Transcript:Adib Taherzadeh/Growing in the Bahá’í Faith/Day 1

Transcript of: Growing in the Bahá’í Faith (Day 1) by Adib Taherzadeh

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Note: Timestamps below are based on the partial audio from Day 1 only. Extraneous, duplicated or mistaken words or word-sounds have been removed to make reading the transcript easier. (Examples) Access: Download Day 1 Proofread once

[0:00] The greatest joy, and privilege really to have been given this opportunity and this great honor to come and meet with you friends. I was mentioning last night to some of you who were there, that when I was a child I grew up amongst the early believers, and they could never conceive, they could never believe or use their imagination that one day the believers from all over the world, and 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 when you think off it, really, one of the greatest proofs off this revelation is that in a small, little, dirty, filthy prison, dungeon in Tehran, the light of this great revelation 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 Síyáh-Chál of Tehran, and will illuminate the hearts of many, many people and bring in a new creation. And now you can see the results of this how the faith has spread, how the power of Bahá’u’lláh 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 Bahá’u’lláh. 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 off a person who says I believe in Bahá’u’lláh, coming from the Western world.

[3:20] Well, friends, I feel that this weekend we are going to be together hopefully to go through some of the most important, in my view, aspects of our faith. It is marvelous to be a Bahá’í, 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 this is why Bahá’u’lláh 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 would be better than today, and you have to feel it. And this is, I think, the challenge to all of us. Perhaps it's easy to become a Bahá’í, but it is very difficult to grow as a Bahá’í. Look back upon the earlier day, one can feel in the faith and nobody can say that I've grown enough, nobody. As long as we live here, we have the skill 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 know-how, that I have changed all of these things. All I'm trying to do is from the writings of Bahá’u’lláh hand 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.

[5:41] 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 Bahá’ís, especially of the non-Bahá’ís of the outside world. They seldom, seldom 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 in order to appreciate spiritual realities, we should look at two things. If you want to understand the spiritual principle, a spiritual reality, you should look at two things, and look at them very carefully. One is nature. And one is the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. And when you put the two together, then we can understand many spiritual realities. Nature 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 physical world separate, it is not like this. He has created one entity. The spiritual and the physical worlds is one and the same. And their laws which run through 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 you will find in nature, the same laws are operative in religion. Every one of the major teachings of Bahá’u’lláh has its origin in nature. Every one of his teachings. It is very natural, religion is very natural. The laws that run within the world of man, within our world, 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 worlds, 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 off 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 spiritually realities.

[9:31] 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 physical world and the spiritual worlds. You know, I'll give you one example, just an example. All the laws which govern the creation of a tree, for example, are the same laws as those which are used in the creation of man. The same principle, the same laws apply to the two things, they're very much counterparts of each other, a tree and a man. You see, the tree 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, its food comes from there. But the tree itself, as if it dislikes the ground, the ground is a very dirty place, it's a low, one of the lowest kingdoms, but the 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. As if it dislikes this earth, it moves in the opposite direction, and when it moves in the opposite direction, 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 of 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 would never receive the rays of the sun. 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 for the tree. This earth, this world that we live in. We have to earn a living. We have to live in this world. And 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. It should dislike it. It should really become detached from this earth, and focus its attention in the opposite direction. And if you do that, if we 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 thing as the rays of the sun of truth shining upon me.

[13:08] Now, here you see the difference? There's exactly the same principles, but with one difference. I mentioned that 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 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 growing 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 attach yourself to the things of this world, you'll 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 to be applied on different levels.

[14:24] 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 understand our place in life. Again in order to understand the soul we must examine another principle, and that principle is what Bahá’u’lláh 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 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 worlds. So everything has a counterpart. And if you can study the counterpart of something, you can understand the other counterpart. If you study anything in nature, you can study its counterpart in the spiritual realms. Do you see what I mean? For instance, Bahá’u’lláh mentions that the sun is the counterpart of a manifestation of God. What the sun does to this earth, a manifestation of God does to man. So the sun, 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.

[16:39] 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 a 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? You see that 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, Bahá’u’lláh says, the soul is an emanation from the worlds of God an emanation from the spiritual worlds of God. So now, where are we? We want to find a physical counterpart for the soul. There we turn to the writing's, 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 growing in the womb of the mother, the same thing 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, but, thank you very much.

[19:09] Now we'll take the first point. Bahá’u’lláh mentions that the soul comes into this life and is created by God at the same time of conception. When a child is conceived, and the first cell is created in the embryo, physical cell, 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 basic truths which Bahá’u’lláh 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-Bahá describes it, says it's similar 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 in the mirror. 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 Bahá’u’lláh 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, let us say the nearest we can say, it's associated with us.

[21:30] 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 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, 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, it's 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 80 a 100 years that we live in this world to acquire these qualities and perfections. 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 really counterparts of each other.

[23:22] Another similarity is that when the cell 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 it's only there for a very short period. This is not its home, the womb of the mother is not the home for the body of man. It's not its home. It's only a temporary place for it to acquire limbs and organs. That's all it is for. Now exactly the same thing applies to the soul. This world which we live in is really a womb world. It's a womb world for the soul, as if each one of us is pregnant with a 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, 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 that the child in the womb of the mother is a stranger there. That's not its place.

[24:59] Now we go further on and we can find out more similarities. Another similarity is that when they look at the cell growing in the womb of the mother first, it is really very insignificant, very insignificant. I mean, a cell is not significant at all, and nobody even notices it. It is so unnoticeable. You have to have a microscope to examined it. And yet, look at what happens nine months later, you have a person, it has developed into a person. It has all the faculties of a man. See the difference between the first day and the last day? The entry into the womb or the creation in the womb, and the emerging from the womb, 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, no personality. It has no individuality, really. But it will acquire this, acquire qualities, perfections, individuality, and Bahá’u’lláh 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 prophets and describe in the next life all the 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 have, an identity, individuality. And Bahá’u’lláh mentions, now this is a very beautiful thought, that the soul which comes into being will 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 worlds of God. So you see what a beautiful thing it is to bring children into the world? So that you have a child coming into the world, a soul, which is going to be there till eternity.

[27:53] 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 worlds of God. And at whatever stage you dissociated from the body, whether it is at the time that the child is even growing in the womb of the mother, if there is a miscarriage, you cannot destroy the soul, the soul will grow in the spiritual worlds of God. It has not had the chance to acquire qualities and perfections yet, but we are told that God will compensate this. So it's not something which is lost. A child who dies at the young age is the same, 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.

[29:03] Now there are other similarities. We go a little further and we find that our 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. This world, it's like being a bird which is kept in a cage. This is another example that Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have given in their teachings, 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 womb world, really, and it is here to acquire qualities, and perfections. To acquire love, to acquire knowledge, to acquire wisdom, to be loving.

[30:24] 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 any benefit to him. He uses a little bit of it. For instance he moves his muscles, moves a little bit of a movement, you see. But he 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 he could never conceive what it is for, will find some use and will begin to use them. The eyes now become perfect instruments for seeing. You see the phenomena of seeing is a marvelous phenomenal when you look at it, can you imagine if nobody could ever see if there was no such thing as sight? 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.

[31:58] It's the same thing with us, with the soul. All the qualities and perfections that the soul acquires in this life of 70 or 80 years, I refer to it, I don't what is the duration of life in this country? I don't know how many years people live. I think people may live longer lives, huh? Then other countries? I know when I was a young person, people used to live to the age of 102, 103 you see 110. But in here, probably people don't live that long.

[32:37] I'm going to tell you a little story came to my mind. It's not an authentic stories, it's one of those pilgrim's notes, and don't ever take note of it. Well, it is one of those funny things that Shoghi Effendi had a great sense of humor, you know. And he used to tell us, 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 these pilgrims in a humorous way, he says that the American male works very hard to please his wife. Now, I don't know if it's true or not. And 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 to theaters, to do these places and enjoy themselves. And so the man, of course, will go and oblige his wife, and then, as a result of all this hard work, he dies at a younger age, and the woman becomes rich and travels around the world. [Laughter] Well, these are some of the, often Shoghi Effendi made a lot of humorous remarks. You know Bahá’u’lláh 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-Bahá had a sense of humor. The believers used to have a sense of humor, and they used to, those who had the capacity to come to Bahá’u’lláh, to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and make some humorous remarks, which would make them all laugh, you know, this was one of those characteristics.

[34:25] I tell you now that I said about the Americans, let me go and tell you everything. Shoghi Effendi had said to another pilgrim, something, a 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 are. He said in England it's quite a balance. He said it's not a bad thing if an American woman married a German man and they lived in England. [Laughter] So there we are.

[35:22] Well, we were talking about the soul, I don't know what happened we went out of the way. But you know, one of those things that I wanted to mention about the soul is that 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 it's the same thing with the soul. 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 really needed in the next life. They are for 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, the real use of them is not here, it's in the next life. All these perfections and qualities and virtues that we must acquire becomes like our spiritual limbs and organs in the next life. It'll 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 it become just an instrument through which we can progress. And if you don't acquire them in here, then we cannot used them in the next life. 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 an arm, you can't acquire them in this life, you are handicapped. You will grow, but you are handicapped. And the same thing we understand is true in the spiritual sense, that the soul 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, 70, 100 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.

[38:31] That's all we understand. And remember, we're not trying to say in this and in these studies that we can understand the soul now. First of all, I should have said this in the beginning. Don't think that by hearing these talks and 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 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 to you. And that similarity between the two things, between the embryo and the soul, is this, that if ever the child has not got the capacity to understand what a small place he's living in, what a limited place, a dark place he's 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 awaits us, the spiritual worlds of God. And in fact, Bahá’u’lláh mentions that if ever the glory of the next life was revealed to the extent of a needle's eye, then man would commit suicide. In the same way that if a child knew what a small place he's living in and what a vast place is awaiting him. That child 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 a capacity to appreciate that period is completely ignorant about it.

[41:02] 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 Bahá’u’lláh 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. Your hearing is a 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. 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 soul. 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 reached 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.

[42:53] The essence of God is hidden from the eyes of men. We can never reach it. In fact, Bahá’u’lláh 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 Shoghi Effendi has translated in English. He says 10,000 Moses is thunderstruck, I'm paraphrasing his words, at the Sinai 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, thy shall not know. Bahá’u’lláh mentions that 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 mine could ever grasp anything, it means you are equal with that thing. You can only understand something which is either below you or on the same level as you. You can never understand something above you, it's impossible.

[44:28] Bahá’u’lláh says this is the meaning, when you realize that you cannot know your own soul, the essence of your soul, then you can stay 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, What time do we close this session, Mr Chairman? 12? What time is it now? Oh, yes. Oh Oh 12. But you can't carry on. You mean the first session's going to 12 o'clock? You are very great people. Even you can listen to all this? Well, any time you get, there's no break between it. No. Yeah. All right, well, we'll see, if you feel, if I see you yawning, then I'll say all right, we'll have a break. Actually, if anybody wants to have a little doze off or something or go to a little bit of sleep go and sit in the back rows because you can never see them. [Laughter] That's what they are doing there probably now in the back row. [Laughter] Now I will come back to your questions if I may? If you just wait till I finish this subject, you might find your questions are answered, probably. Because we haven't even touched upon the subject.

[45:39] [Inaudible audience member comment or question]

[45:50] Well now friends, we come to another similarity here between the embryo and the soul, and that is when a child is born it can bring with him whatever it has, it cannot bring anything that it hasn't. He just brings with him whatever it has. And in fact, in one of His Tablets Bahá’u’lláh stays if you needed anything else in this world, I would have given it to you there in 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 [audio missing from 46:50 to 46:54] but one cent, or you have one dollar. 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.

[47:05] 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, it's 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 worlds 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. In the Christian theology, it is those who sin against the Holy Ghost. And I may, if there is a chance, I will explain to you really, what is a covenant breaker as we Baháʼís talk about it in nature, looking at nature, not to cut the philosophy of covenant breaking because we have no time for it in the faith, but nature. Again as I said, 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 if it here and sometime we can bring it up.

[48:34] So you see, every soul begins its spiritual life depending on its own qualities and perfections that it has acquired in this life. And this is why Bahá’u’lláh 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 on a higher level will encompass those who are on a 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. Those are in a higher level is like like non existence. 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. There is the mineral kingdom. There is the vegetable kingdom. There is the animal kingdom. There is the kingdom of man. And yet within each one of these kingdoms there our grades. Look at the animal kingdom. There are so many grades. On one end of the scale you come across a creature like a warm 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 of 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? It could have been a man, but it's a mouse. Now, God still likes this. He likes the mouse. 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 worlds of God, we are going to be graded. And the life of the warm in relation to the life of another high intelligent animal is like death in relation to life, really. But it has its life. It's not dead. The worm is not dead. It has life. But it's life in relation to the life of a dog, for instance, is like death in relation to that. And so it is the same thing we understanding the spiritual realms, that the souls will be graded in accordance with what qualities we have acquired. As I told you, we cannot take back 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.

[52:10] 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 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 are 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 is 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 is here, he 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 Bahá’u’lláh 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, Bahá’u’lláh says, if we could only perceived 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 here how the next life, the next world, is just beside us.

[54:15] And then there is another thing we learned from the child in the womb of the mother. And that is this, that once the child is growing in the womb of the mother, there are many, many people who are involved in caring for the child. The mother is the first person who really is 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's in the womb of the mother. And we are 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 encompass us, they help us. They inspire us in ways that we have no way of understanding. Bahá’u’lláh mentions that martyrs of the faith will produce such an effect upon the growth and development of this world. That he says that even though that it takes place rarely, it will produce this tremendous results in this life. It's just like the the care, the attention, the love which the parents, the community has for the child growing in the womb of the mother.

[55:59] 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 own outward sense. So the souls which are gone 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. We 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. They can only give you what is good for you and what is good for you sometime, maybe sufferings, maybe a [?] 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 maybe, 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 and high, those holy souls which are passed away from this life. 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.

[57:42] Now I'm going to now go into another aspect of the soul, and maybe before I do that, so far, you 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 had any questions about what I've said, which you 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 said how everything in this life has a counterpart in the spiritual world. Anything physical is a counterpart of something spiritual. We discussed all these things and there we 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, is to acquire qualities and perfections. But there is a 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. Now I'm not referring to those people who are sitting in the back row, probably asleep. [laughter] But, uh, that's a place if you want to rest. You know that's a good place. We have this game in Europe. When we have classes, we often say, now, look here, go into the back row. It's a good place to be. Right, well it seems to me there's no... yes? Pardon?

[01:00:00] [Woman speaking] On the grade, or level's of the soul after one person dies and then their soul goes on and then it's graded, leveled, but on a different level. Is the higher grade the more chance you might be put back to work in this world [inaudible]?

[01:00:16] I don't know. One thing we do know is that, the question is this, that if you are in a higher grade, will you be able to influence, is that what you are saying? This world more? Yes. Well, this is what Bahá’u’lláh 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 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 truths. We shall know it in the next life fully. What is happening.

[01:01:08] Yes. [inaudible audience member question] Sorry. [inaudible continues] Sorry. I couldn't hear what, could somebody tell me? Because you can't hear it from there. [female speaker] she said, "can parents aid in the growth of the soul of their children?" [Taherzadeh] Of course. You know there again we hear in the Writings that through prayer, the souls of those who passed away can progress through the instrumentality of prayer, through the instrumentality of some charity work in the name of your children in the memory of whoever it is, in the service that you yourself render to the Cause, all of these things will aid the souls who have passed on to progress. And I will want to mention this to you, when people who have come from the East like myself, not nowadays, but in the old days, there was a very clear attitude about oneself and that was that I not an important person, that I do not ever celebrate my own birthday. I just give an example of it. Nobody in my time when I was young 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 person's birthday which was worthy of celebration was that of a prophet. That's when it's a holy day. And so there was never such a thing as doing this because they consider this will create an ego growing and egotistical attitude of turning to yourself and becoming a center of attraction or center of attention on your birthday. 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, we always commemorated one of the dear ones who had 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 can see that this was much better than celebrating your own birthday because then your soul will progress as a result of the prayers of yourself on your friend. Ah, 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. Well 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 were talking about last night somehow, you cannot destroy it. You must not kill it. Because if we do that, we are not, 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, a 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. Probably we will mention a little bit about that, I'll make a note of it just to bring this matter up later on. Now any other questions here that you way want to talk about, so far what we've said? If not, then we'll go, yes?

[01:06:01] [Man speaking] Yeah, kind of dual questions, two questions relating to each other. Number one, would depression and despair be simply the lack of [inaudible], or are they things in themselves? And in the next world is there the appearance of bad, even though bad does not exist in itself, is there the appearance of bad as there is in this world?

[01:06:34] 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 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-Bahá mentions, he says if you were living in the sun, there would be no day and no night, it would be, everything would be still. And in the next life this is not a world of relativity, it's the world of the absolute, you see now? So that nothing will emerge from that world will radiate except good. And 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. [Some back and forth between Taherzadeh and the man speaking, clarifying that the man was speaking about the next life, while Taherzadeh thought he was talking about this life].

[01:08:04] In the next life you can see everything is positive and despair is not there. They cannot have despair in the spiritual worlds of God. You see, it is all confidence and all positive qualities. Everything is positive. [man inaudible again] Yes, everything, every little bit of good. It's good. It's like having one dollar with you. One dollar 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 we cannot understand... You must always realize that what we are doing in here, we are getting an impression of what's happening and not the reality, but from the writings. The more we read the writing's, 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, which is a very important aspect in our life. Maybe we leave that later on. Any other questions now? And if not, we will go to that subject, we 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.

[Break]

[01:09:33] Friends, I feel we should now continue our subject, but is there any other questions before I go on? There was a gentlemen, a lady first. Yes, you were first there, you remember in the back?

[01:09:47] [Inaudible question from audience member]

[01:10:21] Yes. The question is this, that if a child is born blind for instance, and of course in this world he has missed an awful lot, what happens to his soul, is that what you're saying, in the next life? No. [Inaudible question continues]. Oh, what we don't have. I see. Yeah, you mean to say that if we do not acquire certain qualities and perfections here, and we said that we cannot get them in the next life, what will happen? Well again you see, remember this, we are not going to be discussing this entirely on a rational basis and just say exactly what's going to happen. What we understand from the Writings, that's all I can say, is that we must acquire these qualities and perfections in this life. This is the place for acquiring them. If you do not acquire them, we cannot get them in the next life. Then there is a question here which we must never overlook. And it is the bounties of God, and the grace of God and the forgiveness of God. That's another thing, these are all the elements which must be taken into consideration. We know a child, for instance who has not had the opportunity to develop these qualities and perfections in this life, God will compensate it for him in the next life, through His bounties. I don't know how God will deal with us if we have not acquired these qualities and perfections. We cannot be, sort of, in here sitting and giving a judgment and say this is exactly what's going to happen. One thing we know, and that is that forgiveness of God is very great. Very great indeed. You cannot underestimate the forgiveness of God. I am sure myself, in my thoughts, in my mind, this is my feeling that God will forgive everybody. Now I'm not saying that God will immediately put us all on the same level. Here we will be own our own levels, but God is very forgiving. And all the wrong things we do, God can and will forgive. There are some things that He cannot forgive. We'll discuss this later on. It is not something that He doesn't want to forgive, but He cannot. It's against the laws of creation. And one of those things I mentioned is this covenant breaking. But ‘Abdu’l-Bahá mentions if you do not educate your children properly, if you do not educate them, if you do not teach them the law of God and the love of God, it's something which God cannot forgive. I don't know what it means. How He will deal with us. There are few things that are unforgivable by God, but His forgiveness is very, very great. The ocean of His forgiveness is very immense, but it must not become a license that we can say all right, now that God is forgiving, let's go and have a jolly good time here. You have to remember that we have to acquire limbs and organs, spiritual qualities and perfections here. This is the purpose of life.

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[01:12:02]You know, speaking of God's forgiveness, I'll tell you a little story just to amuse you a little bit. Just amuse you. You know, there was a very great religious leader in the East, in Persia. And one day, God said to him, and he had a lot of followers. This man had a lot of followers and he was very proud of himself. He became proud a little bit. And God said to him, "I see you have a lot of followers." He said, "I see you have a lot of followers. Do you want me to reveal to all your followers some of your bad qualities which you're hiding from them? And if I reveal all these bad qualities, all these followers will leave you. Do you want me to do that?" he said. This man thought things are getting very bad. He decided to do a little bit of blackmailing. He said to God, "Do you want me to tell the people about the great ocean of your forgiveness? That you forgive everybody so that if they hear it, nobody will worship you anymore?" And God thought, "This is getting very bad." He said, "We'll make a deal. I won't reveal all your bad qualities. And you don't talk so much about the ocean of my forgiveness." [laughter] So I think it gives us an idea. [inaudible audience question] Yeah, well, if you like, we can discuss this. I'll make a note of this question, and sometime we'll discuss it. Then we'll be dealing with this subject. Now, can I ask you had a question on this point there? [inaudible audience question] Yes, yes. You want to know what the fear of God is? Well, now, look, I think we leave that subject also for later on. I'll make a note of these things. It'll come up later and later. These will fit in better at the later stage.

[01:15:05]Now, if there is no other questions, I think I'll go now and talk about this. I suppose some of you have not heard the first part of this talk. And so I don't know what you will learn now or you listen now, but anyhow, I'm not going to say what I haven't so far said. But I feel that it is essential to say this much, that we said that the soul comes from the spiritual worlds of God. It's an emanation from the worlds of God that it is here to acquire spiritual qualities and perfections so that in the next life it can use those qualities and perfections to enable him to progress. And we said that this seems to be the purpose of life. But really this is not the essential purpose of life. There is a far, far greater purpose in life. God has created us for something far, far greater than this. He has not just created us to come into this world and acquire qualities and perfections alone. He has created us for something far greater. And in order to appreciate this, I'm going to take you to nature again because I'm telling this morning that nature will give us an awful lot of insight into spiritual things, provided you read the writings. In nature, you will notice anything which grows, which has an organic growth, has a beginning. And the beginning of it is when you put the seed down in the soil. You put the seed down in the soil. The seeds will germinate. Then there'll come a time, it's like again conception of a child. It's the same thing. The seeds will germinate and then you have a little plant. And then the plant grows and it becomes a tree. But now this tree, we can say it can only fulfill itself. Fulfill the purpose for which the tree is created is to give its fruit. When it gives its fruit, when it gives its seed, we say now it has fulfilled itself. It has carried out what it was created for. You see, everything has to begin, has a beginning. It grows. It must give a fruit, must bring a child. The soul is the same thing. Our soul has a beginning. We said it this morning. It has a time when the soul begins to grow first at the time of conception. It grows and it acquires spiritual qualities just like the tree that is growing. But at a certain time and not immediately now, in the same way with a tree. The tree cannot immediately come and give its fruit. It has to reach an age of maturity. And when the tree reaches the age of maturity, then it'll give it's fruit. The same thing is with the soul. The soul comes into this life. If it first is created like the seed is planted, then it grows and acquires qualities and perfections. But at one point, at some point in his life, that soul must produce a child. Must give birth to a child. The soul, I'm talking of the soul which is a spiritual thing, must give birth to a fruit, a child. But as I said, it cannot produce it immediately. And in fact there is a certain age for it that it can begin to think in terms of producing a child. And I'll mention the age later on.

[01:19:12]Now go back to nature again. You will find anything which produces a child is a female. The female species is what produces a child. And I hope that men would not mind me saying this. I think that females, the female is a much better, more complete form of creation than a male. You know that? Oh, you agree? There we are. Now men will be angry when I go out of this room. You must be protecting me, you know. I'll be attacked. I'll be attacked. You see, because a female can reproduce, can produce a fruit. But again, the tree cannot produce a fruit by itself. And we're just talking of nature. It has to be pollinated. A female cannot produce a child on her own. There must be a relationship with a male factor so that the female can conceive a child and then give birth to it. This is nature. This is the same thing with the soul. Our soul which is a spiritual entity. If it has to produce a child, it cannot produce a child on her own. The soul here must act as a female and enter into a partnership with another agency, with another force. But the choice here is given to us. A tree has no choice. It's pollinated by nature. See? The animal has this mating with its own type. But the soul here has got a choice. You can choose whatever agency, whatever force you want to give your soul to it and establish this marriage. It's like a marriage really, our soul which is a spiritual thing. Now I tell you what most peoples of the world do. Of course most people even don't know they have a soul. They won't even think about it. But most people, without knowing it, they give their soul to this world. They're born here. They live so many years. They think of nothing but material things. Isn't that right? So what happens? Then they have given their soul to this world. And so the child of that soul, which is a spiritual entity, the child that it produces is not worthy of itself. It is materialism. Imagine our soul give birth to materialism. It's become darkened. There is a little bit of spiritual entity there. But that spiritual entity has given birth, has given itself to this world. Established a relationship with this world. And the child of that product is very unworthy. See, its father is very low. The mother is the soul, but the father is very unworthy. It's in material things. And so the child is materialism.

[01:22:55]Now Bahá’u’lláh tells us, I'm just giving you in this form of example, to whom we should give our soul in marriage, in relationship, with whom we should establish a relationship. We should establish a relationship between our souls and the forces of the revelation of Bahá’u’lláh. In other words, we give ourselves to the influences of the revelation of Bahá’u’lláh. We open our heart and our soul to the influences of His revelation. Can you imagine a very much more exalted station than ourselves? The forces of the revelation which He has released in the world. We allow our souls to become fertilized by these forces which He has released if you let it because it's up to us. And when you open your heart to the influences of His revelation and let the forces of His revelation fertilize our souls, then our souls will conceive a child which is worthy. And that child, once it is born, it is known you can call it the spirit of faith. Our soul has produced the spirit of faith, which is a very, which is the purpose of life, the purpose of creation, the purpose that God has created us for. And Bahá’u’lláh says if station of that soul is revealed to the eyes of men - I'm paraphrasing His words - who has given birth to the spirit of faith, the whole of creation will be found dumbfounded. Someone who has given birth to the spirit of faith, someone was said "I believe". When you say "I believe", what really has happened? Is that your soul and the revelation of Bahá’u’lláh as a result of this mystical intercourse has now produced a child? And you say I believe and that child is born. The spirit of faith is born.

[01:25:06] Now this is the station which God has destined for man, which can overlook all the other qualities and perfections, which can - not overlook, it can really dominate over all the other things that we have acquired when you have the spirit of faith. You know this lamp in here is lighted. Before it was lighted, it was nothing. But when it is lighted, when you look at it, you can't see anything else but the light. It will dominate over all the things. In fact, if you closely look at it, you will see it's full of dust probably, but you can't see the dust. It has completely overshadowed all the imperfections because it has become lighted. Of course you come across beautiful, beautiful chandeliers somewhere hanging in someone's house. You come across beautiful people in this world with great qualities and perfections really who are not Baháʼís. You come across great, great many people who live a marvelous life much better than me, I'm sure. They are like chandeliers, you know, like a beautiful crystal lamp which is exquisite, but it's not lighted. This is an old little bulb or an old little lamp full of dust and full of all kinds of imperfections but it is connected, that's lighted. That is the difference. But the real thing to be is to be a chandeliers which is lighted. That is the real purpose of life, to have the qualities and perfections and being exquisite qualities and perfections and also lighted. That is the story of the believers both early and the present time. To acquire qualities and perfections and to have faith, to have the spirit of faith. Now it's faith when it is born, when this child is born, we said the spirit of faith is the child which really our soul has given birth to. It has conceived it because, you know it doesn't happen suddenly also. When you give yourself to the influences of the revelation of Bahá’u’lláh it doesn't immediately appear as a spirit of faith. Just like a woman who becomes pregnant, doesn't immediately give birth to a child. There must be a period of conception, of growth, of that embryonic growth until it can be born. It takes time. But there comes a time that then you have so much sure of it that you have faith. And you say "I really believe" and you really believe in your heart. I also mentioned, you remember that when the soul, when the tree comes into being - remember we talked about the tree. First you plant a seed and then it grows. It doesn't immediately produce a fruit, either. You have to wait until it becomes mature. It's the same thing with the soul. A soul cannot immediately recognize and give itself to Bahá’u’lláh. There is an age for it. There's at least a limit for it that you have to produce that. And that is, you might say, the age of 15 that you will become spiritually obliged to give, to carry out some of the teachings. Although before that you are a Baháʼí naturally, a child is a Baháʼí. But the obligations well, it is not binding on you until you reach that particular age.

[01:29:27]Now, having said this, that our soul must give birth to a child. Now let us look at nature again. In nature, when a mother gives birth to a child, that action of giving birth to, it may be relatively an easy action. And maybe I shouldn't say that. To give birth to a child is easy. I shouldn't say that. But really parents know that to give birth to a child is nothing comparing with afterwards. After the child is born is the beginning of all the cares and the attention and the labors and the work that you have to do for that child to protect it constantly. All the time to protect it and help it to grow and mature. It's much more difficult. It's easy to become Baháʼí, but it is difficult to grow to protect the Faith, to enable it to grow day by day and to look after it, to watch over it. Much more difficult. It needs a vigilance, which is constant vigilance. It has to be constant so that if we come across again a very new challenge which has come to us once you have faith, a new challenge come to us. [audio cut off] I have say I am a Baháʼí. What is the next step so that my faith may grow? And remember, our faith is precious to us just as much a child is precious to a mother. And it's also precious to its father. And here is the process of the revelation of Bahá’u’lláh. Bahá’u’lláh is attached very deeply to our faith. He loves a believer. He loves the faithful believer, person who has faith. And His love for him is so great that we cannot ever measure it. The love that Bahá’u’lláh has for the believers and the outpouring of his love is so great that we cannot visualize in this life. And the sorrow which floods the heart when one person is his heart, when one person loses his faith or becomes weak in his faith, it brings great sorrows to the heart of the Manifestation of God. Such sorrows that are not comparable ever with all the sufferings which were heaped upon Him by the enemies. That is nothing. The sufferings of the enemies is nothing. It means nothing to Bahá’u’lláh, really, the physical sufferings. And He Himself mentions it. The suffering which comes to the Manifestation of God is when one soul who has recognized Him, there's one little thing which is an indication that He is not growing. Just like a father who sees his son is becoming ill and he will see it. He notices he becomes ill. And as soon as he becomes ill, he becomes worried, becomes unhappy. One believer doing one thing against the faith brought so much sorrow to the heart of Bahá’u’lláh, to the heart of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to the heart of Shoghi Effendi that is beyond our estimation. And if ever one lost his faith that would be just like a father who laments the passing of his child. The child is dead. Brings great sorrow to the person also and to Bahá’u’lláh.

[01:33:54]I'll give you an example of this at least. Not about Bahá’u’lláh but I've talked about Shoghi Effendi. You know, Shoghi Effendi was a very sensitive, a very sensitive soul, very sensitive heart. He was the Guardian of the Cause. And you know, of course, must have heard the name of Dorothy Baker who was one of the Hands of the Cause, an American lady. And she, of course, was involved in a fatal accident where she was traveling in this comet, which was one of the first jet airliner which the British made and the comet exploded in the air. It wasn't really fully tested. And she was killed. Well, one of the pilgrims was telling us a story. She was present at the time that the news of the passing in this tragic form of Dorothy Baker was brought to Shoghi Effendi. And Shoghi Effendi was sad and he began to talk about her services. And he spoke about her for some time that evening and then changed the subject and carried on. Carried on, and after all this person has passed away. Then a few days later, the news reached Shoghi Effendi that one young girl who was a believer has been, with some tricks and some plottings, has been taken into the company of the Covenant Breakers and has joined a marriage with one of them. That person is gone. It's like a soul which is dead now. You know the faith as what I was talking to you about, the faith is gone. It's lost. The sorrows which flooded the heart of Shoghi Effendi as a result of this 15-year-old girl was so great that for some days he could not come out of his bed. And he was so crippled, really, with this blow. But look, the death of the Hand of the Cause was only 15 minutes. It passed by. Nothing. After all, she had ascended to the realms beyond. But the defection of this girl losing her faith dealt such a deadly blow upon him that he could not come and meet with the friends for one or two days. Now this shows how much our faith is really precious to God, to the Manifestation of God and to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi.

[01:37:09]Well now we wanted to find out what should we do now? We have just given birth to the spirit of faith. Just like a mother who has given birth to a child. What are we going to do with it now? To enable it to grow. This again we can learn from nature. You want to say something? [inaudible audience question] The soul has just given birth to faith. Our soul has just produced a faith. He believes now in Bahá’u’lláh. And he has given himself to Bahá’u’lláh really. And as a result of it, he says, "I believe." That is when the first spark of faith appears in our hearts. Just like a mother was given birth to a child. This is just a form of looking up nature to see what happens there. Now, when you look at nature, you will find that the mother who gives birth to a child, the first thing she does - if you notice she loves that child very much. And the next thing she does, she will feed the child. And the child has never been fed before in his life, never tasted the milk. And none of us can remember what it was like when we first received the milk from our mother. But it must have been some, it must have some effect on us, on the child. It gets the taste for it. And the next time it probably wants, it's not going to reject it. It becomes more and more fond of that milk to such an extent that it will cry for it afterwards. And he wants to drink this milk. And this milk make it grow. This is nature. And the mother will feed the child regularly. Regularly. Now the same thing applies exactly to our faith. When you say "I become a Baháʼí", it's a dangerous thing to remain like this and just remain in that state. You must, we must feed our faith. We must feed the spirit of faith which is born. We must feed it with some food. And the food for it is the words of God for this age. This is why Bahá’u’lláh has commanded us. This is one of His commandments. He says you must read. You must recite - He says, "Recite my words. Recite My words twice a day in the morning and in the evening." He stipulates that. "Recite My words in the morning and in the evening." It's just like a mother who says to a child, "Eat your food two or three times a day." You see our similarities? And Bahá’u’lláh mentions to us if we don't recite what will happen to us? You can't imagine what will happen to us. What will happen if a child does not eat His food? Bahá’u’lláh says, "If you do not read My words, it's a very serious situation." He says, "You are not steadfast in the Covenant." Our soul, if it is to be healthy, it must be steadfast in the Covenant. If it is not, it's a serious situation.

[01:40:55]And this is when the believer becomes confused. He's a Baháʼí , yes but he has never taken a food or very little. And so he becomes frustrated. He cannot see joy out of his faith and out of life, just like a person who does not eat his food. I remember a few years ago one young person came to me and he said, you know, he said, "It's a one year that a Baháʼí, but I don't feel any difference. I'm the same person as before." Can you imagine when you become a Baháʼí, can you imagine what happens? We have to be different. One has to be very different. Very different. It's a new life. This is the second birth that Christ is talking about. The spirit of faith is born. It must be the most exciting thing which happens just like an excitement which comes to a mother. There is no excitement in the world for a mother greater than to have given birth to a child. And this person said, "Well, I don't feel any excitement. I'm a Baháʼí for a year, but I've not grown. I've not changed. I'm just like the old days, not excited about anything. What is wrong with me?" He said. Well, you can imagine what's wrong. You know, I mentioned to him. I said, "Have you ever loved somebody?" Because you must remember the faith. You cannot only become a Baháʼí through your intellectual appraisal and intellectual investigations. You might begin with that way, but you have to fall in love really. Your heart must accept the faith. You must fall in love. It's a falling in love. To be a Baháʼí is that you have fallen in love. And of course, this is a relative term. It varies from person to person. One person, his love for Bahá’u’lláh is not much of a love for another in another case of another person. Everyone is in different levels. We are all different levels. This is a relative term. But to be Baháʼí means that you have come to love Bahá’u’lláh. This is what it amounts to. You can understand, I guess. You must study it and everything else. I don't know how you become a Baháʼí. It's not important. You might become a Baháʼí through purely an intellectual approach. But then if your heart does not move and if your heart does not fall in love because I mentioned we have to give ourselves too. We have to give our soul to the influences of the revelation of Bahá’u’lláh. It is just like a marriage. When you're marrying somebody, you love that person. You see?

[01:44:03]Now here it is. This young man was telling me. He said that after a year, "I don't feel any different." I said, "Did you ever love anybody in your life?" He said yes. Now let us see what happened that you love this person. Really? Let us examine it. This is nature again. What happens that you come to love somebody? The first thing you meet that person, isn't that right? And when you meet that person you like that person. And when you like that person, you come a little closer to that person, isn't that right? You come a little closer. And when you come a little closer, you like him more or like her more. And when you like her more, you come still further closer. And you come closer and closer and closer and it comes a point that you want to know everything about that person. Isn't that right? You want to know everything and you're going to ask even people, "What is this? Tell me all about it." And I'm sure if somebody rings up in the middle of night, two in the morning and say, "Look, I've got some news for you about your friend. Would you like me to tell you?" Oh, yes. Please tell me. You're not tired of it. You become excited. You see, you're beginning to fall in love with somebody. And so this is how you fall in love with some person. So I mentioned to this young man. I said:

"When you heard of Bahá’u’lláh and recognized him and said you're a Baháʼí, did you ever come a little closer to Him? To Bahá’u’lláh? Did you ever allow yourself to come a little closer to Him?"

"No."

"Did you ever read anything about the history of His revelation really to find out what was going on in all this? Did you try to find out anything about it?"

"No."

"Did you read any of His writings?"

"No."

"Did you care to carry out His teachings exactly as what he has said to carry them out?"

"No," he said.

[01:46:11]"Well, what do you expect? You have kept your distance. And now you want to be a different. Of course, you're not. You're the same person. You're just like a mother who has given birth to a child, somehow. But it's gone now. It's not there anymore. It's very little of it left." And this is why I said it's very easy to become a Baháʼí. But to grow in the faith is the greatest challenge and the greatest difficulty. But we can learn. We can learn from nature and we can learn from the writings of Bahá’u’lláh. And as I said in the morning, everything that He has said, it fits into nature. Now this very teaching that He tells us, this very commandment that He tells us we must read His words twice a day in the morning and in the evening is just as vital as eating the food for the child. And you see how much similar it is to nature when he says do it twice a day. You know, in life it's the same thing. If you eat, you cannot lump together all your food and eat it once a day. You can't do that. It's not healthy. You eat something in the morning. Then that something that you eat in the morning, you have to give it time to be digested. And when it is digested, then you become hungry again. And it is a sign of digestion is that you're hungry again. Then you will eat again. Bahá’u’lláh has given us the same commandment. He says, "read My words in the morning", which means when you read it you mustn't just read it and forget it, but rather allow it to penetrate into our hearts. Penetrate into our hearts. And when it penetrates in the heart, then the sign of it penetrating in our hearts What we read is that when we come home in the evening, you are eager to read again of the writings. This is a sign. If I come home and I'm not eager to read, it means what I have read in the morning or if I have read it, what I have read in the morning have not penetrated into my heart.

[01:48:31]And there is again a challenge. What are we going to do? How are we going to enable the words of Bahá’u’lláh to penetrate into our soul? And now what I'm trying to tell you in a way is this: that in life, you have to do so many things to live, in order to enable you to live. Isn't that right? In life, you can't just say, "All right. I'm going to eat only and then I'm going to live." No, no, you can't do that. You have to do so many things to enable you to live in this life. You have to eat. You have to sleep. You can't do without it. You have to breathe air into your lungs. You have to wash. You have to dress. You have to go shopping. You have to work. You have to have friends. If you want to live, you have to do all these things. And if one of them is not done, if I say I'm not going to shopping ever, we can't live, really. You must go for shopping. You have to do all these things. It's like in electricity. It's like in all these switches which are in series. If you put a lot of a number of switches one after the other, you must close all the switches so that the current may flow. If one of them is open, nothing will happen. It's the same thing in the Faith. You become a Baháʼí. Now the task begins. You have to close switch after switch. In order that you may live happily and grow, our faith may grow. One of them, the first one was this reading of the writings in the morning and in the evening. It is such an important commandment that nobody can ever emphasize this point enough. How important it is to make it a habit for ourselves to read the writings. And you know, to form a habit is difficult when you are grown up or when you become a Baháʼí. You've never been reading the writings before so to form a habit is difficult. It's all right for children to learn it. The child will learn it and make a habit of it. But to read the writings when you are grown up, you have to force yourself at first until it becomes a second habit. And it doesn't matter. You must not be worried about it if we once there is a lapse in this. You may do it for a week and then you forget it. Doesn't matter. Start again. You forgot it for another week. Okay? Doesn't matter. God is forgiving. Of course, He is. You just take one little step forward, He comes to you 1000 meters. Doesn't matter. Do it again so that it becomes a habit so that the goal of a Baháʼí really is to become an addict to the writings of Bahá’u’lláh. This is the goal.

[01:51:46]And you know how you become an addict. Now you must know where we must head off?. I don't think you're addicts yourselves to anything but people become addicts to drugs. What happens to them is somebody introduces the idea to them. And eventually give them a little piece to try. The child become an addict to the milk of the mother. And we have to become an addict to the writings of Bahá’u’lláh. And I will probably in the course of news next sessions, we'll talk about it. Of how should we read the words so that we become really addicts to it. Now I think when there are children, children can learn this when they are young. And we should teach our children from childhood to make it a habit of reading the writings in the morning and in the evening. Then they grow and it becomes natural for them. Now, there is one point that I must mention here. It's very important point. What is the writings? We must not mix it with prayers yet. We are not talking of prayers. Prayers are different things. We do it differently, and I'm not going to talk about it now. Prayer plays a very important part in our life, but reading the writings of Bahá’u’lláh is very different thing altogether. The writings are those things that you come across. In English now, many of these writings are available to us. Gleanings, Book of Meanings is full of the writings of Bahá’u’lláh, the tablets of Bahá’u’lláh lately published by the House of Justice. These are the writings of Bahá’u’lláh. There are other books which are not prayers but the writings. The Hidden Words is one of the writings of Bahá’u’lláh. And there is a vast difference between writing, reading the writings and saying prayers. In fact, these two things are sometimes opposite things. Very opposite. A prayer and a tablet of Bahá’u’lláh are opposite things. I will explain to you how. When you say a prayer, you often ask God for something. But when you read the writings, it's God who asks you to do something. It's very different. See how different it is? And we have to be differentiating this very clearly in our minds, and especially if you are teaching our children. I note that the children of all of the Baháʼí families, they are taught prayers. You know, most children they're in prayer, but we should have a program every home where we can see that we show the children the difference between reading the writings and saying your prayers. You could say, "All right, say a prayer. But let us now read the writings." And pick up something for them, which they can read so that it becomes a habit for them and they can distinguish between the two things. In our meetings - this is my own taste now, shall I call it? This is just a taste, personal taste. I feel we should say prayers, but equally we should read the writings when we gather together in a meeting. When we have a devotional program, you can say prayers. You can read the writings. Now Bahá’u’lláh has again here applied the same laws of nature to this particular commandment by telling us that we must not read the writings when we are tired. He said read as much as you are enjoying it. As soon as you become tired, don't read it. You know what it is like. It's like a mother would say to a child. Eat your food as long as you're hungry. As soon as you're full, stop eating. This is it, you see. Very natural. All these teachings, as I said, have their origin in nature.

[01:55:52]Now we must also, I'm going to - the time's coming 12 o'clock. I think I'm going to tell your story. There's much we have to cover in this field. We haven't even touched upon these properly out of all the things we have to do. As I said, there are a lot of switches we have to close in in order that we can enable our souls to experience that growth and that joy of faith. A growing faith, not a static faith. A static faith for a Baháʼí is fatal. You know, something which [????] must allow our faith to grow day by day and we must feel it, just like a mother who feels that his child is growing and he's happy for it. Now I'm going to tell you a story which is a true story and I don't think it's made up. It relates to one of the early believers of Bahá’u’lláh. Now this is a very well-known, one of the well-known apostles of Bahá’u’lláh. He's in one of the apostles of Bahá’u’lláh was called Zaynu'l-Muqarrabín. It doesn't matter now the name to you. He was one of the outstanding disciples of Bahá’u’lláh, one who really had a great, great qualities of knowledge and learning. And his particular work was at one stage in his life was to transcribe the writings. You know, transcribing the writings was a very important task because when revelation came to Bahá’u’lláh and this amanuensis would write it very fast. So fast that you cannot read it. Revelation writings, you can look at revelation writing. It's not possible to read it. The way revelation came to Him was so fast, and there's no shorthand in Persian and Arabic languages. That is amanuenses have to use this special technique of writing them.

[01:55:52]And I'm not going to go into details of it but I can just give you, illustrate for you how he used to write so fast. He had very large sheets of paper, very large sheets, piles of them. And when he was writing, he found out that you cannot use- if you hold a pen in your hand, and normally we used to hold a pen in our hands and we begin to write by moving our fingers when you're writing. You move your fingers. When you move your fingers, you can't write very fast but he used to hold a pen like this within his fingers, but he wouldn't move his fingers when he was writing. He would move his wrist. And so you can write big one letter with maybe one word would take the whole line maybe, and it would be, each word would go into each other. All the words would go into each other. Quick, quick, quick. You would write them down because, remember, revelation came in the speed of 1000 verses in an hour. The Kitáb-i-Íqán was probably revealed in three or four hours because when the man, when this person sent the questions to Bahá’u’lláh in writing, 48 hours later, the Book of Certitude in its original form in the handwriting of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was presented to him. Didn't mean it took 48 hours to be revealed. It meant that Bahá’u’lláh had to eat, had to sleep, had to do other things during that period, three or four hours. The revelation is like this.

[01:59:33]And so when it was written down very fast, then He had to go to His room, the secretary of Bahá’u’lláh, the amanuensis of Bahá’u’lláh, and rewrite it again properly. And then he would bring it to Bahá’u’lláh, and Bahá’u’lláh often would pace up and down the room and re-reveal that tablet as if He knew it all by heart. And this man would check in and any corrections were made. And then when it was properly done, then there were people who would transcribe it because there were no typewriters in those days or no printing machine. People we're transcribing. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was one of those people who used to transcribe the writings during Bahá’u’lláh's ministry. Now this man that I'm going to tell you a story of, and we're getting late, was one of those who used to transcribe the writings but he was a very meticulous man, very meticulous in his work of transcription. So meticulous that he used to check it all. Everything he wrote he used to check it with his son. He would call him after a few pages that he will write. He would call his son and the son would come and read for him, the original tablet. And then he would check what he has written. This is how the writing of Zaynu'l-Muqarrabín, anything you find in his handwriting is authentic. It's a standard for Baháʼí publications. You always compare every publication with his handwriting. Now he had a great sense of humor, this Zaynu'l-Muqarrabín. And he often came to the presence of Bahá’u’lláh, and he always had some humorous remarks to make. And, as I said, Bahá’u’lláh loved humor, good humor. One day he came into the presence of Bahá’u’lláh and he said, you know, he said to Bahá’u’lláh, "In our family, we, of course, carry out your teachings, but we are particularly have a favorite amongst your teachings. Each one of us have a favorite of one of your teachings." And so Bahá’u’lláh said, "Well, what are they?" Well he said, "My son has a very special favorite." He said, "Every day I write many, many pages-" because this was his work, this man's work. He said, "I write and write and write, and then when it's all finished, I call my son to come and to read for me the writings so that I can check them. So he comes in. He reads one page, and then he turns to me and he says, 'Father, I am tired and Bahá’u’lláh says when you're tired, you must not read the writings.' This is his favorite teaching." [laughter] And Bahá’u’lláh laughed very much. Then he said, "My wife has another favorite. When I have done a lot of work and very tired and exhausted, I say to her, 'Would you make us a cup of tea, please?' She says, 'Go and make it yourself. Bahá’u’lláh says men and women are equal.' This is her favorite." [laughter]

[02:02:53]Well, now, friends, I think we'll leave it here. And we will come back. We will come back this afternoon sometime. At what time? Maybe you want to announce it so that we can-. Ted, you have given me all these papers, and some of them are your indexing notes on it. Here we are, so I wouldn't have that.

[break]

[02:03:23]Well, you all must have been nourishing really well, have been nourished really well, I should say. Well, I think we'd better continue the subject we were discussing or talking about still the reading of the writings, the reciting of the writings of Bahá’u’lláh in the evening and in the morning. And we said it's the spiritual food, but it is very important that we should remember that what we read, what we recite should really, should allow it to penetrate into our hearts. And I am not going to give you any methods for doing that, because, after all, every individual is different. But when we read the writings, if we do not allow it to penetrate into our hearts, as I mentioned, it's just like a food that you take which you don't digest it, and it is of no value. You know, if we want the words of God to penetrate into our hearts, we must first know something about the word of God and not to look upon it as the words which we ordinarily read in our daily life because we are all so much engaged in the act of reading. We are so good readers. We begin a book and we end it up quickly or after a short while. And I've seen people who get into a train and they open a book, and in the end of the journey they're reading. Now you can't do that with the words of God. If you want to read it in that way, it's no use. We have to know whose words we are reading, and this is the key to it. Whose words is it that we are reading? And here it opens up really, this subject now opens up a vast, many questions. Whose words am I reading?

[02:06:13]If somebody says, "Well, I believe that Bahá’u’lláh is the most, His words are the wisest counsel that anybody can give." Or he says Bahá’u’lláh's words are the most profound words that you can find. Or if he says that Bahá’u’lláh's words are having all the solutions of the problems of the world within it. This is not at all what Bahá’u’lláh's words are. This is not about Bahá’u’lláh's words are. He's not the wisest man. He's not the greatest man. He's not the most profound, learned person. He is the Voice of our Creator. You see now? He is the Voice of our Creator. He is the Supreme Manifestation of God. You cannot compare it with anything that man has ever had or has ever got except the manifestations of the past whose words we don't have adequately. Now here we see therefore, our attitude has to be right when we read the writings. Whose words am I reading? This is the words of my Creator. Not until you believe that, can those words penetrate into your heart. But if you believe that, then when you open the book, when you touch the book, it means something to you. It already has moved you when you touch the book, when you handle it, when you open it. You open it with feelings of joy and excitement. "I'm reading the words of my Creator."

[02:08:18]You know, in this life, our creator - that's God - communicates with His creation. All creation, not only man, but all creation, every created thing. God communicates with it, but this communication is in the form, in different forms. For example- and when I say God, by the way, let us be very make it very clear, I mentioned this morning, we are not talking of the essence of God. You cannot talk about it even, the essence of God. They will never understand it. The manifestations of God do not understand it, let alone us. We are not talking of the essence of God. The essence of God can have no connection whatsoever with this creation. If it ever has any connection with the creation, then he ceases to be God. You cannot attribute anything in His essence. These are some of the profound statements that you will find in the writings. You cannot attribute anything to God in His essence. The minute you say God is the all-knowing, you'll limit Him immediately. The essence of God we are talking about, because you are limiting Him. When we talk about God, it is God which is revealed in this creation, which is manifested in this creation, not the essence of God. So let us make this point clear. So when we say that God communicates with the snake, with all His creation, man and other creation, when we look at nature, we find this is true.

[02:10:05]For example, you will find God communicates with all the living creatures through the rays of the sun. This is the way he communicates to them, communicates energy to them which enables them to grow. The energy comes from there and that is what it is. It's a form of communication, pouring out its energy. And you know when the energy is poured out from the sun upon all created things, those created things which are alive, they yearn for that energy. In their own ways, they yearn for it. They long for it. You know a tree which is living, a tree will stretch its bows and branches towards the sun. This is just yearning for the, for this energy to reach it as if it's conscious that these energies are giving it life but he can't help it. It just stretches itself towards the sun. And if it doesn't, it's dead. Now, on the other hand, you realize that whether they, whether the rays of the sun pour upon the, whether the tree stretches its branches or not, still the sun is pouring its energies upon it, but a tree which does not stretch itself is dead. See, it's a two-way communication. This is prayer. You know prayer. This is the state of prayer for man. The tree when it stretches itself towards the sun, it's exactly what the soul does when he prays to his Creator. Now, a prayer is not something that you always ask God for something. The best prayer is the one that you don't want anything. A prayer without any desire, a prayer of praise and glorification of God is the best form of prayer. And if you look at the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and Báb and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, you will find that the greater part of their prayers is that of praise and glorification of God just like the tree, which stretches its bows and branches as if it is praising its Creator, the sun, the rays of the sun. The real prayer for man is to stretch it spiritual branches and bows and branches, the spiritual arms, the spiritual heart towards its Creator and praise and glorify Him. This is the best form of prayer.

[02:13:01]But what I was saying is that God communicates with his creation, and the sun pouring out its energies is one form of that communication and it is constant. Now, the tree, of course, is bound by the laws of nature to respond in this way. It doesn't have any voluntary power. It cannot refuse to do it. This is the way it's made. This is how nature made it, but we have the choice. Again, remember, man has the choice. You have the choice of either turning to God or not. Absolutely. If you turn towards God well, the powers will be released. Now, I mentioned that God communicates with His creation, but how does He communicated our souls? Because our souls is not subject to the laws of nature. Everything is subject to the laws of nature which is physical. Our bodies are subject to the laws of nature, but our soul is not. Our soul is subject to the laws of the Covenant of God. And there, you'll find there is a covenant between God and man in the act of creation which means that we have to turn to Him. He releases to us spiritual energies through the word of God, through the word of His messengers. And we have, like the tree, to stretch ourselves towards it and want to receive it and open our hearts to it. So the way he communicates to us, to our souls is through the instrumentality of the words of Bahá’u’lláh in this age. So you see, this is God communicating with us, with our souls. It's a communication.

[02:15:04]And so when you look at the words, when you open the book and you can, if you look at it in that light, and as you open the book and you look at the words and say, "This is how my Creator is communicating with me, is talking to me, talking to me, asking me to do certain things." This is what it is. This is the writings. He asked you to do certain things. Then it becomes a very potent influence. It will produce a potent influence upon our hearts to say these words, to read these words, to recite these words with great excitement, to approach it with great reverence. This is the word of my Creator. And then those words can penetrate into our hearts. And there is also to realize that the words of God is very much unlike the word of man is [sound machine breaks down].

[02:16:15]It's a bad thing to repeat things, you know. You have got the story of repeating. [?], have you heard? You know about it? Very good. Repeating is not a bad thing because we often forget things, but I was saying this afternoon that we must allow the words of God to penetrate into our hearts. And if we do not know, if the words do not penetrate into our hearts, then it is like food that you eat which is not digested. But to allow the word to penetrate, we must really have the knowledge and the faith in whose words we are reading. It's very important to know whose words we are reading. They are not the words of a very wise man or the wisest man or the most profound learned personality that you're reading, but it is the words of your Creator. Far, far above, far, far beyond any human understanding are the words of God. And that, I was mentioning that God communicates to His creation. Communicates. This communication is for all created things. You remember I was telling you the story of the sun pouring out its energies upon all vegetables and animals and every created thing. That's the way it communicates. And you see it sends out all the life-giving energies, but the tree must stretch its bows and branches before the sun. And if it doesn't, then it's dead. Whether it does it or whether it doesn't, the sun is pouring out its energies, but a tree which does not stretch forward is dead. And the same thing is with the soul. Our souls must want to, must yearn for God, to praise and glorify Him. This is the best form of prayer. The more you get closer to Bahá’u’lláh, the more you want to praise and glorify God.

[02:18:34]Now, this is one aspect of the word which I mentioned. We must remember. So when you open the book, you must remember these are not ordinary words. These are the words of my Creator. And then there is excitement. There is joy that you're opening the words, that He is talking to us. He's communicating with us. This is the way we should think about. This will help us to, this'll help us to have the vision of what we are reading. And that will penetrate, that will affect us. That will be influencing us. Now I was going to talk about the word of God and then the sound machine broke down. And I want to therefore repeat myself here in case they want to record it. It's that the words which are revealed by the manifestation of God, these words are not the product of learning and knowledge. You know, if you're a learned man and if you want to write a book, you have to have a lot of education behind you. You have to make a lot of research. You have to go and make investigations here and there. And after a lot of studies, then you want to write something. And then even conditions must be right. You can't write at any time. Everything must be peaceful and loving and beautiful and though all the surroundings must be beautiful so that you can write something. And then when you write, oh, you'll find it's all kinds of wrong things, so false. Well then you tear it up again. You write again and you go over and over again and again. And after a year you might write something. And then even then, anybody will tell you when we write something, they'll tell you, "Oof, I could have done much better. Now that I think of it, it's not good." You know? This is what man is, but the manifestation of God, the words that are revealed to him is not something that he has learned it. It comes to him.

[02:20:36]You know how a radio receiver works? It just, right now that we are sitting in here in this room, the room is full of electromagnetic waves, full of radio waves but we are not sensitive to it. We don't feel it. We don't get it. We don't receive it. But we have a receiving set here and it cannot help but to pour out what it receives. It tells you everything. This is exactly what happens when revelation comes to the manifestations of God. But I was mentioning that really the soul of the manifestation of God, because we were talking about the soul this morning, the soul of the manifestation of God is different from us in that it has no beginning. Our soul has a beginning and it begins at the time of conception. But the soul of the manifestation of God has been created at the time that has no beginning. And therefore, when it comes into this world, it has all the knowledge. It has all the powers but they are latent. They are latent. It becomes active when we say as Baháʼís, we now say these things. We say Bahá’u’lláh received His mission when He was in the [?]. It means that it became active. The power was there. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in one of his tablets, mentions, He says the manifestation of God is a manifestation from the time it's born. And then he describes him as a light which is hidden under a bushel. You put the cover on the light. The light is inside him. The cover is taken off when he receives that intimation from God, that he is now, to announce it. And even then, he doesn't announce it right away. It'll take some time.

[02:22:29]In another tablet, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says that a manifestation of God before his time comes to declare his mission is like a man who sleep. A man who sleep has all the powers but it is latent. Now you should go and read a passage in the Some Answered Questions to make this clear because some of the believers say that well, Bahá’u’lláh has said, for instance, in the tablet to the King of Persia. He says that I was- "Oh King, I was but a man.-" I'm paraphrasing His words, very close to it though. "-I was but a man like others asleep upon my couch, when lo, the breezes of the all merciful were wafted upon me and gave me the knowledge of all that has been." And then Bahá’u’lláh says, "This thing is not from me, but from God, the Almighty." And so forth. And some people think that this means that Bahá’u’lláh did not know anything until the call came to Him. Now you go and read Some Answered Questions. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá give the meaning of this particular passage in Some Answered Questions. And He says it does not mean this, that Bahá’u’lláh did not know of His station or did not have these powers within Him. He says it's only indicating that His revelation was not to be announced, that it was a latent thing. It was not to become active. And so, Bahá’u’lláh in His own tablets and His writings, in some of His writings, He talks about His childhood. He says, "When I was a child, I saw the ocean of Revelation, the ocean of utterance. The ocean of utterance was surging within me and it never left me." You see?

[02:24:24]Now the believers at the time of the Báb had recognized Bahá’u’lláh as being Him whom God shall make manifest, that the Báb have come to announce is coming. During the lifetime of the Báb, they have discovered that, Tāhirih was one of them. Tāhirih knew that Bahá’u’lláh was the manifestation of God, the Supreme Manifestation of God. Quddús knew this. Mullá Husayn had recognized this. Some of the believers who went to the Conference of Badasht - you know, that was a conference that some of you must have studied and known that some of the leading members of the Babi community gathered in this conference and Bahá’u’lláh was among them. In those days, Bahá’u’lláh did not want to come into the public attention. Báb did not want Him to come into the public attention. He focused attention upon others so that people will not turn to Bahá’u’lláh. This was for protection and also for tests. Man must find out the truth for himself. If the Báb had said, "All right. This is Bahá’u’lláh. You can turn to Him." this would not have been fair. People have to find Him. And so there was a definite and deliberate plan of not to bring Bahá’u’lláh into the public attention. And yet, in the Conference of Badasht, those who were attending, they were amazed and astonished to see how Quddús and Tāhirih and others, or some Quddús and Tāhirih particularly who were aware of the station of Bahá’u’lláh, these believers were amazed at the way they were showing reverence towards Bahá’u’lláh, a reverence that they have never shown to the Báb, you see. And they were astonished at this.

[02:26:18]Now you see the disciples of the Báb, those who had spiritual eyes, they knew who Bahá’u’lláh was. Now, of course, Bahá’u’lláh knew it himself. There's no doubt about it. Now, I'll give you one example to prove it for you if you want to know because this gentleman was asking me that. When the Báb was in the mountains of Azerbaijan in prison, one of His disciples went to see Him and His name was Shaykh Hasan-i-Zunúzí. You can read it in the Nabil's Narratives. When he went to see the Báb, the Báb said to him, "You are a very lucky person because you are going to see, you are going to behold the face of Him whom God shall make manifest in the city of Karbala-" which is in Iraq. Well, that must have been a tremendous excitement for this young, for this man. And of course, this man was living in Karbala and so he went back to his town and he lived there. And you know, Bahá’u’lláh went to the city of Karbala one year before He went to the Siyah-Chal of Tehran, when we say the birth of revelation took place. One year before that, He went to Karbala. And when when He was in Karbala, in one of the shrines, Islamic shrine, Bahá’u’lláh spotted this man. He saw Shaykh Hasan and Bahá’u’lláh went to Shayk Hasan. You read the story in The Dawn-Breakers. He went to Shayk Hasan and He said to him, "Praise be to God-" I'm paraphrasing His words - "that you have attained and beheld the face of Him whom God shall make manifest." "The promised", Husayn, as he put it. This man was so startled at this revelation, suddenly remembered, suddenly saw, recognized and He went to go down on His knees before Bahá’u’lláh. And Bahá’u’lláh stopped him immediately and He said, "No, not now." He said, "Keep this secret in your heart. This secret will become open and clear and divulged in Baghdad. Keep it to yourself." Now that was a year before He declared His mission, before He received, as we say, the intimation of His message.

[02:28:56]Now what I was trying to say is that the soul of the manifestation of God has all the knowledge within it from the time that it is born on. And this is where the revelation comes and revelation came to Bahá’u’lláh. It wasn't a question of, "Oh, well, now let me think what is the best word to use here." It wasn't like this. He couldn't do that. The words which came from Him and flowed from Him so rapidly, so in great profusion, with such great profusion that as I said this morning, within one hour He would reveal 1000 verses to such an extent that His secretary was not capable of recording them. You should look at those revelation writings and even though you don't know Persian or Arabic, there is no question that you say this is not any- this is not a language that's written. There's a lot of lines that's drawn. The lines that they're all written so fast that all the words have gone into each other. And within one hour, 1000 verses. And He wouldn't be able to say to His secretary, He would never say to His secretary, "Oh look here will you change that word for me and put such and such a word in its place." In fact, once a word came out of the mouth of Bahá’u’lláh, He Himself was unable to change it. You couldn't change it. It is the word of God the way it is revealed. You can't change it. It's like a radio receiver. When you say something, you can't take it back. You see? This is how revelation has come.

[02:30:34]And as soon as that word is added, that word becomes creative. Bahá’u’lláh says that the word which was revealed by Him, the word of God, has infinite meanings within it. Infinite. Every word that you see, you mustn't consider, though, well, this is a word because the word has two sides to it. One is the outward form of the word which is part of language and it is man made, but inside that, within it is placed the powers and divine powers. It's like a stream which flows. If you ever stand in front of a stream, it never exhausted. It continues to run. The same thing is the powers within the world, it never you can exhaust it. You can never exhaust the power. You can never exhaust the meaning of it even. And Bahá’u’lláh mentions in some of His tablets that the word of God has so many meanings and significances that it can never be exhausted. You can't say, "Well, this word means this and that's it." Of course, for us. We are not in a position to know the meanings of all the things, except to understand it in its outward form when you read the writings and that means something to you. And that's what we understand of it. But Bahá’u’lláh says every word has meanings beyond our comprehension. And I will give you an example of this and explain this to you how a word of God can have so many meanings and significances. You know, once Bahá’u’lláh was trying to give the meaning of some words when somebody asked Him a question. He tried to answer him by, he wanted to know what was the meaning of a certain word which is revealed in the Quran for instance. And Bahá’u’lláh said this word has many meanings. And he said it means this and it means this, and it means another thing, and it means another thing. And he gives on various meanings after meanings of that word. And then he says, "You can never exhaust it." He says, "If I have 10 secretaries-" these are exactly how He describes it. He said, "If I have 10 secretaries-" 10 of them, 10 of them, remember -"standing before me for one or two years, I could dictate to them the meaning of this word and it would not be exhausted." Now you see the great ocean which is flowing within it, within the words.

[02:33:20]Now, to understand that, we can understand that if you look at nature. Nature give us the answer to this. You look at nature, you know the rays of the sun. When the sun emanates the rays, it's like the manifestation of God revealing the words. It's the same thing. The rays of the sun carry their energy, carry the energy of the sun to us, and the same thing is with the word of God. It carries with it powers, enormous powers. Now, if you look at the ray of the sun, you go and examine the intensity of the ray beside the sun, if you ever could go there. Say, for example, you were able to. You will find that if you go near the sun to want to measure the energies which are latent within one ray, it will destroy you right away. It will consume you. It is so powerful, the energies within the ray near the sun, that it will immediately destroy you. Now come down into space. You still find out that the energies are so high, although it's not as high as close to the sun, but it is so high that it will again destroy you unless you're having your protective clothes. And when you measure the energy, you will find its enormous energies. You come down further into the atmosphere and under the atmosphere, and there you will find the same ray, which you couldn't bear its heat and its energies up there, now in here, it manifests its rays, its heat, and its light in a faint measure, with a faint glimmer of light that you can bear it. But it's the same ray. It's the same ray which comes down from the sun. But as it reaches us here, it gives us its minimum energy. Now that's exactly the same thing with the word of God. The word of God has infinite meanings, infinite power within it, which we cannot feel it in this life. We can only feel and receive a limited measure of it in this life. We are bound by limitations of our existence. We are limited in our understanding, in our existence. We only receive a limited measure of the powers and the significances of the world. But as you go up into the spiritual worlds of God higher and higher, these words assume greater and greater significances, greater and greater powers. What we understand of one of the words of Bahá’u’lláh today in this life, compared with what we understand of that same word in the next life is nothing. It's insignificant, what we learn here. For instance, even you think of the attributes of God is the same thing. You talk about love. Love is one of the attributes of God. In this life, we understand of love in certain ways and feel it in certain ways. But in the spiritual words of God, the intensity of that same attribute is so much that our understanding here is nothing comparing with what it would be.

[02:36:45]And then the worlds of God are infinite in range. It's not just, you go to the next world and everything stops. It's continuous progress. The soul of man will continuously progress. As long as God exists, man will progress towards Him. But you'll never reach it. So you see, it's in the creation. The picture of creation is very beautiful. It is constantly progressing. This morning we were talking about the souls being graded into different grades, but that each one will progress in its own realm, in its own kingdom and its own rank. It'll progress all the time, growing. Somebody was asking me, can a soul who is in a certain rank - as we decided this morning, we talked about that what Bahá’u’lláh says that in the next life the souls are divided into groups and they're graded. They are in different grades, different levels, and how those who are on a higher level will understand those who are in a lower level. And those who are in a lower level will not understand those who are on a higher level. And that he wanted to know whether, I don't know whether it was a lady or a gentleman, he said, can we, can a soul from one level, can it ever progress to another level or will it only progress in its own level? There again, we don't know these things. We cannot be sure of any of these things. All we know is that everything progresses on its own level, in its own level constantly. But you look at life and you might find an answer in this nature. Again, as I said in nature gives us a lot of clues.

[02:38:32]In life, say that you are a very rich person. Say, there is a man who is very, very rich, multi-millionaire, whatever you call it. And then he hears that there was a relation of his somewhere in the world who is destitute, living in absolute poverty. What will he do? I don't know. Usually, probably he will say, "Look, here you are my relation. You are my cousin. I am very rich. I will give you some of my riches. You come to me." You see now? He pulls him up from his condition of destitute. It is possible that in the next life those souls who are holy souls will have such influence as to bring people up to on higher levels. Well, Bahá’u’lláh has promised us that those who have believed in the Cause, their parents, for instance, and some of their relations who have not been hurting the faith - that's the only condition - who have not harming the faith, who have not been against the faith in this life, they will be immersed in the ocean of forgiveness. In other words, they'll be pulled up straightaway and will be immersed just like the believers. They have this great station which is destined for them. And this is so strong, this link, this relationship that in one of His tablets, He talks about the Persian ambassador in Turkey who was one of his greatest enemies, Mirza Husayn Khan Mushir al-Dawla. He was one of the greatest enemies of Bahá’u’lláh. He was the one who was, became an instrument, really, in making all these exiles for Him, exiled Him from place to place. And eventually he influenced the authorities to exile Him to Akka. But then somehow he, towards the end of his life, he changed his attitude. But Bahá’u’lláh, in one of his Tablets says maybe God will forgive him because one of his relations is a believer. Now you see now? These are some of the clues that you can get. It might give us some ideas of how God in the next life would work.

[02:40:58]But anyhow, we have been straying a little bit away from our discussion, which was about the words of God. We were talking about the the power which is latent within every word. So when you read the words of Bahá’u’lláh, do not think of it as just what you, well, this is a world. But remember, this word assumes greater and greater powers in the next life. It seems that in the next life we know not now, but in the next life, the word of God becomes the vilifying forces for the souls of men in the same way that in this life light becomes the force of energy, energy-giving life. Life gives energy to us. And the word of God in the next life becomes the instrument, maybe, which will share its powers and feed the souls of men in the next life that our attributes that we have to acquire in this life. Remember, we were saying that we should acquire spiritual qualities, that these spiritual qualities will become our spiritual limbs and organs, shall we say, in this example, with which we can grow. Now what will become maybe the vehicle. And this is only my understanding. Now, this is my understanding. It's nothing to do with the writings. I must make it very clear that the word of God becomes like the rays of the sun here, which gives you light and energies for our growth that the word of God in the next life. The power with which our qualities and attributes which you have acquired in this life becomes active and they grow as a result of it. And man will grow, the soul will grow as a result of it in the spiritual words of God. In other words, the word of God becomes like the light which is shed from the sun upon us. So, you see, we must attach great importance to the potency of the word when we read the writings in the morning and in the evening. And so now you can see, as I am saying these things to you, can you imagine what it means to open a Baháʼí book which is the writings of Bahá’u’lláh? What it means, really? You realize what it means? Really? What are you doing? You're opening a book. You're opening something where the words are revealed to us from our Creator. He's talking to us. And every word is charged with immense powers which we can only appreciate a little bit of it in this life. Now, when you read the words in this way, it will penetrate into your heart.

[02:43:38]And then I wanted to mention another thing, which is also important. And that is that we must really become conscious of the greatness of this revelation, the revelation of Bahá’u’lláh. I mentioned, I think, yesterday somewhere, I don't know where it was, a story of, a very beautiful Persian story of a drop of rain. I don't know whether it was last night. I forget it. But anyhow, a drop of rain. A drop of rain in this version point is described as a drop of rain was falling down from the clouds and it was very proud of itself because it was the water of life. And water is the most precious element in life. And so it was proud, proudly coming down until it saw the ocean. You know? And when it saw the ocean, it said, it exclaimed. He said, "If this exists, what am I?" And when he said this, when it said this, the ocean loved it and drew the drop to itself. And the drop became part of the ocean and made that drop to become the companion of the pearl. You see, God loves humility from man. You see, one of the attributes of, God has all the attributes except one, and that is humility. By virtue of being the Sovereign Lord of all, He cannot be humbled. Servitude is not His attribute. And if man has the attribute of servitude, this would please Him because you know, in this life, after 100 years, 50 years, 60 years of life that we live here and when we go, what do we carry with us into the next world? The product of our services, of our work, of our qualities, whatever it is, you present it. "This is what I have. This is what I brought." Now none of these things are pleasing to God, perhaps because he has them all. If you say, "I have a great knowledge", He says, "Why? This is nothing. It's like a drop against that ocean."

[02:46:24]Any quality that you have, he has much greater. Now, if you want to give a gift to a friend and you want to make sure that the friend loves the gift and appreciates it, you must give him something that he hasn't got. Then it will be pleasing. But whatever you have, He has it already. You go and give Him your knowledge, He has much more of that. Give Him virtues, He has more of that but one thing that he hasn't got is servitude and humility. And if you give it to Him, this is what is pleasing. So not until we see the ocean of the revelation of Bahá’u’lláh just like the drop did can we realize we are drops. You see? Until we see that great, the greatness of this revelation, we cannot see our own smallness. We cannot become humble. True humility comes when you see the great ocean of Bahá’u’lláh's revelation and then we'll become humble. And it is then that we realize what a day we are living in. If we look at the, if you look at the writings, if you look at the writings of the Báb and you see the way he has extolled the station of Bahá’u’lláh, we will be astonished to see how the Báb has extolled the station of Bahá’u’lláh, a Supreme Manifestation of God for this age. And who was the Báb? The Báb himself was a Manifestation of God. He was the king of messengers, Bahá’u’lláh says. And yet he says he is the greatest, he says he's the humblest servant the Báb says at the threshold of Bahá’u’lláh. Now you see, these things will stagger the imagination. The Báb mentions that if you read all His writings and if you read one word which is uttered by him whom God shall make manifest, that word is much more exalted than all that He had revealed.

[02:48:43]You know, Christ said that - you see all the prophets who have come, all the manifestations of God who had come from the time that history shows up to and including Muhammad, they had come to give the prophecies of the coming of the day of God. Isn't that right? And Muhammad was the seal of the prophets, means that after him there would be no more prophets, prophets in the sense of giving prophecies. Their job was to give the prophecies. The mission of Christ was to prepare the people for the coming of the Father, for the coming. He said He'll come in the glory of the Father. You see Christ says that He has come in the station of the Son, for instance. This is only to indicate that He had a relationship with God. That's the only way he described it. Muhammad described himself as a messenger of God, just to describe a relationship with God that he was sent as a messenger. Christ said He was sent as a Son. You know a son has the authority of the father with it, but he made it very clear that the Father knew everything. It was Him who had sent Him. And Bahá’u’lláh says, "The Father has come." You read the Old Testament. You read the New Testament. They're all full of the glories of the coming of the day of God. When God himself will walk with man. No, just literally. It's in the Bible. It's in the Old Testament, in the New Testament. In the Quran, there are many passages in which many, many passages, many, many parts of the Quran deals with the coming of day that man will meet his God.

[02:50:32]Now, of course, God, we know let us not talk about the essence of God. But God has manifested himself in fullness today. In the past revelations, He had manifested himself only to a small extent, to the capacity of the people of the time. But today, God has manifested in His fullness. And yet Bahá’u’lláh says that His revelation, which is the full revelation of God, He has only released to us an infinitesimal of that glory with which he was invested. But it is the full revelation of God. That's why he says it's a day of God. We must not compare it with the revelations of the past. And this is why Shoghi Effendi wrote that his immortal work, The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh which is regarded as His will and testament, you read that and there you can find such staggering statements about the station of Bahá’u’lláh and the station of this day. We must read those things and meditate upon it. When Bahá’u’lláh mentions that the prophets and the chosen ones of those days were longing to be in this day for one moment, one moment of it. You know in one of His tablets, and again Shoghi Effendi has translated this into English, you will read it also in the Advent of Divine Justice. You know, the last few pages of the Advent of Divine Justice, go and look at it. The last few pages which was printed in italics, Shoghi Effendi has gleaned from the writings of Bahá’u’lláh so many passages to impress upon us of the loftiness of the station of Bahá’u’lláh and the greatness of His revelation. You know, in one of those passages which he has translated, and it's only one passage he has translated out of thousands. What you see in the, what you see in The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh is only an example of what Bahá’u’lláh has said in so many of His Tablets. He picks up one of them, and he puts it there for you. And you read all of these passages which Shoghi Effendi has enumerated one after the other, showing the greatness of this Revelation.

[02:52:51]In one of His, he says, we know one of these Tablets, Bahá’u’lláh mentions - this is what Shoghi Effendi has translated. He mentions that the purpose of creation of man, what was it? He says. What was Bahá’u’lláh says the purpose of creation of man? Why did God create man? And you know how many years ago that God created man? Thousands of millions of years ago. It wasn't 1000 years ago. Millions of years ago, He has created us, and gradually we have developed and developed to the point. Why did He create us? Do you know why? He says God has created man so that Bahá’u’lláh may reveal himself and bring His revelation to us. That is why God has created us, so that Bahá’u’lláh may come with His revelation. This is the purpose of creation. Now you see what the day we are living in. Really, if you think about it, you could go even crazy when you read the writings and see the station of Bahá’u’lláh, the staggering station and the greatness of this revelation. Bahá’u’lláh mentions in one of His Tablets, He says that all the words of God are addressing this earth, this earth, this physical earth and saying - I'm paraphrasing His words - "Blessed art thou, o earth that though has been made the footstool of thy God." It's a tremendous statement. Bahá’u’lláh mentions that how in this day he was animated by the Most Great Spirit, as he puts it, the Most Great Spirit. This was what animating Him. We don't know what it is but whatever it is, it's God. That He manifested Himself for 40 years on this earth in the form of a human temple. The same force which was responsible for all that is creation of all the Earth's and heavens manifested itself in the form of a human temple. The day of God Himself has come.

[02:54:58]I think that you should study it and you should meditate upon it. And then we will recognize what a great revelation this is. In one of His tablets, Bahá’u’lláh mentions, He says if the Báb was here today in His day, do you know what he would have done? He said if the Báb was present today, he would act as well as His amanuensis, as His secretary of Bahá’u’lláh. He would sit down there and write the writings, a manifestation of God. The Báb himself was the only person and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi, really, who recognized the greatness of this revelation. We cannot. The Báb mentioned this in his writings. He says that he prepared his followers for the coming of Bahá’u’lláh. And he says to his followers the things they should do and the things they shouldn't do. Even on small, on small matters how they should behave because the Báb made them to understand that him whom God shall make manifest was already living among them. And that he said to the his followers, "Now you must behave so well." That the Babis were forbidden to ever engage in any argument with each other because he said, "You might be in the presence of Him whom God shall make manifest and that would displease Him." You know, this is the way he protected Him, protected the villagers. He said, "If you go out of your house-" to the Babis, if any of the Babis, of any of the followers of the Báb went out of their houses, they have to be dressed in the most, the best suits they have to wear. Always the Babis came out of their houses in their best suits because you never know. You might come in contact with Him whom God shall make manifest and He would be displeased if He sees you in this light. He told his followers not to smoke because you might smoke and that would be displeasing. You might come in contact with Him whom God shall make manifest. You see the way he prepared his people for it? He said no one should write anything about the faith except in praise of Him whom God shall make manifest. That's all they can write.

[02:57:35]He brought in such restrictions to his followers. He even told them they shouldn't eat onions or garlic because they might come in contact with Him whom God shall make manifest and that would displease Him. He said they should never, if ever they went to the presence of Him whom God shall make manifest, they should never ask Him a question because your questions could be something so stupid that might displease Him. He said, "Any questions you have, ask of me." And of course, Bahá’u’lláh has forgiven all of these things. He said ask questions, and he has relaxed all those restrictions. But this is what I was trying to explain to you. The exalted nature of this revelation that we should not consider it as just one of the extensions of the past revelations. It's a day of God and, really when you think of it we will realize what a great, great blessing it is that each one of us have been led to this great ocean. And I'm talking about myself without deserving it entirely. Just being led to this great ocean. You know there are six thousand million people in the world? Well, look at it. And who are we? We are those people who have been chosen in that way somehow, for some reason - we will never understand why - to have recognized this day. And it is not the great men, great peoples of the world who will recognize Him now. It is us, the meek and the humble. This is always the way. The meek under humble shall inherit the earth. The great men of the world will come in the future. They'll come tomorrow. But today is our day.

[02:59:35]Bahá’u’lláh once he was in when he was in Akka, one of the believers has told us a beautiful story, one of the followers of Bahá’u’lláh, one of his disciples. He says that one day, so it was customary for the believers when Bahá’u’lláh was freed from prison or before he went to the prison, different towns whether it was in Adrianople, whether it was in Baghdad, whether it was in Akka even, that sometimes the believers would invite Bahá’u’lláh. And occasionally He would accept that invitation to go and visit them. There, of course, they would prepare food or a simple tea or something, even in the barracks of Akka, in the very prison of Akka when restrictions were relaxed in that prison. The believers who had their quarters in separate places, they sometimes would put together all the little rations they had, and they would prepare a very nice or relatively nice, shall we say, refreshments and would beg Bahá’u’lláh to come to them and take part in that. And Bahá’u’lláh sometimes would accept and would go. One of these believers says that when he was in Akka, when was in [?], Bahá’u’lláh accepted the invitation to come to their little room. And one day he came. And then, after some time that he sat there and talked, and then he went even back. And he said "as Bahá’u’lláh left our place", he said, he told us not to follow Him. He said, "Stay where you are." And he and some of those who were accompanying Him went. He said, "I looked from the back of Bahá’u’lláh and I saw the majesty, which is indescribable majesty." An indescribable majesty that he could not describe it from the back.

[03:01:36]In fact, some people see the majesty of a person from his back. I know this. My wife does this. Anyhow, she is very much in love with a picture of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that you can see his back. And he thinks - she loves that picture more than anything else to see the majesty of walk. This man says, "I saw the majesty of Bahá’u’lláh." And he says to himself, "Oh, I wish the kings and rulers were here to see that majesty. The next day, when he goes into the presence of Bahá’u’lláh, this man when Bahá’u’lláh, soon as Bahá’u’lláh sees him and tells him to be seated, he turns to him and he said, "If the kings and rulers come today here, who would let you in this place? There would be no room for you here. You, you people wouldn't be allowed to come here then. If the kings and rulers were coming into the faith, who would let you in?" He says, "This is your day. This is the day of the meek and the humble." He says, "The kings and rulers will come in the future." So really, we must thank Bahá’u’lláh for having given us this great revelation and has enabled us to recognize Him in this day. It's a great, great bounty. The more you think of it, the more you look at the history of the Faith, the history of his revelation, the more you realize what a great day it is and what a bounty which is indescribable that He has given to us. So now you know whose words you're reading. You can see a little bit of the ocean that like the drop who saw the ocean. If you really dwell upon these subjects, read the dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh, read those few past pages at the back of the Advent of the Divine Justice, read the history of His revelation, we get a little glimpse of the man of that [audio cuts off]

[03:03:46]It's entirely up to us. Whenever we are moved, we say a prayer. You can now stand up and say a prayer here. That's all right. Or go at home and say a prayer whenever you like it. But the obligated prayers is a law of Bahá’u’lláh and we must say in the manner which is prescribed. And it is this which makes this sound to us as foreign. Because Bahá’u’lláh has given, enjoined upon us certain genuflections in this prayer in this right. As you know, there are three types of obligatory prayers, or four types really. Three of them are for the living, and one of them is for the dead. One of the obligatory prayers which we say for the dead, in which there is a refrain. You know, there are some refrains that you keep on repeating. That's an obligatory prayer. It's not just an ordinary prayer. If there is a Baháʼí funeral, that is a must. The others doesn't matter if you say a prayer, other prayers or not, it doesn't matter. But that is an essential part of the ritual of burying the dead, of the funeral. Bahá’u’lláh has forbidden the saying of obligatory players in public. You have to say it in private, in the privacy of your own room, whereas that of the dead, that for the dead, you can say it in public. The obligatory prayers, as you know there are three of them. One of them is the long obligatory player, which is a very beautiful prayer. And one of them is the medium one and one of them is the short one. The long one, of course, you say it once in every 24 hours. The medium one you say it three times a day at certain times, morning, noon, night. The shortest one, which is the simplest of all - really it's a very simple thing. And Bahá’u’lláh through His bounty has been very, very kind to us. For some businessmen who are so busy they have no time for these things, they can say it at noon if they remember it. And He says if they forgot it, they could go up to sunset so it's quite a good extension for them.

[03:06:21]It's only two lines. You'll remember that. And there is no genuflections either, but it is an obligatory prayer. It's one of the rituals of the faith. But the other ones have some genuflections. Now there are conditions for saying the obligatory prayer as I said. One of the conditions is that you must be alone. Why must you be alone? You will see in a few minutes. When I explain this to you, when we talk about these genuflections, these actions that you do that really this is a place for doing it between you and your God. There can be no other person there because there, you are going to prostrate yourself in front of your God, you see. And you are going to confess throughout the whole of the prayer to our own shortcomings, to our sins, to our transgressions, to our remoteness from Him, beg Him to bring us close to Him. And these are the things which are very private. The only occasion that I would consider - this is my personal view and experience - that you can say it when there is somebody else there is when your children are there. I feel parents should say the long, the obligatory prayers in front of their children so that they take it as an example. We learned it anyhow as Baháʼí children. Most people who have been brought up in the East in Baháʼí families, you will ask them they say, "Yes. When I was 10 years of age, I memorized it because I've heard it so much every day." It becomes a part of you then.

[03:08:13]One of the conditions for saying the obligatory prayers is that you must turn your face towards the [?] which is the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh. The whole world turns to Him. It's the tremendous thought that all mankind and eventually the whole of the human race one day when they all recognize Him, they all will turn just like that to the hub of the wheel, you know, everyone. And this brings unity. Everyone turns to the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh wherever you are. Now these genuflections that must go with it, with the long and the medium obligatory players, they are symbolic. Bahá’u’lláh has tried to add to our words which are, for instance, you're supplicating to God something. Supplicating means you're begging Him to do something for you. And He has introduced these symbolic actions. You raise your hand when you supplicate to God. When you want to express your humility to Him, utter humility and utter nothingness to who? To God, to your Creator, not to man but to Creator. That's why you're alone. You prostrate yourself before your God and you say those words indicating your utter nothingness and your humility before Him. And that raises our consciousness with these actions of what we are really saying to our God. We are doing it. We are showing it in action. It heightens one's consciousness of the words. Providedly we can understand this.

[03:09:58]Well, so you see how important this is to us. The obligatory prayers, to become used to become familiar with it and knowing it's not something which is done in the public but you do it in private. Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have told us that if the believers do not say their obligatory prayers, they can never get close to Bahá’u’lláh. No matter what else you do. This is one of those conditions. And we Baháʼís in the West have to become used to this. I know some people in the West now, at least the countries that I've been familiar with, [?] in Ireland. I know many, many believers in Ireland, I know believers who will never go to bed unless even if it's midnight and dead tired, the woman or man thinks he hasn't said his prayers, obligatory prayers. He says now he must say it. With this we can grow. So you see, this is another point which I wanted to bring up. For we were trying to enable our faith to grow, wasn't it? The whole idea was to see what should we do that our faith may grow. Well this is the second step, really. Or the first step. This should be the first step. And reciting the writings become the second step, but they are of similar nature. Now, prayers, we can say whenever you like it.

[03:11:36]And then comes the study of the writings. Now study of the writings and reciting the writings are two different things. We must not confuse them, because when you recite the writings in the morning and in the evening, you are really taking your personal food, your spiritual food. Although you learn from it as well, I'm sure you learn a lot of things. But the purpose of it is not to learn things. When you're saying, when you're reciting the words the purpose is to receive the spiritual food. This is the communication receiving from your creator and you're eating your spiritual food. But studying of the writings is different thing. You have to sit down, read, take a book, read the writing, see what it says, what it means. Read another book to understand this part that you don't understand, ask from somebody a question, "What does this mean?" Read the history of the Faith, join these things together, go and make research, ask from people, take part in seminars - this is where we study the writings. And the more we do that, this study of the writings will enable us to see more and more of the greatness of that ocean I was telling you, the ocean of the revelation of Bahá’u’lláh. If you want to see that ocean like the drop did - you remember the drop of the rain when it saw the ocean? If you want to see that, you have to study the writings.

[03:13:06]And one of the very important things we must study are the words of Shoghi Effendi because Shoghi Effendi plays a very, very significant part in the revelation of Bahá’u’lláh. And I will explain to you what his position is in relation to the words. It's a very significant role that he has played. If you have been a very knowledgeable Baháʼí now, I have seen some very knowledgeable Baháʼís who had come from the East, who had read great, great many of the writings of Bahá’u’lláh. And by the way, let me say this much, that I don't think there's anybody in the world, anybody who can say he has read all the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi. We certainly do not have such a person. You can't keep it in your mind anyhow, except Mr. [?] Anderson. [laughter] He he has got all the indexing done. And he's marvelous, really. Marvelous. But you forget it and you read it and you will have to - there's nobody who can say he has read everything. I was so delighted to see Ted here. I've seen him, met him about 12 years ago in Canada and it was very beautiful experience to go and see him. And now it was great joy to see him at the airport when I arrived.

[03:14:44]You know, I'm going to miss you all when I'm going there to Europe. How am I going to do it? I don't know. It's such a beautiful experience to come and meet with all the beautiful faces here. And it was so, it was a great privilege and joy for me to see today some of your early believers, the first believer and the first native believer. You do not realize who they are. Of course, they are the most humble, the most humble servants of Bahá’u’lláh. But you know, history will record this in the future and I'm sure the historians will want to know who were these people, what were they like, what they were doing. And the same thing with all of you, with all pioneers in every town, those who pioneer from town to town and they grew there and established the foundation of the community in the future. They are not going to find out who are our politicians and our great figures in history as we call them today. These days that we are going through are the darkest period in the history of mankind. You realized this? It's the darkest period that ever was or that ever shall be is the period that now we are in it and we shall be in it for quite a few years. The darkest period of man's life. And people will not want to know who were these people who were running for election. You run in here for elections. In England, they stand for elections. [laughter] You know that. That's the difference. You run, and there they stand for it. But anyhow, all these things will be considered as so much part of the old order. But what will be remembered is the wonderful band, the small band or a lowly person of Baháʼís who have been in localities and low places and towns, villages, far, far remote areas of the world trying to build up. And they built up eventually and we will build up great, great institutions for mankind. And then they'd want to know who was, who are these people. Who were these people? And if they find a little scrap of paper, they ever come across it that there is a little information about that, they are going to grab it from each other to know something about you people. So really, we are very, very privileged to be inheriting the Kingdom of God, the weak and the humble inheriting this great kingdom.

[03:17:31]Well, we are talking of other things now. The time is coming to an end, and I feel that we should consider these two points that I mentioned today about our ways, which we can grow spiritually. Get closer to Bahá’u’lláh. And if you are going to be with us tomorrow, I'm going to say something to you that, and I'll leave it with you to think about it, that if you read the writings and if you say your prayers in this way, the obligatory players and turn to Bahá’u’lláh, this is not going to be sufficient. We have to do other things. This is not the end of it. We have to do other things as well. And particularly I'm going to mention something tomorrow which if you don't do it, then all the things that you've done will be of no use. And these things are so close together. Now don't let it be a cliffhanger or something until tomorrow but let us wait. And we hope that we can continue in this series. There are some questions people have asked in here which are not considered, which is not part of this but I want to also bring up some other points as well which is not to do with this how we enable our faith to grow, but other subjects which are part of it again. And we hopefully will bring it up tomorrow. Now there is only 10 minutes left or something like that. And I think you should say something now if you want to if there is any questions or some points that you want to raise. Yes?

[03:19:30][man speaking] [unintelligible] Could you explain a little more what you mean by praying without desire? I came across your statement on that [unintelligible]. Praying without desire, well I don't know what that means.

[03:20:09]Now I'll explain this to you as best as I can. First of all, you can pray in any way you like, with all the desires in the world that you have in it. There's nothing wrong with that. We are actually, we have to do that in most cases. We mostly when we pray, we want something. You're in difficulties, you pray. And Bahá’u’lláh, in fact, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have left for us many such prayers, in which we read and beg God for various things. But what I was trying to say is that if a person grows spiritually and becomes more and more closer to Bahá’u’lláh, he reaches a point that he doesn't want anything for himself. It's not something that you must do it now, but it's the matter of growth that all that you want is to praise God. All that you want is to turn to Him, is to glorify Him. But it's only a matter of growth. It is not a matter of compulsion that now, from now on, we must go on pray without any desire. We can't do it, and this is why Bahá’u’lláh ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have known our weaknesses. And all these prayers that you have which says, "Oh, God, I am in need. I am in this way. I am in that way. Give me this. Give me that." It's all because of our weaknesses that when we become stronger, you don't want anything but the Cause of God to grow, but to get closer to God. And this is the meaning of prayer without desire.

[03:21:51][man speaking] That's what I was wondering. [unintelligible]

[woman speaking] Is it permissible to instruct the children on the obligatory prayers like in children's class?

Well, surely you can teach them, but they are not obliged to say it. They cannot say it or they shoudn't say it until they're 15. The age of 15 is an age in which Baháʼís will attain the age which becomes binding on them to carry out the laws of Bahá’u’lláh, but it's a good thing for them to know that they can say it. They must say it when they grow older. Well you can instruct them. Yes, but they must know it's not the part of their life until they become 15. There and then here, I'll just-.

[man speaking] Did you finish that briefly why we should read the writings of Shoghi Effendi?

Oh, yes, I always - that was a subject I meant to say, and I forgot it but it's too late now. [laughter] Well I'll mention, right, that's an important thing. Let us finish that one. Would you like me to do this?

[audience] Yes.

[03:23:03]You see, this is a very important point. I said I've met many believers who are very deep in the Faith who had read the writings of Bahá’u’lláh as many as they could find. So much that they have read practically all the writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. They have known all the history of the Faith. They were the most erudite Baháʼís we could have, the most knowledgeable, but they really didn't understand the faith until Shoghi Effendi came in. Now the best way I can explain it to you is like this. If you read all the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá alone and all the history of the Faith, you will not understand the Faith necessarily. I will give you this example. You see, Bahá’u’lláh - have you seen these boxes which you give to children as gift called jigsaw puzzles? Now, when you look at the jigsaw puzzle, you will find it has a lot of pieces in it and as you look at each piece, each piece is valid, isn't it? It's valid piece. It's valid. It's truth. It's good. It's right. But you look at each piece, they are not related to each other so much. And so you have a box full of items which are right and good and valid but where is that picture? Now the Faith is like that. Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have given us all the truths that we want to have. All the truth of this faith, they have brought for us. They are given to us like this box full of it. Now the function of Shoghi Effendi during the 36 years of his ministry was to put this together for us and give us a picture of what it is all about. Relate them together. He related all that Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had brought together and said, "This is the Baháʼí Faith."

[03:25:14]Now he never added one dot to there. Now, this is one thing that some of the friends may not realize. People think that Shoghi Effendi has given us his own views in the faith and added so many things to it. Not at all. Shoghi Effendi has not added one dot to the revelation of Bahá’u’lláh. All that he has done, he has explained to us, elucidated that as the interpreter of the word of God, applied it for us. He put together really all that the faith had. He explained to us the function of various elements in the faith, the relationships together, how the laws should be applied, how the teaching should be applied. This is his function. And therefore not until you read the writings of Shoghi Effendi can you fully appreciate the faith. This is why I say that we have great learned men during the heroic age of the faith before Shoghi Effendi comes into the scene who had known all the writing or some of the writings, a great deal of it. They're very learned people, beautiful people, very spiritual. Spiritual giants, as I call them, really. But really, when you look at it, they had not understood the whole perspective of the faith and its perspective, they haven't seen it. And it was Shoghi Effendi who gave it to us. And to me, this is the greatest task that he performed for us. He put together what Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had brought to us. He formed it. He showed it to us and he said, "This is it." And he gave us the pattern.

[03:26:54]Now this is why I feel it's so important for us if we want to understand the faith, to read his writings. Half of his writings are in English and half of it are in Persian. But what you have in English is quite sufficient to give us his guidance and then you can read. So you know, really, when you become a Baháʼí you enter into a field of a vast field which has no end to it. No Baháʼí can say, "Well, I have exhausted it now. I'm glad I'm finished. I'm going to retire." You can't do that. As long as we live, we still have scope to read the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and understand a little bit of it. Read the writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Read the writings of Shoghi Effendi. Read the history of the faith. And I can literally tell you if you want to take it seriously, you have no time to read anything else. You won't have the time to read the books that people write about the Faith either. You won't have the right time. It's impossible to read all the books that people write about the faith. You can't do that. You have no time for it. No time unless in the future again, a machinery is created for us which can condense all our things in one flash and push it into your mind. Maybe there's something in the future. People might do it for us, but I cannot believe that you can do all of this. It's impossible to read all these writings and then try to see what other people think of. And then there is another aspect to it, the writings. And I mentioned this to you. Some of you may be surprised to hear this. If you read the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi, you don't need to read anything else. You will understand everything. And, of course, I'm not saying you shouldn't learn science and technology. Bahá’u’lláh says we must learn science and technology and all the sciences and arts. But all those knowledges that people acquire, which begins with word and end with word, will be useless to you because here have the all the answers to the every question that you want is here. And maybe tomorrow we will also talk about this aspect of knowledge and learning a little bit. So now I think we must close the session really because of the time. It's so short, but maybe we can- [man speaking]

[03:29:36]What is the heart? What is closest to the heart? I didn't hear it. [man answers] Oh, yeah. Well, yes. These are probably things. I think these are not essential things at this present time for us to go and follow. There are some things which will gradually become established when the House of Justice finds it's the time they'll instruct us. And all these things, these are secondary things. Well, friends, I hope that you haven't been very tired today. I'll collect all these. If you had also cared, you could write some of your questions. It would be all right. I'll can collect them in here. And this way I could maybe formulate it in the talks tomorrow. I understand that some of you may not be here on Monday so that we'll try tomorrow to bring in a good deal of the things which I feel may be of some help, if it is of any help. So, with your permission, we'll end up this meeting. Thank you. [applause]