Once again in the cycle of time, we arrive at the month of June, the sixth month of the Gregorian calendar that symbolizes light in various dimensions. June marks the official beginning of summer and contains the one day, June 21, having the longest period of light. 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 ever 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 heart 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 once acquires on any given subject, the more light is shed upon it. Cartoonists have portrayed bright ideas for ages as a light bulb flashing on in one’s head. Yet the brighter the light o 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.
As we find ourselves becoming submerged in such darkness, let us not forget: “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”
“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 of when a small group assembled at the candlelight vigil in a downtown plaza in commemoration of the victims and survivors of a devastating earthquake. “Ye are the angels if your feet be fir,. Be steadfast as the rock that no earthly storm can move …” the lyrics continue.
“O, ye lovers of God.” We are reminded in the Baha’i Holy Writings, “Make firm your steps in His cause in such wise that ye shall not be shaken, though the direst of calamities assail the world. By nothing, under no conditions, be he perturbed… So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole ear.”
Investigate!
