by C.V.Rajan

Created on: September 14, 2008   Last Updated: April 10, 2009

Hinduism, one of the oldest religions of the world, is a vast religion with multiple facets. In fact it is said that it is not really a religion, but Sanatana Dharma' - the eternal, righteous way. For the less-informed, Hinduism may look too confusing, too complicated to understand and too contradictory in its percepts and practices. Even many Hindus do not know the exalted philosophies of the religion. Through this article, we shall see some of the central tenets of Hinduism.

(1) God is One, but is amenable for worship in multiple forms:

Hinduism permits worship of multiple Gods who are endowed with different looks, powers and attributes; they, in reality, represent the One God, known as Brahman, Parabrahman, Paramatman or Satchidananda. Hinduism acknowledges that there are basic differences in every person in tastes, temperaments and capacity of intake in the matter of religion. In real life, a woman found distasteful to one man can be the soul stirring sweet-heart of another man. When such a difference is taste can exist, why not allow different tastes in worshiping the God?This is precisely the logic behind the idea of multiple God forms in Hinduism.

Thus, Hinduism permits you to choose a specific God form most appealing and lovable to you; it encourages you to believe whole heartedly that that particular God form indeed is the one supreme God. A chaste woman considers her husband alone to be the most handsome and most wonderful person; likewise, at the lower steps of religion, a believer's conviction that his personal God alone to be the most powerful and the "only true God" is also encouraged.

In this way, five major sects of worshipers of different God forms exist in Hinduism and the sects are:

Saivam: The sect whose personal God of worship is lord Shiva.

Vaishnavam: The sect whose personal God of worship is lord Vishnu.

Shaktam: The sect whose personal God of worship is Shakti, the Universal Mother.

Ganapathyam: The sect whose personal God of worship is Ganapathi (or Vinayaga - the elder son of lord Siva).

Koumaram: The sect whose personal God of worship is Karthikeya (or Subramanya or Muruga - the second son of Siva).

There was also a sixth sect, Souryam - for the worshipers of Sun; but this sect is practically non-existent now.

It must be noted that these are not to be considered as rigid compartmentalization of worshipers. There are other Gods too (like Lord Aiyyappa who is considered the son of Shiva-Vishnu) who are worshiped popularly. God's Avatars too are

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