Overcome to achieve the oneness of mankind

In the last post, we have discussed that the principle of oneness of mankind is “the pivot round which all the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh revolve” (Shoghi Effendi). This is basically saying, to me at least, all teachings of Baha’i Faith, as beautiful as they are by themselves, will not be properly understood without referring to, or serving to this one single purpose, i.e. the unification of whole human race. Looking from this perspective, the social teachings of Baha’i Faith could be viewed as to provide means to overcome all obstacles standing in the way for achieving the oneness of mankind.

We can easily list out some of the most obvious and detrimental barriers that prevent diverse people from being united:

• Racial prejudices that there are certain intrinsic differences between races that imply one group of people is superior to another;
• Religious fanatics that one believing system possesses the monopoly of truth and others are deserved to be condemned;
• Extreme nationalism;
  
• There is intrinsic and irreconcilable difference between religion and science and people could choose one of the schools but not both;
• The different roles of man and woman played in the society are viewed as intrinsic difference of capacities which implies one is superior to another;
• The imbalance and conflict caused by extreme wealth and extreme poverty;
• The lack of basic education prevents certain group of people from being fully participating in social activities thus being viewed as inferior to others;
• Different career positions in society are viewed as an indicator of one’s social status, and those status are ranked hierarchically;
• Different languages create a barrier of communication thus cause misunderstanding between people of different regions;
• …

For each and every above listed situation or point of view there is corresponding teaching in Baha’i faith that either puts it in right perspective or provides a mean to amend it. If we view human collective life (society) as an organism like human body, all of these listed points of view or conditions could be viewed as diseases that have eaten into the vital part of our current society. And Baha’is believe that only a Messenger of God can provide remedies:

“The Prophets of God should be regarded as physicians whose task is to foster the well-being of the world and its peoples, that, through the spirit of oneness, they may heal the sickness of a divided humanity…they are the only ones who can claim to have understood the patient and to have correctly diagnosed its ailments. No man, however acute his perception, can ever hope to reach the heights which the wisdom and understanding of the Divine Physician have attained.”( Baha'u'llah)

Looking from another perspective, those obstacles in its essence are really misconceptions about the true reality (social and spiritual). The objective reality originated from an All-Powerful Force has its underlying structure and follows predetermined laws independent of what our subjective understanding of it. As great as human minds are, we are impotent to come up with a model that describes accurately all its aspects of this reality. We are forever, if we are humble enough to realize this, in need of guidance from our Creator to form an ever more accurate conception about who we are and how is human society supposed to be organized. I believe that not able to realize this needful human condition is the cause of most human sufferings: “The root cause of wrongdoing is ignorance.”  We are just like a stubborn kid, not knowing any better, but refused to listen. We act according to our malformed concepts of the reality. We stumble naturally, and cry out: “Why this happened to me?”

The following quote is one of my favorite:

“The Laws of God are not imposition of will, or of power, or pleasure, but the resolutions of truth, reason and justice.” (Abdu'l-Baha)

Posted via web from The Garden of Heart