the day of the appearance of the Holy Manifestations is the spiritual
springtime; it is the divine splendor; it is the heavenly bounty, the
breeze of life, the rising of the Sun of Reality. Spirits are quickened;
hearts are refreshed and invigorated; souls become good; existence is set
in motion; human realities are gladdened, and grow and develop in good
qualities and perfections. General progress is achieved and revival takes
place, for it is the day of resurrection, the time of excitement and
ferment, and the season of bliss, of joy and of intense rapture.
Afterward the life-giving spring ends in fruitful summer. The word of God
is exalted, the Law of God is promulgated; all things reach perfection.
The heavenly table is spread, the holy breezes perfume the East and the
West, the teachings of God conquer the world, men become educated,
praiseworthy results are produced, universal progress appears in the world
of humanity, and the divine bounties surround all things. The Sun of
Reality rises from the horizon of the Kingdom with the greatest power and
heat. When it reaches the meridian, it will begin to decline and descend,
and the spiritual summer will be followed by autumn, when growth and
development are arrested. Breezes change into blighting winds, and the
unwholesome season dissipates the beauty and freshness of the gardens,
plains and bowers--that is to say, attraction and goodwill do not remain,
divine qualities are changed, the radiance of hearts is dimmed, the
spirituality of souls is altered, virtues are replaced by vices, and
holiness and purity disappear. Only the name of the Religion of God
remains, and the exoteric forms of the divine teachings. The foundations
of the Religion of God are destroyed and annihilated, and nothing but
forms and customs exist. Divisions appear, firmness is changed into
instability, and spirits become dead; hearts languish, souls become inert,
and winter arrives--that is to say, the coldness of ignorance envelops the
world, and the darkness of human error prevails. After this come
indifference, disobedience, inconsiderateness, indolence, baseness, animal
instincts and the coldness and insensibility of stones. It is like the
season of winter when the terrestrial globe, deprived of the effect of the
heat of the sun, becomes desolate and dreary. When the world of
intelligence and thought has reached to this state, there remain only
continual death and perpetual nonexistence.
When the season of winter has had its effect, again the spiritual
springtime returns, and a new cycle appears. Spiritual breezes blow, the
luminous dawn gleams, the divine clouds give rain, the rays of the Sun of
Reality shine forth, the contingent world attains unto a new life and is
clad in a wonderful garment. All the signs and the gifts of the past
springtime reappear, with perhaps even greater splendor in this new
season.
The spiritual cycles of the Sun of Reality are like the cycles of the
material sun: they are always revolving and being renewed. The Sun of
Reality, like the material sun, has numerous rising and dawning places:
one day it rises from the zodiacal sign of Cancer, another day from the
sign of Libra or Aquarius; another time it is from the sign of Aries that
it diffuses its rays. But the sun is one sun and one reality; the people
of knowledge are lovers of the sun, and are not fascinated by the places
of its rising and dawning. The people of perception are the seekers of the
truth, and not of the places of its appearance, nor of its dawning points;
therefore, they will adore the Sun from whatever point in the zodiac it
may appear, and they will seek the Reality in every Sanctified Soul Who
manifests it. Such people always attain to the truth and are not veiled
from the Sun of the Divine World. So the lover of the sun and the seeker
of the light will always turn toward the sun, whether it shines from the
sign of Aries or gives its bounty from the sign of Cancer, or radiates
from Gemini; but the ignorant and uninstructed are lovers of the signs of
the zodiac, and enamored and fascinated by the rising-places, and not by
the sun. When it was in the sign of Cancer, they turned toward it, though
afterward the sun changed to the sign of Libra; as they were lovers of the
sign, they turned toward it and attached themselves to it, and were
deprived of the influences of the sun merely because it had changed its
place. For example, once the Sun of Reality poured forth its rays from the
sign of Abraham, and then it dawned from the sign of Moses and illuminated
the horizon. Afterward it rose with the greatest power and brilliancy from
the sign of Christ. Those who were the seekers of Reality worshiped that
Reality wherever they saw it, but those who were attached to Abraham were
deprived of its influences when it shone upon Sinai and illuminated the
reality of Moses. Those who held fast to Moses, when the Sun of Reality
shone from Christ with the utmost radiance and lordly splendor, were also
veiled; and so forth.
Therefore, man must be the seeker after the Reality, and he will find that
Reality in each of the Sanctified Souls. He must be fascinated and
enraptured, and attracted to the divine bounty; he must be like the
butterfly who is the lover of the light from whatever lamp it may shine,
and like the nightingale who is the lover of the rose in whatever garden
it may grow.
If the sun were to rise in the West, it would still be the sun; one must
not withdraw from it on account of its rising-place, nor consider the West
to be always the place of sunset. In the same way, one must look for the
heavenly bounties and seek for the Divine Aurora. In every place where it
appears, one must become its distracted lover. Consider that if the Jews
had not kept turning to the horizon of Moses, and had only regarded the
Sun of Reality, without any doubt they would have recognized the Sun in
the dawning-place of the reality of Christ, in the greatest divine
splendor. But, alas! a thousand times alas! attaching themselves to the
outward words of Moses, they were deprived of the divine bounties and the
lordly splendors!
15: TRUE WEALTH
The honor and exaltation of every existing being depends upon causes and
circumstances.
The excellency, the adornment and the perfection of the earth is to be
verdant and fertile through the bounty of the clouds of springtime. Plants
grow; flowers and fragrant herbs spring up; fruit-bearing trees become
full of blossoms and bring forth fresh and new fruit. Gardens become
beautiful, and meadows adorned; mountains and plains are clad in a green
robe, and gardens, fields, villages and cities are decorated. This is the
prosperity of the mineral world.
The height of exaltation and the perfection of the vegetable world is that
a tree should grow on the bank of a stream of fresh water, that a gentle
breeze should blow on it, that the warmth of the sun should shine on it,
that a gardener should attend to its cultivation, and that day by day it
should develop and yield fruit. But its real prosperity is to progress
into the animal and human world, and replace that which has been exhausted
in the bodies of animals and men.
The exaltation of the animal world is to possess perfect members, organs
and powers, and to have all its needs supplied. This is its chief glory,
its honor and exaltation. So the supreme happiness of an animal is to have
possession of a green and fertile meadow, perfectly pure flowing water,
and a lovely, verdant forest. If these things are provided for it, no
greater prosperity can be imagined. For example, if a bird builds its nest
in a green and fruitful forest, in a beautiful high place, upon a strong
tree, and at the top of a lofty branch, and if it finds all it needs of
seeds and water, this is its perfect prosperity.
But real prosperity for the animal consists in passing from the animal
world to the human world, like the microscopic beings that, through the
water and air, enter into man and are assimilated, and replace that which
has been consumed in his body. This is the great honor and prosperity for
the animal world; no greater honor can be conceived for it.
Therefore, it is evident and clear that this wealth, this comfort and this
material abundance form the complete prosperity of minerals, vegetables
and animals. No riches, wealth, comfort or ease of the material world is
equal to the wealth of a bird; all the areas of these plains and mountains
are its dwelling, and all the seeds and harvests are its food and wealth,
and all the lands, villages, meadows, pastures, forests and wildernesses
are its possessions. Now, which is the richer, this bird, or the most
wealthy man? for no matter how many seeds it may take or bestow, its
wealth does not decrease.
Then it is clear that the honor and exaltation of man must be something
more than material riches. Material comforts are only a branch, but the
root of the exaltation of man is the good attributes and virtues which are
the adornments of his reality. These are the divine appearances, the
heavenly bounties, the sublime emotions, the love and knowledge of God;
universal wisdom, intellectual perception, scientific discoveries,
justice, equity, truthfulness, benevolence, natural courage and innate
fortitude; the respect for rights and the keeping of agreements and
covenants; rectitude in all circumstances; serving the truth under all
conditions; the sacrifice of one's life for the good of all people;
kindness and esteem for all nations; obedience to the teachings of God;
service in the Divine Kingdom; the guidance of the people, and the
education of the nations and races. This is the prosperity of the human
world! This is the exaltation of man in the world! This is eternal life
and heavenly honor!
These virtues do not appear from the reality of man except through the
power of God and the divine teachings, for they need supernatural power
for their manifestation. It may be that in the world of nature a trace of
these perfections may appear, but they are unstable and ephemeral; they
are like the rays of the sun upon the wall.
As the compassionate God has placed such a wonderful crown upon the head
of man, man should strive that its brilliant jewels may become visible in
the world.
PART TWO: SOME CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS
16: OUTWARD FORMS AND SYMBOLS MUST BE USED TO CONVEY INTELLECTUAL
CONCEPTIONS
A subject that is essential(77) for the comprehension of the questions
that we have mentioned, and of others of which we are about to speak, so
that the essence of the problems may be understood, is this: that human
knowledge is of two kinds. One is the knowledge of things perceptible to
the senses--that is to say, things which the eye, or ear, or smell, or
taste, or touch can perceive, which are called objective or sensible. So
the sun, because it can be seen, is said to be objective; and in the same
way sounds are sensible because the ear hears them; perfumes are sensible
because they can be inhaled and the sense of smell perceives them; foods
are sensible because the palate perceives their sweetness, sourness or
saltness; heat and cold are sensible because the feelings perceive them.
These are said to be sensible realities.
The other kind of human knowledge is intellectual--that is to say, it is a
reality of the intellect; it has no outward form and no place and is not
perceptible to the senses. For example, the power of intellect is not
sensible; none of the inner qualities of man is a sensible thing; on the
contrary, they are intellectual realities. So love is a mental reality and
not sensible; for this reality the ear does not hear, the eye does not
see, the smell does not perceive, the taste does not discern, the touch
does not feel. Even ethereal matter, the forces of which are said in
physics to be heat, light, electricity and magnetism, is an intellectual
reality, and is not sensible. In the same way, nature, also, in its
essence is an intellectual reality and is not sensible; the human spirit
is an intellectual, not sensible reality. In explaining these intellectual
realities, one is obliged to express them by sensible figures because in
exterior existence there is nothing that is not material. Therefore, to
explain the reality of the spirit--its condition, its station--one is
obliged to give explanations under the forms of sensible things because in
the external world all that exists is sensible. For example, grief and
happiness are intellectual things; when you wish to express those
spiritual qualities you say: "My heart is oppressed; my heart is dilated,"
though the heart of man is neither oppressed nor dilated. This is an
intellectual or spiritual state, to explain which you are obliged to have
recourse to sensible figures. Another example: you say, "such an
individual made great progress," though he is remaining in the same place;
or again, "such a one's position was exalted," although, like everyone
else, he walks upon the earth. This exaltation and this progress are
spiritual states and intellectual realities, but to explain them you are
obliged to have recourse to sensible figures because in the exterior world
there is nothing that is not sensible.
So the symbol of knowledge is light, and of ignorance, darkness; but
reflect, is knowledge sensible light, or ignorance sensible darkness? No,
they are merely symbols. These are only intellectual states, but when you
desire to express them outwardly, you call knowledge light, and ignorance
darkness. You say: "My heart was gloomy, and it became enlightened." Now,
that light of knowledge, and that darkness of ignorance, are intellectual
realities, not sensible ones; but when we seek for explanations in the
external world, we are obliged to give them a sensible form.
Then it is evident that the dove which descended upon Christ was not a
material dove, but it was a spiritual state, which, that it might be
comprehensible, was expressed by a sensible figure. Thus in the Old
Testament it is said that God appeared as a pillar of fire: this does not
signify the material form; it is an intellectual reality which is
expressed by a sensible image.
Christ says, "The Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father." Was
Christ within God, or God within Christ? No, in the name of God! On the
contrary, this is an intellectual state which is expressed in a sensible
figure.
We come to the explanation of the words of Baha'u'llah when He says: "O
king! I was but a man like others, asleep upon My couch, when lo, the
breezes of the All-Glorious were wafted over Me, and taught Me the
knowledge of all that hath been. This thing is not from Me, but from One
Who is Almighty and All-Knowing."(78) This is the state of manifestation:
it is not sensible; it is an intellectual reality, exempt and freed from
time, from past, present and future; it is an explanation, a simile, a
metaphor and is not to be accepted literally; it is not a state that can
be comprehended by man. Sleeping and waking is passing from one state to
another. Sleeping is the condition of repose, and wakefulness is the
condition of movement. Sleeping is the state of silence; wakefulness is
the state of speech. Sleeping is the state of mystery; wakefulness is the
state of manifestation.
For example, it is a Persian and Arabic expression to say that the earth
was asleep, and the spring came, and it awoke; or the earth was dead, and
the spring came, and it revived. These expressions are metaphors,
allegories, mystic explanations in the world of signification.
Briefly, the Holy Manifestations have ever been, and ever will be,
Luminous Realities; no change or variation takes place in Their essence.
Before declaring Their manifestation, They are silent and quiet like a
sleeper, and after Their manifestation, They speak and are illuminated,
like one who is awake.
17: THE BIRTH OF CHRIST
Question.--How was Christ born of the Holy Spirit?
Answer.--In regard to this question, theologians and materialists disagree.
The theologians believe that Christ was born of the Holy Spirit, but the
materialists think this is impossible and inadmissible, and that without
doubt He had a human father.
In the Qur'an it is said: "And We sent Our Spirit unto her, and He
appeared unto her in the shape of a perfect man,"(79) meaning that the
Holy Spirit took the likeness of the human form, as an image is produced
in a mirror, and he addressed Mary.
The materialists believe that there must be marriage, and say that a
living body cannot be created from a lifeless body, and without male and
female there cannot be fecundation. And they think that not only with man,
but also with animals and plants, it is impossible. For this union of the
male and female exists in all living beings and plants. This pairing of
things is even shown forth in the Qur'an: "Glory be to Him Who has created
all the pairs: of such things as the earth produceth, and of themselves;
and of things which they know not"(80)--that is to say, men, animals and
plants are all in pairs--"and of everything have We created two kinds"--that
is to say, We have created all the beings through pairing.
Briefly, they say a man without a human father cannot be imagined. In
answer, the theologians say: "This thing is not impossible and
unachievable, but it has not been seen; and there is a great difference
between a thing which is impossible and one which is unknown. For example,
in former times the telegraph, which causes the East and the West to
communicate, was unknown but not impossible; photography and phonography
were unknown but not impossible."
The materialists insist upon this belief, and the theologians reply: "Is
this globe eternal or phenomenal?" The materialists answer that, according
to science and important discoveries, it is established that it is
phenomenal; in the beginning it was a flaming globe, and gradually it
became temperate; a crust was formed around it, and upon this crust plants
came into existence, then animals, and finally man.
The theologians say: "Then from your statement it has become evident and
clear that mankind is phenomenal upon the globe, and not eternal. Then
surely the first man had neither father nor mother, for the existence of
man is phenomenal. Is not the creation of man without father and mother,
even though gradually, more difficult than if he had simply come into
existence without a father? As you admit that the first man came into
existence without father or mother--whether it be gradually or at
once--there can remain no doubt that a man without a human father is also
possible and admissible; you cannot consider this impossible; otherwise,
you are illogical. For example, if you say that this lamp has once been
lighted without wick and oil, and then say that it is impossible to light
it without the wick, this is illogical." Christ had a mother; the first
man, as the materialists believe, had neither father nor mother.(81)
18: THE GREATNESS OF CHRIST IS DUE TO HIS PERFECTIONS
A great man is a great man, whether born of a human father or not. If
being without a father is a virtue, Adam is greater and more excellent
than all the Prophets and Messengers, for He had neither father nor
mother. That which causes honor and greatness is the splendor and bounty
of the divine perfections. The sun is born from substance and form, which
can be compared to father and mother, and it is absolute perfection; but
the darkness has neither substance nor form, neither father nor mother,
and it is absolute imperfection. The substance of Adam's physical life was
earth, but the substance of Abraham was pure sperm; it is certain that the
pure and chaste sperm is superior to earth.
Furthermore, in the first chapter of the Gospel of John, verses 12 and 13,
it is said: "But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believed on His name:
"Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but of God."(82)
From these verses it is obvious that the being of a disciple also is not
created by physical power, but by the spiritual reality. The honor and
greatness of Christ is not due to the fact that He did not have a human
father, but to His perfections, bounties and divine glory. If the
greatness of Christ is His being fatherless, then Adam is greater than
Christ, for He had neither father nor mother. It is said in the Old
Testament, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living
soul."(83) Observe that it is said that Adam came into existence from the
Spirit of life. Moreover, the expression which John uses in regard to the
disciples proves that they also are from the Heavenly Father. Hence it is
evident that the holy reality, meaning the real existence of every great
man, comes from God and owes its being to the breath of the Holy Spirit.
The purport is that, if to be without a father is the greatest human
glory, then Adam is greater than all, for He had neither father nor
mother. Is it better for a man to be created from a living substance or
from earth? Certainly it is better if he be created from a living
substance. But Christ was born and came into existence from the Holy
Spirit.
To conclude: the splendor and honor of the holy souls and the Divine
Manifestations come from Their heavenly perfections, bounties and glory,
and from nothing else.
19: THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST
Question.--It is said in the Gospel of St. Matthew, chapter 3, verses 13,
14, 15: "Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be
baptized of him. But John forbade Him, saying, I have need to be baptized
of Thee, and comest Thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer
it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then
he suffered Him."
What is the wisdom of this: since Christ possessed all essential
perfection, why did He need baptism?
Answer.--The principle of baptism is purification by repentance. John
admonished and exhorted the people, and caused them to repent; then he
baptized them. Therefore, it is apparent that this baptism is a symbol of
repentance from all sin: its meaning is expressed in these words: "O God!
as my body has become purified and cleansed from physical impurities, in
the same way purify and sanctify my spirit from the impurities of the
world of nature, which are not worthy of the Threshold of Thy Unity!"
Repentance is the return from disobedience to obedience. Man, after
remoteness and deprivation from God, repents and undergoes purification:
and this is a symbol signifying "O God! make my heart good and pure, freed
and sanctified from all save Thy love."
As Christ desired that this institution of John should be used at that
time by all, He Himself conformed to it in order to awaken the people and
to complete the law of the former religion. Although the ablution of
repentance was the institution of John, it was in reality formerly
practiced in the religion of God.
Christ was not in need of baptism; but as at that time it was an
acceptable and praiseworthy action, and a sign of the glad tidings of the
Kingdom, therefore, He confirmed it. However, afterward He said the true
baptism is not with material water, but it must be with spirit and with
water. In this case water does not signify material water, for elsewhere
it is explicitly said baptism is with spirit and with fire, from which it
is clear that the reference is not to material fire and material water,
for baptism with fire is impossible.
Therefore, the spirit is the bounty of God, the water is knowledge and
life, and the fire is the love of God. For material water does not purify
the heart of man; no, it cleanses his body. But the heavenly water and
spirit, which are knowledge and life, make the human heart good and pure;
the heart which receives a portion of the bounty of the Spirit becomes
sanctified, good and pure--that is to say, the reality of man becomes
purified and sanctified from the impurities of the world of nature. These
natural impurities are evil qualities: anger, lust, worldliness, pride,
lying, hypocrisy, fraud, self-love, etc.
Man cannot free himself from the rage of the carnal passions except by the
help of the Holy Spirit. That is why He says baptism with the spirit, with
water and with fire is necessary, and that it is essential--that is to say,
the spirit of divine bounty, the water of knowledge and life, and the fire
of the love of God. Man must be baptized with this spirit, this water and
this fire so as to become filled with the eternal bounty. Otherwise, what
is the use of baptizing with material water? No, this baptism with water
was a symbol of repentance, and of seeking forgiveness of sins.