Thus Spake the Divine - Ishta Devata

Thus Spake the Divine

Ishta Devata

In this chapter, Poojyasri Maha Periyava brings forth the supreme uniqueness of Hindu Religion, which has propounded the “Ishta Devata” worship.

Human beings possess different mentalities and attitudes. Paramatma has taken forms of various deities only with the objective of drawing such people towards Him. His aim is to cleanse the minds of all kinds of people and merge them into the Paramatma.

People of other religions always ridicule our Hinduism as a religion of polytheists (worship of or belief in multiple deities). However, no learned individual of Hindu religion believes that there is more than one God. In fact, it is the Hindu religion, which has propounded the theory of “One God”. It has also advocated the doctrine of Advaita, which brings out the association between God and human beings. Thus, every Hindu is clearly aware that there is only one God, who is effectively running the business of this entire Universe.

Simultaneously, each Hindu also believes that God possesses the competency and compassion and thus can metamorphose Himself into different forms of deities.

That is why the same one God has presented Himself in different forms to many Sages and Saints in our country. He has done so as these Saints have enunciated Mantras and Pooja formalities for their respective deities. If we adhere to the rituals and practices as pronounced by these sages, we can receive the grace of the respective deities. However, irrespective of the deity, ultimately all our prayers culminate only in that One Paramatma.

Different forms of deities have emerged only to enable the individual to experience the Brahmam as per his own mind set and attitude. If a person wants to experience God in the form of a mother-child relationship, there is the worship of Goddess Ambal. If one wants to immerse himself in peace and serenity, he worships God Dakshinamurti. If a person is a hedonist, he is fond of Lord Krishna.

The uniqueness of our Hindu religion is that it does not propound the philosophy of God as one, whom one should worship irrespective of his wish. Instead, it has propounded the Ishta Devata (God of one’s own preference) worship, which transforms the philosophy of God into an idol by infusing Super Power into it. Thus, the individual gets the freedom of choice to choose his Ishta Devata based on his own mental state, so as to carry out his worship as per his set norms.

Though, initially, we choose one deity as our Ishta Devata, as time passes and our Bhakti towards that Ishta Devata expands, we may stay away from that Devata too at another stage, as at that point everything will appear as just Paramatma. While worshipping a particular Ishta Devata, one should not demean the worship of another Ishta Devata by others. We should realise that Paramatma, who bestows devotees with His grace in one form of idol, does the same for other forms of Ishta Devata idols too. There are, however, some puranas pertaining to a specific Devata, which claim that only that Devata is the supreme and all others are subordinates.

People may question why that is so. The intention of writers of those epics is not to demean one deity over the others. It is only to infuse Bhakti into a devotee on that Ishta Devata. All Sages and Saints were neutral with all Ishta Devatas. The great poet Kalidasa categorically states that only one substance, the Paramatma, has manifested into these different forms of deities.

While Paramatma has taken different forms to fulfil the mental requirements of His devotees, He has also taken different forms based on His roles and responsibilities in this Universe. He becomes Brahma when possessing Rajo Guna, He engages in creation of beings in the Universe. When engaging in sustenance of the creations in the Universe, He becomes Vishnu possessed with Sattva Guna. And when He becomes responsible for destruction, He turns into Shiva possessed with Tamo Guna.

Kalidasa mentions that all these three forms are the manifestation of one Super Power. What is applicable to these three forms is applicable to all the 330 million Devatas! (In Hindu religion, it is believed that we have 330 + million Gods.) Though we have several Ishta Devatas in our country, the major two segments are Vaishnavism and Shaivism, between which there is a great deal of dispute. If we can analyse in depth, we can attain the wisdom that both Vishnu and Shiva, who are Gods of these

two sub-sects respectively, are manifestations of only One Brahmam!

This article is a snippet from the Book Thus Spake the Divine, is available online at www.giri.in and across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Speciality Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture and Tradition.