As India's scriptural tradition has it, Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshvara are the lords of creation, sustenance and extermination of this perishable world. These three manifestations of the Great God are also perishable but they have their own different ages. Brahma's life span is shorter than that of Vishnu or Maheshvara. Brahma's life is fourteen times more than that of Indra, Vishnu's two times and Maheshvara's four times than that of Brahma. It is said that one man-age consists of four yugas, that is, Sat-yuga, Dvapara, Treta and Kaliguga. Such one thousand four-fold yugas constitute one day of Brahma. Brahma has a life of one hundred and fifty years consisting of such Brahma days.
Devi Bhagavata says that after the Great Deluge the universe remains for hundred and twenty Brahma-years desolate and void. Thereafter appears Vishnu sleeping upon a fig leaf afloat on oceanic waters. This marks the beginning of the new age. Soon after there appears the Great Serpent Shesh upholding the earth on his hood. The Great Serpent emits from his breaths milk-like white substance converting into milky white all oceanic waters and hence the ocean where Vishnu had his abode gets its Kshirasagar, or the ocean of milk, name. Vishnu, when meditating within him as to what is the object of his being and his role, a celestial unseen female voice, that is, of Mahadevi, elaborates to him the object of his birth and his role. As elaborated, there grows from his navel a lotus and from this lotus Brahma reveals himself. It is said Brahma with a desire to create does great penance and acquires the power to create and then with the approval of Vishnu creates the universe.
This description by Prof. P.C. Jain. Prof. Jain specializes on the aesthetics of literature and is the author of numerous books on Indian art and culture.
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