This is a story about the pride of Brahma, our Creator. One day, Brahma was meditating. In his meditation he had gone higher than the highest, deeper than the deepest. He was in ecstasy. Brahma said to himself, ‘How I wish I could spend all my time in this sublime meditation!’

Suddenly, there appeared in front of him the most beautiful nymph, or apsara. Her name was Mohini. She said to Brahma, ‘I want to marry you.’

Brahma got furious. ‘I was in such ecstasy, such bliss, and you have to come here and charm me! Never! Do not come near me. Leave me alone!’

Mohini was deeply insulted. ‘I am leaving you alone, but not before I curse you. From now on, nobody will worship you, nobody! The other cosmic gods will be worshipped and adored but you will never, never be worshipped by any human being!’

Mohini’s curse came true and Brahma was no longer worshipped. He felt miserable, and so he went to Vishnu for advice. While he was waiting in Vishnu’s palace, he saw somebody just like himself, except that this figure had ten heads. Then he saw another figure like himself, but with one hundred heads, and a third with one thousand heads. All of them looked exactly like him, but he had only four heads.

When Vishnu entered the room, Brahma asked him who these other figures were. Vishnu replied, ‘These are all Brahmas, like you. You are not the only Brahma! You have to know that there are many universes and each universe is represented by one Brahma, one Creator. There are hundreds of universes and hundreds of Brahmas. They look exactly like you, but you have only four heads, whereas they have many, many more.’

Poor Brahma! He had come to Vishnu for consolation, but Vishnu had smashed his pride. Then Brahma told Vishnu about Mohini’s curse and very humbly asked Vishnu how he could make the curse void.

Vishnu said, ‘You can dispel Mohini’s curse only if you listen to me. You must meditate for 60,000 years and then you must go to the holy river Ganga and bathe. Only then will you be free from the curse.’

In Indian mythology, they always say that a curse lasts for 60,000 years and you have to meditate for 60,000 years to get rid of it. So, poor Brahma had to meditate for a very, very long time.

Sri Chinmoy