Journey of the Soul

Someone asked:

"How should one look forward to death?"

The answer: " How does one look forward to the end of any journey? With hope and
with expectation."
Create in me a pure heart, O my God, and renew a tranquil conscience within
me, O my Hope! Through the spirit of power confirm Thou me in Thy Cause, O
my Best-Beloved, and by the light of Thy glory reveal unto me Thy path, O Thou
the Goal of my desire! Through the power of Thy transcendent might lift me up
unto the heaven of Thy holiness, O Source of my being, and by the breezes of
Thine eternity gladden me, O Thou Who art my God! Let Thine everlasting
melodies breathe tranquillity on me, O my Companion, and let the riches of
Thine ancient countenance deliver me from all except Thee, O my Master, and
let the tidings of the revelation of Thine incorruptible Essence bring me joy, O
Thou Who art the most manifest of the manifest and the most hidden of the
hidden!
Bahá’u’lláh

O God, my God! These are Thy feeble servants; they are Thy loyal bondsmen
and Thy handmaidens, who have bowed themselves down before Thine exalted
Utterance and humbled themselves at Thy Threshold of light, and borne witness
to Thy oneness through which the Sun hath been made to shine in midday
splendor. They have listened to the summons Thou didst raise from out Thy
hidden Realm, and with hearts quivering with love and rapture, they have
responded to Thy call.
O Lord, shower upon them all the outpourings of Thy mercy, rain down upon
them all the waters of Thy grace. Make them to grow as beauteous plants in the
garden of heaven, and from the full and brimming clouds of Thy bestowals and
out of the deep pools of Thine abounding grace make Thou this garden to flower,
and keep it ever green and lustrous, ever fresh and shimmering and fair.

Thou art, verily, the Mighty, the Exalted, the Powerful, He Who alone, in the
heavens and on the earth, abideth unchanged. There is none other God save
Thee, the Lord of manifest tokens and signs.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá

O Son of the Supreme! I have made death a messenger of joy to thee.

Wherefore dost thou grieve? I made the light to shed on thee its splendor. Why
dost thou veil thyself therefrom?

Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh

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 The Soul
Verily I say, the human soul is, in its essence, one of the signs of God, a mystery
among His mysteries."

God has created man and endowed him with powers of advancement towards
spiritual and transcendent heights."

Thou hast asked me concerning the nature of the soul. Know verily that the soul is
a sign of God, a heavenly gem whose reality the most learned of men hath failed to
grasp, and whose mystery no mind, however acute, can ever hope to unravel. It is
the first among all created things to declare the excellence of its Creator, the first
to recognise His glory, to cleave to His truth, and to bow down in adoration before
Him."

Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah,

With regard to the soul of man: According to the Bahá'í Teachings the human soul
starts with the formation of the human embryo, and continues to develop and pass
through endless stages of existence after its separation from the body. Its progress
is thus infinite.

Shoghi Effend

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In man there are two natures; his spiritual or higher nature and his material or
lower nature. In one he approaches God, in the other he lives for the world
alone. Signs of both these natures are to be found in men. In his material aspect
he expresses untruth, cruelty and injustice; all these are the outcome of his lower
nature. The attributes of his Divine nature are shown forth in love, mercy,
kindness, truth and justice, one and all being expressions of his higher nature.
Every good habit, every noble quality belongs to man's spiritual nature, whereas
all his imperfections and sinful actions are born of his material nature. If a man's
Divine nature dominates his human nature, we have a saint.

'Abdu'l-Bahá, Paris Talks

Bahá'u'lláh taught that individuals have no existence previous to their life here on earth.
Neither is the soul reborn several times in different bodies. He explained, rather, that the
soul's evolution is always towards God and away from the material world. A human being
spends nine months in the womb in preparation for entry into this physical life. During that
nine-month period, the fetus acquires the physical tools (e.g., eyes, limbs, and so forth)
necessary for existence in this world. Similarly, this physical world is like a womb for entry
into the spiritual world. Our time here is thus a period of preparation during which we are to
acquire the spiritual and intellectual tools necessary for life in the next world.

The crucial difference is that, whereas physical development in the mother's womb is
involuntary, spiritual and intellectual development in this world depends strictly on conscious
individual effort:

“The incomparable Creator hath created all men from one same
substance, and hath exalted their reality above the rest of His
creatures. Success or failure, gain or loss, must, therefore,
depend upon man's own exertions. The more he striveth, the
greater will be his progress.” Baha'u'llah

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 Life as Preparation for Death
The mind and spirit of man advance when he is tried by suffering. The more the
ground is ploughed the better the seed will grow, the better the harvest will
be. Just as the plough furrows the earth deeply, purifying it of weeds and thistles,
so suffering and tribulation free man from the petty affairs of this worldly life
until he arrives at a state of complete detachment, His attitude in this world will
be that of divine happiness. Man is, so to speak, unripe: the heat of the fire of
suffering will mature him. Look back to the times past and you will find that the
greatest men have suffered most. [...] Through suffering he will attain to an
eternal happiness which nothing can take from him.

To consider that after the death of the body the spirit perishes, is like imagining
that a bird in a cage will be destroyed if the cage is broken, though the bird has
nothing to fear from the destruction of the cage."

`Abdu'l-Bahá, Paris Talks

Blessed is the soul which, at the hour of its separation from the body, is sanctified
from the vain imaginings of the people of the world. Such a soul liveth and
moveth in accordance with the Will of its Creator, and entereth the all-highest
Paradise.

Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah

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 Life in the next world

The world beyond is as different from this world as this world is different from
that of the child while still in the womb of its mother."

The difference and distinction between men will naturally become realised after
their departure from this mortal world. But this distinction is not in respect to
place, but in respect to the soul and conscience. For the Kingdom of God is
sanctified (or free) from time and place; it is another world and another universe.

Know thou of a truth that the soul, after its separation from the body, will
continue to progress until it attaineth the presence of God, in a state and
condition which neither the revolution of ages and centuries, nor the changes and
chances of this world, can alter. It will endure as long as the Kingdom of God, His
sovereignty, His dominion and power will endure. It will manifest the signs of
God and His attributes, and will reveal His loving-kindness and bounty.

The progress of man's spirit in the divine world... is through the bounty and grace
of the Lord alone, or through the intercession and the sincere prayers of other
human souls, or through the charities and important good works which are
performed in its name.

The rewards of the other world are peace, the spiritual graces, the various
spiritual gifts in the Kingdom of God, the gaining of the desires of the heart and
soul, and the meeting of God in the world of eternity. In the same way the
punishments of the other world, that is to say, the torments of the other world,
consist in being deprived of the special divine blessings and the absolute
bounties, and falling into the lowest degrees of existence. He who is deprived of
these divine favours, though he continues after death, is considered as dead by
the people of truth.

Bahá’u’lláh

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O son of spirit! My first counsel is this: Possess a pure, kindly and radiant
heart, that thine may be a sovereignty ancient, imperishable and everlasting

O son of man! Thou art My dominion and My dominion perisheth not,

wherefore fearest thou thy perishing? Thou art My light and My light shall never
be extinguished, why dost thou dread extinction? Thou art My glory and My glory
fadeth not; thou art My robe and My robe shall never be outworn. Abide then in
thy love for Me, that thou mayest find Me in the realm of glory.

Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh

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 Souls Will Recognise One Another
As for thy question whether the souls will recognise each other in the spiritual
world: This fact is certain; for the Kingdom is the world of vision where all
concealed realities will become disclosed.

Likewise a love that one may have entertained for anyone will not be forgotten in
the world of the Kingdom, nor wilt thou forget there the life thou hadst in the
material world.

Those who have ascended have different attributes (conditions) from those who
are still on earth, yet there is no real separation. In prayer there is a mingling of
stations, a mingling of conditions. Pray for them as they pray for you

Baha’i writings

O my God! O Thou forgiver of sins, bestower of gifts, dispeller of

afflictions! Verily, I beseech thee to forgive the sins of such as have abandoned
the physical garment and have ascended to the spiritual world.

O my Lord! Purify them from trespasses, dispel their sorrows, and change their
darkness into light. Cause them to enter the garden of happiness, cleanse them
with the most pure water, and grant them to behold Thy splendors on the loftiest
mount.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá

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O Thou forgiving Lord!Although some souls have spent the days of their lives
in ignorance, and became estranged and contumacious, yet, with one wave from
the ocean of Thy forgiveness, all those encompassed by sin will be set free.
Whomsoever Thou willest Thou makest a confidant, and whosoever is not the
object of Thy choice is accounted a transgressor. Shouldst Thou deal with us with
Thy justice, we are all naught but sinners and deserving to be shut out from Thee,
but shouldst Thou uphold mercy, every sinner would be made pure and every
stranger a friend. Bestow, then, Thy forgiveness and pardon, and grant Thy
mercy unto all.
Thou art the Forgiver, the Lightgiver and the Omnipotent.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá