Imagine what it's like to be God in human form

To me, there's no evidence that God exists, not in the sense of an all-knowing, all-powerful personal consciousness, or something of the sort.

So I can't wrap my mind around the question, "What would it feel like to be God?" However, I do wonder what it's like to be a human who is considered to be God in human form: GIHF.

As some Vedanta folks point out, there are quite a few historical contenders for a GIHF appellation.

Jesus, Buddha, Rama, Krishna, Moses, Muhammad, Chaitanya, Ramakrishna are cited, though some of these names are questionable candidates. (Buddha didn't teach there was a God, and I don't think many Christians recognize Moses as God in human form.)

However, there's no doubt that quite a few people alive today are considered by devotees to be GIHF. For example, a central tenet of contemporary Sant Mat movements is that the "perfect living master," or guru, is an incarnation of God who has divine powers.

I was initiated by such a guru, Charan Singh, in 1971. I went to India in 1977 and spent two weeks at the headquarters of his organization, Dera Baba Jaimal Singh in the Punjab. In 1998 I returned for another couple of weeks and saw Charan Singh's successor, Gurinder Singh. I've also seen Gurinder Singh a number of other times, both in personal meetings and large gatherings.

Previously I've pondered the question, "Who is the guru?" I discounted the possibilities raised by Biblical scholar Bart Ehrman: liar, lunatic, the Lord, or legend. Loyalist made the most sense to me.

Perhaps when a successor is appointed to fill the shoes of a highly-regarded guru, loyalty both to his predecessor and to the surrounding organization prevents the newcomer from crying out, “Hey, I’m not God! I’m just a man filling the role of a guru.”

This still seems reasonable to me.

However, when I try to imagine what it's like for a guru to sit on a dais in front of tens of thousands of people who consider him to be God in human form, I'm still left with some uncomfortable questions.

Which are founded on a basic assumption: either the guru (1) knows that he is divine, possessing miraculous powers, or (2) he doesn't. 

If (1) is true, the usual theological quandries concerning God pop up.

Why does God choose to remain so well hidden? Why does God allow pain, suffering, ignorance, war, disease, and all the other ills of humankind to persist? Why doesn't God explicitly reveal himself, herself, or itself and put an end to all of the divisive religious wrangling?

As noted before, I think the "guru is God" theory is exceedingly unlikely. For one thing, there are lots of gurus in the world, many with contradictory teachings. What are the chances that one guru among many is genuinely divine, while the others are fakes?

So I'm drawn to option (2): the guru knows that he isn't God in human form, but carries on with a role that demands that he act as if he is.

All I can do is imagine how I'd feel in such a situation. Most likely, somewhat guilty. Well, probably more than that: considerably guilty. In part I base this prediction on my ill-fated Kirby vaccum-selling experience in college.

I was desperate for a summer job. I responded to a notice saying I could make good money in some sort of undisclosed fashion. When disclosed, it turned out to be selling Kirby vacuums door to door. 

I never sold any. For which I'm glad.

The closest I came was after I got an elderly lady on the edge of agreeing to buy one of these over-priced vacuums. As instructed, I used her phone to call my supervisor and pretend that I was asking him for a special deal, just for her, because she was such a special, wonderful, deserving person, blah, blah, blah.

I dialed the number. Made my spiel for the lady's benefit. Listened to the Kirby supervisor laugh and urge me to go for the sales kill.

I didn't make the sale. After I left her house I turned in my stuff to Kirby central, saying I was quitting. Probably I spent the rest of the summer smoking pot -- a better use of my time than trying to con old ladies.

I'm not saying that Sant Mat gurus are con artists. Only that if people are saying you're divine, and you know you aren't, this isn't all that different from selling a product under false pretenses.

No money is charged for initation by the guru. But initiates buy into Sant Mat with a lot of emotional, intellectual, and devotional commitment. I know I did.

Much of that commitment stemmed from a belief that the guru was who he was held out to be: God in human form, someone who had taken on the task of saving souls from karmic imprisonment and returning them to the highest spiritual realm, Sach Khand.

It's difficult for me to believe that a guru would accept people for initiation knowing that he wasn't able to to fulfill that promise, that it was a sham.

Yet it's also difficult for me to believe that I used to believe what I did. So I'm left not knowing how to look upon the guru.

Soon after I wrote "Who is the guru?" I followed it up with "God-man or Asshole? The guru conundrum." It still is. A conundrum.

I don’t know which is true: God-man or Asshole. All I know is that for me, seeing is believing. I’ll believe someone is God when I see unequivocal evidence of this (as to what that might be, all I can say is that I’ll know it when I see it). Until then, if you say you’re God, I’m going to use my alternative title for you.

Comments

[Robert Paul Howard]

Dear Brian (and all others),

I remind you of my 4/28/06 @ 10:40 AM response to your referred-to essay about "God-man or Asshole?...."

Robert Paul Howard

[rakesh bhasin]

I do not know who is God. Yet I believe that this world can not run at its own.

Further, in presence of my master, I feel a soothing sense which puts me on top of the world. It imparts me with a humble and soft sense that I begin to love even the minutest sand grain on this earth.

I do not want to go to heaven, hell or sachkhand. The time spent in the presence of my master or in his remembrance is my price possession.

These feelings a teenager can also find in the company of his/her beloved. One can give it any sobriquet. Your companion is your God if a sense of elation is evoked within you. God need not necessarily be visible in any form. It is more of a feeling rather than an entity.

[B9_hummingbird_hovering]

Some people need to put their faith in 'god', other entities, other people or objects, anything but themselves. No value judgement is herein entailed. There is a psychological warmth and health often in people of profound faith. Well that is my experience. Many people who are sarcastic, embittered and overly questioning are profoundly unhappy and pained. I am new to your weblog and I really appreciate it. I feel positioned to outline that you failed to engage the function of faith and whether or not that holds virtue. The function of faith in the human condition and how it qualiifes a person's experience is a worthwhile meditation in my humble opinion.

[B9_hummingbird_hovering]

*qualifies

[tucsoN]

Faith obviously confers comfort. Where there is comfort, there is ease/peace/happiness/security which is the feeling you experience from some people of faith. That is faith's blessing and also its curse. The complacency of faith may preclude a greater truth.

[pagan viking]

faith is the crutch of losers.

the strong and the fearless, the sober and courageous, they have no need for the weakness that is faith.

[pagan viking]

only a fool says: "I do not know who is God. Yet I believe that this world can not run at its own."

only a fool feels: "in presence of my master, I feel a soothing sense which puts me on top of the world."

only a fool thinks: "The time spent in the presence of my master or in his remembrance is my price possession."

only a fool believes: "Your companion is your God"

only a fool needs: "heaven, hell or sachkhand"

[pagan viking]

well, I DO SAY that Sant Mat gurus are definitely con-artists. Because, if people are saying that you're divine, and you know that you aren't, this is clearly a false pretense, a con, which is also known as a LIE.

any guru who is held out to be: "God in human form, someone who had taken on the task of saving souls from karmic imprisonment and returning them to the highest spiritual realm", but who KNOWS that he is NOT, is a liar, a con-artist, a fake, a fraud.

the simple truth is that there is NO God-in-human-form. So any human being who allows themselves to be thought of as that, or who claims to be that, is both promoting and perpetuating a LIE.

any "guru [who] would accept people for initiation knowing that he wasn't able to to fulfill that promise, that it was a sham", is clearly a liar and a fraud, and therefore not a genine 'guru' (which means one who brings light and truth unto others who are in darkness). For how can a liar, a fraud, be a light of truth unto others? =

and it does not matter how many millions of fools and suckers (the believers of the Lie and the followers and disciples of the Liar) think or believe otherwise.

[The Outlander]

Here is the closest thing to a God-in-Human-Form one will ever see:

http://www.novamov.com/video/w6ofbib1wo2xl#

[rakesh bhasin]

Dear Pagan Viking,

I am glad to note your knowledge about fools.

with regards,

[outlander]

Here is what is coming very soon, if the many fools amongst you humans do not stop their destructive anthropocentric ways, many of which are embodied in your spiritual and religious beliefs, which has resulted in your utter disregard of the Earth, of your fellow men, and all the other species:

http://www.freestreamtube.com/v/5cf6dc04ce5ea6a3da6a83ec44a5bc24.html

I and others like myself will feel a great gladness and peace when the day comes that you and the sickness of your beliefs have all vanished from this planet.

[sapient]

Is anybody going to Petaluma to see the God:) God is coming this Friday!!
I went there after such a long time, it was sad to see the kids I knew 10 years ago are the next generation bonded labor now and some 4-5 year old were being conditioned already.

[JJQ]

I don't think many Jews recognize Moses as God in human form either.(If that is the group you address by putting up Moses.) For my curiosity, where from did you make that assertion?

[Brian]

JJQ, that reference to Moses came from the Vedanta Society of Southern California, the source of the GIHF candidates:
http://www.vedanta.org/wiv/philosophy/avatar.html

I don't agree with it, as noted in the post (not even as a candidate, much less as reality).