Invitation to World Religions

The Teachings of Hinduism  105

or Shiva. Devotees of the goddess traditions refer to God using terms such as Devi (“goddess”) or Mahadevi (“great goddess”). One Divine Reality, Many Gods  The monistic viewpoint does not preclude belief in gods and goddesses. In a famous passage from the Upanishads (a collec- tion of early philosophical texts), a sage is asked how many gods there are. Initially, he says there are “three hundred and three, and three thousand and three,” but, upon reflection, he ultimately concludes that there is only one. 1 The sage explains that the various powers of the divine manifest as countless deities. In later times, the traditional number grew to 330 million. The passage from the Upanishads con- cludes with the sage giving the name of the one god: Brahman, which is the su- preme, unitary reality, the ground of all being. Although Brahman is the true nature of all that exists, including ourselves, it is virtually indescribable from the ordinary human perspective. Brahman can be de- scribed only by way of some general attributes: infinite being ( sat ), infinite aware- ness ( chit ), and infinite bliss ( ananda ). A passage from the Upanishads states that Brahman is neti, neti : “not this, not this.” 2 When all of the identifiable particulars of the universe are subtracted away, what remains is Brahman, the essential substra- tum of all existence. This is monism, the belief that all reality is ultimately one. These passages from the Upanishads influence how later monistic Hinduism forms its understanding of the mystery and majesty of being. Many monistic Hindus believe that the divine reality is simultaneously one—as Brahman, the ground of all being—and many. Given the worship of many deities, along with af- firmation of the ultimate singularity of the divine, and indeed of all reality, this form of Hinduism can be described as both polytheistic and monistic. Unlike poly- theistic religions that see the various gods as limited, Hinduism regards each god as a manifestation of Brahman. Divine Reality as Sound  The primordial sound OM (or, per the literal spelling, AUM ) is constituted of three sounds of the Sanskrit language: A (the first vowel), U (the final vowel), and M (the final consonant). OM therefore encompasses all words and all things they represent. OM is the sound through which the universe is mani- fested and thus is the very expression of Brahman. Some Upanishads also identify it with four states of consciousness: A is waking consciousness, U is dreaming con- sciousness, M is deep sleep without dreaming consciousness, and AUM in its en- tirety is the fourth and final state, oneness with Brahman. In later Hinduism, the sounds are identified with the gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva and their functions of creating, preserving, and dissolving the universe.

God as Image  Paradoxically, given the difficulty of comprehending the nature of divine reality, Hinduism is an intensely imagistic religious tradition. This is espe- cially true of dualistic Hinduism, as imagistic representations of God are naturally well suited for devotional practices. PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS