Tat Tvam Asi - Are we worshipping ourselves?

Tat Tvam Asi

 
This could be a random musing on a cloudy Saturday morning. Or else, it could how the brain tries to analyze a new train of thought. This could be nothing at all. But I am just articulating herein an idea that occurred to me whilst watching an interesting documentary. All are welcome to have their own takes on the topic.
 
I was watching a documentary this morning on the internet (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZRcBXGccgI) on aliens and how they might interacted with ancient humans. This is an inherently interesting topic and the first person who had suggested such an extra-terrestrial interaction was Erich Von Daniken in his world famous book Chariots of the Gods. His question "Was God an astronaut?" shook the world in many ways.

The hypothesis proposed by Von Daniken is not superfluous or farfetched. Over the history of mankind, many people from many parts of the world have recorded seeing, hearing or even interacting with intelligent life forms from another planet. These "aliens" (for the lack of another word to describe them by) seem to visit us for reasons unknown to us and seem to possess technologies far superior to our's. If they visit us in the present day, couldn't they have done so hundreds or thousands of years ago?

When the news of a UFO sighting catches the headlines even today, what wonder would it have caused to men who were unexposed to the wonders of scienc?. Wouldn't the roar of a rocket engine be truly supernatural to him? Hence, it is Mr. Von Daniken's hypothesis that aliens would have visited earth and men of those times would have regarded such advanced beings as Gods. The documentary I have mentioned above details that line of thought and sights many examples for the same.

But my line of thinking slightly varies at this point. Across races, civilizations and generations, our God's are given human appearance and form. The Gods whom we read to emerge out of the sky or appear magically are all described and drawn to look like us. If it were aliens, wouldn't our God's be described in different shapes or in space suits?

This could have two explanations:

1. There exists a race of beings, in another planet somewhere in the Universe, who are visually and physiologically similar to human beings. These beings would have visited earth and hence our myths, lore and ancient texts describe Gods in human form.

2. This the stranger of the two explanations. Here is my hypothesis:

What if men of the future invent a time travel device? Somewhere down the road in future, human beings invent a time travel device. And wouldn't such men want to go back in time and see how the world and men of the past? And if such a man from the future (let's say 2100 AD) were to go back in time and appear in 9000 BC, wouldn't he be looked up to by the ancient men as a God? Wouldn't his gadgets and technology be awed up on as super human or divine? So, what if all this writing and drawing we see of Gods is really just men from the future? Are we humans worshipping humans from the future?

At this point, I am drawn to the relationship of this hypothesis with a Vedic Mahavakya (Grand Pronouncement) in Vedantic Sanatana Dharma. This Mahavakya is of relevance here as it is from one of the oldest of Upanishads (this is of importance as this is one of the oldest pieces of written text from the ancient world).

Tat Tvam Asi. It has always been of interest to me as it is a clause which tells the humans to seek their Gods within themselves.

Were such a time traveler to appear in the early days and interact with ancient men, what would that interaction be like? What I am about to pen here is pure fantasy, but would such a time traveler, if asked if he were God, or who was God, be tempted to poetically answer such a question by simply saying "Tat Tvam Asi"?

Tat Tvam Asi. Simply translated it means "That art Thou". When Chandogya Upanishad, which is believed to have been written in 8th Century BC, says so, does it mean that the ancient man, when he queried who God was, was told that it was him? If so, as it is speculated herein, was he told so by one of those time travelers from future?

Is it actually that simple? We have to remember, at the heart of truth is often the simplest of explanations.

All of this is purely a series of thoughts that ran through my mind when I was exposed to the hypothesis that all this time we could have been worshipping aliens. May be it was just human ego which found a more palatable alternative in a conjecture that we could have been worshipping ourselves.

This conundrum would be answered only the day man invents a time machine and goes back to see what really happened.

Only time can tell. Let us wait and see.


Arjun Mohan

25th May 2013
Kochi, India