Why isn't Hinduism and Sikhism given recognition as a "Monotheistic Religion"?
The Sikh Granth clearly advocates the belief in one God. The Hindu Vedas unequivocally states that God is ONE. Many people misunderstand the concept of Gods and Godesses and they assume that the deities are different Gods...When in fact they are not different Gods and Godesses but manifestations of one God. The Bhagavad Gita clearly states that Misha/nirvana cannot be accomplished by worship ping various deities but by overcoming Maya (illusion) hence connecting to the one supreme soul / the omnipotent creator. When the various Hindu prayers (such as Gayatri mantra / ma ha mritunjay mantra) are translated, they do not even refer to the vedic deity with whom that payer is associated with but refer to the ONE Supreme creator.....
So why does everyone always overlook Hinduism and Sikhism as a monotheistic religion?
@steelboy, "polytheist" is where there are infact more than one God. In Hinduism there is not more than One God. There is a difference between deity and God. The various deities that we worship are not the Hindu equivalent to what you guys call "akaal puraakh". Our equivalent is what we simply call "Bhagwan" or "Parmeshwar". The deities are manifestations of that "parmeshwar" hence they are referred to as "eshwar" or "ishwar". According to Hinduism there is only one creator. In regards to what you said about people worshipping moon, oceans and nature...This practice began in archaic times and the reason was that God was omnipotent and omnipresent. Because, stars, the nature and lanscape were seen as a part of God, people began to worship them. No one said that God is a moon or that God is an ocean. This however was before the advent of the Vedas. In the Vedas, Rishi Veda Vysa taught Hindus the correct way of worship. The practice of worshipping stars, moon, oceans etc.....
...should have ceased as soon as the Hindus had the Vedas and a more intellectual way of thinking about God and worshipping him. However, as history is witness unfortunately the practice of worshipping nature continued. As for people worshipping rats and other animals, what can I say? They are illiterate rural Hindus who have never bothered reading any of the Hindu scripture. If you were to ask them why they worship rats and animals, they won't be able to even give you an answer. If you were to ask them, which Hindu book did they last read, they won't be able to answer you. What they are practicing is not Hinduism and has nothing to do with Hinduism. Nowhere in any of the Hindu scrpiture does it say that Hindus should worship cows, rats, birds etc. Why some many Hindus do remains an enigma. It is the pot belly temple priests who are also illiterate and who also have not read any of the Hindu books who have completely ruined Hinduism.
Here is the translation of the Gayatri mantra which you asked for:
"O God ! Giver of life, Remover of all pain and sorrows, Bestower of happiness, the Creator of the Universe, Thou art most luminous, adorable and destroyer of sins. We meditate upon thee. May thou inspire, enlighten and guide our intellect in the right direction."
The only ones you will ever convince are atheists.
Those from the Abrahamic religions tend to have extreme religious tunnel vision. How else can Christians live with the concept of the Trinity with regards to the same topic of monotheism? Not to mention all the Saints some of them pray to.....
They should in my opinion "damn I sound like a heretic!" but yes they should be because they believe in a Creator God as you described the other deities are emanations from that God and a connection to It.
Many people (mainly of other religions) who doesn't have knowledge of Hinduism and its scriptures in depth says that, there are many gods in Hinduism so which one to worship and Bela Bela Bela......... Let's see what actually our scriptures says on this. (These are my own findings from books. Please correct me if there is any misunderstanding). Hinduism is like sea I tried my best to write here briefly.
If you see our sacred texts (like Veda, Upanishad etc) they never say that there are multiple GOD Almighty's (GOD ALMIGHTY is called as Brahman, BrahmaaHamaparashakti, adishakti etc in hinduism. All name refer to same ?god almighty?) This brahman has created the three (trimurti or trinity) gods such as brahma (creator), vishnu (preserver) and shaiva (destroyer). These three gods are absolutely necessary for any creation. Even the brahma (not brahman) has start and end. His duration of life (ayushya) is 100 years (not man years)
What is Brahman (parabrahma or parashakti)?:
In the 'Taittariya Upanishad' II.1, Brahman is described in the following manner: "satyam jnanam anantam brahma", "Brahman is of the nature of truth, knowledge and infinity." Infinite positive qualities and states have their existence secured solely by virtue of Brahman's very reality. Brahman is a necessary reality, eternal (i.e., beyond the purview of temporality), fully independent, non-contingent, and the source and ground of all things. Brahman is both immanently present in the realm of materiality, interpenetrating the whole of reality as the sustaining essence that gives it structure, meaning and existential being, yet Brahman is simultaneously the transcendent origin of all things (thus, panentheistic).
So why there are many gods in hinduism?:
Yesterday I read a beautiful explanation on this. It starts something like this.
There was a contest for 3 people to write essay on moon. First one is common man, second one is poet and third one is scientist who went to moon. Common man wrote like this: Moon will be round on full moon day and half moon on few days. Disappear on few days. He had written what he had seen by his naked eye from earth.
poet wrote like this: He explained the moon with many beatiful words and said there is nothing like moon
Now the third person scientist who came back from moon after visiting there had written like this: First he had written what he has seen from earth later he explained what exactly he had seen on moon. He had written as there are stones, soil etc on moon.
But the first two persons didn't believe essay of scientist because they didn't see actual moon.
In same way the so-called monotheism religions are like common man and poet. They have seen god almighty from far away. So they say that god is beutiful and powerful etc etc. But they don't know apart from that. If you ask any unanswerable (complex question on creation, god almighty etc) question they say that we should not ask such questions. Because they don't have depth knowledge and answer for it. So called Monotheism religions are just like seeing moon from earth.
On the other hand Hinduism says that there is only one almighty. It never says there are multiple god almighties. Yes, hinduism also says that god is beutiful and powerful etc etc as what polythiesm religions says. And also explains god almighty from close view in human language.
Like there are many things on moon, Hinduism (vedas, upanishads and other scriptures) explains that there are many deities or gods (devtas) within the GOD ALMIGHTY (brahman).
Yes there is only one moon but at the same time you can't ignore things such as stone, soil etc on moon.
In same way there is only one god almighty but many gods dedicated for specific work in the process of creation, protection of universe within the god almighty. We have to worship these gods as said in our scriptures to reach god almighty.
Now the choice is ours whether to read essay of common man, poet or scientist who went to moon. If you want beautiful poem or essay (as seen from far away) you have to read either common man or poet's essay. If you want both (i.e. seeing moon from earth as well as close view) then you have to read essay of scientist. Because he has seen moon from earth as well as from moon itself.
Unlike other so-called monotheism religions Hinduism explains us in both way. I.e. seeing god from far away and from close view. Here we can remind of vishwa roop darshanam (cosmic vision) of Lord Krishna. This itself is enough to understand concept of god in Hinduism.
Unlike other religions Hinduism caters to all from beginners to skilled people who have reached milestone in spiritual path. This is the reason we find many difference in Hinduism.
(P.S: 1) Some say that brahman=vishnu or brahman=shiva etc. But these beliefs are not related to this discussion.
2) I have compared here GOD ALMIGHTY with moon just to explain with illustration. My intention is not to say both moon and GOD ALMIGHTY are same)
Still if you say hinduism is polytheism, that means indirectly you are saying that christianity is also polytheism. Because before commenting on trinity (trimurti) of hinduism you should not forget that christianity also believes in trinity.
Let us remember that one finds such misunderstandings and distortions of the teachings in Western society which arose from western Europe, with similar misinterpretations arising from all three Abrahamic faiths which arose in the Middle East.
These militant faiths are very harsh and judgmental in their nature even to the point of condemning one another all they are all so closely related and share so many aspects and teachings.
However, they are primarily practiced by those who can not read their own scriptures in the original languages in which they were first presented or received as there are many "reformed" Jews who don't even conduct their worship in biblical Hebrew, the vast majority of Muslims can not read Arabic and very few Christians read biblical Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew or Latin. The adherents of the same are simply parroting that which they have been taught rather than thinking for themselves and seeking their own personal understandings as they seek the essence of the Supreme Godhead that is within each and all of us.
They also seem to have a limited understanding of what it truly means to worship an "idol", which they think means worshiping a statue or image while most of them have made idols of money and material wealth, of media stars, believed prophets and sacred buildings without eve realizing the same.
They don't appear to understand that all a statue does is to lead one to think about God and, thereby, ones relationship with the same. Oddly, most have photographs or other memorabilia of deceased family members and/or friends and they use the same to recall them and their relationship with them.
Another issue is that those who call us idol worshipers and polytheists are not well versed in the study of any religion, philosophy, etc.
In the end, each will return to the Supreme though it may take some more time, many more lives to reach the realization necessary so as to do so. Until such time as they awaken to the reality of the same, we should do our best to live with them in peace and brotherhood, answering their questions as best we can and teaching by our own lived example as we realize that the Supreme is the "doer", the active agent in all things and the "enjoy er" of all and that we are only the loving servants of the Supreme.
God is one and is invisible to eyes for everyone. Its little difficult to experience the formless God.
Rare one realizes it and try to share his experiences with other people. But God can only be experienced and there is no concept exiting in this world, which could explain God. People create their image of God based on the experiences of that realized soul or start worship ping that person.
Every God, existing in this world, such as deity, image, name, human, symbol etc. is just an outcome of this belief of people.
Its absolutely fine, children play with toys and enjoy it. Only when mind matures with the dawn of spirituality, one start seeing things as they are.
It's because most historians and theologians don't really know the essence of these religions, and the true followers of these religions don't really care how their religion is phrased.
You're right, Hinduism and Sikhism are both monotheistic religions, contrary to popular belief.
Hinduism is mostly polytheist. People worship sun god, moon god, gang, Summer par bat, oceans etc. Please provide the translation of Gayitry mantra for God. Gayitry also mentioned as a cow and Lodha in whose farm it was grazing broke its leg. People also worship trees, snakes, grid(a bird), in Pakistan people worship even rats. Bhagvad Geeta and a few Upanishads does talk about one god not vedas. It will be good if you read a book of swami Ram Tirth a well known Hindu vedantik philospher on Vedas.
Sikhism is never questioned as monotheist religion. Only people who have any kind of prejudices against sikhs or ignorants will say this. Guru clearly says, " Hamarey ekkey hari hari- We have only one God".
Khasam Chhod dujey laggey dubbey sey vanjaria(Apart from Him if any one worships anything else, he/she has ruined his life).
Nanak nirbhau nirankar sach ekk horr ketey Ram Raval||(Says Nanak, there is only one fearless Lord, many others like Ram have merged into dust).
Edit: Here is a reference to wikipedia and it tells you about Vedas. If you disagree with this, you may correct them otherwise this article does not tell vedas believe in one God.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigveda
I don't think that anyone overlooks Sikhism as a monotheistic religion, but Hinduism is overlooked in that area. In the Sikh religion Ik Oan Kar means God is one, there is only one God. There were 10 gurus and guru means teacher; they came to this earth to teach the religion to the followers. Hinduism consists of praying to many different Gods or Goddesses. That is because Hinduism takes into account all of the different forms of God; in the end there is only one God.
Why isn't Hinduism and Sikhism given recognition as a "Monotheistic Religion"?
