"lighten and uplift
them, so that they may soar on the wings of the Divine verses"
-Baha'u'llah
Commentary
on the Hidden Words
Major Themes cont.
The highest station destined for man is to be illumined by the ‘spirit of faith’, which comes through recognition of the Manifestation of God for the age and through obedience to His commandments. To attain this station is the very purpose for which God created man.
The vision of man in mortal life is greatly restricted. Like a prisoner in his cell who cannot see the vastness, the beauty and the order of a boundless universe which surrounds him, man is limited in his understanding of the spiritual worlds of God. His learning and knowledge, however deep, his intellect, however brilliant, cannot assure his comprehension of spiritual realities. Only through the recognition of Bahá’u’lláh in this day and by turning to Him, as a plant does to the sun, can the heart—the dawning-place of the attributes of God—be illumined. It is then that man can understand the inner meanings of the utterances of Bahá’u’lláh and so be enlightened and drawn to God.
Turning to Bahá’u’lláh is the key to spiritual growth. In his
relationship to Bahá’u’lláh, the believer assumes a female role, submitting himself entirely to the will of the Manifestation of God and opening his heart to the influences of His Revelation. Then, as a result of this mystical intercourse, the soul of man may conceive, and eventually give birth to a child which is the ‘spirit of faith’. The ‘spirit of faith’—the fruit yielded by the soul—is especially precious because it is brought into being through the influences of Bahá’u’lláh upon the believer. He imparts to the soul a measure of His own power, His beauty and His light.
Once the ‘spirit of faith’ is born within the soul, it needs nourishment if it is to grow and mature. Again the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh and His Word provide this food. By reading His words and meditating upon them, and immersing himself in the ocean of His Revelation, a man can develop spiritual qualities and his spiritual perceptiveness will grow day by day. His mind will become illumined and even though he may be uneducated or illiterate, he is enabled to understand the inner spirit of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh and to unravel the mysteries enshrined within it.
When the soul attains the ‘spirit of faith’, it grows humble. Humility and self-effacement are the signs of spiritual growth, whereas pride in one’s self and one’s accomplishments is a deadly enemy.
Because of its attachment to this world, the soul is not always illumined with the ‘spirit of faith’. In one of His Tablets, Bahá’u’lláh, addressing His followers, has likened the soul of man to a bird:
Ye are even as the bird which soareth, with the full force of
its mighty wings and with complete and joyous confidence,
through the immensity of the heavens, until, impelled to
satisfy its hunger, it turneth longingly to the water and clay
of the earth below it, and, having been entrapped in the mesh
of its desire, findeth itself impotent to resume its flight to the
realms whence it came. Powerless to shake off the burden
weighing on its sullied wings, that bird, hitherto an inmate
of the heavens, is now forced to seek a dwelling-place upon
the dust.
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