It is many sided, bound by a common search for truth and has a large pantheon of gods and goddesses. Hinduism grew by a process of acceptance and assimilation. Hinduism is a mono-theistic religion, believing in the Supreme Being from whom emanates everything. The various manifestations of this Being are worshipped in visible forms to enable people to concentrate on the abstract Being. Swami Vivekanand also laid emphasis on the fact that for the purpose of concentration and worship the presence of a physical form is an absolute necessity.
Time is invisible and formless.
This Mahashivratri festival continues to be celebrated for ever and ever. Maharshi Narad advised mankind to fast on this day and pray to the All-Powerful Shiv so that in all His kindness He pardons all the sins that are committed in the past three lives. Lord Shiv is portrayed as an ascetic, sitting on a tiger skin, a bunch of poisonous snakes coiled round his blue neck, his hair and his body. He received the waters of the sacred river Ganga that rushed down from heaven with an unimaginable force and ferocity in the coil of his hair on his head to save the world from total annihilation and released the water slowly on the plains to flow. Lord Shiv has a third eye in the centre of his forehead along with a crescent moon.