The Language of the Holy Verses
– Beyond Fragmentation
One question which often arises upon seeing that the Verses of the Eternal Book are in Hebrew is: why is it so? The Eternal Book is presented as “Unifying”, reconciling all the fragmented aspects of the Truth; isn’t the use of a particular language in itself a form of fragmentation? The fact is that Hebrew, ʻIβrit, is not really a “particular language”, but actually the closest remnant of the Original Language once spoken by all Humankind. It is therefore universal.
If we look at the first Word/Words of the Holy Verses, we see something very particular:
First, let us define what is the first Word:
There are two perspectives, considering the fact that the Verses of the Eternal Book consist of a transcription of the Wheel of Time, revolving around the Eternal Moment of Unmanifestation.
This Eternal Moment is represented by the “Central Verse”, and the Wheel of Time is represented by the 12 Verses. In the Text of the Eternal Book, there are 14 Verses, in the Order:
Central Verse, 12 Verses, and again Central Verse.
From one perspective, the Eternal Book starts at the Central Verse; but from another, it starts at the 1st of the 12 Verses, since Time begins Then, and the Eternal Book is the Eternal Time; in a sense, the Central Verse is Beyond the Eternal Book (meaning: the Eternal Story, unfolding in Eternal Time), but from the perspective of the written Text of the Eternal Book, as Holy Verses, the first Word of the Central Verse is the first Word.
A
The first word of the Central Verse is made of only one Letter, the Letter Alef, which through the Greek became the Latin letter A, of sound “A”.
Alef is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It represents the glottal stop (which is silent, as the primeval State of BEING is unmanifest, Silent), and can bear any vowel, but with time (without losing its first use) it also came to represent the specific vowel “A”.
Alif is the Arabic equivalent. It also initially represents the glottal stop, but with time it came to represent the vowel A, with another sign (the “hamza”) now representing the glottal stop.
In both languages (which are closely related semitic languages, in which the letters also have numerical values), being the first letter, it bears the meaning of Unity, and, ultimately and primordially, of the Divine Unity, and represents the Divine Unity and Oneness, as perceived in both mystical traditions of Judaism and of Islam.
In the context of the Holy Verses of the Eternal Book, the Word/Letter A appearing at the Start of the Eternal Book represents the Primordial State of undifferentiated UNITY, ONENESS, of BEING, BEING Himself, though the literal word for “BEING”, HAWAYA, appears as a distinct Word, just after. A HAWAYA means thus (THE) ONE BEING. (the full Central Verse is A HAWAYA BEREŠIT, transliterated as (1) BEING (in the Beginning), meaning: the ONE BEING Who is In the Beginning). There cannot be an accurate rendering; let us keep in mind that A represents not only “ONE”, but can be seen as containing already the meaning of BEING, subsequently formulated.
So the whole Central Verse sums up in the A. And all the Eternal Book is the exteriorization of what is eternally within the A.
So we can see that at this most causal level, the same concept is there both in Hebrew and in Arabic… And it is there in Sanskrit also:
The closest equivalent to the Alef/Alif in the Sanskrit Alphabet is the Letter A, representing the vowel “A”.
It is the first letter of the Sanskrit Alphabet, and also represents the Divine, as appears in the Bhagavad Gita, 10:33: “Of letters I [Krishna, the Divine] am the letter A”
So the first Word of the Eternal Book, A, can be seen as representing the Divine, in both Brahmanical and Abrahamic lines.
A may be seen as the simplest Divine Name, a Name of ONE Letter, a Name beyond Name, since Name means “Defining”, and Here is the Realm of Unmanifestation, beyond distinction, beyond definition…
And all “agree”, Sanskrit, Hebrew, Arabic…on this level of Primordial Unity.
ʻATA
Let us now see the first Word of the 12 Verses, the Word ʻATA, which means: At this Time (from ʻET, Time), NOW. The sanskrit word ATHA has the same meaning.
The Hebrew word ʻATA could also be spelled in English with an H, ʻaTHa, as it is actually composed of the 3 Lettres ʻAyin, Taw and He.
Not only is the Sanskrit word similar, but it also holds a special place in sacred literature of the brahminical line, being considered as a special sign of auspiciousness when at the beginning of a text.
Here it is indeed, starting the most auspicious Holy Verses of the Eternal Book, the actual literary incarnation of the One Reality, beyond all fragmentation.