Freeman: There is one role that follows me wherever I go.
You could say it's omnipresent.
It's having played god.
I think what resonates with people is that god would appear among us, but not with
some angelic halo, more as an ordinary person,
a janitor, carpenter.
Jesus is not the only example of human incarnation of god.
The egyptian pharaohs, the emperors of the inca were all considered divine.
Makes you wonder why do people want to see god walk among us?
I'm going on a journey to discover
how different faiths see god taking human form.
I'll meet a goddess living in the body of a nepali girl.
Anil: She's the kumari, we're going to get a chance to get her blessing today.
Freeman: I'll visit a hindu sect whose god walked the earth
just 200 years ago.
Sadhu: Just as jesus was god on earth, swaminarayan was god on earth.
Freeman: I'll witness a host of gods come down to hanoi.
And discover ancient archaeological evidence of when jesus became a god.
Yonatan: Here's the momentous word here, to the god jesus christ.
Freeman: There is one god on earth whose followers number in the billions, jesus.
Every christmas, throngs of pilgrims converge on the starting point of his
terrestrial journey, bethlehem.
The church of the nativity on manger square is built over the spot where the faithful
believe the manger once stood.
Franciscan priest father peter vasko is taking me to the exact place where helena,
mother of roman emperor constantine, believed jesus was born.
Wow.
Father peter: Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims have come
from around the world to be here.
Now over here, we'll go down here, here is the manger.
Freeman: Okay, this is what we're looking for.
Father peter: So we're in the actual place where our lord was born.
Very powerful, and one of the holiest shrines that we have.
Freeman: Christians venerate this site now, but I'm eager to understand when jesus
the preacher, jesus the rabbi came to be seen as the divine jesus.
The answer may lie 86 miles to the north.
I've been offered a glimpse of an archaeological discovery so important that it was
re-buried for protection almost as soon as it was discovered.
It was unearthed in 2005 when work started on an expansion of
a high security israeli prison.
Freeman: Hi.
Now the prison offers welcome security,
as the site has been recently exposed again for further study.
Here to show me around is scholar of comparative religion, doctor yonatan moss.
Yonatan: Hello. Freeman: Hello sir.
I hear you have proof that early christians thought that jesus was god.
Yonatan: We do have proof along those lines.
This here is an excavation of what was discovered to be
an early christian prayer hall.
And here is this fantastic mosaic.
Freeman: Back in the early 3rd century, this mosaic was the floor of a house,
one of the oldest christian houses of worship ever discovered.
So, we are actually in a house here.
Yonatan: Yes, so what does this look like to you?
Freeman: Greek. Yonatan: Exactly.
Greek to us.
Well, let me read it for you.
Freeman: Okay.
Yonatan: Pros enikein akeptous.
Akeptos is somebody's name.
And what did this woman akeptos do?
Pros enikein, she dedicated this table, the table.
What table is she talking about.
Do we see any remnants?
Freeman: What about right there in the middle?
Yonatan: Bingo.
This is the base of the table that would have been in this church.
Freeman: Altar. Yonatan: Altar.
Exactly.
Now she doesn't call it an altar, but this would have been where they would have
their religious, liturgical celebration, maybe something like the eucharist.
And it would have been the table, maybe altar,
for the celebration of the bread and the wine.
Freeman: Biblical scholars believe the sharing of bread and wine as the divine body
and blood of jesus has been part of christian worship since the 1st century.
And, as suggested by the letters of the apostle paul,
many of the early church leaders were women.
Yonatan: I think it's very interesting that it's a woman who dedicates this table.
Freeman: It sort of runs counter to what we see today.
Yonatan: It does yes.
In the early centuries, because christianity was kind of an underground and counter
cultural movement, it was often the people who were in a somewhat subjugated position
within society who accepted christianity, earlier than people in positions of power.
Freeman: Right.
Yonatan: And one of the main demographics in that category were women.
Freeman: Direct archaeological evidence of a woman leading a 3rd century church
is a rare find.
But the mosaic reveals something far more momentous about
the people who worshiped here.
Yonatan: It says, she dedicated the table or offered the table, and here's the
momentous word here, theo iesu christo,
to the god, or god, jesus christ.
Freeman: Not the son of god.
Yonatan: Just god.
Freeman: So this is the oldest archaeological evidence that christians
thought of jesus as god.
Yonatan: This was the matter of debate among early christians, right.
We have the council of nicea in 325 where they discussed
the trinitarian question, right? What does it mean?
Freeman: The father, the son, the holy ghost.
Yonatan: Exactly, what does it mean to say that christ is the son of god?
But what did ordinary christians believe?
That was always very hard to kind of figure out.
This site would seem to give us the voice of these ancient christian women,
and what they believed about christ.
It's explicitly stated here.
Theou iesu christo for these, the people living here, in this village,
in the 3rd century, they understood christ to be divine.
Freeman: Christ as god.
Yonatan: As god, exactly.
Freeman: Well, this is quite an incredible discovery.
1800 years ago, this ordinary house was a meeting place for a group of people,
a group of christians, the dominant voice being women,
played a part in transforming jesus the rabbi,
jesus the prophet, into jesus the god.
God made flesh.
I would argue it is this transformation that has given christianity its longevity.
Billions of souls followed the teaching, not of a man, but of god.
God on earth.
Jesus's few dramatic decades on earth confirmed his divinity in the hearts of
christians for 2,000 years.
Other faiths' gods come and go, much more frequently.
I've come to the mountain nation of nepal.
The capital, kathmandu, is a noisy, bustling, modern city,
and home to a living goddess.
She resides just down the road from the square, next to the local produce market,
in the center of town.
Anil: We are going to enter, a very, you know, sacred space.
Freeman: Anil chitrakar is a nepalese cultural ambassador who is here
to help me learn about the ancient tradition of kumari.
Anil: This is the, space, where the living goddess lives.
We regard the kumari as something integral to our life, because they are the
protectors of everything we have and everything we do.
And so, we're gonna get a chance, you know, for you to actually meet her, and then,
you know, get her blessing today.
Freeman: About how old is this child?
Anil: So, usually, they start around three or four years old.
Freeman: Three years old, giving blessings? Anil: Right.
Even today, you know, the head of state, you know, must get a blessing, you know,
from this young girl, to rule this country, you know, for a year.
Freeman: The kumari is worshiped as a deity by both
the nepalese hindus and buddhists.
She is chosen from the buddhist newari people of this region,
and reigns as a living embodiment of the hindu goddess, taleju.
Her dharma, or duty, is to bestow blessings on believers.
Anil: Be mindful that she will be expressionless, because the local people, you know,
believe that laughter, you know, a smile, you know, all those expressions that human
beings have, you know, are not a very good sign.
And so, having a straight face, is usually the good thing.
Freeman: Oh, now, wait a minute!
Well, what if the child sees me and smiles?
Anil: Hm-mm, so, that would not be a very good thing because people believe, that
that could be a bad omen, you know, that could lead to something bad, like you know
death, or even a legal case, you know, things that, you know bad things
that people want to avoid.
And so generally we believe that a straight face is what you really want to,
you know, see.
Freeman: Are you coming?
Anil: I'm not going to come in.
Freeman: Okay.
Freeman: I'm about to have an audience with a living embodiment
of the hindu god taleju.
My hope is that the kumari remains expressionless.
Even the hint of a smile is said to bring misfortune.
♪ ♪
she didn't, she didn't smile.
As a matter of fact, she didn't have an expression at all.
Anil: Okay. That's a good thing.
Freeman: So that's good for me right?
Anil: That's a good thing.
Freeman: Alright, and I also noticed that her feet were up on a little platform.
Anil: Pedestal, yes.
So while she is the kumari she should not touch the earth...
Freeman: Uh-huh. Anil: And so she will be carried around.
Freeman: I see, okay.
Anil: And so she gets carried around in a palanquin... Freeman: Yeah.
Anil: Even when she has to go to festivals and to attend other rituals in the city.
Freeman: This royal treatment isn't required merely out of respect for the divine.
It avoids her receiving cuts to her feet.
If she bleeds, she ceases to be a goddess.
Of course, that day can only be put off so long.
With the onset of puberty, this young girl must return to a way of life
that may now be alien to her.
It seemed like this would be kind of a rough deal for a kid.
Anil: It is a rough deal, you know, for a kid, but I think in this part of the world,
you know, we're constantly reminded about our duty...
Freeman: Yes.
Anil: And so in, you know, sort of the years to come the people take great pride in the
fact that she was able to serve her community by taking on this duty.
Freeman: And after is no longer a goddess..
Anil: Right. Freeman: What is she?
Anil: You know once she reaches puberty then the community begins to search,
you know, for a second child, you know, who'll replace her.
She enters the regular family and I think...
Freeman: She becomes just a regular...
Anil: Regular girl.
Freeman: Got it.
The kumari can't speak to me.
She can't tell me what it's like to be a living goddess.
But anil has arranged for me to visit someone who can.
Former kumari, matina shakya.
Namaste.
Matina is not the first in the shakya line to have been seen as divine.
The lineage traces back to siddhartha gautama, the buddha.
Now, matina has returned to the life of a typical 13-year-old girl.
I just met a kumari.
She was on her cushion.
Her feet are up on a platform.
And she had no expression.
And I was told that if she did have an expression it could be my downfall.
I don't know if you have to think, after a while, about controlling yourself?
Can you give me any idea how you felt?
(speaking in native language).
Anil: So, no, she doesn't have any, you know, negative thoughts.
(speaking in native language).
She's saying that for nine years, the two things she found very good was her
friends would come and play with her, so she always had the company.
But the second one was, you know, she had tutors, you know,
who took her through the curriculum.
Freeman: Is it difficult to make the transition from being the goddess
to being just regular?
Anil: Very normal, she doesn't have any difficulty...
Freeman: Really? Anil: Adjusting to this new life, no.
Freeman: Do your friends still think of you as a goddess?
(speaking in native language).
Anil: So they recognize both the roles that she's a former kumari, but then when they're
playing, you know, she's just a class mate.
Freeman: Okay.
What makes you laugh out loud?
(speaking in native language).
Freeman: Is she gonna say nothing?
Well, I guess she can't grow up as a goddess and
not gain some sense of bearing, right? Right.
Anil: Right, right.
Freeman: And I'm struck by her serenity.
(speaking in native language).
Freeman: What do you want to go in to?
What do you going to do in life?
(speaking in native language).
Anil: So she loves her math class a lot, but what that will lead to
she hasn't yet decided.
Freeman: Right, well that's good enough I'm telling you.
(speaking in native language)
freeman: One thing I do not do, math.
(laughter)
thank you.
Matina: You're welcome.
Freeman: I'm just amazed when I contemplate matina's childhood.
At the age of three she was elevated to the status of goddess.
That was her dharma, her duty; she was given a role by her community to be a source of
divine blessing and guidance.
To be a bridge between this world and the realm of the gods.
That was matina's burden, and her honor.
Being a god for a decade shapes the kumari's entire life.
But some gods enter human bodies for just fleeting moments.
♪ ♪
I've come to the city of hanoi, vietnam's capital and cultural heart.
I'm here to witness a ceremony of the ancient dao mau folk religion.
Nguyen ngoc vi is a dao mau spirit medium.
Vi, how are you?
So good to see you.
Nguyen: Yes, nice to meet you, come please.
Freeman: Thank you.
She's preparing to ask the gods to come down to earth for bui thi khim khue,
who needs divine guidance in her romantic life.
But first, I want to understand how vi became a channel for divine spirits.
How does a young woman like you become a spirit medium?
(speaking in native language).
Khue: People said that when she was very young she was very uncommon.
Freeman: Yeah.
(speaking in native language)
khue: We didn't know anything until the day that my parents went to talk to
the fortune teller,
and also that I start to see, gods spirit.
Freeman: So you think these spirits were trying to communicate something to you?
Nguyen: Yeah.
(speaking in native language).
Khue: One time I receive a message like a dream, from the god,
and he told me that I should become a medium to help people.
To be the messenger of god.
Freeman: Vi has become one of dao mau's leading mediums,
drawing people who wish to speak to the gods from all over northern vietnam.
The religion has many deities.
Over several weeks of preparation, vi has petitioned several of them to come down
to earth today.
But the ceremony can only begin when vi senses the arrival of the mother goddess,
a chief deity of dao mau who opens the door for the other gods.
Freeman: When a deity arrives, vi signals her assistants to dress
her in that god's clothing.
Freeman: This deity is a general.
The color of each god's costume represents which of the four elements of nature
they control; earth, sky, mountain or water.
Freeman: Why are you here?
Freeman: The general leaves without giving a message to khue.
But a new god is already on the way.
Freeman: Nguyen ngoc vi has prayed for several gods of the dao mau folk religion to come
down to hanoi today.
She believes one of them can help bui thi khim khue with her troubled love life.
As each god arrives vi welcomes them with a drink, changes into their costume,
and lets them express themselves in human form.
Freeman: A series of noble ladies, princes, and maidens inhabit vi's body.
But none has a message for khue.
Until, at last, a second general arrives.
It's the commander of tu n tranh,
a figure famous for fighting back a mongol invasion in the 13th century.
He summons khue to come to the altar.
♪ ♪
khue: So, he gave me a blessing that I'm going to meet a person with good,
with a kind heart.
And, will get married.
Yes.
That's, the blessing I got.
Freeman: He give you any idea how long it's gonna be before this happens?
Khue: Maybe soon, I hope.
Freeman: Okay we'll see.
Khue: We'll see.
They gonna ask me to finish bottom up.
Freeman: Bottoms up. Khue: So that I can get married.
Freeman: Okay.
Gods and the souls of ancestors all mix and mingle flowing through
the tradition of dao mau.
For the believers, the boundary between the eternal and
our mortal world is thin and porous.
The appearance of these gods on earth, it's not a miracle.
It's an everyday occurrence.
Like calling up an old friend.
We gonna have to give all this money back before we leave?
Khue: No.
You can keep this, it's lucky.
Freeman: About 60 grand here.
Many believers turn to the gods in times of need.
Jesus came to judea when the jews were under the thumb of roman occupation.
Thousands of years later,
some say he came again, this time to africa.
Shashamane, ethiopia is a rastafari settlement more than 7000 miles from jamaica.
Donisha prendergast, activist, documentarian, and granddaughter of
reggae legend bob marley...
Isha: Thank you.
Freeman: Is here to learn about the rastafari belief that
the late ethiopian emperor haile selassie was a reincarnation of jesus.
♪ babylon is falling, ethiopia she is calling. ♪
freeman: Meeting her today is sydney salmon a jamaican rastafarian
who now calls shashamane home.
Sydney: Welcome, welcome, welcome home, welcome home, welcome home.
Isha: You know many people think that rastafari is just
bob marley, ganja, reggae music.
Sydney: Yes.
Isha: So, tell me about, what is it about shashamane, why do you find yourself here?
Sydney: You know, shashamane is the mecca of rastafari, you know.
Isha: We can't talk about rastafari as a movement... Sydney: Yes.
Isha: Without talking about marcus mosiah garvey.
Sydney: Yes, I...
Freeman: The story starts in 1920 with the jamaican publisher
and political activist, marcus garvey.
Sydney: Marcus garvey is like john the baptist, you know, the first man
who come and spoke to us.
He said, "africans need to see their god through african spectacles.
Freeman: Garvey believed that people of african descent, dispersed by slavery and
tyrannized by colonialism, needed leaders, both political and spiritual,
made in their own image.
He wrote: "look to africa when a black king shall be crowned,
for the day of deliverance is near."
ten years later the ethiopian nobleman rastafari mekonnen
was crowned emperor of ethiopia, and took the name haile selassie.
Isha: 88 years ago when his majesty was coronated...
Sydney: Yes. Isha: He changed history.
Sydney: Yes.
Isha: So from the jump his majesty was about african unity.
Sydney: Unity.
Freeman: Many jamaicans, living under british colonial rule, were inspired by
selassie's resistance to european invaders.
And saw him as garvey's redeemer.
Some pronounced him a reincarnation of jesus, and the rastafari faith was born.
Sydney: To some people god mean different things.
Well, the first thing we know that the bible teaches that god is a spirit.
But this spirit manifested himself as a man.
As a human being.
Freeman: Selassie was an ethiopian orthodox christian and
never claimed to be divine.
But when he set aside shashamane as a homeland for dispersed africans it
bolstered his status as a god for the rastafari.
Isha: He was the only african king who came and stretched out his hand.
Sydney: Yeah.
Isha: Gave us 500 acres of land.
Sydney: Yes, so I give thanks for being here.
Long live marcus garvey.
Long live the spirit of rastafari and repatriation to the homeland,
with my god and my king beside me, you know.
Freeman: People of many faiths yearn to reach out and touch the divine here on earth.
But divinity does not only manifest in human form.
Catholics believe they can still make contact with jesus
through the objects he left behind.
Freeman: I've come to paris to visit one of the most famous cathedrals
in the entire world.
(bells ringing)
notre dame.
(organ playing)
more than 13 million people come here every year.
Yet only a fraction of them knows that these vaulted ceilings house one of the most
precious and closely guarded relics in all christendom.
The crown of thorns.
I've been granted special access to see the crown up-close, and learn more
about what the faithful see in this sacred object.
Father denis dupont-fauville is one of its curators.
This, this is it?
Father denis: This is it. This is very rare to show it like that.
Freeman: It's been the prized possession of the catholic church in France
for almost 800 years.
Of course, if it's the genuine article, it's far older than that.
Father denis: The crown which is made of reeds, of herbs, of weeds...
Freeman: Mm-mm.
Father denis: And they put it in this circle of glass, actually,
with gold around there.
And they added a few gold wires to maintain it.
Freeman: Oh, then the actual reeds are held together now...
Father denis: Yes. Freeman: With these little gold wires.
Father denis: Yes, and then they put this glass thing and the sealed it just to preserve
it from air, from pollution, from contact.
But what we call the crown of thorns was actually sort of a helmet of thorns.
And so they, on this circle they made a helmet with the thorns and
then they set it on the head.
That was really horrible.
Freeman: The gospels say that when jesus was carrying his cross to golgotha,
roman soldiers mocked him as the "king of the jews"
and placed a crown of thorns on his head.
I have this question for you.
Father denis: Yes. Freeman: France, that's a long way from golgotha.
Father denis: Yes, that's a long story.
So helen, who was the mother of the emperor took it from jerusalem to constantinople
in the 4th century.
Freeman: The roman emperor constantine's mother had converted to christianity,
and claimed the crown as a key symbol of jesus's suffering on the cross.
Father denis: And then nearly 1000 years the crown stayed in constantinople.
Then there was the war, but the emperor had no money to pay the army.
So, to get the money for his army, he put the crown in loan in venice.
Freeman: They swapped it.
Father denis: He loaned the crown.
And when the king of France learned that, king louis, he say, "it's a shame.
So, I give the money for the army and I get the crown in a safe place, that's France."
freeman: Okay.
Father denis: So in 1239 it arrived in France.
Freeman: Uh-huh.
Father denis: And when king louis welcomed this crown in paris, he went out of the city
with bare feet, only a shirt on him, and he said, "well, I'm the most powerful
king on earth, but I'm nothing in comparison to the true king.
My crown is of gold, but his crown is the true one. It was made of thorns."
so it was very, very moving from this man who was the most powerful on earth at the time.
You know...
And the money he gave was one full year of France's budget.
You can imagine it was tremendous.
Freeman: Quite a bit of money.
So, the amount that was paid probably opened the doorway for a lot of fake stuff.
Father denis: Well, you can never be sure 100% they are the true ones.
But in this case it was analyzed a little bit a few years ago,
so, we are certain that is the actual crown which was shown to helen.
So if there is one in the world, it's this one.
Freeman: I know you said that if there is a crown of thorns, this is it.
Father denis: Yes.
Freeman: But what if it's not it?
Father denis: Well if it really touched christ of course it is obvious, but even
if it's not the true one it's a way of remembering, okay he really was on earth.
He was a true man.
He could bear that, he could have that on his very head.
And this is no story, this is not a tale or a symbol or an abstraction.
This is history.
This is concrete, we can touch it.
You know.
Freeman: Got you.
Today is the first Friday of the month, when the crown is put on public display.
People from all over the world come to attend mass and get close to the relic.
By so doing, they believe they are getting closer to jesus.
Father denis: People come there with their sufferings, with their hopes.
And they come to this crown, they come to christ actually; and say,
"okay, you suffered, you hoped. I suffer, I hope. I want to join with you."
so that's very, very deep.
Simple in a way but very, very moving.
Freeman: Holy relics are symbols of the divine here on earth.
As such, they can and do fall under the control of people who
would use them for earthly power.
But for those who are seeking spiritual strength, relics act as a beacon,
a beacon of faith, that guide them through the distractions of this
mortal realm to a more direct connection with god.
Religions often form around divinely inspired figures,
moses, mohammed, the buddha.
Most people are only aware of one faith where god took human form, christianity.
But there is another.
This divine person may be the key to understanding the power of gods on earth.
Freeman: I've come to london to visit the shri swaminarayan temple.
It's dedicated to the swaminarayan sect of the hindu faith.
I've been granted an audience with one of the senior spiritual leaders of the group...
Thank you for having this conversation with me.
Sadhu paramtattvadas.
He and millions of his fellow devotees believe that the supreme god of hinduism,
brahman, came to earth as a human, just over 200 years ago.
Tell me the story of god on earth, the hindu god on earth.
Sadhu: For me, I mean there are many gods.
Freeman: I thought there was one?
Sadhu: There is one supreme entity.
And that entity can take many forms.
So for me, as a, as a monk, that would be bhagwan swaminarayan.
For me, he is the supreme, ultimate entity.
For me, he is god.
Freeman: Swaminarayan hindus believe that god was born in human form in
the indian state of uttar pradesh in 1781.
Sadhu: He manifested on earth, as a normal human being, through a mother and a father,
to dispel the darkness of ignorance, to help elevate humankind,
to a higher moral level.
At the age of 11, after his parents passed away,
alone, barefooted, open-chested,
with nothing except a utensil to drink from,
a small scripture and a loincloth.
Chose this journey of traveling across india,
and he traveled 12,000 kilometers including
spending three years across the himalayas, alone through jungles, across mountains,
treacherous, climates and conditions.
Freeman: As he traveled, stories of his power and divinity began to spread.
In one such tale, he arrived at a village that was being terrorized by a lion.
The village priest warned him away, but swaminarayan refused to go.
That night he faced down the lion.
When the village awoke, the lion looked more like a lamb.
Calmly lying at the swami's feet.
The villagers knew then that this young man was no ordinary human.
Sadhu: He spent seven years along this journey, to see the religious landscape of india,
and see where he could find those souls that he wanted to bring to perfection.
Freeman: The 11-year-old who walked the length and breadth of india,
and became supreme.
Sadhu: No. Freeman: No.
Sadhu: He was eternally supreme, he is god.
He doesn't become god, he was god.
And is god and always will be god.
Freeman: Always was?
Sadhu: Always was, and always will be.
That's the, the very essence of having eternal supreme entity.
Just as jesus was god on earth, bhagwan swaminarayan was god on earth.
Because he grew up as a normal child, but there were still miracles happening
all around him.
He was bringing things to life, he was protecting people,
saving people throughout his life there were lots of miracles.
But in our traditions, the miracles don't have as much spiritual importance.
They don't prove him as god.
He is.
Freeman: How is the human condition helped
by a god being here among us?
Sadhu: Is god not powerful enough to exact his power from heaven?
Bhagwan swaminarayan explains that his manifestation,
taking on a human form, was to help countless souls eradicate their ignorance,
and elevate them to spiritual perfection.
Freeman: I'm, I'm trying my best to absorb.
So what you're saying, basically, it's a way of leading by example.
Sadhu: Yes, I think it's immensely powerful.
What if jesus was present on earth now?
Amongst us.
Rather than interpreting scriptures in different ways,
we have a person who's speaking to us.
It's a much more direct relationship.
What more powerful and direct form of revelation could there be
than god himself appearing on earth and saying, here I am.
♪ ♪
it seems to me we yearn for god to walk among us because,
we need a living example of what it means to be divine.
A god in human form can show us the way through hard times.
Help us make tough choices.
Show us how to love and respect one another, when it seems the hardest thing to do.
Just because we are mortal doesn't mean we can't strive to live as god would.
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