Why do I choose to become a Baha’i?

Lately I was asked by three friends the same question: why do I choose to become a Baha’i? It might be coincident that they almost asked me at the same time, but it serves as a reminder to me that it probably is a good time to think about and answer to this question.

I thought to myself another related question: who am I? My parents gave me a name: Le Kang which became my identity in the society. I respond to it well, for a while at least. Then I married and came to US, and my name was changed to Le Wang. I felt strange at the beginning, but soon got used to it. I am still who I am, the name change did nothing to how I feel about myself. I also serve many roles in life: a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother and a friend. Plus, I am defined in society by my position in a job. All of those roles are import to me in its own right. If one day I no longer play one of the roles, I am sure I will feel lost for a while and even become profoundly sorrow in some cases. But I will not lose myself, I am still who I am. And then I also consider myself a Baha’i. I realize that this is a different story all together. This is not another role I play in society or in my life. This is who I am. All other roles are external, but this identity of being a Baha’i is internal. With it, all other parts of life can be set straight and become a channel or a mean through which I may express my inner belief in a concrete way; without it, all other roles in life shall become senseless and meaningless. Honestly I don’t really know how this has become the case. I guess this is what a belief means. Or we were made to be able to become a believer when we see the truth.

As to the question why I chose to become a Baha’i, the short answer is I didn’t choose: years back when I first heard about the Baha’i faith and the principles it promotes, my innermost being recognized the truth of these teachings and that left me no choice but to become a follower of Bahá'u'lláh. Prof. John Hatcher stated this point very logically and fluently in his recent book “Understanding Death”: “If there is a God, and if God has sent a sequence of Messengers, each with specific guidance for a particular period of time, and if Bahá'u'lláh is the Manifestation for this age, then how could I do aught else but accept His station and follow His guidance. Logically, to do otherwise would be to act against my own best interest.” It is that simple: how could I not follow what is true to me? How could anyone not follow what is true to him?

Yet the answer could also be very long, as long as the story of my life, a story of longing to be part of something greater than myself that could bring hope to a distressed society and the suffered multitudes. Some twenty years ago, I hopped on a train to Moscow, traveled around the world, hoping to find a society that promotes equity and justice for all, in which my son could grow up with a happier life than I had experienced. What I ended up with finding is much better than I could ever have thought: a Kingdom on earth in making. Nowadays, talking to a follower of any believing system, you will almost always hear about the end of world story, and the expectation of the Kingdom of God being dropped from heaven one way or another. Likewise, Baha’i faith believes that only the divinely inspired/ordained remedy could heal our currently diseased society. But unlike other belief systems that are still waiting, Baha’is are actively participating in building the Kingdom on earth based on the God given blueprint brought to mankind by Baha’u’llah.

“Humanity,” as Shoghi Effendi has pointed it out more than seventy years ago, “whether viewed in the light of man's individual conduct or in the existing relationships between organized communities and nations, has, alas, strayed too far and suffered too great a decline to be redeemed through the unaided efforts of the best among its recognized rulers and statesmen…”, and what else, but “the Divine Programme enunciated…by Bahá'u'lláh…is eventually capable of withstanding the forces of internal disintegration which, if unchecked, must needs continue to eat into the vitals of a despairing society. It is towards this goal -- the goal of a new World Order, Divine in origin, all-embracing in scope, equitable in principle, challenging in its features -- that a harassed humanity must strive.”

I can’t imagine a better way to spend my life, and to play my part, however small “in this greatest drama of the world's spiritual history.” I understand it will take a while and much hard work to carry out such grandeur undertaking.  It may well take more than one generation to do the work. The groundbreaking has taken place, someone has to do it.  If it’s not me, who else? Depending on how you view it, as to me, it is both privilege and responsibility.

Posted via email from The Garden of Heart