Great Being & Oneness of God, Part I

The Great Being and the Oneness of God, Part I

By John Taylor; 9 February, 2006

My study of the Writings can be divided into two periods, an early
bookish period and most recently, a search engine phase. I edged into
this over several years; after much experimentation I found that the
best Baha'i search engine by far was one called "Ocean." The only
program I can imagine rivaling Ocean is Google's Desktop Search, which
I have not explored thoroughly enough to offer an assessment as yet.
Its interface is the same as the internet Google, and that is
flexible, familiar and convenient. It is possible to adapt the text
database that comes with Ocean to Google Desktop Search, which would
combine the best of both.

Anyway, I found that approaching the Holy Text from the point of view
of isolated keywords produced a little mystery that nagged at me for
years. Who is the "Great Being?" I had not wondered about it in my
bookish period but now in keyword searches the expression suddenly
jumped out; mysterious mentions of this "Great Being" seemed to be
part of every general pronouncement of Baha'u'llah. At times I
speculated that this "Great Being" might be the Bab, or Baha'u'llah,
or the Godhead, or the Holy Spirit. At one point I asked a group of
Baha'i scholars on an Internet list if they had any ideas, and though
there was the usual circumlocution no substantive answer was
generated.

Meanwhile, I was gingerly picking out passages to memorize -- like
Pooh Bear, I am of very small brain and must pick what to squeeze in
there very carefully. This is necessary because I sometimes find to my
horror that when a new memorization stays, other important memories
pop out, lost forever to memory. I may for instance succeed in
memorizing the Long Healing Prayer but my entire third year of
university will slide irretrievably into oblivion. I noticed again
that the chosen few memorizations, the ones that seemed most crucial
and most likely to used again and again, were once more accompanied by
this fateful phrase, "The Great Being Saith..." Was I onto something?
Is Baha'u'llah tagging the most indispensable passages for us Pooh
Bears of the world? Is He saying in effect: "You have a tiny brain, I
know, but this is something that you really must find room for. The
Great Being said it so it must be memorable."

Another speculation was that the "Great Being" may be a flag for the
principle that I am stewing over right now, the Oneness of God. Does
it mark a junction between the principle of Oneness of God and the
other major Baha'i principles? Well, decide for yourself. I will cite
them all and let you be the judge.

Baha'u'llah, in His last full length work, the Epistle to the Son of
the Wolf, addressed to a bloodthirsty Shaykh known pejoratively as the
"Wolf," a corrupt leader and notorious persecutor of Baha'is, mentions
the Great Being in the following passage:

"O Shaykh! Entreat thou the one true God to sanctify the ears, and the
eyes, and the hearts of mankind, and to protect them from the desires
of a corrupt inclination. For malice is a grievous malady which
depriveth man from recognizing the Great Being, and debarreth him from
the splendors of the sun of certitude. We pray and hope that through
the grace and mercy of God He may remove this mighty obstacle. He,
verily, is the Potent, the All-Subduing, the Almighty." (Epistle, 96)

We notice that the son of the wolf being addressed, one Shaykh
Muhammad Taqi, was indeed full of malicious sentiments not only
against Baha'is but other minorities, not to mention his Shah and
government, both of which he plotted against. His nameless hatred is a
microcosm of the secret malice that since then has become widespread.
Whether open or hidden, malice is a standing danger to peace and
security. As Baha'u'llah says, it is a contagious illness that blocks
humans collectively and individually from recognizing the "Great
Being," the God of love.

If anything is the mirror opposite of love, the desire to benefit
others, it would have to be malice. The word is defined in my
dictionary as a "desire to cause pain, injury, or distress to
another," or as an "intent to commit an unlawful act or cause harm
without legal justification or excuse." Malice is the distinction
between merely killing a person, termed manslaughter, and committing
murder; clearly the latter is much more dangerous than manslaughter,
since his malicious motive makes it more likely the crime will be
repeated whenever someone displeases him. Such a person is like the
wolf, a natural-born predator. Once it gets a taste of human blood,
will never satisfy itself with more difficult animal prey again.

Shaykh Muhammad Taqi is named Son of the Wolf because his malice is
prototypical. His goes beyond that of other murderers, for he murdered
the loved ones of the Great Being. Jesus admonished those who "build
the tombs of the prophets their fathers killed." This is a perfect
description of what Muhammad Taqi did to the wealthy Baha'is known as
the "King of the Martyrs" and the "Beloved of the Martyrs." Taqi
borrowed great sums of money from them, then plotted and stirred up
false rumours to offend the religious prejudices of the mob. That way
he not only murdered them for his own profit, he also gained popular
acclaim for doing so. He was a defender of the Faith. Jesus continues,
explaining why God in His wisdom sees to it such that tragedies take
place.

"Therefore also the wisdom of God said, 'I will send to them prophets
and apostles; and some of them they will kill and persecute, that the
blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the
world, may be required of this generation; from the blood of Abel to
the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the
sanctuary.' Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation."
(Luke 11:49-51, WEB)

Next time we will go over the balance of the mentions of "Great Being"
in Baha'u'llah's Tablets, all of which are to be found in the
Lawh-i-Maqsud.

--
John Taylor

badijet@gmail.com