Hindu Gods

I’m sure you have at least heard of the religion of Hindu before, so you’ve probably also heard the standard lines thrown along with it: 350 million different gods, reincarnation, gurus, etc. Most people who know only that much treat it as a bit of a novelty- cows, monkeys, elephants and rats as holy creatures; elephant-man, monkey-man, seven armed women as gods. It does prepare you a little for my interpretation of Hindu: That it’s extremely bloody confusing.

I read a little of the background of Hindu before I came, so at least I had heard of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. And I’m Catholic, so I had an idea of the different incarnations of God, depending on what was attempting to be represented. So I appreciated that these gods come in different incarnations, those incarnations revealing a little about their personality and therefore about man’s personality (As I have had explained to me by my boss, the gods are simply different incarnations of man and his virtues and vices).

So now I’ve had the chance to visit a couple of temples, each dedicated to one god or another (I think I’ve seen two of Shiva (or two different incarnations of), 1 Ganesha and perhaps 1 Brahm. The temples have been wildly different: one is next to our current fertilizer production site, with a big Ganesh on entry, who isn’t the real Ganesh- he’s around the corner; one was in Jaipur, where they were preparing an amazing amount of food for a festival in the afternoon- the idol was removed, which is why I can’t be sure who it was for- is it rude to ask them to repeat it more than once?; one was a huge marble structure for the “Shiva family”? built by wealthy industrialists (can I still say that in 2011?) and adorned by statues of the apostles, Mohammed, Buddha and Einstein; and the last was what I visited today, a complex of temples all dedicated to different Gods, but the main one being to the goddess riding the lion (again, an incarnation of Shiva?) and off to the corner a black version of Shiva carrying her trident.

Now I have had these temples and the purpose of the bells and offerings explained to my enquiring brain several times, but it still hasn’t stuck. I think I struggle with ANY terms of reference for these religious practices; but they really aren’t that different to other forms of devotion I had seen; prostration on the ground; prayers to the gods; ringing of bells and drums; and offerings (some of which are blessed and taken back to the family to eat). I guess perhaps the thought of having to remember which of the gods to pray for at which time I think I would find extremely confusing- and surely there’s some grey areas… When you are hoping for success- is that lucky Ganesh or the powerful Shiva?- for example. And then you need to choose which of the local Ganesh temples to go to- which one is more in touch with the gentle elephant? I don’t even want to think about remembering which of these temples have which gods in them (perhaps they’re signposted in Hindi).

I’m learning little by little- I got the story of why Ganesh receives the first wedding invitation of every couple the other day- but this might be something I can only reach a basic level of ignorance in after a year in India.