Perhaps Hinduism has been more influential than any other religion in its nearly 3500 years of unbroken existence. However, for as pervasive and world-wide as Hinduism is, there are many seeming contradictions within its philosophy and ideology. The oldest tradition still practiced, Hinduism is contradictory where the different numbers and types of gods worshipped are concerned. Most Hindus worship one of the three major gods within the religion: Shiva; Vishnu; the Goddess (Devi). However, there are many minor gods that are worshipped (usually some relation or associated of the major gods), and hundreds of minor gods are worshipped that may be particular to a local region or even a particular family, “the Hindu suspects that our human senses see only the outside of the events that they report; behind the veil of these phenomena, he thinks, there are countless superphysical beings whom, in Kant’s phrase, we can only conceive but not perceive,” (Durant, 1963: 510).
Many local or tribal gods have been adopted by the Hindus, and the majority of them are a phase, aspect or incarnation of another god. Eventually, all of these gods merged in the Hindu mind, so that polytheism evolved into monotheism. This is comparable to the Christian religion where a person may pray to one of thousands of saints, but still they see God as the supreme being. Still, there is contradiction in the Hindu religion where the major gods are concerned, because each Hindu may view them differently even though they are still recognized as supreme beings, “The Hindu prays to Kali or Rama or Krishna or Ganesha without presuming for a moment that these are supreme deities. Some Hindus recognize Vishnu as supreme, and call Shiva merely a subordinate divinity; some call Shiva supreme, and make Vishnu an angel; if only a few worship Brahma it is because of its impersonality, its intangibility, its distance,” (Durant, 1
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