All language subtitles for The.Story.of.God.With.Morgan.Freeman.Series.3.2of6.Gods.Among.Us.720p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org-ing

There is one role that
follows me wherever I go.

You could say it's omnipresent.

It's having played God.

I think what
resonates with people

is that God would
appear among us,

but not with some angelic halo,

more as an ordinary person,

a janitor,

carpenter.

Jesus is not the only example
of human incarnation of God.

The Egyptian Pharaohs,
the emperors of the Inca

were all considered divine.

Makes you wonder

why do people want to
see God walk among us?

I'm going on a journey

to discover how different faiths
see God taking human form.

I'll meet a goddess living
in the body of a Nepali girl.

She's the Kumari, we're
going to get a chance

to get her blessing today.

I'll visit a Hindu sect whose God

walked the earth
just 200 years ago.

Just as Jesus was God on Earth,

Swaminarayan was God on earth.

I'll witness a host of
Gods come down to Hanoi.

And discover ancient
archaeological evidence

of when Jesus became a god.

Here's the momentous word here,

to the god Jesus Christ.

There is one god on earth

whose followers number
in the billions...

Jesus.

Every Christmas,

throngs of pilgrims converge
on the starting point

of his terrestrial journey...

Bethlehem.

The Church of the
Nativity on Manger Square

is built over the spot
where the faithful

believe the manger once stood.

Franciscan priest
Father Peter Vasko

is taking me to the
exact place where Helena,

mother of Roman
Emperor Constantine,

believed Jesus was born.

Wow.

Hundreds of thousands
of pilgrims have come

from around the
world to be here.

Now over here,
we'll go down here,

here is the manger.

Okay, this is what
we're looking for.

So we're in the actual place
where our Lord was born.

Very powerful,

and one of the holiest
shrines that we have.

Christians venerate
this site now,

but I'm eager to understand
when Jesus the preacher,

Jesus the Rabbi

came to be seen as
the divine Jesus.

The answer may lie
86 miles to the north.

I've been offered a glimpse

of an archaeological
discovery so important

that it was re-buried
for protection

almost as soon as
it was discovered.

It was unearthed in 2005

when work started
on an expansion

of a high security
Israeli prison.

Hi.

Now the prison offers
welcome security,

as the site has been recently
exposed again for further study.

Here to show me around is
scholar of comparative religion,

Doctor Yonatan Moss.

-Hello.
-Hello sir.

I hear you have proof

that early Christians

thought that Jesus was God.

We do have proof
along those lines.

This here

is an excavation of what

was discovered to be
an early Christian prayer hall.

And here is this
fantastic mosaic.

Back in the early 3rd Century,

this mosaic

was the floor of a house,

one of the oldest
Christian houses of worship

ever discovered.

So, we are actually
in a house here.

Yes, so what does
this look like to you?

-Greek.
-Exactly.

Greek to us.

Well, let me read it for you.

Okay.

Pros enikein Akeptous.

Akeptos is somebody's name.

And what did this
woman Akeptos do?

Pros enikein, she dedicated

this table, the table.

What table is she talking about.

Do we see any remnants?

What about right
there in the middle?

Bingo.

This is the base of the table

that would have
been in this church.

-Altar.
-Altar.

Exactly.

Now she doesn't
call it an altar,

but this would have been
where they would have their

religious, liturgical
celebration,

maybe something
like the Eucharist.

And it would have
been the table,

maybe altar,

for the celebration of
the bread and the wine.

Biblical scholars believe
the sharing of bread and wine

as the divine body
and blood of Jesus

has been part of Christian
worship since the 1st century.

And, as suggested by the
letters of the Apostle Paul,

many of the early church leaders

were women.

I think it's very interesting

that it's a woman who
dedicates this table.

It sort of runs counter to...

what we see today.

It does yes.

In the early centuries,

because Christianity
was kind of an

underground and counter
cultural movement,

it was often the
people who were in a...

somewhat subjugated
position within society,

who accepted Christianity,

earlier than people
in positions of power.

Right.

And one of the main demographics

in that category were women.

Direct archaeological
evidence of a woman

leading a 3rd Century church

is a rare find.

But the mosaic reveals
something far more momentous

about the people
who worshipped here.

It says,

she dedicated the table
or offered the table,

and here's the
momentous word here,

Theo iesu Christo,

to the God, or
God, Jesus Christ.

Not the son of God.

Just God.

So this is the oldest
archaeological evidence

that Christians thought of Jesus

as God.

This was the matter of debate
among early Christians, right.

We have the Council
of Nicea in 325

where they discussed the
Trinitarian question, right?

What does it mean?

The Father,
the son, the holy ghost.

Exactly, what does
it mean to say

that Christ is the son of God?

But what did ordinary
Christians believe?

That was always very
hard to kind of figure out.

This site would seem
to give us the voice

of these ancient
Christian women,

and what they
believed about Christ.

It's explicitly stated here.

Theou iesu christo.

For these, the
people living here,

in this village,
in the 3rd century,

they understood
Christ to be divine.

Christ as God.

As God, exactly.

Well, this is quite an
incredible discovery.

1800 years ago,
this ordinary house

was a meeting place
for a group of people,

a group of Christians, the
dominant voice being women,

played a part in
transforming Jesus the rabbi,

Jesus the prophet,

into Jesus the God.

God made flesh.

I would argue it is
this transformation

that has given
Christianity its longevity.

Billions of souls followed
the teaching, not of a man,

but of God.

God on earth.

Jesus's few dramatic
decades on earth

confirmed his
divinity in the hearts

of Christians for 2,000 years.

Other faiths' gods come and go,

much more frequently.

I've come to the
mountain nation of Nepal.

The capital, Kathmandu,

is a noisy, bustling,
modern city,

and home to a living goddess.

She resides just down
the road from the square,

next to the local
produce market,

in the centre of town.

We are going to enter, a
very, you know, sacred space.

Anil Chitrakar is a
Nepalese cultural ambassador

who is here to
help me learn about

the ancient tradition of Kumari.

This is the, space, where
the living goddess lives.

We regard the Kumari as
something integral to our life,

because they are the protectors

of everything we have
and everything we do.

And so, we're
gonna get a chance,

you know, for you to
actually meet her,

and then, you know,
get her blessing today.

About how old is this child?

So, usually, they start around
three or four years old.

-Three years old, giving blessings?
-Right.

Even today,

you know, the Head
of State, you know,

must get a blessing, you
know, from this young girl,

to rule this country,
you know, for a year.

The Kumari is worshipped
as a deity by both

the Nepalese Hindus
and Buddhists.

She is chosen from the Buddhist
Newari people of this region,

and reigns as a living embodiment
of the Hindu goddess, Taleju.

Her Dharma, or duty,

is to bestow blessings
on believers.

Be mindful that she
will be expressionless,

because the local people, you
know, believe that laughter,

you know, a smile, you
know, all those expressions

that human beings have, you
know, are not a very good sign.

And so, having a straight face,
is usually the good thing.

Oh, now, wait a minute!

Well, what if the child
sees me and smiles?

Hm-mm,

so, that would not be a very good
thing because people believe,

that that could be a bad omen,

you know, that could lead
to something bad, like

you know death, or even a legal
case, you know, things that,

you know bad things
that people want to avoid.

And so generally we believe

that a straight face is
what you really want to,

you know, see.

Are you coming?

I'm not going to come in.

Okay.

I'm about to have an audience
with a living embodiment

of the Hindu god Taleju.

My hope is that the Kumari
remains expressionless.

Even the hint of a smile

is said to bring misfortune.

She didn't,

she didn't smile.

As a matter of fact, she didn't
have an expression at all.

Okay. That's a good thing.

So that's good for me right?

That's a good thing.

Alright, and I also
noticed that...

her feet were up on
a little platform.

Pedestal, yes.

So while she is the Kumari,

she should not
touch the earth...

Uh-huh. And so she
will be carried around.

I see, okay.

And so she gets carried
around in a palanquin...

Yeah.

Even when she has
to go to festivals

and to attend other
rituals in the city.

This royal treatment
isn't required

merely out of respect
for the divine.

It avoids her receiving
cuts to her feet.

If she bleeds,

she ceases to be a goddess.

Of course,

that day can only
be put off so long.

With the onset of puberty,

this young girl must
return to a way of life

that may now be alien to her.

It seemed like this would be
kind of a rough deal for a kid.

It is a rough deal,
you know, for a kid,

but I think in this
part of the world,

you know, we're constantly
reminded about our duty...

Yes.

And so in, you know, sort
of the years to come,

the people take great
pride in the fact

that she was able to
serve her community,

by taking on this duty.

And after is
no longer a Goddess..

-Right.
-what is she?

You know once she
reaches puberty,

then the community
begins to search,

you know, for a second child,

you know, who'll replace her.

She enters the regular
family and I think...

She becomes just a regular...

Regular girl.

Got it.

The Kumari can't speak to me.

She can't tell me what it's
like to be a living Goddess.

But Anil has arranged for
me to visit someone...

who can.

Former Kumari, Matina Shakya.

Namaste.

Matina is not the first
in the Shakya line

to have been seen as divine.

The lineage traces back
to Siddhartha Gautama,

the Buddha.

Now,

Matina has returned to the life
of a typical 13-year-old girl.

I just met a Kumari.

She was on her cushion.

Her feet are up on a platform.

And she had no expression.

And I was told that

if she did have an expression

it could be my downfall.

I don't know if you have
to think, after a while,

about controlling yourself?

Can you give me any

idea how you felt?

So, no, she doesn't have any,

you know, negative thoughts.

She's saying that
for nine years,

the two things she
found very good

was her friends would
come and play with her,

so she always had the company.

But the second one was,
you know, she had tutors,

you know, who took her
through the curriculum.

Is it difficult to
make the transition

from being the goddess

to being just regular?

Very normal,

she doesn't have
any difficulty...

Really? Adjusting to
this new life, no.

Do your friends

still think of you as a goddess?

So they recognize both the roles

that she's a former Kumari,

but then when they're playing,

you know, she's
just a class mate.

Okay.

What makes you laugh out loud?

Is she gonna say nothing?

Well, I guess she can't grow
up as a goddess and not...

-gain some sense of bearing, right?
-Right.

-Right
-Right.

And I'm struck by her serenity.

What do you want to go in to?

What do you going to do in life?

So she loves her
math class a lot,

but what that will lead to
she hasn't yet decided.

Right, well that's good
enough I'm telling you.

One thing I do not do, math.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

I'm just amazed when I
contemplate Matina's childhood.

At the age of three she was
elevated to the status of goddess.

That was her Dharma,

her duty;

she was given a role by her
community to be a source of

divine blessing and guidance.

To be a bridge
between this world,

and the realm of the gods.

That was Matina's burden,

and her honour.

Being a god for a decade shapes
the Kumari's entire life.

But some gods enter human bodies
for just fleeting moments.

I've come to the city of Hanoi,

Vietnam's capital
and cultural heart.

I'm here to witness a ceremony

of the ancient Dao
Mau folk religion.

Nguyen Ngoc Vi

is a Dao Mau spirit medium.

Vi,

how are you?

So good to see you.

Yes, nice to
meet you, come please.

Thank you.

She's preparing to ask the gods

to come down to earth
for Bui Thi Khim Khue,

who needs divine guidance
in her romantic life.

But first, I want
to understand how Vi

became a channel
for divine spirits.

How does a young woman like

you become a spirit medium?

People said that when
she was very young

she was very uncommon.

Yeah.

We didn't know
anything until the day

that my parents went to talk to
the Fortune Teller,

and also that I start to see,

gods...

spirit.

So you think these
spirits were trying to...

communicate something to you?

Yeah.

One time I receive a
message like a dream,

from the God,

and he told me that I should

become a medium to help people.

To be the messenger of God.

Vi has become one of Dao
Mau's leading mediums,

drawing people who wish to speak

to the Gods from all
over northern Vietnam.

The religion has many deities.

Over several weeks
of preparation,

Vi has petitioned several of
them to come down to Earth today.

But the ceremony can only begin

when Vi senses the arrival
of the Mother Goddess,

a chief deity of Dao Mau

who opens the door
for the other gods.

When a deity arrives,

Vi signals her assistants to
dress her in that god's clothing.

This deity is a general.

The colour of each god's costume

represents which of the four
elements of nature they control;

earth,

sky,

mountain

or water.

Why are you here?

The general leaves without
giving a message to Khue.

But a new god is
already on the way.

Nguyen Ngoc Vi has
prayed for several Gods

of the Dao Mau folk religion
to come down to Hanoi today.

She believes one of them
can help Bui Thi Khim Khue

with her troubled love life.

As each god arrives Vi
welcomes them with a drink,

changes into their costume,

and lets them express
themselves in human form.

A series of noble
ladies, Princes,

and maidens inhabit Vi's body.

But none has a message for Khue.

Until, at last,

a second general arrives.

It's the Commander
of Tu n Tranh,

a figure famous
for fighting back

a Mongol invasion
in the 13th century.

He summons Khue to
come to the altar.

So, he gave me a blessing

that I'm going to meet a person,

with good,
with a kind heart.

And, will get married.

Yes.

That's, the blessing I got.

He give you any idea how long
it's gonna be before this happens?

Maybe soon, I hope.

Okay we'll see.

We'll see.

They gonna ask me
to finish bottom up.

-Bottoms up.
-So that I can get married.

Okay.

Gods and the souls of
ancestors all mix and mingle

flowing through the
tradition of Dao Mau.

For the believers,

the boundary between the eternal
and our mortal world is thin

and porous.

The appearance of
these gods on earth,

it's not a miracle.

It's an everyday occurrence.

Like calling up an old friend.

We gonna have to give all this
money back before we leave?

No.

You can keep this, it's lucky.

About 60 grand here.

Many believers turn to
the gods in times of need.

Jesus came to
Judea when the Jews

were under the thumb
of Roman occupation.

Thousands of years later,

some say he came again,

this time to Africa.

Shashamane, Ethiopia is
a Rastafari settlement

more than 7000
miles from Jamaica.

Donisha Prendergast,
activist, documentarian,

and granddaughter of
reggae legend Bob Marley...

Thank you.

is here to learn about
the Rastafari belief

that the late Ethiopian
Emperor Haile Selassie

was a reincarnation of Jesus.

# Babylon is falling,

Ethiopia she is calling. #

Meeting her today
is Sydney Salmon,

a Jamaican Rastafarian
who now calls Shashamane home.

Welcome, welcome, welcome home,
welcome home, welcome home.

You know many people think that

Rastafari is just

Bob Marley,

ganja,

Reggae music.

Yes.

So, tell me,

what is it about Shashamane,

why do you find yourself here?

You know, Shashamane is the
Mecca of Rastafari, you know.

We can't talk about
Rastafari as a movement...

Yes.

without talking about
Marcus Mosiah Garvey.

Yes, I...

The story starts in 1920

with the Jamaican publisher
and political activist,

Marcus Garvey.

Marcus Garvey is like
John the Baptist,

you know, the first man
who come and spoke to us.

He said, 'Africans
need to see their God

through African spectacles.'

Garvey believed that
people of African descent,

dispersed by slavery and
tyrannized by colonialism,

needed leaders, both
political and spiritual,

made in their own image.

He wrote...

'Look to Africa

when a black king
shall be crowned,'

'for the day of
deliverance is near.'

Ten years later,

the Ethiopian nobleman
Rastafari Mekonnen

was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia,

and took the name
Haile Selassie.

88 years ago when his
majesty was coronated...

-Yes.
-He changed history.

Yes.

So from the jump His Majesty
was about African unity.

Unity.

Many Jamaicans, living
under British colonial rule,

were inspired by Selassie's
resistance to European invaders.

And saw him as
Garvey's redeemer.

Some pronounced him a
reincarnation of Jesus,

and the Rastafari
faith was born.

To some people
God mean different things.

Well, the first thing we know

that the bible teaches
that God is a spirit.

But this spirit,

manifested himself,

as a man.

As a human being.

Selassie was an Ethiopian
Orthodox Christian

and never claimed to be divine.

But when he set aside Shashamane

as a homeland for
dispersed Africans,

it bolstered his status as
a god for the Rastafari.

He was the only African king

who came and stretched
out his hand.

Yeah.

Gave us 500 acres of land.

Yes, so I give
thanks for being here.

Long live Marcus Garvey.

Long live the spirit of
Rastafari and repatriation

to the homeland,

with my God and my King
beside me, you know.

People of many faiths
yearn to reach out

and touch the divine
here on Earth.

But divinity does not only
manifest in human form.

Catholics believe they can
still make contact with Jesus

through the objects
he left behind.

I've come to Paris to visit one
of the most famous cathedrals

in the entire world.

Notre Dame.

More than 13 million people
come here every year.

Yet only a fraction of them
knows that these vaulted ceilings

house one of the most precious

and closely guarded relics

in all Christendom.

The Crown of Thorns.

I've been granted special access
to see the crown up-close,

and learn more about what the
faithful see in this sacred object.

Father Denis Dupont-Fauville

is one of its curators.

This...

this is it?

This is it.

This is very rare to
show it like that.

It's been the prized possession
of the Catholic Church in France

for almost 800 years.

Of course, if it's
the genuine article,

it's far older than that.

The crown which is made of
reeds, of herbs, of weeds...

Mm-mm.

And they put it in this...

circle of glass, actually,

with gold around there.

And they added a few gold wires

to maintain it.

Oh, then the actual
reeds are held together now...

Yes. With these
little gold wires.

Yes, and then they put this
glass thing and the sealed it

just to preserve it from air,
from pollution, from contact.

But what we call the crown
of thorns was actually...

sort of a helmet of thorns.

And so they, on this circle they

made a helmet with the thorns

and then they set
it on the head.

That was really horrible.

The gospels say

that when Jesus was carrying
his cross to Golgotha,

Roman soldiers mocked him
as the 'King of the Jews'

and placed a crown of thorns

on his head.

I have this question for you.

Yes. France, that's a
long way from Golgotha.

Yes, that's a long story.

So Helen, who was the
mother of the Emperor,

took it from Jerusalem to
Constantinople in the 4th Century.

The Roman Emperor
Constantine's mother

had converted to Christianity,

and claimed the
crown as a key symbol

of Jesus's suffering
on the cross.

And then nearly 1000 years

the crown stayed
in Constantinople.

Then there was the war,

but the Emperor had no
money to pay the army.

So, to get the
money for his army,

he put the crown
in loan in Venice.

They swapped it.

He loaned the crown.

And when the King of
France learned that,

King Louis, he say,
'It's a shame.'

So, I give the
money for the army,

and I get the crown in a
safe place, that's France.'

Okay.

So in 1239 it arrived in France.

Uh-huh.

And when King Louis welcomed
this crown in Paris,

he went out of the
city with bare feet,

only a shirt on him,

and he said, 'Well, I'm the
most powerful king on earth,

but I'm nothing in
comparison to the true King.

'My crown is of gold,

but his crown is the true one.
It was made of thorns.'

So it was very, very
moving from this man

who was the most powerful
on earth at the time.

You know...

And the money he gave was one
full year of France's budget.

You can imagine
it was tremendous.

Quite a bit of money.

So, the amount that was paid,

probably opened the doorway
for a lot of fake stuff.

Well, you can never be sure
100% they are the true ones.

But in this case,

it was analysed a little
bit a few years ago,

so, we are certain

that is the actual crown
which was shown to Helen.

So if there is one in
the world, it's this one.

I know you said that

if there is a crown
of thorns, this is it.

Yes.

But what if it's not it?

Well if it really touched
Christ of course it is obvious,

but even if it's
not the true one,

it's a way of remembering,
okay he really was on earth.

He was a true man.

He could bear that,

he could have that
on his very head.

And this is no story,
this is not a tale

or a symbol or an abstraction.

This is history.

This is concrete,
we can touch it.

You know.

Got you.

Today is the first
Friday of the month,

when the crown is put
on public display.

People from all over the
world come to attend mass

and get close to the relic.

By so doing,

they believe they are
getting closer to Jesus.

People come there
with their sufferings,

with their hopes.

And they come to this crown,
they come to Christ actually;

and say, 'Okay, you
suffered, you hoped.

I suffer, I hope.
I want to join with you.'

So that's very, very deep.

Simple in a way but
very, very moving.

Holy relics are symbols of
the divine here on earth.

As such, they can and do fall
under the control of people

who would use them
for earthly power.

But for those who are
seeking spiritual strength,

relics act as a beacon,

a beacon of faith,
that guide them

through the distractions

of this mortal realm

to a more

direct connection with God.

Religions often form around
divinely inspired figures,

Moses, Mohammed, The Buddha.

Most people are only
aware of one faith

where God took human form,

Christianity.

But there is another.

This divine person
may be the key

to understanding the
power of Gods on earth.

I've come to London

to visit the Shri
Swaminarayan Temple.

It's dedicated to the Swaminarayan
sect of the Hindu faith.

I've been granted an audience

with one of the senior
spiritual leaders of the group...

Thank you for having this
conversation with me.

Sadhu Paramtattvadas.

He and millions of
his fellow devotees

believe that the
supreme god of Hinduism,

Brahman,

came to earth as a human,
just over 200 years ago.

Tell me the story
of God on Earth,

the Hindu God on Earth.

For me, I mean
there are many gods.

I thought there was one?

There is one supreme entity.

And that entity
can take many forms.

So for me, as a, as a monk,

that would be
Bhagwan Swaminarayan.

For me, he is the
supreme, ultimate entity.

For me, he is god.

Swaminarayan Hindus believe

that God was born in human form

in the Indian state
of Uttar Pradesh,

in 1781.

He manifested on earth,
as a normal human being,

through a mother and a father,

to dispel the
darkness of ignorance,

to help elevate humankind,

to a higher moral level.

At the age of 11, after
his parents passed away,

alone,

barefooted,

open-chested,

with nothing except a
utensil to drink from,

a small scripture,

and a loincloth.

Chose this journey

of travelling across India,

and he travelled
12,000 kilometres,

including spending three
years across the Himalayas,

alone through jungles,

across mountains, treacherous,
climates and conditions.

As he travelled,

stories of his power and
divinity began to spread.

In one such tale, he
arrived at a village

that was being
terrorized by a lion.

The village priest
warned him away,

but Swaminarayan refused to go.

That night he
faced down the lion.

When the village awoke,

the lion looked
more like a lamb.

Calmly lying at
the Swami's feet.

The villagers knew then

that this young man
was no ordinary human.

He spent seven years
along this journey,

to see the religious
landscape of India,

and see where he
could find those...

souls that he wanted
to bring to perfection.

The 11-year-old...

who walked the length
and breadth of India,

and became supreme.

-No.
-No.

He was eternally
supreme, he is God.

He doesn't become
God, he was God.

And is God and
always will be God.

Always was?

Always was, and always will be.

That's the, the very essence of
having eternal supreme entity.

Just as Jesus was God on earth,

Bhagwan Swaminarayan
was God on earth.

Because he grew up
as a normal child,

but there were still miracles
happening all around him.

He was bringing things to life,

he was protecting people,
saving people

throughout his life there
were lots of miracles.

But in our traditions,

the miracles don't have as
much spiritual importance.

They don't...

prove him as God.

He is.

How is the human
condition helped

by a God...

being here among us?

Is God not powerful enough

to exact his power from heaven?

Bhagwan Swaminarayan explains
that his manifestation,

taking on a human form,

was to help countless souls

eradicate their ignorance,

and elevate them to
spiritual perfection.

I'm... I'm trying
my best to absorb.

So what you're
saying, basically,

it's a way of
leading by example.

Yes, I think
it's immensely powerful.

What if Jesus was
present on earth now?

Amongst us.

Rather than...

interpreting scriptures
in different ways,

we have a person
who's speaking to us.

It's a much more
direct relationship.

What more powerful,

and direct form of revelation
could there be than God himself

appearing on earth and saying,

here I am.

It seems to me,

we yearn for God to
walk among us because,

we need a living example of
what it means to be divine.

A God in human form can show
us the way through hard times.

Help us make tough choices.

Show us how to love and
respect one another,

when it seems the
hardest thing to do.

Just because we are mortal,

doesn't mean we can't
strive to live as God would.