THE GOD WE KNOW AND THE GOD WE DON’T

Hindus believe that God exists in three forms simultaneously – Nirakar or Cosmic Spirit or Paramatma or Parabrahma, Celestial – Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and Shakti and Avatar – Ram and Krishna. God in Hinduism exists at three different levels of reality simultaneously. All Hindus worship one Supreme Being, though by different names. This is because the peoples of India with different languages and cultures have understood the one God in their own distinct way. Regional and family traditions have played a large part in influencing this choice.

There are mainly four denominations in Hinduism. They are: -

1. Vaishnavism- Lord Vishnu is considered as Supreme Brahman. Followers of Vaishnavism worship Vishnu and his ten incarnations. Two most-worshiped incarnations of Vishnu are Krishna & Rama.
2. Shaivism - Shaivas or Shaivites are those who primarily worship Shiva as the Supreme Brahman, both immanent and transcendent
3. Shaktism - Shaktas worship goddess as Mother Shakti. Mother Shakti is considered as Supreme Brahman as well as Prakriti (Maya/ illusive energy) of Brahman which is not separate from Brahman itself. In Shaktism, the goddess is presented as both the Brahman & Prakriti. These forms may include Durga, Kali, Parvati, Lakshmi, Saraswati.
4. Smartism - Smartas treat all deities as same, & their temples include five deities (Pancopasana) or Panchadevata. It is nonsectarian as it encourages the worship of any personal God along with others such as Ganesha, Shiva, Devi (Shakti), Vishnu, Surya.

There is no such concept like 330 million Gods. There are only 33 Koti/types (Literal meaning of Koti is a type) of Gods/Devas whose function is to sustain the world. The 33 Devas according to Rig Veda are 12 Adityas, 11 Rudras, 8 Vasus and two Ashvins.

So, God’s ultimate form/nature is formless pure consciousness (Nirakar Nirguna/without form/Impersonal) but God can manifests into divine form (Sakar Saugna/with form/personal). God has the ability to manifest into any kind of form and shape. Brahman is analogues to the infinite source of energy and it resides in Prakriti.  Prakriti is material energy of Supreme God e.g. Earth, water, fire, air, ether, five senses, mind, & intelligence.

Hinduism is an open-minded discipline. It is a discipline that does not use force on its follower. That is, it does not dictate the follower to act by one step by step recipe it gives, condemning all other recipes. Hinduism describes everything as divine and sacred because God is everywhere and in everyone. Each living being consist of the fraction of Devas. The atma or soul in every living being is a part of the Paramatma or Divine Soul, or Supreme God and will return to Him after we die.

Even in our greeting ‘Namaskar’ we are saying much more than ‘Hi! How are you?’ It truly means “My soul honours your soul and I bow to the divinity that resides within you. I honour the place in you where the entire universe resides. I honour the light, love, truth, beauty and peace within you because it is also within me. When you are in the place within you and I am in the place within me, we are one. In sharing these values we are the same, we are one!”

Hinduism has a unique concept of God and God is considered to be residing in heart of each living being in the form of soul. That’s why Hindus bow down in front of Cows and saints not because they are God but because they have the presence of essence and divinity as Supreme God Brahman. Abrahamic religions usually try to find God elsewhere or in the sky while in Hinduism God is seen in all living beings and each one is treated equally.

When a mother suffers pains to give birth to her child, it is God, the creator in her whom we revere. When a father toils hard to nurture his family, it is God, the nurturer in him, whom we respect. When sons and daughters look after their fragile and ailing parents, it is again the God in their deeds, whom we admire. When a Guru imparts knowledge, a physician treats the sick, when a friend helps a friend it is the God in them that expresses His presence to us! All these acts of Godliness have no form or structure and so are Nirakar. We appreciate them, we admire them, we often want to emulate them, but we find it difficult to worship them as instead of the act of Godliness we see the picture of the person doing the act! And as worshiping the Nirakar Godliness without worshiping the doer, who is in physical form, is difficult, we have resorted to idol worship.

An idol is a statue of inspiration, spirituality and true faith. We need idols just like words, symbols, stories, rituals for the sake of communication. However when the vehicle becomes more important than the content, when the form becomes more important than the idea, idolatry starts. When the vehicle is taken seriously at the cost of the content, the civilization crumbles. In every religion those who take the vehicle literally are called fundamentalists. The idol is not God; it is simply the concrete expression of the idea of God. Whether it is praying to the idol of Durga or bowing to the image of Jesus, or going round the Kaba in Mecca or singing before the menorah, or carrying the Guru Granth Sahib in a palanquin or dancing to the drum beats of tribal rituals in a forest, these are all vehicles to reach God.....that God who is Nirakar, formless and faceless.

Abrahamic faiths are uncomfortable with idols and images. Catholic faith is the only exception, where God is visualized as an old man and there is much art to show heaven, hell, prophets, angels and demons. The Protestants shunned art. The Muslims are forbidden to show images of the Prophet, though some artists in medieval Persia tried (keeping him veiled though). But the human desire to express divinity through art has not been crushed. Instead of human forms, Islamic artists used calligraphy and architecture to express the divine spirit. Others have used music to give the formless form. Hinduism has kept no restriction – divinity is expressed through nature, through artifacts, through trees and animals and humans and fantastic creatures like Narsimha and Ganesha.

Hinduism celebrates human imagination. Abrahamic religions fear human imagination and tend to restrict it using rules and norms and prohibitions against art. This tendency to control human imagination and expression of the divine is slowly creeping into Hinduism, with fundamentalism and attacks on artists. Everyone who seeks to control expressions of divinity seeks to contain divinity. But the wise Hindu sages knew that the divine is infinite potential and has infinite expressions.