Why Hindus worship millions of gods?

In recent days I have noticed many articles/blogs mentioning about multiple gods in Hinduism. So, here is my simple explanation of how to understand the concept of multiple gods.

Even in Hinduism, there is only one god but for the sake of people like you and me, they have created the idea of multiple gods. I will explain this with an example.

• At room temperature you call this magical substance Water.
• You heat the Water and call it Steam which magically disappears into thin air.
• When Water falls from sky it is called Rain.
• When Water shoots out from the ground, you call it fountain.
• When Water freezes slightly, you call it Snow...when it freezes like a rock you call it Ice.
• You mix Water with cup of sugar and couple of pesticides and call it Pepsi/Coke.
• When the Water comes out of your kitchen tap, it is called regular water. But the same water is treated as Holy Water if it is given to you by the priest.
• You stand in the beautiful beaches of Goa in Bharat (India) and look at the ocean and call it Hindu Maha Sagar (Indian Ocean). You stand in New York, USA and look at the SAME body of water and call it Atlantic Ocean. Though it is one body of water, we call it with 4 different names based on the location from where we are looking at it.
  

I can fill 10 pages like this but coming to the main point...

So, how the above example explains multiple gods in Hinduism? Let me explain that with examples as well.

According to Hinduism, if something/someone is helping you to survive, those things and those ones are Gods.

The Gods that you can see and feel:

• The Wind, Fire, Sky, Earth and Water are gods because without them one cannot exist.
  
• Cow is god because Hindus depend a lot on Cow for its milk, for dung as manure, for urine as pesticide, for bullocks to do farming.
• Nature is another god because you need the cooperation of Nature to survive. In the West, they call it Mother Nature. Looks like they took a page from Hindu book.
  
• River is another god because it helps you survive.
• I have a friend who is a software engineer. He treats his computer as God because he believes that computer is the one that feeds his family.
  
• ...the list goes forever

The Gods that you can only experience:

• Life is full of obstacles. So, Hindus are smart enough to create a God who can control all those obstacles. That god's name is Ganesh. Hindus pray Ganesh to remove obstacles in their way.
  
• Hindus have a Goddess who controls wealth and that Goddess name is Lakshmi. Likewise Saraswathi is Goddess of knowledge/education.
• Snakes are like another god to my father because he is a farmer and he needs snakes to control rats in the fields.
• ...the list goes forever.
  

So, the Hindu understanding of God is totally unique. Now the question comes, why do Hindus treat those things as Gods, why not treat them as something else?

It is very simple. When you talk to a stranger, you might be little careless when compared to the language that you use when you talk with your own parents. Because you behave well with people you care. On the same concept, the wise Hindus started propagating these elements as gods so that people respect them and save them. That is the reason Trees, Animals, Objects are treated as Gods so that they will be protected and respected by the powerful human beings. In return they help humans survive longer.

So, if it is okay for you to call the same Water with different names based on its location/form/behavior, it should be okay for Hindus to call the same God with different names as they wish.

Thank you,
Vasu Gokaraju