From reading about the Rastafari and Baha'i faiths, I started wondering about the founders, leaders, and prominent people of the religions. I thought it was interesting that Haile Selassie was believed to be God incarnated by the Rastas, and he was alive during this time, but not much is available about what he says or believes. It's like he's revered from a distance and isn't really a part of the religion himself.
Baha'u'llah, on the other hand, started off following another man and his beliefs and ended up becoming a leader, and then proclaiming himself as "He Whom God shall make manifest." In this biography, we got to see his life and writings and how the Baha'i faith came about.
What makes these interesting to me is that they are so recent. Although I am not religious, pretty much the only exposure I've had during most of my life has been to Christianity. All the prophets and prominent people of that religion lived so long ago. Part of the reason I had trouble believing all of it was because I didn't see any prove. How could you prove something that happened so long ago? That's not to say that I believe all the claims of the more recent religions, but it's something more new to me, that interests me.
I enjoyed reading about Baha'u'llah because I got a sense of the kind of person that founds a religion. Even though some of it is a little hard to believe, you still see parts of his personality. I still would like to get inside his head more though, see his motivations for his actions. Did he truly believe the whole time that he was this messianic figure? Did he have doubts about himself and his cause when people were getting killed and his family was turning against him? Of course, knowing this would probably make him less of a religious figure because of the flawed human qualities it would show. But it's something I've always been curious about.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Sounds like a challenge of discovery.
ReplyDelete'Course this is just a story....
"Bahá'u'lláh was in a garden; great birds flew overhead; they attacked Him, yet they were powerless to harm Him. He was bathing in the sea, and began to swim in a vast, limitless ocean; His body shone out, and illuminated the sea! Above the waters, His long, jet-black locks, stood forth, floating in great profusion above the waves in all directions. Large numbers of fish gathered around Him, each fish holding fast to the end of a hair with its mouth. There were every kind of fish: large fish, small fish, white and black: and wherever He swam, they followed the light of His face. Such a vast number of fish clinging so tightly, caused no damage: not even a hair was lost from His head. Free and unrestrained, Bahá'u'lláh moved above the waters, with all the fish following His light.
His father was stunned by this dream, and with the Shah's permission, laid it before his well-known seer. The seer, swept away with amazement, explained how the garden and its birds, and the limitless ocean with its fish, were the world of existence, and its people, and that Bahá'u'lláh would single-handedly triumph over it, unhindered and alone; yet, he declared himself quite unable to imagine how it could ever come to pass. So His father took him to see Bahá'u'lláh, who was just a Child of five, and his praise and admiration of Bahá'u'lláh was so profuse, and so great his concern that He be protected, that His father became yet more passionately devoted to Him."