Hindu Gods GIVE A Link With All Ancient GodsPosted by Craven Morin on April 22nd, 2021 It's been just over three decades since i have have walked this earth, and I am already fed up of the arguments on the validity and supremacy of different pantheons and Gods. I sometimes wonder how, as a collective, we're able to possibly have fought and continue steadily to fight over this singular question for millennia! I still run into people and publications that defend the presence and reason for their own pantheons and perspectives on divinity. I myself come from an elaborate pantheon of elaborate gods and goddesses, and have seen my contemporaries argue over their dominance and importance. It's an outdated argument, and it is time we moved on. Instead of fighting and bickering on the differences in our names and perspectives of divinity; instead of tearing down one mind and person from another, how about we build bridges instead? Rather than fighting over whose God is real and whose isn't, think about we sit together and ponder over precisely how a singular concept ended up with so many names, faces and versions? Wouldn't that be a more rewarding and inspiring endeavor! Many get lost in the Hindu pantheon - it really is vast, elaborate and intricate. To the modern mind, it is even utterly unnecessary. But in the event that you turn back and appearance into history, the Hindus weren't the only real culture to offer a more elaborate pantheon - we are just one of the few who've survived to date. From the ancient Egyptians to the Mayans and Aztecs, from pagans in Europe to the Polynesian tribals in the Pacific - we encounter pantheons and spectrums of gods and goddesses in the same way colorful, powerful and diverse because the Hindu pantheon today. One could argue that an elaborate pantheon is a natural extension of a developed set of religious or spiritual beliefs - one that celebrates and engages with the myriad expressions of God through the experiences, elements and landscapes we inhabit and encounter. But t here were just as many movements which have taken the precise opposite route - focusing on a singularity of experience and concept when viewing, discussing or engaging with God. These elaborate pantheons might seem at odds with the 'singular' concepts of God, but really they're not in conflict. The Hindus for instance refer to their Gods as avatars - types of the purest essence that's God, specialized in purpose, power and presence. Each God in the Hindu pantheon represents an element of the whole that's God. check here isn't very far off from the ancient Egyptian term for their Gods - neteru; in the Egyptian pantheon aswell each character was an element of the supreme power, and not God in totality himself. Just like a whole ocean can be contained in a single drop, even though the drop is not the complete ocean, the avatars and neteru are just as revered and God him/herself, worshipped and regarded as powerful, sacred beings. Even with an elaborate selection of forms and faces, names and traditions to select from, an understanding and relationship with God as one presence exists in these traditions among others like them. This isn't w here in fact the similarities end; a closer inspection and connection with these traditions and religions reveal overlaps in the pantheons. Taking the Hindu and Egyptian pantheons again for example, one finds a reverence for the Divine Feminine in her fierce forms. The Hindus call her Durga - the protector of life and all things pure - mounted on her lion (or tiger); in her a lot more fearsome and destructive aspect she is called Kali. The Egyptians call her Sekhmet - the lion goddess - the harbinger of justice when humanity goes askew; like Kali, Sekhmet too drinks the blood of these that fall to her fire and force. This is just one of the many examples you would find. For across time and space bridges have and persist - in one religion and pantheon to some other, from one heart and mind to another. If only we look, we shall find just how much we have in common- even when the names and types of God differ and vary.Like it? Share it! More by this author |