“Lift the hem of your garment to
receive”
God’s abounding gifts and favors with
“joyous
gratitude and radiance”
To count our blessings is to understand the true meaning of wealth, infinity and life!
“To be
grateful for the blessings of God in time of want and trouble is necessary. In
the abundance of blessings everyone can be grateful. It is said that Sultan
Mahmud cut a melon and gave a portion of it to Ayaz who ate it cheerfully and
expressed gratitude. When the Sultan ate a little of the same melon, he found
it bitter. He asked, ‘How did you eat such a bitter melon and show no sign of
disliking it?’ Ayaz answered, ‘I had eaten many sweet and palatable things from
the hands of the Sultan and I thought it very unworthy of me to express dislike
on eating a slightly bitter thing today.’ Thus man, who is immersed in the
blessings of God, should not be grieved if he experiences a little trouble. He
should not forget the manifold divine bounties.” (Words by `Abdu’l-Baha, 2
September 1912, in Montreal, “Mahmud’s Diary”)
Gratitude and conscious
appreciation begins when we empower our attitudes and visions
with positive energies, sunny thoughts and enjoyment of however little joys
which come our way. When we pause and
care to recognize and count our blessings—which naturally calls for a degree of
active vigilance and personal discipline combined with an eager sense of
fairness and humility—not taking for granted anyone, or anything, not a bit,
not a moment of our lives, we surprisingly realize how much happier we become
and how truly lucky each one of us is!
“God’s
care and loving-kindness surge even as the eternal billows of the sea and His
blessings are continually showered from His eternal Kingdom. Ours should be the
prayer that His blessings may be vouchsafed in still greater abundance and ours
to hold fast to such means as shall ensure a fuller outpouring of His grace and
a greater measure of His divine assistance.
One of the greatest of these means is the spirit of true fellowship and
loving communion amongst the friends.” (“Selections From The Writings Of `Abdu’l-Baha”, p. 92)
However blissfully and
happily it may be invested with myriad of long years, compared to the spiritual
realms of God and eternally infinite worlds following this limited mortal one, “The life of man in this world is short… one must
appreciate every breath of his life and endeavor in that which is conducive to
eternal glory.” (“Tablets of `Abdu’l-Baha”, v.1, p. 206)
“Associate with all in perfect love and kindness; hold all
dear and count all friends and familiar ones; know no enemies; imagine no
strangers. Thus mayest thou be a mercy
to the people of the world and a source of bounty to the world of humanity.” (“Tablets of `Abdu’l-Baha”, v.1, p. 667)
With such
a noble spirit and willingly drawing a conscious outlook, gazing on such a
worthy horizon and celebrating life so nobly at its every beat, is the secret
and the reward of happiness, successful longevity and real youth. After all everything that relates to the
time and the place, the matters and balancing figures, deductions and sums, are
all only relative, passing conditions and mortal. The age units, for example, and the counts of
birth years and adding months and days are merely physical contracts—which are
there for certain purposes and needed order in life of course, but are not more
really, are less. Stepping up a pace or
two above the worldly grounds and its bumps and pompous rocks, we can and we
should change how they operate and influence us and our attitudes and
moods. Doing thus, we sit in command and
take charge of our lives at every turn and twist, altering the rules of upsets
and obstacles by raising the horizon of our thoughts and actions. High in spirit and broadened in visions, we
then with dilated hearts spread our wings, soar and seek to consort with
stars—and living in the joy of becoming a shining one, we haste in chasing and
faithfully following “The Moon”!
“The earth
is in the motion and growth; the mountains, hills and prairies are green and
pleasant; the bounty is overflowing; the mercy universal; the rain is
descending from the cloud of mercy; the brilliant Sun is shining; the full moon
is ornamenting the horizon of ether; the great ocean-tide is flooding every
little stream; the gifts are successive; the favors consecutive; and the
refreshing breeze is blowing, wafting the fragrant perfume of the blossoms.
Boundless treasure is in the hand of the King of Kings! Lift the hem of thy
garment in order to receive it.” (`Abdu’l-Baha;
“Baha’i World Faith”, p. 351)
You are welcome to visit my three
other blogs—English, Chinese bilingual, and Persian—below:
Learning Felicityhttp://learningfelicity.blogspot.ca/
Timeless Treasures: Words with Meanings
