From: B.MOHAJERIN@qut.EDU.AU (Babak Mohajerin)
Subject: The history of Baha'u'llah, Part 11
Organization: The Ohio State University Department of Computer and Information Science
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 22:52:15 GMT



    Students of religion are cautioned not to permit theological dogmas or
other preconceptions to lead them into discriminating among those whom God
has used as channels of His light:

        Beware, O believers in the Unity of God, lest ye be tempted to
    make any distinction between any of the Manifestations of His Cause,
    or to discriminate against the signs that have accompanied and
    proclaimed their Revelation.  This indeed is the true meaning of
    Divine Unity, if ye be of them that apprehend and believe this truth.
    Be ye assured, moreover, that the works and acts of each and every one
    of these Manifestations of God, nay whatever pertaineth unto them, and
    whatsoever they may manifest in the future, are all ordained by God,
    and are a reflection of His Will and Purpose....[34]

    Baha'u'llah compares the interventions of the Divine Revelations to
the return of spring.  The Messengers of God are not merely teachers,
although this is one of their primary functions.  Rather, the spirit of
their words, together with the example of their lives, has the capacity to
tap the roots of human motivation and to induce fundamental and lasting
change.  Their influence opens new realms of understanding and achievement:

        And since there can be no tie of direct intercourse to bind the
    one true God with His creation, and no resemblance whatever can exist
    between the transient and the Eternal, the contingent and the 
    Absolute, He hath ordained that in every age and dispensation a pure
    and stainless Soul be made manifest in the kingdoms of earth and
    heaven....  Led by the light of unfailing guidance, and invested with
    supreme sovereignty, They [the Messengers of God] are commissioned to
    use the inspiration of Their words, the effusions of Their infallible
    grace and the sanctifying breeze of Their Revelation for the cleansing
    of every longing heart and receptive spirit from the dross and dust of
    earthly cares and limitations.  Then, and only then, will the Trust of
    God, latent in the reality of man, emerge...and implant the ensign of
    its revealed glory upon the summits of men's hearts.[35] 

   Without this intervention from the world of God, human nature remains
the captive of instinct, as well as of unconscious assumptions and
patterns of behavior that have been culturally determined:

        Having created the world and all that liveth and moveth therein,
    He [God]...chose to confer upon man the unique distinction and
    capacity to know Him and to love Him--a capacity that must needs be
    regarded as the generating impulse and the primary purpose underlying
    the whole of creation....  Upon the inmost reality of each and every
    created thing He hath shed the light of one of His names, and made it
    a recipient of the glory of one of His attributes.  Upon the reality
    of man, however, He hath focused the radiance of all of His names and
    attributes, and made it a mirror of His own Self.  Alone of all
    created things man hath been singled out for so great a favor, so
    enduring a bounty. 
        These energies with which the...Source of heavenly guidance hath
    endowed the reality of man lie, however, latent within him, even as
    the flame is hidden within the candle and the rays of light are
    potentially present in the lamp.  The radiance of these energies may
    be obscured by worldly desires even as the light of the sun can be
    concealed beneath the dust and dross which cover the mirror.  Neither
    the candle nor the lamp can be lighted through their own unaided
    efforts, nor can it ever be possible for the mirror to free itself
    from its dross.  It is clear and evident that until a fire is kindled
    the lamp will never be ignited, and unless the dross is blotted out
    from the face of the mirror it can never represent the image of the
    sun nor reflect its light and glory.[36]

    The time has come, Baha'u'llah said, when humanity has both the
capacity and the opportunity to see the entire panorama of its spiritual
development as a single process: "Peerless is this Day, for it is as the
eye to past ages and centuries, and as a light unto the darkness of the
times."[37] In this perspective, the followers of differing religious
traditions must strive to understand what He called "the changeless Faith
of God"[38] and to distinguish its central spiritual impulse from the
changing laws and concepts that were revealed to meet the requirements of
an ever-evolving human society:

        The Prophets of God should be regarded as physicians whose task is
    to foster the well-being of the world and its peoples, that, through
    the spirit of oneness, they may heal the sickness of a divided
    humanity....  Little wonder, then, if the treatment prescribed by the
    physician in this day should not be found to be identical with that
    which he prescribed before.  How could it be otherwise when the ills
    affecting the sufferer necessitate at every stage of his sickness a
    special remedy?  In like manner, every time the Prophets of God have
    illumined the world with the resplendent radiance of the Day Star of
    Divine knowledge, they have invariably summoned its peoples to embrace
    the light of God through such means as best befitted the exigencies of
    the age in which they appeared....[39]

    It is not only the heart, but the mind, which must devote itself to
this process of discovery.  Reason, Baha'u'llah asserts, is God's greatest
gift to the soul, "a sign of the revelation of...the sovereign Lord."[40]

Only by freeing itself from inherited dogma, whether religious or
materialistic, can the mind take up an independent exploration of the
relationship between the Word of God and the experience of humankind.  In
such a search, a major obstacle is prejudice: "Warn...the beloved of the
one true God, not to view with too critical an eye the sayings and
writings of men.  Let them rather approach such sayings and writings in a
spirit of open-mindedness and loving sympathy."[41]

-- 
     Babak Mohajerin, 

Queensland University of Technology,
        AUSTRALIA

B.MOHAJERIN@qut.edu.au
 _^_							      _^_	     
(___)							     (___)		
 |/|----------------------------------------------------------|\|
 |/| The day is approaching when all the peoples of the world |\|
 |/| will have adopted one universal language and one common  |\|
 |/| script. When this is achieved, to whatsoever city a man  |\|  
 |/| may journey, it shall be as if he were entering his own  |\|
 |/| home.... That one indeed is a man who, today, dedicateth |\| 
 |/| himself to the service of the entire human race....      |\|
 |/| It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own    |\| 
 |/| country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world.  |\|
 |/| The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.  |\|                    
 |/|						              |\|
 |/|						Baha'u'llah   |\|  
 |/|                                                          |\|          
(___)--------------------------------------------------------(___)	
              .                  .
.   . .  . .             .        _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/    .         
     .           .               _/           ..   .             
                .             . _/   .      _/      .       .  
       .  .    . .     .   .   _/    .     _/ ..   . . ..    
.      .  .      ..      ..   _/  .     .._/               .
                    .        _/        .._/.     .        .     
            _/              _/      _/  _/.     _/ .       . .  
     .     _/             ._/      _/. _/     ._/      ...   
          _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/  _/_/_/_/_/     .     .  
.                          ..                     .    .    . 
.  .                       ..  _/.  ..   _/ . . .

Newsgroups: soc.culture.iranian