I poured out praise to the Lord, for I am his.
And I will speak his holy Ode, for my heart is with him.
For his harp is in my hands, and the odes of his rest shall not be silent.
I will cry unto him from my whole heart, I will praise and exalt him with all my members.
For from the East and unto the West, is his glory.
And from the South and unto the North is his praise.
And from the top of the hills unto their farthest part is his perfection.
Who can write the odes of the Lord, or who read them?
Or who can train his soul for life, that his soul may be saved?
Or who can press upon the Most High, that from his mouth he may speak?
Who is able to interpret the wonders of the Lord? For he who interprets would be dissolved, and that which was interpreted will remain.
For it suffices to know and to rest, for in the rest the singers stand.
Like a river which has an increasingly gushing spring, and flows to the relief of them that seek it. Alleluia.
I poured out praise to the Lord, for I am his.
Loving and praising God is not some unnatural or artificially applied practice. Rather, those whose inner reality is becoming manifest will naturally, even automatically, begin loving and praising because they belong to God, being a part of his Eternal Being. In this way we can distinguish those that are truly drawing near to God from those who are merely philosophizing and discussing, those whom Paramhansa Yogananda often spoke of as having philosophical indigestion. So when you meet someone who thinks they have “gone beyond duality” and therefore have so place in their life for love or devotion directed to God, remember this Ode.
And I will speak his holy Ode, for my heart is with him.
Again we find it is a matter of nature, not of intellectual choice or a sense of duty. Our heart and are Self (Atma) is the same thing. When we find our Self we naturally find God because they are ever in union. Therefore Self-realization is God-realization.
For his harp is in my hands, and the odes of his rest shall not be silent.
Elsewhere in the Odes it is stated that the Holy Spirit is the harp of the Lord. Since that Spirit is giving us life at every moment, it is accessible to us. And the peace, the rest, of our own spirit will shine forth and manifest itself. That is why “when Jesus was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out” (Luke 19:37-40).
Therefore Jesus said: “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16).
Once again, it is a matter of spontaneous nature, like an artesian well: “Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his inmost being shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38).
I will cry unto him from my whole heart, I will praise and exalt him with all my members.
When the totality of our being is pervaded by the Divine Light of God, praise and exaltation will become our very nature. We will seek, find and rejoice. Just as the river flows to the sea, so each one of us seeks and finds our Self in God. Every atom of our being will radiate his praise.
For from the East and unto the West, is his glory. And from the South and unto the North is his praise.
Not just ourselves, but all the creation is a manifestation of the Infinite Life that is God. “Blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory” (Psalms 72:19). “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3). “The Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee” (Isaiah 60:2). “And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever” (Revelation 5:13).
And from the top of the hills unto their farthest part is his perfection.
There is no place where the perfection of God is not to be found by those who have the eyes of their spirit open and are therefore able to directly perceive it.
Who can write the odes of the Lord, or who read them?
Only those whose consciousness has been opened in God can write or read the eternal truths found in these inspired Odes, some of whom seem to be written by Jesus himself, and perhaps some by his mother, Mary.
Or who can train his soul for life, that his soul may be saved?
Life is ours from eternity. It cannot be gotten or produced like a material object. We cannot train our soul for life or do anything to ensure our salvation because those things are present realities, only we are blind to them. That is why Ode Thirteen says: “Behold the Lord is our mirror. Open (your) eyes and see them in him. And learn the manner of your face, and declare praises to his Spirit.”
“God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth (Genesis 1:27-28). The message is clear: God has created us for mastery over all things. We need only uncover and release that inherent nature.
Jesus “cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go” (John 11:43-44). Like Lazarus, we are alive but bound. When we free ourselves of the bonds then our journey is ended. Nirvana literally means “no binding.” It is all a matter of awakening, of seeing. “As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness” (Psalms 17:15). “When I awake, I am still with thee” (Psalms 139:18). “For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light” (Psalms 36:9).
Or who can press upon the Most High, that from his mouth he may speak?
Neither God nor man imposes their will upon the other. This is hard to realize because we are so conditioned by coercive, sociopathic religion that goes on and on about God’s will and God’s law, not to mention all kinds of gimmicks by which we can supposedly win (or force) God’s attention and favor. But we must shake off all such conditioning through study of true scriptures and meditation. By this means we will come to understand the real meaning of the divine will and law and what is the actual interaction between God and man, an interaction governed by the fact of their unity. Again: it is all a matter of inherent nature.
Who is able to interpret the wonders of the Lord? For he who interprets would be dissolved, and that which was interpreted will remain.
All that is not eternal about us will certainly be dissolved in the Divine Vision. Only our true Self and the Self of our Self, God, will remain. That is why, as recorded in the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Ramakrishna said: “In samadhi one attains the Knowledge of Brahman–one realizes Brahman. In that state reasoning stops altogether, and man becomes mute. He has no power to describe the nature of Brahman.
“Once a salt doll went to measure the depth of the ocean. It wanted to tell others how deep the water was. But this it could never do, for no sooner did it get into the water than it melted. Now who was there to report the ocean’s depth?” And: “There is a sign of Perfect Knowledge. Man becomes silent when It is attained. Then the ‘I’, which may be likened to the salt doll, melts in the Ocean of Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute and becomes one with It. Not the slightest trace of distinction is left.…That which could have told about its depth had melted. Reaching the seventh plane, the mind is annihilated; man goes into samadhi. What he feels then cannot be described in words.”
For it suffices to know and to rest, for in the rest the singers stand.
To know and experience the Self that is a part of God is sufficient. For in that peace and stability we are enabled to act. The real part of us does not melt away–only the unreal we have mistaken for reality, for ourself. In that freedom and peace (“rest”) we will be established (“stand”).
Like a river which has an increasingly gushing spring, and flows to the relief of them that seek it.
True liberation (nirvana or moksha) lasts forever, and is not a static condition but an ever-expanding scope of awareness in which the liberated live in total Satchidananda: Reality, Consciousness and Bliss. “There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High” (Psalms 46:4).
Read the next article in The Odes of Solomon for Awakening: The Odes of Solomon: 27