Hinduism as I understand it...

I have a clearer picture on Hinduism. It's interesting to note that there is a trinity at work in Hinduism in a similar fashion to Christianity.

The trinity consits of Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer. Each has the wife/conosort. Brahma has Saraswati, the goddess of learning. Vishnu has Lakshmi, goddess of wealth. Shiva has Parvati, goddess of love.

Ganesh is the son of Shiva and Parvati. The story goes that Shiva was away for a while doing something. While he was gone, Parvati gave birth to Ganesh. When Shiva returned, Ganesh was guarding the entrance. Neither knew each other and they clashed...Shiva being the destroyer and a much stronger being, cut off Ganesh's head. Parvati came upon the scene and was distraught...so Shiva promised to revive Ganesh with the head of the next animal that came by. It happened to be an elephant...hence Ganesh with the elephant head.

Ganesh seems to be the most popular figure, since he's the god that is capable of accomplishing the almost impossible. People pray to him for things that they want in life. The method of prayer is peculiar to outsiders. Once you're at the the shrine, you put your feet together, cross your arms over your chest, and grab your earlobes. i.e. you grab your left earlobe with your right hand and the right earlobe with your right hand. Then you pray to Ganesh for what you want. When your done, you sort of bounce three times by bending your knees...and then you let go of your earlobes and tap your temples three times with your knuckles. It looks a little strange when you see it, but I suppose every religion looks strange to an outsider.

There are other god figures in Hinduism, but every one also has several incarnations. The Buddha, for example is the 9th incarnation of Vishnu (people may disagree on the exact count...). All the incarnations of the different gods add up to about 3 million....each with their own specific story and situation that depicts certain abilities/accomplishments.

The gods can have up to 36 arms...even numbers only...they work in pairs. The idea is that the more arms a god has the more he/she is capable of doing. i.e. more powerful, etc.

Obviously, this was a simple summary of the religion, but it's a bit of an insight.