What is the relationship between God descending in man and man rising to be God?

Meher baba has talked about god descending in man (avatar, rasool, christ) and man rising to be god (the perfect master, sadguru, qutub, teerthankara). Would you please talk to us about the same?

God is. He neither ascends nor descends. Where can he ascend to and where can he descend to? God is all. There is nothing in to which God can ascend or descend. There is nobody else other than God. All that is is divine. So the first thing: there is no ascendence, no descendence. But when Meher Baba says it, there must be some meaning in it. The meaning is something quite different. Let me explain it to you. God is, remember. God is a pure isness, pure existence, and there is nowhere for God to go or come. The whole is full of him. He fills his existence, one thing. Second thing: but Meher Baba must be true. Then there must be some other meaning to it -- not God descending and ascending. What can be the meaning? The meaning is there are two ways of man approaching God.…

Osho, one view says that the Divine incarnates by taking a human body. Another view says that the ultimate flowering of the human being is into the Divine. Which of these is closer to the truth?

Jains and Buddhists gave man dignity—but created dangers. First: you must go alone, by your own hands. Hope dims. It is like trying to lift yourself by your own bootstraps. You must go by your own strength! And you know what your hands have achieved: you sought wealth—didn’t get it; status—didn’t get it; everywhere defeat and disappointment. And now to attain God? What you wanted most has never quite happened—and now this, which has neither clear address nor guarantee—will you seek it? Hard. And alone; with no support; Mahavira says: “asharana-bhava”—do not seek refuge, for there is none. Raise yourself—self-reliance. But do you have such trust in yourself? When the petty has not been fulfilled, how will you fulfill the vast? That is one danger. Second: if you happen to be one of the rare stubborn ones who persist—refining life and conduct until the fragrance of sainthood begins to arise—after…

Beloved Osho, meher baba speaks about two different kinds of enlightened masters. One he calls "man becoming god," the other he calls "god becoming man." gautam buddha belongs to the first -- slowly, through many lives, he has flowered into the state of buddhahood. Meher baba asserts that he belongs to the second, "god becoming man." I have not really understood what he means. Can you say something about this?

I have been to many courts unnecessarily because whenever I would say anything about Rama, somebody's heart would start having attacks; their religious feelings would be hurt. Their religious feelings are not hurt by the act of Rama. Their religious feelings are hurt but in a wrong situation; I am simply saying what is written in their scriptures. I cannot believe that Rama is an incarnation of God. And the same is the case with other incarnations. Their life proves that they have nothing to do with God. Gautam Buddha, or Mahavira, or Bodhidharma, or Nagarjuna -- these are evolving consciousnesses. They don't believe there is a God. Their experience is that you have to create a god within you, you have to become a womb, and you have the potential to become a god. And looking at Gautam Buddha -- just the way he sits, just the way he…

Buddha says: "This very body is the lotus paradise, this very body the Buddha." This ordinary body has the capacity to invite God into it. It can become a host, it can become a home for God -- it all depends on us. If we prepare our mind and body, God is immediately ready to come in. And the moment God enters the body, the dust is transformed into gold. Then the body is no longer material, it itself becomes spiritual. Even matter is transformed. Every man is an empty country without God. Only with God do we become populated. Only with God entering us do we start feeling contented, fulfilled for the first time. All that is great always descends from above. It falls over you, it rains and showers over you. It is a waterfall. It does not grow from below, upwards; it showers from upwards, downwards.

Osho, Nanakdev was also an awakened man. But he never said, “I am God.” He also said that one should acknowledge none but the One Supreme. And the person who shows the path of spirituality should be called a guru. It has been asked by R. S. Gill. Only a Sikh could ask such a question—because the question has not come from the heart. The question is hollow; it comes from the intellect. It comes from tradition, from belief, from prejudice. Yet it is worth understanding, because such prejudices are piled up inside everyone.

Hence so many differing notions of God; hence every century has a different God. It changes—not because God changes, but because the reflections change, because the reflectors change. The God of the Old Testament is very wrathful—rudra-like—angry over trifles, raining fire for small things, bringing a deluge for small things. In rage He once drowned the world, saving a few chosen ones in Noah’s ark; on cities He rained fire; slight offense, terrible wrath! Is God wrathful? No. Those who wrote the Old Testament must have been wrathful. The Old Testament tells us about the Jews who wrote it. The Vedas’ idea of God does not inform us about God; it tells us about those who composed the Vedas. A rishi prays, “May the milk in my cows’ udders increase, and may my enemy’s cows go dry. Lord, see that my fields yield well and my neighbor’s do not.” Does…