“Knowledge what would you do with it?”
A response to question #5. What do you find to be spiritually enriching in Century of Light?
My first impulse is to answer, nothing. Century of Light is not a primary source of spiritual enrichment, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah is, of this I am sure!
What then is the nature of this book that is keeping us up late into the night?
The slogan of the Discovery channel is “Knowledge what would you do with it?” Century of Light provides knowledge but doesn’t stop there. It organizes its core idea around two major themes.
1. The ignorance of the generality of humankind to the causes of the upheavals encircling it and,
2. How against this dark and seemingly hopeless background the Baha’i Faith has risen from obscurity to become a united global community, offered in 1985 by the Universal House of Justice to the world for study.
If the Bahá'í experience can contribute in whatever measure to reinforcing hope in the unity of the human race, we are happy to offer it as a model for study.[1]
Knowledge is power; “a spiritual heart and conscience”[2]
determines how it will be used positively. Abdu’l –Baha says, “Knowledge
is love. Study, listen to exhortations, think,
try to understand the wisdom and greatness of God. The soil must be fertilized
before the seed is sown.”
The Faith doesn’t exist in a vacuum (nothing can except the odd asteroid) thus I applaud the acknowledgement by the Universal House of Justice of the positive contributions made by individuals outside the Faith as well as the destructive and spiritually impoverishing subjects such as Fascism, Nazism and Communism.
In doing this Century of Light supplies a context, the 20th Century, in which the effects of the Revelation of Baha’u’llah are examined on a global scale whereas the Bible deals primarily with the obedience & disobedience of the Jewish people. Century of Light goes further, insights into cause and effect in the history of humankind are contrasted with the crises and victories inside the Faith. This is consciousness raising. This brings us out of the mental fort, breaks the chains of conformity that have perhaps restrained us. If studying this book opens our minds, fertilizing the soil so that in our conversations and our efforts to relate the true import of this, the Day of God, to our western brothers and sisters who are as yet unaware or uncomprehending, this will be spiritually enriching as we have done something with what we have learnt.