The Hindu God

In what context was it first talked about?

Originally Posted by Animus27

That's rather insulting to Hindus.

I would agree with you if I had written 'without junk food' instead of 'a good diet'. All formal religions seem to accumulate excess fat over time and may become overweight. A good diet is necessary to get back on track, no matter whether that happens within or without the religion itself.

Originally Posted by Rin

I would agree with you if I had written 'without junk food' instead of 'a good diet'. All formal religions seem to accumulate excess fat over time and may become overweight. A good diet is necessary to get back on track, no matter whether that happens within or without the religion itself.

That is true. And can easily be the case with Buddhism, which one can easily observe by looking at strands of Mahayana. Complexity of texts and tradition isn't necessarily a bad thing. And if someone is interested in Hinduism the first thing they'd learn is that it radically differs from Buddhism depending upon the sect and school they are coming from and going to, so to speak.

Originally Posted by Greg

Is the Hindu God pantheistic? I.e not a being as such but a force that resides within everything in the whole universe? I've been a practicing Buddhist for many years but I've just come across Hinduism and am interested.

In Hinduism as such, or as a religion, there are various Gods, each one of them is a different divine entity.
At the core of Hindu philosophy, there is but one pantheistic, un-manifest, all-pervading godhead. All manifest creation, including all the various Gods, are manifestations of the one, un-manifest, all-pervading godhead.

As per the vedas, there is only one god but there are many dieties which are the manifestation of the same supreme god..These dieities are also worshipped in hinduism and so, many thinks that hinduism is pantheist..

I don't know if it's a good idea to use Greek terms like "pantheist" to describe all the Indian beliefs. Neither monotheism, polytheism or pantheism really works. The universe is a manifestation of Brahman, but is also maya or illusion. So saying pantheism is not really correct. Neither does monotheism in the Judaic sense cover it. Nor does polytheism because Brahman is one, even though there are many gods.

I am Hindu and believe in lords Krishna .... not like compare with Buddhism

[lovethetruth]

Yes.

The root concept is

Universe = Time = You = Me = God.

They are all one and the same. Refer Mahavakyas - Tatvamasi in Wikipedia.

I am a hindu

Originally Posted by Greg

Is the Hindu God pantheistic? I.e not a being as such but a force that resides within everything in the whole universe? I've been a practicing Buddhist for many years but I've just come across Hinduism and am interested.

Hello there,
You pose an interesting question, and I will try to answer it as a Hindu, from India, and as a student of Vedanta philosophy, the core foundation upon which Hinduism rests.

It is a common misunderstanding for people to confuse Hinduism with both pantheism and polytheism - in reality it is neither. In fact Hinduism is a Monotheistic religion just like Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

Surprising right! I will try to explain below:

The reason people confuse pantheisim with Hinduism is because of its tenent that the Universe is divine and a manifestation of God. Till here Hinduism agrees. But beyond this point it divereges with pantheists significantly:

1. Pantheists do not believe in the existence or the immortality of the soul, which is a key tenet of Hinduism. hindus believe that there exists a soul which survives the death of the physical body.
2. Pantheists do not believe that God is the non-material cause of the material Universe. Hinduism believes that God is an infinite ocean of consciousness (a non-material substrate) from which arises the material Universe of matter, space, time and living beings.

There are other significant differences, and a detailed overview of pantheism is available at: http://people.wku.edu/jan.garrett/panthesm.htm


The second point is that Hinduism is a monotheistic religion. According to Vedanta philosophy there exists an Ultimate and final Reality - a formless, infinite ocean of consciousness, which is Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Eternal. The Hindus call this reality Brahman (Sanskrit) or God.

This One Ultimate reality is brimming with countless attributes, which the Hindus identify with a specific name and an image.

For example: that attribute of the Supreme God which is responsible for creation of the Universe is depicted as Brahma, the aspect which nourishes creation is called Vishnu and the power of the Supreme which is responsible for maintaining balance through destruction, is called Shiva.

All these various Gods are not to be thought of as seperate existences, but as the numerous qualities of the One Infinite Lord.

I describe this in detail in my article:Understanding the Many Gods of Hinduism. Do stop by to visit. Hope this clarifies your doubt.

[Vinayaka]

One of the common misconceptions about Hinduism is that its like any other religion ... basic tenets, etc. But in reality its incredibly vast. There are so many sects, so many philosophies. Many scholars and Hindus themselves speak out, as if their particular POV is the only one. This sis fine, but then when it gets regurgitated and spread, it leads to misconceptions. We have a billion practitioners, some 20 languages with over 50 million speakers. If you put Islam, Judaism, and Christianity together and called it Abrahamism, or Jerusalemism, it wouldn't be as vast as Hinduism. So when some says, "Hindus believe ______" what they really mean is some Hindus believe ______. Of course some concepts are more wide spread than others.