Little big gods

Rishikesh, India, (Cont’):

During our course, someone asked Maharishi: what's the meaning of all those gods (lower case) in Indian philosophy? So many gods, yet the foundational teachings of Indian philosophy, especially Vedanta, affirm that all creation arises within a single, absolute oneness— Consciousness. As Dr. Tony Nader eloquently states in his book Consciousness Is All There Is, this ultimate reality is the sole essence underlying everything.

Here's how I understood his answer: A ‘god’ is a metaphor for the totality of energy and intelligence within a system. He illustrated this by holding up his hand: for a finger to exist and maintain its form—so many billions of cells, tissues, and flowing blood—an immense amount of energy and intelligence is at work. Thus, that integrated power could be called the ‘god’ of the finger.

Extending the analogy, the hand embodies the combined energies and intelligences of the four fingers, thumb, and palm, plus a coordinating intelligence that integrates their functions. That composite energy/intelligence represents the ‘god’ of the hand.

Moving up to our entire body, we see a grander ‘god’ composed of innumerable sub-gods (the organs, cells, and systems). Thus, we ourselves may be regarded as the “God of gods,” maintaining the vast complex of cells and organs and energies and consciousness that compose the astonishing human being we are and live.

In this way, the many gods of India are not separate entities but diverse expressions of the one infinite Consciousness, manifesting at different levels of existence. This reflects the Vedantic view of the world as unity appearing in manifold forms—a harmony of multiplicity within oneness: Unity in Diversity: Uni-verse.

This theme fascinates me, and I’m going to expand on how I understand it in the next posts.