The Declaration of the Bab

May 21 marks for me my one-month anniversary of abstaining from eating meat or dairy products, and changing, in my fumbling and panic-stricken way, to a whole foods, plant-based diet. I celebrated doubly yesterday, as last evening on my way home from the Folklife Festival, I attended the celebration of the anniversary of the Declaration of the Bab, hosted by my friends Jay and Kristina.

We read about the historical meeting of Mulla Husayn with the Bab at the gates of the city of Shiraz, Iran, in 1844, and how the Bab invited Mulla Husayn to His house and served him tea so graciously, revealing His commentary on the Surrah of Joseph with pen and voice simultaneously. Two hours and eleven minutes after sunset, May 22, 1844, the Bab revealed His Station as a Manifestation of God, and the world was changed, revolutionized, and will never be the same. It was the birth of the Babi, and subsequently the Baha'i Faith, and the beginning of a new era.

I talked more with Jay and Kristina about the Vegan diet, and recipes, and the research by T. Colin Campbell that is the foundation for the book The China Study, and links the consumption of not only foods containing animal fat and cholesterol, but even and especially animal protein, with cancer, obesity, heart disease and strokes, and even diabetes and other autoimmune diseases. This book revolutionized my life, and has galvinized my commitment to averting and reversing these diseases if I can.

What a celebration!