why do we have so many Gods ?

[justify]in the above questions you have been confused between names and the actual meaning/purpose/essence of names. e.g. rice is a grain. and we have to eat it to live. so, rice is the "name" and the actual purpose is "it is a grain/food which we have to eat it to live". the same rice is called as rice in english, sor'u in tamil, bhat in kannada, chawal in hindi and thousands of other names in each language.

the rice does not care what name it is called by. the name is not going to change the powerful property of rice. it has only one purpose "to feed people and help them live". and if you want to gain something from rice then you have to cook and eat it.

you wont get any use from rice if you are going to spend you time trying to know all the different names of rice rather than simply just cook and eat it. the same goes to every fruit, flower, trees, plants, grains etc. infact everything in nature is given a name for our easy identification. not to fight with each other on which name sounds best. if we fight, then it is due to our own stupidity and immaturity. the things are not telling us to fight.

the same is with god also. it is a holy power. this positive power can be found in almost everything in nature. the positive power is inside all good things. the negative power is inside all evil/bad things. in short, "God" represents goodness and "devil" represents evil/bad things. "God" and "Devil" are not humans. but they are inside the humans in the form of "goodness" and "evil" respectively.

this holy power is not telling us to worship. we only for our selfish reasons worship it so that we can get wealth, prosperity etc.

in Hinduism, for our easy identification of the various powers, they have been given names. as rightly pointed out by most of them who have replied to this post. it is in your hands whether you want to stick to the "names" or just honestly pray to god who is in your heart (in the form of goodness).


now let me answer to above by respective point numbers for each of your question ...

1. if you know what lakshmi, saraswathi represents then why are you bothered about whether they fight with each other or not. it is just a story created by people. nobody has seen them fighting or pulling each other down.

just worship for what each one "represents" as rightly pointed out by "bars62" - Bharathy. e.g. worship lakshmi means treat your money/finances well. dont misuse wealth. it is precious. etc.
worship saraswati means study properly because it will give you knowledge and wealth for living your life smoothly. etc.

instead we have converted this to a ritual. we think that saraswati puja means porri and sundal and one day leave from school and books since they will be placed for puja.

this is an example only. likewise you can find a ritualistic approach to every god name instead of seeing what the god actually represents.

2. today you can find many political parties in tamil nadu. e.g. DMK, AIADMK etc. before independence we did not have these different parties. we got independence from britishers by fighting in one name "Indians". later after independence we formed govt. , parties etc. in some parties there used to be clash of people and so they got separated and formed another party with different names. many years passed and each grew independently though they all were one only many years ago.

likewise, there may have been some fight between sections of people and hence they must have separated. each must have given themselves a name and also chose their deity name/god name. this continued for generations to generations and finally we have vaishnavites and shaivites.

i dont know if anybody has seen shiva and vishnu fight. but i have definitely seen the vaishnavites and shaivites fight with each other.

so who is the bad one here ? god or people ? god told these people to fight ? or the evil inside the people is telling them to fight ? i think you got the answer.

the same fights and separations to form separate sections/sects has been found in most other religions also. you will be surprised to find that all religion people have similar problem. so God is not creating hatred, people are only creating hatred. the religion name may be different, people sects name may be different. but hatred is common in all cases.

no matter which sect you belong, god always answers your honest prayers. he has nothing to do with your silly differences.

3. parvathi, durga etc. it is a name to describe the "holy female power of creation" (giving birth etc). like i said in the "rice" example, give importance to the essence of the name and not to the name.

4. Black magic, sudarshan homam etc. are rituals and also it is a business for some priests. have you ever seen any black magician doing magic for free ? it is his source of living. my advice is to stay away from such people.

5. your fifth point is very interesting. another example of ritual instead of purpose i.e sloka to solve problems.

i will tell you one example. in schooldays, i used to pray to god to give me knowledge etc. i used to keep my books for puja, recite gayathri mantra etc. but never used to study. so naturally my preparations for exams were very poor. before exam starts i used to pray again that "god please make me pass, i will come to temple in evening, i will give you thengai (coconut) etc". very silly but natural for an immature kid.

as expected i failed in maths. then i got very angry with god. because i did proper puja, i put kungumam and santhanam on books, recited mantra properly, was willing to spend money to buy coconut for offering etc. then why i failed ?

answer is simple. i "did not study". books were with me. guides were with me. teachers were there to teach. but i did not take any effort to learn the subject i hated. in short god had given me all that was necessary to learn maths e.g. books, teachers etc. but i was wasting time on "rituals" which are good but no use if we dont follow the purpose of those rituals i.e "study".

if you have any problem dear, then you also have a god's gift to humans "intelligence". use it to "find the solutions" to your problem and "take efforts" to solve your problem. just reciting sloka will not do. it is like running away from a problem instead of facing it.

6. god is a man or woman ? god is not a human to be classified into a man or woman. the male and female gods in Hinduism represent the male and female "powers" for the procreation of the universe. both the powers are needed for existence of the universe. god is a "power" not a "name". "name" has been given for identification of this "Holy power".

when a person is in total pain and he calls god for help then god helps him. not because he has said a "sloka". but because he has "honestly" called god. in other words only "honest prayers" from your heart will get you close to god. not meaningless things like god i want bike, car, i will tell sloka etc. he is not a supplier.

7. very good question. in our Hinduism we follow that. it is because god has to be worshiped with purity in mind and body. e.g. we cannot go to temple without taking bath because our bodies will be dirty without bath. during our ladies monthly days, lot of dirt and impurities (germs etc) are expelled from our bodies. i hope you very well understand what i am talking about. and in this condition it is not good to worship god with impure bodies. this is the concept. that is why it is advised to not recite slokas or go to temple or enter swamy room.

you are right that "we need god in every situation". he is inside you always helping you even in those days. you only have not reached him. he is right there in your heart.

so have you got the answers ? i have tried to answer your 7 questions in the simplest possible way ma .... do come back with more questions. i am waiting.

take care[/justify]

 

Ok..

OP got to learn one thing for sure - Never compare religion !!!! LOL..

Anyways,

Christianity is a monotheist and so is Islam.

Hinduism is a mix of many - Mono, poly, even heno.. Hinduism also believes Brahma is one and all..

Also got to understand religion from a bird's eye view which will give you a different spectrum altogether. Don't confine yourself to slokas, rituals and stuff.. Hinduism is actually a big beautiful umbrella of many teachings in life. It's a vast knowledge base than to get tied down to some of the rituals, slokas etc. The beauty of Hinduism is it's openness and diversity. So many ideas and no strict definitions of what to do and what not to do.

To briefly explain, our religion gives us ideas that we can incorporate, dharma, our duties to be done in our lifetime and also in multiple lifetimes - samsara, thus answering to all our karma's and finally breaking this cycle and getting moksha.

So how do we achieve it...

what can control this animal-hidden human beings to make them lead a streamlined life and also help them grow - spiritually, morally, intellectually, economically as well.
we can be either a fun loving, party person with no morals whatsoever, having multiple partners and have no social conscious or follow some eternal teachings to understand what should NOT be done, yeah??

But if given like rules, will all of us be happy about it, will we do it? There are many smirti's, hope you know about it for example, the famous Manu ;-) ..all these smirti's...called the text that needs to be remembered...Do we all follow that in this age and time? Why don't we.. because we humans don't.. we change.. these texts apply only to the current age and time that it is returned.. So what do we do.... how are we going to make these humans understand nature and the moral ways of leading it..

How about teaching us through God's lives, yeah?

Now how can one God be put in each and every situation and be explained... What if there are many Gods and each with their own teachings?

Take each and every God and while understanding their life, you will also learn the teachings within.. the light to our life path.. the light to our spiritual enlightenment.

See religion in this light. Come what may, any situation, you will learn how to handle it. My personal opinion - A person who knows all the slokas in the world may not have grown spiritually....Rituals, Slokas etc are mere disciplinary ways... The concept of our religion is to grow spiritually and reach him, our creator

PS - Above is my personal opinion

 

Lovely replies.
Iam impressed with ananthy and Nandu's explanation. I agree with Ananthy that we are caught so much with rituals like sloka and worship, that essence of God which is in us is forgotten.
Yes rituals and pujas are tools to reach God, the power, but most of us get stuck there. Instead of looking on external , if you start moving inwards towards the soul you will see the change in the prespective.

Iam ignorant person, i fully second Anant and Nandu's explanations, but this whole post is enlightening to many, thank you for raising the question.
Jaya

 

[justify]dear hema

again i will answer all your questions very soon. this will take some time to type.

but first i want to tell you something.

from your message i can see that you have some health problem. can you please tell what is your problem. by giving explanation to god issues this health problem will not be solved. but may be IL ladies will have some solution for your problem. because i can see that the health problem is eating you more than the actual name of god that you want to know.[/justify]