Most of the people mistake Hinduism as a religion worshiping multiple gods. This is totally wrong. According to Bhagavad Geetha, one of the holy texts of Hinduism, there is only one god and that god is present everywhere. In Geetha it says that the god is present inside everything in this world. Or it consider god as omnipotent as well as omnipresent. "Thath thvam asi" the core content of Vedas which means "that is you" too points to this fact. Hinduism teaches to see godly presence in every living creature and that is why the Hindus always pray "Loka sarvva sukhino bhavanthu" which means let all the creatures in this world be good.

However, when you go through different epics of Hinduism or different temples of Hindus you will find out many gods and goddesses. This will certainly create confusion in the minds of those who are not well versed with Hindu philosophy. The truth is that these different gods and goddesses with different shapes have been used to convey the message to how to lead an ideal life to get succeeded in one's life.

For example, let us take the case of Lord Ganesha, the elephant faced god of Hindus. He is considered as the god who will remove all the obstacles in our path. It is usual among Hindus to start anything with the worshiping of Lord Ganesha. He has great significance in Hindu rituals too as he will be worshiped in the beginning of any rituals even though they are related to some other gods. Such an important god has been pictuerized as an ugly figure with a pot belly and elephant face. Do you know why it has been done thus? Here is the importance of symbols in Hinduism.

As mentioned earlier, Lord Ganesha is the god who removes all the obstacles in your way and helps you to attain success. The large elephantine ears of Ganesha denote the importance of being a good listener. You may not be able to take decision of your own at many times. You will have to listen to others and should try to take out the best from their suggestions. The long trunk in the place of nose reminds us that we should be always vigilant and should smell the trouble very early when we are proceeding towards success. Short but sharp eyes remind us about the significance of observation. We should observe everything happening around us and try to understand the ground realities. Small mouth says not to talk too much. The large stomach reminds you that everything happens in your life should get digested then and there itself and you should not carry those things forward. If you are wasting your time behind thinking about the past you cannot win your life.

In Hinduism almost all Gods, picturized in many epics have their own vehicles. They used either birds or animals as their vehicles. When most of them have stronger and large vehicles such as tiger, bull, peacock, eagle etc, Ganesha selected a mouse as his vehicle. No need to wonder why such an important deity has selected such a small animal as his vehicle. Here you can see the use of symbolism again.

A vehicle is the one that carries you to new terrain. Similarly our wishes also carry us to new areas. Here Ganesha says that you should have smaller wishes to lead a beautiful life. Moreover, we should be able to control our wishes and they should not control our acts.

This is just one case. There are many more places where apt symbols are used in Hinduism to guide us in our life. And that is why people are saying that Hinduism is not a religion but a way of life.