Free said:
Hinduism is anything but monotheistic. Hinduism teaches that there are many gods, which is polytheism, but is best described as henotheistic (many gods, but one which is essentially superior).
"henotheism is a term coined by Max Müller...
While Hinduism is generally monistic or monotheistic admitting emanating deities, the early Rig Veda (undeveloped early Hinduism) was what Max Muller based his views of henotheism on. In the four Vedas, Muller believed that a striving towards One was being aimed at by the worship of different cosmic principles, such as ((Sanskrit) god of fire in ancient and traditional India; one of the three chief deities of the Vedas) Agni (fire), (Wind god) Vayu (wind), (Chief god of the Rig-Veda; god of rain and thunder) Indra (rain, thunder, the sky), etc. each of which was variously, by clearly different writers, hailed as supreme in different sections of the books. Indeed, however, what was confusing was an early idea of Rita, or supreme order, that bound all the gods. Other phrases such as Ekam Sat, Vipraha Bahudha Vadanti (Truth is One, though the sages know it as many) led to understandings that the Vedic people admitted to fundamental oneness. From this mix of monism, monotheism and naturalist polytheism Max Muller decided to name the early Vedic religion henotheistic.
This, however, is clearly only one possible interpretation of Vedic culture. Extremely advanced, indeed unprecedented and thitherto unduplicated ideas of pure monism are to be found even in the early Rig Veda Samhita, notwithstanding clearly monist and monotheist movements of Hinduism that developed with the advent of the Upanishads. One such example of early Vedic monism is the Nasadiya hymn of the Rig Veda: "That One breathed by itself without breath, other than it there has been nothing." To collectively term the Vedas henotheistic, and thus further leaning towards polytheism, rather than monotheism, is to ignore the clearly monist bent of the Vedas that were thoroughly developed as early as 1000 BCE in the first Aranyakas and Upanishads. However, to deny that a form of polytheism is also present may equally be to ignore aspects of the early Vedic texts. Whether the concept of "henotheism" adequately addresses these complexities or simply fudges them is a matter of debate."
"Indeed,
the only period of Hinduism that ever approached henotheism was in the early Vedic period and even that is disputed by scholars, most notably the great Hindu mystic Aurobindo Ghosh."
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encycl ... theism.htm
So Hinduism is not best described as "henotheistic".
