O MY FRIEND! Thou art the daystar of the heavens of My holiness, let not the defilement of the world eclipse thy splendor. Rend asunder the veil of heedlessness, that from behind the clouds thou mayest emerge resplendent and array all things with the apparel of life.
-Baha'u'llah (The Hidden Words, from the Persian)
-Baha'u'llah (The Hidden Words, from the Persian)
Points for reflection:
1) What is Baha'u'llah telling us here about our station as humans?
2) What does it mean to be a "daystar of the heavens of My holiness"? Merriam-Webster define "daystar" as a morning star, or the sun. We're obviously not the Sun (a.k.a. God) itself, so what does it mean for us to be the daystar of that heavenly Sun?
3) I am so moved by this line of not letting the defilement of the world eclipse our splendor! Indeed, how splendid each one of us is, should we but choose to release that light. This is something I often think about - the extent to which I allow myself to fully show my inner self, the brightness of my Being, and truly live from that deeper spiritual core. Does this struggle make sense to anyone else?
4) In what ways do we wear the veil of heedlessness and how do we live from a more conscious and considerate manner of Being? If we do this, we are promised that we have the capacity to emerge "resplendent".
5) How are we to understand "the apparel of life"?
Posts
5 comments:
1. We are noble, and the pinnacle of creation. Abdu'l Baha writes, "When we speak of man, we mean the perfect one, the foremost individual in the world, who is the sum of spiritual and apparent perfections, and who is like the sun among the beings."
2. I think the analogy here is slightly different - in the world of creation, humans are like the sun/daystar, representing its perfection. They are also the ones who illumine (understand) the world by shedding light on it. The analogy of God as the daystar is, i think, a different one.
3. Yes :) i'm sure all of us go thru this struggle.
4. Veil of heedlessness - letting our lower self predominate, getting embroiled in materialistic pursuits and losing track of the larger picture. In general we tend to get overwhelmed by day-to-day issues, things that need to get taken care of in the short-term, and thereby end up losing focus on the long-term. Additionally, often we let our ego get in the way, and believe we know best, and so do not heed guidance that might be given to us in various forms.
5. True life is the life of the spirit, not of the body. And so if we rend asunder that veil of heedlessness, we will be able to emerge clothed in spiritual garments. In addition our perspective of the world will change from a material to a spiritual one, and we will be able to view everything in this world as it truly is, within the greater spiritual scheme of things, rather than just as materially existing entities.
Nikhil, you always do such a brilliant job of helping me see things more clearly.
2. I found your commentary on humans as the daystars particularly helpful -- to think of this in the context of creation, that humans represent the (pinnacle of) perfection of the (physical) world and that we illuminate the world through our understanding of it. In what other ways do we illuminate the created world?
How do you think this use of the term is different than the Manifestations as the daystars, given that the term is also used in that context in the holy writings?
5. so the "apparel of life", as you see it, refers to clothing ourselves in our spiritual garments... this makes sense to me. By freeing ourselves of our material attachments we are able to emerge in our best spiritual clothes.
I also just recalled a Hafiz poem that gets at the nature of our inner light:
My Brilliant Image
One day the sun admitted,
I am just a shadow.
I wish I could show you
The Infinite Incandescence (Tej)
That has cast my brilliant image!
I wish I could show you,
When you are lonely or in darkness,
The Astonishing Light
Of your own Being!
we'll keep writing the same things on our blogs now, i think :).
i really identify with 3 now, really really really! it's what i've been thinking about all day yesterday and today.
about 4, yes, related question.
nikhil, you rock yaar!
Very instructive.
Post a Comment