The God of Vedas

While it’s common among Christian philosophers to dismiss Hinduism as polytheistic and that Hindu believers worship many gods, the most authoritative text of Hinduism – Vedas – is at-least clear about this: that God exists, and that God is one.

He who is the creator, creator of heavens and earth, who governs all that is created, whose breath is life, and who alone is the source of immortality : is the only Lord of the world, the one God. Vedas do mention other “gods”, but they are only deities for fire, earth, wind, and the many spiritual beings. Never is creation, and the lordship of heavens and earth, attributed to any deity. In fact each deity is a created being, but the Creator alone is the uncreated one, “Lord of gods” or Praja-pati.

There is a Vedic hymn addressed to this “Unknown God”.

http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/ubp/v16n09p515_a-vedic-hymn.htm

Why “Unknown” ? Our human nature is finite, our intelligence and knowledge too are finite, for we are created as finite beings. Finite cannot measure the infinite that is God. There is thus no attribute more fitting for God than the adjective “unknown”, in its meaning, “beyond the range of one’s knowledge, experience, or understanding” (dictionary.com).

Not just the virtuous sages of India, but even the wise philosophers of Greece could perceive the divine which was unknown to them. For St.Paul speaks to the Greek:

You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious. For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ (Acts 17/22-23) *

God remains unknown unless He himself chooses to reveal Himself. For it’s said in the Bible:

No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him. (Matthew 11/27)

The Vedic hymn speaks of the One God thus: “In the beginning there arose the Golden Child, as soon as he was born, he alone was the Lord of all that is. He establishes the earth and this heaven”.

If Vedas speaks of the unknown in such terms, the above words cannot be a product of man’s intelligence. True knowledge of God can only be given from above, and written under divine inspiration. Who is this Golden Child, born – not created – from the infinite, and through him the invisible heavens and the visible universe – space, time, and matter – itself were created ?

* Other translations – http://www.newadvent.org/bible/act017.htm – say ‘To The Unknown God’, consistent with Vedas in using definite article “The”, as opposed to indefinite article “An”.