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Can we become God?
Most people believe that the Gods that we are worshipping are fixed and no human can reach the state of God. Is this true?
If a person is born and lives as the purest one and when he attains the state as God, can he be included in the Gods of today?
Can a person become God if he learns all the things that a God knows?
Yes. "brahma vid brahmaiva bhavati". One who knows brahman becomes brahman himself.
The path to know brahman is yoga - any (or a combination) of bhakti/gnyana/karma (upasana)/raja yogas.
स यो ह वै तत् परमं ब्रह्म वेद ब्रह्मैव भवति नास्याब्रह्मवित्कुले भवति ।
तरति शोकं तरति पाप्मानं गुहाग्रन्थिभ्यो विमुक्तोऽमृतो भवति ॥ ९ ॥sa yo ha vai tat paramaṃ brahma veda brahmaiva bhavati nāsyābrahmavitkule bhavati |
tarati śokaṃ tarati pāpmānaṃ guhāgranthibhyo vimukto'mṛto bhavati || 9 ||9. He who knows that highest Brahman becomes even Brahman; and in his line, none who knows not the Brahman will be born. He crosses grief and virtue and vice and being freed from the knot of the heart, becomes immortal.
Yes. One can become Brahman.
As stated by Lord Krishna in Bhagvad Geeta,
मां च योऽव्यभिचारेण भक्ति-योगेन सेवते।
स गुणान्समतीत्यैतान् ब्रह्मभूयाय कल्पते।। (14.26)One who engages in full devotional service, unfailing in all circumstances, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman.
प्रकाशं च प्रवृत्तिं च मोहमेव च पाण्डव।
न द्वेष्टि सम्प्रवृत्तानि न निवृत्तानि काङ्क्षति।। (14.22)उदासीनवदासीनो गुणैर्यो न विचाल्यते।
गुणा वर्तन्त इत्येव योऽवतिष्ठति नेङ्गते।। (14.23)समदुःखसुखः स्वस्थः समलोष्टाश्मकाञ्चनः।
तुल्यप्रियाप्रियो धीरस्तुल्यनिन्दात्मसंस्तुतिः।। (14.24)मानापमानयोस्तुल्यस्तुल्यो मित्रारिपक्षयोः।
सर्वारम्भपरित्यागी गुणातीतः स उच्यते।। (14.25)O son of Pandu, he who does not hate illumination, attachment and delusion when they are present or long for them when they disappear; who is unwavering and undisturbed through all these reactions of the material qualities, remaining neutral and transcendental, knowing that the modes alone are active; who is situated in the self and regards alike happiness and distress; who looks upon a lump of earth, a stone and a piece of gold with an equal eye; who is equal toward the desirable and the undesirable; who is steady, situated equally well in praise and blame, honor and dishonor; who treats alike both friend and enemy; and who has renounced all material activities—such a person is said to have transcended the modes of nature.
In short, the one who is neutral in all the opposites (honor-dishonor, friend-enemy, desirable-undesirable etc) i.e., one who transcends all three Gunas can become Brahman who is Ultimate Reality.
Apart from the Supreme Brahman, one can become Lord Indra by performing hundred Ashwamedha Yagnas.
If a person is born and lives as the purest one and when he attains the state as God, can he be included in the Gods of today?
Yes, he is included in the Gods. For example, the story of present Purandhara Indra who became Indra by performing yagnas is discussed here.
No, we can never become God.
Who is Ishvara? Janmadyasya yatah - "From whom is the birth, continuation, and dissolution of the universe," - He is Ishvara - "the Eternal, the Pure, the Ever-Free, the Almighty, the All-Knowing, the All-Merciful, the Teacher of all teachers"; and above all, Sa Ishvarah anirvachaniya-premasvarupah - "He the Lord is, of His own nature, inexpressible Love." These certainly are the definitions of a Personal God. Are there then two Gods - the "Not this, not this," the Sat-chit-ananda, the Existence-knowledge-Bliss of the philosopher, and this God of love of the Bhakta? No it is the same Sat-chit-Ananda who is also the God of Love, the impersonal and personal in one. It has always to be understood that the Personal God worshipped by the Bhakta is not separate or different from Brahman. All is Brahman, the One without a second; only the Brahman, as unity or absolute, is too much of an abstraction to be loved and worshipped; so the Bhakta chooses the relative aspect of Brahman, that is Ishvara, the Supreme Ruler. To use a simile: Brahman is as the clay or substance out of which an infinite variety of articles are fashioned. As clay, they are all one; but form or manifestation differentiates them. Before everyone of them was made, they all existed potentially in the clay, and, of course, they are identical substantially; but when formed, and so long as the form remains, they are separate and different; the clay-mouse can never become a clay-elephant, because, as manifestations, form alone makes them what they are, though as unformed clay they are all one. Ishvara is the highest manifestation of the Absolute Reality, or in other words, the highest possible reading of the Absolute by the human mind. Creation is eternal and so also is Ishvara........Those who attain to that state where there is neither knower, nor knowable, nor knowledge, where there is neither I, nor thou, nor he, where there is neither subject, nor object, nor relation, "there, who is seen by whom?" - such persons have gone beyond everything to "where words cannot go nor mind", gone to where the Shrutis declare as "Not this, not this"; but for those who cannot, or will not reach this state, there will inevitably remain the triune vision of the one undifferentiated Brahman as nature, soul and the interpenetrating sustainer of both - Ishvara. ..... Bhakti, then, can be directed towards Brahman, only in His personal aspect. "The way is more difficult for those whose mind is attached to the absolute!" Bhakti has to float on smoothly with the current of our nature. True it is that we cannot have any idea of the Brahman which is not anthropomorphic, but is it not equally true of everything we know? The greatest psychologist the world has ever known, Bhagavan Kapila, demonstrated ages ago that human consciousness is one of the elements in the make-up of all the objects of our perception and conception, internal as well as external. Beginning with our bodies and going up to Ishvara, we may see that every object of our perception is this consciousness plus something else, whatever that may be; and this unavoidable mixture is what we ordinarily think of as reality. Indeed it is, and ever will be, all of the reality that is possible for human mind to know. Therefore to say that Ishvara is unreal, because He is anthropomorphic is sheer nonsense. It sounds very much like the occidental squabble on idealism and realism, which fearful-looking quarrel has for its foundation a mere play on the word "real". The idea of Ishvara covers all the ground ever denoted and connoted by the word real, and Ishvara is as real as anything else in the universe; and after all, the word real means nothing more than what has now been pointed out. Such is our philosophical conception of Ishvara. (Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda III.37-42)
No, that is NOT possible.
No one can become Ishvara ( God) as God is only ONE. It is not correct to translate God as the Formless All-pervading Brahman, as Adi Shankaracharya says that even the Brahmavid can NOT become Ishvara, Who is the controller of the Universe.
From Gita:
18.61 O Arjuna, Isvara resides in the region of the heart of all creatures, revolving through Maya all the creatures (as though) mounted on a machine!
Isvara is NOT some deathless human being living at a particular place. He is dwelling in each being.
So answers to the question is : NO
It is question often arising even in modern times. Swami Vivekananda supplies a sufficiently modern answer:
“Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy - by one, or more, or all of these - and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are all but secondary details."
The precept is very ancient... given out in English (language of this site) after Swami's visit to US.
If you can perform sarvamedha or purushmedha you can become Brahman or something close to it.
What are the similarities and differences between Purushamedha Yagna and Sarvamedha Yagna?
Narayana was only a rishi (i.e., a human) in Rig Veda and became the supreme being after performimg purushamedha.
Purusha Nârâyana desired, 'Would that I overpassed all beings! would that I alone were everything here (this universe)!' He beheld this five-days’ sacrificial performance, the Purushamedha, and took it , and performed offering therewith; and having performed offering therewith, he overpassed all beings, and became everything here. And, verily, he who, knowing this, performs the Purushamedha, or who even knows this, overpasses all beings, and becomes everything here.
We don't know if Purushamedha/Sarvamedha can be performed any more.
Understand first what do u mean by god ? is it oneness u r seeking ? or a powerful being who can do anything with the flick of the hand. I believe we can be both but not at a time. seeking "the light" means being brahman; without guilt, the desire of materials. U r already GOD ( part of him) , u just need to realize it. medidate unless u see the while light nd feel peacefull.
Lord May be realized on different levels. As Bhagavatam States here
Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman, Paramātmā or Bhagavān.
Just like Sun and Sunshine. There are three features viz, Sunshine(Brahman), Sun Globe(Paramatma), Sun Deity Vivasvan(Bhagvana or personal feature).
There are different philosophies that subscribe to Vedanta school, Viz Advaita, VishishtAdvaita, Dvaita and so on as described in this answer
Now different philosophies have different opinions as to three levels of God realization. I.e Advaita says that Brahman realization is highest where as there are other schools(Vaishnava) who believe that associating with God in His personal form is superior i.e. Realization of Bhagavan feature is highest.
As per Advaita YOU ARE GOD. So no question of becoming God, of course you have forgotten or due to Avidya you perceive the individuality.
Now as I have mentioned the sun example, You may merge into sunshine but you can never become one with the King of Sun planet. That is in Advaita terms you can never become a Saguna Brahman(refer this answer here).
Also in Vedanta sutra and Gita it is mentioned that we are part and parcel of One Supreme God. We are not one with Him. But we are one in quality with Him. Just like Sunshine is one in quality with Sun but Sunshine is not Sun.
