Transcript:Adib Taherzadeh/The Human Soul
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[00:08] It's really a great honor to be asked to address this distinguished audience in the memory of our beloved Hand of the Cause Mr. Hasan Balyuzi. I feel that it's really appropriate now all of us to pay a very great tribute to the memory of that great soul. He was one of those who was appointed as a Hand of the Cause as it was mentioned. And he was, his great grandfather was one of the two brothers of the wife of the Báb. That's his relation to the Báb. And his great scholarly work is well-known. The subject that has been given to me is not a common subject to talk about at a peace conference. I don't think any international conferences which are held about peace that they want to talk about the soul. You know, the soul - many, many peoples of the world do not think about the soul. Perhaps millions of peoples even don't know they have a soul. Or if they do they never think about it. And yet this soul is the greatest motivating power within man, and it is the knowledge of the soul which will enable us to appreciate our motives and our functions and our life.
[02:24]You know, the soul is a spiritual reality. It's not something that you can discuss it in the light of physics or mathematics. It's a spiritual reality. And in order to understand it, the only way we have to understand not the soul itself because we shall never understand the reality and the essence of the soul. We shall never understand it, but we perhaps will be able to appreciate its characteristics and its powers. And therefore the only source we have to appreciate and understand something about the soul is to turn to the holy books of various religions because the idea of the soul, that we have a soul really has been given to us through the teachings of these great world religions. But up until now humanity had not reached a stage to be able to appreciate the nature of the soul. And so the prophets and the founders of great religions, that we Baháʼí refers to them as manifestations of God, like Christ, like Mohammed for example who was the latest of all, have spoken very little about it. In fact, there is only one short sentence which we know in Islam describing the soul as to be having come from God. And that's all we know of the soul when we return to the holy books of all these religions.
[04:33]Now one of the greatest contributions that Bahá’u’lláh has made to religious knowledge is that He has in His writings, both Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, they both have in their writings have shared so much light on this subject of the soul that if you compile their writings together, probably you will make one or two volumes. So much light has been shed on. By the way, there are other things that Bahá’u’lláh has, particularly in this age, shed light on to a great extent; one of them is the knowledge of God. What is God? Again, you will find this is one of His greatest contribution to religious knowledge. Another field that Bahá’u’lláh has particularly given a great deal of information about and understanding is in the realm of the founders of the world's great religions, the manifestations of God. But the soul, particularly that we are going to talk about, is a very important aspect in our life. You know, Bahá’u’lláh mentions, I'm just paraphrasing His words and perhaps before I say anything, I should say that everything that I will tell you about the soul is practically based on the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. I may add my own way of saying it, but basically they come from there because we have no other way of explaining it. Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have explained to us that the soul is not a material thing that you can push it into your body or pull it out of your body. It is not something which you can attach anything to it. It's exalted above exit or entry. It's not something you can take it out of your body and give it into a laboratory to test it for you. It's a spiritual entity, and Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have told us that it is an emanation from the spiritual worlds of God, an emanation from the spiritual worlds of God.
[06:58]And this, we are told the soul comes to us is born is created at the time of conception, that it did not exist before in this life or anywhere, and that it came at the time when a person is conceived. Now, when the first cell is created in the room of the mother and the soul is associated with it, then this is the beginning of a human being. Now I said the soul associated with the body, really we cannot say anything else, even association, when you say the soul is associated with the body. In itself, it's a relationship, relationship with a material thing, and even that is not possible for the soul. For the soul to describe it in any way, we have no words for it because words are very inadequate tools for expressing a spiritual reality. But we have to use a word, so we say the soul is associated with the body. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has described this association of the soul and the body as the association of light and a mirror. If you look at the light, you will - if you look at the mirror you will find there is light in it but really the light is not in the mirror that you can take your hands and take it away. There is a relationship between the light and the mirror that's all the light comes from a different source the mirror is a piece of metal and if you break the mirror nothing happens to the light. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has explained to us that this is the meaning, this is the way that God has created us in this way, that our soul -
[09:11]Now before I go any further I wanted to mention that, I mentioned first that we have to turn to the writings of the Faith, the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. There is no other way that we can understand and appreciate this spiritual reality, this great spiritual essence which we call it the soul. But then there is another thing which could help us and in order to understand that, I wanted to mention to you that in this creation, this creation that we come across with, this creation is one entity. There are not two different worlds. There is no such a thing as a spiritual world separate from this physical world. God's creation is one entity. And all the laws which run through the, say, physical world, they're also the same laws and the same principles. Light also pass through, go through in the spiritual worlds of God. The law, the same laws and the same principles that you will find, say, in nature, these same laws and principles are applied to the world of man. The same laws and principles are applied to religion. The same laws and principles are applied in the spiritual worlds of God. And so we find that since we know something about the laws of nature, we may be able to appreciate something of the spiritual laws as well because they're similar. The similarity is very striking. The only difference is that when you have a law or a principle in nature, when it is applied to a higher level, you have to add certain characteristics to it. Certain characteristics, certain features are added to it which you cannot find it in the in the lower kingdom.
[11:22]Now I said this because it's a very important point for us to appreciate that one way of having some idea about the soul. Some idea, I said. Not necessarily to understand it because we will never understand the soul. It's to also look at nature. But looking at nature alone is not sufficient. We should look at nature and also look at the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and the combination of the two will enable us to understand something of the soul. I keep on saying we can understand something of the soul or that we can only understand its characteristics, that we do not understand this essence. There is a tablet from Bahá’u’lláh that I want to mention it to you. There is there is a verse in Islam which says that if you want to know yourself - if you want to know God, you should know yourself. And one of the disciples of the Báb asked Bahá’u’lláh to give him the meaning of this verse. What does it mean that you should know when you know yourself, you will know God? And Bahá’u’lláh revealed the tablet. In this tablet you will find this part of this tablet is translated by the beloved Guardian, by Shoghi Effendi in the Gleanings. I think it's number 83. Now in that, Bahá’u’lláh mentions that everything that we do in a human being is motivated by our soul. Everything that we do is motivated by the soul and our mind is a manifestation of the soul. The soul manifests itself in the body. It appears as in the body in the form of mind or intellect. The heart which which gives life, that also is a manifestation of the soul. Our senses are the manifestation of the soul, our hearing, our sight, all these things. But Bahá’u’lláh says the sum total of all these manifestations will not make the soul. If you put together all the manifestations of the soul in the body, it will never make the soul. So then he asked the question, "What is the soul then?" And then He answers it. He says if you live as long as you like, you will never know the essence of your soul, the reality of your soul because it's exalted above this world of matter. And he says whenever a person reaches to that state of absolute impotence, when you realize your impotence, that you shall never know the essence of your soul then you reach to the point that you'll say, "If I cannot know the essence of my soul, the reality of my soul, how can I ever know the essence and the reality of the Creator of my soul which is God?"
[14:29]So you see, I keep on saying we shall never know the essence of our soul but we can understand some characteristics of it, some characteristics according to our capacity. Now I mentioned that how the laws of nature can help us, and then it appears in one of the writings again. You will come across with a statement that in this life everything that you come across in this life is a counterpart of something spiritual. Everything you come in this life which is created by God is a counterpart of something spiritual. Things in this life do not come about haphazardly. You see a tree here, for example. This tree is a counterpart of something spiritual in the spiritual worlds of God. The tree has got a counterpart in the world of man. The tree has a counterpart in the world of religion. You talk about the tree of knowledge for instance, you see. It is a counterpart of this physical tree. So for everything which you see in this life, there is a counterpart. In the writings there is one of the examples of this counterpart which is given a parallel is that we are told for example that the sun is a counterpart of the founders of great world religions, manifestations of God. The same quality that the sun has, the same function of the sun, the sun pours its energies upon this life and gives life to it and so do the manifestations of God, the founders of great religions. They also pour their spiritual energies upon mankind, and so you can say the sun and the manifestations of God are counterparts of each other in different realms.
[16:23]Now if you want to understand the soul which is a spiritual thing, if we could find a counterpart for it in this life, something physical that is similar to it, that has the same characteristics then when we study that counterpart, that physical counterpart then we can get some ideas about the soul, some ideas. From the writings again as I said we cannot go alone on our own on this journey. We have constantly to seek the support and understanding from the writings. From the writings it appears that the counterpart, the physical counterpart of the soul in this life is the embryo which grows in the womb of the mother. That is to say whatever happens to the embryo, whatever stages the embryo grows in the womb of the mother and for whatever purpose, the same thing applies to the soul. And when you look at the two, again look at the writings. We will find ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has given us several examples of the embryo being similar to the soul. And when you examine the characteristics of the embryo growing in the womb of the mother, it'll become very interesting parallels that you can draw. You see, the physical body of man is created at the time of conception and one cell comes into being. That cell has nothing in it. There is nothing that you can see in the cell. You cannot see any limbs or organs or a person but that cell has the capacity to multiply and eventually to become a perfect human being. It's the same thing with the soul. When the soul comes to us at the time of conception, that soul has nothing, has no virtues, no qualities, no perfections but it can acquire them in this life. It has no knowledge. It can acquire it in this life. It has no virtues, no perfections. It can acquire them in this life or whatever period it may be. So you see, there was a similarity.
[18:48]Another similarity is that the embryo grows gradually within the womb of the mother. It gradually acquires limbs and organs, and the soul is the same way. It gradually acquires qualities and perfections. It takes a long time in this life to acquire these qualities and perfections. Well, I'm using this particular similarity purely to help us to understand something. And what I am saying will never be the soul. I want to repeat this over and over again, but it gives us some idea of our soul. You see, another thing which you will find happens is that the embryo must grow in the womb of the mother, and that's its place. It's not growing anywhere else. It is attached to the womb of the mother. It's its home. And the same thing is with the soul. The soul is got an association with our body, with ourselves, with our physical side. It's attached to it, not physically, but it has an attachment to it. And this is a place. It will never leave it. As long as the person lives, the soul will not leave it in the same way that as long as the embryo growing in the womb of the mother, it does not leave the womb world. It's there.
[20:22]Their another similarities is that the embryo, that the womb of the mother is not a place for the embryo to live in all its life. Oh no it's only a temporary period, a transitory period in which, during which time the soul, the embryo will grow in the womb of the mother. You see the similarity again with the soul? This world that we live in is not a place for the soul. This is not its home. This is not its permanent home. This is a transitory period. Every one of us whether you are 50 year old or 100 years old that we live in this world, the soul is with us for that period in this world but this is not it's home. Oh no, this is a transitory period. See how important this point is? If only mankind will realize this, humanity will realize that this world is not a place to focus all our attention to as if you're going to live in it for all our life. You see? It's not. It's only a transitory period.
[21:40]Another similarity is this: that the purpose of the embryo growing in the womb of the mother really is to acquire limbs and organs. Limbs and organs, growth so that it becomes a perfect human being. And the same thing is with the soul in this life. The purpose of the soul being with us is that it may acquires the ritual qualities, qualities and perfections and virtues that it has to acquire in this life. This is the purpose of it. This is the purpose of it. You will find that when we look at creation in this light, you can see what God really has done. He has brought two opposite things together. One, something material in this life and has attached to it, spiritually attached to it. Be very careful because casual use of the word attachment. Attached, spiritually attached to this body, a soul. And these two together have produced a human being. We call it a human being and this human being has two sides, his physical and his spiritual side. And the purpose of all of this is that this spirit, the soul of man may grow and become spiritual, acquires qualities and perfections.
[23:09]Now again we'll find another thing. We will find that most of the limbs and organs which the child acquires in the womb of the mother are not needed for him in his embryonic life. He doesn't need his hands, and his feet, and his eyes. He doesn't need them, really. They're needed in a next life when he's born. And so you see the similarity again? How much you read in the writings, that the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, how much we read, that all the virtues and perfections that we are supposed to acquire in this life, they are really needed in the next life. We must acquire them for the next life. And indeed when you think carefully, you will find that these virtues and perfections that the soul acquires in this life, whether you use them here or not in this world, you still can live; although we must use all these virtues and qualities in this life. For example, we must love. And if we don't love this virtue of love will never grow in our soul. But there are millions of peoples who live without it and yet they carry on their life. The love that we have in here, our soul acquires these qualities and perfections. When our soul acquires the quality of love, when our soul acquires the quality of unity, when the soul acquires the quality of knowledge, when it acquires all the other virtues that are in the teachings, in the next life these qualities and perfections become part of his being perhaps. We don't know but it appears that way. All I can say is it appears. You know a child in the womb of the mother has two perfect eyes towards the end of his life there. Perfect eyes but he can't see with it because there is no light. Those eyes are useless in the womb of the mother, but when his born those eyes become useful because there is light. And it appears it's the same thing with our qualities and perfections of the soul. These qualities and perfections that we acquire in this life is for the next life so that they become active or whatever is the word for it which we cannot use the word. We cannot find the words to describe how these qualities and perfections, the love, the knowledge and wisdom which we carry with us to the next life, how they will become part of our spiritual beings and how they will begin to function spiritually.
[26:07]And then there is another principle here which is very interesting also, another similarity. You see how many similarities there are? You will find that if the child does not acquire its limbs and organs in the womb world, he cannot acquire them in this life. You cannot acquire limbs and organs in this life which will be just natural limbs and organs. And he's handicapped. It seems to be the same thing again. This is why we have to acquire them in here, all the perfections and qualities and virtues. Our soul must acquire it in this life and must take it with him into the next world. Definitely this is a taking away, a taking away from this world all those qualities and perfections. You see now here what God has done again? You will find that he has brought together these two opposite forces, the material and the spiritual. But at first when he brought them together at the time of conception, there was very little, nothing you could say. There was really nothing. There was only one cell at the time and there was the what - we cannot call it anything. We'll say the soul. The soul was created but the soul had no qualities and perfections. Now what has happened to it? Look at what's happened to it in this lifetime of sixty or seventy years that we live here. Look what happens to it. That soul which came to us seventy or eighty years ago when we were born or was conceived and had very nothing, no qualities and perfections. Now it has acquired all the qualities, perfections, virtues, has carried on the teachings of God. It has recognized God and it's recognized all kinds of things. It has grown enormously spiritually. See the difference then. And this is the purpose. In one of his - in the writings again, we come across other analogies. Other analogies, analogy of the bird being placed in a cage, it's very similar to our soul in this life. The bird being placed in the cage, what's the purpose of the bird being placed in the cage? The purpose is to feed it so that it may get stronger and stronger every day so that when the cage breaks the bird is strong and take its flight in in the realms above because really the home of the bird is not within a cage. The bird is created to live in a high place, not in the cage. But in this form of association, as I said like the bird in the cage, we find that we can therefore during this period feed the soul. Make it strong but then what do we do with it? What does mankind do with this soul? What does he do with this bird within the cage? Do we feed the bird? Do we feed the soul? As I said, we don't even think about it. I'm not talking of people who believe in a religion and believe in God but I'm thinking of a great number of people today who never think of their soul, let alone to feed it, to feed it with the spiritual food which is the word of God. We don't do that. And so the soul becomes a midget, small tiny little thing. It never grows and yet another thing we do, we tie him up so many strings here and there, so many attachments we have into this world. We tie the wings of our soul, to the material world so tight that even when that one day when the cage breaks, the bird cannot fly. It's still attached to the things of this world.
[30:29]Now, there is another principle in nature, and that is that everything return to its origin. Everything return to its origin. The body of a man is made, is composed of atoms. And therefore, when the body, when a person dies, the body decomposes and it returns to its origin which is dust, which is this earth. It returns to its origin. The soul also returns to its origin. Where did it come from? We are told in the writings very clearly that the soul has come from the spiritual worlds of God. So where does it return to? It returns to its origin, which is the spiritual worlds of God. But what a difference when it first came, it had no virtues, no qualities, no perfections. Now look at it. It has got an identity, a personality and Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have told us that we will retain that identity in the spiritual worlds of God. He says we will associate with one another. He says the holy souls will associate with the prophets and the founders of great religions and the manifestations of God in the next life. It's not something that you lose consciousness of who you are. Now let me say here another thing which is also important to talk about when we are talking about the souls and the spiritual words of God. Where is the next world? Where we are told our soul is to go to? We are talking about the spiritual world. And Bahá’u’lláh tells us that the spiritual worlds of God are infinite in range. It's not just one spiritual world of God. It's infinite in range. In fact, anything which is associated with God is infinite, anything. There's never limitations with God. Anything that he has created is infinite. Look at this universe. This physical universe is infinite. And the same thing as with spiritual worlds of God. It's infinite. But where is it?
[32:52]Now in order to appreciate that, as I said we should, we can take the help of two things. One is the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. And the other one is look at nature. Let me take you to nature first and look at nature. And when you look at nature, you will find, when a child is growing in the womb of the mother, where is he? Where is he living? When the child is living in the womb of the mother, he's here in this world, isn't he? He's moving in this world with his mother. Only a small barrier prevents him from recognizing this great world, but he's here. Have you ever seen in a farm when an egg opens up, an egg opens up and a chicken comes out. Where was the chicken before the egg breaks? He was here but there was a shell which prevented him from seeing it and recognizing it. And so we are told that the next world is here. It's here. It's closer to us than we think. And there is another thing here, a similarity. You know a child, as long as he lives in the womb of the mother, he's not given the capacity to understand what a small place he's living in in comparison with this world that he's going to be born into, very small. But the child has not got the capacity to understand that. He does not know. And so he's content. If he ever knew, if God had given him the slightest capacity that he knew what a small place it is and what a great vast area awaits him, then he wouldn't, you would have a revolution on your hand, really. You wouldn't want to come out. He'd want to come out immediately. He didn't want to stay there. And the same thing is with this. In the writings again it's mentioned that if ever the glory of the next life was disclosed to the eyes of men, then all humanity would wish to go immediately, that maybe they would commit suicide. Who knows? They would want to go immediately. The same God which has not given the capacity to the child to understand the smallness of the place he lives in and the greatness and the vastness of the universe which awaits him, the same God has not given us, as long as we live here, the capacity to understand what the soul is, in fact, and what the world that awaits him after separation from the body. But we are told very clearly by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that the next world, this world is as small in relation to the next world. This world in relation to the next world is as small as the womb of the mother is in relation to this life. That gives us an idea, exactly the same thing but it is not disclosed to our eyes once we are living in here. We don't think about it. We cannot understand it. We cannot appreciate anything about our existence in the spiritual worlds of God. We cannot.
[36:34]And then let us go a little further. We find that when a child is born, he brings with him everything it has. He does not leave anything behind. Everything that it has, he brings it with him. It's the same thing with us. When we go from this world, when the association of the body and the soul comes to an end and we say a person dies, the body remains on this earth. The soul departs. The shell, so to speak, breaks. You know the shell that I was talking to you, like the egg, the shell of the egg and the chicken comes out in that very crude analogy. At the time that we we depart from this world, we carry with us anything which is good. We cannot carry with us anything which we call it bad because bad has no existence of itself. Now don't misunderstand me when I say that bad has no existence of itself. There is plenty of bad things in the world, plenty of it, more than any good in this day and age particularly. But it has no existence of itself, means bad is the lack of good. When the person is bad, you can say he's very little good. That's what it means here. Whatever he has is positive. A bad man is a very little good man [audience laughter]. Or a very [mockingly] a very little good man. You see, poverty, poverty does not exist in a sense. It has no existence of itself, like darkness which has no existence of itself. The darkness has no existence of itself; light has. You can carry light from one room to another but you can't say to a person, "Bring some darkness with you." It's the same thing with poverty. If you are a poor man, you can't say, "I'm a very poor man and I'm coming to your house. And I'm going to bring all my poverty with me." All your poverty means you have very little money. That's all it means. And that is what we take to the next world. Whatever is good that we have we can take with us to the next life. And from there, we start our spiritual life. It's like a capital that you have. Someone has a large capital, someone has a very little capital. And then we start our spiritual journey depending on what we have acquired in this life. What qualities and perfections we have acquired in this life, it decides the level on which we're going to live. This appears to us.
[39:49]From the writings we know one thing and that is Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have told us that in the next life, man will be graded. Humanity will be graded, will be divided into levels of existence. It's not surprising. God seems to like this. He likes different levels of existence in the same way that in this life he has also created different levels of existence. You have the mineral world. You have the vegetable world. You have the animal world. And look at the animal world itself. Within the animal world there are so many grades of animals from the, say, a worm in the lowest scale and then go up to the intelligent animals. So many grades of animals. He loves this division, and so in the next life we will be divided. And he tells us that those who are in a high level will dominate, will encompass those who are on a lower level. And those who are in the lower level will never understand those who are in a higher level. And we might say a great pity that it is like this, but this is the way God likes it. And this is the meaning of heaven and hell, really. The nearest you are to God, you're in heaven. And if you are on a lower level, it is deprivation. It's all relative. It's all relative terms. Heaven and hell is a relative term, but God likes this somehow. We don't know why, but he does. You see in this creation, look at this creation. What has he created? He has created all kinds of animals. And if it was us perhaps, if it was us that were going to create them, we would not want to create all these poor animals. Why do you want - couldn't He make up everything the same like man? Look at this mouse, for instance/ You know, have you seen a mouse, poor mouse? What is it in relation to a man? He could have made him like a man? Why didn't He make him like a man? The poor mouse. Well. But he liked it, evidently. He likes these divisions and so in the next life seems to be that there would be divisions. And this depends on what we acquire in this life.
[42:12]Now there is one thing in here which I wanted to mention. So far we have been comparing the embryo growing in the womb of the mother, with the soul which grows in this world. There is one difference. The embryo and all the physical beings have no control over what they do. The embryo grows because the laws of nature makes it so. It grows without any will. But when you apply that law or that principle to a spiritual world, to a higher level something is added to it. The soul also grows in this life. It acquires qualities and perfections, but there's one thing added to it. It has a choice. It can make the choice. It can make a choice of either acquiring qualities and perfections or not, whereas the embryo has not got that choice. A tree grows. You put the seed down, it grows. It has no choice. It grows. But the man has a choice to either grow in the right way or the wrong way, to acquire qualities or not acquire qualities. This is a great difference when you apply these laws from the law, from the world of nature to a higher level. You will find that these things are added to it. And as I mentioned this is a very important point, really. I think in our study of the teachings of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh or any religion, you will find that many of the main teachings of the Faith have their origin. Or you can find that you can trace their origin in nature. You can see that nature in fact is a reflection of the teachings of God. Many of the major teachings of Bahá’u’lláh for example are very natural things. You can find their similarities in nature. And by study of the nature, but study of the nature always along with the writings, then you come across a little understanding. A much more understanding, I would say, when you combine these two together of what life is, what creation is.
[44:30]Now so we said that how the soul acquires the purpose of life is that we acquire qualities and perfections in this life and we carry them with us to the next stage which is the spiritual worlds of God. And from there we start our journey. And that journey will never end according to Bahá’u’lláh. He says that man has a beginning and that just mean we are created, but it has no end, that it will continue as long as God exists. Can you imagine this great glory of being born and living and then never ending this journey, always going closer and closer to God but he never reaches him in the spiritual worlds of God. Endless, limitless, infinite, immortal is the soul. Now having said all of this, I wanted to mention another dimension in here in relation to the soul, a very important dimension. So important that all that I have said so far is really, becomes only partial when you look at this particular dimension. And in order to explain this dimension, I felt it's a good thing because there are so many people here that I use the language of nature so that we can understand easier these spiritual, you might say, teachings. It's a very great help but again, as I said, these are all when you look at it carefully you will find, if you can say it without referring to nature, it will be the same as what is in the writings. Again, always Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have used a great many such examples that I gave in the writings. And now this particular thing that I wanted to mention is this: that we'll go to nature, let me take you to nature again. In nature, you will find anything which has an organic growth, always begins its existence with a seed. You plant a seed in the ground. The seed grows, becomes a tree. The tree grows eventually, becomes mature and so on. And the same thing is with the soul. Our soul is exactly the same thing. It has an organic growth. It begins with a seed, you can say - a spiritual seed. And then it grows and acquires qualities and perfections in this life, as we said, just like a tree which grows. But the tree, comes a point in the life of a tree that it must give its fruit. And when it gives its fruit, we say that it has fulfilled itself. You know a tree which gives its fruit, it has fulfilled itself. That's because it was created for this purpose of producing its own seed. This is a state of maturity, giving birth to something. Now in life you will find that the tree cannot produce a tree by itself. It has to be pollinated from a different source. A mother cannot give birth to a child on her own. A female cannot give birth to a child on her own. There must be a relationship with a male factor, with a male so that the female becomes, conceives a child. And then when he conceives a child, she will give birth to a child. And our soul is the same thing. Here must act as a female. If it is going to fulfill itself, the soul must produce a child, must give birth to a child. Our soul, I'm not talking of the body, our soul. But where does it turn to be fertilized, so to speak. Now this is the point. Where it does it turn to? It has a choice to turn wherever he likes. But Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the writings, you can see in this analogy that I give you which is perhaps my own analogy, but we can see what they are asking us to do. They say that our soul, which is now acting as a female and wants to produce a child, should turn to the influences of the manifestation of God, to the influences of this great - the word manifestation of God is a word that Baháʼís use to to indicate the prophets and the founders of great religions. At each age there has been manifestations of God. In this age we Baháʼís say this is Bahá’u’lláh. And so for a Baháʼí, a soul acting as a female will turn to the influences of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh today. It opens itself up to the influences of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh. It establishes a mystical, a spiritual intercourse with those forces. These forces will be released within the soul, and then comes the time that the soul becomes pregnant, so to speak. And what is this child when it is produced? The spirit of faith, the spirit of faith is produced. Our soul gives birth to the spirit of faith. And this friends Bahá’u’lláh tells us is the purpose of God creating man, not just to have a soul come in here, and have good qualities and perfections, but to give birth to the spirit of faith.
[51:13]And the spirit of faith comes to us not by our own efforts. It's impossible to come - it's impossible to become a Baháʼí by yourself, impossible, or becoming a Christian at the time of Christ. The only way you can - the only way that we can have faith is that this mystical, spiritual relationship must be established. The forces of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh in this age will penetrate into the heart of a person, into the soul. And comes a point that he says, "I believe." And when the soul says, "I believe", that child is born; the spirit of faith is born. And this Bahá’u’lláh tells us, in every age it has been the same thing. When Peter recognized Christ and he recognized him, what did he do? He opened his soul to the influences of the revelation of Christ. And then what happened to him? He acquired the spirit of faith. Now that spirit of faith belongs its origin to two sources. One is from Bahá’u’lláh in this age. At the time of Christ, it was Christ. At the time of Bahá’u’lláh, it is Bahá’u’lláh but also it also owes its existence to the soul itself, just like a parent and so it's very dear to both. Our faith is very dear not only to ourselves but also to the one who has to the one fertilized our soul, influenced our soul.
[53:06]Now Bahá’u’lláh has told us in His writings that if the station of a person who acquires the spirit of faith is known in this world, all humanity will [?] and die when they see the greatness of this particular station. Then we come to another point. Giving birth to a child is one thing. Perhaps it's easy to give birth to a child. Well I shouldn't say that maybe [laughter]. But it is. It is easy to give birth to a child. All mothers will tell you. It's easy, but it is much more difficult, much more difficult to enable the child to grow, to protect that child from every step of the way, to help him to grow healthily and happily. That's much more difficult. It's easier perhaps today to become a Baháʼí but it is more difficult to let our faith grow. And one of the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh is that we must always examine ourselves to see whether this morning, our conditions spiritual conditions are better then yesterday. And this is the trend to which we should become accustomed. That the qualities and perfections which comes always from these manifestations of God, we acquire them in such a way that our morning today is definitely a better state than our previous day. How can we do that? How can be enable that faith, the spirit of faith which has grown, to really become, to grow, to steadily grow, healthily?
[55:34]Now we go back to nature again. The answer is very clear. Go back to nature. And of course again look at the writings. When you go to nature, you will find what does a mother do when a child is born to her? What does she do? The first thing she does, she feeds that child with milk. And the child have never had the taste of milk before. None of us can remember what was it like when we first had the taste of milk for the first time. But we've become accustomed to it after a while. And there comes a time that you become an addict to it really. You must have it, as the same thing with the soul. A spirit of faith once it is born, it has to be fed with spiritual food. And Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have told us that this spiritual food is the word of God. The word of Christ was the spiritual food for the people of his time. And today without having this spiritual food, we cannot grow. And Baháʼís know this. This is one of the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, that every morning and every evening, every morning and every evening, we have to read His writings, the writings of Bahá’u’lláh, the writings of the Faith. It becomes our spiritual food. We do not read them so that our knowledge may increase. That's a different thing. If we want to study the Faith, which we should study religions, we'd study them in our own time and study the histories, study various writings, and then that's all right. But to read the writings in the morning and evening is the source of our spiritual growth.
[57:40]I feel that this subject of the soul, which I have given to you in the form of mostly going to nature and drawing a parallel is so important, so vital for the achievement of all the great hopes that we have before the world of humanity, that if peoples of the world would realize that these few days that they're living in this world is not worth fighting, is not worth disliking, is not worth disagreeing because none of these things we can take it with us into the next life. None of these things. They're all negative things. Then if they would realize if the peoples of the world - and this is I think our function more and more to explain to people that a human being, the major part of a human being is his soul. And it is that soul, that if that soul is perfect, if that sold establishes, as I said, a mystical relationship with God and recognizes that truth, then the world conditions will be so different. And we as Baháʼís wherever we go, we're inclined to people towards this particular understanding of spiritual values in the life of man. And it is in this way that the soul can play a major part in establishing now that we are talking about peace or anything else which is worthwhile in human endeavor. We can establish it by recognizing the spiritual values in our soul. And this is why the subject was brought today, so that we could focus our attention to and always remember this, that our soul must grow day by day because in this life things are either growing or declining. There is nothing stationary, so if I feel that there is nothing happening to me, I cannot feel anything great, it means that perhaps I am on the decline. And to be always aspiring to grow spiritually is the key to all the aspirations of the human race. [applause[
[1:00:40][from another talk?]You know, you see my hand. Well, I'll tell you how this happened. I was riding a bicycle, so when I fell and went to the hospital, the doctor looked at me and he said, "How old are you?" I said, "I'm sixty seven." He said, "How did this happen?" I said, "I was riding a bicycle." He said, "Good for you." He said, "You have a youthful spirit." I said, "With some doses of stupidity." [laughter] But this is the result. Speaking about youthful spirit, you know there was a Baháʼí in the holy land. You may have heard of him. He was from Japan. He was Japanese, Mr. Fujita, Saichiro Fujita. He's passed away. He was about ninety five years old when he passed away but he really had a youthful spirit. And I told him one day, I said, "Fujita, how do you manage to keep this wonderful spirit." He said, "I look for the youth and i like to be with youth. And that's how I keep this youthful spirit." And he was always like that. So tonight I really feel young despite this. I feel young. I feel happy. I feel grateful to be here with you and have the joy of discussing a few things with you. Now this little book that I have, I took from your library upstairs, it says "Baháʼí Youth: A Compilation". This compilation was made in Haifa and published by one of the National Spiritual Assemblies, the National Spiritual Assembly of United States. And it has many wonderful passages about the youth. I'm sure you must have seen this. Now I have selected a few passages from this booklet. I would like to begin my presentation by reading these to you. They are extracts from the writings of Shoghi Effendi, and from some of the letters of the Universal House of Justice.
