Why so many Hindu Gods?

The major religions of the world are Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. Jesus is the principal God in Christianity. Allah is the only God in Islam. But in the case of Hinduism, there is no principal God. Several million people in India worship Lord Vishnu, Lord Shiva, Lord Ganesh and many other Gods as their Personal God but there has never been a consensus about who has the supreme authority. This has led to the question in the minds of many as to why there are so many Gods in Hinduism unlike other religions in the world. To answer this question, one must understand the origin of these Personal Gods (the Gods we worship) themselves.

In my earlier blog titled “Who is the Hindu God?” I had written that Brahman is the Supreme Being and is beyond all the Gods that we know and worship today. The Trimurthi of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are the 3 manifested forms of the One unmanifest Brahman residing in the “devaloka” to carry out the functions of this universe. Brahma is the creator, Vishnu is the maintainer or preserver and Shiva is the destroyer or transformer.

The divine consorts of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are Saraswati, Lakshmi and Shakti respectively. These goddesses are divine female counterparts of the Trimurthi assisting them to carry out their functions

Whenever evil rises to dangerous proportions in this material world and threatens the truth, an avatar of the Trimurthi descends on this earth to slay the evil and uphold the truth. The human race of that time worshipped that avatar and that tradition continues even today

Lord Krishna says this to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita (4-7:8) as below:

“yadā yadā hi dharmasya

glānir bhavati bhārata

abhyutthānam adharmasya

tadā ‘tmānam srjāmy aham”

Meaning: Whenever and wherever there is a decline in righteousness and rise of unrighteousness, O Bhārata (Arjuna), I descend (incarnate) Myself

“paritrānāya sādhunām

vināsāya ca duskrtām

dharma-samsthāpanārthāya

sambhavāmi yuge yuge”

Meaning: For the protection of the good, for the destruction of the wicked and for the establishment of righteousness, I come into being from age to age

All the Gods that we worship today are avatars of the Trimurthi especially Vishnu. Few of them are listed below

Rama-Sita: Vishnu and Lakshmi incarnated as Rama and Sita to defeat Ravana in the epic battle of Ramayana. This was in Treta Yuga

Krishna-Radha: Vishnu and Lakshmi incarnated as Krishna and Radha to defeat Kauravas in the epic battle of Mahabharata in Kurukshetra. This was in Dwapara Yuga

Narasimha: Vishnu incarnates as Narasimha (part-human, part-lion form) to kill the demon named Hiranyakashipu, father of Prahlada who was a great devotee of Vishnu

Vamana: Vishnu incarnates as a dwarf Brahmin to control the arrogance of the demon king Mahabali who won the authority of the heavens from Indra

Venkatachalapathy-Padmavati: Vishnu and Lakshmi incarnated as Venkatachalapathy and Padmavati to cure the disease of samsara in the areas of birth and death

Anjaneya: Shiva takes the avatar of Anjaneya to assist Rama to defeat Ravana

Durga: Durga is a manifestation of the fierce power of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva put together to defeat the demon Mahishasura. She is the warrior form of the divine Mother

Kali: Kali is born out of the frowned forehead of Durga and takes fierceful and ferocious form to kill the evil forces

Thus, it is very clear that all Personal Gods we worship today are avatars of the Trimurthi who in turn are manifestations of the Supreme Being, the Brahman. In worshipping one of the many Gods of Hinduism, we are indirectly worshipping the unmanifest and the infinite Brahman

As all Gods are manifestation of the only Brahman, there is no question of who is more powerful among the Gods (Vishnu or Siva?). To the ignorant, this is not known. To the wise, all Gods are one and it is Brahman

Who is the Hindu God?

The God in Hinduism is “Brahman”. Brahman is NOT Lord Brahma, the Creator of this world. Brahman is above all Gods that we know – Brahma, Vishna, Shiva, Ganesh, Rama, Krishna, Lakshmi, Saraswati, etc. Brahman is the Supreme God. Brahman is the ONE that the sacred texts like Vedas, Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita talk about. Brahman is the ONE that the great sages want to realize. Brahman is the ONE that we are destined to reach in this birth. From Brahman came the Gods Brahma, Vishna, Shiva for sustenance of this universe. From them came the other Gods as avatars for defeating the evil and helping the truth to prevail in this world. Through these Gods, we must reach the Brahman to attain “moksha”

The well known sloka below alludes to this

“gurur brahma gurur vishnu

gurur devo maheswarah

guru sāksāt parabrahma

tasmai shree gurave namah”

Meaning: Know the guru to be Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Know that guru is verily the Supreme Brahman. Offer thy salutations to this peerless guru

Brahman has no name. Brahman is “nirguna” or formless. Brahman is not male, not female and not neuter. Brahman is beyond gender. Brahman is transcendental – that which is beyond human knowledge. Brahman is Omnipresent, all pervading. Brahman is Invincible and Indestructible. Brahman is Invisible. Brahman is Infinite (limitless, unbound, endless). Brahman is Absolute (perfect, complete, whole).

Taittireya Upanishad describes Brahman as “satyam jnanam anantam brahman” which means ‘Brahman is Truth (real, not illusion, eternal), Knowledge and Infinite’

Brahman is the origin and end of all things, material or otherwise. Brahman is the “prāna”, the life force sustaining us. From Brahman, we came. To Brahman, we go. All is Brahman in manifest form

Brahman is indescribable. How would you call something which is indescribable? Let us take the example of the physical form of Lord Narasimha who has a lion head and claws with a human body with many hands. For a moment, assume that you do not know this form. Also, assume that you see this form while you were in a park. Now, you want to tell what you saw to your friend. How would you communicate? It will be like this: “I saw something strange today. It has a lion head, many hands and a human body. It was huge. I was scared on seeing that and did not know how to react”. As we cannot associate the figure to any known name, form or gender, we tend to use the words ‘it’ and ‘that’ to describe the unknown. In the same way, the sacred texts address Brahman as “tat” (‘that’) because it cannot be described. An instance of this appears in the following “mahāvākya”

Chandogya Upanishad:                      “tat tvam asi”              ‘That thou art’ (transliteration)

Brahman is Infinite. This is beautifully explained in the first verse of Ēsavāsya Upanishad or Isopanishad

“oḿ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaḿ pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate

pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate”

Transliteration:

Om ! That is the whole.

This is the whole.

From That whole has come this whole

Yet wholeness still remains

Meaning: Brahman (addressed as That) is Infinite. From Brahman has come this material universe which is also infinite. Though this infinite has come from That Infinite, It does not become less but still remains Infinite.

Analogy: Consider the sun. We proclaim that the sun is the infinite source of energy for our galaxy. But scientifically the sun’s energy is constantly reducing by the day and in few billion years, the sun would have no fuel to burn and eventually collapse. The measure ‘billion years’ is theoretically infinite for the human race but for this universe ‘billion years’ is a just another point in time and hence is not infinite. Note that the earth is 4 billion years old already. So, whatever we term as infinite is, in reality, not infinite. Nothing in this material world is infinite. Only the Brahman from which this material world originated is infinite

Brahman is “sat-chit-ānanda” which means ‘Truth, Consciousness, Bliss’

To sum up, “ekam sat” – ‘Truth is ONE’ and it is Brahman