So, we already covered the beginning, the downer, and the upper paragraphs. What's next?
"O ye beloved of the Lord! Commit not that which defileth the limpid stream of love or destroyeth the sweet fragrance of friendship. By the righteousness of the Lord! Ye were created to show love one to another and not perversity and rancour. Take pride not in love for yourselves but in love for your fellow-creatures. Glory not in love for your country, but in love for all mankind. Let your eye be chaste, your hand faithful, your tongue truthful and your heart enlightened. Abase not the station of the learned in Baha and belittle not the rank of such rulers as administer justice amidst you. Set your reliance on the army of justice, put on the armour of wisdom, let your adorning be forgiveness and mercy and that which cheereth the hearts of the well-favoured of God."
The previous paragraph was addressed to the peoples of the world, which sure seems to include everyone. This paragraph is addressed to the beloved of the Lord. Who are they? Well, in my personal opinion this refers to the members of the Baha'i community. After all, in the Will and Testament of the Master, 'Abdu'l-Baha says that the "beloved of the Lord must obey him and turn unto him", referring to Shoghi Effendi. In fact, all instances of this phrase that I could find in the Writings refer specifically to the Baha'is. So, Baha'u'llah addresses this paragraph to the Baha'is, and the directions He gives us are a little bit different than the general advice He gives all of humanity.
To start, He warns us not to do anything that will defile, or ruin, the "limpid stream of love". What, I wondered, did that mean? Limpid means that which is crystal clear, as well as free-flowing. It also means free from worry and distress. Isn't that a beautiful way to think about love? Shouldn't the one you love receive a love that is pure and clear, truly refreshing, and free from all worries or concern? Truly we should behave in such a way as to not be a cause of concern or stress for our loved ones. And that love should be free-flowing, always available in great abundance.
Then He warns us not to do anything that could destroy the "sweet fragrance of friendship". Again, another beautiful image. Our friendship should give off a very beautiful aroma that is detectable from far away. And as one who used to blend perfumes (no, really, I did), it occurs to me that it is heat that destroys the sweet scents that waft on the breeze. How often have friendships been destroyed by the flame of words? Remember, "the tongue is a smoldering fire" and "the fire of the tongue devoureth both heart and soul". The Master once said, "The beloved of God must be friendly even with strangers and intimate even with outsiders -- how much more with others among the righteous (i. e., believers)!" It seems to me that we must be very careful to treasure our friends and take no chance at destroying those bonds of love.
Now there is a bit of an intermediary sentence: "By the righteousness of the Lord!" What does that mean? And why is that here? Well, righteousness is that which is characterized by morality, that which is upright and justifiable. "By that which is moral and justifiable of God"? Ok. That seems to describe the basic essence of unity to me. Anything which brings us together in closer bonds of love? Sure. Why not? I'm not sure what else to say here, so I may as well go on.
"Ye were created to show love one to another and not perversity and rancour." That's a nice reminder. Don't do anything that will harm love or friendship, a reminder of righteousness, and now a statement of intent. This is why we were created. I mean, it's good to talk about what not to do, don't defile or destroy, but it is far more helpful to tell us what to do. Show love. I could talk a lot more about this sentence, as opposed to the previous one, but I think that the rest of the paragraph follows on it. All the rest demonstrates some of the various ways we can show this love.
The first step in demonstrating this love is to be aware of what really counts. "Take pride not in love for yourselves but in love for your fellow-creatures." You see, it ain't all that great to just love yourself. I mean, don't get me wrong, you should love yourself, but that's nothing to be all that proud of. Even way back a few thousand years ago we were told that it was no great shakes to love your friends, that what was more tricky was to love your enemies. Here it is not just yourself, your community, or even your enemies: it is all creatures. As usual, I'm not sure, but I think that includes animals, too.
So now that we have love for all living things, what else? "Glory not in love for your country, but in love for all mankind." While it is perfectly natural to love the place in which you grew up, this should not be at the expense of anywhere else. I love Chicago. It will always have a special place in my heart for it, but this does not mean that I don't love New York, or Beijing, or Paris, or Calcutta, or anywhere else. Just because somewhere deep in my heart I think of myself as primarily American, and now Canadian, too, this does not mean that I actively dislike Russians, or Argentinians, or Iranians, or Zimbabweans. That would just be silly. Love can actually include everyone, from everywhere. (It's kind of like my mind. It can hold two mutually contradicting ideas at the same time. Neat, eh?)
While it is great to say "love everyone", what does that look like? "Let your eye be chaste, your hand faithful, your tongue truthful and your heart enlightened." I am not sure, but I suspect we all know this quote from Ruhi Book 1. As I learned in many discussion on this quote, it's probably best to take it one at a time.
Let your eye be chaste. To be chaste means to be free from defilement. I can probably do no better than to quote the Guardian here with one of my favorite quotes. "Such a chaste and holy life, with its implications of modesty, purity, temperance, decency, and clean-mindedness, involves no less than the exercise of moderation in all that pertains to dress, language, amusements, and all artistic and literary avocations. It demands daily vigilance in the control of one's carnal desires and corrupt inclinations. It calls for the abandonment of a frivolous conduct, with its excessive attachment to trivial and often misdirected pleasures. It requires total abstinence from all alcoholic drinks, from opium, and from similar habit-forming drugs. It condemns the prostitution of art and of literature, the practices of nudism and of companionate marriage, infidelity in marital relationships, and all manner of promiscuity, of easy familiarity, and of sexual vices. It can tolerate no compromise with the theories, the standards, the habits, and the excesses of a decadent age. Nay rather it seeks to demonstrate, through the dynamic force of its example, the pernicious character of such theories, the falsity of such standards, the hollowness of such claims, the perversity of such habits, and the sacrilegious character of such excesses." Imagine if we were actually that careful in what we subjected ourselves to in all these areas of life. How differently most of us would think.
Let your hand be faithful. Once our vision is cast upon those things that are good and pure in life, then those are the things we shall reach for. It is so important to ensure that our actions, those things that our done with our hands, be true to our vision. If we're talking about loving other people, this is a good place to begin.
Let your tongue be truthful. Well, that's pretty straightforward. Only speak the truth. Those things we talk about should reflect that vision we have of the world around us. And it also fits in nicely with keeping our hands faithful.
But most of all, more important than what we see, what we do, or what we say, is how we feel. Let our heart be enlightened. Again, I could go on about this, but I think I've said enough.
Now that we have some idea about how to treat those around us, what about the bigger picture? Like on a societal level? "Abase not the station of the learned in Baha and belittle not the rank of such rulers as administer justice amidst you." There are different levels in society. While we all have the same rights, we are not created equally. Some are brighter, some are faster, some are stronger. We all have our individual strengths, and those "learned in Baha", those Counsellors and Auxiliary Board members, deserve our respect. And we should never, not even for a moment, belittle the work done by those who rule with justice, whether in the political realm or within the Baha'i Administrative Order. There is so much in the Writings praising those who rule with justice that we would do well to consider the virtue of those who accomplish such a daunting task.
And finally, if we wonder how the world can move closer to these ideals, we only need to look at those gems contained within this last sentence of this paragraph. "Set your reliance on the army of justice, put on the armour of wisdom, let your adorning be forgiveness and mercy and that which cheereth the hearts of the well-favoured of God."
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