{"id":587,"date":"2008-01-31T23:12:12","date_gmt":"2008-01-31T12:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sahajayoga.com.au\/news\/2008\/01\/31\/tennyson%e2%80%99s-mystical-union-with-god\/"},"modified":"2008-01-31T23:12:12","modified_gmt":"2008-01-31T12:12:12","slug":"tennysons-mystical-union-with-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sahajayoga.com.au\/news\/2008\/01\/31\/tennysons-mystical-union-with-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennyson\u2019s Mystical Union with God"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Alfred<\/a>Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809 \u2013 1892), one of the greatest English poets, has written one of the clearest descriptions of the Self-realisation that results from the awakening of the kundalini.\u00a0The passage is found in a very early poem of his called \u201cArmageddon\u201d, written when he was only fifteen years old.\u00a0The passage starts with his encounter with a beautiful angel (seraph) who tells him that his senses are \u201cclogg’d with dull mortality\u201d and his \u201cspirit [is] fetter’d with the bond of clay\u201d.\u00a0 Following this, the seraph commands, \u201cOpen thine eyes and see!” and in that instant he achieves his Self-realisation.\u00a0He could then feel the unimaginable glory that lies within all of us: \u201cI felt my soul grow godlike\u201d.\u00a0 As \u201ceach failing sense \u2026 grew thrillingly distinct and keen\u201d the world around him was transformed into a thing of wonder and beauty.\u00a0 \u201cAll sense of Time and Being and Place [were] swallowed up and lost\u201d.\u00a0 He had achieved yoga (union with God): \u201cI was a part of the Unchangeable\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Aaron Rosenthal<\/p>\n

Here is this beautiful poem in full:<\/p>\n

The rustling of white wings!\u00a0 The bright descent
\nOf a young seraph! and he stood beside me
\nIn the wide foldings of his argent robes
\nThere on the ridge, and look\u2019d into my face
\nWith his unutterable shining eyes,
\nSo that with hasty motion I did veil
\nMy vision with both hands, and saw before me
\nSuch coloured spots as dance before the eyes
\nOf those that gaze upon the noonday sun.
\n“0 Son of Man, why stand you here alone
\nUpon the mountain, knowing not the things
\nWhich will be, and the gathering of the nations
\nUnto the mighty battle of the Lord?
\nThy sense is clogg’d with dull Mortality,
\nThy spirit fetter’d with the bond of clay
\nOpen thine eyes and see!”<\/em><\/p>\n

I look’d, but not
\nUpon his face, for it was wonderful
\nWith its exceeding brightness, and the light
\nOf the great Angel Mind that look\u2019d from out
\nThe starry glowing of his restless eyes.
\nI felt my soul grow godlike, and my spirit
\nWith supernatural excitation bound
\nWithin me, and my mental eye grew large
\nWith such a vast circumference of thought,
\nThat, in my vanity, I seem’d to stand
\nUpon the outward verge and bound alone
\nOf God’s omniscience. Each failing sense,
\nAs with a momentary flash of light,
\nGrew thrillingly distinct and keen. I saw
\nThe smallest grain that dappled the dark Earth,
\nThe indistinctest atom in deep air,
\nThe Moon’s white cities, and the opal width
\nOf her small, glowing lakes, her silver heights
\nUnvisited with dew of vagrant cloud,
\nAnd the unsounded, undescended depth
\nOf her black hollows. Nay the hum of men
\nOr other things talking in unknown tongues,
\nAnd notes of busy Life, in distant worlds,
\nBeat, like a far wave, on my anxious ear.<\/em><\/p>\n

I wondered with deep wonder at myself:\u00a0\u00a0
\nMy mind seem’d wing’d with knowledge and the strength
\nOf holy musings and immense Ideas,
\nEven to Infinitude. All sense of Time
\nAnd Being and Place was swallowed up and lost
\nWithin a victory of boundless thought.
\nI was a part of the Unchangeable,
\nA scintillation of Eternal Mind,
\nRemix’d and burning with its parent fire.
\nYea! in that hour I could have fallen down
\nBefore my own strong soul and worshipp’d it \u2026.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0
\nAlfred Lord Tennyson (excerpt from \u201cArmageddon\u201d)\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Photograph: theatre.msu.edu)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809 \u2013 1892), one of the greatest English poets, has written one of the clearest descriptions of the Self-realisation that results from the awakening of the kundalini.\u00a0The passage is found in a very early poem of his called \u201cArmageddon\u201d, written when he was only fifteen years old.\u00a0The passage starts with his encounter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,13],"tags":[119,317,321,423],"class_list":["post-587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-36","category-poems","tag-angel","tag-knowledge","tag-kundalini","tag-realisation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4h1Q1-9t","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sahajayoga.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sahajayoga.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sahajayoga.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sahajayoga.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sahajayoga.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sahajayoga.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sahajayoga.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sahajayoga.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sahajayoga.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}