May 3, 2009, 12.00am IST
A K MERCHANT.
The most joyous days in our lives have been those associated with a fresh outpouring of Divine Guidance. A biologist said that we are shaped by the idiosyncrasies of the times we live in, much like the evolution on the physical plane.
We are creatures, to a great extent, of our environment. But there is one being who is not a product of his environment, the one who appears among us as the manifestation or messenger of God, the avatara.
He is outside of and free of custom, tradition and environment. It is only by turning to this Personage that we too are released from man-made distortions and faulty lifestyles. A manifestation, according to the Baha'is, is a divine creation, an intermediary between the Creator and His creation. He stands outside the pressure of human society and above the limitations of human error. What He reveals may be manifested in the form of action and discourse, prayer or parable, but He declares the law, the truth and the love for a new age of human development.
In essence, He makes real the spiritual order in which the soul has life and destiny. He quickens the latent powers of humankind. He confers immortality. Faith in the supreme Divinity is recognition of His intermediary, the avatara.
The days of Ridvan are of special significance as it was during this period of 12 days that Baha'u'llah, founder-avatara of the Baha'i faith, disclosed his identity as a manifestation of the Cosmic Will. "My object", Baha'u'llah proclaimed, "is none other than the betterment of the world and the tranquillity of its peoples. The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established". This is the age, he further explained, when unity of humankind was to be achieved and the promises and prophecies uttered aforetime by prophets, sages and poets would be fulfilled.
His mission, Baha'u'llah categorically announced, was to gather the scattered fragments of humanity and lay the foundations of a New World Order. "A new life", Baha'u'llah asserts, "is, in this age, stirring within all the peoples of the earth; and yet none hath discovered its cause, or perceived its motive".
Baha'u'llah forbade the use of force and exhorted that His message be spread worldwide through eloquent utterance. He affirmed that the power of the vani or mantra would remove ignorance and purify hearts. Secondly, the duration of His dispensation would be a minimum of 1,000 years. Third was that with the commencement of the krita yuga, all created things had been infused with new powers and capacities.
The time has come when humanity has both the capacity and opportunity to see the entire panorama of its spiritual and material development as a single process. Baha'is uphold the Divine origin of the great world religions and believe Baha'u'llah to be the Promised One. He restores to a scientific age belief in the Divine, while revealing the indestructible unity of religion and science. His message they believe to be from that one Creator who gave the Ten Commandments, the Christian Gospel, the Quran, who spoke through Krishna, Zoroaster, the Buddha and other spiritual luminaries to guide humanity to carry forward an ever-advancing civilisation.
(Baha'i festival of Ridvan: April 21-May 2.)
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