Transcript:Adib Taherzadeh/Drawing Nigh to Bahá’u’lláh/Day 1, morning
| Transcript of: Drawing Nigh to Bahá’u’lláh by Day 1, morning session |
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the greatest joy and privilege really to have been given this opportunity and this great honor to come and meet with you friends. Um, I was mentioning last night to some of you who are there that I when I was a child, I grew up amongst the early believers and they could never conceive. They could never believe in there and, uh, or use their imagination that one day the believers from all over the world, especially from Europe and America people will embrace this faith. Because in those days, the faith was completely limited to a few countries in the east. And, uh, yeah, when you think of it, really One of the greatest, uh, proofs of this revelation is that in a small, little dirty, filthy prison a dungeon in Tehran, the light of this great revelation broke down, broke upon that terrible dark dungeon. And who would have imagined in those days that that light will shine all over the world and reach to these remote places? As far as Tehran is concerned, the satchel of Tehran and will illuminate the hearts of many, many people and bringing a new creation. And now you can see the results of this, how the faith has spread, how the power of the hawala has penetrated into the hearts of peoples all over the world. This is something which I really appreciate it very much. Perhaps more than all of you, because I remember those days when we were so few and when the faith was limited to just those lands remote far, far from here. Their culture different, their background different. And now look at what's happened. The world has been conquered by Baha'i Allah. He has created a new race of men. And you are the new race of men, Really. And for me, therefore it's the greatest privilege, really, To be able to look into your faces on behalf of the early believers who would have loved to see one European or American believer in their lives, they would have loved to gaze upon the face of a person who says, I believe in Baha'i. Allah coming from the western world. Uh, well, friends, I, uh, feel that this weekend we are going to be together, hopefully to go through some of the most important, uh, in my view, aspects of our faith. It's it is marvelous to be over high, but we have a great challenge and the challenge is to grow in the faith that our faith may grow day by day. This is, I think, the challenge to every person, and if our faith does not grow every day, then it's not good. It's like a child which is born that child must grow. If the child does not grow, then it's not healthy. And, uh, this is why Baha'i Allah has mentioned in his writings. He says that we must make our life in such a way that the morning would be better than the previous evening and tomorrow will be better than today and we have to feel it. And this is, I think, the challenge to all of us. Perhaps it's easy to be a height or to become, but it is very difficult to grow as a high, constantly grow in the faith, so that when you look back upon the earlier days, one can feel that one has grown in the faith and nobody can say that I've grown enough. Nobody we As long as we live here, we have the scope to grow now. I thought to perhaps share with you some of these basic thoughts. Now, do not think for one moment that I have got all this. You know how that I have achieved all of these things. All I'm trying to do is from the writings of how law and the writings and the history of the faith and the history of the believers to just bring to your notice what we can do to grow. And I feel that one of the subjects which we should first begin with, and it's a subject which is really a very important subject which we often do not think about. And I'm not talking of the highs, but especially of the Nanba highs of of the outside world. They sell them, sell them, think or care about this subject. And that is about our soul. Because everything begins with the soul. Really. And I think it is time that we paid some attention to find out what is the soul. To look at it, to see what condition it is. What condition is it now, really, our souls. And in order to start this subject, I wanted to mention that, uh, in order to appreciate, um spiritual realities. Uh, we should look at two things. If you want to understand the spiritual principle, spiritual reality, you should look at two things and look at them very carefully. One is nature, and one is the writings of Baha'i, Allah and Abdu'l-Baha. And when you put the two together, then we can understand many spiritual realities. Nature, uh, can teach us an awful lot because God's creation is one entity. God has not created two different worlds, the spiritual world separate. And this and the physical world separate is not like this. He has created one entity. The spiritual and the physical world is one and the same. And the laws which run through this this creation are the same laws, the same laws that run in nature. Exactly. The same laws apply in the spiritual realms, the same laws that apply in that, that you will find them in nature. The same laws are operative in religion. Every one of the major teachings of Baha u Allah has its origin in nature. Every one of his teaching it is very natural. Religion is very natural. The laws that run within the world of man within our world or also have their origin in nature. We can learn a great deal from nature, but each one of these laws are applied on a higher and higher level. As you go higher and higher into the spiritual realms, you see a certain law you find in nature. That law finds its application in the spiritual world, and, uh, but it has added features to it. It has got to be applied on a higher level, but it is the same law. And so if you know something physical, if you can understand the law of nature, you can understand something of its spiritual laws provided you read the writings. I mentioned that because if you don't, then you can get lost in your efforts to rationalize things and to bring in your rational faculties into it and try to compare things. You could get lost. But if you read the writings and then look at nature, then we can understand many spiritual realities. Now I will give you an example of this just to give you an example of how the laws of God are the same in the spirit in the physical world and the spiritual world. Uh, you know, I'll give you one example. Just an example. They All the laws which govern the creation of a creation of a tree, for example, are the same laws as those which are given are used in the creation of man. The same principle. The same laws apply to the two things they're they're very much counterparts of each other, a tree and the man you see. The tree must will drive its roots down into the ground to receive its sustenance, to get its sustenance from the ground. Because everything depends on the roots going down into the ground. It depends. It's food comes from there. Oh, but the tree itself, mhm as if it dislikes the ground. The ground is a very dirty place. It's a low, uh, one of the lowest kingdoms, and this tree has no choice but to receive all its sustenance from this dirty soil. But the tree itself doesn't like the soil. It goes in the opposite direction. You noticed. It's more as if it dislikes this earth. It moves in the opposite direction, and when it moves in the opposite directions, what happens? It receives the most beautiful thing of all. it receives the rays of the sun. Can you imagine the difference between the rays of the sun and the dirt of the soil? It receives the rays of the sun, and as a result of it, it produces beautiful flowers and beautiful fruits. Just because it detached itself from this earth disliked this earth, It moves in the other direction. If the tree would have said, Well, I owe everything to this earth. My food comes from this earth. I love this earth. I'll go into it myself. Well, then, this wouldn't be a tree. It wouldn't be a tree. It will never receive the rays of the sun. Yeah, Now this is exactly can you see the exact parallel with the creation of man? We have to live in this world. It's just like this dirty soil of the for the tree. This earth, this world that we live in, we have to earn a living. We have to live in this world. But, uh, we have to get our food, our sustenance, livelihood from this world. But the soul does not like this world should not like this world mhm. And that it should move. It should dislike it. It should really, um, become detached from this earth and focus its attention in the opposite direction. And if we do that, if you become detached from the things of this world, then the rays of the sun of truth will shine upon us. And then our soul will produce beautiful fruits, you see, just like the tree. But if I attach myself to the things of this world, then there is no such a thing as the rays of the sun of truth shining upon me. Now, here you see the difference. There is exactly the same principles, but with one difference. I mentioned that the laws which govern the laws which govern the physical nature and the laws which govern the spiritual world are the same. But they have added features you see in the tree. In the example of the tree, you will find the tree has no choice but to grow in the opposite direction. It just grows in the opposite direction. That's the way it's made. But we have an added dimension to this particular law given to us, and that is choice free. Will we have the choice of either going down into this earth or going the opposite are going in the opposite direction. It's up to us to choose. If we chose to go into the opposite direction, then you become spiritual. If you go into this, attach yourself to the things of this world. You become attached to material things.
But the choice is up to us now. This I gave you just an example to share with you how the laws of nature and the laws of higher realms are the same. But they have got different. Um, they have to be applied on different levels. Now we go back to our own story. We wanted to really understand the soul. We're going this morning to really try and discover what is our soul so that we can recognize ourselves so that we can, um I understand our place in life again. In order to understand the soul, we must examine another principle, and that principle is what Baha'i Allah mentions. He says that in this life, everything in this physical world is a counterpart of something spiritual. Everything you see in this life is not something which is coming to us in a in a haphazard way. for instance, we were talking of the tree. The tree is not just something isolated that God has created in this physical realm. You can be sure it has parallels. It has counterparts in all the realms of God. This is only a reflection. The tree is only a reflection of something spiritual in the spiritual world. So everything has a counterpart. And if you can study the counterpart of something, you can understand the other counterpart. If your mother, if you study anything in nature, you can. You can study its counterpart in the spiritual realm. You see what I mean. For instance, Baha'i, Allah mentions that the sun the sun is a counterpart of a manifestation of God. What the sun does to this earth, a manifestation of God does too, man. So the son, he says, which is a physical thing, is a counterpart of a manifestation of God. If you want to study the manifestation of God therefore, to understand something about the manifestation of God, you can study the sun. Really, If you really study the sun and I mean studying it, you will get a lot of insight into the workings of a manifestation of God because these two are counterparts. Now we want to find out what is the counterpart. What is what is our soul. But you see, the soul is a spiritual entity. It's not a material thing. And if you want to understand our soul, which is a spiritual entity, we have to try. If we could find a counterpart for it in this physical life and study that physical thing, if you could find that counterpart and study that physical thing in this life, then we could apply it all its characteristics, the characteristics of its counterpart in the spiritual realm. Do I make myself clear or follow? Mhm. You see that, uh, the soul, as I said, is not a material thing. It's not something. You can push it into your body and pull it out of your body. It's not something you can take it to a laboratory to test it for you. It is Baha'i. Allah says the soul is an emanation from the worlds of God. An emanation from the spiritual world of God. Um, so now where are we? We want to find a physical counterpart for the soul. Their return to the writings will return to the writings. And when you turn to the writings and when you study the writings, it appears to us that's all I can say. It appears to us when you read the writings, it appears that the counterpart of the soul, which is a spiritual thing, its counterpart in this physical world is the embryo growing in the womb of the mother. Whatever happens to the embryo, thank you very much. Whatever happens to the embryo growing in the womb of the mother? Yeah, the same thing applies happens to the soul, you see. But one is a spiritual thing, and one is a physical thing. But now we know everything about the embryo growing in the womb of the mother. And so we can understand from it a lot of parallel points which could apply to the soul. If you could give me a piece of paper, I want to make notes. Some of the things I forget and it comes to my mind and sorry. Thank you very much. Yeah. Uh, now we'll take the first point. Baha'i. Allah mentions that the soul comes into this life. Create is created by God at the sign at the same time of conception when a child is conceived and the first cell is created in the embryo physical sale, the soul of man is also created at the same time that the soul of man did not exist before. This is one of the prince, one of the basic truths which Baha'i Allah has revealed to us. It did not have an existence before, but that it was created at the time of conception in the same way that the cell did not exist before. But it came into being at the time of conception, and these two things are related together. They are associated with each other because the soul being a spiritual entity, cannot enter into anything. You cannot say my soul entered my body. You cannot use the word to describe it. Even it cannot have any relationship, in fact, with the body. But it is somehow associated with it, and Abdu'l-Baha describes it as, uh so it's It says it's similar to the, uh to the Association of Light in the Mirror. The soul in the body is the same thing, he says. It's the same example he gives is like the light in the mirror. When you look at the mirror, you cannot put your hand in the mirror and pull the light out. You can't touch it. It's not. It's not in the mirror. The reflection. The light is not in the mirror, but it is somewhat associated with it reflected on it. And if you break the mirror, nothing happens to the light. And Mahala tells us that it's the same thing with the soul. It's associated with us. It's a spiritual thing. It cannot have any relationship with our body other than just being associated. And even you cannot say associated, because you cannot use words to describe it in any way. But whatever it is, we know that Let us say the nearest we can say its associated with us. Now look at we can find a lot of similarities here between the embryo growing in the womb of the mother and the soul. A lot of similarities. And from this we can learn a great deal, looking again at the writings and looking at nature together because, as I said, these two things have to go together now. One of the similarities is this that the cell is created at the time of conception. The first cell, if you look at it, there is nothing, uh, that you can see in the form of limbs or organs or anything. But that cell has the capacity to grow, to multiply, to acquire limbs and organs, so that after a period of, say, nine months, for instance, it will have a perfect if you will have a perfect human being from that cell. It has all the capacities to acquire limbs and organs. But when you look at the cell, there's nothing. Nothing really unusual about this, just a cell. Now the soul is the same. When the soul comes to us first at the time of conception, it has no qualities and perfections. It has no virtues. It has no knowledge. It has no wisdom. But it can. It has the capacity during a period of, say, 70 8100 years that we live in this world to acquire these qualities and perfection. It's just like the cell in the embryo, isn't it? You see now the similarities. You can see how these two things are are are really counterparts of each other. Another similarity is that when the cell, uh, is growing in the womb of the mother. It is not designed to live there to stay there all its existence, all the period of its existence. But that is only there for a very short period. This is not. It's home. The womb of the mother is not the home for the body of man. It's not his whole. It's only a temporary place for it to acquire limbs and organs. That's all it is. But now exactly the same thing applies to the soul. This world, which we live in, is really a one world is the one ball for the soul, as if each one of us is pregnant with the soul. Each one of us have the soul in our custody, like, shall we say, like preserving it so that during this period of 100 years, 80 years that we live for 60 years that we live our soul may acquire qualities and perfections, but this is not his home. It's a stranger, really. It's a stranger here in the same way. Sorry. In the same way that the child in the womb of the mother is a stranger there. That's not its place now. Yeah, we go further on and we can go and and find out more similarities. Another similarity is that when they look at the cell growing in the womb of the mother first, uh, it is really very insignificant. Very insignificant. I mean, the cell is not significant at all, and nobody even notices it. It is so unnoticeable. You have to have a microscope to examine. So and and yet look at what happens nine months later, you have a person it has developed into a person. It has a, uh all the faculties of a man See the difference between the first day and the last day, the entry into the room or the creation in the room and the emerging from the room. You see that? The difference between the two stages that's the same thing with our soul. The day that we are conceived and the soul is created. As I said, it has no identity, is no personality. It has no individuality, really. But it will acquire this acquired qualities perfections, individuality and Baha'i. Allah says that we will retain our individuality and personalities in the next life so that you are yourself. It's not something that you lose. You are yourself. And he says that the holy souls will associate with all the souls, the holy souls, the profits and describe in the next life all their sufferings in the path of God and all the joys and all the hardships that they have carried on in this life. So, you see, it's not something that you will forget. It's something that you you have an identity. Individuality. Yeah, and behold, Allah mentions. Now, this is a very beautiful thought that the soul which comes into being, um well, last although it has a beginning, and that is when one is conceived. But it has no end that it will grow. And it will progress as long as God exists in the spiritual world of God. So you see what a beautiful thing it is to bring Children into the world. Mhm so that you have a child coming into the world soul, which is going to be there till eternity and another feature which again is part of the teachings of our faith. The soul is indestructible. You cannot destroy it. Once it is created, it belongs to the spiritual world of God and at whatever stage, at whatever stage you dissociated from the body, whether it is at the time that the child even growing in the womb of the mother, if there is a miscarriage, you cannot destroy the soul, the soul is growing will grow in the spiritual world of God. It has not had the chance to acquire qualities and perfections here. But we are told that God will compensate this. So it's not something which is lost. A child who dies at a young age is the same. He has no chance to develop qualities and perfections, but that it will grow through the bounties of God. And God will compensate for the things that he had not been able to acquire in this life. Okay, now there are other similarities. We go a little further and we find that our soul, our the body first of all, when we look at the body, we find that as I mentioned this before, the womb of the mother is not a place for it to live and the soul also This is not its place. This home is very much a strange place for it. in this world, it's like being a bird which is kept in a cage. This is another example that Abdu'l-Baha Holland Abdu'l-Baha are given in their teachings that they have. They have given us an example of a bird being kept in a cage. The bird does not belong to the cage. The bird is there in the cage to be fed to be nourished so that when the cage breaks, it can take its flight into its own realms. And so again, we come to the same conclusion that this period of life that we go through, that our soul is in this warm world, really. And it is here to acquire qualities and perfections, to acquire, love, to acquire knowledge, to acquire wisdom, to be loving. Another similarity is that when the child is in the womb of the mother, it acquires limbs and organs there. But those limbs and organs are not really needed in the womb. World cannot use them there. It's not really of his been of any benefit to him. Uh, he has. He uses a little bit of it. For instance, he moves his muscles. He uses moves a little bit of a movement, you see, But you cannot really. It's not a place for using it. You see, the child, for instance, towards the end has got perfect eyes. But it cannot see because there is no light. But when it is born, all these limbs and organs which were useless to him and it could never conceive what it is for. We'll find some use and you'll begin to use them. The eyes now become perfect instruments for seeing you see, the phenomenon of seeing is a marvelous phenomenon. When you look at it, can you imagine if nobody could ever see if there was no such thing as site? We would be deprived of knowing something about the light. But the light comes and the combination of the two makes us see. And there we know one of the attributes of God is the all seeing God, and then we know something of the attributes of God. But you see, these limbs and organs are not useful in the womb world, but it will be useful when it is born here. It's the same thing with us with the soul, all the qualities and perfections that the soul acquires in this life. Yeah. In the in this life of 70 or 80 years, I referred to it. I don't know how. What is the length of what is the duration of life in this country? I don't know how many years people live. Uh, I think people may live longer lives, huh? Than other countries I know. In my when I was a young person, people used to live to the age of 102 103 110 Mhm. But in here, probably people don't live that long. I'm going to tell you a little story came to my mind. It's not an authentic story. It's one of those pilgrims notes, and don't ever take note of it. But it is one of those funny things that yoga Fendi had a great sense of humor, you know? And, uh uh, he used to tell us that he's told one of the pilgrims about the American way of life. Now it's no way to belittle anything. But he was telling us he was telling these pilgrims, he said in a in a very in a humorous vein, he says that the American male works very hard to please his wife. Now I don't know if it's true or not. Uh, he works very, very hard, and he provides all the facilities and means and comfort for his wife and family. And the poor man comes home tired and exhausted, and his wife is full of energy. And he wants to take her out to go theaters, to do these places and enjoy themselves. And so the man. Of course we'll go and we'll oblige his wife. And then, as a result of all this hard work, he dies at the younger age, and the woman becomes a rich travels around the world. Well, these are some of the stories, often sugar. Fendi made a lot of humorous remarks. You know, Baha'i. Allah had also a great sense of humor. You must not think that he did not have a sense of humor, a great sense of humor. Abdu'l-Baha had a sense of humor. Uh, the believers used to have a sense of humor, and they used to those who had the capacity to come to Baha'i, Allah to Abdu'l-Baha and make some humorous remarks which would make them all laugh. You know, this was one of those characteristics. I'll tell you now that I said about the Americans, let me go and tell you everything, uh, to give Andy had said to another program something story. I've heard this. Now I don't know whether it's true or not. He was trying to describe again the various nations and how each nation has its own characteristics. And he said that in America, women dominate over men. I hope you don't mind me saying this. They rule over their husbands in Germany, he said. It's the opposite. It's the men who he said in England it's quite a balance, He said. It's not a bad thing. If a German man, if a German, if an American woman married a German man, right, and they lived in England. So yeah, so well, we were talking about the soul. I don't know what happened. We went out of it. But, you know, one of those things that I wanted to mention um, about the soul is that, uh we were saying that the limbs and organs which the child acquires in the womb of the mother are not needed there, but in this life is the same thing with the sole really these qualities and perfections that we acquire love, unity, brotherhood, kindness, generosity, knowledge. Although we can use it in here in this life, somehow to our advantage, they are not. They are really needed in the next life. They are far the next life that we acquire these qualities and perfections. And even if you don't use these qualities and perfections in this life, you still can live. In fact, this is what happens with most people today. People hate people, kill and they still can live. They don't use those qualities in this life. They still can live. But the real place, the real use of all these perfections and qualities that we have to acquire real use of them is not here is in the next line. All these perfections and qualities and virtues that we must acquire becomes like our spiritual limbs and organs. In the next life, it will become active just like the eyes which are not active in the womb of the mother. And suddenly because the light comes up and it becomes a very marvelous instrument, our acquiring of the quality of love, for instance, in the next life will become just an instrument through which we can progress. And if you don't acquire them in here, then we cannot, uh, use them in the next line because there is another similarity. And that similarity is this. That the child must acquire limbs and organs in the womb of the mother. If it does not, it cannot acquire them. In this life. If you do not have an eye or if you do not have an arm, you can't acquire them. In this life, you're handicapped, you will grow. But your handicap and the same thing we understand is true in the spiritual sense that the soul, uh, must acquire these qualities and perfections in this life. That is why God has brought the body and the soul together. That's why he has decreed that we should live a period of 60 1700 years here to acquire these qualities and perfection so that these qualities and perfections become instruments of growth for us in the next life and that if we do not acquire them here, we cannot acquire them in the next life. That's all we understand. And remember, we are not trying to say in this in these in these talks and in these studies that we can understand the soul. Now let me. First of all, I should have said this in the beginning. I don't think that by hearing these talks on studying the writings, no matter how much deeply you study the soul, you will never understand what the soul is. This is only the impressions we get of the soul. These are impressions. This is as far as man in this life can understand the soul. We are limited in our understanding and vision. We cannot understand everything spiritual. We haven't got the tools for it in this life. It's in the next life that we will see the true reality of our souls. But it is hidden from us because there is yet another similarity which I want to mention it and that similarity between the two things between the embryo and the soul is this that if ever if ever the child, the child has not got the capacity to understand what a small places living in but a limited place a dark place is living in during the period that he is growing in the womb of the mother. He has no capacity to understand that he has no capacity to understand what a great world expects him to be born into the vastness, the glory, the greatness of this world. He cannot see impossible for him to see because God has not given him the capacity to understand this the same God has not given our soul the capacity to understand anything about the greatness of the world which evades us the spiritual worlds of God and in fact, Baha'i. Allah mentions that if ever the glory of the next life was revealed to the extent of the needle's eye, then man would commit suicide in the same way that if a child knew what a small places living in and what a vast place is awaiting him, that child you would have you couldn't live there. You would have a revolution there really wouldn't want to live there. But God, the same God which has not given the child capacity to appreciate that period is completely ignorant about it. We are the same in that sense, because we will never be able to know our soul. In fact, there is a passage in Islam which says, if you want to know God, you should know yourself. They have asked Baha'i Allah. What does this mean? He says it means that when you look at yourself, you will find everything you have in your body is a manifestation of the soul. For instance, your eyesight is a manifestation of the soul in the body you're hearing is the manifestation of the soul. All your senses are the manifestations of the soul in the body. Your brain is a manifestation of the soul in the body, the body. But he says, your heart, which loves is a manifestation of the soul in your body. But he says, if you add all these manifestations together, the sum total does not become the sole. Then he says, what is the soul? And then he says, If you live as long as thousands of years, and if all the peoples of the world put their thoughts together, they shall never know what that soul is. And he says, when you reach to that conclusion that you will never understand your soul, the reality of the soul, the essence of your soul, then you will say to yourself, How can I ever know the essence of my God, who has created that soul and you realize your impotence to recognize the essence of God. And he says When you reach to that stage, the knowledge of God has dawned on you. This is when you begin to know God. When you realize that you will never know him impossible to know the essence of God. The essence of God is hidden from the eyes of men. We can never reach it. In fact, Baha'i Allah mentions these mentions that manifestations of God have no understanding of the essence of God. Because if they did, they would be partners with him. The manifestations of God have no access to the essence of God. You know, you read some of the passages that show the offender has translated. He says 10,000 Moses is thunderstruck. I'm paraphrasing his words at the Sinai of your revelation of God's revelation, not knowing his essence and 10,000 profits as great as Jesus are dismayed at this thought of not thou mine essence. Thou shalt never know. This is the call they get from God. By my essence, I shall not know. But all I mentioned just 10,000 profits as great as Jesus stand dismayed at the threshold of God. Hearing this voice, thou shalt never know my essence. Now this indicates that the essence of God is beyond the comprehension of anything can never rise to that. He is the creator and the creator must always stand above his creation. If it was, then we would be equal with him. If the mind could ever grasp anything. It means you're equal with that thing. You can only understand something which is either below you or or or on on the same level as you can never understand something above you. It's impossible. So now Malala says this is the meaning. When you realise that you cannot know your own soul, the essence of your soul, then you can say, Well, how can I know the essence of my God who has created my soul? Impossible. Now we go a little bit further. Let me take you a little further now I What time do we close this session, Mr Chairman? 12. What time is it now? Oh, yes, 12. But you can't carry on. You mean the first session is going till 12 o'clock? You are very great people. even you can listen to all this. Well, any time you get there is no break between it. No. Yeah. All right, well, we'll see if you feel if I see you yawning and then I'll say, All right, we'll have a break. Actually, if anybody wants to have a little those off or something or go to a little bit of sleep, go and sit in the back roads because you can never see them. That's what they are doing. They're probably now in the back roads. Now, I will come back to your questions. If, if I may. If you just wait till I finish this subject, you might find your answer. Your questions are answered, probably because we haven't even touched upon the subject. Well, now, friends, Uh, yeah. We come to another similarity here between the embryo and the soul. And that is that when a child is born, it can bring with him whatever it has. Mm. It cannot bring anything that it hasn't. He just brings with him whatever it has. And in fact, one in one of these tablets. Baha'i. Allah says if you needed anything else in this world, I would have given it to you there, the womb of the mother. Now it's the same thing with the soul the soul can take with him, whatever it has. But you can't take with you anything which is bad because bad does not exist in itself. It has no existence. Now don't take me wrong and say that I said There is no bad things in this world is full of bad things in this world. But bad things are they have no outward existence. Bad is the negative of good. If you say a person is you mean that the person is a very bad person, you can say a person. It's very little good in him. That's what it is, and he can take with him that little bit of good. He cannot take all the bad things, and it's a non existence of light. Poverty does not exist, and it has not an existence of its own. Poverty means lack of riches. If you're a poor person, very poor person, you can say you can't say I'm a very poor person and I'm coming to your house and I'm going to bring all my poverty with me. You can't do that. You can't do that when you say you are a very poor man means you have very little money. You have one cent or you have $1. You just that's very small amount of money. This is the meaning of poverty. But whatever you have is positive, and that's what you can take with you. A murderer, for instance, is a person who has impoverished his soul. Well, he can take with him a little bit of good. A saint is a person who has got a lot of good qualities and perfections, and he carries with it to the next life, and therefore each one of them is like having a capital. You begin your life with a capital one is very small. Capital one is a large capital, and everyone grows in the spiritual world of God. There is no such thing as eternal damnation. Well, there are some souls which we know are diseased in this life, and this is the only one which God has indicated will not be forgiven. And that is the souls of the Covenant breakers. And they were in the Christian theology. It is the those who sin against the Holy Ghost. And I may if there is a chance, I will explain to you. Really, What is a Cabinet breaker as we Baha'i is, uh, talk about it in this, uh, in nature, looking at nature not to look at the philosophy of cabinet breaking because we have no time for it in the faith but nature again, As I said, you can everything in the faith. You can look at nature and find out these things. You can find out what covenant breaking is in nature. Now, we don't go into that subject now, but maybe I'll make a note of it here, and sometimes we can bring it up. So you see, um, uh, every soul begins its spiritual life depending on its own qualities and perfections that it has acquired in this life. And this is why Baha'i Allah says that in the next life, the souls will be graded. We will be separated. Each one of us, in accordance with his own accomplishments in this life, will attain a certain position, a certain grade, a certain level. And he says those who are at a high level will encompass those who are on the lower level and will completely understand them and will encompass them. And those who are on a lower level will not understand anything about those who are on a higher level. And their life in relation to them. To those who are on a higher level is like like nonexistence. Now this exactly applies in nature. Exactly. You look at nature. You will find God has created in this nature great many levels of creation. First of all, there are several kingdoms. That is the mineral kingdom that is the vegetable kingdom. There is the animal kingdom. There is the kingdom of man. And yet within each one of these kingdoms, there are grades. Look at the animal kingdom. There are so many grades. On one end of the scale you come across a creature like a worm. For instance, a warm is an animal. And on the other end of the scale, you come across the intelligent animals and in between there are enormous number of animals, different degrees, you see, And God seems to love this different levels. He loves to have this difference in his creation. We may not love it. I often say to myself, Really, If we were God, we would have. It's a pity to, for instance, look at creatures like a mouse, for instance. What a terrible thing to be a mouse instead of being a man, Can you imagine he could have been a man, but it's a mouse now. God still likes this. He likes the mouth. He likes to have a mouse, and he likes to have a man. He likes to have different grades, and it's the same thing. In the spiritual world of God, we are going to be greeted and the life of a warm in relation to the life of another high, intelligent animal. It's like death in relation to life, really. But it has its life. It's not dead. The more, um, is not dead. It has life, but it's life in relation to the life of a dog, for instance. It's like it's like death in relation to life. And so it is the same thing we are under. We understand in the spiritual realm that men that the souls will be graded in accordance with what qualities we have acquired. As I told you, we cannot take bad things with us to the next life. But whatever good things we can take, those good things will determine the level in which we are going to be now another important question, which again we can find it from nature and looking at the writings. Of course, as I mentioned before, we must look at these two things always. And from that we learn a lot of things is that when you look at the where is the next life, where is the next world? Now? If you want to know that look at nature. Nature will answer you when you look at the child in the womb of the mother. We said that the embryo remember growing in the womb of the mother and the soul, our counterparts of each other. When you look at the child in the womb of the mother, where is he when he's growing in the womb world? Where is he? He's here, isn't he? He's in this world. Really. The distance is very little. There is only a barrier which prevents him from being in this world. But he's here is carried with his mother around. Have you ever seen in a farm? An egg breaking and a chicken comes out. Where was the chicken before the egg breaks? It was there, but it couldn't realize it itself until the shell breaks. So holla tells us that the next world is here. It's closer to us then we can ever imagine. But it is closed before our eyes. And as I mentioned before Baha'i, Allah says, If we could only perceive to the extent of the needle's eye the greatness and the glory of the next life, then we would want to commit suicide to get there. So you can see, hear how the next life, the next world is just beside us. And then there is another thing we learned from the child in the womb of the mother. And that is this that, um once the child is growing in the womb of the mother, there are many, many, um, people who are involved in caring for that child. The mother is the first person who really is, um I've been enabling the child to grow. The father, the mother, the relatives, the doctors, the nurses, the community, all of them are paying attention and working hard for enabling that child to grow once it is in the womb of the mother, and we're told it's the same thing in this life, in relation to the holy souls which have passed away. They are the cause of all the growth and development which takes place in this life. But you remember I was saying to you, it's the one way communication they are, they encompass us, they help us. They inspire us in ways that we have no way of understanding it. Mahala mentions that martyrs of the faith will produce such an effect upon the growth and development of this world. That although that he says that even though that it takes place rarely it will produce his tremendous results in this line. It's just like the care, the attention, the love which the parents the community has for the child growing in the womb of the mother. But as I mentioned to you, we cannot take with us into the next life anything which is bad, because bad does not exist in its in its own outward sense. Mm. So the souls which are going on in the next life everything they can do to us is for our good. They have no bad things. They cannot influence us in a bad way. They can only influence us in a good way. And if it is anything which we want, which is bad for us, they can't give it to you. I can only give you what is good for you. And what is good for you sometimes may be suffering. Maybe a T sufferings. The more our souls suffer, the more it becomes ready to absorb spiritual powers to itself, suffering in the path of God bearing those sacrifices, we do whatever realm it may be. In whatever field you sacrifice something, you give up your time. You're tired, but you give up your time. You go and teach the people you go and promote the faith. But you go through a great deal of hardship that is good for the soul that enables the soul to grow. And those the concourse on high those holy souls which are passed away from this line, they will assist us if we walk in the right way. But as soon as you want to go in the wrong way, they cannot assist you because they cannot influence us in a bad way. Now I am going to now go into another aspect of the soul. And maybe before I do that, uh, so far you can we can go on and on and talk about this quite a lot. But I think we have got an idea here. Maybe it's not a bad thing at this point that if you have any questions about what I've said, which we have not understood it, maybe we can talk about it now and then we will go to another aspect of the soul, which is very important because all these things that we have said so far about the soul, the soul coming to us from the worlds of God, we said, from the spiritual realms, we said that the soul has to acquire qualities and perfections. Here we we said how everything in this life has a counterpart in the spiritual world. Anything physical is a counterpart of something spiritual. We discuss all these things and there were able to get some idea only an idea an impression of what the soul is and its qualities and powers are. But now and we said that the purpose of life so far so far is to acquire qualities and perfections. But there is a great greater purpose in our creation far, far greater from acquiring qualities and perfections far greater and again in order to understand that, I'll take you to nature again. But before we enter into this subject, let us see if there is anything so far which you want to comment about or question. I'm not referring to those people who are sitting in the back room, probably asleep. But, uh, that's the place. If you want to rest, you know that's a good place. We have this game in Europe and we have classes we often say. Now, look here, go into the back road. It's a good place to be right. Well, it seems to me there is no yes on the great levels of the soul after one person dies and then there's holes on. And then it's graded level. Yes, put on a different level. Is the higher great or chance you might be put back to work this world? I don't know. One thing we do know is that the question is this, that if you're in a higher grade, will you be able to influence. Is that what you're saying this world more? Yes. Well, this is what Baha'i Allah says to us. He's not talking of the influence of those. He says the holy souls in his writings he talks about the influence of the holy souls in this life is so great that it can produce all the arts and sciences in this life and become the cause of growth. It is obviously from the holy souls. That will be, uh, that this will happen. But again, you see, these are only as I said, our own limited, very, very limited understanding of the realities and the truth. We shall know it in the next life fully. What's happening? Yes. Oh, yes, of course. You know, uh, there again, we're we're right. We we we we hear in the writings that in the writings that prayer through prayer the souls of those who passed away can can progress through the instrumentality of prayer through the instrumentality of some, um, charity work in the name of your Children in the memory of whoever it is in the service that you yourself rendered to the cause. All of these things will aid. The souls were passed on to progress. And I I will want to mention this to you that, um when we we people who have come of from the east like myself not nowadays, but in the old days taste. Uh, there was a very clear uh huh attitude about oneself. And that was that I am not an important person that I do not ever celebrate my own birthday. I'll just give you an example of it. Nobody in my time when I was young in those in the in the East would ever consider, consider, even or dream of or think about that I have to celebrate my birthday. They considered that they were so insignificant that you don't consider you don't celebrate yourself. The only persons birthday which was worthy of celebration was that of a profit. That's when it's a holiday. And so there was never such a thing as doing this because they consider this will, uh, create an ego growing and, uh, egotistical attitude of turning to yourself and becoming a center of attraction or center of attention on your breath. And I'm not saying that anything against birthday, don't mistake it now. I'm not saying you can do what you like. I'm just mentioning to you that this was the attitude. But instead of that, instead of celebrating your birthday, they always commemorated one of their dear ones who have passed away and would pray for him on the anniversary of his passing so that the anniversary that you could have was that of your passing. When you passed, your family would sit and would pray for you on the anniversary. Would invite their friends to come together on that evening on that day in memory of that person, and then they would pray for him. They consider this was much better than celebrating your own birthday. Because then your soul will progress as a result of the prayers of yourself and your friends. Mm. Who knows how these things will adjust themselves in the future? The more we pay attention to ourselves. Now, I don't want you to go around and say I've said something against holding your birthday. We'll go on and do it as much as you want and blow all the candles and all the things you do. But all I'm saying is nothing to do with birthdays. But what I'm saying is that the attitude should be that of not playing up our ego but playing it down to subdue our ego, which we're talking about last night. Somehow you cannot destroy it. You must not kill it. Because if we do that, we are not, uh we can't live in this life. You have to have yourself. You have to have. This is part of you. You can't. But it is a very dangerous animal, self and ego. And when it comes out, you all you have to do is to put a rein on it and hold it in your hand and control it. Um, probably we will mention a little bit about that. I'll make a note of it to bring this matter up later on. Now. Any other questions here that you can, uh, we want to talk about what? So far we have said, If not, then we'll go. Yes. Have a question. I do. It's kind of a question. Two questions relating to each other, but it kind of happened. Number one are Would depression and despair be simply the lack of joint confidence? Or are they things themselves? And in the next world is there is the appearance of bad, even though that does not exist. The appearance of that there is this one, huh? Well, I'll answer the second question because it's easier to deal with it this way. You see, this world we are having is the world of relativity, everything in relation to something else. And therefore, um, you come across shadows and lights because everything is relative, even a bad man, as you call him. He's very good in relation to another man who is worse than him, you see, so things are relative and there is darkness and there is light. But Abdu'l-Baha mentioned, he says, if you were living in the sun, there would be no day and no light, No, no day and no night. It would be everything would be, uh, still. And in the next life there is no, this is not a world of relativity. It's the world of the absolute you see now so that nothing will will emerge from that world, radiate except good. And, uh, this is my understanding from the writings and looking at nature. But whether despair is a lack of confidence, these are matters which we don't want to split hair now, if you think it is all right. Well, the reason I asked one, because the despair and depression Oh, in the next world, you mean? No, no, no, no, not We're talking. I thought you mentioned this life. No, no, no. Oh, yeah. No, no, no. In the Yeah. Yeah, No. In the next life, you can see everything is positive, and despair is not there. They cannot have despair in the spiritual world of God. You see, it is all confidence and all positive qualities. Everything is positive. Yes, everything. Every little bit of good. It's good. It's like having $1 with you. Well, $1 is money. It's just like $100. Except it is less in value, but it is of the same quality. You know, I think that, uh, we cannot understand. You must always realize that what we're doing in here if you're getting an impression of what's happening and not the reality, but from the writings. Uh, the more we read the writings, the more we understand. It's not a bad thing, if at this moment in here or some other stage, because maybe we'll have more people in the afternoon I will talk about this aspect of understanding, uh, which is a very important aspect in our life. Um, maybe we leave that later on. Any other questions now. And if not, we will go to that subject Will continue with it. Or are you tired Now? What is the time? Quarter to 11. Do you want to give yourself five minutes of a break? Everybody wants five minutes of a break, and then we come back again, okay?
