Wanderings

It was while Abdul Baha was in Paris that a group composed of different sects awaited an audience to argue their various faiths. Suddenly this divine teacher of men swept into the room and pointing out of the window, exclaimed: "The sun of truth rises in each season from a different point of the horizon — to-day it is here, yesterday it was there, and to-morrow it will appear from another direction. Why do you keep your eyes eternally fixed on the same point? Why do you call yourselves Christians, Buddhists, Mohammedans, Bahais? You must learn to distinguish the sun of truth from whichever point of the horizon it is shining! People think religion is confined in an edifice, to be worshipped at an altar. In reality it is an attitude toward divinity which is reflected through life.

"This movement eludes organization — it is the realization of a new spirit. The foundation of that spirit is the love of God; and its method, the love and service of mankind. Many who have never heard of this revelation teach its laws and spiritual truths.

~ Abdu’l-Baha, Divine Philosophy, p. 14

This description of Abdu’l-Baha is stunning.  A major reason that I became a Baha’i is that I had already come to believe in all of the principles of the Faith before ever learning the name of Baha’u’llah.  Accepting that he was the latest manifestation of God was easy for me at that point.  I have heard this similar story echoed from numerous others as well.  To me, the concepts of unity, world peace, harmony of science and religion, equality of men and women, the establishment of a universal auxiliary language, providing education for all, and that all religions are worshipping the same God were what made me a Baha’i.  Anyone who deigns to serve mankind and promote these truths is showing the love of God.

TeacherJay Divine Philosophy faith, independent investigation of truth, service, unity, world peace, worship

I have heard the comment many times that Baha’is seem to be bilingual.  After reflecting for a bit, I came to realize that most of the Baha’is I know have, at minimum, a basic working knowledge of at least one other language than their native tongue.  One of the basic beliefs and missions of the Baha’is is to establish a Universal Auxiliary Language that can be used all over the world for education and business.

“In order to facilitate complete understanding between all people, a universal auxiliary language will be adopted and in the schools of the future two languages will be taught — the mother tongue and this international auxiliary tongue.” (quoting Baha’u’llah)

~ Abdu’l-Baha, Divine Philosophy, p. 84

This would mean that all people of the could communicate with each other.  Baha’i doctrine does not mandate which language should be used for this purpose, though there is praise for Esperanto as it attempts to mix vocabulary and grammatical structures from several different languages.  In modern times, it would appear that English is becoming the de facto standard as an international language.

The concept of learning to speak in multiple languages is commonplace in many parts of the world—except the United States.  As an educator I am fascinated not just with how people learn different languages, but how multilingualism can help us to understand each other not just on the personal, but on the metaphysical one as well.

TeacherJay Divine Philosophy, Reflections education, globalism, language