Ganesha sports a potbelly, an elephant head, four arms, and rides a mouse — albeit his main claim to fame is as a “remover of obstacles” … and close to a billion people seek him out regularly for just that: to obtain his aid in overcoming the obstacles that impede their life’s various pursuits. If the impediment is specific to finances however, they may turn to Laxmi — elegantly situated upon a lotus, she can be persuaded to grant one a fortune or failing that, a temporary reprieve from money troubles. For those who instead seek help with learning and education, Saraswati who is perched atop a swan, may assist in the quest for erudition.
One in seven humans on the planet today is a Hindu…and these are our Gods, loved and worshipped fervently by over a billion of us believers. Although Ganesha, Laxmi and Sarswati are among our pre-eminent deities, there are 33 million more Gods in our divine pantheon, led by a trinity of: the four headed Brahma — the Creator, blue skinned Vishnu — the Sustainer, and trident bearing ferocious Siva — the Destroyer.
For non-Hindus it is easy to presume as ridiculous this collection of millions of seemingly comic-book mythological figures. It is also perhaps easy to assume that the ubiquitous, monotheistic belief in a single omnipresent God is a superior, more sensible belief system by comparison. This outlook is wholly misplaced and based upon assumptions and reasoning that is downright flawed. Let’s delve into why that might be so…
Specialists versus a Generalist
Among the world’s major religions, the predominating view of role of God is of one who oversees and sustains all of existence, with the welfare of human beings being at the center of this endeavor.
“All of existence” however is massive, so massive that it is almost beyond comprehension. Our observable universe alone has over 2 trillion galaxies, with several trillion stars, planets and nebulae contained within each of these galaxies. These almost infinite numbers of celestial bodies are continually moving, colliding, exploding, erupting and generating incalculable arrays of forces. An omnipresent God would need to orchestrate and corral these innumerable celestial events and forces in a manner that their impact upon all life forms within this inter-galactic expanse meets his divine plan.
Even if we narrow God’s focus to just earth – the welfare of his flock is impacted by all manner of things: gene expression, solar flares, typhoon formations, meteor impacts, animals on rampage, microbes that mutate or cross species barriers, melting ice caps, thickness of the ozone layer, social tensions, wars, individual hormonal ebbs and flows, the hysteria of crowds, and so much, much more. The number of variables that can shape individual human destinies is indescribably vast.
Let’s tease out the complexity underlying just one of these variables — gene expression: there are tens of thousands of genes inside each human being. These genes encode the growth, metabolism and other functions of every human body. And these genes also create nuanced outcomes based upon their complex interactions with environment. As Siddhartha Mukherjee author of The Gene states: “Genetics allows us to really begin to think of disease as something that happens as a result of us interacting with the environment…Not all, but many, many are acutely dependent on the intersection between genes and the environment.” Now multiply these genetic expressions and their environmental interactions with the fates of several billion individual human lives that it commands an influence over — and suddenly, an omniscient God has a colossal number of levers to manage and operate.
And then there is free-will that God has ordained all humans with. Nearly 8 billion humans roam the planet today, and each one is embedded within a complex web of social interactions — with other humans, with social strictures, structures and rules. As free-willed people operate within this web of life — where issues arise, are reacted and responded to — the choices they make kick off chains of outcomes for not only their own lives, but also for others around them. The cumulative result of these moment-by-moment actions and choices of billions of free-willed humans is a staggeringly complex stream of cause-effect relationships. An all-knowing, benevolent God needs to process these human choices in real-time, pass judgements upon, and potentially intervene upon them, in order to ensure justice and well-being of each human destiny.
We have thus far assumed that God is concerned primarily about welfare of only human lives and outcomes; if we add in the several trillions of other living organisms that exist upon this planet — the number of streams of complex cause-effect choices that he needs to monitor explodes exponentially.
Given all of this, what sounds more ridiculous? A single God who is orchestrating this massive, interconnected interplay of many trillions of moment-by-moment interactions on our planet and across intergalactic space, or multitudes of specialist deities who oversee specific areas of this existence? Millions of Gods becomes an easy concept when viewed from this perspective.
Son of God or the Sun God
Hindu Gods take many colorful shapes and forms; which brings forth the next question — Is a formless, unitary God truly a superior concept to say a monkey God who carries a mountain in his palm? Intuitively, the former might appear more credible or more likely than the latter. However, for any concept to be substantiated, there needs to exist evidence that it is indeed closer to the truth than the other. No such verifiable evidence exists however — either to show that God is formless, or that he exists in the form of a large flying monkey.
Since both of these conceptions of God are equally unproven, they both have to rely upon the faith and imagination of their believers. Granted, one of these concepts may indeed be more vivid than the other — however, the vividness of a concept does not make it less plausible than the other. Until evidence of God taking either form (or even a likelihood of doing so) emerges, both are equally credible — with neither having a stronger claim to plausibility over the other.
Faith Is Just That
Adherents of the world’s four largest religions (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism) together make up over 80% of humankind. Hinduism stands proudly alone among these major global religions as fiercely polytheistic, with its large pantheon of magnificent, colorful deities. The Hindu concept of God(s) is neither inferior nor superior to that of others.
Whether one’s faith is in a single transcendent, omnipotent deity or a multiplicity of fantastic deities, it helps to remember that faith is just that — a firmly held belief that is often not anchored in any verifiable truths.
