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This Classic work is now copyright expired and therefore in the public domain. Cosmic Consciousness by Ali NomadI THE NEW BIRTH: WHAT IT IS: INSTANCES DESCRIBED
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From whence and by whom we are not prepared to say, but the "signs and portents" which precede the solution of this problem have already made their appearance.
Christian students of the Persian mystics, take exception to statements like the above, and regard them as "erotic," rather than spiritual.
Mahmud Shabistari employs the following symbolism, but unquestionably seeks to express the same emotion:
"Go, sweep out the chamber of your heart,
Make it ready to be the dwelling-place of the Beloved.
When you depart out, he will enter in,
In you, void of your_self_, will he display his beauty."
The "Song of Solomon" is in a similar key, and whether the wise king referred to that state of _samadhi_ which accompanies certain experiences of cosmic consciousness, or whether he was reciting love-lyrics, must be a moot question.
The personal note in the famous "song" has been accounted for by many commentators, on the grounds that Solomon had only partial glimpses of the supra-conscious state, and that, in other words, he frequently "backslid" from divine contemplation, and allowed his yearning for the state of liberation, to express itself in love of woman.
An attribute of the possession of cosmic consciousness is wisdom, and this Solomon is said to have possessed far beyond his contemporaries, and to a degree incompatible with his years. It is said that he built and consecrated a "temple for the Lord," and that, as a result of his extreme piety and devotion to God, he was vouchsafed a vision of God.
As these reports have come to us through many stages of church history and as Solomon lived many centuries before the birth of Jesus, it seems hardly fitting to ascribe the raptures of Solomon as typifying the love of the Church (the bride) for Christ (the bridegroom).
Rather, it is easier to believe, the wisdom of the king argues a degree of consciousness far beyond that of the self-conscious man, and he rose to the quality of spiritual realization, expressing itself in a love and longing for that soul communion which may be construed as quite personal, referring to a personal, though doubtless non-corporeal union with his spiritual complement.
Although the pronoun "he" is used, signifying that Solomon's longing was what theology terms "spiritual" and consequently impersonal, meaning God The Absolute, yet we suggest that the use of the masculine pronoun may be due entirely to the translators and commentators (of whom there have been many), and that, in their zeal to reconcile the song with the ecclesiastical ideas of spirituality, the gender of the pronoun has been changed. We submit that the idea is more than possible, and indeed in view of the avowed predilections of the ancient king and sage, it is highly probable.
He sings:
"Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth
For his love is better than wine."
Again he cries:
"Behold thou art fair my love, behold thou art fair, thou _hast dove's eyes_."
The realization of _mukti_, i.e., the power of the _atman_ to transcend the physical, is thus expressed by Solomon, clearly indicating that he had found liberation:
"My beloved spoke and said unto me, 'Rise up my love my fair one, and come away. For lo, the winter is passed, the rain is over and gone.
"'The flowers appear upon the earth; the time of singing of birds has come, and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land.
"'The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vine with the tender grapes gives a goodly smell. Arise my love, my fair one, and come away.'"
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