This remarkable quote from the Bab summarizes so many concepts about His mission and the nature of the revelations from God. The full quote is as follows. In it, the Bab is describing Baha’u’llah and His mission to prepare people for him-
HE—glorified be His mention—resembleth the sun. Were unnumbered mirrors to be placed before it, each would, according to its capacity, reflect the splendor of that sun, and were none to be placed before it, it would still continue to rise and set, and the mirrors alone would be veiled from its light. I, verily, have not fallen short of My duty to admonish that people, and to devise means whereby they may turn towards God, their Lord, and believe in God, their Creator. If, on the day of His Revelation, all that are on earth bear Him allegiance, Mine inmost being will rejoice, inasmuch as all will have attained the summit of their existence, and will have been brought face to face with their Beloved, and will have recognized, to the fullest extent attainable in the world of being, the splendor of Him Who is the Desire of their hearts. If not, My soul will indeed be saddened. I truly have nurtured all things for this purpose. How, then, can anyone be veiled from Him? For this have I called upon God, and will continue to call upon Him.
As we noted in previous essays, the Revelations of God are like the rising and setting of the sun. They have always come at different times in history and different places to illuminate human consciousness and human understanding about spiritual reality. The religions that are amongst humankind are reflections of different times in history when a revelation has come. Some are very old, and their origins are even lost. Some, like Christ and Muhammad, we know quite a bit about and have seen their impact on the world.
They have always spoken to us within the limits of our capacity and one revelation is preparation for the next step in our spiritual evolution. This was the Bab’s primary teaching. In the quote above, He is expressing the nature of His mission- “to devise means”- whereby people would recognize the next Revelation. When we study the Bab’s revelation- we see what He means by “devising means”. Even on the most mundane level this was true. He told his followers, for instance, to develop the mail system to the utmost excellence, because when “Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest” comes into the world, the message of His coming will be delivered that much faster. But through his theological explanations, down to His prayers and exhortations of various forms, He was helping people develop the spiritual consciousness to appreciate a new Revelation in its fullest aspect, and of course accept it.
We also learn from the quote above what it means to become spiritually close to a Revelation from God. We will reach the “summit of our existence”, and recognize “to the fullest extent attainable in the world of being”, the “splendor of Him Who is the Desire of our Hearts’. This explains why people have reacted so strongly and profoundly to the Revelations when they have come into the world- why they have had such a great impact. It’s because we are finding God in the purest form revealed to us- the splendor of our hearts. The Bab’s teaching about the nature of religion- so beautiful, so dynamic, so evolutionary and revolutionary- is something we are still trying to fully grasp.
As Baha’is all over the world celebrate the bicentenary of the Birth of the Bab 200 years ago, we will be reflecting on these passages and their meaning for us today.