How Great and Glorious is Thy Being

How  Great  and  Glorious  is  Thy  Being

from   God  Almighty

Martin Cecil   December 6, 1970

O great Lord of the heavens, who art Lord of the earth also,

wherever the earth appears in all the universe,

we are in Thine hand. Without Thee we are not.

With Thee we know the truth and we are true to it.

In humbleness before Thee we kneel in spirit with head bowed to the earth,

but nevertheless looking upward to Thee.

For Thou art our Master, our Lord and King.

Present on earth we are here for Thee, and for Thee alone.

Into Thy hands we are committed.

How great and glorious is Thy being.

How insignificant is our own, and yet inseparable from Thee.

So it is, now and forever, in the Christ.

Aum-en.

At Christmas-time emphasis is placed upon the idea conveyed through the words, "Glory to God in the highest." Too many get hung up on the following words, "On earth peace, good will toward men." "Glory to God in the highest."

In our recent meditations we have concerned ourselves particularly with what is meant by the word Jehovah. In looking to God we have looked to the true character of Being in our own experience. We have examined the nature of Being to some extent and recognized the honorable character that results in our expression on earth when we accept the divine character into our own experience. In other words our view of God has been primarily of God in action on earth through our own specific focus of Being. It has been essential that we should experience very much in this regard, and there is much more to experience, but it is also important that we do not lose sight of God Almighty.

Human beings tend to have a reaction of contempt for what becomes too familiar. In other words, if the dawning experience of the aspect of God which comes to focus in ourselves as individuals is thought of as being supreme we lose sight of what really is supreme. "Glory to God in the highest." Obviously God is much vaster than the individual. There needs to be a balance in other words, in our consciousness and in our experience, in this regard.

There may be a tendency to lose respect for God as He really is by reason of our limited experience of God in the sense of personal being. That experience, compared to the whole, is a very very little thing, isn't it? From the standpoint of a distorted human it may seem like a tremendous thing. In fact the usual view is that we can't be perfect, for instance; therefore if as an individual it is anticipated that we must be perfect, that seems like a tremendous undertaking, such a vast thing. But if we consider God, how really insignificant that undertaking is!—no problem at all. Let us not therefore lose sight of God in the highest, with respect to Whom, in our consciousness of God in individual being, we may be deeply humble.

"Glory to God in the highest." God's will is done in heaven, not only the heaven as it relates to this little speck in the universe but the heaven which relates to the whole universe. What comes to focus in our particular field of responsibility is a relatively small thing, but vitally important to the whole. But we need to have a balance in our own consciousness and experience as it relates to God.

In the Bible there were many occasions when different ones became conscious in some measure of the greatness of divine being. Fear ensued, and those concerned felt inclined to repent in dust and ashes because they became conscious of how corrupt they were in the human sense and how unholy their attitudes and actions and ways had been. As long as we have an inflated idea of our own worth, somehow, without ever having experienced our real relatedness to the truth of God, we need to repent in dust and ashes.

There is a very beautiful allegorical story at the conclusion of this booklet of ours, The Bhagavad-Gita, where Arjuna had accepted the instruction of Krishna and had begun to experience something new in relationship to himself. There came a point where he longed to see God—"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God"—not just to see God in the sense of his individual experience of being but to see the wholeness of God in which his individual experience of being was contained.

Krishna offered him the opportunity of letting his consciousness expand so that he might share a greater balance in his experienced awareness of God. If we do not have this balance we almost inevitably lack the sacred respect which is essential to the true knowing of our own divine being. God has been described as "awe-ful." Those who become aware of God are filled with awe. This is not very characteristic of human beings in relationship to things divine: they can take them or leave them—"God, who's He?" Even when there begins to be a consciousness of the reality of divine being, the real nature of God Almighty tends to be obscured by the concern of the individual with his own expression of rightness. I am not saying we shouldn't be concerned with that expression; we should. But we need to have an awareness of God which is vastly greater than this. Even if we come to the point of the fulness of the expression of divine being on earth, it would seem such a little, insignificant thing, scarcely discernible in the wholeness of God. And of course if we have that fulness of divine expression on earth we naturally would experience this balanced awareness and humility with respect to God.

Let me read to you something from this passage. Arjuna says:

Fain would I see,

As Thou Thyself declar'st it, Sovereign Lord!

The likeness of that glory of Thy Form

Wholly revealed. O Thou Divinest One!

If this can be, if I may bear the sight,

Make Thyself visible, Lord of all prayer!

Show me Thy very Self, the Eternal God!

Then the word of Krishna came:

Gaze, then, thou Son of Pritha! I manifest for thee
Those hundred thousand thousand shapes that clothe my Mystery:
I show thee all my semblances, infinite, rich, divine,
My changeful hues, my countless forms. See! in this face of mine,
Wonders unnumbered, Indian Prince! revealed to none save thee.
Behold! this is the Universe!—Look! what is live and dead
I gather all in one—in Me!  Gaze, as thy lips have said,
ON GOD ETERNAL, VERY GOD! See Me! see what thou prayest!

Thou canst not!—nor, with human eyes, Arjuna! ever mayest!

Therefore I give thee sense divine. Have other eyes, new light!

And, look! This is My glory, unveiled to mortal sight!

SERVANT: Then, O King! the God, so saying,
Stood, to Pritha's Son displaying
All the splendour, wonder, dread
Of His vast Almighty-head.
Out of countless eyes beholding,
Out of countless mouths commanding,
Countless mystic forms enfolding
In one Form: supremely standing
Countless radiant glories wearing,
Countless heavenly weapons bearing,
Crowned with garlands of star-clusters,
Robed in garb of woven lustres,
Breathing from His perfect Presence
Breaths of every subtle essence
Of all heavenly odours; shedding
Blinding brilliance; overspreading—
Boundless, beautiful—all spaces
With His all-regarding faces;
So He showed! If there should rise
Suddenly within the skies
Sunburst of a thousand suns
Flooding earth with beams undeemed-of.
Then might be that Holy One's
Majesty and radiance dreamed of!

So did Pandu's Son behold
All this universe enfold
All its huge diversity
Into one vast shape, and be
Visible, and viewed, and blended
In one Body—subtle, splendid,
Nameless—the All-comprehending
God of Gods, the Never-Ending
Deity!

But, sore amazed,
Thrilled, overfilled, dazzled, and dazed,
Arjuna knelt; and bowed his head,
And clasped his palms; and cried, and said:

ARJUNA: Yea! I have seen! I see!
Lord! all is wrapped in Thee!
The gods are in Thy glorious frame! the creatures
Of earth, and heaven, and hell
In Thy Divine form dwell,
And in Thy countenance shine all the features
Of Brahma, sitting lone
Upon His lotus-throne;
Of saints and sages, and the serpent races;
Yea! mightiest Lord! I see
Thy thousand thousand arms, and breasts, and faces,
And eyes—on every side
Perfect, diversified;
And nowhere end of Thee, nowhere beginning,
Nowhere a centre! Shifts—
Wherever soul's gaze lifts—
Thy central Self, all-wielding, and all-winning!

Infinite King! I see
The anadem on Thee,
The club, the shell, the discus; see Thee burning
In beams insufferable,
Lighting earth, heaven, and hell
With brilliance blazing, glowing, flashing; turning
Darkness to dazzling day,
Look I whichever way;
Ah, Lord! I worship Thee, the Undivided,
The Uttermost of thought,
The Treasure-Palace wrought
To hold the wealth of the worlds; the Shield provided
To shelter virtue's laws;
The Fount whence Life's stream draws
All waters of all rivers of all being:
The One Unborn, Unending:
Unchanging and Unblending!
With might and majesty, past thought, past seeing!

Father of all below,
Of all above, of all the worlds within,
Teacher of teachers; more
To reverence and adore
Than all which is adorable and high!
How, in the wide worlds three
Should any equal be?
Should any other share Thy Majesty?

Therefore, with body bent
And reverent intent,
I praise, and serve, and seek Thee, asking grace.
As father to a son,
As friend to friend, as one
Who loveth to his lover, turn Thy face
In gentleness on me!
Good is it I did see
This unknown marvel of Thy Form! But fear
Mingles with joy! Retake,
Dear Lord! for pity's sake
Thine earthly shape, which earthly eyes may bear!

Be merciful, and show
The visage that I know;
Let me regard Thee, as of yore, arrayed
With disc and forehead-gem
With mace and anadem,
Thou that sustainest all things! Undismayed

Let me once more behold
The form I loved of old,
Thou of the thousand arms and countless eyes!
This frightened heart is fain
To see restored again
My Charioteer, in Krishna's kind disguise.

Let true perspective be restored and know the greatness of our calling!

O great Lord of the heavens, who art Lord of the earth also, wherever the earth appears in all the universe, we are in Thine hand. Without Thee we are not. With Thee we know the truth and we are true to it. In humbleness before Thee we kneel in spirit with head bowed to the earth, but nevertheless looking upward to Thee. For Thou art our Master, our Lord and King. Present on earth we are here for Thee, and for Thee alone. Into Thy hands we are committed. How great and glorious is Thy being. How insignificant is our own, and yet inseparable from Thee. So it is, now and forever, in the Christ. Aum-en.

© Emissaries of Divine Light