The Divine Theme
Sufism Reoriented is a community of seekers, who find themselves reverberating with gratitude at having learned about Avatar Meher Baba and his explanation of what he calls
“The Divine Theme”.
Meher Baba’s consummate explanation of the nature of God, consciousness, and the universe is articulated in God Speaks, a book he asked Murshida Duce to publish and whose copyright he gave to Sufism Reoriented. Included in that volume is a graphic that encapsulates the processes God Speaks attempts to describe in words.
Meher Baba’s “Big Picture” graphic depicts unconscious Divinity as the source and impetus for creation and fully-self knowing, conscious Divinity as its goal. It also provides the viewer with an overarching look at the cosmic processes that, taken together, portray the unity of everything in creation.
Recognizing the challenge of holding such a grand schema in mind, Murshid James MacKie and Murshida Carol Conner brought together artists among their students to illustrate the major phases of these processes. The result is the series of 19 murals that now encircle the Concourse area of Sufism’s Sanctuary in California.
CREATION
Emerging from the Whim, Consciousness evolves in association with the most primitive gross forms.
Creation is an outcome of the Whim, which gave birth to forms that are so “inconceivably finite” they cannot be seen or even imagined by the human mind.
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The Divine Theme mural is a graphic reminder of the origin, purpose, and meaning of existence. Members of Sufism drawn to other media, including sculpture, poetry, needlepoint, dance, and music find a receptive audience for their explorations of these universal themes.
A notable example is the New Being sculpture that welcomes members and visitors as they enter the Sanctuary in Walnut Creek. This 39 ½ foot sculpture represents the maturing consciousness of humanity, which when freed from the bindings inherited from evolution – anger, greed, hatred, jealousy, lust, pride, and selfishness – joyously recognizes the underlying unity and beauty of existence.
The New Being
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The Divine Theme
Lyrics adapted from a poem by Murshida Conner
Sharing the Divine Theme Murals with Friends in India
In late November 2019, Murshida Conner and a hundred of her Sufi companions traveled to the Meher Baba Universal Spiritual Center outside Bangalore in south India. Murshida had been invited to inaugurate replicas of Sufism’s Divine Theme mural that had been newly installed in MBUSC’s Central Structure.
Joining her at this event was Shridhar Kelkar, chairman of the Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, who unveiled a newly fabricated altar over the location where Meher Baba had hammered a spike into the ground to establish this sacred site 80 years earlier.
During this same event, Murshida Conner presented a talk entitled “The Universal Plan” to the thousand followers of Meher Baba in attendance.
