Like the ancient Greeks or Romans, they believe there are different God's for different aspects of your like. i,e, God of Happiness, Gpd pf Encouragment, God of Sunlight etc!
Yups that's what I am. Hinduism is actually an extremely old religion, founded by the Dravidians (or maybe the Aryans themselves) If you take out any ancient religion you will always find a multitude of Gods for everything from the sun down to the stones. Hinduism is the same. Its an ancient religion that never died out.
** additions **
No its not one God, Vishnu. There are three: "main" Gods. Brahma - The Creator, Vishnu - The Preserver (i think) and Shiva - The destroyer.
The Hindus have so many gods because they have one to represent each separate aspect of divinity. There is a complexity to the symbolism that is missing in western religions. The Catholic Church attempted to get around this by having a saint for each different aspect, but we all know better. It's gods and goddesses that are the archetypes, and the saints are just substitutes.
Usually, when a religion has many different gods and goddesses, it also has mythology that includes a unitary aspect: either they were all from the same father and/or mother (grew out of chaos, for example) or they are all united under a King of the Gods. So the idea of monotheism is indirectly involved, but does not put all its eggs in one basket, as it were.
The symbolic value of many different images is clear when you have a particular problem you want divine help on. You have a candle or a statue or a picture, and you can focus your intentions on that one aspect of divinity.
Would u use the same clothes used by u r fronds or siblings,
Would u use the same shoes used by u r fronds or siblings...
no right...why?...because u r different from others....and because each one is different from others materialistically..
In a similar way each one is also spiritually different from others...so each Hindu prays to different god as per his needs...
Well, first of all Hindus consider most important factors that influence environment as gods. These are air, fire, land and water as gods. Without any of the above we cannot live. Even if any of these shoot up also we cannot live (ex: tsunami ? water, earthquake ? land etc.) Each of these are given an imaginary face and name to worship.
Similarly like you have a boss or manager for every department in an organization, Hindus have GODs for various departments and are controlling different activities.
1----Seeing multiple manifestations of the one God or source of being, which is often confused by non-Hindus as being polytheist. It is however properly seen as one unity, with the personal gods being different aspects of one Supreme Being, like a single beam of light separated into co lours by a prism, and are valid to worship.
2----These deities represent forces of nature or Deva's and are not equivalent to Brahman represented as Vishnu or Shiva. The Devas hold a similar place in relation to God as angels do in Judaeo-Christian traditions.
These Devas may variously be translated into English as gods (which is rather a mistranslation), or better, as demigods, deities, celestial spirits or angels
3---Hindus had pantheistic tendencies. They saw God in everything and worshiped it as God---anything belonging to God was God
4---WHEN DISASTER STRIKES, people turn to religion to help them answer two questions: Why did this happen? and What should we do about it? Call the first the meaning question and the second the action question.---Before scientific inventions, ignorant people reacted to the cruel forces of nature by praying to them to appease them---praying to the sun and the moon and the water and the snake etc.
There is still a lot of poverty and illiteracy in India and a lot of superstitions and disbelief's
`actually Hindu's god is lord Shiva .and Vishnu .
but during periods he make different gods with different identity to destroy different devils ..
we Hindu believe all 10 great gods ..
to worship all gods we have different birthday for each one ...Lord Vishnu being the protector of the Universe, comes down to the earth in some form or other to protect and save his devotees. The Lord says, that whenever there is an over abundance of evil on earth, He will take an avatar am to restore the balance. In every one of his Avram's he conveys a valuable message. An Aura, that is some form of evil is destroyed, restoring peace.
Further, the Dasavatarams of Lord Vishnu follow the theory of evolution as understood by us today. There is a gradual development in the complexity of form taken by the Lord - fish in Matsyavataram, tortoise in Kurmavataram, boar in Varahavataram, half man half lion in Narasimhavataram, a dwarf in Vamanavataram, an angry man unable to control his anger in Parasuramavataram, the ideal human being in Ramavatram, friend, philosopher and guide ( Geethobadesam) in Krishnavataram. In Kalki avataram he is slated to destroy the world when evil becomes uncontrollable and thus establish the rule of dharma.
Matsyavataram (Form of a fish)
Kurmavataram (Form of a tortoise)
Varahavataram (Form of a boar)
Narasimhavataram (Form of a lion headed man)
Vamanavataram (Form of a dwarf
Parasuramavataram
Ramavataram
Balaramavataram
Krishnavataram
Kalkiavataram (yet to come)
why do hindu's have so many god's?
