Brahma and Vishnu - Who Is Supreme?

Brahma: "I created you, I am the creator. Everything comes from me."

Vishnu: "You created forms, I sustain them. Without me, your creations would collapse instantly. I am the preserver."

Brahma: "Preservation is just maintenance. Creation is the divine act."

Vishnu: "Creation without sustainability is just cosmic vandalism. Making things only for them to dissolve—what's the point?"

They had been arguing for eons. Neither would yield.

Then the pillar appeared.

It erupted between them—a column of fire without beginning or end. It stretched downward past the deepest hell and upward past the highest heaven. No matter how far they looked, they couldn't see its limits.

Brahma: "What is this?"

Brahma touched it and recoiled. The heat was absolute.

Vishnu: "I don't know. But if we find its end, perhaps we'll find an answer."

Brahma: "A race, then. I'll go up. You go down. Whoever finds the limit first proves supremacy."

Vishnu: "Agreed."

Brahma became a swan and flew upward. He flew for a thousand years. Ten thousand. A million. The pillar never ended.

Vishnu became a boar and dug downward. He burrowed for the same impossible time. The pillar never began.

Finally, exhausted, they returned to the middle—to the point where their argument had started.

Brahma arrived first. With him, a ketaki flower.

Brahma: "I found the top, This flower fell from the summit. It witnessed my arrival."

Vishnu arrived moments later.

Brahma: "I could not find the bottom. It extends forever."

Vishnu: "Then I win. I am supreme."

The pillar spoke.

Brahma: "You lie."

The voice was Shiva—for the pillar was Shiva, was the infinite nature of consciousness that transcends both creation and preservation.

Vishnu: "Brahma, you never reached the top. You found this flower halfway up, convinced it to lie for you, and returned claiming victory."

Brahma's face went pale.

Vishnu: "Vishnu admitted his failure honestly. He found no bottom because there is no bottom. There is no top. I am without beginning or end—the awareness within which creation and preservation both occur."

Brahma: "But—"

Brahma started.

Vishnu: "Because you lied, you will not be worshipped. Temples to the creator will be rare. The ketaki flower, your accomplice, will never be used in my worship. Ego sought supremacy. Ego received humiliation."

Vishnu bowed.

Brahma: "I understand. We are not supreme. We are functions. Creation, preservation, destruction—all aspects of something larger."

Vishnu: "Yes. You are my hands, my breath, my dreaming. Quarreling over which hand is more important misses the point entirely."

Brahma: "What is the point?"

Vishnu: "Service. Not supremacy. You create because creation needs creating. You preserve because preservation needs preserving. The question of who is 'better' is a child's question."

The pillar began to fade.

Brahma: "Remember this moment. When ego tells you that you are the center—when you forget that you are instruments—return here in your minds. Remember the race you couldn't win because there was no finish line."

Brahma and Vishnu stood alone again, humbled.

Brahma: "I'm sorry,"

Brahma said quietly.

Vishnu: "For lying?"

Brahma: "For starting the argument. For needing to be superior. I create because that's what I do. Not because it makes me better than you."

Vishnu: "And I preserve for the same reason. Not competition. Purpose."

They stood together, two gods who had glimpsed something far beyond godhood.

Somewhere, Shiva smiled.

The lesson would need repeating—egos never fully learn. But for now, in this moment, the universe was at peace.