Dear Andrewoberg,
By Hindu philosophy it is simple. We define God as the superset of all manifested creation, unmanifested ceation and the consciousness.
We all are part of that huge superset.
For example if we take earth as our God, then this mud, water, river, trees, plants, animals, etc are all part of the same God.
It is like a big room with many windows of different sizes. Looking at the window and focusing on window is not the objective. But looking through the window into the room, is the objective.
Generally we limit ourselves to the window size and shape only, which is not our objective
So in hinduism the different gods, nature, animals are only the windows through which we see and perceive god.
Demi Gods are only representatives of senses, actions, creations to create that devotion towards the nature, our capabilities and actions.
This devotions lead to a better appreciation and understanding of the knowledge behind these, which is the same principle.
The external senses bounds us to these inert objects like body of earth, body of human, body of animals, body of trees, actions, etc. These are temporary and created for low level of knowledge. Like in class KG we learn mathematics through graphics and similarly in many classes. As we move up we get more knowledgeable and leave the graphics behind.
Only by invoking the internal senses, we move beyond these inert and move to the next plane of knowledge which is the permanent consciousness or the paraprakriti or purusha or the brahman.
Love and best wishes
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