MULTIPLE GODS IN HINDUISM

MULTIPLE GODS IN HINDUISM

Multiple Gods in Hinduism is an interesting topic. Starting from Shiva to Devas to Nature to Animals, a total of 330 million of them no less ! This is used by opportunist religions to slam Hinduism. The truth is different.

Hindus very well know there is only one God. But that God has infinite qualities which cannot be grasped by human minds. To imagine something beyond the mind itself is stupid. The mind simply gets confused. Hence practical devotees, having known some of the qualities of God as kindness, fun loving, full of knowledge, owner of all wealth, always young or present without aging, etc. So people take what quality they need at the moment and imagine that as God. It is personalizing the wholesome God into understandable, smaller, useful bits for practical life. The imagination of Hindus and their freedom with God is evident in such smaller deities carved out from the whole.

For example, for education, they have Saraswati, the Goddess of knowledge. It is a female, as light as can be placed on a lotus and students pray to this particular deity during exams. Bothering all powers of the whole God for smaller minor issues like exam is improper ! So invoke just the knowledge part of God as Saraswati ! Notice that it is not a male god for education. Because, females are soft and pardoning type ! A male God with a cane for education would have been scary !

Similarly for wealth, Goddess Lakshmi is invoked. Again a female. Because females suit better for wealth. Soft and pardoning type. Ganapati, the elephant headed God is invoked for removing obstacles. Obstacles happen because we hear less. Hence a god with large ears to remind us to hear more. There are meanings for each of Ganapati's features. There is also Durga, which represents women power.

God is the sum total of all these part Gods ! This is the freedom Hindus have taken with God. They treat God as a family member, not even separate from them. God being infinitely kind, plays along with everyone and manifests the way it is invoked. It is all good fun for the Krishna consciousness. Hindus know this fun loving God best and hence the liberties. At the lowest levels, it turns into blind idol worship, as instigated by the priests to milk the devotees and drive in blind faith. That is another story of greedy priests who sell faith in God for easy living.

Each being is a piece of that infinite wisdom and consciousness. Further, the 'non-living' things also is a manifestation of the supreme power. The Universe is a mixture of this active and passive states of existence. Each being may be imagined as a bulb in a huge long garland of bulbs (as arranged during celebrations). The power that passes through each bulb is God. The power is invisible but the effects of that underlying power are visible. The God manifested itself into a visible, experience able form through body, senses and mind. And the God resides within the body under the mind to experience all this.

Individuals think, they experience. But it is actually the soul within that experiences. As Bible says " Not in our merits but in his grace". Once this is understood, self realization sets in. Then we can see other beings as different fingers of the same palm. No finger is different from that palm. This realisation makes one free from competition, hatred, fear etc with other fingers. Peace and happiness will fill the mind. Then we would be able to love, someone without any condition, realizing that the other is just another finger of the palm, like ourselves.

So where is a strange finger? An outsider finger? Some finger which can be omitted or hated or eliminated? These are all immature views of the individual fingers while they are alive. To the palm, all this egoistic fights between fingers is drama and fun. All fingers have the same relationship with respect to the palm. It is all very interesting indeed !

One more euphemism to explain God and prophets so that there would not be any more division of humanity by religions. Imagine all beings as bulbs in a garland and the power flowing through them is God. The bulbs will glow in different colors and luminosities depending on three factors. 1). The quality of the filament. 2) The co lour of the glass cover (basic tendencies in mind that cannot be easily changed and attributed as the personality of the individual or his ego) and 3). The cleanliness of the glass (feelings in mind like fear, jealousy etc in mind).

The filament is the intellect. In animals, the mind is overwhelmed by instincts. Hence the light (knowledge) coming out of the animals would be minimal. We can easily know what they do or think. And there is not much scope for improving the quality of mind in animals. But in humans, the mind can be freed from the animal instincts and sublimated to higher levels, thus improving the quality of the filament (intellect) and thereby the light (knowledge) coming out of it. Thus we get humans in animal levels to humans in the level of Prophets. The animal level humans are easily understandable. The light coming in to their mind from the soul within is consumed by the instincts, almost completely. May be Mike Tyson is a good, famous example.

On further modifying, opening, expanding and sublimating the mind, higher levels of humans are formed. Like farmers, professionals, writers, philosophers etc. In other words, as the quality of the filament (intellect) was consciously improved, more light of knowledge passes through the mind and the bulb shines far brighter. This is the possibility and potential of humans. From animal instincts to the prophet level and still beyond, by becoming the light itself and then being one with the power flowing within itself. The culmination of the river in the ocean after beginning as rain drops in a far away mountain.

What religions do is to claim the brightest bulbs as their own and belittle the rest ! In the garland of bulb of humanity, the bulbs shine according to the filament, color of glass and its cleanliness. the power available to all bulbs is the same. Bulbs with clean glass shine better than similar bulbs with dirty cover. The color is the individual tendency which cannot be normally changed. Inherent tendency of the individual or stains in the glass. Those who manage to clean the glass, shine brighter.

If the stains (born or developed habits) are removed then the light comes out becomes white and not colored ( biased). The brightest bulbs definitely worked with all these to reach that level. Filament, colour or stains in glass and cleanliness. The dimmest bulb also retains the potential to shine as bright as of the brightest (or even more !). Those claiming ownership of the brightest bulbs are opportunist bulbs who refuse to change and thus shine dimly. The bright bulb keep telling the opportunist bulbs that he is not different or belonging to just a few bulbs. But the dimmer bulbs, because of the stains and dim luminosity (dumbness or idiocy) refuse to listen and try to do what the bright bulb did while alive. These bulbs fail to reach their potential and die out.

Please read my other posts "The Vision of Jesus Christ", "Ramayan", "Bhagavad Gita" and "Bhagavatham".

Believing is for average people. The spiritual seeker does not believe in anything or anyone. He simply seeks the truth. when he knows the truth, he knows that he knows it. We know the sun so we don't have to believe in the sun. Until the sun is seen, the blind may have to believe that there is something called light and sun. Till then he will seek. The moment one believes something, his spiritual independent quest is finished. Then he is following someone else's thoughts. Not his own.

Some are more interested in the physicality of events. To me it does not matter. Whether Rama or Krishna lived or were just characters in a story is not relevant to me. I am only interested in the meanings of the story. If Krishna really lived or not will not satisfy me. The lesson or the meaning is what is important. Not whether they lived or where they lived.

The sun will last another 4.5 Billion years according to modern science. The life on Earth will be possible at least for another 400 million years. So after the sun burns out, what is the point is debating whether Krishna or Rama lived or not? The stories of Rama and Krishna just gives the subtle message to go for the immortal soul leaving everything else. And only that lesson is important in this whole noise.

Newton, to me, is not important. His discovery of Gravity surely is.

The blind may have to believe in the sun. The one who can see the sun does not have to believe. He knows that sun exists. Similarly the soul within. Unless one seeks it, it may not be found. Most do not seek, because the minds are already attached to the world in relations and possessions. Dropping of ego, attachments and desires in mind is required to start the search. Meditation is the path. While meditating watch the gap between thoughts, if thoughts are there in mind. If no thoughts are in mind, focus at the bottom of the mind. In deeper stages of meditation, the pure consciousness, also called the soul or God will emerge in mind. As Sree Narayana Guru described "As if countless suns rose in mind"

Anyone can experience this. But first follow the path and procedures. Arguments happen at the outer layers primarily due to ego. This path has been advised by all enlightened ones.

The egoistic blind asking for factual evidence on the existence of sun is at best laughable. Frogs in well will ridicule the ocean which they never saw or can imagine. These are not new issues.