While we all teach that there is One God and at the same time see several Icons and Gods in our Temples and homes during our prayer services, many of us get a mixed message. Our youngsters get confused often. Is there One God or are there many Gods? Many ancient cultures of Europe, Greeks, Druids, Egyptians, and Aztecs, Mayans and other Native Americans and African faiths believed in a Supreme spirit and also in many individual spirits to govern the Natural Forces. They also believed that humans, by repeated births and good deeds, ascend to the levels of Divine or as gods of the natural forces.

In the monotheistic Semitic faiths, the Judeo-Christian concept of One God is a largely unexplained supreme divinity living in Heaven. There are subservient, duty-bound Angels and Messiahs invoked from time to time to uplift Human souls. This concept of Mono-theism is also seen in the ancient faiths of Persia such as Zoroastrianism and the pre-Zoroastrian faiths, which are closer to Hindu beliefs. But, do they all pray to one and the same "One God"?

Among the followers of Hindu Dharma, the concept of One God is basic at all levels of understanding and at the same time the faith allows enough space for many forms of worship. It is Monotheism, and more so as Monism, one God all around us and also inside us, with unity of Paramatma and Jivatma. The Hindu concept of God is quite different from the Judeo-Christian and Islamic concept. The Supreme Divine Truth is the all encompassing Force and substance that exists in the entire Universe in the form of sound, light and all forces of nature and is formless and Immanent Nirguna Brahman also referred to as Îswara, Îswari, Paramãtma and Parabrahman. In spite of this monistic outlook Hinduism, in proscribed practice, sports several paths with prayers with many manifestations of the Divine that can be easily misinterpreted to be polytheism or Henotheism.

Whilst the monistic Godhead is not describable, It is Immanent, formless, and yet at the same time all-powerful and all compassionate and It is also transcendent. In the phenomenal Universe created by Him, He takes the transcendent forms. This formed Supreme is referred to as Saguna Brahman and Savishesha Brahman by Smarthas and Sri Vaishnavas. He is also called Para Siva or Parameswara by Saivite, Sri Narayana or MahãVishnu by Vaishnavites and ParãSakthi or Kaali or Thiripurasundari by Sakthas. This Divine form manifests further without ceasing to be It-self as various male and female Deities, such as Siva, Vishnu, Brahma, Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswathi. They manifest for various activities of creation, protection, and dissolution and also for the benefit of man and to uplift the Human. These are the "many gods" each one different from the other, polytheistic in a way, at this level of our understanding, just as a table and a chair are different from the tree. They are not one and the same; are they?