Alláh-u-Abhá!

‘The Greatest Name should be found upon the lips in the first awakening moment of early dawn. It should be fed upon by constant use in daily invocations, in trouble, under opposition, and should be the last word breathed when the head rests upon the pillow at night. It is the name of comfort, protection, happiness, illumination, love and unity. . . The use of the Greatest Name and dependence upon it cause the soul to strip itself of the husks of mortality and to step forth free, reborn, a new creature. . .’

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá cited in Lights of Guidance, p. 892)

‘If you seek immunity from the sway of the forces of the contingent world, hang the ‘Most Great Name’ in your dwelling, wear the ring of the ‘Most Great Name’ on your finger, place the picture of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in your home and always recite the prayers that I have written. Then you will behold the marvellous effect they produce. Those so-called force will prove but illusions and will be wiped out and exterminated.’

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá cited in Lights of Guidance, p. 520)

Let your joy be the joy born of My Most Great Name, a Name that bringeth rapture to the heart, and filleth with ecstasy the minds of all who have drawn nigh unto God. We, verily, have made music as a ladder for your souls, a means whereby they may be lifted up unto the realm on high… Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas

Happy Naw-Ruz!

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Photo by Dean Kalyan
Food for the Soul: 19 Days of Music and Devotion is a series of devotional songs from Badasht vol. I & II coupled with inspiring images and quotations from sacred Writings, initially to accompany the Bahá’í Fast from March 2-20. Please use them in your own way, and share with your friends & family.

The post Food for the Soul: Day 19 – What’s In a Name pt. 2 appeared first on Badasht.

What’s in a Name – Part 1:

This must be a great time financially to be a doctor. Young people, if you have not considered a career path, may I recommend something related to non-communicable diseases. Even though people are living longer than projected in 1990 – on average, 10.7 more years for men and 12.6 for women (take off 7 and 5 years respectively for African Americans) due to medical advances – be not be deterred in your pursuit by taking this to mean that people are getting healthier. Press on toward your M.D. knowing that there will be plenty of work for you down the road. Don’t let the fact that deaths from heart disease is down 70% keep you from seizing your dream because the number of people diagnosed with it is skyrocketing!(1)

Pausing for a moment though, one can’t help but wonder as to why we are developing patterns of living that are the equivalent of killing ourselves slowly everyday. What must be humanity’s inner condition in light of these current trends? What must we regard as being the purpose of physical existence if we carelessly barter it away everyday in this way? Furthermore, where are the much needed “physicians” to address what is obviously the much deeper ailment plaguing our world and bringing on this ‘slow-motion disaster?’

‘Abdu’l-Bahá writes,

There are two ways of healing sickness, material means and spiritual means. The first is by the use of remedies, of medicines; the second consists in praying to God and in turning to Him. Both means should be used and practiced.

Illness caused by physical accident should be treated with medical remedies; those which are due to spiritual causes disappear through spiritual means. Thus an illness caused by affliction, fear, nervous impressions, will be healed by spiritual rather than by physical treatment. Hence, both kinds of remedies should be considered.(2)

We’ve figured out how to keep a sick body alive. When we will start to put the same effort into healing afflictions of the heart and soul? What are the means that we have at our disposal to accomplish this – especially when we know that the world of existence is an outward expression of our inner condition?

Stay tuned for Part 2 later this week.

1. Global Report: Obesity Bigger Health Crisis Than Hunger, Danielle Dellorto, CNN, http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/13/health/global-burden-report

2. `Abdu’l-Baha: Bahá’i World Faith

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Photo by Dean Kalyan
Food for the Soul: 19 Days of Music and Devotion is a series of devotional songs from Badasht vol. I & II coupled with inspiring images and quotations from sacred Writings, initially to accompany the Bahá’í Fast from March 2-20. Please use them in your own way, and share with your friends & family.

The post Food for the Soul: Day 18 – What’s In a Name pt. 1 appeared first on Badasht.

Raise Me Up

There are some moments in the fasting prayers that carry us straight to the realm of mystic wonderment, a place where we can reach across the line separating our world from the world of pure spirit. If you haven’t had a chance to meditate on these prayers this year, it’s not too late – the next few days are the perfect opportunity. Here is but a tiny excerpt, which inspired the song ‘Raise Me Up.’

I beseech Thee, O my God,
by Thy hair which moveth across Thy face,
even as Thy most exalted pen moveth
across the pages of Thy Tablets,
shedding the musk of hidden meanings
over the kingdom of Thy creation,
so to raise me up to serve Thy Cause
that I shall not fall back,
nor be hindered by the suggestions
of them who have caviled at Thy signs
and turned away from Thy face.
Thou seest me, O my God,
holding to Thy Name, the Most Holy,
the Most Luminous, the Most Mighty,
the Most Great, the Most Exalted, the Most Glorious,
and clinging to the hem of the robe
to which have clung all in this world
and in the world to come.
- Bahá’u'lláh

A tiny ant’s desire

A word of encouragement from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to send us on our way:

“The Báb hath said: `Should a tiny ant desire, in this day, to be possessed of such power as to be able to unravel the abstrusest and most bewildering passages of the Qur’án, its wish will no doubt be fulfilled, inasmuch as the mystery of eternal might vibrates within the innermost being of all created things.’ If so helpless a creature can be endowed with so subtle a capacity, how much more efficacious must be the power released through the liberal effusions of the grace of Bahá’u'lláh!”

(Quoted in The Advent of Divine Justice, p. 46)

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iPhone photo by Joshua Homnick http://instacanv.as/homnick

Food for the Soul: 19 Days of Music and Devotion is a series of devotional songs from Badasht vol. I & II coupled with inspiring images and quotations from the Bahá’í Writings, initially to accompany the Fast from March 2-20. Please use them in your own way, and share with your friends & family.

The post Food for the Soul: Day 17 – Raise Me Up appeared first on Badasht.

So now what…

We are coming now to the end of the Holy Season of fasting. How do you feel? Do you feel like you have turned away from yourself, expressed your true love for God by your show of patient endurance? Have you you become wholly weary of self so that the Beloved may now dwell within you and be manifest at greater measure?

Good… so now what? What happens next? These have to be the subsequent questions that must be asked when reflecting on any of the Laws of God. The Universal House of Justice writes in the introduction to Bahá’u’lláh’s Most Holy Book,

“Throughout, it is the relationship of the individual soul to God and the fulfilment of its spiritual destiny that is the ultimate aim of the laws of religion. “Think not”, is Bahá’u'lláh’s own assertion, “that We have revealed unto you a mere code of laws. Nay, rather, We have unsealed the choice Wine with the fingers of might and power.” His Book of Laws is His “weightiest testimony unto all people, and the proof of the All-Merciful unto all who are in heaven and all who are on earth”.”(1)

The mystery of the revelation of the laws of religion is that while at one time they mark the Divine consummation of a previous era, they also signal a beginning – the birth of a new day. While this time of purification and denial of self is the ‘point’ of this particular law, it is also the point through which all souls must pass on their way to the fulfillment of their spiritual destiny… the starting gate of the soul’s journey. Hear these words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,

“Some people lay stress on fasting. They affirm that in augmenting the weakness of the body they develop a spiritual sensibility and thus they think to approach God. Weakening one’s self physically does not necessarily contribute to spiritual progress… Exaggerated fasting destroys the divine forces. God has created man in a way that cannot be surpassed; we must not try to change his creation. Strive to attain nearness to reality through the acquisition of strength of character, through morality, through good works and helping the poor, through being consumed with the fire of the love of God and in discovering each day new spiritual mysteries. This is the path of intimate approach.”(2)

1. Universal House of Justice, Introduction to Bahá’u’lláh’s Kitáb-i-Aqdas
2. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Divine Philosophy

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Photo by Dean Kalyan
Food for the Soul: 19 Days of Music and Devotion is a series of devotional songs from Badasht vol. I & II coupled with inspiring images and quotations from sacred Writings, initially to accompany the Bahá’í Fast from March 2-20. Please use them in your own way, and share with your friends & family.

The post Food for the Soul: Day 16 – The Path of Intimate Approach appeared first on Badasht.

Today, let’s simply imagine that we have just spent the most precious days and weeks of our lives in the presence of the Master. Underneath the glow of the whole experience, there has been a looming dread of our inevtable departure, which we have tried to ignore… until now.

The day is finally here. Among many tearful goodbyes, we prepare to embark on our voyage home – home to a world where no one can possibly understand what we have seen and heard here. Home to cities and families where most everyone is locked into an endless game of social status and material concerns… things that seem to have lost any meaning to us, in the face of God’s new Revelation to humanity.

Sensing this, and feeling no small measure of parting sadness Himself, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá takes the opportunity to bolster our resolve and fill us with the spirit, blessing us with His words one last time.

‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ’S FINAL ADDRESS

 TO THE FIRST GROUP OF WESTERN PILGRIMS

HAIFA, 1898

“Pray that your hearts

may be cut from yourselves and from the world,

that you may be confirmed by the Holy Spirit

and filled with the fire of the love of God.

The nearer you are to the light,

the further you are from the darkness,

the nearer you are to heaven,

the further you are from the earth;

the nearer you are to God,

the further you are from the world.

You have come here among the first

and your reward is great.

There are two visits: the first is for a blessing…

ye come and are blest and are sent forth

to work in God’s vineyard;

the second ye come with music

and the banners flying, like soldiers,

in gladness and triumph to receive your reward.

If in times past those who have risen up

and gone forth in the Cause of God

have been helped and confirmed by His spirit,

even to suffering death for Him,

how much greater is the flood of life

with which ye shall be flooded now!

For this is the end and the full revelation,

and I say unto you that anyone who will rise up

in the Cause of God at this time

shall be filled with the spirit of God,

and that He will send His hosts from heaven to help you,

and that nothing shall be impossible to you

if you have faith.

And now I give you a commandment

which shall be for a covenant between you and Me –

that ye have faith;

that your faith be steadfast as a rock

that no storms can move, that nothing can disturb,

and that it endure through all things even to the end;

even should ye hear that your Lord has been crucified,

be not shaken in your faith,

for I am with you always, whether living or dead,

I am with you to the end.

As ye have faith so shall your powers and blessings be.

This is the balance — this is the balance — this is the balance.

Now the time has come when we must part,

but the separation is only of our bodies,

in spirit we are united.

Ye are the lights, which shall be diffused;

ye are the waves of that sea

which shall spread and overflow the world.

Each wave is precious to Me

and My nostrils shall be gladdened by your fragrance.

Another commandment I give unto you,

that ye love one another even as I love you.

Great mercy and blessings are promised

to the people of your land, but on one condition:

that their hearts are filled with the fire of love,

that they live in perfect kindness and harmony

like one soul in different bodies.

If they fail in this condition

the great blessings shall be deferred.

Never forget this;

look at one another with the eye of perfection;

look at Me, follow Me, be as I am,

take no thought for yourselves or your lives,

whether ye eat or whether ye sleep,

whether ye are comfortable,

whether ye are well or ill,

whether ye are with friends or foes,

whether ye receive praise or blame;

for all of these things ye must care not at all.

Look at Me and be as I am;

ye must die to yourselves and to the world,

so shall ye be born again

and enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Behold a candle how it gives its light.

It weeps its life away drop by drop

in order to give forth its flame of light.”

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iPhone photo by Joshua Homnick http://instacanv.as/homnick

Food for the Soul: 19 Days of Music and Devotion is a series of devotional songs from Badasht vol. I & II coupled with inspiring images and quotations from the Bahá’í Writings, initially to accompany the Fast from March 2-20. Please use them in your own way, and share with your friends & family.

The post Food for the Soul: Day 15 – As Ye Have Faith appeared first on Badasht.

These great oppressions that have befallen the world are preparing it for the advent of the Most Great Justice.

These fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away and the Most Great Peace shall come. Bahá'u'lláh

Last December CNN ran a very interesting story that centered around a global report on health. 500 researchers from more than 50 countries, looking at 20 years of health data noted some curious shifts in health trends.(1)

The good: “Kids who used to die from infectious disease are now doing extremely well with immunization,” said Ali Mokdad, co-author of the study and professor of global health at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, which led the collaborative project.(2)

The bad: “The report revealed that every country, with the exception of those in sub-Saharan Africa, faces alarming obesity rates — an increase of 82% globally in the past two decades. Middle Eastern countries are more obese than ever, seeing a 100% increase since 1990.”(2)

The ugly: According to the Red Cross, while “almost 1 billion people go to bed hungry every night, the latest figures show that another 1.5 billion are dangerously obese.”(3)

This is quite shocking, strange and just another testimony to the stark inequalities that we allow to persist in our world because of something that lies squarely in our own hands.

As we continue to live in a land of such contradiction, one can’t help but be affected by such daunting social ills. Feelings of helplessness, hopelessness and apathy can easily set in, void of a sense of history, destiny and purpose. Our song today speaks to a truth that we must cling to if we wish to retain our hope and let our choices spring from that reservoir rather than from oceans of despair. There are processes moving us along as a human family. Some move us towards higher levels of unity; others are violently sweeping away decaying, worn-out modes of living; both are apparent at different levels at any particular time.  And both are necessary.

This passage from Shoghi Effendi is worth repeating:

“The principle of the Oneness of Mankind, as proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh, carries with it no more and no less than a solemn assertion that attainment to this final stage in this stupendous evolution is not only necessary but inevitable, that its realization is fast approaching, and that nothing short of a power that is born of God can succeed in establishing it.”

Keep your eyes on the prize… hold on.

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1. Global Burden of Disease Study 2010, Published Dec 13, 2012, The Lancet, http://www.thelancet.com/themed/global-burden-of-disease

2. Global Report: Obesity Bigger Health Crisis Than Hunger, Danielle Dellorto, CNN, http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/13/health/global-burden-report

3. World now has ‘more people dying from obesity than malnutrition’, Tariq Tahir, Metro News, http://metro.co.uk/2011/09/22/world-now-has-more-people-dying-from-obesity-than-malnutrition-160264/

Photo by Dean Kalyan
Food for the Soul: 19 Days of Music and Devotion is a series of devotional songs from Badasht vol. I & II coupled with inspiring images and quotations from sacred Writings, initially to accompany the Bahá’í Fast from March 2-20. Please use them in your own way, and share with your friends & family.

The post Food for the Soul: Day 14 – A Reason to Hope appeared first on Badasht.

‘every benediction is thine’

The Benediction was composed in 1909 by Louise Waite, an early American Bahá’í composer with a very special relationship with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, who constantly encouraged her efforts and praised her compositions, addressing her lovingly as ‘Shahnáz’ (royal falcon). Many of His recorded words regarding music are taken from letters to Ms. Waite, thus immortalizing her – and her music – in Bahá’í history.

The piece was a hymn, and was sung in a very traditional style which, while beautiful, was definitely of a time – and may explain why it fell out of usage as musical tastes changed through the years. When we read the high praise which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave the song, we couldn’t help but wonder what it might sound like adapted to a rhythmic cadence more suited to modern ears. The hope was that somehow the Benediction would find its way back into community life someday, as He clearly desired.

The following was read in September 2012 as part of a dramatic presentation at the Centenary of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s visit to San Francisco, from the perspective of Ella Goodall Cooper:

‘Abdu’l-Baha loved this song, and He instructed us to sing it everywhere. He said, “Sing this melody in all gatherings…” and, “I ask God that this song may be sung eternally and this melody and anthem become everlasting.” The children especially loved it, and they sang it to the Master when he arrived in the Bay area.

When Louise Waite wrote The Benediction, she felt especially inspired, in fact, she had a vision; “I felt and spiritually saw that blessed white Dove actually hovering over me, pure, white and glistening, and the Spirit of Peace that emanated from it fell in heavenly showers upon me.”

Louise loved ‘Abdu’l-Baha so much that she happily sold her piano, her most prized possession, to pay for her Pilgrimage to meet Him face to face. And the Master had this song translated into different languages so it spread to Baha’i communities around the world.

I wonder what this song will sound like a hundred years from now?”

O God! Resuscitate us;

give us sight; give us hearing;

familiarize us with the mysteries of life,

so that the secrets of Thy kingdom

may become revealed to us in this world of existence

and we may confess Thy oneness.

Every bestowal emanates from Thee;

every benediction is Thine.

Thou art mighty. Thou art powerful.

Thou art the Giver, and Thou art the Ever-Bounteous.

Abdu’l-Bahá

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Photo by Dean Kalyan
Food for the Soul: 19 Days of Music and Devotion is a series of devotional songs from Badasht vol. I & II coupled with inspiring images and quotations from sacred Writings, initially to accompany the Bahá’í Fast from March 2-20. Please use them in your own way, and share with your friends & family.

The post Food for the Soul: Day 13 – Benediction appeared first on Badasht.

The Sufi proverb says: ‘Die before you die.’ It has a dark ring to it – morbid even, to Western ears. But the poetry of Rumi opens up its meaning for us:

I died to mineral, joined the realm of plants
I died to vegetable, joined animal
I died from animal to human realm
So why fear? When has dying made me less?

In turn again I’ll die from human form
only to sprout an angel’s head and wings
and then from angel-form I will ebb away
For ALL THINGS PERISH BUT THE FACE OF GOD

And once I’m sacrificed from angel form
I’m what imagination can’t contain.
So let me be naught! Naughtness, like a fugue
sings to me: WE VERILY RETURN TO HIM

Rumi, Mathnavi 3: 3901-3907

It is said that the only value of earthy riches is ‘more to give away.’ If that’s the case, even the gift of our own selves is a form of wealth whose only true purpose is to be expended in the path towards God, in service, as a sacrifice. Obviously the Prophets and their disciples knew this. They placed very little value on their own lives outside the context of an offering back to the Source of all life.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. Luke 9:24

Today, let’s let the words of Bahá’u'lláh penetrate beyond the surface and ask a question that Rumi would have found exciting: ‘What more can I give today? What part of me is ready to die before I die?’

O SON OF MAN! If thou lovest Me, turn away from thyself; and if thou seekest My pleasure, regard not thine own; that thou mayest die in Me and I may eternally live in thee. Bahá'u'lláh, The Hidden Words

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iPhone photo by Joshua Homnick http://instacanv.as/homnick

Food for the Soul: 19 Days of Music and Devotion is a series of devotional songs from Badasht vol. I & II coupled with inspiring images and quotations from the Bahá’í Writings, initially to accompany the Fast from March 2-20. Please use them in your own way, and share with your friends & family.

The post Food for the Soul: Day 12 – ‘Turn away from Thyself’ appeared first on Badasht.

Firstly…a story.

When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was in New York, He called to Him an ardent Bahá’í and said, ‘If you will come to Me at dawn tomorrow, I will teach you to pray.’

“Delighted, Mr M arose at four and crossed the city, arriving for his lesson at six. With what exultant expectation he must have greeted this opportunity! He found ‘Abdu’l-Bahá already at prayer, kneeling by the side of the bed. Mr M followed suit, taking care to place himself directly across.

“Seeing that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was quite lost in His Own reverie, Mr M began to pray silently for his friends, his family and finally for the crowned heads of Europe. No word was uttered by the quiet Man before him. He went over all the prayers he knew then, and repeated them twice, three times — still no sound broke the expectant hush.

“Mr M surreptitiously rubbed one knee and wondered vaguely about his back.  He began again, hearing as he did so, the birds heralding the dawn outside the window. An hour passed, and finally two. Mr M was quite numb now. His eyes, roving along the wall, caught sight of a large crack. He dallied with a touch of indignation but let his gaze pass again to the still figure across the bed.

“The ecstacy that he saw arrested him and he drank deeply of the sight.  Suddenly he wanted to pray like that. Selfish desires were forgotten.  Sorrow, conflict, and even his immediate surroundings were as if they had never been. He was conscious of only one thing, a passionate desire to draw near to God.

“Closing his eyes again he set the world firmly aside, and amazingly his heart teemed with prayer, eager, joyous, tumultuous prayer. He felt cleansed by humility and lifted by a new peace. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had taught him to pray!

“The ‘Master of `Akká’ immediately arose and came to him. His eyes rested smilingly upon the newly humbled Mr M. ‘When you pray,’ He said, ‘you must not think of your aching body, nor of the birds outside the window, nor the cracks in the wall!’

“He became very serious then, and added, ‘When you wish to pray you must first know that you are standing in the presence of the Almighty!’”

(Vignettes from the Life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, pp. 131-132)

One of the most moving accounts of the experience of prayer appears in the compilation “Importance of Obligatory Prayer and Fasting.” In it, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá writes:

“Even if every grief should surround Me, as soon as I engage in conversing with God in obligatory prayer, all My sorrows disappear and I attain joy and gladness. A condition descendeth upon Me which I am unable to describe or express. Whenever, with full awareness and humility, we undertake to perform the Obligatory Prayer before God, and recite it with heartfelt tenderness, we shall taste such sweetness as to endow all existence with eternal life.”

When was the last time you prayed like this or offered supplication until the rest of the world faded away in the presence of the Beloved?  When was the last time your morning prayers transcended syllables and sounds and carried you into the heaven of communion?  When was the last time you tasted the divine sweetness of God’s remembrance and praise?  Don’t just pray today, pray like ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and seek and audience with the Blessed Beauty.

O SON OF LIGHT! Forget all save Me and commune with My spirit. This is of the essence of My command, therefore turn unto it.Bahá'u'lláh, The Hidden Words

O SON OF GLORY! Be swift in the path of holiness, and enter the heaven of communion with Me. Cleanse thy heart with the burnish of the spirit, and hasten to the court of the Most High.Bahá'u'lláh, The Hidden Words

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Photo by Dean Kalyan
Food for the Soul: 19 Days of Music and Devotion is a series of devotional songs from Badasht vol. I & II coupled with inspiring images and quotations from sacred Writings, initially to accompany the Bahá’í Fast from March 2-20. Please use them in your own way, and share with your friends & family.

The post Food for the Soul: Day 11 – Communion appeared first on Badasht.

Who believes in unity?

Starry-eyed idealists? Guitar-strumming hippies? Denizens of a parallel universe? “The lovers… the dreamers… and me?”

These stereotypes – non-threatening, strange, removed from the mainstream – reflect an embittered humanity that in its sober, level-headed ‘maturity’ has come to regard unity as intangible… a dream.

But what if this notion comes not from our growing up, but rather our cowering in the face of what it will take to bring this unity about – or our lack of understanding God’s glorious plan for us?

The Writings of Bahá’u'lláh take a very firm stance on the issue of unity:

The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.Bahá'u'lláh

An Unshakeable consciousness

The Universal House of Justice has said that unity is only possible when based on an ‘unshakeable consciousness of the oneness of mankind.’ So if we are promoting unity, what we are really doing is educating our society at every level about the essential principle of oneness – and we must do so in the most cogent and grounded way possible.

So instead of another round of ‘Kum Ba Ya,’ here is a blast of reality from the pen of Shoghi Effendi. Read on… and be inspired!

“Let there be no mistake. The principle of the Oneness of Mankind—the pivot round which all the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh revolve—is no mere outburst of ignorant emotionalism or an expression of vague and pious hope. Its appeal is not to be merely identified with a reawakening of the spirit of brotherhood and good-will among men, nor does it aim solely at the fostering of harmonious cöoperation among individual peoples and nations. Its implications are deeper, its claims greater than any which the Prophets of old were allowed to advance. Its message is applicable not only to the individual, but concerns itself primarily with the nature of those essential relationships that must bind all the states and nations as members of one human family. It does not constitute merely the enunciation of an ideal, but stands inseparably associated with an institution adequate to embody its truth, demonstrate its validity, and perpetuate its influence. It implies an organic change in the structure of present-day society, a change such as the world has not yet experienced. It constitutes a challenge, at once bold and universal, to outworn shibboleths of national creeds—creeds that have had their day and which must, in the ordinary course of events as shaped and controlled by Providence, give way to a new gospel, fundamentally different from, and infinitely superior to, what the world has already conceived. It calls for no less than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole civilized world—a world organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and language, and yet infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of its federated units.

It represents the consummation of human evolution—an evolution that has had its earliest beginnings in the birth of family life, its subsequent development in the achievement of tribal solidarity, leading in turn to the constitution of the city-state, and expanding later into the institution of independent and sovereign nations.

The principle of the Oneness of Mankind, as proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh, carries with it no more and no less than a solemn assertion that attainment to this final stage in this stupendous evolution is not only necessary but inevitable, that its realization is fast approaching, and that nothing short of a power that is born of God can succeed in establishing it.”

Shoghi Effendi

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iPhone photo by Joshua Homnick http://instacanv.as/homnick

Food for the Soul: 19 Days of Music and Devotion is a series of devotional songs from Badasht vol. I & II coupled with inspiring images and quotations from the Bahá’í Writings, initially to accompany the Fast from March 2-20. Please use them in your own way, and share with your friends & family.

The post Food for the Soul: Day 10 – Unity/Oneness appeared first on Badasht.