VISWAKARMA-PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE
-Vishwakarma Jayanti is a day of celebration for Vishwakarma a Hindu god, the divine architect.
-He is considered as swayambhu and creator of the world.
-He constructed the holy city of Dwarka where Krishna ruled, the Maya Sabha of the Pandavas, and was the creator of many fabulous weapons for the gods.
-He is also called the divine carpenter, is mentioned in the Rig Veda, and is credited with Sthapatya Veda, the science of mechanics and architecture.
-The festival is observed primarily in factories and industrial areas, often on the shop floor.
-As a mark of reverence the day of worship is marked not only by the engineering and architectural community but by artisans, craftsmen, mechanics, smiths, welders, industrial workers, factory workers and others.
-They pray for a better future, safe working conditions and, above all, success in their respective fields.
-Workers also pray for the smooth functioning of various machines.
-The term Vishvakarman was originally used as an epithet for any supreme god and as an attribute of Indra and the Sun. -The name Vishvakarman occurs five times in the tenth book of the Rigveda.
-The two hymns of the Rigveda identify Vishvakarman as all-seeing, and having eyes, faces, arms and feet on every side and also has wings.
-Brahma, the later god of creation, who is four-faced and four-armed resembles him in these aspects.
-He is represented as being the source of all prosperity, as swift as thought and titled a seer, priest, lord of speech.
-The later parts of the Rigveda reveals efforts to find a satisfactory answer to the mysteries regarding the origin of the universe, the creation hymns present in these parts of the Rigveda mention individual creator gods as opposed to the collection of gods and their chiefs (Indra, Varuna, Agni, etc.) creating the world.
-In the Rig Veda Vishwakarman is visualised as the Ultimate Reality (later developed as Brahman) ,from whose navel all visible things Hiranyagarbha emanate.
-The same imagery is seen in Yajurveda purusha sukta, in which the divine smith Tvastar emerges from Vishwakarma.
-Hindu scriptures describe many of Vishwakarma’s architectural accomplishments.
-Through the four yugas (aeons of Hindu mythology), he had built several towns and temples for the gods.
- Among them were, in chronological order, Svarga (Heaven) in the Satya Yuga, Lanka in the treta Yuga, and Dwarka (Krishna’s capital) in the dwapara Yuga.
-The following are also built by VISWAKARMAS
-Pushpaka Viman,
-TRISHUL
-SUDARSHAN CHAKRA
-Vajra aayudham
-Jagannath puri, Temple
