It can be tough when all you want to do in life is create but everyday reality brings you back to duties and responsibilities that seem anything but sexy, creative and inspiring. We start an exciting new business but get bogged down with finding the next client and managing the office. We create a beautiful family, but spend our days washing dishes, playing chauffeur and repairing the fragments of our DVD players that weren’t supposed to be toys for toddlers. With all the talk about spirituality being pure creativity, and Life being a process of becoming, it can get down right depressing to feel like we are stuck playing the role of repairman when we’d rather be out doing the glamour work. It’s times like these when a crash course in the nature of creativity can really help.
Creativity doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It requires life force—energy—to mold matter and thought into our own happy realities. This energy has to come from somewhere (scientists figured this out long ago). So it’s unrealistic to think that we can create something new without breaking down something old. And it’s equally impossible to have our creation last without caring for it lest it break down and become food for some other divine handiwork. Nowhere is this better summed up than in the Hindu trimurti---the three aspects of God: Brahma (the creator), Shiva (the destroyer) and Vishnu (the preserver). Leaves dying each fall so that they grow new again in the spring---that’s Shiva’s work. The special teacher or friend that helps us out when we need it most---that’s Vishnu. And Brahma doesn’t stomp around like an egotistical movie director demanding creative control when his counterparts do their thing.
Weeding and cultivating are just as important to the garden as planting the seeds. Similarly, evolution would stand still and we would all remain spiritually dormant if it weren’t for the three aspects of divinity---the destroyer, the preserver and the creator---working in harmony in our everyday world. So the next time you’re trying to keep your kid from nose-diving off the kitchen counter---realize your Vishnu-like role in preserving life. The next time you clean house, physically to remove the clutter, or mentally to make room for new ideas, give a salute to Shiva. And when the dust settles and the world quiets down for a moment, stir up your Brahma side and think about what you’d like to do next and how it would feel to have it done. Before you know it, you’ll be creating something wonderful that could have only come from honoring all sides of the creative triangle.
Copyright © 2004, 2016 K. Weissman & T. Coyne