Pride leads to downfall and Brahma was no exception to this rule. His pride stemmed from the fact that he was Lord Narayana’s son, said Akkarakkani Srinidhi in a discourse.
As a result of his pride, his mind was restless and he could not focus on God. No matter where he went, concentration eluded him. Finally, he heard a voice directing him to go to Kanchipuram and perform an Aswamedha yaga there, because performing the yaga in Kanchipuram was equivalent to performing it a thousand times.
Brahma brought the divine architect Viswakarma to build a city with all facilities in Kanchipuram. But there was just one problem. Saraswati, Brahma’s consort, had quarrelled with him. She had asked Brahma who of the three Goddesses — Parvati, Mahalakshmi and Saraswati — was the greatest. Brahma had replied that it was Mahalakshmi. An angry Saraswati left Brahma. So Brahma decided to perform the yaga with the help of his other wives.
The demons did not want Brahma’s yaga to succeed. So they told Saraswati that her absence had not made any difference to Brahma’s plans. Saraswati decided to stop the yaga and took the form of a river, so that she could wash away all the materials gathered for the yaga. Brahma prayed to Lord Narayana, who reclined in three places and thus dammed the flow of the river Vegavati.
He is enshrined in the three places where He stopped the gushing river — one is the Yatoktakari temple in Kanchipuram; the other two temples are Tirupparkadal and Pallikonda. In the Yatoktakari temple, one can see Saraswati seated at the feet of the reclining Lord. Vedanta Desika wrote the Vegasetu stotra in praise of Lord Yatoktakari.
