I finally took the time to rewatch this video and Vishnu and Shiva have their cults who worship them as main god next to other lesser gods. I think what you are referring to is within vendata hinduism which isn’t explained in the linked video but the video is still worth watching.
It was my understanding that even then, Vishnu and Shiva are aspects of Brahman. It’s just that Brahman is so abstract and transcendent that you don’t really “worship”. If you view worship as a form of evocation, Brahman doesn’t really give you any attributes to focus on.
It’s like playing music to evoke a mood. Holding down every key of an organ can only really convey the idea of “EVERYTHING, undifferentiated”. It’s certainly a compelling idea, but it lacks nuance and texture. If you want to convey something more “useful”, you have to be more selective.
From my understanding, this is the philosophical turn, vendata represents. This doesn’t effect all of today’s Hinduism. I read a little bit of Hare Krishna as a young adult and they stressed very much that Krishna is the highest personal god as in there are other gods as well but Krishna is the highest and it’s a personal god, not just a representation of an abstract idea. I don’t know what role Brahman plays in their view though.
I finally took the time to rewatch this video and Vishnu and Shiva have their cults who worship them as main god next to other lesser gods. I think what you are referring to is within vendata hinduism which isn’t explained in the linked video but the video is still worth watching.
It was my understanding that even then, Vishnu and Shiva are aspects of Brahman. It’s just that Brahman is so abstract and transcendent that you don’t really “worship”. If you view worship as a form of evocation, Brahman doesn’t really give you any attributes to focus on.
It’s like playing music to evoke a mood. Holding down every key of an organ can only really convey the idea of “EVERYTHING, undifferentiated”. It’s certainly a compelling idea, but it lacks nuance and texture. If you want to convey something more “useful”, you have to be more selective.
From my understanding, this is the philosophical turn, vendata represents. This doesn’t effect all of today’s Hinduism. I read a little bit of Hare Krishna as a young adult and they stressed very much that Krishna is the highest personal god as in there are other gods as well but Krishna is the highest and it’s a personal god, not just a representation of an abstract idea. I don’t know what role Brahman plays in their view though.
Krishna isn’t even really part of the Trimurti, he’s an avatar of Vishnu. You could draw parallels to Christ, “personal” is a crucial qualifier there.
Maybe it was Vishnu instead of Krishna, I don’t remember