Because, and I don't think we can stress this enough, though we've tried... Hinduism is not one single religion. Even I used to think it was, but boy was I wrong. And there is no way to count how many "religions" fall under the umbrella of Hinduism. There are different scriptures, customs, traditions, beliefs for all of the religions, sects and denominations that fall under the umbrella term Hinduism.
Observe:
- Two members here @Vinayaka and @Jainarayan are both Hindu.
- @Vinayaka worships Shiva almost exclusively (he includes Shiva's sons Murugan and Ganesha).
- @Vinayaka respects Krishna, and respects those who worship Krishna as God, but he doesn't worship Krishna himself, or read Vaishnava scriptures (Vaishnava = followers of Vishnu).
- @Jainarayan respects @Vinayaka's beliefs and methods of worship.
- @Jainarayan primarily worships Vishnu in the form of Krishna as God, but he also worships Shiva and most other gods in one way or another. @Jainarayan sees Shiva as much God as Vishnu is. @Jainarayan is one of those oddball "Hindus" who believes Shiva and Vishnu are one and the same, flip sides of the same coin, the same God who appears differently at different times.
- Look at @Jainarayan's signature picture and see that the left side is a combined form of Shiva and Vishnu, and the right side is a combined form of Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati as one Goddess. Together they are all God as male and female, but actually neither.
- @Jainarayan and @Vinayaka are both Hindu but follow considerably different beliefs and methods of worship.
- @Jainarayan and @Vinayaka are both Hindu, they go into a coffee house and order tea. @Jainarayan would actually prefer a horn of mead, but he gets really loopy when he's loaded. @Jainarayan has not had anything to drink today, and he's this loopy because he's really mentally and physically tired. Anyway...
- They get along and have a good time chatting.
- The End.
