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mysterious and ethereal Being, the Manifestation of God, has a human

nature which pertains to the world of matter and a spiritual nature

born of the substance of God Himself. He is also endowed with a double

station:





The first station, which is related to His innermost reality,

representeth Him as One Whose voice is the voice of God Himself...

The second station is the human station, exemplified by the

following verses: I am but a man like you. Say, praise be to my

Lord! Am I more than a man, an apostle?





Baha'u'llah also affirms that, in the spiritual realm, there is an

essential unity between all the Manifestations of God. They all reveal

the Beauty of God, manifest His names and attributes, and give utterance

to His Revelation. In this regard, He states:





Were any of the all-embracing Manifestations of God to declare: I

am God, He, verily, speaketh the truth, and no doubt attacheth

thereto. For it hath been repeatedly demonstrated that through

their Revelation, their attributes and names, the Revelation of

God, His names and His attributes, are made manifest in the

world...





While the Manifestations reveal the names and attributes of God and are

the means by which humanity has access to the knowledge of God and His

Revelation, Shoghi Effendi states that the Manifestations should never

... be identified with that invisible Reality, the Essence of Divinity

itself. In relation to Baha'u'llah, the Guardian wrote that the human

temple that has been the vehicle of so overpowering a Revelation is not

to be identified with the Reality of God.



Concerning the uniqueness of Baha'u'llah's station and the greatness of

His Revelation, Shoghi Effendi affirms that the prophetic statements

concerning the Day of God, found in the Sacred Scriptures of past

Dispensations, are fulfilled by the advent of Baha'u'llah:





To Israel He was neither more nor less than the incarnation of the

Everlasting Father, the Lord of Hosts come down with ten

thousands of saints; to Christendom Christ returned in the glory

of the Father; to Shi'ah Islam the return of the Imam Husayn;

to Sunni Islam the descent of the Spirit of God (Jesus Christ);

to the Zoroastrians the promised Shah-Bahram; to the Hindus the

reincarnation of Krishna; to the Buddhists the fifth Buddha.





Baha'u'llah describes the station of Divinity which He shares with all

the Manifestations of God as





...the station in which one dieth to himself and liveth in God.

Divinity, whenever I mention it, indicateth My complete and

absolute self-effacement. This is the station in which I have no

control over mine own weal or woe nor over my life nor over my

resurrection.





And, regarding His own relationship to God, He testifies:





When I contemplate, O my God, the relationship that bindeth me to

Thee, I am moved to proclaim to all created things verily I am

God; and when I consider my own self, lo, I find it coarser than

clay!