1940s Vintage Print ~ Shiva Vishnu Brahma!

1940s Vintage Print ~ Shiva Vishnu Brahma! 

No living thing is immortal. There is a limit for its existence, it originates, lives for certain period of time and it eventually comes to an end. This entire idea of creation, preservation and destruction is embodied into the form of Brahma, Vishnu and SadaShiva respectively in the Hindu Philosophy.
The four heads of Brahma along with the consort Saraswati is attributed to the creation aspect. To turn the rock into sculpture requires knowledge. Saraswati is attributed to knowledge, and this is the reason why Saraswati is viewed as the consort of Brahma.
Blue colored Vishnu sleeps on the five headed snake which in turn sleeps on the Ksheera Sagara with the Brahma sitting on a lotus flower that comes out of the umbilical cord of Vishnu, with the consort Lakshmi is attributed to the operative aspect of this Universe. The blue colour represents Infinity. The five heads of the snake represents the five fundamental elements of nature ~ Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Space. Vishnu lying on the five headed snake means God is present in all these five fundamental elements of nature, and the snake lying on the Ksheera Sagara means the entire Universe is made up of these five fundamental elements. Brahma connected to Vishnu through umbilical cord means creation is connected and is part of this Universe. Brahma takes the energy (through the umbilical cord) from the Universe. Lakshmi means “all positive things” and the prosperity. The entire Universe is maintained by the positive things.
Shiva with Parvati is attributed to the destruction aspect of the Universe. The trident, snake, third eye, matted hair, water are causes of destructions. Trident represents weapon, snake represents illness, third eye represents fire, matted hair represent cyclones or storm, water represents flood. These causes of destructions by themselves are not powerful, but when combined with Parvati (which means powerful as mountain) magnifies all those causes of destruction to be powerful enough which eventually leads to destruction. This is the idea of Ardhanarishwara (the combination of Shiva and Parvathi which manifests the powerful destruction).

Jai Shri Brahma Vishnu Mahesh!