This is really pushing one’s luck. Trying to be Pope, the Prime Minister of India or the President of the USA is bad enough. But this is downright insane. Blasphemy. I can almost hear the cries of “Crucify him. Kill him. Stone him to death”.
Fortunately, I am not in Pakistan or in Judea, so I am still alive! India abounds in self-styled God men and women, so what is alarming about trying to play God? Recently Satya Sai Baba passed away. Some years ago when somebody challenged him for styling himself as Bhagwan (God) he had retorted, “You also are God, only you don’t know it”. The challenger became a disciple. Who doesn’t like to be told that he is God?
In India, there is no clarity about God. There are reportedly thousands of Gods and Goddesses in the Hindu pantheon. So adding a few more now and then is no big deal. Though even here one would need to make a distinction between Iswar/ Parmeshwar, Devta/ Devi and Bhagwan. I am not competent to comment further on the significance of these words. Suffice it to say that whereas Devi, Devta and Bhagwan are extensively used, the term Ishwar or Parmeshwar is sparingly used, and would therefore refer to the one and only Supreme Being.
On the other hand the Semitic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam, are monotheistic religions, that believe in one God – whether we call this Being El, Elohim, Yahweh or Allah. The root is the same – El. Interestingly the Latin word Deo is similar to the Sanskrit word Dev. I would therefore dare to presume that, except for a few atheists and agnostics including Stephen Hawking, most human beings believe in a Supreme Being, who is commonly referred to as God in the English language.
How one perceives and therefore experiences God differs widely across religions, time and space. Even trying to arrive at a consensus or synthesis could be an impossible task, and I have no pretensions about even attempting it.
Before trying to “play” God, I first need to understand who or what this “god” is. I will limit myself to the Christian experience of God, beginning with the revelation of who or what God is, as experienced by Moses. When on Mount Sinai Moses asks God what is his name, he replies “I am he who is” (Ex 3:13). This is the translation according to the New Jerusalem Bible, which I commonly use. The New King James version has the words “I am who I am”. The Good News Bible also uses the same words. When commissioning Moses God tells him to proclaim that “I am has sent me to you” (Ex 3:14). In the earliest translations from Hebrew, the Greek Septuagint uses the phrase “He who is” while the Latin Vulgate translated by St. Jerome in the 3rd Century AD has the more commonly used “I am who I am” . The original word in Hebrew is Yahweh, which seems to have its etymological roots in the Hebrew verb hawah, which simply means “to be” or to exist . The actual Hebrew word for a divine being, or God is El, or Elohim. In other ancient Semitic languages it is Ilu in Akkadian and Ilah in Arabic. Again there is no etymological root, but the connotation is of a powerful being .
All this sounds confusing. It is actually quite simple. There is no human vocabulary to express the reality of the Supreme Being. Adjectives like Almighty, Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent (from catechism class) are merely superlatives; attempting to describe that which transcends description. Moses faced just such a predicament, which Yahweh sensed. He therefore changed tack to make it easier for Moses. He switched from deft definitions to personal relationships. This is what he now says to Moses. “Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name for all time, and thus am I to be invoked for all generations to come” (Ex 3:15). A definitive statement and a defining moment. A till then abstract being becomes a personal God, for all time. God was now someone to whom human beings could relate.
Way back in 1977, when I was just 26 years of age, I wrote my first book, “The Trinity and Me”. I re-read it while writing this, because it traced the journey from a “Hidden God” to a “Revealed One.” I shall borrow some of those observations.
In the allegorical account of creation in the very beginning we read “Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves… God Created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him” (Gen1: 26-27). However, with the fall and banishment from the Garden of Eden, there is a disconnect between God and Man. You know how it is with your dish TV when there is no transmission because of a “technical problem”. Man is now afraid of this unseen God. This is how is expressed. “But my face you cannot see, for no human being can see me and survive” (Ex 33:20). And again “For what creature of flesh could possibly live after hearing, as we have heard the voice of the living God?” (Deut 5:26). Centuries later Isaiah will lament “Truly you are a God who conceals himself” (Is 45:15).
As Christians we believe that this fearsome, awesome, hidden God is revealed in Jesus, and through his death and resurrection the disconnect (the technical problem) is removed and the transmission (communication) lines are now clear. St. Paul observes, “The message which was a mystery hidden for generations and centuries has now been revealed to his holy people” (Col 1:26). “In him, in bodily form, lives divinity in all its fullness” (Col 2:9). Jesus is also referred to as being a man like us in all things but sin (cf Heb 4:15).
So the God who was earlier hidden, is now revealed in Jesus. Fine. But how do I become God? Sai Baba was not much off the mark. Let us see what some famous spiritual writers say. St. Gregory of Nyssa says, “When you hear that the divine majesty is exalted above the heavens… and its nature inaccessible, do not despair of ever beholding what you desire. It is indeed within your reach, you have within yourselves the standard by which to apprehend the divine”. St. Catherine of Sienna, another Doctor of the Church confesses, “Our nature mirrors yours, as your nature mirrors ours” . St. Augustine of Hippo would often say “Help me know thee, help me know me”.
The two sides of the coin therefore are awareness of God as revealed in Jesus, and self-awareness. No doubt this is easier said than done. Who said being God is easy anyway? To be Pope, PM or President one needs to be aware of everything that is happening around. More so for a person who seeks to be God, one needs this third area of awareness, of what is happening now, what happened in the past, and what one may expect of the future.
Here is where I believe that Sai Baba has gone off on a tangent, so I will have to differ. We are not God, nor can we become God, but we can certainly aspire to be connected to God, be inspired by him, and live our lives accordingly. To become God like, let us follow the path of triple awareness – Awareness of God in Jesus, speaking to us through he scriptures; self-awareness through deep soul searching, personal prayer and psycho-analysis; and awareness of the world around us including temporary affairs, history, the environment, etc. A tall order? Obviously. That is why I cannot be God; but by his grace I can try to live a godly life, where my awareness is translated into action, for the good of all, especially that “neighbour” who is most in need of it.
On a lighter plane, I have so often heard people cursing God, especially when things go wrong, or not to their liking. If there is a flood we curse God for destroying our crops, but don’t thank him for enriching the alluvial soil. If it rains we grumble about the bad weather, instead of thanking God for cleansing the air and recharging the ground water. We grumble about the heat in summer, not realizing that without intense heat and a low-pressure area, there can be no monsoon. I have used these common “complaints” against nature, as nature itself is attributed to God. The message is clear. If God (Nature) cannot please all the people all the time, then I would be the biggest fool to attempt to improve on that by trying to be God!
Another common “complaint” against God is that he doesn’t say anything, or tell us what to do. It is the other way around. “Look I am standing at the door, knocking. If one of you hears me calling and opens the door, I will come in to have a meal that at that person’s side….Let anyone who can hear, listen to what the spirit is saying” (Rev.3:20,22) The problem is not with God, but with us. If we have bolted the room from inside, if the TV is on full blast, or there is a loud argument going on, will we hear the gentle knocking at the door? Since God has given us free will (something Christianity strongly believes in) he respects our freedom. Hence he cannot intervene in our lives without our co-operation. St Ignatius of Loyola, the master of spiritual discernment, says that for the one who is disposed the Holy Spirit comes like a drop of water on a sponge, unnoticed and quickly absorbed. Isn’t that exactly what happened at the Annunciation, the actual Incarnation of God as man? When Mary of Nazareth said a quiet “Yes”, not a leaf quivered or a bird twittered.
Sadhu Sundar Singh, also known as the apostle of the bleeding feet, was once preaching about God’s love, when a heckler in the crowd cried out, But God is so far away”. Sadhuji retorted, “Who moved?” Is God far from us or are we far from him? A simple example will suffice. A mother is sitting behind her infant child. The child cannot see its mother so it cries in fear, for it feels that its mother is far away. Though the reality is that the mother was very much there and close at hand. So let us stop childish complaining against God, and grow up to discover his presence and guidance.
Just like with all the others, I cannot be God, but I shall humbly attempt to be godlike in my awareness and action. I hope that the thoughts that follow in “An Unfinished Symphony” will contribute to that end for its readers. If only…
(All references to God in the masculine gender are only for linguistic purposes, as God enshrines all the qualities of both male and female. As I said at the beginning, human vocabulary is finite and cannot define the infinite)
