Hindus believe in one eternal, infinite spirit called Brahman. Brahman is the ultimate reality - the source of everything in the universe and present in every living thing. Within each person is a tiny spark of Brahman called the atman, or soul. Hindus sometimes describe atman as a drop of water and Brahman as the ocean - they are made of the same substance.

Although Hindus worship many gods and goddesses, each one represents a different aspect of Brahman. Some scholars therefore describe Hinduism as henotheistic - worshipping one supreme God while accepting that other gods exist as forms of that one. Hindus also distinguish between Brahman 'with qualities' (saguna) - the personal gods they can picture and pray to - and Brahman 'without qualities' (nirguna) - too vast and abstract to picture at all.

The three most important gods make up the Trimurti:

Brahma the creator
Vishnu the preserver
Shiva the destroyer

An important Hindu phrase from the Upanishads is tat tvam asi - "you are that" - meaning that the atman within you and Brahman are one and the same.

Y8 Hinduism

Hindu Beliefs about God