Shrimad Bhagavad Gita: Why do Hindus have so many deities and their images, when the Vedas clearly state that there is only one God and he has no images? Why even after knowing, they visit temples and bow down to every next idol? Ain't this a disrespect for the god?

As we all are just normal human being, and we are not capable of understanding and accepting the almighty in single form, though there is only one supreme God, so to accept and adopt the greatness & power of god, we find them in multiple forms(images,idol etc.), in the hope that after considering so many idols,we would be able to know the GOD but still we cant, because we always want to make contradiction towards the GOD, but i am sure when we accept them just to accept in our heart not to make any DEBATE or CONTRADICTION, i am sure we will be able to see only single almighty in every form.

Hinduism(Sanathana Dharma) says god is within you, Why don you search him? Rather than praying to any god? Thoughts develop into character and character develops into action. If you want to be a good human being a follower of Dharma, worship Rama. Listen to his stories, listen to how he encountered evil things and faced difficulties, It'll create an awareness as how you should behave in society. how you should serve people. If you want to a studious person, See saraswathi, Maa Sarasswathi is stting on a stone, it says as a student you need to sit tightly and focus on your studies with dedication. Maa wearing a white saree, it is depicting of her pure soul, how a studious person must not get carried away by temptations. The place Maa is sitting is calm and serene with water, which shows the place you need to choose. Maa is having four hands and in one hand there are beads, in another written material, with two other hands maa is holding Veena. Like this, the pics gave us values and how we should behave while studying. How the Maa(who is the source of knowledge) would do her studies and we should follow her was the message behind it. It was just to guide you through situations and then look into god inside you .

It is about scalability.Four chapters of a Religion -- by Swami Vivekananda1. Symbology — The employment of various external aids to preserve and develop the religious faculty of man.2. History — The philosophy of each religion as illustrated in the lives of divine or human teachers acknowledged by each religion. This includes mythology; for what is mythology to one race, or period, is or was history to other races or periods. Even in cases of human teachers, much of their history is taken as mythology by successive generations.3. Philosophy — The rationale of the whole scope of each religion.4. Mysticism — The assertion of something superior to sense-knowledge and reason which particular persons, or all persons under certain circumstances, possess; runs through the other divisions also.All the religions of the world, past or present, embrace one or more of these principles, the highly developed ones having all the four.Of these highly developed religions again, some had no sacred book or books and they have disappeared; but those which were based on sacred books are living to the present day. As such, all the great religions of the world today are founded on sacred books.Veda developmentSwami Vivekananda: "The Vedas should be studied through the eye-glass of evolution. They contain the whole history of the progress of religious consciousness, until religion has reached perfection in unity.The Vedas are Anadi, eternal. The meaning of the statement is not, as is erroneously supposed by some, that the words of the Vedas are Anadi, but that the spiritual laws inculcated by the Vedas are such. These laws which are immutable and eternal have been discovered at various times by great men or Rishis, though some of them are forgotten now, while others are preserved."Three phase evolutionIf you analyse Veda development, it has gone through three major phases.You can think of this is a research on (1) who is the creator of this world? (2) who am I? We can think of Indian scientist(so called Rishis), had put their hard effort to discover it. Here the study is through meditation, looking inward.1. First phase - first scientist conclude everything is controlled by the natural driving forces, called demi-gods. e.g. Varuna, Indra etc. They discover heaven is a place where these demi-god are residing. There are beautiful angels like Ramva, Menaka etc. So the religious goal was to please these demi-gods and get a visa to heaven and enjoy. They were thinking this was the goal of life and the Visa is eternal. Same as Christian and Islam preach today. 2. Second phase: Through further deep-inward-journey, scientist found, there is a fall from heaven even, The Visa is temporary, there is no permanent citizenship status. Once Karma(Punyam) is over, you have to vacant the residence. Later they found deities like Vishnu, Rudra. And their abode like Brahma-loka, a place for permanent residency. People with vast knowledge get an opportunity to stay there.3. Final phase: On further enquiry, they found the creator is really sitting inside human. not anywhere outside. This is a dramatic change from earlier wisdom. Finally scientist declared "Each individual is a potential God, Aham Brahmasmi, I am Brahman". So why we are searching God outside, really he is sitting inside. In fact we are God or Brahman -- This part is called Upanishads or Vedanta. And we are landed with Vedanta. So it is a journey. And we got incremental wisdom till we reach "I am Brahman" knowledge.

yes it is true and mention in vedas about param aatma(supreme god) having no image,figure,body etc.It`s the source of energy  for whole universe and beyond everything and we are all aatmas(souls).but we can`t say idol worship is sin because worship is that which teach us about humanity and help us to attain moksha.Let take an example-in maths we consider a variable to solve a problem and solving that one we get the right answer.If i worship lord Rama, i am getting to know and hence following some percentile of his character like politeness,dedication etc.If i worship maa kali than i am becoming fearless to fight against wrong and injustice.moreover if i follow and think any noble person as god like teacher,mother  etc.

"Thirty-three crore" is not the number of gods. It’s is a number of the people. Thirty-three crore is a number that represents the population of the earth. It means whoever you are, wherever you live, whatever your trip is, there is a personalised god for you. What motivates you? Money? Then your god is Lakshmi. Pray to her, work hard and this god of wealth will reward you. Are you a student? Do you need magical strength to help you clear your exams? Then your god now is Saraswati. Slog hard and pray to her and you will be rewarded. The “33 crore” figure is symbolic. It means that no matter what trouble you are in, there is a god out there for you to chose from and he will come to your rescue. The idea is to push you to work hard. It is to tell assure you that there is a god in your field your work and that is backing your hard work. It’s to motivate you. God is just one. You, the universe, all living and non-living things are a part of it.

We hindus don't do anything without a reason. Our religion is more like scientific. Ok let me tell you the real reason behind the idol worship of god. Yes I agree that there is only one divine god or super concious mind but again it is true that he is omnipotent and Omni present. If you study study more about our religion you will find that, most of the ancient people were yogis. They practiced yoga. ( Yoga is not what we think of it like merely a physical exercise ) "Yoga" means union. Union of your soul with that superconcious being or god. If you have studied patanjali yoga sutras breifly you will find that in order to have a union with a god we need to have "Sattav" in our body or can say mind or soul. Also you will need to object of meditation or concentration to expand your conciousness for union with god or we can say to experience Samadhi. ( there are three material out of which our mind is made, Tamas, Rajas and Sattav. Shortly the sattva is the balanced one which produces the feeling of bliss, peace and balanced form of Prana in body.) Also these is the fact that if you are a Sattva person you will spread Sattva in the environment and will affect other peoples too. That is the presence of some people makes you feel calm and happy. Now have you ever noticed that whenever you enter your respective Holy masjid or when we enter our temple. Suddenly your mind changes and all negetive emotions get out of your body. Yes this is because of Sattva. As mentioned above if your Sattva you will release Sattva in your environment too. Therefore due to large gathering of people in temples and masjids and due to there positive emotion the places are now full of Sattva. That is why we make temples and worship idols. Most people dont know this. The temples are not holy due to the statue there or pandit. They are holy because you people made it holy. Swami vivekananda said this in commentatory on patanjali yoga sutras. Now you should know that god can't be experienced just by saying that believe in god and bla bla bla And reciting all the verses of holy quran or vedas likr a parrot. You have to experience it by your self. That is what yoga does and the form in which you see god face to face with your eyes is called Samadhi. Now to attained samadhi you should have a perfect concentration. Not even a bit of your body should move nor any thoughts should come in your mind. Although it is the years of practice to attend samadhi. For ex. If you want to see allah or fell allah. Just do this. "When you go to masjid, while praying to allah concentrate your mind on fully him. Not thinking about what i'm going to eat today and bla bla bla. And surely tell you if you can do this for 28.7 minutes without being obstructed by a single thought. Surely you will see the allah." So to practice meditation, dharna, dhyan and samadhi we worship idols and to increase sattva too. Also due to Sattva non veg is not eaten by a yogi. Although it is not prohibited. But if you want to attend samadhi non veg should not be eaten. Because ot disturbes your mind. Makes you lazy and sleepy. Which is obstruction to yoga as stated in yoga sutras.( not because eating not veg is sin.) Now you should also be thinking why should you believe in me. Don't believe brother. Experince yourself. There are some people who are distracting islam from the real religion. Which is devotion to god. Eg. Dr Zakhir nayak. He will always tell you about the embreyology in quaran and scienticfic evidence. But have he ever told you what is there in vedas The speed of light Planets and their names The earth is round and is rotating around sun Embreyology in more depth that quaran. Magnetism Gravitation And many more Go and find by yourself. Or search on internet. Don't believe in anyone unless you study it by yourself. As buddha said " However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good they do you if you do not act upon them." People think that buddha was god. It is true. Because every one of us is having a form of god in ourselves. Buddha gained enlightenment by Raja Yoga. Jesus gained enlightenment by Jana and Bhakti yoga. And during the path of yoga you gain many supernatural powers. That is why they can perform miracle. As buddha said " I'm not the last, many Buddhas will come and go." If you want any more info Contact me Samarth yadav

Hindus have lot of respect of Vedas but Hindu traditions recognise Vedas as just books and nothing more. Tribal Hindus for example do not have any clue about Rigveda, they have their own Gods and deities. Polyatheism is an important feature of Hinduism. Even Vedas might talk of one "God" but that is in the context of supreme being only. There are innumerable other Gods mentioned as Gods in Veda. The concept of Brahman (Supreme Being) in Vedas which is often mistaken with "One True God" and falsely equated with "One God" in Bible or Koran is in fact an abstract concept without any personality. Brahman is a state and is a matter of fact. Unlike the jealous God of Christianity or mercyful God of Islam, Brahman does not give much ***t about anything. It is a state and does not demand or care about worship. Hindu scriptures talk about One God only to find some reconciliation among all sects and tribes by avoiding a needless confrontation.

Dear friend of mine I totally understand your confusion about God. As I also felt more or less the same about concept of various gods in our religion. But thanks to the mercy of supreme almighty that he revealed to me his supreme form. So now answer to your question. There is only one God and he has clearly stated this in our hindu scriptures. Well now you would be curious as to who he is ?? Then my dear friend as stated by himself in our most religious and great spiritual book Bhagwad Geeta - Supreme personality of godhead Krishna . All other are demigods. Now as to your curiosity demigods are parts and parcel of supreme personality krishna just like a glass of ocean water have the same properties as ocean so are the demigods parts of the supreme form created by almighty as to serve their own purpose as for ex. Great Lord Shiva is meant for the annihilation of this universe and thereby are the other demigods and they are meant to give human beings their fruitive results. Yes you are right dear friend "law of karma". As said by krishna in Bhagwad Geeta only the lucky ones get a chance to understand his transcendental form and so is the reason that many of us are engaged in his illusory energy i.e. maya. Any intelligent person who have understood this is really a lucky guy. And the reason we bow down to idol is dear friend very simple to show respect and if you really consider our ancient vedic culture then you will be really astonished to hear that at that time it was a custom to bow down in front of every vaishnava and that was called panchanga pranama (you can google about it for more details) and that was also simply to show respect. But the clear distinction between the demigods and supreme personality of godhead should be very clearly understood.

Well people tend to visualise The one which is hidden from our vision.We should realise that fact that our vision is quite limited.But we can feel His presence and glorify His existence by merely looking at a mosquito flying so flawlessly or even our human body which is so complex but working beautifully. The almighty is governing the whole universe and many more like this we dont even know , then how come anyone dare to govern Him according to his/her convenience and will and see Him wherever , in any physical object you want/like.Enhance your vision.We are just a beautiful creation of Allah.He is hidden from us for a reason.He wants to judge our patience. Try to recognise Him from your heart and not from your eyes.And similar things are written in vedas too but nobody is bothered to read it.Have a look here. http://voiceofdharma.org/books/hvhb/ch1.htm