Gurudev, how can we keep our faith in Gods and Goddesses if we follow the knowledge of advaita?
Advaita is knowing that everything is composed of and illumined by the same light (here referring to One Divinity or One supreme Consciousness).
To worship and honor different Gods and Goddesses is similar to expressing the understanding that the one white light is composed of many lights of different colors and wavelengths. All the rays of the Sun are the same light. They all come from the same source, but when you pass a ray of light through a prism, or through a droplet of water, then it splits into rays of different colors. So think of these different colors as the different Gods and Goddesses.
You will eventually have to see the underlying unity between these two, and that is the job of the intellect (to move past the duality towards the One Divinity). That is why in our scriptures, we say, 'This is true and that is also true!'
For example, when we see all the furniture in this room, we say that it is all made of wood. Yet at the same time, a door is not a chair, and a chair is not a window, though it is all made from the same wood. This understanding is called dvaita.
So, both advaita and dvaita exist together in harmony.
