The Vedas teach us of One Godhead, the unmanifest and formless, who is pure energy and pure consciousness, who is absolute truth, action and bliss. Contrary to widely popular thinking among those not knowledgeable, Hinduism is not a religion with Pantheism or Polytheism. Hindus believe in a single Godhead as a formless entity in "Nirguna Brahman" the Unmanifest form. He created the phenomenal universe and the worlds with His Yoga Maya (Divine illusion of Yoga). He takes the universal manifest form as "Saguna Brahman" or "Isvara", also called Siva, Narayana and Maha Sakthi, a form ordinary people can visualize and comprehend, for the benefit of the phenomenal world. He then created Himself in various forms to carry out the activities of creation, protection and dissolution and several other actions. He manifests Himself in several forms to be understood by people and to come to protect them in the form that people visualize and pray to Him.

The Vedas teach us of "gods" or Devathas in various forms. Vedas often do not teach of prayers and rituals to the Formless Brahman directly, but often through one or more of the various "Devathas" representing the stars, planets, natural forces and energy created by God to perform the various actions of nature. Vedic rituals are performed with prayers for Fire, Water, Sun, Earth, Agni, Indra, Varuna, Vayu and several manifestations of the deities and Celestial beings (Devas) that we pray. One of the earliest verses of the Rigveda is a prayer to the god of Fire: "O' Agni (Fire), warm golden dust of the Gods, Life and Light of Existence; ...Infinite Energy of Consciousness, Destroyer and Preserver!!"; "Agni (as Daksa) entered into Adithi (the Sun) to produce Adhithya; ...and they gave Light to the world !!"; "All things on Earth are, therefore, the handy-work of Agni, ...and the climax of them all is reached in life!!"