No matter how you slice it...

Today I came across what I think is the best and most easily understandable description of Hinduism I've heard.

Hinduism gets a bad rap. I'm thinking the only reason Americans (ahem...the fundamentalist Christian GOP) are not ripping the religion to shreds and trying to have all our IT workers deported from the country, is because things rarely (if ever) get blown up in the name of Shiva. So for now, the good little Hindus are fairly safe from criticism, thanks to a handful of bad apples in the Muslim community hogging all the spotlight.

But Hinduism still gets a bad rap. Back in college when my future hubby and I first started getting serious, I checked out a book from the school library...The Complete Idiots Guide to Hinduism. I just wanted a little overview to help understand his background, and this book seemed a good fit because it really is written so that a complete idiot can follow. The book was so eye-opening and informative, in fact, that once I could no longer hold that copy hostage from the library, I went out and bought my own. And proceeded to mark it up with highlighter like a good college student.

Before that book, all I knew about Hindus was that they "worship idols". That being one of the major no-no's in Christianity, I assumed like many people that Hinduism must be a wacko religion and I'd do well to stay away from that. But that book taught me that if you know even a little bit about Hinduism, it's not even remotely wacko. In fact it started to make a lot of sense.

Unfortunately, I would tell people this and they would then want me to explain how it works. And I couldn't. Well, I could, but it would take me about 300 pages to do so. That book's one fault is that it didn't give me any nifty short stories or one-liners to sum the whole thing up so that in a minute or less I could make light bulbs go off in people's heads and everyone would have that "ah-ha" moment that I had.

Well now, ladies and gentleman, I have found that nifty little summation. It goes a little somethin' like this: hit it! (Forgive me, the early 90s seem to have invaded my body for a moment. Moving on...)

"There's millions of gods, but all represent aspects of three, and all three are really one. Brahma is the Generator, Vishnu the Organizer and Shiva the Destroyer. Together they are G.O.D. or Brahman. All the millions of Hindu gods are just forms of the one Supreme Being."

The book this comes from goes on to say that Brahman can be worshiped in any aspect.

See, it's really quite simple isn't it? It's like the Holy Trinity but more logical! (Ok, I'm sorry, I'm sure that just offended some of you, but really the whole "son of God" thing always bothered me. I never understood why I couldn't just think of Jesus as God in human form rather than his son. I don't want to think about God semen ok? Ok.) Anyway...where was I?

Ah, so the simplicity that is Hinduism. While I will admit that some of the gods have pretty far-fetched, and at times irrational, background stories, and the fact that different regions of the country tend to have one god they prefer over the others makes no real sense to me, the general concept is easy peasy. All those little gods represent one attribute of God. 

For example, Ganesha, who figures prominently in my in-laws' household, is the remover of obstacles; he has the power to remove obstacles from your path, or to place obstacles in your way if you need to be reigned in. Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth; she is worshiped on Divali and that is the time that many people make their large purchases for the year, and take special care of the items that contribute to their prosperity such as school books or items they use in their jobs (Divali with my family is celebrated at Papa's factory).

And there are many other gods that represent many other aspects of the one God. Who is the same God worshiped in every other religion, but I'll save that soapbox for another day.