(Yes God is a Female for Hindus!)
All of these "manifestations"...CALLED "Avatars" or Aspects" that we "see" of God...like Vishnu, Shiva, Krisna, Ganesha, Pavarti, and my personal fav...KALI...
ARE SIMPLY FOR THE "CONVENIENCE" OF WE POOR HUMANS... Because we are too feeble minded to 'SEE GOD DIRECTLY'....
So God gives us an easier way to do it...with an avatar...or even an "idol"...which is sort of seen as God's temporary "home on earth" in visible form...just for us...to see him/her...That "seeing" is called "Darshan"....the viewing of God "as" the Idol...
The Hindu Idol is not God ... in fact if it gets broken you just throw it in the trash and get a new one...! God doesn't care about the idol...its just a "helper" for you to "conceive" of him/her...
We have had our 'avatars of God'...Jesus being one case...but the Hindus have many...often they are the same Avatar but with a different name in a different part of India...!
It doesn't help that many Hindu Gods are known by many names...often 108 names for the same God! 108 being a very "auspicious" number for Hindus... Hence the Western notion of 1000s of "Gods"...
So...it is not true that Hindus have 1000s of Gods...they have about 3 or 4 main Gods all aspects of the ONE...and a lot of extra gods for various things...sort of like our "patron saints" for this or that concept, vocation or notion...
