Understanding Gods and Angels in our Devotional worship and prayers
The devotees of Hindu Dharma, most often follow the Devotional paths, offer prayers to a figurine or an Icon in a Temple or a prayer room with music and recitation of Mantras. Here they follow the traditions established in Agamas and Dharma Shastras. The rituals are for the manifestations and incarnations of the Supreme or one aspect of the same of God in various forms as explained in the various Ithihasas and Puranas. We have Sri Ganesha as the main Deity we pray for auspicious beginnings and to ward off any hindrances and obstacles. Ganesha is worshipped as the son of Siva and Parvathi in some of His incarnations. He is the leader of the Ganas or the various Devathas. Prayers to Ganesha will control the activities of these Devathas and bring in only good actions and remove any bad activities of these devathas.

Sri Kartikeya or Subramanya, popular in South India, is shown in Hindu Puraanas as another son of Siva and Parvathi. Similarly, Sri Dharma Saastha is worshipped in the Southern states of India. These represent one aspect of the Divine in the Saivite faith among its followers. Similarly Vaishnavite followers worship various aspects of Divine as Narayana in His various Avatharas, incarnations, like Sri Narasimha, Sri Rama, Sri Krishna and Sri Venkateswara. Several aspects of Sakthi are also worshipped in many such forms. Details of these can be found in the various Puranas and Ithihasas. Worship services to these manifestations and incarnations form the main foundation of the practice of Hindu Dharma. With more knowledge, at Rajasika level of understanding, the ritualistic practice becomes more elaborate with lots of festivities offering of food, jewelry and clothes to the icon they pray and sharing a festive meal with family and community to the full satisfaction of every devotee worshipping the Devathas.

Most devotees gain sufficient satisfaction in this level of practice with the solid attachment to their faith, in the modern age when they have lots of other vocations to follow and have limited time and resources available for any deep research study of the theology of True Hindu Dharma and the Vedas. Every devotee practicing the Hindu Dharma know and understands well that the prayers they offer to the various forms and to the various Icons actually is to one aspect of the manifestation or incarnation of that One Supreme God who will ultimately come to protect the human soul. The ultimate object of their prayer is to get a release from the bondage of Karma and gain liberation for a union with the Divine Spirit. With this attachment to the goal, as they gradually develop some understanding, slowly many of them seek additional knowledge through a teacher or Guru ask questions themselves and improve their knowledge. They seek a deeper study of the ancient texts. With concentration and studies, many develop increasing intuitive knowledge and gain some understanding of the True nature of the Supreme.

Some of the devotees later gain the supreme knowledge of a Sathvika. Many believe that with increasing knowledge and Jnana, they develop a supreme devotion and higher level of Bhakthi to the Supreme God in His various manifest and unmanifest form. At a time, when the learned Vedic scholars and priests concentrated on the blind Rituals and the Karma path of Sage Jaimini's Mimaamsa, Sage Veda Vyasa explained the Vedantha philosophy. Still, Hindu religious practices stayed with blind rituals, almost ignoring a place for a Supreme force. Bhddha's teaching and Mahavira's Jainism became popular at this time. Bhakthi movements and Agama theories with Theology was spread by various groups. Sri Aadhi Sankaracharya at this time gave the Adhvaitha Philosophy based on the Vedantha along with the six forms of Saguna Brahmam combining all aspects of Hindu Dharma.