Should this article be titled "Does God have a face?

No! This is another matter, which we shall leave to preleminary studies. What concerns us here is the premise that the source of Beauty is the pinnacle of that Beauty. It may be debatable but such is the paradigm, the theorectical model underlying our interest.

And for once, let's start with a prayer, shall we?:

Jagannatha Swami, nayana pata gami, bhava Tumi". O Lord of the universe, kindly become the object of my vision.

This ancient chant was echoed in modern time by Beatle George Harrison in his famous My Sweet Lord.

I really want to see You, I really want to see You Lord, but it takes so long. Halleluyah! Halleluyah! Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna!".

These two prayers, ancient and modern, are not about telling God what WE want before deserving to receive it. More important than seeing is the wish to being seen ---to act in such a way that God will turn His attention to me. Once that wish is there in the soul, the request to see is said to becomes legitimate. Yet there is an equally important Biblical promise: Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Obtaining the eyes to see the Divine is not another selfish desire, nor does it belong to any particular religion ----it is the essence of spirituality.

On to The Face Of God. Even in Islam, "Allah has a face, you can't deny it", says Yasir Ibn Yousaf, a Western-based Islamic educator and speaker. Do we know what Allah looks like? No, says Yasir, because Allah hasn't revealed His face, nor has the prophet Mohammad. No one has seen Allah's face, we just know He has it."

Jewish scholar Maimonides argues that consciousness and His ability to speak are proof that God has a face, and in Exodus 33:20, the Lord says to Moses, “But My face you cannot see, for no man sees Me and stay alive.” In his Beatitudes, however, Jesus added a crucial element: “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8). What an invaluable new information indeed ---there will come a time when some, if not all, will be able to see God

Now, if being purity of heart is the criterion for seeing God, Indian Mystic poets like Jayadev, Vydyapati, Chandidas and Mirabai did have that grace. Jayadev's famed Gita Govinda first comes to mind as the jewl of Indian mystical poetry.

TO BE CONTINUED