At different periods in human history theologians have either reaffirmed or reformed the concept of God in the various religions of the world. Most of the existing religions of humanity can be divided into two main conceptual streams : Monotheism and Polytheism. In monotheistic Judo-Christian religions the theological tendency that prevailed over the centuries was to keep God outside the scope of worldly affairs and of Nature as a whole. God was eternally in heaven rather than being on earth, and before reaching Him man had to undergo tremendous suffering on earth and wait for the Last Judgement to decide whether he would go to paradise or to hell, or roam for countless years in purgatory. As the unique son of God on earth, Jesus Christ became the saviour for Christians, the historical incarnation of God who came to redeem humanity. For Islam, God becomes all-merciful and all-compassionate and has no exclusive incarnation in the human world. As Allah is beyond any form and any name, Mohammad is not considered as the son of God but as His “announcer” - prophet.
Judaïsm, Christianity and Islam belong to what is called the Religions of the Book, as they have a definite scripture that regulates all the religious practices and beliefs. As far as Hinduism is concerned, the concept of God becomes more complicated as it oscillates indefinitely between monotheism and polytheism, with a large emphasis on the latter since more than 15 centuries. Hinduism is not a monolithic religion such as the religions of the West and the Middle-East. The word “Hinduism” itself is of late origin and was coined by Western scholars to bundle together the various religious practices thriving on the Indian sub-continent on the other side of the river Sindhu. Being an heterogeneous assemblage of diversified creeds and cults, it is irrelevant to consider Hinduism as a compact religious unit comparable to the other main religions, even though the majority of those who call themselves Hindus feel and pretend that they belong to the same religion. Although there is an implicit notion of a one God in the background of Hinduism, in the practice of its many cults there is an explicit prevalence of Polytheism that prevents it to be aligned with the other great religions of the world. Another prominent aspect of Hinduism is its over-anthropomorphic representations of its various gods and goddesses. For Hindus, God is both one and many, but for most of them He can only be worshipped in his visible material forms such as stones, trees, anthropomorphically carved or painted images or symbolic representations such as geometric diagrams. This approach has developed into a large number of complicated rituals and cults, some of which involve enormous expenses as far as the offerings and the priest-craft fees are concerned. Huge amounts of money are stored in big temples without any objective of redistribution among the community of devotees. Basavanna was an enlightened witness of the religious confusion prevailing in the Hinduism of his time. He realised that to limit the presence of God only to temples was a very narrow understanding of His all-pervasiveness, even more so as a large majority of the people were forbidden to enter these temples for reasons already mentioned. Being well versed in the wisdom tradition of the Upanishads, to him “whatsoever is moving in the world was enveloped by God” as it is said in Ishavâsya Upanishad. And God was one, not diverse. That One God was living in the heart of every single human being, waiting to be awakened by relentless devotion and knowledge. This lead him to denunciate severely the various superstitions that kept the people under the control of the temple priests. He also reacted strongly against the common religious practice consisting in worshipping the divinities mainly for the sake of material and worldly rewards. For Basavanna, the only reward that could be expected from God was His Grace.
