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CLAIMING TO BE GOD

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta

Swami Prabhupada

The conditioned life of a living being is

caused by his revolting against the

Lord. There are men called deva,

or godly living beings, and there

are men called asuras, or

demons, who are against the

authority of the Supreme Lord.

In the Bhagavad-gita (Sixteenth

Chapter) a vivid description of the asuras is

given in which it is said that the asuras are

put into lower and lower states of ignorance

life after life and so sink to the lower animal

forms and have no information of the

Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead.

These asuras are gradually rectified to God

consciousness by the mercy of the Lord’s

liberated servitors in different countries

according to the supreme will. Such devotees

of God are very confidential associates of the

Lord, and when they come to save human

society from the dangers of godlessness, they

are known as the powerful incarnations of

the Lord, as sons of the Lord, as servants of

the Lord or as associates of the Lord. But none

of them falsely claim to be God themselves.

This is a blasphemy declared by the asuras,

and the demoniac followers of such asuras

also accept pretenders as God or his

incarnation. In the revealed scriptures there

is definite information of the incarnation of

God. No one should be accepted as God or

an incarnation of God unless he is confirmed

by the revealed scriptures.

The servants of God are to be respected as

God by the devotees who actually want to go

back to Godhead. Such servants of God are

called mahatmas, or tirthas, and they preach

according to particular time and place. The

servants of God urge people to become

devotees of the Lord. They never tolerate being

called God. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was

God himself according to the indication of the

revealed scriptures, but he played the part of

a devotee. People who knew him to be God

addressed him as God, but he used to block

his ears with his hands and chant the name of

Lord Vishnu. He strongly protested against

being called God, although undoubtedly he

was God himself. The Lord behaves so to warn

us against unscrupulous men who take

pleasure in being addressed as God.

— Purport to Bhag. 1.2.16