Timeline for Why do the gods look like human beings?
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26 events
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| Jan 11, 2023 at 2:59 | comment | added | Terjij Kassal | @KeshavSrinivasan Where does it say that devas look like human beings? For all we know, if we accept your premises, they could look like zebras, or lizards, for those creatures have limbs and eyes as well. | |
| Jan 11, 2023 at 2:29 | review | Suggested edits | |||
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| Dec 27, 2022 at 20:02 | comment | added | Terjij Kassal | @KeshavSrinivasan Christians and Jews do not believe that God looks like a human. In fact, they believe that God has no appearance at all. | |
| Nov 5, 2021 at 23:01 | answer | added | Fun life | timeline score: 2 | |
| Jan 26, 2018 at 6:49 | answer | added | Keshav Srinivasan♦ | timeline score: 1 | |
| Nov 26, 2017 at 4:32 | history | edited | Keshav Srinivasan♦ |
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| Sep 20, 2017 at 3:00 | answer | added | SwiftPushkar | timeline score: 8 | |
| S Jul 28, 2017 at 5:44 | history | mod moved comments to chat | |||
| S Jul 28, 2017 at 5:44 | comment | added | Pandya♦ | Comments are not for extended conversation, Use chat room for further discussion. | |
| Jul 27, 2017 at 19:30 | comment | added | Keshav Srinivasan♦ | @sv. The Srimad Bhagavatam is talking about humans beings created fully formed directly out of Brahma's body, not about evolution. Now if you're interested in how Hinduism deals with evolution, different Hindus have different views on it. Some reject the theory of evolution outright, and have written books arguing against it. Other Hindus accept evolution, and argue that there were originally two kinds of humans, humans who were evolved from apes and humans who were descended from the gods, and that the two races merged. Still others give a symbolic interpretation of Hindu scripture. | |
| Jul 27, 2017 at 18:08 | comment | added | Say No To Censorship | @Surya 'Brahma created humans to resemble him' - So over millions of years, Brahma caused apes to evolve in to current day humans to look like him? And before humans evolved in to their current form, how did Brahma look like? Did Brahma always have a white beard or did he age slowly while humans were evolving? | |
| Jul 27, 2017 at 18:00 | history | edited | Keshav Srinivasan♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 27, 2017 at 17:09 | comment | added | Keshav Srinivasan♦ | @Surya OK thanks, can you post that as an answer? | |
| Jul 27, 2017 at 17:07 | comment | added | Surya | Well this sloka of Srimad Bhagavatam explicitly says that Brahma created humans to resemble him. The whole chapter describes how he offered parta or semblance of his form to each of his creation and how he created Humans "In his Own Image". | |
| Jul 27, 2017 at 16:46 | comment | added | user1952500 | ...Of course, one could argue that this is an anthropomorphic argument and cows do follow their own religion, but it doesn't seem like the cows show outwardly religious practices. | |
| Jul 27, 2017 at 16:46 | comment | added | user1952500 | @KeshavSrinivasan cattle and other humans could have other representations of their gods. The golden calf which egyptians worshipped is well-known. If animals consider humans superior, their god may be humanoid. The representation of Anirudha is quite unusual (inhuman?) in the shweta dwipa. If God had wanted us to reach moksha or any form of ideal following some set of Dharmic practices (which we assume as valid), a humanoid body is convenient... | |
| Jul 27, 2017 at 14:53 | history | edited | Keshav Srinivasan♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 27, 2017 at 6:08 | comment | added | Keshav Srinivasan♦ | @SwamiVishwananda As we discussed in the comment section here, we disagree on the issue of whether the gods are eligible for Jnana. By the way, can you take a look at my Advaita question here: hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/19765/36 | |
| Jul 27, 2017 at 5:48 | comment | added | Keshav Srinivasan♦ | @TheDestroyer But how do you prove others? They don't take Hindu Scriptures for granted and you too know Scriptural references for them." To be clear, I'm not asking "How do we know that the gods exist?" (That would require an extensive explanation involving demonstrating the validity of Sabda Pramana.) I'm just trying to find out, assuming you accept the scriptural descriptions of the gods' appearance, why their appearance resembles that of humans (with minor variations). The note at the end is just designed to exclude explanations that reject the existence of the gods or their appearance. | |
| Jul 27, 2017 at 5:45 | comment | added | Keshav Srinivasan♦ | @TheDestroyer "Mahishasura (Mahisha + Asura) is half Asura and water buffalo like Ganesha" OK, but that's another example of what I said in the beginning, i.e. it's a variation on the standard human form. | |
| Jul 27, 2017 at 5:36 | comment | added | The Destroyer♦ | "Asuras, Gandharvas, etc., and other animals do not?" No. Mahishasura (Mahisha + Asura) is half Asura and water buffalo like Ganesha (though it is not proper to compare Ganesha with him). "I'm looking for answers that take for granted that there really is a thousand-eyed god in Swarga named Indra, a four-headed god in Brahmaloka named Brahma, etc." But how do you prove others? They don't take Hindu Scriptures for granted and you too know Scriptural references for them. But what exactly do you mean by 'that statement'? | |
| Jul 27, 2017 at 5:31 | comment | added | CR241 | The concept of God/Goddesses evolved in the human mind that there is a super being who will come to the rescue/help/guide humans. Gods are described as human form because man can think of human to relate with God in every mythology in the world with addition of number of hands, heads etc. In Hinduism, we worship all forms of creation as can be seen Dasavataras, fish, tortoise, Bear, half man and half animal, trees, snakes and so on, if one names it one finds hindus worship. In short, Hindus worship man and nature. | |
| Jul 27, 2017 at 5:14 | comment | added | Keshav Srinivasan♦ | @moonstar2001 Yeah, I too think that it's humans who resemble the gods rather than vice versa - that's why I made a connection to "God made Man in his own image". And yeah, I think it's plausible that the explanation has something to do with humans being the only animal capable of attaining Moksha under normal circumstances. In any case, I'd like to see whether Hindu scripture says anything about the reason the human form resembles the gods. | |
| Jul 27, 2017 at 5:07 | comment | added | Swami Vishwananda | Swami Vivekananda said very similar to Xenophenes. He said that man shapes God in images that he can relate to. The highest living entities in this world are humans, thus the gods are seen with human characteristics. Humans are the greatest living beings as they are the ones that can attain liberation. Even the gods have to be reborn as humans. | |
| Jul 27, 2017 at 5:04 | comment | added | user1195 | I think it is the other way around- human beings look like gods and believe it is for evolutionary reasons. "jantUnAm nara janma durlabham". It is only in the human form that the jIva can aspire to and has the wherewithal to transcend life and death and attain higher states some of these being siddha sareeras, teja sareeras etc. which are closer to godhood. Exceptions of animals attaining higher states exist but those are just that - exceptions, most of which have had exceptional, super-human spiritual attainments in previous lives. | |
| Jul 27, 2017 at 4:33 | history | asked | Keshav Srinivasan♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |