Do we even have pure monotheism as an alternative. in any sect?

[Vinayaka]

Firstly, I'm going to define pure monotheism as one God, period. One God, one name, one concept.

Wiki, on Hindu concepts of God, includes the gamut ... henotheism monotheism, pantheism, atheism. polytheism, and maybe a few more for could measure not to exclude any or to not insult various schools.

But I'm wondering if we have anything in any school that says one God, and only one God. We do get the idea that all Gods represent the one God or are facets of the same God, but that's certainly not pure monotheism, because it has the word 'Gods' in it. Most Hindus will openly worship at least two or 3 or many.

Then we have this concept of one Supreme God. Some folks will say that that is evidence of monotheism. I say it isn't. Doesn't the word 'Supreme' imply that there are other Gods? they're just not Supreme. If those other lesser Gods didn't exist, they why have the word 'Supreme' in there at all?

Not looking for debate, (would have to move the thread anyway) just looking for thoughts. I get the picy
ture personally that this idea we have monotheism is a misunderstanding, unless we alter the idea of monotheism to be more 'flexible'?

 

[Satyamavejayanti]

Vinayaka

Namaste,

The Arya Samaj comes to mind, considering they are Dvaita, i would assume some of the older Dvaita Darshan's would have emphasized "One God", but i that is just my assumption.

But to my mind i would say Arya Samaj is the closest we have to Monotheism of the Abrahamic type.

 

[Terese]

I think the closest we have to monotheism is polymorphic monotheism, where we have one Supreme Lord, and has innumerable forms of his own. I've heard many times that Vaisnavism is monotheistic, and that is true in a way, because we worship one single Supreme. Though yes, the word Supreme does imply there are other gods, which there are, like of the devas. So according to your definition, Hinduism can never be pure monotheism, because we acknowledge the existence of other supernatural beings also.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Most 'advaitist' take Brahman to be The God (and everything else its emanation). Will you consider them as monotheists?

 

[Vinayaka]

Namaste,

The Arya Samaj comes to mind, considering they are Dvaita, i would assume some of the older Dvaita Darshan's would have emphasized "One God", but i that is just my assumption.

But to my mind i would say Arya Samaj is the closest we have to Monotheism of the Abrahamic type.

Thank you. I'll have to look into it a bit.

 

[Vinayaka]

Most 'advaitist' take Brahman to be The God (and everything else its emanation). Will you consider them as monotheists?

Most advaitins I know see every God as a facet of the Supreme God, so no, as per the OP.

 

[shivsomashekhar]

The Lingayats - the dominant population of Karnataka - probably qualify as monotheists.

They are Shaivas, who worship a formless Shiva, while rejecting the Veda, idol worship and Sanskrit.

 

[DeviChaaya]

The Lingayats - the dominant population of Karnataka - probably qualify as monotheists.

They are Shaivas, who worship a formless Shiva, while rejecting the Veda, idol worship and Sanskrit.

This is exactly what I was going to say. They are a remarkably egalitarian offshoot of Hinduism (just because they don't hold the Vedas as supreme does not disqualify them in my opinion).