Gods and Goddesses.

This world is full of Gods & Goddesses. It is difficult to know whom to worship? Can a person be a god?

No doubt ... you are a potential source of energy ... a representative of mother Goddess ... but you fail to remember that a woman only gives birth to a child ... it can never create a child ... none on earth a man or a woman can never create anything. We cannot even create a pebble out of nothing ... what to say of creating a child.

A very interesting episode occurred in the times of Mira Bai- Mira Bai wanted to go to a temple for Prayers ... the head priest of the temple objected to it. For him women were only meant for taking care of children and the household affairs ... reading of the sacred Scriptures ... gaining Spiritual knowledge was the domain of men. In spite of repeated reminders by Mira Bai ... the head priest did not budge.

Mira Bai ultimately sent a small chit to the head priest. Immediately thereafter the head priest was at the feet of Mira Bai. He profusely apologized for his mistake. What was it that Mira Bai had written in the chit? Mira Bai had only written that there is only one man ... one Karta (Purusha) in whole Cosmos ... and he is God Almighty ... rest are all ladies.

The priest understood the underlying meaning and henceforth all ladies were permitted inside the temple. It is only God Almighty who can create and dissolute anything. We as Human Beings are only required to perform our Karma, and nothing beyond that.

A very wise question indeed- whom to worship in the vast expanse of gods and goddesses ... it is said that there are above 90 Caror God and goddesses in Hindu mythology. If we look at the affairs of God ... we find there were only one Lord Krishna, one Buddha, one Mahavira, one Jesus Christ and one Prophet Mohammed. Why only one? For the simple reason that if there were 50 Mahaviras at a time then it was not possible for the common man to know whom to worship!

In every era ... in every century ... there cannot be more than two god realized souls at a time ... it is just not possible ... it will simply confuse the humanity ... God desires every human being to emancipate after a long journey of 84 Lakh manifestations (a total cosmic life cycle of 96 Caror 40 Lakh years for the Atman, the soul within). A long journey indeed!

Even before Lord Krishna was born ... there existed Vedas ... and even before the Vedas there existed Dharma. It is Dharma which has existed since times immemorial ... from the beginning of time when the humanity gained its footing. Dharma inherently guides one on the right path ... it is the force of our atman the soul within which is always existent in us.

One truly cannot survive without Dharma ... we can say we are an atheist (non believer of God) ... some can say they do not believe in any Religion as they are so confusing ... yet people continue to survive ... it is the power of Dharma within which guides us on our cosmic journey.

When the humanity started ... the Lipi (alphabets) had not yet evolved ... everything was passed on from one generation to another by the word of mouth ... Veda ... the spoken word! All the Mantras and every hymn was mentally learnt by heart and passed on from the guru to a Shishya. Eventually when this Shishya became a Guru he passed on the knowledge of the Vedas to his shishyas. It was only in the second century when the Lipi was developed that the Vedas were reduced to writing.

Lord Krishna came about 3600 years before ... at that time four Vedas were prevalent among the society ... Lord Krishna could see that it was very difficult even for a experienced Spiritual master to fathom the depths of all four Vedas in a lifetime. Whatever was contained in all the four Vedas - the Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda was consolidated and reproduced by Lord Krishna in form of Bhagavad Gita.

Bhagavad Gita contains everything that is contained in all the four Vedas excluding those Rituals, which are not necessary to be performed today. Whatever is worth knowing in the sacred Scriptures of all Religions of the world is contained in Bhagavad Gita. This one simple document contains the total essence of the cosmos. Beyond this document even God Almighty has nothing more to say.

Amongst all the gods and goddesses ... we are only required to assimilate the teachings of Bhagavad Gita. The knower of Bhagavad Gita becomes the knower of Brahman ... one reaches the 84 Lakh manifestations the moment one realizes the absolute truth. In all sincerity it can be explicitly said that we need to follow Bhagavad Gita ... if we desire to fathom the depths of the Spiritual knowledge.

Every human being can become a living God ... a man God like Buddha, Mahavira, Jesus Christ, Prophet Mohammed, Ramakrishna Paramhansa and Maharishi Ramana only after one gains Self Realization. Every godly figure becomes liberated from the cycle of birth and death forever. No further manifestations ... we pray to these man gods and invoke their blessings.

A normal human being even though has an Atman within cannot be termed as God ... it is only after we burn out our Karma ... remove the dross from within ... and our atman the soul within comes back to its pristine pure form ... can we say that so-and-so has Realized God ... reached the 84 Lakh manifestation ... the last in the stage of emancipation. It is our atman the soul within that has taken this body and not vice versa ... it is our atman the soul within which wants to liberate forever from the cycle of various manifestations.

God Almighty and all atmans / souls in the Cosmos are of the same nature. If a grain of wheat is an Atman than the whole mound of grain is Parmatman. Both are pure forms of energy and so potential that a normal human being cannot even visualize the structure of an Atman or Parmatman.

If I agree with you that you are a power ... then can you produce something out of nothing ... is it within you that you can create something from nothing ... it simply is not possible ... and when this is not possible how you can be a power. The body of a human being is powerless ... the moment our atman the soul within leaves the body ... it becomes dead! To become all-powerful we need to Realize God ... we need to come back to our pristine pure form ... we need to become a living Atman.

Every human being is the highest manifestation on Earth ... it is only as a Human Being that every Atman can liberate itself ... reach the 84 Lakh manifestation. Be it Swarga / Heaven or Naraka / hell ... to gain emancipation every atman soul has to take a body as a human being ... only then it can achieve Moksha Salvation. We are lucky to be born as a human being!

To be born as a human being means we have already crossed about 73 Lakh manifestations and a total cosmic life span of about 8 Caror 30 Lakh years. We started cosmic journey as an amoeba (the first manifestation as a single cell) and subsequently evolved into an insect, then a plant, an animal and finally a human being. It has taken about 73 Lakh manifestations to reach from amoeba to the level of a human being (a journey above 8 Caror 30 Lakh years).

In the cosmic hierarchy there is not much confusion ... the wisdom contained in the Bhagavad Gita is self explanatory ... if we follow truthfully the dictates of our atman the soul within ... we try to hear the promptings of the sweet small inner voice coming from within then we can always remain hopeful of completing cosmic journey within this life for, the voice of our atman the soul within shall never guide us on the wrong path.