The Hindu pantheon has, in a famous example of
hyperbole, over 330 million deities. In a sense India is God-intoxicated,
there is god everywhere, in all things: within/without, above/below,
in the six degrees of separation and in the three planes of existence.
There are gods for vegetation, gods for weather,
gods for nature, gods for geographical areas, gods for villages,
gods for the house, gods in the temples, gods in running water,
gods in deepest forest and in icy mountain heights. There is no
situation, environment and place that the Indian does not have a
god for. Gods inspire, gods infuse art and creativity and gods provoke
destruction too. Gods in heaven are many, for the heavens also are
many with contending claims as to which is the supreme heaven. Even
hell has a God presiding , the god of justice and death, in a pretty
astute psychological characterization about the typical fears of
the afterlife.
However, it would be simplistic to think this is
just chaos run riot. There is indeed an order and structure behind
this apparent endless profusion of divinity, far more than any reasonable
mind would require.
For one there, is the concept of the Ishta devta
- the god you like. (See our glossary
for a more detailed exposition). As long as you have some god to
worship, it does not matter very much which one.
For another, there is the famous Vedic verse "Ekam
Sat, Viprah Bahudha Vadanti" (see glossary
again) or, "That which is the sole truth, the wise (and by implication,
the unwise) call by many names". Even the most unsophisticated and
unintellectual Hindu will tell you that all the gods are the same
Power. His version of it may be a bit more powerful, however!
Then there is a cultural acceptance of an aspect of Vedanta that also allows these gods to comfortably exist in the imagination. If the
Absolute is Brahman and it is superior to the Personal God,
if even the gods finally merge into that Brahman, then three or
three hundred million are all the same. indiayogi will attempt to provide
a new perspective on the seemingly endless deities of India, keeping this
truth in mind. Rather than endlessly reiterate the obvious theological and mythological material
about the well known Great Gods, we will attempt
to focus on the lesser known aspects, the more intriguing aspects, the
spiritually valuable aspects of these manifestations of the divine. The big names will
be covered but not in a perfunctory manner. We value insight,
not just information.
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