Analogy is a great tool in education from time immemorial. Images of Vishnu and Shiva and other God's have been used to point at the Abstract concepts of Cosmic Intelligence and Awareness. Unfortunately over time we have kept the images in mind and forgot what they represent. Example Vishnu represents Cosmic Intelligence, and like our intelligence will solve problems whenever confusion arises. Like our intelligence takes position in problems,is symbolically shown as Vishnu taking Avatars . So when we look at Rama and Krishna and Venkateswara beyond the physical form we understand the real purpose of the knowledge the deity conveys to us.
Every action starts with a thought. Our birth occured because of the thought of our parents, birth of a country happens when one or few people thought about it. Same way a company, school, innovation etc all manifested due to thought. Same way there was an idea that gave the birth of Universe. This is symbolically shown as baby Vishnu who represent, a small innocent thought - who am I?), lying on a banyan leaf sucking his own toes. Toes represents dissipation of Energy. Banyan Leaf here represents time, because banayan tree is huge but starts from a tiny tiny scale, like time. So time, plus Consciousness and Energy manifest as creation. (Reference - Journey to the Source page- 186).
When people took the physical forms literally and branded as Hindu God, they miss the science behind it. This reminds of the Sufi's proverb, "An idiot looks at the finger pointing the moon".
