Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Too Near"

Paramahansa Yogananda's poem, "Too Near," declares the spiritual truth—according to mystical scripture of all major faiths—that each individual soul is a spark of the Divine Creator.

The individual does not have to acquire that status, but understanding that state of being is necessary in order to realize and become aware of that unity.

Each individual needs only to expand his/her consciousness in order to realize the already divine nature of the soul.

The speaker offers a dramatic approach to the Divine, beginning with the inspiring nature setting that offers the mind and heart the comforting environment in which to worship in order to realize, "In me Thou art." The corresponding Christian expression is, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30 King James Version).

Excerpt from "Too Near"

I stood in silence to worship Thee
In Thy temple grand —
With blue etheric dome,
Lighted by the spangling stars,
Shining with the lustrous moon,
Tapestried with golden clouds —
Where reigns no dogma loud.

(Please note: This poem appears in Paramahansa Yogananda's Songs of the Soul, published by Self-Realization Fellowship, Los Angeles, CA, 1983 and 2014 printings. A slightly different version of this commentary appears in my publication titled Commentaries on Paramahansa Yogananda’s Songs of the Soul.)

Paramahansa Yogananda teaches that God has become many souls and resides in many hearts and minds. Each individual’s highest duty is to realize his/her own divine nature.

First Movement: Worshiping Under the Sky

I stood in silence to worship Thee
In Thy temple grand —
With blue etheric dome,
Lighted by the spangling stars,
Shining with the lustrous moon,
Tapestried with golden clouds —
Where reigns no dogma loud.

The speaker is addressing the Divine Belovèd, his Creator, or God. He describes his environment, revealing that he was standing in the Lord's temple, that is, under the open sky with its "blue etheric dome."

The sky was lit by myriad, shining stars, the moon shone "lustrous," and "golden clouds" offered a "tapestried" effect.

The speaker labels this setting the Divine Reality's "temple grand." Thus this natural setting becomes and affords the speaker an amazingly beautiful church, where he stands and worships the Blissful Spirit.

This natural church, "temple grand," is very different from a human-made building; this church offers no loud sermons featuring church dogma that often separates humanity into creeds and sects of various religious traditions.

Second Movement: The Begging Prayer

The speaker's heart's desire is to invite the Belovèd Lord to come to him. But after he had "prayed and cried," he reports that the Lord did not appear to him. The speaker then affirms that he will cease his waiting for the Lord. He will no longer cry and pray that the Lord come to him.

At first, these words seem sullen and surprising: how can the speaker simply give up calling on the Lord to come to him? Should he not cry and pray even more intensely? But the speaker has called his prayer "feeble," and now avers that he will no longer remain in waiting to hear the "[f]ootsteps" of the Divine.

Third Movement: Going Within

In the final couplet, the speaker reveals his reason for no longer offering those feeble prayers and waiting to hear the footsteps of his Divine Belovèd. Those "footsteps" can never be heard outwardly on the physical plane, because they exist only in the soul of the individual.

The Belovèd Creator has situated His essence in each individual soul; thus the speaker can aver that, "In me Thou art." In fact, the Lord is not only near the speaker at all times, he remains "too near."

The Lord exists eternally inside each of His created children, too near to be thought of as separate, too near to be considered a consciousness that must be attained. Because the Divine Creator exists "too near," His divine presence must only be realized.

Spiritual devotees never need to pray and cry that the Divine come to them, because each devotee already possesses that coveted Reality. All they need to do is set their consciousness on the path that leads to the realization of that great, comforting truth, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30 KJV).

On the other hand, prayer and continual supplication to the Lord keeps one’s attention on the Divine One, and where one’s attention is remains one’s ability to reach the chosen goal of ultimate realization.

Thus the fact still holds that while the soul and the Over-Soul remain one, the soul identified with physicality has to “realize” that Oneness.

Related Paramahansa Yogananda Information

• Life Sketch of Paramahansa Yogananda: Father of Yoga in the West Paramahansa Yogananda is the monastic name of Mukunda Lal Ghosh. The sources for this brief life sketch of Paramahansa Yogananda are his Autobiography of a Yogi and the official Self-Realization Fellowship website.

Commentaries on Paramahansa Yogananda Poems

• Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Consecration" In the poem titled "Consecration," which opens Paramahansa Yogananda’s collection of spiritual poetry "Songs of the Soul," the speaker humbly consecrates his works to the Divine Creator. He also lovingly dedicates the collection to his earthly father.
• Paramahansa Yogananda's "The Garden of the New Year" In "The Garden of the New Year," the speaker celebrates the prospect of looking forward with enthusiastic preparation to live "life ideally!"
• Paramahansa Yogananda's "My Soul Is Marching On" This inspirational poem,"My Soul Is Marching On," offers a refrain which devotees can chant and feel uplifted in times of lagging interest or the dreaded spiritual dryness.
• Paramahansa Yogananda’s "When Will He Come?" How to stay motivated in pursuing the spiritual path remains a challenge. This poem, "When Will He Come?," dramatizes the key to meeting this spiritual challenge.
• Paramahansa Yogananda’s "Vanishing Bubbles" Worldly things are like bubbles in the sea; they mysteriously appear, prance around for a brief moment, and then are gone. This speaker dramatizes the bubbles’ brief sojourn but also reveals the solution for the minds and hearts left grieving for those natural phenomena that have vanished like those bubbles.