Hinduism is one of the few religions who believe in many gods, this is called polytheism and most other religions are monotheistic.

by chicken98 (student)

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

HINDU GODS

Hinduism is the oldest religion out of the 6 major world religions. They have as I have said below many gods; there festivals are colourful and joyful. Hinduism is one of the few religions who believe in many gods, this is called polytheism and most other religions are monotheistic.

Polytheism is the belief in multiple gods (deities); one religion that follows this belief is Hinduism. They have many gods but they believe that Lord Brahman is just one way of seeing all of the Hindu gods. All these Gods are just Lord Brahman in one from of his avatars. Not many religions believe in this as many believe in one God. Hinduism is the oldest religion and is the one of the only few who believes in many Gods. In this case Hindu’s believe there are millions of gods, one for each aspect of life, however there are about 20-25 main gods they worship.

There is some thing called the Trimurti. ‘Murti’ is the word to describe the gods or images of them and ‘tri’ meaning three. The Trimurti is a triangle of gods who considered to be the 3 main powerful deities. They are:

Lord Shiva who may seem too many people to be dangerous and frightening because he is the destroyer god. However, destruction is needed to allow things to happen and for us to understand about life and how it works. Nevertheless, he still should be worshipped liked any other god.
Lord Brahman is the four- faced creator god who obviously creates things to continue the cycle of life.
Lord Vishnu is the preserver god who has four arms and carries a conch shell. From time to time he visits earth to remove evil and let good flourish.

Here are some of the gods that the Hindu culture worships:

Lord Krishna is the eighth avatar of Lord Vishnu; there are many stories about Krishna. He has had many adventures ever since he was born. Krishna’s parents were called Yasudev and Devaki. A wise man had said there eighth son would kill the evil King Kans. Kans imprisoned the couple and when the eighth child was due, he placed extra guards around the cell. When Krishna was born the prison cell opened and the guards were in a deep sleep, and so they escaped. Krishna has many images ...

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Here are some of the gods that the Hindu culture worships:

Lord Krishna is the eighth avatar of Lord Vishnu; there are many stories about Krishna. He has had many adventures ever since he was born. Krishna’s parents were called Yasudev and Devaki. A wise man had said there eighth son would kill the evil King Kans. Kans imprisoned the couple and when the eighth child was due, he placed extra guards around the cell. When Krishna was born the prison cell opened and the guards were in a deep sleep, and so they escaped. Krishna has many images sometimes he is shown as a mischievous baby with butter or sometimes playing with his flute. Sometimes he is seen with a cow who’s name is Sri Sri Radha, Krishna’s loved one. He is also blue because he drank the poison of a daemon who was trying to kill him.
Lord Rama is the seventh avatar of Lord Vishnu; he has a painted V on his head to show this. When Lord Rama’s is shown in pictures or images he has two arms which means he is on earth as a human. He holds bow and arrow to show is his gallant, strong and faithful to his wife Sita who is the form of the goddess Lakshmi. Rama was in exile in the forest with his wife, and one of his brothers Lord Lakshama. One day when Rama was in the forest he met a lady, who was actually the sister of the evil King Ravana, he had to use special powers to stop her seducing him. Ravana lured Rama away from the protection of Sita, and Lakshama went also with him but drew a protective circle around her. Ravana was disguised as a wise man and gave Sita food and then captured her. Rama and Lakshama went to rescue Sita on their long journey they joined up with the army of Monkeys who’s leader was the great Hanuman. They worked together and killed Ravana and rescued Sita, but at great cost as many soldiers died. When they went back after a few years to his Kingdom, Kosla. Bharata, his youngest brother welcomed back with a spectacular view, every house had a diva lamp and this how the festival of Divali came to pass.

Most Hindu’s believe that male gods are powerless without the female goddess’s. with more than 200 million gods in Hinduism, there an equal number of goddess and male gods. Each male gods has his own female goddess, some of them are:

Saraswati is the female energy of Brahma
Lakshmi is the female energy of Vishnu
Parvati is the female energy of Shiva

Saraswati is the goddess of music, craft and learning. She is often seen carrying a lute, a rosary (a string of prayer beads) and a book. In different parts of India she may have other musical instrument. She is usually with a peacock or swan to symbolise the world in all its glory and wisdom. There are other mother goddess’s such as Lakshmi, goddess of good luck or Durga who is a fierce fighter and who usually shown in the company of a great lion. Also, kali mother who represent power and time, she is sometimes feared in the west for being in the story of Indiana Jones.

An avatar is a descent of a from heaven to earth, or a descent of the for example Lord Vishnu and his 10 avatars which are mentioned below. The English proper translation would be incarnation or an appearance. Vishnu is one of the Trimurti and he has ten avatars that have come down to earth as different forms of him. They normally are heroic and remove evil from earth and let good flourish. Also for female deities, the mother goddess Lakshmi and Devi is considered to be the Supreme Being and all the other goddess’s her avatars.

Brahman is the head of all gods, he is not the leader like other monotheistic religions but he is just many aspects or forms of seeing every other god. He is the god with a CAPITAL ‘G’. Here are all the avatars of Lord Vishnu:

Matsaya – giant fish god
Kurma – a tortoise god
Varha – a boar god
Nara Sinha – a half man and half lion
Vamana –a dwarf god
Parashurama – known as Rama with a axe
Rama –a great prince
Krishna – a prince who had many adventures
Buddha – a prince who started Buddhism
Kalaki – who is the avatar who will come in the ‘age of darkness’

Hinduism is very different from other religions such as Judaism and Islam. First of all other religions have a leader who is linked with other leaders of other religions, such as Abraham who is linked with Jesus and Muhammad. They are the leaders of monothesestic religions also they normally don’t pray to statues but in Christianity they sometimes pray to Jesus on the cross. In the case of Islam they have to pray 5 times a day but one thing all the religions have in common is that they have a place of worship. Hindu’s pray to statues in a temple, they have a pundit who chants mantras at times and gives what is called ‘prishard’ or in english a kind of offering from the temple, it is normally sweet things and they are given to people who came and pray to the gods.