Learning Felicity: February 2018

Source of Joy!

"Happiness has a direct influence in preserving our health while being upset causes illness. The basis of eternal happiness is spirituality and divine virtue, which is not followed by sorrow. But physical happiness is subject to a thousand changes and vicissitudes.” (Words of `Abdu’l-Baha, 19 June 1912, in New York, “Mahmud’s Diary”)

What is the true source of happiness that is supreme and spiritual?

Because of the existence of ‘spirit’ and endowed with its powers—a spirit that is enkindled by the light of faith--man is capable to overcome every hardship, every obstacle, winning them over as a whole or the least able not to be influenced and affected by them.

The human body like that of the animals’ is of course subject to nature's laws, nature’s limitations, and at times its distressing and destructive pressures. However so, man is blessed to be endowed with another gift far too potent and superior to that of the animals’; and that is his/her rational and intellectual reality, and the intellectual reality of man predominates over the nature and all of its powers. All these sciences and advancements which we enjoy and benefit from in our lives, have once been hidden and the recondite secrets of the nature, all were unknowable entities even to it, the nature, itself—which it has ever been captive by their rules and concealed mysteries in it itself. Man, however, was enabled to discover these mysteries, progressed in unraveling the secrets of the existence; he brought the hidden realities out of the plane of the unseen into the plane of the visible and seen. This proves that human being's existence endows powers and capacities which the nature does not possess. The intellectual faculties and potential capacities of the man are themselves the powers of his superior nature and spiritual reality; that is, his spirit—'the human spirit'.

Owing to the spirit and its powers, in a like manner that we humans overcome the limitations and pressing rules of the nature, we are capable and could overcome the effects of worldly sorrows, set-backs and calamities which may descend on us in the course of our physical lives—pending of course the relevant development of each of our spirits and spiritual growth at any given time and stage of our existence. Even if the hardships and struggles coming our ways may affect us, with ever-advancing spiritual strength and ever-growing spiritual powers innate in our souls, they may touch us and our being only on the surface, unable to take away our true joy and happiness.

Such a joy, such a happiness, created by and nourished and empowered with the spiritual forces of heavenly radiance and faith, will by turn attract positive energies to our thoughts and work, will empower our faculties of mind and its understanding, and will inspire our vision and foresight, leading us up to unimaginable heights of success and felicity. "Joy gives us wings!"*

“One of the bounties of religion and faith is the attainment of peace of the heart and soul and the joy of spirit and conscience. This station can only be gained through faith and understanding. Peace of mind is the soul's delight, as it is the means of acquiring that extraordinary state in which man finds happiness in times of affliction and tranquillity in trouble. In spite of poverty he acquires a sense of affluence and in a state of riches and power he offers help and protection to the weak because the well-assured soul is like a tree which has strong roots and is not shaken by any event. This cannot be attained except through complete faith and understanding.”

(Words of `Abdu’l-Baha, 29 November 1912, “Mahmud’s Diary”)