Bhakti theology goes beyond polytheism and monotheism to polymorphic bi-monotheism

Conventional Western thought divided the world’s religions into polytheistic and monotheistic. The monotheistic religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam viewed derisively the polytheistic religions that preceded them in the Greco-Roman civilization. And when these monotheisms encounter the Vedic tradition of ancient India, they often labeled the tradition as primitive polytheisms, akin to their Greco-Roman counterparts.

But a careful study of the bhakti tradition, which is the ripened fruit of Vedic wisdom, reveals a far more subtle and sophisticated understanding of God. Firstly, the bhakti tradition is monotheistic – the honorifics it uses to describe the object of devotion are strikingly similar to those used to describe God in the Abrahamic monotheisms. Ontologically, the many gods are not his competitors but his assistants. Indeed, the one supreme is so sublime and transcendental that the other gods can’t even know him, as the Bhagavad-gita (10.02) asserts.

Secondly, this one supreme manifests in multiple ways in multiple form for reciprocating love with his devotees and for establishing dharma. This multiplicity of divine manifestations is best conveyed by the term ‘polymorphic monotheism.’

Thirdly, the bhakti tradition rejects any male monopoly over the conceptions of the divine. Such a monopoly defines the Abrahamic monotheisms – they singularly characterize God as male. The bhakti tradition reveals God to be a divine couple, both of whom simultaneously partake of the same divine nature. Additionally, they demonstrate pure spiritual intimacy within the divine, thereby demonstrating the pure original of which the male-female polarity of this world is a reflection. Aptly, the tradition worships divine couples: Sita-Rama, Lakshmi-Narayana and Radha-Krishna. The theology underlying the worship of these transcendental duos can be represented by the term ‘bi-monotheism.’

Thus, the bhakti theology reveals a profound vision of the divine that goes far beyond the stereotypes of polytheism and monotheism to polymorphic bi-monotheism.