How did one become many?

Like a high school student applying to colleges through the Common App, we’re opening with a quote today:

“There are ‘gods’, we are told, but they ‘are later than this world’s production’. That means that they, like us, were made and are also subject to the revolutions of the wheel of time. They come and go like the rest of us… It’s as if history and its creatures were like mists that cloak and distort the presence of a great mountain: that One Thing!”

- Richard Holloway

How is it that when the Vedas say there’s The One and only The One who is larger than life, than the universe itself, that we came to have so many Gods in Hinduism?

Today we go exploring that very question, so let’s begin, shall we?

Hinduism is a religion that is unique in this aspect of theism. While at the first glance of today’s practices, we may safely assume that it is a polytheistic religion, when you take a closer look at the birth of these Gods and the religion itself, you may as well define it to be monotheistic and still be right about that.

The thing is, the word to describe The Oneness would be monism rather than monotheism. This is an interesting topic of discussion in the coming days. Since, monism here can be extended further to the monism of the body and soul, which is yet another distinction between some of the major monotheistic religions and Hinduism.

This whole idea of monism as opposed to poly/monotheism can get a bit draining to envision for some people. And hence were born the Gods of many forms. To help the devouts channel their thoughts toward The One, numerous forms were carved out. These forms were symbols that connected the people to this larger-than-life idea of The One Thing.

To this day you can see numerous statues or images of multiple types of Gods in Hindu temples, all of them connecting you ultimately to The One Thing.