THE LOGIC BEHIND - 33 CRORE GODS IN HINDUISM

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29 January 2012 at 07:11
33 CRORE GODS IN HINDUISM

INTRODUCTION
Hindus are often attacked for being ignorant as they practice idol worship. Idols in Hindu religion are of
various shapes and represent various creatures including humans. The basic concept of Idolatry, as seems to be
practiced by Hindus, reflects creation of idols and images, establishing them in temples and home and
performing proper worships towards it. Obviously, the interpretation of non-believers is that it is stupidity to
bow before stones and paintings.

Islam goes ahead to describe this as Crime. And eventually, rationality appears in accepting what is as
stated by them.

In this article, we will discuss various aspects of idol worship practiced by every religion and make the non-
believers to reconsider their ironic conclusions.

IDOL WORSHIP – IS IT ONLY IN HINDUISM?

Before we elaborate Idol Worship, we need to understand the concept of worship, as practiced by religions like
Islam and Christianity.

Both these religion has their own declared God – “Allah” and “Jesus” and bowing before them and only
them is true form of worship.

Both these religions have their own methodologies defined for worship and places built to worship with
togetherness.

Islam goes beyond Christianity to harden worship with time, duration and direction, the ground reason
being United Worship.

Up to this, everything seems fine as the Worship is defining what you should do in worship. But then the
boundary of worship starts getting strengthening further – what you should not do in worship? Boundaries are
important, but only till the purpose of creating balance and harmony. Boundaries and Balance are relative to
each other as religion and region are.

Worship is a boundary that binds one with God according to Islam and Christianity.

But to a Hindu, the first binding should be with Godly qualities and only then we can think of God.
If God has created everyone, if everything happening around is known to God, if every occurrences are not
beyond the wishes of God, if God is merciful to all his creatures – then as a human, our first duty to bind to
Godly quality starts with respect towards everything.

Worship in Hindus is a realization of at least three positive attributes of humans, necessary for existence
as human beings – respect, love and faith.

While all other religions have objection to how Hindu worships, Hindu have never shown such objects in
return as per the quality of worship attributes; thus proving their behavior to be qualifying to achieve
Godly qualities first.

For Hindus, worship don”t mean just rendering prayer with folded hands and heads down – worship means an
effort to attain purity with the virtue of purest form of power – GOD. Their worship don”t mean at all that you
bind your understanding to one and only concept of the world, it means to bind your thinking to one and only
knowledge of the world that is infinite and incomplete as far as human thinking arena goes. Conclusively,
worship to God according to a Hindu doesn”t mean simply bowing before God; it more simply means adapting
to Godly qualities and getting richer in awareness of God, every next time we worship.

If worship in other religions means bowing only before God, it is also important to understand what they
exactly mean by God. Surprisingly, they have even tried to bind God with similar definitions which are not
only incomplete but are unrealized and unfathomed by them. God is infinite, is free from material, do not have
mouth or ear like humans, no image can represent him, etc are few of their conclusions about God. Let us
understand the simplest thing on earth – whenever we negate anything, we straight away put a boundary over
there, a boundary which cannot be crossed, a boundary beyond which you should not look and a boundary
which remains unquestioned – no Why – simply accept. How far is it correct to put boundaries around
understanding of God? How far is it correct to declare perfection, when every other things around are changing
fast? Perfection has stability and stagnancy – are we intending to put God under these two conditions by
defining him? I hope, our critics would open up their mind to read further in this article that they are not doing
anything different from Idol Worship – only their own impressions are varying, which they are not able to
perceive.

Now, we will understand how Idolatry is very common in every other religion. While doing so, I have no
intention to attack any other religion, nor any wish that they should change upon any condition. My only
intention is to protect my own religion that has ever been the greatest in all its qualities executed by its
followers through their actions from thousands of years. And I am bound to do so, because the onslaught on
humble Hindus is getting more and more aggressive, day by day.

God according to many religions is a power, a power that in true sense is not material; it is not a tangible
entity, it cannot be measured or quantified as we find for many forces in Physics. Hindus also believe that
Power of God is more a belief and goes beyond other religious belief to state that such power is more an
implementation of un-manifested realities through varying manifestations. To understand this we will take an
example of Money Power. What if I tear a $100, nothing seems to be harming me. What power does a piece of
paper do have? Doesn”t that paper merely hold certain believed images and numbers? It does, yet the world
believes that it has power. This power exists because it is religiously believed, adopted and practiced by every
individual across the globe. If you agree I can dare to say now that God is a bigger power than money. Why a
bigger power can”t exist in bigger images, may be in idols? Surprisingly, every country religiously practices
money power with different images and numbers and respects other country”s images and numbers equally,
even more. As the image and the number on the paper changes, so accordingly the power of it changes. Unlike
this, Hindus perception of power in images and idols, are not respected by the same believers of images.

Every religion exists on certain beliefs. Hindus are also assumed to exist on such fictitious beliefs, though the
reality of Hindus are based purely on either empirical observational conclusions or on scientific derivation of
logics about life, nature and God and this is most reflected in their respected religious books. I could not find
any book stating the law of nature as in Vedas, Upanishads and Bhagwad Geeta. It is the books of Hindu that
states the theory of detachment from our actions in order to eliminate miseries from our life. It is these books
that open our mind to realize knowledge over ignorance as a source to reach God. It is these books that let us
devote completely to God so as to keep ourselves above the grievances and materialistic pleasures of life. And
it is these books that actually works over our ignorance about God and allows us to expand our thinking to
realize God within us. And very beautifully and uniquely, none of the Hindu book talks about any other
religion anywhere, not even about itself as a religion (I find no other religious book so pure and universal in
nature which does not talk about its identity as a separate religion and this is the first basic reason, why they
attack other religions). Hinduism is considered as “Way of Life” as it talks purely about work, knowledge,
devotion, life, standards of living and realization of God within us. How has this happened then that the owner
of such high knowledge is worshipping idols in ignorance?

To me, the ignorance factor attached to idol worship is an external view. We require analyzing many things
before sarcastically declaring idol worship wrong. Some faith declares that their religion and religious books
are the words from Gods. Some interpretations dictate that God declared it through messengers who in turn
revealed to humans. Religious books contain words and sentences framed in a language that are
understandable by people of respective regions. Now, words and sentences are part of a language, a language
of humans. Question arises, who formed this language, did they pre-exist than humans and was known to God
and messenger. Or God or messenger came to know about it only after it was in practice by the faith-followers.
Anyway, we conclude that messenger, being an angel, must be the knower of these existing languages.
Questions build up: What medium did Allah or Christ take to describe the book to these Angels? Was it
through words and sound? If no, then was it just by his mere wish? We will consider both here.

Word is a property of language to be perceived by our senses either through vision or sound, both of which are
a property of matter. If word was the medium to produce any of these books by God, God undoubtedly
exhibited quality of a matter, which negates the definition of God according to the same books. So, if God used
words as a medium, it is clear that he executed materialistic properties. And idol, also a matter can well exhibit
property of God. In fact, a picture is worth more than thousand words. Idols can be more worthy – we will see.
But, if God did not use the medium of words or sounds, as he is free from the property of matter, first
conclusion would be to ask a straight forward question, “what is the use in chanting verbs from Religious
Books as the words or sounds won”t reach God – God is free from it”. Surely, you will say here that it is the
feelings out of our belief that reaches God. Then my dear friends, who said that when a Hindu stands before an
idol with closed eyes, he is devoid of all feelings? In fact, we find that while other religions fail to worship
God beyond a certain time period, Hindus do not have any time limit. They can worship for a minute, for an
hour, for a day or even for months. And the reason is so simple, their idol helps them to concentrate on God,
and develop a deep feeling for God, which kills their impatience through love. And who said feelings are
devoid of matter. Feelings are part of our existence, and if God is realizing the same feeling, by what means
does he do that? If he executes no human capability (if he does, worship of Idol is straightforward proven to be
correct), then this question would be a dead end – God”s definition needs to be re-corrected in order to answer
questions like this.

Coming to the other part of the answer that God made the messengers realize the words of holy books through
mere wish, and then also God is exhibiting our behavior. Wishes and desires are human behavior born out of
attachment to objects and goals. I believe, if God starts wishing, then there are two options – he is materialistic
(because he is executing same quality as a human and hence idols are proven) and he is powerless (because he
is showing the incapability to make every creature realize his wish the way he did to messengers – A
phenomena of job delegation strongly practiced in modern management science). Existence of messengers
reflects the weaknesses of God, but this goes against the definitions? Thus, it is sure that if God existed as per
the definition of those books, he neither used words or wishes as a medium to communicate anything to the
messengers. And hence, the only thing remained to conclude is that the book has no relation to God dictating it
to anyone and is a pure creation of human super mind. In fact, who have seen the concepts like messengers and
God”s words, other than the words of Religious Books? Anyway, a Hindu is not bigotry and believes that we
exist in materialistic environment and God has to use same media to make us realize his existence. Quran,
Bible and Bhagwad Geeta are books in material form containing words about God, the maturity and
completeness varying in them, which are subject to study. A Hindu would and must accept God first in
material form (as manifestations) before declaring that Bhagwad Geeta is words from God. And understanding
of God also is different in Hindu than from other religions. Hence, it is required to understand Hindu
philosophy first before attacking on their idol worship methodology.

As per many religious books, God is “One” and he does not require anything or any resource of this world.
This means he do not require our prayers too. He will still be the same as he is complete. But then, why do
people deliver “Namaz”, why do they go to church, and why are temples in place? Do we want to reach God
and if not reach, we surely want to communicate to God for something that is probably not known completely
to us. But God don”t require anything including prayers; he requires nothing as he is complete – any thing
delivered to God would prove him to be incomplete. God accepting even our prayers would simply mean that
some void was filled to which then God would respond, which goes against the definition of Religious Books.
Thus, God do not require even “Namaz” or “Prayers”. We require; we require many things.

The fact is – we humans are very petty animals, who either want to impose on others our beliefs. Humans very
selfishly have even imposed definitions to God restricting him to exist as per the definition in the religious
books. How can the very complete and free from all material God listen to the prayers that are delivered by
humans who are pure materials? God needs to deliver material behavior in order to make materials like human
realize him. And if God has been doing this for other religions, what is stopping God to take it via the medium
of Idols the prayers of Hindus which come deep from their heart?
The belief that prayers can be delivered only through chanting words of Bible, and feelings can erupt only out
of delivering “Namaz”, for God can listen and feel them alone – is a meaningless conclusion to restrict God
and his powers, thereby falsifying the existence of God at all. God is one who is equal to all and he can see the
tears of Idol worshippers and understand their feelings equally well. Why is it wrong to create an idol of God
which one can visualize as God and shed tears of love, to which he can talk, to which he render all his
belongings and accept all what he get in life as the Almighty”s giving. If I draw a picture of my father, does
my father come to my level – No.? Rather he praises my effort to try to remember him so closely as to put him
on papers. Will God become angry if we try to create a beautiful image of him even though that resemble to
human beings or any creature (creature as created beautifully by the same God) and deliver our whole life to
it? Is anger a behavior of God that he would impose upon those who ever tried to picturesque him with the
depth of their heart and concentrate upon him through it as a medium? Does this actually mean that one has
tried to consider God as humans? Does this mean that one is expecting the idol to move and do things for him?
I believe, not at all and no Hindu even thinks that the Idol would move for him. In fact, it has more positive
impact on society. If I start praying an idol which is of human form, I will not dare to harm human beings in
any manner. And history proves this. Hindus has never tried to impose themselves at any point of time over
any other religion. Hindus have never invaded any other country. Hindus are the only religion in this world
which does not talk of religion at all. It is all because they know and understand God better and try to live in
peace. It is the challenging environment which provokes them to do wrong and not their religions for sure.

Idol thus is not a God for Hindus, it is a representation of his manifestations, which is amazingly beautiful and
unparallel worthy to be respected, loved and believed upon – in other words worthy to be worshipped.
Worship is one of the strongest powers that impacts human attitude and configures his behavior in the world.
Thus, what we worship and how we worship is also very meaningful. If the worship has not come through the
depth of the heart and we are doing it under the boundary of belief, it should be such that it conveys a message
of peace, love and harmony in the world. Idol worship has proved through thousands of years that Hindus have
been one such society. Instead of attacking them, all other religions must come ahead to look into the depth
held by a Hindu for that would teach them how to hold their family intact, how to build a peaceful society,
how to develop a sense of humanity, how to configure our behavior as per the laws of nature, and overall how
to feel God inside us by realizing the Self.

I would like to summarize the above conclusions and ask the Critics to consider following points and give their
criticism a better shape.

1. Animals don”t have names, humans do have. “Allah”, “Ishwar”, “Jesus” and all are names stating that our
imagination towards God is like humans. Name is an identity. And an identity is for material. Humans are
materialistic. If God is beyond imagination, names cannot apply to God. This means the names as “Ishwar”,
“Allah”, “Jesus” are all an imaginary name with the notion to link God with material. And this is reasonable
also. Unless there is a media, we cannot outreach God. All religions use names as media to call on God. And
names can be any and many, media can be any and many, either all apply or all fail, because God is unknown
to all. There is no logic in declaring that “Jesus” is the correct name or “Allah” is the only name. Thus, name is
a proof of materialistic recognition.
2. We say everything is as per God”s will and wish. Will and wish are related of human thinking. Are we
trying to say here that God also thinks as humans do and produce will and wish? God”s will or God
understanding and realizing our wish is a proof of material relation of God.

3. If God don”t eat, he don”t speak or behave as humans do, how can he hear to what humans say? Why do we
chant prayers (in all religions)? Belief would have been enough to make things work for us. The very concept
of delivering prayers through words (in any language) brings God to posses hearing capability as humans. And
if you say that you use words just to convince yourself about your thinking, then also you need not do it as
God is powerful enough to know about it. And why say anything to God, as he knows what is happening and
what is about to happen. Why ask for anything to God when God already knows what is happening to us?
Thus, rendering of prayers itself binds God to materialism.

4. Why do we go to Temples, Mosques, Churches and all? Why do we have Mecca as a unique place for God?
Why do we look towards sky while praying? It is not just for group activity as individuals also visit them. It
means we have tried to capture the image of God inside these holy houses – God also live in houses as
humans. And if these places are for the whole mass to accumulate and pray, then is God like a king who can
listen to all at that place and give prizes or punishments. But who said kingly behavior is not human made.
Human mentality requires these materials to concentrate on God.

5. The concept that God is “One” itself is a selfish definition. “One” is a number which is there because of the
concept of many. “One” has come into play to understand materials. Imposing the say that God is “One”
restricts him to be materialistically an alone entity in the Universe with almighty capability. And if God is not
material, either no mathematical finite can be applied to him, or all counts applies. And hence, we have many
copies of Quran, Bible and other religious books, all manifestations of same God. Hence, we have many
images and idols created by Hindus, all manifestations of same God.

6. If God is infinite, and cannot be captured in images or idols, how can he be captured in words? Because the
vocabulary exists to describe that is reachable. Vocabulary and Images can exchange each other, rather Images
is worth more than thousand words. Thus, the boundaries and definitions created in various religious books is
an attempt to image God. At least, Hindus are sincere enough not to say that idols are what God looks like!

7. If God is complete, then any thing delivered to him including “Namaz” or “Prayers”, which if accepted by
him, would prove to fill some void, thus making God incomplete – not a truth. Thus, if we pray in whatever
form and feel that it is correct, then we also have to understand that our prayers are also a manifestation of the
same God thus neutralizing the void and keeping the God Complete. And if everything is a manifestation of
same God, idols too represent him – a good methodology to picturesque the Universal form and develop
respect, love and faith towards him under the power of concentration developed through material nature of
man.

The above points signify that all religion tries to realize God as humans only and the very basic reason of this
is our own human nature. Then what is wrong if Hindus have tried to create images and idols of God in the
shape of humans and tried to communicate with him more deeply and more personally. I think if idols are
criticized, all religions come under the umbrella of hypocrisy as their words and practices immediately become
distinct. If God is actually powerful enough to make anything happen in this world, if he is looking at us, if he
loves us – why can”t God take the shape of humans for the sake of his love? What power stops God from
becoming a human when time demands it? How can a human declare that it is not needed for God to come at
par to humans to deal with humans?

Questions add up:–

If there is only one true religion as told by God, what prompted God to create so many other beliefs prior to
that?
And who said one religion is the last religion in this world to have got created?
We have Sikhism for example which came into existence after Islam, and there would be yet another religion
trying to take shape and would erupt with time.

Questions add up:–

Was God so immature to realize after thousands of years that all that he did early was wrong and one thing is
the last thing he is doing as a correction over his errors?
How silly – one cannot even think of these beliefs out of rationality – God can commit errors and improve
upon it through his last say or he was incorrect of incapable of communicating previously in right and
complete manner?

Christians come and go from Churches, stay for few minutes or hours at churches, either chanting words from
Bible or silently calling upon God. Islam has fixed time, direction and guideline of worship. These are
respectable and all Hindu respects this. Not only this, if allowed a Hindu would love to go and worship in their
methodology with them. But, how correct is to make things comparative and condemn Hindus, endeavoring to
make them inferior. If such is the attempt, then question arises - how many Christians or Islamic followers we
find have the power to meditate on God for few hours. Unlike them, Hindus have not defined or bounded
anyone with the limitations of time and worship methodology. Hindus goes beyond the limits to allow humans
to meditate on God whenever they feel about God, and for any length of time. And thus, we easily find
meditation and “Yoga” as important aspect of Hindu religious science that gives human tremendous power of
control over the Self. And let anyone prove, that he or she can concentrate on the void or the infinite for even
few minutes. This is the reason, Hindu practitioners have been found to be in meditation for days – and that too
not in strain but pretty easily – as they have the idol power helping their mind to hold upon one vision. Thus, if
one has to concentrate on God, he or she has to have a figure to start with.

Human mind evolves around matter. We clearly see in this nearly all walks of life. Science is successful
because it went to visualize the design of electron and protons as the composing particles of all elements.
Nearly all businesses of the world are successful as they have first modeled their behavior. Metaphors are the
means for humans to represent more descriptively an abstract thing. Idols of Hindus are nothing but metaphors
used to understand God. Hindus have no idea of believing on God with partial faith. Hindus want to visualize
powers of God with perfection. And any so seeming unachievable targets needs models and metaphors to
represent it. As “Design” of a building or software is for an Architect, so is an Idol for a Hindu.

If Idol worship is ignorance, than I must say that all other religions hold much greater ignorance; and why
religions, we find science too existing on such belief about life (Evolutionary theory) and creation (Creation of
Universe). In fact, ever since existence took place and till existence would be there, Ignorance would be there.
Science has not outnumbered variations of artificial creations, nor has God been devoid of all lively creations.
Creativity occurs due to exploration of unfolded knowledge, which will ever remain. This is one of the reason,
actual scriptures of Hindus goes deep into realizing the Self first, and then endeavoring to find God in relation
to the Self. For a Hindu, worship in form of Love is of utmost importance and true knowledge of God comes
only after that. And a Hindu sincerely believes that such a pure love cannot get developed unless there is a
controlled and harmless behavior executed by human. And to make such actions controlled, the so called Idol
worship plays a vital role, conveying a message to Hindus that all creations are manifestations of God, thereby
establishing the environment of harmless behavior.

Moreover, Idol for the world external to a Hindu might be a representation of human form. But for a Hindu,
idol is never a human form. Had it been so, we would have found idols only in proper human shape. It is not
so. We have “Goddess Durga” with 8 or 10 hands, Lord Vishnu with 4 hands, Lord Ganesha with the head of
an elephant and 4 hands, Lord Shiva in the shape of a “Diya”, Lord Hanuman in the form of a monkey. We
don”t find humans with 10 hands or 4 heads. A Hindu temple is not a house of a statue in human form. It has
many more idols often representing creatures other than humans. Doesn”t this convey a clear message - Hindu
is not worshipping God as human Idol. An Idol for a Hindu is simply an acceptance that every creation around
is a form of Godly representation and with love, regard and worship towards every creature, this world can
achieve ultimate peace – which what is the goal of all religions. No religion in this world dares to give regard
to such understanding about God and his presence all around. Idol worship is not worshipping humans or
animals, it is simply a message to the society that God requires love to be developed for all his creations
around and worship is realization of such love.

Worship in any form is beneficial to humans as it kills the arrogance, anger and other negative attitudes,
helping the human to morally rise in life. Once a tendency or understanding that “my concept is correct” and
“his concept is wrong” develops, it immediately frames an arrogance, envy and ego around, which eventually
results in hatred, anger, onslaughts and war. It is stringently required by all religious believers to respect each
other towards anything they do to achieve godly behaviors in life – why not then respect the Idol worshippers
as they have proved to be the most tolerable and peaceful society on this earth. Why not live together to extend
this tolerance and peace across the globe?

It is not the paper piece of dollar or the Idol of Lord that is powerful; it is the faith and complete belief of the
person realizing them in its complete meaning that constructs upon the power. We all have universally
accepted concepts like “confidence”, “self-motivation”, “belief on own ability”, “positive attitude”, etc.
playing important role in uplifting our day to day work outputs. And whatever means we adopt to pray God,
what is more important is to realize the power of God in our life. Attacking others on their methodology of
worshipping or remembering God is a very negative quality and it proves that one who does so actually never
worships God in true sense. If we render worship to God, we would surely find changes in our lives and these
changes are reflected through our actions, behavior and approach to live in society. We would grow more
positive, we would develop better understanding about God, we would develop our intelligence and memory
more, we would learn to control our desires, we would get inspired by right things more than wrong ones, we
would find love in our heart for every creature, we would find peace in our mind persisting in all situations, we
find patience to bear the odds, we would realize God in everything we do. Irrespective of religion, this is the
sole purpose of all prayers. If we are not able to see these things happening, it is sure that we are trying to dupe
God and the world through our falsified means of worship. Whether it is Idol or just the name, it hardly
matters, what matters is how it controls our lives.

Temples, Mosques, Church, etc, are simple arrangement to help humans remember God and Hindus go beyond
this arrangement to create idols within them so as to realize that creations of God are equally respectable and
important for peaceful existence. While other religion simply ignores the fact that creation is also a part of God
and considers that creativity is what God did, Hindus goes beyond to realize that under the law of cause and
effect, all creation, creativity and creator are God only. While other religion simply accepts that this Universe
was created by God, Hindus go beyond to ask, “If it was created by God, from what was it created” and, “what
was there when there was no creation”. Hindu philosophy is clear to fathom that if creator existed before
creation and only creator existed before creation, then creator is the cause and creator is the effect too for
creations. This clearly means that whatever has been created has come from the creator and whatever has been
created, has been done by the same creator. Today science is also trying to talk in the same language through
various theories like Big Bang. But it requires a huge effort for science to digest the concept of Big Bang,
while such concepts are well explained in Hindu myth and Idols are simple examples that reflects this. Idols
clearly convey that if Earth is the cause of creation of a Pot, the “Potter” is also the cause of the creation of the
“Pot”, but there is a difference in these two causes. While earth still remains the same even after creation of
“Pot” and simply goes cyclic transformation, “Potter” is no more than a medium to make this transformation
take place. In the world of creation, Universe is the transformation of God and God is the medium too and
hence we say he is omnipotent and omnipresent. If this is digestible, how materials can then be not a part of
God, when materials is transformation of God only. While other religion sees, Potter and Pot as separate
entities, Earth and Pot as separate entities, Hindus bring them together to realize mater and non-matter as
coexisting entities, all being manifestations of the same creator exactly as Science have proven that matter and
energy are inter-exchangeable.

Idols and Ideals are very close words. We get inspirations from Ideals we choose, we configure our actions and
thinking around our ideals. This is a practice in west and is found to be effective in shaping humans. The
acceptance as an Ideal itself delivers the high regard towards them. Idols are similar ideals for Hindus. They
get inspiration to live a peaceful life. Who can be the best ideal than God himself? Thus, for most of the
Hindus, ideals are idols of Deities and they deliver regard of highest form – worship, towards them. This is the
practice in India and among Hindus – Why are then the world worried about this?

Idols and God exist as coexisting realities for a Hindu. Only truth and such high philosophy can be practiced
from thousands of years and yet not loose its charm.

If science is able to discover such huge energies from stones and the world has accepted it, Hindus have
tried to unfold a greater energy from the same stone and the world should accept it. Only then, the
secret of God would get unfolded before the religions of the world.

Science has failed to describe life and hence denies accepting God.
It is all because, Science has tried to look at the definition of God from the views of religions other than
Hinduism. I hereby, try to present the Hindu understanding of God and the mystery would be unfolded. As I
said earlier, mystery of God remains as long as the understanding doesn”t accept to answer my question –
“From what did God created the Universe”. A more generic question that Hindu philosophy attaches includes –
“Why”, “How” and “What” to every concept that goes unanswered by all other religions. While other religions
along with science, simply ignore such questions, it becomes very necessary for a Hindu to answer these
questions and this unfolds for them the truth of God, which become a scientific and believable explanation for
them. And it is this belief on a practical theory that makes them realize God and live in no ignorance and
darkness.

I call upon the religious leaders of the World of all Religions to go back into the words of Swami Vivekanand,
who had brought a revolution of elaborating Hindu philosophy on the Globe, and then turn again towards
Hinduism to understand this amazing religion which has shown peace and tolerance since existence – a lesson
that no other religion could learn till date.

For the believers of God, it is an accepted faith across the globe that God is one.

Hindus too believe so, but then there remains a question often shaped as a mockery over Hindus about
the various practices of worship rendered to innumerous God in their faith.

And this question is often thrown by people, who are philosophically and religiously recognized.

How come Hindu religion has 33 crore Gods? Is it sensible at all to believe and practice this?

I have a question:–
How can one decide what is sensible and what is not?
Particularly when none of those great thinkers have attained perfection in realization of God, none of them
have seen God, none of them have heard God. There are numerous instances where religion, religious books
and their beliefs have tried to define God.

Criticism is an easy thing to do but we have coins with two sides always.
Realization of the positive side and its practice is not only hard to recognize but difficult to accept as well.
Criticism is the negative side, where ego, arrogance and envy exist with an intention to force boundaries upon
people outside the boundary.

We require realizing and understanding God first completely before condemning any belief that is in
line with God.

If God is within creatures, we require realizing first ourselves, within ourselves, which is in very vicinity to us.
If God is not within the creatures, then where is he – if the answer is we do not know; then do not fight. We are
physically a body with senses, mind and soul. But behaviorally, we are a sum of our own thoughts represented
by our overall behaviors or actions.
Most of our behaviors or actions are around our kindred ones. Even the recognition of God in our life persists
more to support this behavior. Our behaviors mostly are aligned to deliver responsibilities towards our
relationships. And relationships have names. We have so many names despite of the fact that we are still the
one person.

My son calls me “Father”. My wife calls me “Husband”. My father calls me “Son”. My sisters and brothers
call me “Brother”. I am a “Grand Child” for some and time makes me a “Grand father” for some. I am an “in
law” for few others. I prove to be a “friend” for many.

Aren”t all these Nouns,as my name itself?

Yet my name is there. But I am recognized more by the Nouns of relations among my kindred, rather than my
name. I find that every other relation has a different name for me. And these names are not confined to a
particular country or religious believers. This is universal. And these nouns of relations are just not names;
they are actual vision which immediately pervades in accordance to the relation when one calls us by our
name. So, if my mother calls me by name, she doesn”t realize me as a father of a son or husband of a wife; she
immediately envisions me as her son. And it is these names that alter my behaviors with respect to the name
variance. I find that my responsibility towards each of these relations is different. For example, the relation that
I enjoy with my wife is quite different from all other relations. This means, the same person – myself, is
having different names, different authorities, different responsibilities and different recognized power. I owe
them all and render them all.

Is GOD only a father? If someone says “yes”, then I have something to ask him. Is GOD having only
limited power to be a father only? I believe “NO”. GOD is omnipresent and omni-powered.

We call him GOD because we expect anything and everything from him. He can take any role and
responsibility which we cannot render or whenever we require it. At least, when we are failing in life towards
any of our roles, we pray GOD to fulfill that. Hence, GOD just cannot be a father. If I am unable to serve my
father for some purpose which is important enough to bring tears in my eyes, I can rely on GOD to play the
role for me and fill the gap. Hence, virtually GOD is a son then – son of my father realized through me. GOD
can be my friend. GOD can be any of the relation I chose him to be for the reason of prayers and for the reason
of fulfilling my actions. In fact, GOD can hold any relation, any position and any situation for me as long as
there is the undoubted faith and deep routed love for him. More sincerely, Love is one relation that is true for
GOD as well for us; it is a relation that enriches our heart and mind with complete faith and it is this Love
which is required to be realized in our life for humans as well.

Hence, we have to accept the fact that Hindus are advanced enough to recognize 33 crore such
responsibilities executed by GOD.

And not all these responsibilities are towards humans. Every creation across the Universe lies as a
manifestation of same GOD and all of them are rendered support by the same relative GOD with varied names
and powers. When it comes to worshipping these powers of God, there is much more to this, than names and
responsibilities for Hindus. Why it is that despite of these countless diversities in names, Hindus do not fight
among themselves and practice perfect religious harmony in huge variance? In contrast, we find this
throughout the world in all other religions that if there is even slight diversity; people tend to challenge each
other for even their lives. Why doesn”t a Hindu follower of Lord Shiva attack a follower of Lord Krishna? If
beliefs of all other religions are so correct and scientific, why is the strong and positive attitude of tolerance
missing in them? There is surely much more deep routed facts to these 33 crore figure, than simply what
appears to the outside world.

The deep routed reality is that Hindus have discovered these varied sources of existence through years
of research.

Hindus have mastered the natural science; they have realized GOD to the extent that they have listed
down 33 crore different forms of natural power that is holding this Universe true, they have listed 33
crore immaterial manifestations of God – a figure where science has a long way to go.

It doesn”t mean by any chance that all the listed forms are different GOD.

They are still the same, but can be called for different purposes. In fact, they are smart enough to call them as
Devas (representatives or manifestations of GOD) rather then GOD himself. So, that people still believe in
only “One” GOD, the “One” whole that envelops the whole variance, the “One” as explained by me in the
article Idolatry.

Just ask the critics:–

Can they or their religious books list down even 33 thousand forms of natural powers – powers that nature
displays to hold life and existence of this earth and universe. It is not an easy thing to even imagine this.
Hindus have come up a long way to do so. Hence, the world needs more insight than this to understand the
facts about Hindu beliefs.

To make things more vivid, we will just look in brief into one of many philosophies behind idols and
images of so many Gods.

A simple question:–
Why do nearly all Hindu Gods are seen holding weapons (tools)? Yet we find Hindus not fighting for the
differences?
The fact is as deep to consider that to God everything and every creature are equal. The philosophy says that
Law and Weapons (tools) recognizes none, i.e., for these two entities, all other entities are equal and they act
with equal nature to all. In the law book of God all his creations has to hold equal importance (or else God
would prove to be incomplete, existing in variance and prejudice over his own creations). Hence, these tools in
the hands of Hindu idols and images symbolize equality towards all. Another important philosophy of weapons
or tools are to convey that weapons and tools should be held by only those people who have the Godly
qualities, i.e., the sense of equality towards all. Third, important philosophy is to convey that weapons and
tools are for protection and facilitation for human and its misuse is possible only if goes in hand of inhuman.
Thus, weapons are in hands of God, God who sees everyone equal – powers of manifestations of God under
the laws of nature has to be of similar sense and Hindu philosophy of 33 crore figure is an attempt to elaborate
this concept.

To understand above concept, let us see the symbolic meanings of few important deities – my explanations are
brief explanations, avoiding the details as detailing would take another book to be written).

Taking Lord Shiva as our first example, he is also called “Mahadeva” meaning – Deity of all Deities. If every
Deity in Hindu is a natural power, obvious question is: which of those powers is represented by Lord Shiva. As
Lord Shiva is deity of all deity, he has to be the source of energy to all other deities. And hence, as per Hindu
myths – Lord Shiva represents “Light” – an energy which is the source of all existence (Imagine a creation
without light; nothing can exist).

Worship of Lord Shiva started as Jyotirlinga – “Jyoti” meaning “light” and “linga” comes from the Sanskrit
word “Lingam” meaning - Power of Creation /or/ Seed of Creation.

Since, light is relative to darkness, the generalized theory of relativity was conceptualized on this ground. To
ensure the universal distribution of theory as a law, Lord Shiva brings the knowledge of Gender in relative
terms, because the myth says that it was Lord Shiva that established the meaning of two genders required for
creation. Thus, the concept of relativity started taking the shape of a theory, established long back by Hindus,
but realized only late by our modern scientists. And it is this parallelism of existence that created ground for
Hindus to research and establish 33 crore such relative powers.

As another example, we would take Lord Ganesh, who is put ahead of all other deities. It is light that produces
“Knowledge” and hence, Lord Ganesha (Deity of Knowledge) as per Hindu legends is son of Lord Shiva:
Knowledge is a product of Light. But it requires knowledge to perceive the power of light, and hence Lord
Ganesh is worshipped as the first deity.

Knowledge is the killer of Ignorance and death of Ignorance saves humanity from dangers of life. Hence, Lord
Ganesha is also called as “Vighnaharta” – reliever from obstacles. Right from rat to elephant, all animals
contain some intelligence as humans and this is the minimum that is represented by Lord Ganesha.

We can have Lord Vishnu as one more example, to fathom the depth of these images and Idols. If we look at
Lord Vishnu, he is symbolized by four hands, each hand holding different things. In first hand, he holds
“Shankh” (a symbol of Sound, sound that emerges through heart of a person and passes through the heart of
“Shankh” and gets intensified and uniform. Thus, a sound from heart has to be truth, its passage from the heart
of “Shankh” makes it pure and intensifies” and what is spread is uniformity of the truth in loudness), in second
hand he holds “Chakra” (a symbol of revolutions and cycles, through which the whole creation goes on; it is a
miniature symbol of the whole Universe and is explained in detail in Purana), in third hand he holds “Gada” (a
symbol of power, strength and weapon; that execution of power and strength requires the vision of equality as
of a weapon) and the fourth hand holds “A Lotus” (a symbol of beautiful detachment; lotus is born in dirt, yet
it is so beautiful because it is not attached to the dirt). The four fold symbols are important for realization and
to support the whole ongoing system of creation.
Every God of Hindu symbolizes some powers of nature. It is important to note that none of the Hindu Gods are
found to hold meat of humble animals or impure food. They are at most shown to kill the inhuman (often
called as “Rakshas” in Hindu myth). These are very deep routed creations of Hindu ideologists; their beliefs
are not as blindfolded as is perceived outside their arena. One classical example of Hindu ideology realizing
the meaning of 33 Crore Gods or deities can be understood by following famous Hindu saying:

“Matru Devo Bhawa, Pitru Devo Bhawa, Guru Devo Bhawa, Atithi Devo Bhawa”

Meaning:
Mother, Father, Guru and Guest are form of deity. At first this seems meaningless. But there is depth to this –
and the depth takes to deep enough to explore even God. A person as per Hindu philosophy is said to be of
divine nature, if he has absorbed energies from these people. From mother one absorbs the individuality
(“Sanskar”), which is the basis of his developing attitude. From father one absorbs the identity (“Pratap”)
which builds his Personality. From Guru, one absorbs the true Knowledge, which adds to one”s intellect. And
from Guest (“Atithi”) one absorbs humanity, an attribute of Godly creation that allows him to behave in
perfection in nature. The concept of Guest is far different and superior among Hindus than in any other
community of the world. A Guest has two forms in Hindus – “Mehmaan” and “Atithi”. The “Mehmaan” form,
as known to the world, are those who are visit upon invitation and are known to the host of their arrival – A
Hindu would respect him in all possible way and make him feel warm. But the “Atithi” form, as not known to
the world, are those who arrive uninformed as Guests (may be known one or may be unknown). They hold
extra importance, their importance being a form of deity (not they), because like God they do not have a date
of arrival – and hence, a treatment of highest form towards them signifies that Hindus in their behavior excels
western understanding. Thus, deities in Hindu are not only those natural powers like fire, air, water, etc., but
also the immaterial that constitute our existence.

Hindus realize that this world would be beautiful if these natural powers are respected and utilized in their
natural form, unlike the realization that materialistic science has discovered against the natural laws. And
hence, where they seem to be providing advancement they are actually leading the world towards huge
devastation. As a simple example, we can consider Fire as a power of nature; it can burn anything in this
world. And this burn has positive as well as negative impacts (actually the impact is same and uniform, its
realization as creatures varies). Thus, food burnt (cooked) produces varieties of tastes and eating enjoyable.
Metal burnt helps to get molded to shapes and size desired. Burning sun and lamps produces light and source
of energy. But the same fire, burns houses devastating lives inside. It can burn jungles thus devastating
vegetation, animals and natural balance. Burning impact is still uniform, but applications are different and
hence realization is different. Thus, it is important for the most advanced creature, as humans, to understand
the different usage of fire and use it only in a manner that is agreeable and beneficial to all. To make its usage
overall positive, it requires a mass attitude shift – how would this be achieved? This can be achieved only
through respect towards this power. Respect is a boundary, a boundary that has maximum benefits, minimum
negative impacts. Thus, the methodology of realizing fire as a source of useful energy and an important
essence of life, a meaning of respect was added to it by the word “deity” – The Fire Deity (Agni Deva) by
Hindus. Worship is simply a methodology of conveying regards to this energy and using it in a harmless
manner. I do not understand what is wrong in this. In fact, there is nothing wrong in this – hence, the Hindu
society is a peaceful society. We can also find the sense of equality in the property of Fire, i.e., its qualities and
identity cannot be changed – no science can diminish the power of Sun, and the uniform distribution of that
power towards all, irrespective of planets, irrespective of religion on earth. Hence, Sun for a Hindu qualifies as
a Natural power to be given a form of Deity.

While I do not find even in Science unfolding the importance of moon for existence of life, Hindus have gone
to identify the secrets held by nature in having moon as one of the facilitation in support of life system on
earth. And since, attributes of moon do not exist under prejudice and is uniform for all, it qualifies as a deity.
The life would not exist if water and air is not there. All these are natural energies, and important for life to
exist. And any effort to challenge these energies would devastate life itself. Who will disagree to this, even
scientifically? So why is the question raised on the community which knows its best utilization through the
methodology of worship? The reality is that people, who attack Hindus for their 33 Crore Gods or Idol
worship, have actually executed immense violence, unnecessary killings, forced decisions, and deceitful
conversions. And as per the same relativity theory of Hindus, the bad cannot tolerate the good. They will have
a nature to attack and win over good. But thousands of years have failed to do so. Another thousand of years
would again fail to do so.

If this is not clear yet, we can take any deity of a Hindu and ask a question – what power or energy does it
imply?

Under the universal theory of relativity, each of these energies will bring positive and relatively negative
impact. To realize the best and the positive part, we need to respect them first (with a realization that it can
devastate if something goes wrong).

Deity in Hindu philosophy is not a prophet or any person as in other religions. They do not have any physical
forms. They have simply elementary as well as divine existence.

And who can count these divine natures of infinite God?

Thus 33 Crore count is an amazing research done by Hindus over a huge period of time.

Here is an analysis to be attempted:–

How long did it take for Hindus to bring these 33 Crore count into their list?
(On the materialistic part of life, Hindus have also listed around 8.4 million species, while science have just
reached the figure of 1.75 and is predicting the figure to be between 8 to 10 million

How have Hindus come to this figure?

There are two possibilities:–
Either the creator himself have done this and Hindus were the first creation of Humanity by God OR it took
tens of thousands of years for Hindus to bring this research into reality. Accepting any of the two possibilities,
we easily end up in understanding since how long Hindus have existed.

It was only recently that they were named “Hindus”.

We Hindus are the eternal humans, and would continue to be so. We Hindus have ever existed and would
ever exist. Of course, there would be challenges and transformations through which we Hindus have to pass by
and these criticism and onslaughts are simply a picture of such challenges. The truth has to pass through false
boundaries and negative nature of energies. And as it passes and will pass through the same list of energies (33
Crore Count), those who respected it would be saved and those which misused and disrespected it would
suffer. This is a law of nature, and no science can disprove this. This can only be realized on the line of time
that always takes us into past and inspires us to look at past. Taking a static situation of ever moving time, it is
the present which we have to configure so as to make sure that the future is not negative, the future is peaceful,
the future is happy. Peace, happiness and positive results are not achieved without the essence of respect in it.

Hindus realized that 33 crore deities constituted their body and soul too. Because these 33 crore deities that
constituted this whole universe, also constituted humans as well. And this very philosophy gave birth to
AyurVeda, a medical science, which is yet to be unfolded completely and practiced by modern world. And this
very philosophy gave birth to the concept of Self Realization, the basis of all human achievement, a journey
through the mind being the reason of all scientific inventions.

When Hindus say 33 Crore Gods (Devas and Devis), they realize them all in themselves.
For example, fire in our body exists to produce heat, anger, energy, hatred, arrogance and other attributes. A
disregard towards it would produce chemistry (For e.g., acidity in stomach for wrong diet, uncontrollable and
harmful anger mis-utilizing energies) that can harm us. Hence, a regard toward Agni Deva, comes by
realization of knowledge of his existence in various forms. If we go in the details of AyurVeda, we can find an
elaboration on various forms of these energies in our life. And obviously, as far as God is concerned, every
Hindu believes that all these 33 Crore energies are again manifestation of God only.

People who criticize Hindus either know only their part or want others to live with what they are providing,
which is nothing else than bounded religious belief, a bigotry – a quality which their religion has definitely not
taught them to live with; because God cannot be achieved in boundaries, God can be touched with immense
boundary-less feelings; God can be realized with infinite boundary-less knowledge.

The question is how such forced believes exists? Why religious practitioners want to prove themselves over
other beliefs? What interest envelops them impelling them to undertake such selfish steps? Will this world be
peaceful enough to live in with only one religion like Christian or Islam into practice? Will there be no
differences among people then?

Let us assume that the target of converting the world into one religion is achieved.
Then there is another question:–
Are the miseries from the world eliminated ? (probably because God is happy now as the wish of God has
come true).

Let us assume that miseries are eliminated:

But how was this possible ? (Probably because every individual is living the same standard life given by the
same God. This has to be there obviously because if differences exist between two individuals in any aspect,
competitiveness would come into picture and then everything will result the same way as it is with different
God).

Now, if everyone is comfortable and equal in all aspect, don”t you think this world would come to a stagnant
stage ?An inert stage – a stage of death?

Hence, the variation of understanding is also there so that the true meaning of God is established.

It would depend on individuals and societies to choose the most tolerance and peaceful methodology, ie: of
Hindus.

The remaining moods like Islam or Christianity deceive humanity in the name of God and force conversions
from Hinduism to their faiths.

Actually, this very difference is the cause of existence of worldly happenings. It is the diversities that is
creating individuals and allowing them to exist. People who desire to convert this world into one religion and
people who tries to command others' thinking thereby demanding a behavior towards conversion, do not
understand religion at all.

They are actually working against the principles of nature as created by God, ie: diversities. Nature has not
created any two humans same from the 6 billion population. Nature has differentiated every creature and every
species as unique identity.

How can human even think of bringing people under one belief?
This can never be achieved and trying to achieve this is an unnatural act which eventually will result in death
of billions of lives.

There was never a time without variations and there would never be a time in this world when these variations
won”t exist. And the only possible and admirable religious step a practitioner should take is to allow others to
live as they are. That is only solution which can lead to effective standardization of human living behaviors.
And this is the only message which God has always conveyed to this world – Unity in Diversity. And this is
what is best realized in Hinduism.

COMPILED BY

VAIBHAV GUPTE