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6. MONOTHEISM & REINCARNATION
"Hinduism worships multiple forms of the one God." (OM, an American Hindu organization)
"According to the tenets of Hinduism, God is one as well as many."(Hindu Website.com)
"Hindus believe in monotheistic polytheism, rather than polytheism." (The Hindu Universe)
"Even though Hinduism is mistakenly regarded by many as a religion having many gods namely, polytheism, yet truly speaking Hinduism is a monotheistic religion." (Sri Swami Chidanda)
From 2nd century AD, onwards several powerful movements emerged which emphasized various sectarian deities, which gave birth to devotionalism, or bhaktism as it is known, whereby the worshipper enters into relationship with a personal God (Bhagavan) or personal goddess (Bhagavati).
Only a Smartha, or follower of the Advaita philosophy, would have no problem worshiping every imaginable deity with equal veneration; he views these different deities as being manifestations of the same God. You don't need to call it God, because that is the only reality. Everything else is an illusion or dream of that conscious being. In the twentieth century Hindu religion in the west is identified with the Smartha.
Other Hindu sects, such as Vaishnavism and Shaivism conform more closely to a Western understanding of what a monotheistic faith is. Vaishnavites considers Vishnu as being the one and only true God. But there is a blurring of the oneness with the concept of avatars - the incarnations. According to Vaishnava doctrine, there are two types of avatars - Svarupavatars (Purna avatars of Full Form of Vishnu) and Amsa Rupa avatars (avatars of partial form). In the full avatars, the godhead himself incarnates while in the partial avatars only certain powers are manifested through certain creatures and persons. The problem is that there are large number of Full incarnations and an infinite number of partial incarnations of Vishnu
Traditionally we are told about the ten incarnations of Vishnu in which the only complete incarnations are Narasimha (Lion-Man), Rama and Krishna. All the others are partial forms. Certain power can be manifested through creatures and persons and this number in millions. They are sometimes called Sakty Amsa Avatar (Power Part Incarnation) or Sakty Avesha Avatar. Here again the masters differ in their opinion who is what. At any rate, the general teaching rallies round the idea that all incarnations are equally to be worshipped. Major branches of Vaishnavism include Srivaishnavism, (Ramanuja School) who advocated Vishishtadvaita (Modified Monism), Dvaita (of Shri Madhvacharya - Dual Nature School) and Gaudiya Vaishnavism (of Shri Caitanya Mahaprabhu -ISKCON).
According to the Puranas countless numbers of avatars descend into our universe.
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