Mark O Brien


21st century gods

By Mark O’Brien

We all know what the gods we have inherited from the various religions look like. But what about 21st century gods, the new ones that are worshipped today? What do they look like? The Dalai Lama? You? Me? Federer?

Whenever I hear the word “god’, I get a sudden rush to go and let go of something.

I guess that comes back to my Catholic upbringing, where God was this omnipotent being that knew whatever you did, or even thought anything that you weren‘t supposed to, the same god that was in control of the world, at whose divine leisure all things would unfold.

This god was supposed to be immortal with none of the ‘failings’ that come along with being human, sex, impatience, anger, revenge. Instead HE was full of love, compassion, wisdom, patience, charity etc etc. In other words, the ultimate Christian.

Indian gods are a bit more fun, as they have a licence to do what they want, whether it is to have thousands of wives, steal, rape, pillage, lead armies to certain death, lust after girls…

These gods are easier to relate to in a way, as they are not morally superior to the people, rather they are just gods and by definition above any personal judgements that the locals may care to make.

And you can’t really take an elephant god very seriously, especially when he is worshipped as the god of prosperity in the poorest country around! Doesn’t have a lot of credibility really.

In the same way the Greek pantheon of gods are not necessarily people that you would like to have breakfast with on a Sunday morning.

For the Greeks, the founders of logic that underpins, rightly or wrongly, our civilisation, were also not so concerned with how “good’ their gods were, only with what they could get away with, how powerful they are at the end of the day of scheming and plotting.

If we consider the span of history, of all the peoples that have walked the earth, most of them if they saw us driving in our cars, using remote controls, flying in planes, most of the things that we take for granted, which even 100 years ago, a tiny time in relation to history, were impossible, we would have been considered gods, or demons, and treated accordingly.

So if we consider what they think, which is that we are gods, then we may as well start acting like gods. Which looks like…?

What does a modern day god look like? Is he a good guy, or pain in the ass? Is he/she moral, a computer head, a feral, a techno DJ, multi orgasmic, a bad taste comedian, a writer in a local magazine?

It’s a bit like trying to list the qualities an enlightened person is supposed to have when you are not enlightened, or what the ocean feels like when you‘ve never been near it.

So what ideas do we have about gods? Assuming they exist of course. Are they omnipotent and patriarchal like the Christian and Jewish one, passionate and irrational like the Greek ones, bizarre like the Indian ones?

Maybe we are gods, maybe everyone is a god, whether they know it or not. Which, if we look at the criteria for gods in most places in the world, means that we can be a god even if we are not “perfect” according so some person’s idea of perfection. Of being without trips.

But that is a cultural thing anyway. An Eskimo kid may not think his dad is trippy when he abuses him for leaving the door open, yet an Indian one would freak out.

Or a Morman woman may not be concerned when her husband has another wife, or a Muslim man would accuse his wife of flirting when she looks at another man.

So we create our own gods, in terms of morality, in terms of power, all related to what we either most admire or we are most afraid of in ourselves and others.

Why not create ourselves as gods? That this, the way I live/behave, is exactly the way a god does.

Gods may or may not really care if they are right or wrong, if they are really gods or simply idiots pretending to be gods. Have you ever heard of an insecure god?

The image of Zeus sitting up on Mt Olympus worried about whether or not he was doing the right thing when he had villages burnt, doesn’t quite sit right.

“Gee. Maybe I shouldn’t have fried those men in the field. I hope the missus never hears about it. I’ll never hear the end of it!”

Or the Christian god feeling guilt about what was going to happen now Adam and Eve had been kicked out of Eden. Or when he saw his boy hanging on a cross did he beat himself up for not being a good enough father?

For me in my life there have been moments when I felt like a god, even some where I have been seen as one. Those are the moments when we know why we are here, when we feel full of who we are, when doubt simply doesn’t exist.

Being a god frees up so much when we stop trying to be someone else.

Allowing others to be their own gods, that even though we are gods we can’t tell anyone else what’s is right or not, as they also are gods with an equal right to be who they are, to make their mistakes, learn their lessons, sit on their hilltop watching us as we watch them.

I find it really interesting with all the gurus passing through town. I go to the odd satsang, and am left with the impression that many people go there to get the guru to entertain them.

Figure out an intelligent spiritually aware question, get the space to ask it, and then sit back while the guru answers it, allowing what is said to penetrate the being or not.

Sometimes people ask a question, get an answer, and then ask a second/third/fourth without taking in what was just said. People get so blase about the guru invasion that they/we don’t bother paying attention anymore.

Some of the gurus are onto this, and make sure the questioner gets the answer, or question the person as to why they are asking in the first place.

Isreali guru/psychic cowboy Tyohar said recently that he felt we were “guru’d out”, that we’ve heard all the answers, all the questions, there aren’t any new answers, we know it all.

He spoke of questions disappearing and the quest remaining, that quality of being available to what is between the lines. I found this to be such a relief from what I saw as a pandering to people’s desire to create a question

Perhaps the definition of being a god is one who knows he doesn’t know it all, and is aware and courageous enough to live from that space.

Gods can of course still go to sit at satsang; they can do anything they want, but the quality of presence perhaps would be different, more a sharing, more a being there in the space, feeling the energy, not so much a wanting, either an answer or simply attention. Or maybe not.

Craziness is often defined by an inability to listen to what others tell you, to accept conventional wisdom. From mythology the same applies to gods who are always nuts.

Which is fine, except we put them on a pedestal, never questioning them, while locking up the people in our world if they’re a bit wacko.

Perhaps the same inner controller that doesn’t let us be crazy, or show our craziness, is the same one that prevents us being the gods that we are destined to be.

Food for thought anyway.

By Mark O’Brien, published in the Here & Now magazine, April 2000

Share 21st century gods with your friends on Facebook