What exactly is polymorphic monotheism?
Answer Podcast:
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
in a productive way.
So, can I explain what is polymorphic monotheism? Yeah, sure. Yeah, correct. See, in Hinduism, there are many temples where there are many different forms of God worshipped.
And at first glance, it may appear that this is simply polytheism. But if we look at, now if we consider when Europeans first came to India and studied Indian religions, their conception of many Gods or their conception of any faith that had many Gods, that was drawn from the Greco-Roman tradition, where there were different Gods with their own specific jurisdictions. And sometimes these Gods would fight with each other.
Now, if we come to the Indian tradition, there are different Gods. But if we consider the worship of those Gods, each God is worshipped as if He is supreme. Whether it is Vishnu or Krishna or Ram, He is worshipped as if He is supreme.
So now, how does it work out? It says one supreme, how is He? The word supreme itself means there has to be one supreme. So, how are there many people, many forms who are worshipped as supreme? So, the understanding is that actually, there is one God who is Advaita, who is non-dual. But He is Anantarupa.
He manifests in many forms. Why does He manifest in many forms? It says, according to the desires of people. Different people have different desires and God does not discriminate.
He reciprocates. So, God does not discriminate. He reciprocates.
So, if people have a desire to worship the absolute in a particular form, then God chooses to manifest in that form. Now, this does not mean that anyone can make any form and worship that and that will be God. That is not the idea.
But that God has different forms eternally. That means, in the bhakti understanding of the Kingdom of God itself, in the spiritual world itself, in the Kingdom of God itself, there is diversity. God does not exist in one form.
But there itself, God exists in many forms. And those many forms which exist eternally in the spiritual world, from there God descends to this world at different times. And that way, God reciprocates with people according to their level.
And then not only that, there is one supreme being who is called God. And apart from that, now this God is called as Ishwara or is called as Bhagawan. But along with that, for those who cannot worship this God, this one supreme being, God also manifests His power partially through other beings.
So, these other beings are called as Devatas. These Devatas are, in English we could call them as, the simple word is Gods. There is God with a capital G and singular.
There are Gods, G-O-D-S with a plural. So that one supreme being Himself manifests in many forms who are all God. But for those who can’t worship God, God also manifests in other forms.
But the other forms are what? He is giving access to people for those who cannot worship Him for whatever reason. He says, okay, you worship some representative of mine. By that, you will become elevated.
Now to illustrate, to explain this, you know the story of this prodigal son which comes in the Bible. I’ll finish this. So the prodigal son, the story is that the son leaves the father and squanders away all the money.
And then the father, the son comes back and the father welcomes him. So now the bhakti understanding is that the father doesn’t just welcome the son who comes back. The father actively canvasses the son to come back.
Now because the son has quarrelled with the father and gone away, so what the father does is, sends a minister. If the father is say like a king or a landlord, the father sends a minister and the son doesn’t want to come back to the father. But the son comes back to the minister and starts working with the minister.
The minister pays for him, takes care of him. And in that way, indirectly at least, the son is taken care of by the father. So like that, those who cannot worship God, those who cannot come back to the father, they come back to the representative of the father.
Those who cannot come to God, God also offers representatives to whom He can come.