God , howmany
Hindus have 330,000,000 gods or say an infinite number of gods. Every animates and in animate thing in the world is a reflection of god. Vedic idea is: “ Ekam Sat Vipra Bahudha Vadanti “, meaning: Existence is One, Sages call it by different Names (Rig Veda 1.164.146)
Hundutva is not exclusive but accommodative. It do not say other faith are wrong, but a possible another way. To the early Hindus God is a force with no shape. Every man born on earth is unique and his aspirations are different. So, Hindutva believe in multiple methods to develop spirituality with different Gods of many features. When the Puranic age started with new type of literature, the personal gods appeared as an easy method to practice spirituality. This idea was crystallized with the construction of Temples and bhakti cult.
Hindus concept is to worship God in any form, or sans a form; it is love for the divine. Arguing for a personal single God (with form or not) and it has strong ego against those who do not obey him set by a text is a very low argument. It limits the Omnipotent, Omniscient nature of God. Moreover a God with infinite love and nature could not be prejudiced to lower creature or children like man. God in Hinduism is a symbolic representation of the divine. It has passion in its lower nature just to fit men morally right and develop his spirituality; but when god is considered as a single entity, it is a principle, a tattva , an infinite reality with no qualities and we call it Brahman
In Brahadaranyaka Upanishad Yajnavalkya answers to the question how many gods are there
Yajnavalkya provided answers to this question with subtle humor: “303 gods are there”. Then, he continued. “There are 3003 gods. 33 gods. 6 gods. 3 gods. 2 gods. 1 ½ gods are there.” And finally, “One God, eka iti ”.
While explaining the Vedic idea, Yajnavalkya stated that Gods are really 33. The 8 Vasus 11 Rudras and 12 Adityas Indra and Prajapati makes this. The 3003 are aspects of these 33 Gods.
Vasus are symbolic of physical objects, namely panchabhutas together with Sun, moon and stars. Rudras are symbolic of external world created by 5 Jnaendrya 5 Karmedriya and Mind. Aditya are symbolic of Suns energy levels in 12 months. Indra is our hope and Prajapati is conscience.
If we limit gods to six then it will be fire, earth, air, space, heaven and the sun. And if further reduce to 3 then it will be the three levels of awareness we live in namely: body, mind and conscience.
It can be said by a dual like: Energy and Matter or Purusha and Prakriti.
There is only one Truth that makes all these various gods flourish. This divinity shine in all other and goes beyond it. It is One and goes beyond. Hence it can be said 1 ½ gods as well as one god. One because it only exists.
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