Once again in the cycle of time we arrive at the month of June, the sixth month of the Gregorian calendar, which symbolizes light in various dimensions. June marks the official beginning of summer and contains the one-day (June 21) having the longest period of daylight. Also Nur (meaning light in Arabic) the fifth 19-day month of the 19-month Baha’i calendar falls each June 5.
How frequently have we heard the old adage, “knowledge is light,” and how ironic that the month of light is the month of graduations from every academic level as well as the month of weddings, the beginning of a different light shed on a totally different life style than that of living single. Whenever entering a dark room, I am still reminded of an analogy I once heard that knowledge of the arrangement of furniture within any dark room is comparable to having the light on in it. And likewise, the more knowledge one acquires on any given subject, the more light is shed upon it. Cartoonists have portrayed bright ideas also for ages as a light bulb flashing on in one’s head. Yet the brighter the light of physical, scientific and technological knowledge acquired, the greater and more obvious becomes the realization of how much we do not know, especially of our spiritual reality overshadowed by the impending darkness of materialism.
“Behold the candle, how it gives its flame. It weeps its life away drop by drop to give its light.” The thought of these Baha’i lyrics symbolically occurred to me as several of us addressed the small group assembled recently at a candlelight vigil. “Ye are the angels if your feet be firm. Be steadfast as the rock that no earthly storm can move…” the lyrics continue.
Such indomitable faith is currently being evidenced worldwide through interviews with a Baha’i couple in the midst of the quake area that National Public Radio kept in touch with on a daily basis. The university where the couple taught was subsequently closed and is currently being used to house orphaned children.
“O, ye lovers of God.” We are reminded in the Baha’i Holy Writings, “Make firm your steps in His cause in such ways that ye shall not be shaken, though the direst of calamities assail the world. By nothing, under no conditions, be ye perturbed… So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.”
Investigate!
