Hinduism QA

By Shri Kesava Rao Tadipatri

Art by Smt.Vani Rao, Baton Rouge,LA

Quoara link: https://www.quora.com/Since-all-gods-in-Hinduism-are-all-manifestations-of-the-one-Brahman-would-that-technically-make-it-a-monotheistic-religion

Since all gods in Hinduism are all manifestations of the one Brahman, would that technically make it a monotheistic religion?

At the outset, before answering the question, the following things must be made clear.

1. Some schools like Advaita commit the blunder of trying to establish the validity of a school by its size by using terminology like “smaller school and smallest school”. They forget that such an approach will bite them back or boomerang as the very “Abrahamic religions (Jews, Christians and Muslims)”, whom they try to denounce will just drown them hands down in terms of size.

2. The very brag of meaningful dialogue is mocked at by giving meaningless definitions and invalid assessments.

3. Hinduism is a term that has come into existence only a few hundred years ago and any school like Advaita which tries to monopolize that by claiming that Hinduism means Advaita is committing a serious blunder.

4. If “sanAtana Vaidika dharma” is what is meant to be Hinduism, then Advaita is striking a heavy blow on Vedas, by labelling a very tiny set of statements as “MahavAkyas” and rejecting all the rest of Vedic statements.

5. Though Advaita religion bears that name, it is to be called “Dvaita”, since it bifurcated the “Brahman” as “SaguNa Brahman” and “NirguNa Brahman”. According to Vedas that is quite invalid (na dvitIyo.asti kashchit, ekamevAdvitIyaM (There is no one like Him- it does not mean that He alone exists and nothing else exists, which is ridiculous.)). The Lord is Advaita or Advitiya (Second to none) and should not be bifurcated. Similarly the truth or satya is just one, but that is bifurcated into two - vyAvaharika satya and pAramArthika satya, by creating a confusion between permanence(nitya) and truth(satya). Even anitya things are satya only. Satya entities are of two kinds - nitya and anitya(permanent and non-permanent). In that respect Dvaita religion is to be called “Advaita” as it believes in one Supreme God and one Truth. This is what is upheld in Vedas and Upanishds. If a beggar keeps the name “LakShmIpati(the consort of Goddess of wealth)”, it does not make him the richest in the world. What is in the name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. So one must use the concepts for the validity. Neither the size, nor the name gives the validity.

6. Monotheism means the belief in ONE God. It does not say that God is to be taken in Abrahamic sense or Advaita sense or Dvaita sense, etc.

7. Monotheism does not have any history. Those which claim monotheism have history.

8. Monotheism is not the acme of religious speculation, but is the necessity of dharmic facts. It is based on the common sense that there cannot be more than one All-Independent, All-pervading, All-Supreme, All-powerful and All-knowing entity.

9. It is a delusion that Dvaita mirrors Abrahamic theology. “IshvarassarvabhUtAnAM hRudddeshe.arjuna tiShThati” is central for Dvaita and not present in Abrahamic theology. The Dvaita school, which upholds the right kind of Advaita(unlike Advaita school which rejects the right kind of Advaita) is supported completely by the Vedas, Upanishads, Brahmasutras, Itihasas and Puranas.

10. The dark past is wrt some schools which claimed monotheism and it is a prejudiced notion that the darkness is to be associated with monotheism. This is like blaming the Sun for the crimes committed by some criminals in the night as the Sun caused the darkness by not being there. Thus it is preposterous to say that there is very little positive contribution to human or planetary welfare. The Vedas uphold monotheism. Does that mean that Vedas had very little contribution to human or planetary welfare?

11. It is misguided notion and a delusion that Abrahamic religions agree on “He has a plan and agenda for his chosen wards”. That is like claiming that they do not believe in free will. That is wrong. They do believe in free will. Otherwise, the cannot propagate their religions. Their first step in freewill is to believe or not believe in Jesus or Mohammad, etc.

12. Brahman IS everything means “Everything is under the control of Brahman”. The Advaitins forget the words of their own master (Shankaracharya) , who while commenting on Bhagavadgita 18-66 says that “Even a hundred statements of sruti to the effect that fire is cold and non-luminous won't prove valid.” One cannot say that Brahman is “some garbage” lying down there as He is everything. Padma Purana explains how such abheda (identity) statements need to be taken. “

tvadadhInaM yatassarvamatassarvo mato bhavAn(Because everything is under your control, it is said that you are everything)”. We can see that or understand that.

13. Complexity is not an issue. Inconsistency, absurdity, going against common sense and going against our experience are issues.

14. Pantheism says “God is everything” and it identifies God with the universe. Panentheism(God is in everything) sees Universe as another entity and God is greater than universe. Thus both believe in the reality of the universe. Advaita claims that it is Pantheistic. But the problems abound. It has to believe in the non-reality of the universe and in the reality of only God. If God is the universe, and universe is unreal, God will have to be unreal. If they perceive this issue and like to make a claim to be Panentheistic, they face another issue. If God is in the universe, then the universe has to be real. Then one has to believe in two real entities. In fact in order to believe only in one real, all the individual souls will have to be equated to God. That is a major disaster. Further let us not use the word God. Let us use the word Brahman. Now their issue gets doubled as they have “SaguNa Brahman” and “NirguNa Brahman”. Obviously they build this “Pantheism” using “SaguNa Brahaman” as non-different from universe. This they do so that they can dispose off both the universe and “SaguNa Brahman” as illusion. But in case of Pantheism, the universe has to be real, which is not the case. So, they can’t even make a claim to be Pantheistic.

15. If Advaita believes that God did not create the universe and that He does not control everyone and everything including all gods, it has to upfront reject PuruShasUkta and Narayana sukta (from Vedas).

“candramā mana’so jātaḥ | cakṣoḥ sūryo’ ajāyata |
 mukhādindra’ścāgniśca’ | prāṇādvāyura’jāyata ||

nābhyā’ āsīdantari’kṣam | śīrṣṇo dyauḥ sama’vartata |
 padbhyāṃ bhūmirdiśaḥ śrotrā”t | tathā’ lokāgm aka’lpayan ||”

(The Moon and its presiding deity were born from His mind; The Sun and its presiding deity were born from His eye; Indra and Fire from His face/mouth; Vayu from His prANa; the sky and intra-space and the presiding deities from His navel; the heavens and presiding deities from His head; the Earth and the presiding deity from His feet; the directions from His ears; thus He created the universe)

This describes as to how God created various entities and how He gave abhimAnitva (presiding powers) to the appropriate deities.

“nArAyaNAdbrahmo jAyate, nArAyaNAdrudro jAyate, nArAanAdindro jAyate...nArAyaNAdeva samutpadyante, nArAaNe pravartante, nArAyaNe pralIyante”(Brahma was born from Narayana; Rudra was born from NarayaNa, Indra was born from Narayana and so on. They originate from Him; they exist in Him and then they are consumed in Pralaya and enter Him).

16. If Brahman BECOMES the world and world is an illusion, as mentioned above it is a disaster. Further it is against common sense and it is against Vedas.

TaittirIyOpanishad says -

“idaM sarvamasR^ijata | yadidaM kiMcha | tatsR^iShTvA tadevAnuprAvishat |” (Created all this. What ever all these things are. Having created that, He entered that only)

The apparent abheda (identity) statements have to be understood as bheda only. Even in da-to-day life we find such usages. For ex, when Bill Gates formed Microsoft, people used expressions like “Microsoft is Bill Gates”. It simply means Microsoft is Bill Gates’(note the apostrophe)”. He controls the organization. We also hear people saying “You are everything in this office”. If such expressions can be used for ordinary mortals, why can’t such abheda statements be used for God in Vedas? It is an effective way of saying and implies many things like “control, ownership, being instrumental, being the source, etc.”. This is the essence of “Brahman IS Everything”. Everything is under His control, He owns Every thing. He is instrumental, Every thing happens because of Him. He is the source of Everything.

Now coming to the original question -

Since all gods in Hinduism are all illusions of the one Brahman,

This itself is wrong for many reasons. Why do we even want to consider the entities that are illusions? Is Brahman a cheat, who wants to create illusions and then call them as gods? Did Sri Krishna lie, when He talked about various gods in tenth AdhAya of BhagavadgIta? Or was he talking about only illusions? Did all the Vedic suktas lie, when they talked about other gods in the Suktas? A magician creates illusions on the stage because that is his livelihood. Why does God has to create this entire universe as illusion and all the gods as illusion? What has he to gain? If all the gods are illusion, what about all the living beings in this universe? Are they all illusions as well? If we are all not illusion, why not those gods be also non-illusion? If He alone is real, where is His Supremacy? He is Supreme to whom? Just because the gods are non-illusion, does that have to affect His All-Supremacy? Hinduism is not a religion. It is more than that. It is “SanAtana vaidika dharma”. It has provided infinite resources and the religious founders came up with various religions like Advaita, ViShiSTAdvaita, Dvaita, etc., which all come under Vedanta, which is only one of the six darshanas or groups of schools. When there are so many schools, why is the question formed like above. Imagine that a thousand Indians wore green shirt. If someone makes a statement “Siince all the Indians wore green shirt...”, is it not ridiculous? Even if 200 million Indians wore green shirt, one cannot make the statement “Since all the Indians wore the green shirt...”. So, the gods in Hinduism are not illusions in all cases, but they are also finite beings, even if their capacity is much higher than humans. God alone is All-Infinite. But the are illusion for Advaita and for them SaguNa Brahman is also an illusion along with the universe. So, are they finally monotheistic without ever being Pantheistic, as there is requirement for Pantheistic to trea the universe as real, which they do not do. For them the Universe is not real and the SaguNa Brahman has to be equated to the universe. If SaguNa Brahman and the universe are struck off as illusion, then they end up with only NirguNa Brahman, which does not become the universe and which is not present in every thing as it is nirguNa, niShkria, etc. Now wrt NirguNa Brahman, they are forced to be monotheistic, without any scope for Pantheism or Panentheism. Wrt SaguNa Brahman also, they can not make a claim for Pantheism, as NirguNa Brahman is there on the sidelines. It will have to be called polytheism.

would that technically make it a monotheistic religion?

Monotheistic is a broader term. It only says that only One God is there. Then this can go to any refinement depending on the school. It can be Panentheistic (God is in every thing) and non-Panentheistic. If Panentheistic, He is All-Supreme and All-Infinite. Nothing exists without God being inside it. Even in cases, where it is mentioned that God entered, He is already present in one form and entered in another form. His All-pervasiveness is unquestionable at all times and in all things. This is Panentheism. The major difference between Dvaita and Abrahamic religions is that Dvaita is Panentheistic in nature and Abrahamic religions are not. Some times, they make claim that they are Panentheistic, but when their scriptures are referred, their adherence to that is lacking.

Also which religion you are talking about? As mentioned earlier, Hinduism is not one religion, but a group of many religions, each one having its own approach to Brahman, universe and all gods, humans and other living beings in there.

Shri KrishNArpaNamastu !!