John leach
Who Is Followed In Hinduism?
According to the epic Mahabharata (1.1.39), there are 33,333 Hindu deities. In other, later sources that number is multiplied a thousand fold. Usually, however, the gods are referred to as "The Thirty-Three."
Hinduism is based on mythological gods and tends towards Pantheism--- the doctrine that the universe conceived of as a whole is God and, conversely, that there is no God but the combined substance, forces, and laws that are manifested in the existing universe.
Three principal moments are envisioned in the life of the cosmos: Creation, maintenance, and destruction. Important myths about the gods are tied to these moments. Traditionally, Brahma is the creator, emanating the universe and simultaneously promulgating the four Vedas from his four mouths.
Hinduism is based on mythological gods and tends towards Pantheism--- the doctrine that the universe conceived of as a whole is God and, conversely, that there is no God but the combined substance, forces, and laws that are manifested in the existing universe.
Three principal moments are envisioned in the life of the cosmos: Creation, maintenance, and destruction. Important myths about the gods are tied to these moments. Traditionally, Brahma is the creator, emanating the universe and simultaneously promulgating the four Vedas from his four mouths.
Why follow anybody if at all? In "Hinduism" Brahman is the supreme being and through its 3 energies of creation, maintainer of life, and destroyer, his Avatars are considered as envoys who appear from time to time to restore Dharma (the right path or rectitude) on earth i.e krishna in the Gita, Rama in Ramayana, and Kalki the Avatar yet to come at the end of Kali-yuga. For many Hindus the avatars are considered as deities in themselves in the sense that Brahman himself willed it to be so.
There isn't any founder to be followed, it is just nature and its forms that is followed and gods with duties