The Coming of Man
An old Hindu legend tells a story of the coming of man in the dawn of the morning of the world. In this legend the Gods began to feel threatened by the quality of man’s activity, his power, and his immortality. They started to perceive man as a real threat to their own sovereignty. And so, fearing that man would eventually overthrow them, the Gods took steps to reduce man’s powers.
After some debate it was decided that the best way to achieve a weakening of human potential was to take away his immortality. If man could be made to loose awareness of his immortal state his power would be all but lost to him. Man would be afflicted with the weakening condition of facing a life leading only to death. All that the Gods needed do to was to separate man from his Godhead. This they would hide where man would never find it.
But when they debated among themselves where they should hide his stolen godhead they soon realised that this solution would not prove to be quite as easy as they had assumed.
“Man is a mighty hunter”, they pondered. “If we hide it on the highest mountain he will climb it. If we bury it deep in the earth, there he will dig and tunnel. If we sink it in the deepest ocean he will explore the bottom of the very depths”.
Pretty soon they began to despair, looking from one to another with shrugs of hopelessness.
“There is no place he will not seek”, they concluded.
But Brahma said “Give it to me and I will hide it where he will never think to look for it”. They were doubtful and wanted to know where Brahma would hide man’s godhead but he would not tell them.
Brahma, in his wisdom, had found the one place that man would never think to seek, even though he will go restlessly up and down mountains, far and wide across the globe, and to the depths of the deepest ocean overcome by death again and again – he hid it within man himself.
To some, this myth (which can be found in many forms as a basic religious theme) represents an exile. Man is seen to be alienated from his own true nature or immortal spiritual Self. Thus, man is said to be ‘lost’, ‘fallen’, or ‘cast out’. This view suggests that reuniting with his immortal godhead would result in man being reinstated in ‘heaven’, and would once again become powerful as a god.
How wrong this assumption is!
In the myth, man’s godhead is not really separated from him. It is simply buried deep within him. If man ever was truly a threat to the power of the gods he still is but simply does not know it. In effect, man is a far more dangerous beast in this disjointed condition than he would be if whole. We see this when we look at the destruction and horror man creates on Earth with his ‘god power’ as he stumbles about searching for the power and immortality that is already his. It is only when we come to realise that we are in fact already whole, and that there is nothing missing, that we stop chasing around and looking everywhere for that which we already have. Then, far from threatening any ‘Gods’, we settle down to a life of harmony, fulfillment, and service to all.
In truth, the hiding of man’s godhead in man himself is the introduction of ignorance into his nature. Where once we gloried in our own power and immortality we now know impotence, the weakness of disease, and death. Yet all of our mortal conditions are simply born of ignorance.
But myths and legends being what they are – allegories with many layers of meaning or truth – should not be taken in their literal form. They should be examined from every angle, meditated on, and deeper meanings uncovered. Used in this way they are excellent tools for greater understanding. They can help us to unlock the prisons of our misguided fears, confusion, and conditioning. They can help us to slay the demons of our own ignorance and with the piercing light of wisdom, help to bring us into knowledge of our potential divinity.
We may have been ‘divided up’ in some way during the morning of the world, but not in the literal sense of the Hindu legend. A deeper study of the ‘Creation Myth’ as revealed by the Wisdom Teaching tells us that it was our very immersion in material planes and the darkening of our consciousness as a result that caused us to lose sight of our godhead. Furthermore, it is revealed that this was not to cut man off from his true power and immortality but to cause him to learn to develop and use that power responsibly. And that development could only take place over the thousands of lifetimes that man has had (and those still to come) because he is immortal.
Man is truly a God, albeit an unwitting one. Now, in the noon-time of the world, he is starting to awaken to the creative power that he possesses. In the future, when the twilight of the world is nigh, when the evening glow of the setting sun turns to the dark of limitless space, and the Earth’s aeonic day comes to a close, then will the creative power of humanity rise from this place to take its seat in the company and brotherhood of the Gods. Will we then ponder in our turn the next great wave of infant Gods, heading forth into a new creation? Will we question the power of that infant God, a god possessed with the power to bring chaos and to threaten our newly earned sovereignty?
In the study course, ‘All About Angels’, we look at the role of the angelic hosts in the building, maintaining, and evolving of our earth and of the universe. we look at angel encounters and at the angelic nature of man. We uncover the god within and reveal the involvement of powerful beings in the evolution of man as an immortal and creative power.
Eric McGough,