Why Do Hindus Have So Many Gods?

Why Do Hindus Have So Many Gods?

 A common belief is that inside Hinduism there are 330 million Hindu gods. Sri Ramakrishna a prominent Hindu wrote there can be as many Hindu gods as there are devotees to suit the moods feelings emotions and social backgrounds of the devotees. So in today’s blog, we are talking about why do Hindus have so many gods?

One of the unique elements of Hinduism is that it's a polytheistic religion. Which is a religion that promotes or believes in multiple deities. Inside Hinduism, there's a wide variety of gods to choose from however to say that Hinduism is a polytheistic religion isn't exactly a hundred percent accurate. You see many Hindus do view the religion as a monotheistic religion meaning that there is one Supreme Being one supreme god and this being has no fixed form or shape this being is beyond time and space and beyond other human limitations. All the other gods and goddesses are just different sides or different angles of this one Supreme Being this Supreme Being is seen as the God of all. Okay, this question actually worries or confuses a lot of Hindu youngsters and forgets about Hindus it confuses the non-Hindus even more. they think this weird religion has got so many gods and if I asked all of you look Shiva this is ultimate Almighty you say yes Vishnu years ultimate almighty years ultimate yes and mother what is, of course, mother goddess how can you forget them she's ultimate too - I think straight a contradiction come on you can't hear too many Ultimate’s this is not ultimate enough.

Now similar to the Christian religion Hinduism also has a trinity of sorts. Where there's one God in three persons and these persons if you will are Brahma who is the creator of all reality, Vishnu the preserver of all the creations, and Shiva the destroyer. So more accurately Hindus worship one Supreme Being by different names. This is because the people in India through their various different cultures and languages view God in a different way. Their understanding of God is very distinct to their group or language throughout history four main Hindu branches formed Saivism, Shaktism, Vaishnavism, and Smartism.

 In Saivism God is Shiva, in Shaktism the God is Shakti for the Vaishnava is Vishnu seen as a supreme god. Inside of this merger tradition, they see all the deities as a reflection of the one God. so the choice of the deity is left up to the individual now this is one of the factors why Hindus are so tolerant of other religious beliefs because they believe that there are many different paths that one can take that lead them back to the One God whether or not you follow a Hindu branch or some other religion or just even follow a way of life that may not necessarily use the term God you can still find God whatever path you choose. Now I did mention that Hinduism is viewed as a polytheistic religion although that is not entirely accurate and it can also be viewed as a monotheistic religion which sheds a little bit more light on the concepts and beliefs of Hinduism.

However, there is a third view one unique concept in teaching inside Hinduism is that God is not far away from humanity living in a heaven that is way out there that people can't find but rather that God is actually inside each and every living being. It’s up to us to discover this and knowing God in this way is the goal of Hinduism this view of God existing in all things as well as giving life to all things is called pantheism. This may be a new word for some of you but it is distinct from pantheism. Just to clarify the view of pantheism states that god and a natural universes are one and the same nothing more. However, the pantheism view of Hinduism is quite different the pattern theistic belief is that God is both in the world as well as transcends the world. This is considered to be the highest Hindu view of God Hindus also believed in various different gods that perform different functions.

One of the examples that I can use to sort of illustrate this is like taking a corporation for example we have the owner and that would be like the Supreme God and then we have other gods which are like the CEO the CFO and other corporate executives maybe that's not the most accurate example but hopefully, that sort of gives you a picture. these other divinities are highly advanced beings similar to spirits and angels and other religions but if there is one supreme god why is the word God used for other beings that aren't God but are called God sometimes even human beings are seen and related to as being gods. Indians call Sachin Tendulkar the cricketing god because somebody became an extraordinary achievement almost superhuman kind of achievement now we say he's a devil he's a cricketing God because nobody ever played cricket like him. A little confusing right well a lot of the confusion simply comes from the use of the English word God.

Today we are using it otherwise there never was a word called God in any of the Indian languages and depending on whether or not you use a capital G or a lowercase G that can change the whole context of what kind of God you're referring to but in Hindu tradition, they don't always use the word, God each tradition or branch of Hinduism worship the Supreme God as well as their own group of divine beings which perhaps would create a distinction in your mind to differentiate the Supreme Being from the other gods / divine beings. Which are all reflections of the Supreme God and a lot of the confusion especially to those who are not Hindu comes from the fact that Hindus from different branches may call the One God by many different names according to their own traditions. Hinduism allows for the freedom to approach God in your own way and does not say you must conform to one path specifically it says the same ultimate reality that you are trying to relate to you can call it by different names and give it different forms names and forms can be different the same reality ultimate reality. So not many gods but many ways to think about God.

The final thing I want to touch on is the gender of God inside Hinduism is God male is God female is God both. the only way we can build a relationship with this principle Brahman is to think of this principle as a personality. suppose I said male relation with Brahmana so what do I do now I said no think of mother God is sweet with flowing hair not just father in heaven mommy in heaven why not mommy because we are human we like to read this principle in a human manner that's why we create all this imagery. well commonly in Hinduism like many other religions God is represented as a male figure and in the Hindu view God's energy called Shakti is represented as his wife, for example, the Hindu Trinity consists of Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer. They have their feminine counterparts like Sabah Swati the wife of Brahma Laxmi who is a wife of Vishnu and Parvati the wife of Shiva.

So God and God's energy are inseparable and the metaphor of wife is really just used to symbolize this. so these wife gods if you will are metaphorical representatives they're not actually different gods. so you can kind of start understanding now how these God figures are actually representative of the different aspects of God. Hindu philosophy also teaches that God is neither male nor female Hindus know that God doesn't marry anyone and gender and marriage are just for us humans so none of that going on up there in here or whatever the realm of God none of that going on there.

The word Brahma means spirit what is a person at all but as a principle than European reality. they said the whole of this creation is nothing but an expression of this principle look what a person principle that becomes visible manifested as the world that we see in front of us Brahman becomes more visible because clearer is living things and the clearest vision of this Brahman. This principle is humanity men and women.

So yes that's why Hindus have so many gods and at the same time don't have so many gods it's completely impossible to put like a blanket view on the religion of Hinduism. even many people don't even like calling it a religion they call it a way of life so no one view or perspective or terminology can really sum up Hinduism it's really all about human exploration and human discovery so rather than being the source of confusion or the grounds for endless religious disputes and debates. perhaps if you look closely enough you'll see that within too many varying views of God or whatever language you use to refer to this higher power or universal energy we are a lot more similar then we may think.