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Since God embodies the highest, it is natural that symbols of human authority should be appropriated by the mystic to communicate God's sovereignty. God is commonly portrayed as King or Emperor, the topmost point in an ascending social scale:
0 yet I feel Thy kingly Grace
With my feeble mortality.[3]
affirms Sri Chinmoy in one poem.
King of Glorie, King of Peace,
I will love thee.[ 4]
echoes George Herbert in another. God's regal office is here conveyed in a symbol that is universally meaningful. Again, it is one that proves particularly fruitful for the poet because of the range of subsidiary images implied by the notion of sovereignty:
FORWARD, UPWARD, INWARD
Forward to the shore!
God will offer you
His silver Throne.
Upward to the stars!
God will offer you
His golden Crown.
Inward to the source!
God will offer you
His diamond Heart.[5]

