The Power of the Great Ether

Here is an insight about the Master, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, which Juliet Thompson heard from Valíyu’lláh Varqá, a member of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s entourage during His visit to America in 1912. The following is an entry from her diary for 14 June 1912:

The next morning, Thursday, though I [Juliet Thompson] went unusually early to the Master, He had already left the house. But Lua, Valíyu’lláh Khán [son of the great Bahá’í poet and martyr, Varqá], and I had a wonderful morning. Valíyu’lláh told us so many things.

“My father,” he said, “spent much time with the Blessed Beauty. The Blessed Beauty Himself taught him.

“One time when my father was in His room, Bahá’u’lláh rose and strode back and forth till the very walls seemed to shake. And He told my father that once in an age the Mighty God sent a Soul to earth endowed with the power of the Great Ether, and that such a Soul had all power and was able to do anything. ‘Even this walk of Mine’ said Bahá’u’lláh, ‘has an effect in the world.’

“Then He said that His Holiness Jesus Christ had also come with the power of the Great Ether, but the haughty priesthood of His day thought of Him as a poor, unlettered youth and believed that if they should crucify Him, His Teachings would soon be forgotten. Therefore they did crucify Him. But because His Holiness Jesus possessed the power of the Great Ether, He could not remain underground. This ethereal power rose and conquered the whole earth. ‘And now,’ the Blessed Beauty said, ‘look to the Master, for this same Power is His.’

“Bahá’u’lláh,” added Valíyu’lláh Khán, “taught my father much about Áqá. Áqá (the Master, you know) is one of the titles of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the Greatest Branch is another, and the Greatest Mystery of God another. By all these we call Him in Persian. The Blessed Perfection, Bahá’u’lláh, revealed the Station of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to my father. And my father wrote many poems to the Master, though the Master would scold him and say: ‘You must not write such things to Me.’ But the heart of my father could not keep quiet. This is one poem he wrote:

‘O Dawning-Point of the Beauty of God,

I know Thee!

Though Thou shroudest Thyself in a thousand veils,

I know Thee!

Though Thou shouldst assume the tatters of a beggar, still would

I know Thee!’

• Juliet Thompson (The Diary of Juliet Thompson)

Source: The Diary of Juliet Thompson, entry for 14 June 1912; as posted on the Baha'i Stories Blog (https://bahaistories.blogspot.com/2017/11/abdul-baha-had-power-of-ether.html).

Various. *Baha'i Stories Blog*. https://bahaistories.blogspot.com/2017/11/abdul-baha-had-power-of-ether.html