From: towfiq@nighthawk.clearpoint.com (Mark Towfiq)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: Appeal to Arindam
Date: 21 Aug 92 21:46:25 GMT
	<1992Aug20.170103.11208@menudo.uh.edu>
	<1992Aug20.195610.16461@uceng.UC.EDU>
Organization: Clearpoint Research Corporation

>>>>> On 20 Aug 92 19:56:10 GMT, rbhatnag@uceng.UC.EDU (raj bhatnagar) said:

rb> But this is your personal path to salvation, moksha, nirvana,
rb> merger of ego with the Supreme Consciousness - or by whatever name
rb> you may call it.  It has absolutely nothing to do with the
rb> objectives of world peace, social upliftment, elimination of
rb> suffering in the world etc. All such claims are, at best, the
rb> sugar coating to facilitate the marketing of this or that faith.

  I think it is precisely people striving to acquire spiritual
attributes that is the basis for world peace, social upliftment, and
the elimination of the suffering of the world.  Because all of these
problems have at their root a spiritual problem.

rb> The very claim that *my* faith is better than *yours* is a challenge 
rb> for a fight to the adherers/propagators of other faiths.

  Yes, you are right.  But that is not the claim of Baha'u'llah.
Baha'u'llah's claim is that He is the Promised One of all of the
religions of the past.

rb> The very claim that *my* messenger's words are the final truth is a 
rb> challenge for a fight to the followers of other messengers.

  See above.

rb> The evolution of human society has reached the stage where it is
rb> well accepted that the political ideal of a peaceful world can not
rb> be achieved in the form of a single empire/kingdom with a single
rb> communal will, but only in the form of a commonwealth of free
rb> nations, differing profoundly in institutions, customs, habits,
rb> social structures, and goals.

  Baha'u'llah enunciated more than 100 years ago that the peace and
security of the world is unattainable "unless and until its unity is
firmly established".  The watchword of the Baha'i Faith is "Unity in
Diversity".  So this ideal of a world commonwealth, an ideal only
recently recognized by some people today, was fully described, and the
pattern for its development laid out long ago by a Persian Who had no
formal education and did not travel, except to the places where His
captors brought Him.

rb> The same realization in the field of faiths and spiritual
rb> philosophies, - that it is the commonwealth of faiths differing in
rb> ways of worship, conceptualiztions of God, customs and in other
rb> characteristics, - is needed before we can envision universalist
rb> objectives such as world peace etc.

  My friend!  Do you honestly believe that harmony between the
religions can exist as long as the Hindus, the Jews, the Christians,
the Buddhists, and the Muslims believe the others are not following a
true Manifestation from God.  And when these people realize that all
of these were founded by a Manifestation of God, they will be rejected
from their religious group, and where will they be accepted?  By the
Baha'is.  There is no hope for Northern Ireland, Lebanon, Somalia,
Yugoslavia, Indian, the US, or anywhere else where people have been
fighting for hundreds or even thousands of yeras, except in
recognizing the collective center of Baha'u'llah.  Without a point of
unity there can be no unity.
--
Mark Towfiq, towfiq@Clearpoint.COM			      H:+1 617 488 2818

O BRETHREN!  Be forbearing one with another and set not your affections on
things below.  Pride not yourselves in your glory, and be not ashamed of
abasement.  By My beauty!  I have created all things from dust, and to dust
will I return them again.
		-- Baha'u'llah, Persian Hidden Words, #48