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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Seeta Lakhani, Hindu Tutor at Eton College

Hindu Gods

Good morning.

When most people hear the word Hinduism, it brings to mind images of a multitude of Gods and Goddesses. But the question arises: if God is ultimate, surely there can only be one ultimate. How can there be so many Gods?

A student once asked his teacher the very same question. Is it not a contradiction in terms to have so many deities, when there can only be one Ultimate God? His teacher took out lots of different shaped moulds for making ice. Some moulds were like cubes, some were round, and some were like stars. The teacher filled them with water and put them to freeze.

The next day the water had frozen. The teacher took out the different shaped moulds and out popped blocks of ice in different shapes. Some looked like cubes, some like stars and others like circles. The teacher asked his student if they were all different. And the student replied: yes of course they鈥檙e all different.

The teacher then explained: even though they look different, and you call these blocks of ice by different names, like round, cube and star-shaped, they are really the same. They are all made out of water. The same water becomes frozen into different shapes. In the same way, the same God can be called by different names. Some Hindus call God Vishnu, some call him Shiva, and some like to think of God as the Mother Goddess. Even though the names and forms of God are different, it is still the same God that all Hindus adore.