Gods and Icons

Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Elvis Presley, Mother Teresa, Krisna, Kwan Yin, White Tara, Gandhi, Marilyn Monroe, Lao Tzu, Confucius, James Dean.

What have all these names in common? They were all living people! Yes, even Krishna, Kwan Yin and Tara – it’s just that they are so far removed from us in time, we don’t remember them – we only have their stories, or legends in some cases, and these have covered over the fact of their existence in reality.

Traditional belief based on scriptural details and astrological calculations gives Krishna’s birth date as 19th or 21st July 3228 B.C. Krishna was of royal birth and was the eighth son born to the princess Devaki, and her husband Vasudeva. The king had ascended the throne by imprisoning his father. Afraid of a prophecy that predicted his death at the hands of Devaki’s eighth son, he had the couple cast into prison where he planned to kill all of Devaki’s children at birth. After killing the first six children, and Devaki’s apparent miscarriage of the seventh, Krishna was born. As his life was in danger he was smuggled out to be raised by his foster parents. The place believed by worshippers to mark Krishna’s birth has a temple is raised in his honour. It is Krishna who tells Arjuna, in the “Bhagavad Gita”, speaking of the eternal progress of every soul, ‘There was never a time when you did not exist; there will never come a time when you shall cease to be.’

Around 620 years before the birth of Jesus, in the Indian state of Nepal, a prince was born called Siddhartha Gautama, who the Hindu Holy men said would either, ‘Rule the world or save it.’ For many years he lives in secluded luxury with his wife, Yasodhara, and their child; then one day Siddhartha rides out to visit his father’s kingdom and for the first time in his life he sees old age, sickness and death. He wonders why such things should be, thinking, ‘If the Gods will not help suffering humanity they are not good; and if they cannot help they are not Gods.’ After much thought, he leaves his pampered  life to become a wandering monk determined to find the answer to this puzzle. In an attempt to find the answer in yogic practices, he nearly starves to death in the process and he realises that mortifying the body is not the way to enlightenment – a body racked with the pain of starvation cannot meditate properly or even think straight. Siddhartha rejects the methods of the yogis, recovers, and meditates on the problem. In a blaze of realisation he finds what he has been looking for, and at that moment he is spiritually reborn as The Buddha.

Lao Tzu is believed to have lived in the 4th century B.C. and is credited with writing the Tao Te Ching, often translated as “the Way”. He believed that violence should be avoided as much as possible, and that military victory should be an occasion for mourning rather than triumphant celebration. After all, the defeat of an army is the death of so many fellow human beings. Traditional accounts tell of Lao Tzu’s becoming increasingly weary of the moral decay of the city and the kingdom’s decline; and at the age of 160 he goes to live out his life as a hermit, where he writes the Tao Te Ching. It was he who is supposed to haveIzzeldin Abuelaish said, ‘The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.’

Confucius, or to give him his correct name, Kong Qui (Kung-shee), lived from 551 – 479 B.C. He was a social philosopher whose teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese thought and life. His philosophy emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. His philosophy was introduced to Europe by the Jesuit Priest, Matteo Ricci, who first Latinised his name to Confucius. He was born into a noble family that fallen on hard times and had become quite poor. He is reported to have worked as a shepherd, cowherd, clerk and book-keeper, and rose to the post of Justice Minister in the State of Lu. At sixty-eight Kong Qui returned home and spent his last years teaching disciples and transmitting wisdom via a set of texts called “The Five Classics”. Burdened by the loss of his son and his favourite disciples, he died at the age of 72 or 73.

Mohammed was born around 570 in Mecca in Arabia, and was the founder of Islam. He was orphaned at a young age and was brought up by his uncle, later worked mostly as a merchant, and was married by age 26. Discontented with life in Mecca, he retreated to a cave in the surrounding mountains for meditation and reflection. According to Islamic tradition, it was here at age 40, in the month of Ramadan where he received his first revelation: The angel Gabriel appeared to him and said, ‘You are the messenger of God!’ Mohammed gained few followers early on, and was largely met with hostility from the tribes of Mecca; he was treated harshly and so were his followers. To escape persecution, Mohammed and his followers migrated to Medina in the year 622. This historic event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic Calendar. In Medina, Mohammed managed to unite the conflicting tribes, and after eight years of fighting conquered Mecca. In 632, on returning to Medina from his “Farewell Pilgrimage”, Mohammed fell ill and died. By the time of his death, most of Arabia had converted to Islam. It should be noted that Muslims never say his name without adding a blessing, e.g: ‘The Prophet, bless him,’ or ‘Mohammed, peace to him.’

Kwan Yin is the Bodhisattva of Compassion. In China, fishermen used to pray to her to ensure safe voyages. In 1100 a Buddhist monk believed that Kwan Yin was originally a princess, and there are many stories about her compassion, and care for others. Many observers have commented on the similarity between Kwan Yin and the Virgin Mary, and some Chinese in the predominantly Catholic Philippines have identified Kwan Yin with the Virgin Mary. Sometimes Kwan Yin is known as Kwannon.

White Tara is the Tibetan Goddess known for compassion, long life, healing and serenity; also known as “The Wish-fulfilling Wheel” and she embodies the virtues of healing both physical and mental ills. She is also known as the Mother of Mercy and Compassion, and as Buddhists gain comfort from Tara, so Christians gain comfort from the mercy and compassion of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Mother Teresa was born on August 27th 1910 and died September 5th 1997. She was a Roman Catholic Nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian work. For over forty years, she ministered to the needs of the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying in Calcutta. As the Missionaries of Charity grew under Mother Teresa’s leadership, they expanded their ministry to other countries. By the 1970s she had become internationally famed as a humanitarian and advocate for the poor and helpless. As time goes on, so will the reports of miraculous cures attributed to her.

Gandhi, of course, damaged his physical body in his attempts to achieve peace between India and Pakistan; and ultimately he paid the supreme price – he was assassinated by a Hindu radical, one of the very people he was working for.

It is said, that when Elvis Presley was born, a strange blue light filled the room. Just look at the thousands who flocked to his grave in Tennessee on the 30th anniversary of his death. If this continues, and he is not forgotten, in 100 years there could be a church in his name, and people may be praying to him. Another 100 or 200 years after that and he could be called a prophet, and wondrous miracles will be attributed to him. The same could happen to Marilyn Monroe and James Dean and, perhaps, even Steve McQueen.

As Spirit has said, ‘We were always living beings, and our attributes, our gifts have come down to you as mythology. Indeed, many of your figureheads in religion are approaching this already. Such things have been said about Jesus and Mohammed and The Buddha and, indeed, Elvis Presley as to bring them away from their humanity. This demeans the person! They are so much greater if their humanity were accepted, if their followers rejoiced in their humanity, because then their followers could say, “We can be like him!” Instead they put their – founders, if you wish -  in heaven and promptly fight amongst themselves as to which founder is greater. There is a wonderful line from one of your musicals, “Buddha, is he where it’s at, is he where you are? Could Mohammed move a mountain, or was that just PR?”

We are because we existed in the flesh. We had compassion, we had healing, we had the gifts of prophecy – as you all do – but our names have become lost, twisted, changed from one language to the another. We are separate beings. We are worshipped in different places and in different names. You have all seen pictures of us – some of us appear fearsome, some of are shown wearing human skulls – and yet we are merely human beings who, for a short time, existed to help others; and such were the beliefs of those who came after, that we were raised to exalted status.

We can help. You ask your guides for assistance, you ask us for assistance, and we give what we can.’

We have the Nobel Prize for those in our present society who distinguish themselves by working for the common good; but we can’t all be Nobel Laureates or do works like Mother Teresa or Mahatma Gandhi. We can only do the little things: Working in volunteer organisations, donating money and goods where we can, helping those in need where we can, and always asking our guides, and indeed people like Kwan Yin, Tara, or Mother Teresa for help. Remember, the principle of Personal Responsibility, is not just being responsible for our own lives, but taking responsibility for easing the plight of those around us who are less fortunate than ourselves; for in this way we can become as great as these others – because we do what we can with no thought of reward.