देवेषु विश्वासटिप्पन्यः

Source: TW

Thread by @RangaTheDude

This is an interesting question. I’ll generalize the problem and attempt to provide a coherent answer from H insider POV.

Problem: If you accept the proposition that a deity you worship is a later day addition to H pantheon, and perhaps even inspired by a contact with foreign tribe, how can you continue to worship without slipping into cognitive dissonance? @halleyji please let me know if I captured the problem reasonably accurately.

Assuming this is indeed the question, here’s how I’d approach.

Lemma-1: The devas have multitude of forms.
E.g. “rūpam rūpam bobhavīti” - (Indra) assumes multitude of forms. Note the intensive form of the verb. This signifies repetitions or simultaneously large number.
ajāyamāno bahudhā vijāyate- unborn one (purusha) manifests in multiple forms.
Another example from a taittiriya brAhmana that explicitly states devas deposited their terrifying forms and that aggregate manifested rudra.

Lemma 2: The multitude of forms can include forms of other devatas.
The unpacified agni in agnichayana is actually rudra in the terrifying form. He has to be pacified with shatarudrīya chant.
In later texts, the raudra form of Vishnu is nŕsimha.
Even standalone hanuman is rudra and syncretizes with bhairava.

Lemma 3: Not all rūpas of devatas needed to have manifested already.
Tradition recognizes that a deva takes a form “for divine sport/līla”,
or for the benefit of a bhakta or even as a realization as a mantramUrti conceptualized by a mantra adept/deshika.
Tons of purANas, sthalapurANa and Agama have examples for this.
For example, there’s no bhairava in RV,
but a later day mantra teacher who visualizes a form of bhairava and the “Rishi” of a tantric mantra
can deploy a mantra from RV as if it is for that specific bhairava in that specific form.
This form doesn’t exist in RV and demonstrably Later still, sampradaya practitioners don’t have an issue that this is a “later day addition”
as the mantra teacher simply manifested a latent form using her mantrabala. That’s why syncretic forms of hanuman/bhairava as hanubhairava, nrsimha/rudra etc. exist.