One or many faces of divinity

In the 19th century when European Orientalists first translated Vedic hymns they noticed that each hymn of the Veda evoked different gods Naturally they assumed Hindus were polytheists like the Greeks Then they noticed each time a deity was being invoked he was being treated as the supreme god suggesting Hindus were monotheists like the Christians This confused them Were Hindus polytheistic or monotheistic Monotheism was seen as superior then and the British rulers did not lose a single opportunity to embarrass Indians about their many gods Illustration Devdutt Pattanaik Some suggested Hindus were henotheistic they worshipped only one god but acknowledged the existence of others Max Mueller came up with the term kathenotheistic which means every god was treated as the supreme god turnbyturn at the time of invocation In other words context determined the status of the god In drought Indra who brought rains was valued In winter Surya the sun was admired In summer Vayu the wind was worshipped So it is in business Everybody we deal with in business is important But importance soars as our dependence on them increases Importance is a function of context In the pujaghar the gods are classified as personal gods called ishtadevata household gods called grihadevata family gods called kuladevata village gods called gramadevata and forest gods called vanadevata Thus there are different gods for different contexts the personal the departmental the regional the market Each one plays a role in our life Individually or collectively they bring fulfilment to our existence This is very unlike major religions of the world such as Judaism Christianity and Islam where there is only one deity worthy of reverence in each and every context no other The modern practice of aligning everyone in the organisation from salesman to director to a common organisational goal has its roots in this monotheism one God of religion becomes the single goal in a secular workplace So modern business is just one yagna not several with a single leader as yajaman and everyone else as assistants to that leader When Indian scholars started rewriting Hinduism in the 19th century they were well aware of the imperial burden to prove Hinduism was also monotheistic The Upanishads with its monistic Vedanta philosophy came to the rescue The myriad gods were manifestations of the same divine principle Hindus were at once polytheistic and monotheistic But this confuses people So is Ganesha different from Krishna And the Indian answer ldquoYes no actually it depends on how you see itrdquo can be quite irritating if not exasperating For those who belong to a monotheistic template this kathenotheistic way of seeing things can be very annoying It comes across as opportunistic and even hypocritical But in a world that is increasingly realising the value of diversity there needs to be diversity in how one is allowed to approach the divine It can be outside or inside with form or without singular or plural masculine or feminine Or as the great Tamil poet Nammalvar said ldquoeven in betweenrdquo The author is Chief Belief Officer of the Future Group and can be reached at devduttdevduttcom The views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paperu00a0