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Indian Holy Gods

Hossain Shekhzadeh

Bachelor of English Language & Master student in English Literature

From the very past and old ages India has been called the land of wonders and even today it has attracted many western countries towards itself. You may found many websites about this land; its civilization, its religions and its myths. With a population of more than one billion, it is the most democratic country among the Third World. About 99 percent of population involves Hindus – followers of Hinduism.

In the life of Hindu, river plays an important role. Rivers possess a kind of holiness in their beliefs. However, this holiness and worshipping does not mean that they don’t believe in God. It has roots in their culture and their old civilization that implies a sort of respect to the nature. 

Gang is the holiest river among Hindus as they say the goddess Ganga is protecting it. It comes from Himalayas Mountains and crosses cities like Benaras and Allahabad. According to Hindu fables, Gang is originated from the foot of Vishnu (god of protection) and after flowing through the long hair of Shiva (god of destruction) comes to the earth.

SIND is the second holy river. Hindustan is taken from the name of this river? At first, the old name of this river was “Sindu.” The ancient Iranian Called it ‘hindu’ instead of ‘sindu’ and after some times the land was called ‘Hindu stan’. About the Latin or English word (India), it is the same. Ancient Greeks came to this land and called the river ‘sindu’ in their language. Changing of time, the word changed to ‘India’ as a name for this land. There are many other holy rivers.   

Plants and trees, as a manifestation (sign) of nature, are holy and sacred among Hindus. While cutting a tree, they first worship it and apologize. This kind of worshipping is very similar to American Indians (Red Indians). One of the holiest trees is called Pippla. It is the representative of Vishnu and it is even sacred among Buddhists for they believe that Buddha discovered the sheer fact while resting under the shadow of this tree.

There are Many other holy plants such as Vilva, Tamala, etc. 

Hindus are also extremely interested in flowers. They use flowers in different celebrations, each in a different manner. The red Chinese flower for Shiva, white flower for Vishnu, Nenunphar for Laxmi, red Ninunphar for sun are some samples of offering flowers to gods.     

Perhaps by hearing the name of gods you imagine that Hindus are the sheer worshipers of idols. In appearance Hindus worship idols. However, the fact is that the knowledge men and literate Hindus worship the only One God and do believe that the nature of god is just one. The poor and illiterate groups are following their old traditions of worshipping idols and they say that these are some various signs of one god on earth. Note this sentence taken from Rig Vada (one of holy writings of Indians):

“And over every firm and moving object, any which can walk and any that can fly, and on all colorful creation and universe only one God commands.”

It is said that the fact is just one thing but it has many names and different approaches to achieve it.

Brahma : the god of creation.

Vishnu : the god of preservation and survival.

Shiva : the god of fear and destruction.

Saraswati : the goddess of knowledge and science.

Laxmi(lacshmi): goddess of wealth ,fortune and luck.

Kali :god of death.

Agni : the god of fire.

Indra : the god of thunder.

And many many  other gods.

The land of Yoga: Yoga means discipline of thought and used in many concepts. It manifests thought, discovery, connection between body and soul and any action leads to the order and discipline of thought. The term ‘Yog’ is derived from the verb ‘Yoj’ which means to control and subjugate an unruly animal. So the exact meaning of Yoga implies that a human being is capable of controlling his/her ego and therefore get connected to his/her sublime spirit. Yoga is not a concept of Buddhism but that of Hinduism.

Hindu religion: It is one of the oldest religions in the world with more than 900 million followers. It is a supernatural religion and does not let its followers to be just happy with this life and the next. It has a more great aim and that is to achieve the real fact of life.

This fact, that a real Hindu must gain, is the immortal and eternal spirit – beyond any cause and effect or time and place. In this religion, all the works and deeds – political, artistic, scientific, traditional, and social - act as an instrument and mediation to reach prosperity. That is why a real Hindu tries to perform any action with a pure intention in the best way.

This religion has some specific commands about the Hindu’s foods. They do believe that excessiveness in food and eating causes laziness of the body and leading the mind astray. Some don’t eat meat at all. Some eat just egg or fish, and  some are vegetarian…