“God’s greatest gift to man is that of intellect or understanding,” we read in the Baha’i Holy Writings. “Understanding is the power by which man acquires his knowledge of the several kingdoms of creation and the various stages of existence, as well as of much which is invisible,” –The Reality of Man.
Blurring the vision of understanding, however, we often find the smallest word in Webster’s dictionary, ego, through which any number of blockers arise undetected. Among them “prejudice,” “an emotional commitment to a falsehood that no amount of proof will alter,” Therefore this monster of undetermined facets and dimensions, greatly determines (or distorts as the case may be) our perspective and motivation, whether racial, religious, political, national, academic or a multitude of others, often disguised as “Pride”–depending on who has it. If it’s mine, it’s pride; if it’s yours, it’s prejudice.
The best antidote for such widespread poison is love–another word lost through misunderstanding. Our understanding of the word is usually reduced to material and other transitory things of life as a youth, beauty, and the material things which generally attract each. Few indeed are fully acquainted with a higher love, purified through the Supreme Purifier that sees things and people, not as they are but as they should be–and dedicates themselves to the promotion of that realization. Such purified love is impossible on the lower level in itself, for people on an ever-increasing scale are too unlovable through the social poison being perpetually injected from every direction. Let us not fool ourselves into thinking that we are spiritually or otherwise strong enough to love all of God’s creation, the good, the bad, and especially the unlovable, who need love more than anyone! If through potent prayers, however, our own on a daily basis, along with those of Holy Souls, we can remove that “pith of self” (ego) that God’s love can flow through us, therein lies the difference.
Through the purified love that comes down, one can become more gentle in words and deeds–a virtue in this misguided society associated especially with weakness, while just the opposite. Anyone who would dare to be different enough to show gentleness and love unashamed in today’s insensitive times is strong indeed–whether male or female.
