Gods in Hinduism: Multiple Paths To The Supreme One  

By Manoj Kumar  

Earth, water, fire, wind, sky, the astral bodies, dawn, night, thunderstorms and lightning are all worshipped and deified in Hinduism. If God is 'all’, then where is his abode? God or the Supreme One is a universal and infinite spirit. He pervades the cosmos. He is present in all creation. You can feel his presence in trees, stones and animals. God is Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient. The Yajur Veda affirms the omnipresence of God: Isavasyam idam sarvam .

While believers rejoice in God as an all-pervasive spirit , there are others who question His existence. The atheistic argument denying the existence of God is as tenuous as the claim that you were born out of thin air. God’s existence can be felt in the power of a seed sprouting and growing into a big tree. An atheist would explain this transformation of a seed into a tree as a scientific phenomenon. We need to breathe in order to survive. This is acknowledged by science. But can science explain what happens when a person exhales for the last time? How did he lose the ability to breathe in and breathe out?

There is a power behind our inhaling and exhaling , which helps us survive - that power is God. When we realise that God is present in everything and in every living being, we can indeed find Him everywhere. How else could the great Adi Shankaracharya have found Lord Shiva in the heart of a chandala or untouchable?

The belief in the existence of God depends on the state of mind of an individual. The desires, expectations and convictions of the believer determine where he will find God. The following mythological incident helps illustrate this point.

King Hiranyakashapu, an atheist, asked his son Prahlada, an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu, if his Lord was present in a particular pillar. Prahlada replied in the affirmative. Whereupon, the infuriated king struck the pillar and Lord Vishnu appeared in the form of Narasimha . The moral of the story is that the Supreme One’s presence will be felt in every walk of life, wherever you look for Him, provided you have unflinching faith. And this, Prahlada had in abundance.

Faith in God has sustained mankind for centuries and has fulfilled a practical necessity in our lives. Polytheism in the Hindu pantheon has accommodated a galaxy of gods and goddesses; and devotees choose to propitiate the deity of their choice. That’s why propitiating one’s ishta devta or personal God, is a common practice.

Lord Krishna declares in the Bhagavad Gita that He, the Supreme Lord, will respond to devotees regardless of the form in which they worship Him and that He, the Supreme Lord, will approach the devotee in whichever form the devotee expects to be approached. "In whatever way men approach me, even so do I go to them. My path do men tread in all ways, O Arjuna. Those who long for success in action in this sacrifice to the gods, because success is quickly attained by men through (such) action" (IV.11, 12).

As Swami Venkatesananda puts it , "The Hindu firmly believes that the countless viewpoints of God (the different religions) are all valid and will lead us to the same God. The ultimate experience is beyond the pale of the ego; but the highest spiritual experiences, too, may differ from person to person, as is revealed in the different religions... "Even they who seek material gains - or even spiritual perfection - resort to God only through the various divinities; and God responds to them through the same channel. We adore God in various ways. This knowledge frees us from fear, attachment, anger, intolerance and proselytism".

This, in essence, is the philosophical basis for the happy coexistence of the many gods and goddesses under the wide umbrella of Hinduism.

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See also: Gods in Hinduism , God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul

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