Hindu Deities: The Great Pantheon of the Eternal Religion
Hinduism is not a religion with one God. It is a religion with one Reality — Brahman, the infinite, attributeless ground of all existence — expressed through an inexhaustible multiplicity of divine forms, each one a specific face of the Absolute, each accessible to particular temperaments, situations, and spiritual needs. The 33 principal devas of the Vedic tradition have expanded, through three thousand years of living theology, into a pantheon of extraordinary richness: creator and destroyer, mother and warrior, wisdom and abundance, the cosmic dancer and the still witness. To worship Ganesha is not to worship a different god than the devotee of Kali — both are worshipping Brahman, through the form that speaks most directly to their heart. The diversity is not polytheism in the Western sense. It is the recognition that the Infinite cannot be confined to a single face. The Sri Yantra — the geometric form of the Goddess herself; nine interlocking triangles (five poi...