God provided us with spiritual and physical guidance through the Major Divine Teachers whom He sent to this world. They were Abraham, Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Krishna, Jesus Christ, Muhammad, the Báb and now, in this Day, Bahá’u’lláh.
All of them brought the same spiritual truth; that our purpose here is to get close to God.
Let us look at what is said about the purpose of life from the Jewish, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim and Bahá’í faiths:
JUDAISM – Teaches that all life is special and belongs to God. This is often referred to as the sanctity of life. The concept that life is sacred and therefore is to be respected and protected.
BUDDHISM – Life’s purpose is to cultivate a deeper understanding of the nature of existence, or as the Buddha puts it, to see “reality as it is”.
CHRISTIANITY –For a Christian, our meaning and purpose of life is to let God love us and to live in a way that brings glory to Him.
ISLAM – The true purpose of life can only be fulfilled when humans actively utilize the practises of worship and other virtuous acts as aids to find God and devote their heart to pleasing Him. One’s life can only be fulfilled when man reaches his spiritual peak and is in divine communion with God.
BAHÁ’Í – Bahá’u’lláh, the Manifestation of God for today says “True life is not the life of the flesh but the life of the spirit. For the life of the flesh is common to both men and animals whereas the life of the spirit is possessed only by the pure in heart.”
He further says: “Having created the world and all that liveth and moveth therein, He [God], through the direct operation of His unconstrained and sovereign Will, chose to confer upon man the unique distinction and capacity to know Him and to love Him — a capacity that must be regarded as the generating impulse and the primary purpose underlying the whole of creation.”
“All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization. To act like the beasts of the field is unworthy of man. Those virtues that befit his dignity are forbearance, mercy, compassion and loving kindness towards all the peoples and kindreds of the earth.”
Note that it is spiritual qualities that Bahá’u’lláh speaks about right after mentioning an ever-advancing civilization. We tend to think of civilization in terms of material advancement but He is emphasizing the importance of the virtues for true civilization.
Victorious living depends upon surrendering our will to the All-knowing Will of God.
I feel that if we had been obedient to this guidance, given in all the religions, our lives would be so much better today. But we have strayed. We have not learnt obedience or contentment or radiant acquiescence.
Look at our own beautiful island. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the country. It is we, the people, who are causing the problems. We don’t have a concept of ourselves as children of a Heavenly Father and so we don’t have a concept of our neighbour as another child of God.
In regular loving families, siblings support each other. In the youthful years there may be squabbles between brothers and sisters, but parents are there to guide. Then children grow out of the squabbling and support each other. These are the ground rules that direct lives.
The Divine Teachers of God are our spiritual parents. They guide us through the teachings and laws that they bring but, the majority of us don’t listen. God sends the solution repeatedly through His Divine Teachers. If only we would listen.
Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us the road of personal salvation.
In this day Bahá’u’lláhteaches us that in addition to personal salvation we need to think in terms of our social relationships. We need to think of how we relate to our neighbours, our brothers, our sisters and, embrace the reality, that, we are all one human family. We must each be gravely concerned about the affairs of our neighbourhoods, communities, nation and the globe. It cannot be about having concern only for ourselves and our immediate loved ones. Bahá’u’lláh has clearly stated that our personal well-being and happiness are directly and intimately linked to that of our neighbours and all who share this planet with us!
We should think in terms of establishing a spiritual, enlightened, God-fearing relationship with each other while we are in this physical world.
Further, Bahá’u’lláh tells us that the pillars of the new spiritually and materially prosperous civilization are the unified peoples of the earth working together in a spirit of love and fellowship.
This can be achieved through:
- Realizing that there is only one God, one Heavenly Father, and that all religions are one and should be the cause of unity, harmony and peace;
- That humanity is one;
- That our souls have no class, race, colour, gender or nationality;
- That prejudice of all kinds must be uprooted; and
- That the extremes of wealth and poverty must be eliminated both through laws and the by the recognition of the individual’s spiritual responsibility.
We are seedlings created to serve a great purpose. Let us choose to adore God and allow Him to direct our paths
