Material achievements and spiritual perfections – Centurion Rekord

We just started a new year with new hopes, new aspirations and dreams for peace and prosperity. The realisation of our hopes and dreams in 2020, will depend on reinforcing our material achievements with spiritual perfections.

It is the Bah view that, prosperity, in its fullest sense, can only be achieved through a combination of spiritual and material well-being. It can be attained when material and spiritual civilisation advance together.

Our contemporary world, however, is often ruled by materialistic values and standards. The lack of attention to spiritual reformation, and the neglect of character development, has been the cause of numerous problems in our societies all over the world. This is not to say material means are not important. However, it is not in the nature of the humans to be a material being alone, just as it is not in the nature of humans to want to live in poverty, thinking only of the spiritual worlds.

We can compare the body to a vehicle which is being used by the soul for its journey through its earthly life. As such, it is important to cater for the needs of both the body (the vehicle) and the soul (the driver). However, it is important to allow our spiritual nature to take control, in the same way as the driver should be in control of a vehicle, and not vice versa.

In the Bah view, we need a new set of spiritual and moral standards that lead to the unification of humanity. It has to take into account that our well-being, peace and security will depend on our unity as humanity. As Bahullh, the founder of the Bah Faith says: The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.

Our spiritual dimension can be understood, in practical terms, as the source of qualities that help us rise above narrow self-interest. Through acquisition of spiritual virtues, not only the individual, but also societies can be transformed. The universal spiritual principles which lie at the heart of religion tolerance, compassion, love, justice, humility, sacrifice, trustworthiness, dedication to the well-being of others, and unity are the foundations of progressive civilisation.

The Bah Writings assert: we must strive to become more spiritual, more luminous, to follow the counsel of the Divine Teaching, to serve the cause of unity and true equality, to be merciful, to reflect the love of the Highest on all men, so that the light of the Spirit shall be apparent in all our deeds, to the end that all humanity shall be united, the stormy sea thereof calmed, and all rough waves disappear from off the surface of lifes ocean henceforth unruffled and peaceful.

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Websites: http://www.bahai.org, http://www.bahai.org.za.