A common joke about Hinduism is that its the only religion in the world where the number of gods

outweighs the number of followers. It is described by some as the name for a pack of gods which can
include ants to elephants and your mother in law, Gods are very similar to Pokmon in that every
individual has his own favourite version. With over 3 million estimated gods, it is easy to call Hindus
polytheists
I was born in a Hindu household. I studied in a Christian school and grew up with friends from different
religions many of whom worshipped One God. They say that circumstance often trumps culture in the
establishment of a persons identity. My quest to understand my identity as a Hindu and why Hindus
worship so many gods and goddesses began.
I began reading stories from the Mahabharata, of the many gods and their sojourns earthly and celestial.
Each story was about change and acceptance and as I read on I knew that this would be one challenging
religion to put into words because Hinduism seems to be incredibly open to other religions and
beliefs. It is interesting that while some cultures can see this as fiction most Hindus, without a second
thought, can walk into a temple with multiple deities, bow down and offer prayer and worship with
devotion treating that deity as much like a person as you and me.
(Talk about your interest in music and how whatever the genre of music one could still listen to all and
enjoy their melody)
Many Hindus believe that they are not individual deities but merely different aspects of one infinite God
who is so incredibly vast and powerful that it would be impossible to confine Him to one image.
(Talk about your interest in economics and study of the working of the country and how you set up your
company and each of you took on a different responsibility in the company)
And that got me thinking againTo govern a country; the government creates departments and employs
individuals within those departments- economists, doctors, teachers, engineers, police and so many
more. Hundreds or thousands of individuals carry out their respective duties and each sector has an
individual or multiple individuals overseeing the activities of that sector. Each head is endowed with
certain privileges and powers to facilitate their task. It's safe to say that the number of individuals
working for the Indian government run into millions. This is just to keep one country working. Multiply
that by all the countries on the planet, and all the people working for these countries and the total
would come to tens of millions of people employed to run one planet.
Drawing a parallel to Hinduism, to keep the universe running, the Supreme Being, has put into place
individuals who oversee different parts our universe. These individuals have been bestowed with the
necessary powers and abilities to manage and govern their area of creation. They can be referred to as
demigods. For example, there is someone responsible for the sun and his name is Surya. The goddess
Saraswati is the overseer of knowledge. There are individuals overseeing the oceans, the wind, and
practically every facet of creations.
When seen from this perspective, 3 million is not that big a number is it?