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Do Hindus Worship Human Beings as Gods?
Hindus may worship the Divine through the medium of great human beings who have realized
the Truth. In such cases it is not the human personality or physical
body of the person which is revered but the Divine qualities
manifested through them. In fact, Hinduism holds that one of the
best ways to worship the Divine is through honoring Self-realized
sages because realized souls provide us with an example how to
realize God in life, which can be more meaningful than a mere idea
or image of God.
However if we literally
worship a human being as God we fall from Truth as God is the Self,
not a particular person. And if we consider that God can only
manifest through one human being we fall into yet greater error
because God manifests through all beings. Ultimately to know God we
must see all beings in the Self and the Self in all beings.
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