Baha’i Perspectives

nooshin March 10th, 2009

I read something last week that made me cry a little.  It’s a blog on grieving by Meghan O’Rourke, where she chronicles her bereavement after the death of her mother. 

It made me cry because she describes so well the devastation of death.  I recognized it because I lost my father eight years ago, only a few months after the death of my aunt.  One of the most poignant descriptions O’Rourke gives is that bereavement feels “like you’re pacing in the chilly dark outside a house with lit-up windows, wishing you could go inside. You feel clueless about the rules of shelter and solace in this new environment you’ve been exiled to“.

In the third instalment of the blog, O’Rourke touches on several theories of grief, including the one they taught us in Psych 101, Kübler-Ross’s five stages of grieving: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.   I tried to figure out if I had gone through the five stages, and in what order and how quickly.  And then I realized that perhaps a belief in an afterlife would affect how you cope with death.  If you see this life as an end to itself, then death has a finality and cruelty which would be hard to accept.

But if you believe that the soul is immortal, and that this life is just a period of its existence and not its whole, then death is not so much a “goodbye” as a “see you later”.  Even in the darkest days after my father’s death (from a car accident caused by a drunk driver), and the surreal wrongness of it all, I knew with all my heart that he was still with me, and in a better place.  And the Baha’i Writings on the nature of the human soul, and its journey towards God, were my constant solace. 

Bahá’u'lláh, the founder of the Baha’i Faith, gives the following explanation of the journey of the soul after death.

And now concerning thy question regarding the soul of man and its survival after death. 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. …

The Prophets and Messengers of God have been sent down for the sole purpose of guiding mankind to the straight Path of Truth. The purpose underlying Their revelation hath been to educate all men, that they may, at the hour of death, ascend, in the utmost purity and sanctity and with absolute detachment, to the throne of the Most High. The light which these souls radiate is responsible for the progress of the world and the advancement of its peoples.They are like unto leaven which leaveneth the world of being, and constitute the animating force through which the arts and wonders of the world are made manifest. …

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.When the soul attaineth the Presence of God, it will assume the form that best befitteth its immortality and is worthy of its celestial habitation.

O’Rourke talks about the great metaphor for picturing her mother’s existence after her death.  I picture my dad reading over my shoulder as I write this, because he always bugged me to become a writer.  And I imagine him playing backgammon and drinking coffee. But my favourite images of him are from the following Baha’i prayer (which is also inscribed on his tombstone):

O Lord, glorify his station, shelter him under the pavilion of Thy supreme mercy, cause him to enter Thy glorious paradise, and perpetuate his existence in Thine exalted rose garden, that he may plunge into the sea of light in the world of mysteries.

Tags: afterlife, spirituality

• Baha'i Concepts
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