Are Hindus Polytheists
Jon P. Dorschner
I was taught as a child that “Judaism brought monotheism into the world,” and
have heard this assertion many times since. According to this account, prior to
the advent of Judaism all the world’s religions were polytheistic. The Jews,
however, as God’s chosen people, received the revelation of monotheism.
Like many things we learn as children, this statement is couched in simple terms
and lacks subtlety. Closer examination reveals that the actual situation was, and
is, far more complex, and that the world as we perceive it, is not shaded in terms
of black and white, but rather in shades of gray.
This makes it very difficult to draw sharp distinctions between groups, religions,
and ideologies. As human beings, we long for order. In our attempt to order our
world, we create ironclad categories. In the real world, these ironclad categories
very seldom exist. Instead, ideas of one group bleed into the ideas of other
groups. People are influenced by ideas that come from outside their own group.
In reality, the distinctions between Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, etc., are
largely artificial constructs.
Such is the case with monotheism. To examine our question “Are Hindus
Polytheists?” we must first define our terms. When we were taught this concept
as children, we were taught that monotheism means that there is only one God.
We were taught that all other people in the world believed that there were
multiple Gods in existence and worshipped them. We were taught that any
person who believes that there is more than one God (or Goddess) in existence is
a polytheist. We were taught that the Jews were divinely inspired to realize the
truth that multiple Gods to not exist. This is portrayed as a great leap forward
for mankind, as it had embraced a false idea and the Jews were destroying
falsehood and establishing truth. For many years, such logic was common
among Christians. This is because the Christian religion traces its origins back to
the Jewish faith. Christians have been taught for centuries that the Jews brought
monotheism into the world to prepare it for the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
Modern theology has re-examined the Christian faith and its relationship with
Judaism, and transformed the way we look at both religions. We now know that
much of the content of the Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible) reflects influences
from all over the Middle Eastern region in which the Jews lived. The Jews did not
live in isolation. They were influenced strongly by other groups. They adopted
ideas from other cultures. The Jews were not a politically powerful group and
their kingdom was among the smaller kingdoms of the region. For parts of their
long history, the Jews were nomadic, and at other times they were conquered by
the much more powerful Babylonians and forced to live in exile in Babylon. The
inhabitants of the region paid no particular attention to the Jewish people, who
were considered politically irrelevant.
Most scholars now agree that in reality the Jews did not believe that there was
only one God in existence. It was far more likely that they believed, like all of
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their neighbors, that multiple divine beings existed. This is reflected in the
wording of the Ten Commandments. In the book of Exodus, God delivers the Ten
Commandments to Moses. The very first Commandment is usually cited as the
statement regarding monotheism. It is contained in Chapter 20, verses two and
three, and reads,
“I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of
slavery. You shall not have other gods, besides me.”1
This Commandment does not state that there is only one God, but that the God of
the Jews is superior to all other Gods and that, as such, the Jews shall worship
this God of the Jews exclusively, and not pay homage to other deities. This means
that the Jews practiced not strict monotheism, but rather henotheism, which is
defined as “the worship of one God, without denying the existence of other
Gods.”2 Henotheism straddles both monotheism and polytheism, but stands
within in that its practitioners acknowledge the existence of other Gods, but
worship only one God exclusively.
Henotheism is a metaphysical concept that states that there are multiple divine
beings in existence, but since only one is deserving of worship, it is a
monotheistic concept. The other divine beings may exist, but their existence is
basically irrelevant, since they play no role in the life of the worshipper and are
not worshipped.
One could argue that Christians are themselves henotheists because they believe
in the existence of other divine beings. Most Christians profess to believe in
angels, for example, and believe them to be divine beings that intercede in the
lives of human beings. Likewise, many Christians believe that the Virgin Mary
and the Saints can also intercede on behalf of human beings. Most importantly,
an essential tenet of the Christian faith is that God is a trinity, defined as three
persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
The followers of the Prophet Mohammad (Muslims) believe themselves to be the
followers of the true faith, because they assert that Muslims are the true
monotheists. The essential tenets of Islam as stated by the Prophet Mohammad
are summarized within the six Kalima. Four of the six Kalima repeat the
essential message that “There is no God but Allah.”3 Because of his insistence
that there is only one God, the Prophet Mohammad has been characterized as a
“radical monotheist.” He rejected the Christian trinity and the belief that Jesus
Christ is an incarnation of God, as heresy, asserting that these beliefs are a type
of polytheism. Orthodox Muslims also reject the concept of sainthood, stating
that there is no such thing as holy persons who can perform miracles or
intercede in the lives of human beings after their death. For Muslims, Jesus
Christ is not an incarnation of God, but rather one of the many prophets that
New American Bible, Catholic Book Publishing Company, New York, 1970, page
78
2 Merriam Webster Dictionary, online version
3 “The Six Kalimas,” at IslamAwareness.com
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preceded Mohammed, who is the capstone of the prophets. Likewise, Muslims
revere Mary as the mother of Jesus but not as a saint.
After the Protestant reformation, many Protestant thinkers also wrestled with
the implications of henotheism. While they did not question the triune nature of
God, they rejected Catholic teachings on the role of the Virgin Mary and the
Saints, stating that prayers for intercession should only be addressed to God and
Jesus.
We have thus confirmed that while the Jews of the Old Testament were
monotheists, they were not the strict monotheists that we think of today.
Likewise, the Jews may not have been the first religious group to understand and
propagate monotheism. Perhaps the Jews were the first religious group in the
Middle East to do so. In those ancient days, the Jews had no contact with other
areas of the world. For them, the Middle Eastern region was the world. Modern
scholars now acknowledge the possibility that henotheistic monotheism could
have arisen independently of the Jews in India, and that this development could
have predated the advent of monotheism in the Middle East.
The Hindu religion is not a codified religion like the Semitic faiths (Judaism,
Christianity, Islam). It does not rely on a specific holy book, or set of teachings.
It has no catechism. It is not “organized” in the way the Catholic church is
organized, for example. It has no pope and no Vatican and no institution to
determine which religious beliefs are valid or invalid. It has no dogma, no
Apostles Creed that sets forth the tenets of the faith and can easily be learned
and repeated.
Instead, Hinduism is a culture rather than a religion in the Western sense. It
consists of the cultural practices and attitudes of the inhabitants of the South
Asian subcontinent as they have developed over millennia. Most Hindus think of
their faith as the “sanatan dharma,” (eternal religion), that has no beginning and
no end.
Hinduism may be the oldest of the world’s major faiths, and has seen
considerable change over the course of time. Like other religions, it is influenced
by the beliefs and practices of those from outside that it encounters. Thus the
encounters with Islam over the course of many centuries, and the over two
hundred years of British Imperialism (and the encounter with evangelical
Christianity supported by the colonial power), has had a profound impact on
Hinduism.
Since Hinduism is not dogmatic, it is not exclusivist. It therefore tends to pick
and choose between the various ideas to which it is exposed, and feels free to
adopt and modify these ideas to the South Asian cultural context. It has no
concept of the “saved” and the “damned” and no belief that one particular
religion is the “truth” and that all other religions are false.
Without the concept of a single truth as contained within one religion, Hinduism
does not have a concept of evangelism. For most Hindus, their religious
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practices are thoroughly integrated within a South Asian cultural context. There
is no concept of compartmentalization of religion, of an essential difference
between the secular world and the religious world. Religion is not confined to
one day of the week, for example, or to one specific building, or an organized
religious service. In India religion is all-pervasive. It is found on every street
corner, within vehicles, in countless shrines, and holy places and objects. It is
most commonly practiced at home, either alone or with members of the family.
Most Hindus therefore assume that their religion is a matter of birth within the
Hindu culture. They find the idea of “conversion” from another religion into
Hinduism as somewhat ludicrous and assume other cultures have their own
faiths.
Hindu nationalism is a recent concept and stresses the idea that Muslims and
Christians living in India should abandon these foreign, imported faiths and
“convert” to Hinduism. This “conversion” is reserved only for Indians; however,
for Hindu nationalists stress that all the inhabitants of the South Asian
subcontinent were originally Hindus. For them, Indian Christians and Muslims,
are not “converting” to Hinduism, but rather returning to their ancestral faith.
If Hindus are asked to summarize their religious beliefs, they provide a wide
variety of answers. Religious practice in India spans the entire gamut of
religious belief from a pantheistic belief in nature spirits that inhabit specific
trees, bodies of water and mountains, through all forms of theistic worship to an
impersonal belief an all-encompassing divine spirit (monism).
Many Hindus view the offshoots of Hinduism, such as Jainism, Buddhism, and
Sikhism, as adjuncts to Hinduism rather than totally separate religions. Lacking
the rigidity of more dogmatic faiths, Hindus tend to revere anything that they
believe sacred and feel no imperative to worship only Hindu deities at Hindu
temples or engage only in Hindu religious practices. Hindus are commonly
found at Sikh temples and Sufi shrines, for example.4
The principal factors keeping Hindus separate from practitioners of other faiths
are social rather than theological. The caste system with its emphasis on ritual
pollution is based on marital endogamy. Hindus are expected to marry within
their own caste. In its most orthodox form, the caste system discourages
interaction between members of higher and lower castes, out of fear that the
high caste Hindu will be “polluted” by such contact. Food is viewed as a principal
medium of pollution, with vegetarian food more ritually pure than meat. Since
the religion and the culture are intertwined, many Hindus are reluctant to
immerse themselves in foreign cultures. For example, it has been statistically
A recent survey of American Hindus documented that 73% celebrate
Christmas, 30% attend religious services of other faiths (the highest of any group
polled), only 4% belief Hinduism to be the only true faith. The Pew Research
Religion and Public Life Project. “Asian-Americans: A Mosaic of Faiths.” July 10,
2012
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verified that Hindus, even long term residents of the United States, are the group
least likely to marry members of other religious faiths.5
These factors make it difficult to generalize regarding Hindu religious beliefs. It
is an often-repeated cliché in the United States that “Hindus worship thousands
of Gods,” and that “Hindus worship the cow.” These prejudicial generalizations
are based on a cursory examination of Hindu texts.6 Hinduism has no specific
book that is universally acknowledged as the Hindu scripture. Instead, Hinduism
has the world’s largest corpus of religious literature spanning priestly texts on
religious ritual, epics that are vast in scope, and many philosophical works. Over
the course of millennia, numerous Gods and Goddesses have been mentioned in
these works. This does not mean that Hindus worship them today.
In addition, there is a divide within Hinduism between folk beliefs and Sanskritic
or Vedic Hinduism. For thousands of years the vast majority of Hindus lived in
rural villages, often isolated from the rest of the world. These rural people often
practiced a form of folk religion based on the worship of local Gods and
Goddesses, which in many cases are not mentioned in Hindu texts and epics.
These are what anthropologists call the “Godlings” of India, who serve specific
local purposes for specific worshippers.
I would argue that the vast majority of Hindus the world over worship some
form of personal God within an overall henotheistic concept.7 The most popular
religious work in India is the Bhagavad Gita, which is a segment from the
enormous epic, the Mahabharata. The Bhagavad Gita plainly states that while
many Gods exist and are deserving of worship, there is ultimately a supreme
Lord, who rules over all existence.
Text 12 of the Bhagavad Gita states that,
“The demigods being pleased by sacrifices, will also please you, and thus, by
cooperation between men and demigods, prosperity will reign for all.”8
The Pew Research survey confirmed that of all Asian Americans, Hindus are the
most likely to retain their faith, “fully 81% of Asian Americans who were raised
Hindu remain Hindu today.” Likewise, Hindu Americans are the least likely to
marry outside their faith, “Nine-in-ten married Hindus (94%) have a spouse who
is also Hindu.” This is a stark contrast with the American average. One quarter
of all Americans are married to a person of a different religious faith. In addition,
78% of American Hindus maintain a religious shrine within their home, which is
the principal focus of their worship.
6 Many of these statements are repeated by evangelical Protestants and find their
origin in texts written by evangelical writers. These texts display an anti-Hindu
bias because the authors have a vested interest in “saving the souls,” of Hindus
by converting them to Christianity.
7 91% of American Hindus said they believed in a personal God. “Asian
Americans – A Mosaic of Faiths
8 Bhagavad-Gita as it is, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Bhaktivedanta
Book Trust, Los Angeles, 1998, page 174
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Srila Prabhupada clarifies in his commentary on this verse that:
“The demigods are empowered administrators of material affairs. The supply of
air, light, water and all other benedictions for maintain the body and soul of
every living entity is entrusted to the demigods….Their pleasures and
displeasures are dependent on the performance of yajnas (sacrifices) by the
human being. Some of the yajnas are meant to satisfy particular demigods; but
even in so doing, Lord Vishnu is worshiped in all yajnas as the chief beneficiary.9”
This reading of the Bhagavad Gita and its commentary makes it clear that a
variation of henotheism is common within Hinduism and widely practiced.
While practicing Hindus may not be able to articulate their religious faith in
theological terms, I would argue that for the vast majority of Hindus would
subscribe to a variant of this henotheistic concept.
I would further argue that while some Hindus may perform worship (puja) to
various divinities and divine personalities, they believe (as stated by Srila
Prabhupada), that one deity is supreme with others subservient to that supreme
deity.
This is commonly expressed in terms of the “Prem Avatar.” Prem is the term
defining “love.” “Avatar” means an incarnation of God. In this case, the Prem
Avatar is the form of the Lord that the worshipper is most attracted to. For this
worshipper, this is the Supreme Lord. All the other divinities are subservient.
This differs little from the concept articulated in the book of Exodus, that one
should worship the Supreme God and put none of the other Gods on the same
platform. We substantiated that the Jews in the book of Exodus were
monotheists. We must therefore extend the definition to the religious beliefs of
most Hindus.
This concept is made crystal clear in the Bhagavad Gita. Arjuna asks Krishna to
display his universal form (Vishva Rupa). The Bhagavad Gita states that:
“All the hosts of demigods are surrendering before You and entering into You.
Some of them, very much afraid, are offering prayers with folded hands. Hosts of
great sages and perfected beings, crying “All peace!” are praying to You by
singing the Vedic hymns.10”
The Bhagavad Gita takes the henotheistic concept one step further by depicting
the Lord in His universal form as incorporating all the deities within the Hindu
pantheon in a single being. In Text 23 Arjuna states upon seeing the universal
form,
9
I.B.I.D., page 175
Bhagavad Gita as it is, text 22, page 570
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O mighty-armed one, all the planets with their demigods are disturbed at seeing
Your great form, with its many faces, eyes, arms, thighs, legs, and bellies and
Your many terrible teeth; and as they are disturbed, so am I.11
This portion of the Bhagavad Gita is very profound, because it takes the concept
of God into an entirely different dimension. Arjuna, like many other Hindus,
perceives a henotheistic world order, with various divinities serving specific
functions under the head of a Supreme Lord.
However, the Bhagavad Gita reveals that this concept is only an intermediary
step. The Lord tailors himself to the perceptions of the worshipper. If
intellectually and spiritually the worshipper is incapable of understanding the
vishwa rupa, the worshipper is free to continue to propagate specific Gods in
hopes of winning specific divine favors. However, ultimately, as the worshipper
progresses, he gains intimations of a more subtle reality. He learns that every
diety in the pantheon is simply a part and parcel of the Supreme Lord.
Hinduism then takes a leap from henotheism (a modified form of monotheism)
into a pure monotheism in which other Gods are no longer necessary.
This emphatic monotheistic statement in one of Hinduism’s most widely-revered
scriptures, serves as a rejection of assertions that Hindus are polytheists. In
11
I.B.I.D., page 572
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essence, Hindus are no less monotheists than any follower of Islam, Christianity,
or Judaism.
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