In this century of the latter times
Bahá'u'lláh has appeared and so resuscitated spirits that they have manifested
powers more than human. Thousands of His followers have given their lives; and
while under the sword, shedding their blood, they have proclaimed, "Ya
Baha'u'l-Abha!" Such resuscitation is impossible except through a heavenly
potency, a supernatural power, the divine power of the Holy Spirit. Through a
natural and mere human power this is impossible. Therefore, the question
arises: How is this resuscitation to be accomplished?
There are certain means for its
accomplishment by which mankind is regenerated and quickened with a new birth.
This is the second birth mentioned in the heavenly Books. Its accomplishment is
through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The resuscitation or rebirth of the
spirit of man is through the science of the love of God. It is through the efficacy of the water of life. This life and
quickening is the regeneration of the phenomenal world.
(Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 277)
There
has been an increase of research into non material phenomena, such as auras,
Extrasensory Perceptions (ESP), and other immaterial entities, along with a
revival of traditional mostly eastern knowledges of human energy such as
chakras and acupuncture meridians. All are
increasingly a subject of scientific inquiry.
The brain and the heart put off the largest amounts of electrical
impulses, so they are normally the focus of the studies.
Still,
such inquiries and studies are often either ignored or met harshly with derisive
criticism by a majority of mainstream scientists. But the concept of “spiritual sciences”
is part of the Bahá’i Writings. In the
above quote ‘Abdu’l-Baha discusses the need for both material and spiritual
sciences, without naming a spiritual sience or determining what a spiritual
science may look like. That will be the
job of those engaged in science to determine.
Quantum mechanics certainly seems like a prototype, at least, of what
spiritual sciences could look like; what they could explain and predict, and what
new concepts are required to grasp and apply them. I believe that developing spiritual sciences is
largely about bringing forth, as a new level of human consciousness, the
intelligence of the heart.
There is one spiritual science named
in the Bahá’i Writings. It is, perhaps,
the master spiritual science and its effect on the whole world will be to
transform it, to renovate the conditions of existence, to resuscitate the
phenomenal world. It is named, by both
Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Baha, “the science of the love of God.”
Baha’u’llah speaks of it and its
psychological benefits in the second valley of the Four Valleys: “If
the wayfarer's goal be the dwelling of the Praiseworthy One (Mahmud), this is
the station of primal reason which is known as the Prophet and the Most Great
Pillar. Here reason signifieth the
divine, universal mind, whose sovereignty enlighteneth all created things --
nor doth it refer to every feeble brain; for it is as the wise Sana'i hath
written:
How can feeble reason
encompass the Qur'án,
Or the spider snare a
phoenix in his web?
Wouldst thou that the
mind should not entrap thee?
Teach it the science of
the love of God!” (Baha'u'llah, The Four
Valleys: 52)
‘Abdu’l-Baha
spoke of it in the extract quoted to open this post. He said: “The resuscitation or rebirth of the
spirit of man is through the science of the love of God.” It is perhaps to that same science
that the following statement attributed to Him refers: “The
glorious maturity of this world depends upon the realization of two things: the
establishment of Universal Peace, and the discovery, or appearance of that
hidden science which shall renovate all the conditions of existence.”
(I Heard
Him Say: Words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as recorded by his Secretary Mirza Ahmad
Sohrab:
38)
Apropos this hidden science, and also in reference to the heart’s special spiritual
intelligence, in the Tablets of the Divine Plan, He wrote: “When the most great bestowal reveals itself
in the hearts of the believers, the world of nature will be transformed, the
darkness of the contingent being will vanish, and heavenly illumination will be
obtained.” (Tablets of the Divine Plan:
52)
That the most great bestowal of God which reveals itself
first in the human heart has tremendous repercussions on even the natural world
may seem surprising. But that world is, for Baha’is and many others, also a
creation of God and would be, therefore, under the transforming influence of
the Word of God. It is in that light that we can read Baha’u’llah’s assertion
that: “The breeze of the bounty of the King
of creation hath caused even the physical earth to be changed, were ye to
ponder in your hearts the mysteries of divine Revelation.” (The Kitab-i-Iqan: 47)
Indeed it may be that what we name spiritual transformation,
the renewal and change of the heart that is the spiritual rebirth of the soul,
is the foundation and origin of many positive changes and growth in the outer human
world. Shoghi Effendi, for example, speaking of the building-up
of the Administrative Order of the Cause stated: “Ours, dearly-beloved
co-workers, is the paramount duty to continue, with undimmed vision and
unabated zeal, to assist in the final erection of that Edifice the foundations
of which Bahá'u'lláh has laid in our hearts.” (Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah: 47)
The House of Justice laid out the process of change
through reciprocal action of humanity and nature when they wrote: “The
conservation and protection of the environment must be addressed on the
individual and societal levels. Shoghi Effendi, in a letter written on his
behalf, states: We cannot segregate the human heart from the environment
outside us and say that once one of these is reformed everything will be
improved. Man is organic with the world. His inner life moulds the environment
and is itself also deeply affected by it. The one acts upon the other and every
abiding change in the life of man is the result of these mutual reactions.” (Compilations, The Compilation of
Compilations vol. I: 84)
Yet,
though the heart and the environment cannot be segregated, and though every
abiding change is the result of these mutual reactions, there is a priority. The heart is first, but it alone is not
sufficient. ‘Abdu’l-Baha remarks on
this, again in our opening quote, when He stated of the quickening to life of
the human spirit: “This life and quickening is the regeneration of the
phenomenal world.”
These
ideas and statements are, for me, only tantalizing, preliminary probes into a
vast and mostly uncharted field of study.
But I hope they have whetted some appetites for more.
