All language subtitles for The Story of God with Morgan Freeman s03e02 Gods Among Us

FREEMAN: 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.

ANIL: She's the Kumari,
we're going to get a chance to get her blessing today.

FREEMAN: I'll visit a Hindusect whose God walked the earth

just 200 years ago.

SADHU: Just as Jesus was
God on Earth, Swaminarayan was God on earth.

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

And discover ancient
archaeological evidence of when Jesus became a god.

YONATAN: Here's the
momentous word here, to the god Jesus Christ.

FREEMAN: 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.

FATHER PETER:
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.

FREEMAN: Okay, this is
what we're looking for.

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

Very powerful, and one of the
holiest shrines that we have.

FREEMAN: 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.

FREEMAN: 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.

YONATAN: Hello.
FREEMAN: Hello sir.

I hear you have proof that
early Christians thought that Jesus was God.

YONATAN: We do have
proof along those lines.

This here is an excavation ofwhat was discovered to be

an early Christian
prayer hall.

And here is this
fantastic mosaic.

FREEMAN: 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.

YONATAN: Yes, so what does
this look like to you?

FREEMAN: Greek.
YONATAN: Exactly.

Greek to us.

Well, let me read it for you.

FREEMAN: Okay.

YONATAN: 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?

FREEMAN: What about
right there in the middle?

YONATAN: Bingo.

This is the base of
the table that would have been in this church.

FREEMAN: Altar.
YONATAN: 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.

FREEMAN: 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.

YONATAN: I think it'svery interesting that it's awoman who dedicates this table.

FREEMAN: It sort of runs
counter to what we see today.

YONATAN: 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.

FREEMAN: Right.

YONATAN: And one of
the main demographics in that category were women.

FREEMAN: 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 worshiped here.

YONATAN: 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.

FREEMAN: Not the son of God.

YONATAN: Just God.

FREEMAN: So this is
the oldest archaeological evidence that Christians

thought of Jesus as God.

YONATAN: 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?

FREEMAN: The Father,
the son, the holy ghost.

YONATAN: 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.

FREEMAN: Christ as God.

YONATAN: As God, exactly.

FREEMAN: 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 center of town.

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

FREEMAN: Anil Chitrakar
is a Nepalese cultural ambassador who is here

to help me learn about the
ancient tradition of Kumari.

ANIL: 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.

FREEMAN: About how
old is this child?

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

FREEMAN: Three years
old, giving blessings? ANIL: 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.

FREEMAN: The Kumari
is worshiped 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 tobestow blessings on believers.

ANIL: 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.

FREEMAN: Oh, now,
wait a minute!

Well, what if the child
sees me and smiles?

ANIL: 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.

FREEMAN: Are you coming?

ANIL: I'm not
going to come in.

FREEMAN: Okay.

FREEMAN: 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.

ANIL: Okay.
That's a good thing.

FREEMAN: So that's
good for me right?

ANIL: That's a good thing.

FREEMAN: Alright, and I
also noticed that her feet were up on a little platform.

ANIL: Pedestal, yes.

So while she is the Kumari she
should not touch the earth...

FREEMAN: Uh-huh.
ANIL: And so she will be carried around.

FREEMAN: I see, okay.

ANIL: And so she gets carried
around in a palanquin... FREEMAN: Yeah.

ANIL: Even when she has to
go to festivals and to attend other rituals in the city.

FREEMAN: 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 mustreturn 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.

ANIL: 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...

FREEMAN: Yes.

ANIL: 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.

FREEMAN: And after is
no longer a Goddess..

ANIL: Right.
FREEMAN: What is she?

ANIL: 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...

FREEMAN: She becomes
just a regular...

ANIL: Regular girl.

FREEMAN: 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?

[speaking in native language].

ANIL: So, no, she
doesn't have any, you know, negative thoughts.

[speaking in native language].

[speaking in native language].

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.

FREEMAN: Is it difficult
to make the transition from being the goddess

to being just regular?

ANIL: Very normal, she
doesn't have any difficulty...

FREEMAN: Really?
ANIL: Adjusting to this new life, no.

FREEMAN: Do your friends still
think of you as a goddess?

[speaking in native language].

[speaking in native language].

ANIL: 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.

FREEMAN: Okay.

What makes you laugh out loud?

[speaking in native language].

FREEMAN: 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.

ANIL: Right, right.

FREEMAN: And I'm
struck by her serenity.

[speaking in native language].

FREEMAN: What do you
want to go in to?

What do you going
to do in life?

[speaking in native language].

[speaking in native language].

[speaking in native language].

ANIL: So she loves
her math class a lot, but what that will lead to

she hasn't yet decided.

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

[speaking in native language]

FREEMAN: One thing
I do not do, math.

[laughter]

Thank you.

MATINA: You're welcome.

FREEMAN: 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 honor.

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.

NGUYEN: Yes, nice to
meet you, come please.

FREEMAN: 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?

[speaking in native language].

KHUE: People said that
when she was very young she was very uncommon.

FREEMAN: Yeah.

[speaking in native language]

KHUE: 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.

FREEMAN: So you think
these spirits were trying to communicate something to you?

NGUYEN: Yeah.

[speaking in native language].

KHUE: 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.

FREEMAN: 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.

FREEMAN: When a deity
arrives, Vi signals her assistants to dress

her in that
god's clothing.

FREEMAN: This
deity is a general.

The color of each god's
costume represents which of the four elements of nature

they control; earth, sky,
mountain or water.

FREEMAN: Why are you here?

FREEMAN: The general
leaves without giving a message to Khue.

But a new god is
already on the way.

FREEMAN: 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.

FREEMAN: 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.

♪

KHUE: 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.

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

KHUE: Maybe soon, I hope.

FREEMAN: Okay we'll see.

KHUE: We'll see.

They gonna ask me
to finish bottom up.

FREEMAN: Bottoms up.
KHUE: So that I can get married.

FREEMAN: 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?

KHUE: No.

You can keep this, it's lucky.

FREEMAN: 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...

ISHA: Thank you.

FREEMAN: 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. ♪

FREEMAN: Meeting her
today is Sydney Salmon a Jamaican Rastafarian

who now calls Shashamane home.

SYDNEY: Welcome,
welcome, welcome home, welcome home, welcome home.

ISHA: You know
many people think that Rastafari is just

Bob Marley, ganja,
Reggae music.

SYDNEY: Yes.

ISHA: So, tell me about, what
is it about Shashamane, why do you find yourself here?

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

ISHA: We can't talk about
Rastafari as a movement... SYDNEY: Yes.

ISHA: Without talking
about Marcus Mosiah Garvey.

SYDNEY: Yes, I...

FREEMAN: The story
starts in 1920 with the Jamaican publisher

and political activist,
Marcus Garvey.

SYDNEY: 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.

FREEMAN: 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.

ISHA: 88 years ago when his
majesty was coronated...

SYDNEY: Yes.
ISHA: He changed history.

SYDNEY: Yes.

ISHA: So from the
jump His Majesty was about African unity.

SYDNEY: Unity.

FREEMAN: 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.

SYDNEY: 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.

FREEMAN: 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.

ISHA: He was the only
African king who came and stretched out his hand.

SYDNEY: Yeah.

ISHA: Gave us 500
acres of land.

SYDNEY: 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.

FREEMAN: People of manyfaiths yearn to reach out andtouch 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.

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

in the entire world.

[bells ringing]

Notre Dame.

[organ playing]

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?

FATHER DENIS: This is
it. This is very rare to show it like that.

FREEMAN: 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.

FATHER DENIS: The crown
which is made of reeds, of herbs, of weeds...

FREEMAN: Mm-mm.

FATHER DENIS: And they
put it in this circle of glass, actually,

with gold around there.

And they added a few
gold wires to maintain it.

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

FATHER DENIS: Yes.
FREEMAN: With these little gold wires.

FATHER DENIS: 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.

FREEMAN: The gospelssay that when Jesus wascarrying 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.

FATHER DENIS: Yes.
FREEMAN: France, that's a long way from Golgotha.

FATHER DENIS: 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.

FREEMAN: 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.

FATHER DENIS: 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.

FREEMAN: They swapped it.

FATHER DENIS: 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."

FREEMAN: Okay.

FATHER DENIS: So in
1239 it arrived in France.

FREEMAN: Uh-huh.

FATHER DENIS: 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 nothingin 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.

FREEMAN: Quite a bit of money.

So, the amount that was paid
probably opened the doorway for a lot of fake stuff.

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

But in this case it
was analyzed 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.

FREEMAN: I know you said
that if there is a crown of thorns, this is it.

FATHER DENIS: Yes.

FREEMAN: But what
if it's not it?

FATHER DENIS: 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.

FREEMAN: 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.

FATHER DENIS: 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.

FREEMAN: 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.

FREEMAN: 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 audiencewith one of the senior spiritualleaders of the group...

Thank you for havingthis conversation with me.

Sadhu Paramtattvadas.

He and millions of his fellow
devotees believe that the supreme god of Hinduism,

Brahman, came to earth as ahuman, just over 200 years ago.

Tell me the story of God on
Earth, the Hindu God on Earth.

SADHU: For me, I mean
there are many gods.

FREEMAN: I thought
there was one?

SADHU: 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.

FREEMAN: Swaminarayan
Hindus believe that God was born in human form in

the Indian state of
Uttar Pradesh in 1781.

SADHU: 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
traveling across India,

and he traveled
12,000 kilometers including

spending three years across
the Himalayas, alone through jungles, across mountains,

treacherous, climates
and conditions.

FREEMAN: As he traveled,
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.

SADHU: 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.

FREEMAN: The 11-year-old
who walked the length and breadth of India,

and became supreme.

SADHU: No.
FREEMAN: No.

SADHU: He was eternally
supreme, he is God.

He doesn't become
God, he was God.

And is God and
always will be God.

FREEMAN: Always was?

SADHU: 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.

FREEMAN: How is the
human condition helped

by a God being
here among us?

SADHU: 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.

FREEMAN: I'm, I'm trying
my best to absorb.

So what you're saying,
basically, it's a way of leading by example.

SADHU: 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.

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