To Recognize and Obey

Many times this blog wanders far afield from discussing spiritual principles in the light of everyday life, as reflected in the life and times of this writer. One becomes submerged in the trials and tests of life, and sometimes has difficulty finding spiritual inspiration or reflecting spiritual truths and virtues.

There are two duties enjoined on humanity: to recognize, and then obey, the Manifestation of God for the day in which we live. I was just reading The Covenant of Baha'u'llah by Adib Taherzadeh, which describes in detail the progress of the Baha'i Faith in the early days, and its purification by Baha'u'llah, 'Abdu'l-Baha, and Shoghi Effendi in turn as people who tried to violate the Covenant of God and obtain leadership in the Faith for their own ends, were weeded out of the Cause of God by their own actions.

Usually my posts, when the subject is spiritual, focuses on information necessary to recognizing Baha'u'llah as the Manifestation of God for this period of time, i.e. for approximately the next thousand years.

This recognition is elementary. No one should accept it simply on someone else's "say so." Baha'u'llah was imprisoned several times, tortured, sacrificed one of His sons, exiled from His native land from Iran to Baghdad to Constantinople to Adrianople and to Akka near Haifa in Palestine; was moved from mountain to mountain and from sea to sea, to reveal the message of God for the day in which we live.

This is the ancient Faith of God, eternal in the past, eternal in the future.

~ Baha'u'llah

In relationship to God, the personality of Baha'u'llah is absolutely evanescent:

Say: Naught is seen in My temple but the Temple of God, and in My beauty but His Beauty, and in My being but His Being, and in My self but His Self, and in My movement but His Movement, and in My acquiescence but His Acquiescence, and in My pen but His Pen, the Mighty, the All-Praised. There hath not been in My soul but the Truth, and in Myself naught could be seen but God.

~Baha'u'llah

Even so, Baha'u'llah does not expect instant recognition. People are endowed with independent hearts and minds so they may apply the principle of the independent investigation of truth. One does not base ones belief on such a stupendous claim without testing and investigating its truth. That is why, when I investigated the truth of Baha'u'llah's mission, I felt so respected by its adherents.

There are many paths to this recognition, which cannot be discussed in a short space. Once a person realizes the truth of this great claim, it is as if a light comes on in their heart.

For thus the Master of the house hath appeared within His home, and all the pillars of the dwelling are ashine with His light.

~Baha'u'llah

Once He is recognized, however, the next step is obedience. To many Americans, the concept of obedience to authority has been poisoned by the history of leaders, both secular and religious, who use the position of authority to obtain power for themselves, or the power to control the lives of their followers.

Leaders of religion, in every age, have hindered their people from attaining the shores of eternal salvation, inasmuch as they held the reins of authority in their mighty grasp. Some for the lust of leadership, others through want of knowledge and understanding, have been the cause of the deprivation of the people.

~Baha'u'llah

In another passage, He writes:

And the people also, utterly ignoring God and taking them for their masters, have placed themselves unreservedly under the authority of these pompous and hypocritical leaders, for they have no sight, no hearing, no heart of their own to distinguish truth from falsehood.

~Baha'u'llah

In this day and age, there is no excuse for followers of any faith to leave their minds behind. Blind obedience has no part in "carrying forward an ever-advancing civilization." At the same time, no less responsibility is asked of the adherents of the Faith of God, once they have recognized the authority of God's Manifestation, than complete and total obedience to His Cause.