other universes and were absolutely stunned. In one, they saw a Brahma with ten heads. In another, a hundred. In one, a thousand, each one creating a universe far bigger and more complex than their own. They saw countless Vishnus, each preserving their own reality, and endless Shivas, each performing the cosmic dance of destruction in their own corner of existence. There were universes with totally different laws of physics, where creation didn’t come from a lotus, and where the gods had forms they could barely recognize.
Their sense of importance, of being the sole rulers of all reality, just… dissolved. They weren’t special. They were a pattern, repeated over and over in an infinite symphony of creation. Their entire universe, which they thought was everything, was just one tiny, shimmering bubble in an endless ocean. The journey was a lesson in scale, a humbling moment that showed them their power was limited. They were the gods of a universe, not the universe. The experience was dizzying, stripping them of their divine ego and getting them ready for the final, ultimate truth. They understood now that they weren’t the source. They were just a part of it. But a part of what? The Vimana finally slowed, stopping before a glowing island in the sea of universes. The island of Mani Dwipa pulsed with an energy so huge, it made their own divine power feel like a tiny candle in a hurricane.
The Revelation of Adi Parashakti
Stepping out of the Vimana, they found themselves in a garden of celestial gems. Seated on a throne in the center was a goddess, glowing with the light of a billion suns, but her presence was gentle and kind. The Devi Bhagavata Purana identifies her as Bhuvaneshvari, a form of Adi Parashakti—the first, and the most supreme, power. She was the ultimate reality, the unmanifested energy that everything, even the void they first woke up in, came from.
She smiled, and in that smile, they understood everything. She didn’t speak with words. The truth simply flooded their minds. She revealed that she was their mother, the cosmic womb they were all born from. She explained that she is the absolute reality, which exists as feminine, dynamic energy, and as masculine, motionless consciousness. According to the text, she told them that all three of them were created by her, as extensions of her own being, to govern the universe. She then gave Brahma his job as creator, Vishnu his job as preserver, and Shiva his job as destroyer.
Nature of Maya
Adi Parashakti showed them the nature of Maya—the grand illusion of existence. Their identities, their universe, even their feeling of being separate from each other were all part of her divine play. They weren’t independent gods, but expressions of her cosmic energy, the living forms of the three forces—creation, preservation, and destruction—needed for any reality to exist. She explained the great cycles, the Kalpas. They had been born before and would be born again and again, in countless universes, to perform their cosmic jobs. Their existence wasn’t a straight line. It was an eternal, repeating circle that always started with her and always returned to her. She was the ocean, and they were just three powerful, magnificent waves, but in the end, they could never be separate from their source.
Conclusion
Humbled and enlightened, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva bowed before Adi Para Shakti, the mother of all universes. They returned to their own universe not as supreme rulers, but as devoted servants of a reality far bigger than they had ever dreamed. Their power wasn’t gone. In fact, its purpose was now crystal clear. They were the cosmic managers for a divine, feminine source that is the root of all creation.
The story of the Trimurti’s journey to Adi Parashakti is a powerful reminder of a core idea in Hindu philosophy: the concept of Brahman, the ultimate, formless reality that exists beyond all gods and all universes. Whether this source is seen as the feminine Adi Shakti or the genderless Parabrahman, the message is the same. Even the creator is created. Even the most powerful forces we can imagine are just expressions of one, infinite consciousness that connects everything. This ancient story, with its incredible ideas of multiverses and cosmic cycles, pushes us to look beyond our own small world and ask bigger questions about where we come from. It suggests that the deepest truth isn’t found in being the most powerful, but in recognizing we are all connected to the infinite source of everything.
What does this ancient story, this idea of a creator beyond the creators, mean to you in our modern world? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. And if you want to keep exploring the limitless depths of mythology and philosophy, don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter. You can read more amazing stories from our Puranas and folklore in my NAAGA and DAIVA. Click here to buy my books.
If you enjoyed reading about Adi Parashakti and the Hindu Multiverse, then you check out this interesting tale about Interstellar travel and Time Dilation from our Puranas – https://theharikumar.com/kakudmi-story-time-dilation-hindu-mythology/
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