Christ announced, "That which is born of
the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,"
meaning that man must be born again. As the babe is born into the light of this
physical world, so must the physical and intellectual man be born into the
light of the world of Divinity. In the matrix of the mother the unborn child
was deprived and unconscious of the world of material existence, but after its
birth it beheld the wonders and beauties of a new realm of life and being. In
the world of the matrix it was utterly ignorant and unable to conceive of these
new conditions, but after its transformation it discovers the radiant sun,
trees, flowers and an infinite range of blessings and bounties awaiting it. In
the human plane and kingdom man is a captive of nature and ignorant of the
divine world until born of the breaths of the Holy Spirit out of physical
conditions of limitation and deprivation. Then he beholds the reality of the
spiritual realm and Kingdom, realizes the narrow restrictions of the mere human
world of existence and becomes conscious of the unlimited and infinite glories
of the world of God. Therefore, no matter how man may advance upon the physical
and intellectual plane, he is ever in need of the boundless virtues of
Divinity, the protection of the Holy Spirit and the face of God.
(‘Abdu'l-Baha, ‘The Promulgation of Universal Peace’, Talks Delivered by ‘Abdu'l-Bahá during His Visit to the United States and Canada in 1912’)
(‘Abdu'l-Baha, ‘The Promulgation of Universal Peace’, Talks Delivered by ‘Abdu'l-Bahá during His Visit to the United States and Canada in 1912’)
