|
Hi again
Now I will continue to present prescriptions for living.
Nearness to God is likeness. Before I have given you some prayers. This is what God through Bahaullah wants from us.
Moderation
Whatsoever passeth beyond the limits of moderation will cease to exert a beneficial influence.
Whoso cleaveth to justice, can, under no circumstances, transgress the limits of moderation. The civilization, so often vaunted by the learned exponents of arts and sciences, will, if allowed to overleap the bounds of moderation, bring great evil upon men...If carried to excess, civilization will prove as prolific a source of evil as it had been of goodness when kept within the restraints of moderation...All other things are subject to this same principle of moderation.
Modesty
The fear of God hath ever neen a sure defence and a safe stronghold for all the peoples of the world. It is the chief cause of the protection of mankind, and the supreme instrument for its preservation. Indeed, there existeth in man a faculty which deterreth him from, and guardeth him against whatever is unworthy and unseemely, and which is known as his sense of shame. 1)
Patience
He verily, shall increase the reward of them that endure with patience.
If anyone revile you, or trouble touch you, in the path of God, be patient, and put your trust in Him Who heareth, Who seeth.
Purity
We verily behold your actions. If We perceive from them the sweet-smelling savour of purity and holiness, we will most certainly bless you.
We enjoin the servants of God and His handmaidens to be pure and to fear God, that they may shake off the slumber of their corrupt desires and turn towards God.
The pure in heart is the one that is entirely cut away from self.
Sanctity
he hath chosen out of the whole world the hearts of His servants, and made them a seat for the revelation of His glory. Wherefore, sanctify them from every defilement, that the things for which ye were created may be engraven upon them.
...Have mercy with yourselves and on your fellowmen, and suffer not the Cause of God - a Cause which is immesurably exalted above the inmost essence of sanctity - to be sullied with the stain of your idle fancies, your unseemely and corrupt imaginations.
Arise, O people, and, by the power of God's might, resolve to gain the victory over your own selves, that haply the whole earth may be freed and sanctified from its servitude to the gods of its idlke fancies - gods that have inflicted such loss upon, and are responsible for the misery of, their wretched worshippers. These idols form the obstacle that impedeth man in his efforts to advance in the path of perfection.
Self-knowledge
He hath known God who hath known himself.
Man should know his own self, and know those things which lead to loftiness or baseness, to shame or to honour, to affluence or to poverty.After man has reaoized his own being and become mature, then for him wealth Or competence) is needed.
Could ye comprehend with what wonder of munificence and bounty I have willed to entrust your souls ye would, of a truth, rid yourselves of attachment to all created things, and would gain a true knowledge of your own selves - a knowledge which is the same as the comprehension of Mine own Being. Ye would find yourselves independent of all else but Me, and would perceive, with your inner and outer eye, and as manifest as the revelation of My effulgent Name, the seas of My loving-kindness and bounty moving within you.
Selflessness
The station of absolute self-surrender transcendeth, and will ever remain exalted above every other station.
Be light and untrammelled as the breeze, that ye may obtain admittance into the precincts of My court, My inviolable Sanctuary.
...Deliver your souls, O people, from the bondage of self, and purify them from all attachment to anything besides Me. Remembrance of Me cleanseth all things from defilement, could ye but perceive it.
Self-love is a strange strait and the means of the destruction of many important souls in the world. If man be imbued with all good qualities but be selfish, all the other virtues will fade or pass away and enetually he will grow worse.
It behooveth thee to sever thyself from all desires save thy Lord, the Supreme, expecting no help or aid from anyone in the universe.
Sincerety
The true seeker should not wish for others that which he doth not wish for himself, nor promise that which he doth not fulfil.
Expect not that they who violate the ordinances of God will be trustworthy or sincere in the faith they profess.Avoid them, and preserve strict guard over thyself, lest their devices and mischief hurt thee.
Take heed, O people, lest ye be of them that give good counsel to others, but forget to follow it themselves. The words of such as these, and beyond the words the realities of all things, and beyond these realities the angels that are nigh to God, bring against them the accusation of falsehood.
It is incumbent upon thee to be purely sincere, to turn to the holy kingdom and to generously give the spirit in the cause of the Lord of Might. Verily, this is no other than an eternal and everlasting life which hath no end in the world of existence.
Sleep
If a man slepp, it should not be for pleasure, but to rest the body in order to do better, to speak better, to explain more beautifully, to serve the servants of God and to prove the truths.
When he ramains awake he should seek to be attentive. serve the Cause of God and sacrifice his own stations for those of God.When he attains to this station, the confirmations of the Holy Spirit will surely reach him, and man with this power can withstand all who inhabit the earth.
Temperence
Drink ye, O handmaidens of God, the Mystic wine from the cup of My words. Cast away then, from you that which your minds abhor, for it hath been forbidden unto you in His Tablets and His Scriptures. Beware lest ye barter away the River that is life indeed for that which the souls of the purehearted detest. Become ye intoxicated with the wine of the love of God, and not with that which deadeneth your minds, O ye that adore Him!. Verily it hath been forbidden unto every believer, whether man or woman.
The drinking of wine is, according to the text of the Most Holy Book, forbidden; for it is the cause of chronic diseases, weakeneth the nerves, and consumeth the mind
1) He also says: some people are not imbued with this faculty (a sense of shame)
All what I have written here in the last two articles is under this heading: PURETY .I will continue with prescriptions for living under the heading: KINDLINESS, next time. All these divine exhortations are revealed by Bahaullah and to some extent Abdu'l-Baha.
To be continued
Bye for now
Kind regards
Laila
|