Hello guys. Hope everything is going fine. There were loads of topic on which i would love writing, but after contemplating for sometime Hinduism, the third largest religion, emerged as my best bet. So what do I write about Hinduism. Writing about a religion is an enormous task, an unsurmountable mountain. Hinduism being one of the most ancient religions with loads of scriptures and stories I was(still am) at a loss as to where to begin and where to end. The major objective of these series of posts will be to create and awarness of what Hinduism is to people who know little or nothing about this ancient religion. I openly declare that i have no expertise or authority over Hindusim. What I do have is the stories and practises passed on to me by my ancestors and also the experience of practising this religion for close to 23 years. So lets begin our journey. In this post I will be dealing about the creation of the universe and also discuss the duties of 3 major Hindu Gods.
There are differnt stories with respect creation of the universe. The followers of Lord Shiva (Saivites) believe that the eternel sound of OM(pronounced as aum) and the eternel jyothi (the supreme fire, known to symbolize Lord shiva) created the oceans and Lord Vishnu residing on the serpant.A lotus which grew from Vishnu's navel and from it came Lord Brahma. Lord Brahma in is said to have given the shape for Lord Shiva.
The followers of Lord Vishnu(Vaisnavites) believe that at the begining existed a ocean with Lord Vishnu sleeping on his giant serpant adisesha immeresed in deep yoga. When Lord woke up from the state of his yoga he created Brahma, who in turn created Lord Shiva.
Another belief states that the eternal Lord with his desire to create the universe, created the ocean and placed his seed in it, This seed turned into a golden egg whose brilliance surpassed even that of sun. From the egg came Brahma, who created the heavens and the earth and other beings of the world.
In short the Lord Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva were the first inhabitants of this universe. Now let us see in short about each of these three major dieties.

Lord Brahma:
Lord Brahma is the "God of creation". He is a four faced god seated on a lotus. He has four hands with kamandalam(the water pot), the Vedas, the sruva and rosary beads in each hand. His vehicle is swan and his abode is called as SatyaLoka. Satyaloka is considered to be the place atop The Maha Meru/ Sumeru/ Meru mountain. The Meru is considered as the axial point for the universe. Lord Brahma's wife is Saraswathi/Vidya, the Goddess of education and knowledge

Lord Vishnu:
Lord Vishnu is the "God of Maintainence/Preserving". Lord Vishnu has a dark complexion with four hands. He weilds a lotus, A conch, a Disc(Sudharshana Chakra) and a mace in each of his four hands. He resides in Vaikunta, which is considered to be in the middle of the great ocean. He rests on AdiSesha, the giant serpant. His wife is Lakshmi/SriDevi, the Goddess of money, wealth and prosperity.

Lord Shiva:
Lord Shiva is the "God of Destruction". Lord Shiva is considered to be wearing a deer skin. With Cobra adorning his neck. Ashes smeared all over his body and weilding a trident(called a trishool). Apart from the two eyes shiva is said to possess the third eye. The third eye symbolises the vision of reality. Lord Shiva resides in Kailasha in Himalayas, which gives him the name Kailashnath/kailashapathi. He is said to have the river Ganges/Ganga Devi in his locks and hence the name Gangadhara. His wife is Uma/Parvathi, the Goddess of Shakti (strength and power). Uma also represents the nature or prakriti symbolizing all the perishable matters in this universe.

Thats it on this post folks. In the next post we will see about the devas, asuras, the rishis (sages) and the churning of ocean by devas and asuras.

KP- The DevilzAdvocate

P.S : Given the enormity of the series, I would like to have a few partners helping me out. If you have anything to write on Hinduism or you have any suggestions and things which you would like me to write on this topic. Please feel to buzz me at gtmmoney@gmail.com with the subject as Blog - Hinduism. If there are any erratas please notify me.