Ok, so this is not going to be a “happy” essay. This is going to be an essay about reality, and reality is not always happy. We are not living through happy times right now. That’s the reality. Religion is sometimes framed by its detractors as a way that humans can escape the uncomfortable reality of their lives, but that perspective is poorly informed. The Revealers of the great religions of humankind were not escaping reality, they were fully embracing it, and then transcending it, and it is in that transcendence that we find the true Reality.
Baha’u’llah was born into a comfortable life. He was one of the older sons of a privileged family, and brilliant in every way. He was “set”, born with a “silver spoon in his mouth”, destined to be a man who could live almost any life He chose. He chose one that nobody would have expected, one of persecution and deprivation.
Thou seest me sitting under a sword hanging on a thread, and art well aware that in such a state I have not fallen short of my duty towards Thy Cause, nor failed to shed abroad Thy praise, and declare Thy virtues, and deliver all Thou hadst prescribed unto me in Thy Tablets. Though the sword be ready to fall on my head, I call Thy loved ones with such a calling that the hearts are carried away towards the horizon of Thy majesty and grandeur…
The Ancient Beauty hath consented to be bound with chains that mankind may be released from its bondage, and hath accepted to be made a prisoner within this most mighty Stronghold that the whole world may attain unto true liberty. He hath drained to its dregs the cup of sorrow, that all the peoples of the earth may attain unto abiding joy, and be filled with gladness.
Baha’u’llah spoke frequently about His plight, acknowledged how painful it was, how His family had suffered as a result of His decisions, mourned the children He had lost. He had the added burden of taking thousands of followers down the same treacherous path of abuse and persecution. For those of us not used to the challenges of life, or when life is going ok, reading the Words of Baha’u’llah when He reflects on these realities can be a “downer”. But when you are challenged by reality, when death and disease are rampant, His words steel you for dealing with it.
The generations that have gone on before you—whither are they fled? And those round whom in life circled the fairest and the loveliest of the land, where now are they? Profit by their example, O people, and be not of them that are gone astray. Others ere long will lay hands on what ye possess, and enter into your habitations. Incline your ears to My words, and be not numbered among the foolish.
For every one of you his paramount duty is to choose for himself that on which no other may infringe and none usurp from him. Such a thing—and to this the Almighty is My witness—is the love of God, could ye but perceive it.
Build ye for yourselves such houses as the rain and floods can never destroy, which shall protect you from the changes and chances of this life. This is the instruction of Him Whom the world hath wronged and forsaken.
One fundamental idea of Baha’u’llah’s Revelation is that, through faith in a Transcendent Reality, humans are able to find transcendence within themselves. That takes you above the problems of life so that you are protected from them. The more you gain trust in that Reality, the more powerful and independent you are- the less fearful, less anxious, less troubled.
Thou art My dominion and My dominion perisheth not; wherefore fearest thou thy perishing? Thou art My light and My light shall never be extinguished; why dost thou dread extinction? Thou art My glory and My glory fadeth not; thou art My robe and My robe shall never be outworn. Abide then in thy love for Me, that thou mayest find Me in the realm of glory.
Pleasant is the realm of being, wert thou to attain thereto; glorious is the domain of eternity, shouldst thou pass beyond the world of mortality; sweet is the holy ecstasy if thou drinkest of the mystic chalice from the hands of the celestial Youth. Shouldst thou attain this station, thou wouldst be freed from destruction and death, from toil and sin.
Difficulties and challenges become an opportunity to make more progress along this path, to rely more heavily on your own inner resources.
The true lover yearneth for tribulation even as doth the rebel for forgiveness and the sinful for mercy.
There is no single book in the history of the human race that probes more deeply into the existential fear we all face on a daily basis than the Hidden Words, from whose pages the above quotes were taken. It is a veritable roadmap for spiritual success. It will come to be one of the most influential, if not the most influential work, ever read by humans. In the Hidden Words, the Reality behind all existence speaks directly to the human soul, with all its attachments and fears, and challenges it, educates it, inspires it, to see the world from a spiritual perspective.
O Fleeting Shadow! Pass beyond the baser stages of doubt and rise to the exalted heights of certainty. Open the eye of truth, that thou mayest behold the veilless Beauty and exclaim: Hallowed be the Lord, the most excellent of all creators!
Such a perspective does not require us to abandon good science, or think in irrational ways. As Baha’u’llah Himself stated- “If ye fail to recognize the Eternal Truth, at least cling to reason and justice”. Reason leads us to look at data, track an epidemic, protect a population of people from getting infected, and develop therapies and strategies to help those who do. Justice gives us the moral framework to ensure we distribute resources fairly, so no one group is unequally shouldered with the burden of the problem- something our world is still a long way from achieving. But “recognition of the Eternal Truth” is a station above “reason” and “justice”- a place of transcendence. It is that exalted place that Baha’u’llah continuously calls us to find within ourselves.
If the beloved of God were to recognize what hath been ordained for them in a transcendent paradise of nearness, at all times would they lay down their lives and cast aside their earthly possessions. They are shut out as by a veil from this reality, however, for they have set their affections on the things of this world; thus do they find tribulations ordained in the path of their Creator difficult to bare, but this is a token of their heedlessness. Wherefore, O my God, do Thou nourish them with the wine of Thy grace and heavenly favors, in such wise that they be busied in naught else but Thee and desire naught else beside Thee; indeed, this is a plenteous bounty!
Last quote from the “Tablet of Tribulations”, provisionally translated by Joshua Hall at joshuahalltranslations.com. Photo of a street in Turkey, by Ali Arif Soydaş on Unsplash
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