Aum : The idea of 330 million Hindu deities is a metaphor for the countless forms by which the divine makes itself accessible to the human mind.
Vishwa-rupa or Virat-Swarup is the cosmic form of God. For Hindus, God is the container of all things. All existence is a manifestation of the divine. This understanding of the world makes no room for the notion of ‘evil’. Evil means that which is devoid of God. When everything is God, then nothing, not even things we despise and shy away from, can be ungodly. Good and bad are judgements based on human values.
Human values – critical though they may be to establishing civilized society–are based on a limited understanding of the world. When understanding changes, values and judgements change and with them society. The Sanskrit word ‘maya’ refers to all things that can be measured. Human understanding of the world is limited, hence measurable, hence maya. To believe this maya is truth is delusion. Beyond mays, beyond human values and human judgements, beyoun the current understanding of the wrld, is a limitless reality which makes room for everyone and everything. That reality is God.
For Hindus, all of creation is divine. Everything in nature is therefore worthy of worship. There is no discomfort visualizing God is plants, animals, rivers, mountains, rocks and in man-made objects such as pots, pans, pestles and mortars : Aum