Vishvakarma

Vishvakarma or Vishwabrahmin (Sanskrit: विश्वकर्मा vivá-karman "all-accomplishing; all-creator") is the Hindu presiding deity of all craftsmen and architects, Vishvakarman being rather identified with Prajapati himself as the creator of all things and architect of the Universe; in the hymns RV 10.81 and 10.82 he is represented as the universal Father and Generator, the one all-seeing God, who has on every side eyes, faces, arms, and feet; in the Brahmanas he is called a son of Bhuvana, and Vishva-karman Bhauvana is described as the author of the two hymns mentioned above.

Coomaraswamy has categorically declared: “Art is religion, religion is art, not related, but the same.” According to Hindu tradition, all the arts and crafts are of divine origin, having being revealed and handed down to certain individuals by “the miraculous genius” Lord Visvakarma—the creative archetypal power. The Primordial Creator and Supreme Patron of Arts, Crafts, Science and Creativity is Lord Visvakarma. He is at once the Great Architect of the Universe, Spirit of the Creative Process, and a symbol of Total Centered Consciousness. As the highest of the gods, he is synonymous with Brahma of the Hindu trinity,said to have originated in the primeval waters, as the Golden Germ, the World Womb-Egg (Hiranyagarbha) containing all the other gods in the world. Like Brahma, Visvakarma, the Creator, is one of the many names which may be applied to almost any of the gods at the will of the worshipper. In the two hymns in the Rig-Veda he is described as “the one all-seeing god, who, when producing heaven and earth, blows them forth (or shapes them) with his arms and wings; the father, generator, disposer, who knows all worlds, gives the gods their names, and is beyond the comprehension of mortals.”

Visvakarma represents an active creative power, and for this reason he is often depicted in red—the color red being related to creative force, passion and activity in ancient texts. ‘I shall be many’ (sodkamayat aha bahusya prajayeyam)” declared the god of creativity.

The Visvakarma craftsman, being His worldly counterpart, is thus also an image of the
cosmos. In the workshop, the cosmic drama of integration and disintegration takes place, and at its center stands the Visvakarma as sacrificer and ritualist. The Visvakarma becomes the universe himself. In the world view of the Visvakarmas, the two poles of cosmic life are Kali and Shiva. The result of the drama is a product which is a symbolic representation of the world.

"He is Visvakarma; that is, in a multiplicity of forms and forces lies his outward manifestation in nature; but his inner manifestation in our soul is that which exists in unity. Our pursuit of truth in the domain of nature therefore is through analysis and the gradual methods of science, but our apprehension of truth in our soul is immediate and through direct intuition.We cannot attain the supreme soul by successive additions of knowledge acquired bit by bit even through all eternity, because he is one, he is not made up of parts; we can only know him as heart of our hearts and soul of our soul; we can only know him in the love and joy we feel when we give up our self and stand before him face to face." (Rabindranath Tagore)