Most of us worship God every day. Every religion provides its followers with a set of aims to achieve in life, thereby giving each follower a sense of purpose. Do you find yourself wondering what the aim of Hinduism is? Have you thought about what is the Hindu concept of God? Or what is the concept of God in Hinduism? Let us enlighten you.
Hindu Concept of God – Aiming at Self-Realization and God-Realization
The concept of God in Hinduism is quite simple. The Hindu religion aims to be of self-realization (Atmanjana) and God-realization (Brahma jnana), ultimately leading to Oneness. The Hindu concept of God is to accept that God dwells in every person’s souls and minds. The paths leading to the attainment of the goal of Oneness are various as follows
Brahma-anubhava – Intuition of Reality.
Brahma-darsana – Insight into the Truth
Brahma-samsparsa – Contact with the Supreme
Brahma-saksatkara – Direct apprehension of the Reality
All these paths lead its followers to realize self-realization and God-realization, thereby allowing them to witness the Oneness in Creation.
Believing in Oneness
God is indeed central to all religions. The concept of God in Hinduism is one Supreme being called Brahman, the One. Hindus believe God as the robust and formless foundation that supports its ever-changing Universe. For example, the God of waves is the ocean; the God of ornaments is gold; the God of pots is mud, the God of the shirt is cotton, and so on.
Hindu concept of God believes that He is the cause and effect. And they are inter-dependent on each other. If you remove the cause, then the effect ceases to exist. Hinduism also refers to God as the Trinity- Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the sustainer), and Siva (the destroyer). Together, they are the cause from which the Universe came into being, in which the Universe exists and into which it will eventually dissolve.
Positive Aspects of Hinduism
One of the many positive aspects of the Hindu concept of God is that it gives the freedom to approach God in one’s way, and it does not ask its followers to conform to one. Therefore, Hinduism can be called both monotheistic and monist.
Monotheism refers to the belief in one God manifesting different powers in different forms. In comparison, the latter refers to the faith in one God expressing all states, where all the creation is just a manifestation of one Reality. However, it is essential to note that the Hindu concept of God is not polytheistic. It does not believe in many gods, where each is a separate entity.
