Vision

“Soon,” Bahá’u’lláh’s own words in (1890) proclaim it, “will the present day Order be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead. Verily, thy Lord speaketh the truth and is the Knower of things unseen.” “By Myself,” He solemnly asserts, “the day is approaching when We will have rolled up the world and all that is therein, and spread out a new Order in its stead. He, verily, is powerful over all things.” “The world’s equilibrium,” He explains, “hath been upset through the vibrating influence of this Most Great, this new World Order. Mankind’s ordered life hath been revolutionized through the agency of this unique, this wondrous System, the like of which mortal eyes have never witnessed.” “The signs of impending convulsions and chaos,” He warns the peoples of the world, “can now be discerned, inasmuch as the prevailing Order appeareth to be lamentably defective.”
(from http://www.iranian.com/main/node/79130 First In Depth BBC Persian Interview with Baha'i International Community's Spokesman)

(Some things cannot be commented in a brief, fifteen second soundbite. This is a long post. Bear with me.)


These quotes, so well-knit in the text of the interview of Bahá'í spokesman Farhad Sabetan (many blessings for himself and his family), drive home the Blessed Beauty's Glad Tidings, which had been promised centuries before in previous divine dispensations. It has to do with our reality. What we are and what we are destined to be.


We are not merely figments of our own imagination, as modern psychologists, philosophers, and marketing-specialists would have us believe. We are much more. And when we align ourselves with the true order, the natural and spiritual order of things, then we give way to a whole new level of existence. 


I imagiine that it must be like the layers of a computer. The hardware works at a basic level transferring electrical impulses in certain logical sequences, which we have discovered, make it possible to create layers of information which then enable us to represent text, images, video, and sound. It would seem that the computer is merely a bunch of circuits and condensers, and stuff... but in fact, once the software is up and running, the computer is so much more. 
 So it must be with our spiritual selves. The mind gives the base, but there is so much more to us than our basic mental faculties. The superior faculties, that give rise to genius and creativity, morality and spirituality! And then when these are aligned, ordered and structured in the light of our Creator's intention for us, the results are much more than we can conceive!

A case in point. An early believer and martyr, Ashraf, was born during the siege of the fort of Sanjan. Later on, as a young man, he was martyred and beheaded. His head was callously thrown through the window of his mother's home. She instantly flung it back saying, "What we have given to God, we do not accept back."
Now, who could reach that level of understanding?
 This mother could see that her son's body, the temporal vessel that bears us in our journey through this world, had served its use, but in no way severed the real link between her and her child. And that his soul's severance from the body only served to bring him closer to his Creator.
 More than that, she had seen him the way Abraham saw his own son, as the ultimate sacrifice a parent can make. Because a parent is willing to sacrifice him or herself without hesitating for their children. But she had seen her son's martyrdom as a sacrifice... in its ultimate, and truest form; and refused to see it any other way. And she elevated the exchange with the throng, to its highest expression. Where the bloodthirsty crowd sent her a base, morbid message of hate, she responded with wisdom and courage.

That is a whole other level of vision.