{"id":203,"date":"2014-10-07T12:39:10","date_gmt":"2014-10-07T16:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/gatheringnectar\/?p=203"},"modified":"2014-10-07T12:39:10","modified_gmt":"2014-10-07T16:39:10","slug":"how-many-water-are-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/gatheringnectar\/2014\/10\/how-many-water-are-there\/","title":{"rendered":"How many water are there?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

How many water are there?<\/p>\n

This is the question I think of when people discuss how many gods there are. One? Many? Many who are all aspects of one? Many who are distinctly separate?<\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>
My husband took this picture of water in Columbus, Ohio.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In school we\u2019re taught to\u00a0divide things up into charts and graphs, expecting definite answers one way or the other. If you apply this method to\u00a0studying Hindu gods, you\u2019ll\u00a0often be frustrated by the lack of ability to pin things down.<\/p>\n

Inevitably when I\u2019m taking a class from the Devi Mandir, someone will ask this question, \u201cSwamiji, I thought you said this was a mantra to Durga but then it starts listing the avatars like it\u2019s a mantra to Vishnu.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then he\u2019ll answer, \u201cYes. This is a \u00a0mantra to Durga, who is Mahalakshmi, who is the Shakti of Vishnu.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clear?<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re worshiping a Hindu deity, the others are aspects of the one you\u2019re worshiping. For example, as you recite the 1000 names of Devi, you call her \u201cShe who appears as Krishna.\u201d But\u00a0you thought it was Vishnu who appears as Krishna? You learn that Ganesh is the son of Devi and Shiva (or sometimes Devi without Shiva) but in the Ganesh Gita<\/em> he says that any worship centered on himself or Shiva or Devi or Vishnu counts as worship of him because\u00a0He alone is Shiva, is Devi, is Vishnu<\/em>. Then the Western brain melts.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve come to use water as a metaphor for deity. So, how many water are there?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s just one thing we call water. It has two hydrogens per oxygen. When a deity<\/em> claims to be The Deity<\/em>, it\u2019s like declaring water to be Water. It just is.<\/p>\n

And yet\u2026<\/p>\n

We have rivers and lakes and oceans and streams and bathtubs and swimming pools and sippy cups. We can say of the water in a bottle, \u201cThis is Water\u201d but we can\u2019t rightly say, \u201cThis is Lake Eerie\u201d in any sense but symbolic even if it does contain water from Lake Eerie. A jacuzzi is not the Amazon River, but both are the same Water.<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>
I also took this picture of water in Columbus, Ohio.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sometimes people are skeptical that there can even be a God at all because they look at differences in various religions. It\u2019s like saying, \u201cBut these people say the ocean is Water, while these other people say their local creek is Water. They can\u2019t even agree on whether water is salty or not. They can\u2019t all be true, so they must all be false!\u201d\u00a0The fact that you can\u2019t see how something is true doesn\u2019t make it false.<\/p>\n

Other times people say that humans created God. If you look at the swimming pool at a resort, you can tell humans planned and designed it. In fact, they designed the entire resort to meet their own personal needs! Therefore, it must be false. Except this: humans don\u2019t create water. You can prepare a container to hold water, but you cannot create water.<\/p>\n

All the water on earth is the same water. Sometimes people think that different religions can\u2019t possibly worship the same God because there are qualities that cultures have added that aren\u2019t\u00a0compatible. There is some water that I wouldn\u2019t personally drink or wash my face with, and there are definitely some religious ideologies I stay far away from. Some are downright deadly. If someone\u00a0puts their water into a bottle of arsenic instead of purifying their\u00a0container, that doesn\u2019t mean the rest of us should give up water. It means we should avoid their container.<\/p>\n

Is there one God? Yes.<\/p>\n

Are there many gods? Yes.<\/p>\n

Are the many gods different aspects of the one God? Sure.<\/p>\n

Is each god a unique and noninterchangeable individual? Of course.<\/p>\n

Am I monotheistic, polytheistic, pantheistic, panentheistic? Yes.<\/p>\n

When people get frustrated and wonder how Hindus can claim to believe all these disparate things about God, I just ask, \u201cHow many water are there?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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