Talk:God in Hinduism

New title
God in Sanatan Dharma I suggest moving this page to God in Hinduism or Hindu concepts of God. See the following examples:


 * Bahá'í concept of God
 * Islamic concept of God
 * Conceptions of God
 * Abrahamic conceptions of God
 * God in Sikhism
 * God in Buddhism

Cuñado  -  Talk  20:54, 16 September 2006 (UTC)
 * I'd agree. Mar de Sin   Speak up!  19:38, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

majority of shaivite 'dualist'?
how? look at shaiva siddhanta and kashmir shaivism for example(monistic theism panentheism!!!!http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaivism Domsta333 (talk) 14:09, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Links with other religions
The article should maybe try to show similarities with other religions as to not give the impression that hinduism is completely exclusive or different than other religions. In particular, the chakra tradition can be found in the jewish kabbalah, the belief in a kind of trinity is not unique, and there have been many historical comparisons between Krishna and Jesus. 69.157.233.40 (talk)

removed unsourced or poorly written dub material
Please place only sourced and clearly related to the concept of God items in this article. Not everything that has to do with worship, ritual or meditation. Wikidās ॐ 19:04, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Shaivism ? Smartism ?
Seems like this article is about Vaishnavism only, otherwise I don't understand very much about this topic ... (?) ... said: Rursus (bork²) 08:21, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Ongoing discussion on moving the term Avatar to primary topic
There is an ongoing discussion [here] on moving the term Avatar from the popular film back to its original place as a primary topic. Hoverfish Talk 15:08, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

'The actual concept of God in Hinduism?'??
This is certainly a mal-formed section at the end of the article. It's fairly easy to detect that this has been written by someone from the community called 'Arya Samaj', who seem to consider their own interpretation of the Vedas the supreme and perfect. I would strongly suggest removing it, or at least renaming it to something like 'Concept of God in Arya Samaj'. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TheEternalFlame (talk • contribs) 19:11, 4 June 2012 (UTC)

this article faslely justifies monotheism
Hinduism is the majorly polytheist even in Vaishnavism and Shaivism the existence of other gods is present. Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh are widely accepted in Hinduism as holy trinity distinguished from each other in appearance and even in duties. Even all the avatars of Vishnu and Shiva are also considered gods. Son of Shiva Ganesh is also widely worshipped as god. So Hinduism is not monotheistic as it is mentioned. As my view, polytheism is historically rejected by Muslims and Christians to be a false religion therefore some Hindus tries to justify their religion as the monotheist which is not right. Polytheism is not wrong it is just the way to view gods. abhiras 13:05, 6 July 2013 (UTC)


 * No, the Smarta or the Vedanta traditions of Hinduism are polytheistic in that they allow for several forms of the Supreme God. The Trimurti or Trinity is a concept similar to Smarta tradition. In the original Vedic scriptures and in other denominations of Hinduism, such as Vaishnavism, Shaivism or Shaktism, there is only one Supreme God, the other gods are considered subordinate to the Supreme God. The presence of the Supreme Being is what makes the Vedic and these other denominations of Hinduism monotheistic. To compare with Christianity, you can think of the Supreme God as God or Christ, and the other gods as the followers of Christ or Catholic saints, who though venerable in their own right, do not carry the full Power of the Supreme God. Samenewguy (talk) 04:14, 24 August 2013 (UTC)


 * Hi I think you are confusing Trimurti with Trinity. Both are not the same. gods who are subordinate to the Supreme God are by definition polytheism. In Christianity one person in the trinity is not subordinate to another. Catholic saints are NOT gods. They are purely humans and that is why it is a monotheistic religion. (FYI: I am a Catholic). Also monotheism in Hinduism does not deny the existence of other Gods. Like a siviate will never deny the existence of Vishnu and vice-cersa. But for them, their God is the singular supreme being. This is not monotheism. If you object to this point, please show reference that they deny the existence of other Gods. because the fundamental definition of Monotheism is denying the existence of other Gods than their own. Please also see Hindu views on monotheism for more on this subject. --Jayarathina (talk) 05:38, 24 August 2013 (UTC)


 * There is no Christian-like Trinity in Hinduism, only Trimurti. Regarding your point on denying the existence of other gods, Vaishnavs do that all the time - for them Vishnu is the only Supreme being - the others are all demi-gods: you may even think of those demi-gods as disciples. Do Christians deny the existence of disciples? By the way, Catholics may not call their saints "gods" or "demi-gods" but they still worship them. By your logic, Catholicism is also polytheistic. Sorry to say, but a Catholic who has little knowledge of Hinduism will not determine whether Hinduism is monotheistic or polytheistic. Samenewguy (talk) 18:46, 24 August 2013 (UTC)


 * We do NOT worship saints, we venerate them. Please see Veneration. But that's not the subject of this discussion. That is out of scope. Coming to your point, denying existence is NOT the same as accepting them as demi-gods. They may not be Gods, They are still gods. Can you please show some proof in any text of Hindu scripture or some Hindu leader holding this position that some sect in Hinduism holds that other gods  do not exist . And by the way Catholics do not decide whether Hinduism is monotheistic or polytheistic, I agree, That is why I am asking for some proof from Hinduism. Is that too much to ask? (P.S Wikipedia maintains Neutral point of view in these cases, so you don't get to decide it either) --Jayarathina (talk) 05:06, 25 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Catholicism does, of course, believe in the existence of angels and demons, which are supernatural beings subordinate to the supreme God. These fit the definition of "gods" to a tee, it's just that they were no longer referred to as gods (dii) in order to stress the idea of monotheism. It's a purely terminological, not a doctrinal, distinction. While the saints are not purely spritual beings in the sense that they are deceased humans who once had a body, they are also gods in the exact sense of polytheism, which very commonly deifies deceased ancestors. Again, the distinction is purely terminological. So as long as Catholicism can be monotheistic (it can!) without denying the existence of saints, angels or demons, so can Hinduism. Again, the application of the western term "monotheism" is a terminological problem that only exists if you want to use western terminology, and as such obviously does not exist within Hinduism. It is still a real topic of cross-religious comparison that can be treated encyclopedically.
 * the real problem is the historical emergence of monotheism, and this problem exists in the west just as much as in the east. Unless you take the Muslim approach, which is essentially a refusal to have this discussion and to treat only  this refusal to even consider the question as "true monotheism" (an intellectually boring and ideologically dangerous approach of course, but at least also a clean-cut one), it is very difficult to pin down when and how monotheism emerges, because it emerges very gradually, over the centuries. This happened in India just as much as in the Greco-Roman world, it even happened in parallel, and possible via cross-pollination, which is the idea behind the concept of an "Axial Age". --dab (𒁳) 09:34, 17 May 2014 (UTC)
 * This whole debate is pointless. The point is that many traditions of Hinduism are monotheistic, while many are not. That's why there are many different portions of the article explaining each view. No one Hindu is exactly alike. Omgaddad (talk) 04:11, 28 July 2022 (UTC)

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Merge proposal (Implemented)
I propose to merge Hindu views on monotheism into God in Hinduism since the former is a WP:REDUNDANTFORK of the latter. They have exactly the same content and references with the only difference that Hindu views on monotheism is much shorter, so there's no need to keep it. GenoV84 (talk) 00:26, 9 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Support - God in Hinduism covers the topic of Hindu monotheism along with various other '-theisms' so it's redundant to have a separate article. Any that is material unique to Hindu views on monotheism would best merged into God in Hinduism. Scyrme (talk) 15:02, 18 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Since no objections were raised after many weeks, I have implemented this merge. Scyrme (talk) 23:37, 27 June 2021 (UTC)