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A guide to understanding the Trimurti
We have always been told that the Trimurti (3-faceted embodiment) represents birth, preservation, and destruction. It is often tied to a grander scheme from the universe's perspective. This is how most people understand it:
- Brahma — Birth of the universe — Big Bang
- Vishnu — Preservation of the universe — Expansion
- Shiva — Destruction of the universe — Big Crunch/Rip/Freeze
While it is often tempting to tie our mythos to modern science to derive validation from others, it is sometimes important to break free from this filter through which we have been conditioned to view the world. If not, most of the beliefs held by primitive ancient cultures will always seem nonsensical.
The first step to decolonizing your understanding of the universe is to understand what the universe is. The textbook says — “The universe is the entirety of space, time, matter, and energy in existence.” While not false, a better philosophical definition would be — “The universe is everything that you know of and what you don’t know of, it is both everything and nothing, it is everything that is you and everything that is not you.” Once you understand that the pairs here are not mutually exclusive, you will understand the universe.
