Introduction

That Hinduism is a polytheistic religion is perhaps the greatest lie of the century.

One thing common between all Hindus is the reverence for the Vedas and the talk of one underlying reality: The Brahman. When Ved Vyas divided the Vedas, he made sure the Samhita verses were sufficient for every reciter to come to this conclusion. The explanations of these verses were unsurprisingly called Brahman.

Rig Veda mentions the word Ishvara close to a 100 times. Vishvedevas or all Gods combined is but a frequent occurrence in all Vedas.

The first Muslim to try and understand Hindus albeit to convert them; Alberuni, makes it clear that through his interactions with Hindus, he has concluded that they believe (He) is one and all idols are but manifestations of him.^[1]

The same observations were repeated by Europeans Pietro Della Valle and Jean de Thevenot.^[2]

George Forster writes of it rather fantastically^[3]:

“The Hindoos believe  in one God, without beginning and without end…..

The Hindoos , in their supplication to the Deity, address him as endowed with the three attributes of omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience, which in Sanscrit, are expressed by the terms, Neerangin, Neerakar, and Neergoon.”

The German Romantic Schlegel was so impressed on learning about the manifest deities leading to the same God that he wrote^[4]:

“If one considers the superior conception which is at the basis of the truly universal Indian culture and which, itself divine, knows how to embrace in its universality everything that is divine without distinction, then, what we in Europe call religion or what we used to call such, no longer seems to deserve that name. And one would like to advise everyone who wants to see religion, he should, just as one goes to Italy to study art, go to India for that purpose where he may be certain to find at least fragments for which he will surely look in vain in Europe.”

Why the Monotheism debate then?

British overlords started this because of a peculiar reason. For them, religion was a basic fundamental to civilization. Monotheism was thus “the secret of their energy.” Because the society as a whole worships one God, there is less fissure and they can develop rapidly. This is but the rational apparatus of Europe speaking. When Christianity began to be challenged in Europe, Churchmen Thomas Aquinas took this out from his rabbit hat to show that religion had some positive impact on society. It taught society “reason”.

One God and One Prophet was the cleanest cut of this meat because this was the fastest way reason can be peddled among the masses. We Hindus were still stuck with the entire Holy Cow.

A brief look at the Reason and Rationalism industry can be very perplexing. For a start, witch burning in Europe was not a medieval thing. It was exceedingly common and organized in the early modern age by Bible thumping rationalists who wanted to rid Europe of superstition (after the vehicle of Progress; the printing press was invented and common people actually learned to read and write and also carry the Bible). This “Superstition se Aazadi Gang” received all help from the JNU of those days: The Church itself.

So why was this myth not closed after 1947?

Politics really… 33 crore Gods is a good figure. It tells the world what a strange mystical dark place India is and the big problem Nehruvian bureaucrats face at home. They had only began to “discover” India thanks to their Columbus, Nehru. More gods mean more holidays for the Sarkari Babu while they can also command and control spoils of the temples built for each God.

Hindus are without a Pope, excellent opportunity to interfere in their matters and shepherd them like cattle to the Fabian Marxist Socialist Utopia.

Restructuring the Debate

The debate being structured on Polytheism and Monotheism gives the Western Indologists and their apologists an unfair advantage of rationalizing all those atrocities in the name of civilizing us. They poison the well without our knowing…

One needs to open the debate but ask why is the Abrahamic God so lazy ? Why can’t he let everyone hear him?

Also, ask them if their religion advocates equality. If they say yes (Mostly they will), do ask for yourself to be accorded the same status as that of their Chief Prophet and see their face go dry. If they actually make that mistake, you can start by replacing all the chief tenants of that religion.

I had written about it earlier here. These people must now answer our questions:

1) The Gita and the Upanishads say that God is present in everyone and everything. Why do these religions say we have sinned but that their Prophet has not because he was not born of sexual congress? Why introduce “inequality” into the system?

2) Even people like Madhavacharya who say that Brahman is one but distinct from atman used philosophical proofs of Pratyaksha (empiricism by direct perception), Anumana (making a hypothesis: Pratigya; showing examples: Drishtanta; and then establishing a logic or reason: Hetu) and then Shabda (Testimony of a learned person; here Ved Vyas’s Brahmasutra) to arrive at the conclusion.

Why should we throw away all these philosophical check-dams (which are used even in Modern Science today) and give these Prophets who have nothing but their own concocted voices from God a free reign in how Society should be structured?

3) Once inequality is introduced, the Paganism of Muhammad becomes that of entire Islam! If idolatry is so bad, why go on a Hajj and pray towards the Q’aba which is but filled with all the Pagan idols collected in the lifetime of Muhammad?

Why does the Christian Father (God) seem so much Zeus or Jupiter, who was the Chief God before Christianity in Europe?

The truth is that these aren’t religions or paths to God, these are political enterprises masquerading as ‘ashrams.’ By proclaiming one true prophet, they try to monopolize him for the unwary who naively while seeking out God, fall into their trap and become their soldiers.

The Christian Catholic Church was modeled on Buddhist Sanghas that were established on the Silk Route. They were more interested in sponsoring Kings and then extracting money and land grants from them but things took a perverse turn with installation of Islam. Nowhere is the religion-politics nexus more dastardly than in Islam which still talks of Caliphates. Shia clerics go one notch higher to claim that only bloodline of the Prophet can lead this Ummah. These may be good for desert people who must stay in group but go horribly wrong when imposed on any civilization.

A look at Polytheism of Christianity

For many later Romans, Christianity was what the doctor recommended. Gauls were never completely subdued. Goths and other Germanic tribes started attacking Romans. Christianity which spoke of one God found good audience among Romans who thought installing monotheism would give something common throughout all the domains Rome controlled.

Instead, Christianity slashed the two legs on which the empire was founded: Slavery and Citizenship. There was no concept of wealth. It was in abundance in heaven where one was headed to in next life. So, following the Church and not earning money was important. Trade and money activity was looked down unless you donated to the poor through the Church. This money would help the Church harvest poor souls and thus this money was Good money.

Hence, Europe entered the Dark Ages and would do everything to “liberate” itself whenever the chance arose.

Just like the Sultanate marched South after consolidating the North, the Papacy called for the Northern crusades when the South became Christian in Europe. As pagan cultures were destroyed and Church excesses solidified, rebellions broke out from within rather than outside. The battlefield was of course, the newly conquered North.

The Reformation that saw Protestant Churches grow in stature started with an invocation of the Trinity. Suddenly, God was not one. There were three distinct faces of the God; The Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost. So, concept of one God was scrapped and the Three were shown to be actually one. The Father created the Universe, The Son showed people how to live and the Holy Ghost signified wisdom and a guide to humanity. (Creator-Preserver-Destroyer anyone?)

i) [The Son, The Father and the Holy Ghost (The Dove Bird) and the invocation of Trinity in Christianity]

North-East France, Holland and North Germany where Protestant activity peaked had something in common; they lay on the East-West trade routes of Europe and had big market towns filled with rich traders. They financed the Thirty Years War on behalf of Protestants and the New Church developed a working theory of getting rich to appease them in return.
 

The Church was corrupt and had no business telling who was faithful and who wasn’t. God will tell it on the Day of Judgement. Till then, the Holy Ghost would conjure miracles to get the faithful rich. This Ghost had apparently fathered Jesus while Joseph looked the other way and was like a reverse pick-pocket. Thus, faithful would find themselves rich not due to hard work but because of this God (?). The theory of Protestant Capitalism was born here that were to be secularized by Weber many centuries later.

A closer gaze will tell any student of religion that this is amalgamation of the fertility goddess Freya and the God of mischief Loki all borrowed from the Nordic Pagan Culture that thrived along these parts of Europe before the coming of Christianity.

When Europeans came in contact with a superior civilization like ours, many European travellers were actually astonished that Hindus could visit their temples any time of the day on their own sweet accord or may not visit at all; while padre-fathers back in Europe counted each soul harvested in the name of the Lord every Sunday and consequences of not attending church weren’t really an absent mark on a register. They could be labeled apostate, heathen and face hostile peers.

France which had fought against the Catholic order in the Thirty Years but suppressed Protestantism within its border was now heavily inspired by India. Voltaire presented his views in the “Essai sur les moeurs” and thoroughly attacked Christendom and the French monarchy it upheld as divinely anointed. He wrote to Jean Sylvian Bailly (the future mayor of revolutionary France)

“everything came to us from the Ganges, astronomy, astrology, metempsychosis, etc….. our religion was hidden deep in India….incontestably comes to us from the Brahmans” .^[5]

The French Revolution happened with Indian spirit as a God and Christ appointed King was thrown out of office. This enjoyed popular support as the masses were given examples of India that spiritual paths to God can be independent of an organized Church.

Thus, the native pagan religion of Europe inspired the Protestant movement in the North while India directly helped throw out the toxic monotheism of the Catholic Church in France. Yet, the only weapon the British could find to degenerate Hindu was that of monotheism; something that was not even common to the Protestant Culture they try to associate with.
 

The Heathenism of Islam

This reformation zeal was even truer in Islam. As soon as the Tigris and Euphrates Valley was conquered, the First Fitna set in. Ali who were in charge of these civilized areas started making and demanding reforms, like autonomous tribal groupings so that the centralized control of Mecca could be escaped or lessened. Why would desert people sitting in Mecca understand the benefits of decentralization?

The Civil War that followed of which Karbala is only a part of, is to be seen by all. The Persians (Shias ) who actually commanded more resources because they could grow crops on the river basin and lay on a flourishing Eurasian trade route obviously won the war and thus began the Golden age of Islam.

It was Islam in name only. Suddenly Mecca-Medina became over-hyped pilgrimage centres while the Capital was shifted to Baghdad. Wine and Hedonism flowed like water on the Tigris. Greek philosophers or “falsafas” became guiding beacons rather than the Hadith. Zoroastrianism was ably aped so that more people would get confused in the Tigris-Euphrates Tehzeeb and ended up being loyal subjects. Indian trade, Indian mathematics and Indian medicine were assimilated at this court but presented as gift of Allah.

Also, Image worship suddenly became cool. The whole world now learned that the gift of Quran was meant for Ali and not Muhammad. The archangel J’ibrail (Gabriel) mistook Muhammad to be Ali and Islam got off to a wrong start. Who can really blame him? If one’s boss is so lazy as to communicate with only particular individuals, it is but natural that employees will not follow safety protocols. However, it is true that most Shias are skeptical of this claim because it contradicts their other claim of Caliphs coming from the bloodline of Prophet.

ii) [Portrait of Ali by Hakob Hovnatanian]

iii) [Actual Islamic Painting: Mohammed receiving his first revelation from the angel Gabriel]

The Islam we see today in the Middle East has been made so by the Colonial apparatus that portrayed Science and Enlightenment to be the next revelation they received from God: The Bible being the first which they successfully mastered.

Naturally, a religion which believed the Bible to be distorted and Quran to be the final authority did not bow down but instead reverted to Islam as Muhammad revealed it and we ended up with the angry version of Islam we see today.
References / Footnotes

[1]Hindu views of God, Alberuni, page 128, The India they saw, Foreign Accounts: 8^th-15^thcentury, Meenakshi Jain (eds.)

[2] Unanimity on Matters of Faith, page 135, The India they saw, Foreign Accounts: 15^th-17^thcentury, Meenakshi Jain (eds.)

[3] Religion and Philosophy, page 277, The India they saw, Foreign Accounts: mid18^th-19^thcentury, Meenakshi Jain (eds.)

[4] Religion and Philosophy, page 278, The India they saw, Foreign Accounts: mid18^th-19^thcentury, Meenakshi Jain (eds.)

[5] Voltaire launches India, p. xi, The India they saw, Foreign Accounts: mid18^th-19^th century, Meenakshi Jain (eds.)

Images

i) Švenčiausioji_Trejybė from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity#/media/File:%C5%A0ven%C4%8Diausioji_Trejyb%C4%97.jpg

ii) Portrait of Ali by Hakob Hovnatanian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali#/media/File:Hakob_Hovnatanian_-_Ali_ibn_Abi_Talib.jpg

iii) From the book Jami’ al-Tawarikh by Rashid al-Din, published in Tabriz, Persia (1307);http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2011/02/09/why-are-muhammad-cartoons-still-inciting-violence/