By Dhirasanta dasa
The Vedic scriptures say, "There are many worshipable gods but only one supreme God, of whom we refer to primarily by the name, Krishna, which means the all attractive one. The one who has beauty, wealth, strength and knowledge 100%. All others are either incarnations of His original form, demigods or demigoddesses.
Demigods do not have the same power as God but are beings that are more advanced than us humans. Although they resemble us, they possess far greater intelligence, beauty, mystic power and in some cases, many arms and heads. Thus we are naturally subordinate to them, and therefore we can worship them as empowered representatives of the Godhead.
Sometimes you will find in Greek mythology the god of the water or the god of the thunderbolt. These are not imaginations but we see them as departmental heads.
We also believe in a Sun god, Moon god, creating and annihilating god. A god that gives money and a god that gives rain. In this way all our necessity in life are given to us by God through these smaller gods.
A good example which we all have experienced is the powerful influence of the moon. By the influence of the moon we see changes in the oceans tide, it is also activating the vegetables in the garden, and when there is a full moon we experience that it can affect our mind and result in a sleepless night.
God has a huge government, and He requires assistance. The government of the Supreme Lord consists not only of one or two planets; there are millions of planets and millions of universes. So to assist Him there are 33,000,000 demigods and Goddesses. They are all working under His direction.
Some say that all the gods are equal, but the truth is there is a cosmic hierarchy. Just like in a company, there is a natural hierarchy extending from the owner, the managing director, the works manager, the shop superintendent down to the supervisors and workers. Similarly there is Vishnu or Krishna who is the owner and proprietor of all that exists, and there are the innumerable subordinates who serve Him.
There was once a German who went to India. He went with the intent of finding out who was God. On visiting many temples he concluded that Krishna was God because He was playing a flute and dancing with His devotees, whereas the other deities held something that indicated some work was involved.
So even though God is the source of everything in existence and that He possesses within Himself all qualities and energies to empower the demigods, He has nothing to do but enjoy loving pastimes with His devotees.
God and Gods
