The first time "The Eternal One, He is the Eter­nal One!" is recited, like a surgical operation it sev­ers and isolates the heart from everything other than God. It is as follows:

By virtue of his comprehensive nature, man is connected with virtually all beings. Also included in his nature is a boundless capacity to love. For these reasons he nurtures love towards all beings. He both loves the vast world as though it were his house, and he loves eternal Paradise as though it were his gar­den. However, the beings he loves do-not stop, they depart, and he constantly suffers the pain of separa­tion. That boundless love of his becomes the means of boundless torment.

The fault in suffering such torment is his, for he was given a heart with an infinite capacity to love in order to direct it toward One possessing infinite undying beauty. By misusing it and spending it on transitory beings, he has done wrong and suffers the punishment for his fault due to the pain of separation.

Thus, the first time he utters: "The Eternal One.' He is the Eternal One!", it severs his attachment to transitory beings; he leaves those objects of love before they leave him and he is thus cleared of his fault. The phrase declares that love is restricted to the Eternal Beloved, and expresses this meaning: "You are the only Truly Enduring Being! Every­thing other than You is transient. My heart cannot become attached to anything transient, for it was created for everlasting love, to feel ardour from pre-eternity to post-eternity. Since those innumerable beloveds are transitory and they leave me and depart, I declare, 'The Eternal One, You are the Eternal One!" and leave them before they leave me. Only You are immortal, and I know and believe that beings can only be immortal by Your making them so. In which case, they should be loved with Your love. They are not otherwise worthy of the heart's attachment."

When in this state, the heart gives up innumerable things it loves; seeing that their beauty is stamped with transitoriness, it severs its attachment to them. Otherwise it will suffer wounds to the number of its beloveds. The second "The Eternal One, He is the Eternal One!" is both a salve and an antidote for those wounds. That is, "O You who is Eternal! Since You are thus, it is enough for me. You take the place of everything. Since You exist, everything exists."

Yes, the beauty, bounty, and perfection in beings which excite love, are generally signs of the Truly Enduring One's beauty and bounty and perfections, and passing through many veils, are pale shadows of them. Indeed, they are shadows of the shadows of the manifestations of His Most Beautiful Names.