Baha'i Perspectives

shadi April 26th, 2008

Today marks the one year anniversary of the passing of my beloved friend, Naiyareh, affectionately known as “Nai.” Nai is one of the most life-giving, joyful people I know. Whether at Baha’i celebrations or feasts, weddings, baby showers, birthday celebrations, what have you; Nai was always in the midst of everything – helping, laughing, right where she was needed. What a beautiful smile! She also made some of the best bakhlavas in town and taught me how to make them once she found out I was a big fan. In short – I miss her insanely.

A year has passed since her fatal car accident, and I find myself sometimes still brooding, still wondering why someone so young and lovely would exit this plane of existence that suddenly. At these times of sorrow, I turn to the Baha’i writings for guidance. Abdu’l-Baha eloquently describes death with the following analogy:

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. Our body is like the cage, and the spirit is like the bird. We see that without the cage this bird flies in the world of sleep; therefore if the cage becomes broken, the bird will continue and exist: its feelings will be even more powerful, its perceptions greater, and its happiness increased. In truth, from hell it reaches a paradise of delights, because for the thankful birds there is no paradise greater than freedom from the cage.

I, along with the many people who were touched by Nai, miss her physical presence incredibly. Knowing and believing that Nai is even happier now than she was in this physical world helps turn my brooding into joy. In another beautiful passage by Abdu’l-Baha, He reveals to a mother the thoughts of her child in the next world:

That beloved child addresseth thee from the hidden world: ‘O thou kind Mother, thank divine Providence that I have been freed from a small and gloomy cage and, like the birds of the meadows, have soared to the divine world — a world which is spacious, illumined, and ever gay and jubilant. Therefore, lament not, O Mother, and be not grieved; I am not of the lost, nor have I been obliterated and destroyed. I have shaken off the mortal form and have raised my banner in this spiritual world. Following this separation is everlasting companionship. Thou shalt find me in the heaven of the Lord, immersed in an ocean of light.

Nai lived her 27 earthly years with passion, and left this world remembered and missed by so many of us because of the enthusiasm with which she served others, the sincerity of her speech and deeds, and her consistent humility. Her memory compels me to live the rest of my life in this world with intention and meaning. And so, on this day, as on so many others, I remember her with gratitude.

Tags: afterlife

• Baha'i Concepts , General Interest
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