Baha’i Perspectives

iman February 12th, 2008

As people scurry around last minute to purchase chocolates and flowers for Valentine’s Day — and stationary stores run out of anything bearing even the slightest resemblance to everyone’s favourite pulmonary organ — let us take time out to reflect on the story of Mr and Mrs O’Connor.

This NY Times story caught my attention a couple of months ago. It is about former US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who watches as her husband battles with Alzheimer’s disease in an assisted-living center. In brief, Judge O’Connor watches as Mr. O’Connor falls for another woman, but far from feeling upset or remorseful about the situation, she is actually overjoyed to see him happy after so long. The article continues by discussing the nature of “old love” as opposed to romantic love, in the context of discovering love’s true meaning.

Abdu’l-Baha provides us with a beautiful summary of the four kinds of true love that exist:

What a power is love! It is the most wonderful, the greatest of all living powers.

Love gives life to the lifeless. Love lights a flame in the heart that is cold. Love brings hope to the hopeless and gladdens the hearts of the sorrowful.

In the world of existence there is indeed no greater power than the power of love. When the heart of man is aglow with the flame of love, he is ready to sacrifice all — even his life. In the Gospel it is said God is love.

• There are four kinds of love. The first is the love that flows from God to man; it consists of the inexhaustible graces, the Divine effulgence and heavenly illumination. Through this love the world of being receives life. Through this love man is endowed with physical existence, until, through the breath of the Holy Spirit — this same love — he receives eternal life and becomes the image of the Living God. This love is the origin of all the love in the world of creation.

• The second is the love that flows from man to God. This is faith, attraction to the Divine, enkindlement, progress, entrance into the Kingdom of God, receiving the Bounties of God, illumination with the lights of the Kingdom. This love is the origin of all philanthropy; this love causes the hearts of men to reflect the rays of the Sun of Reality.

• The third is the love of God towards the Self or Identity of God. This is the transfiguration of His Beauty, the reflection of Himself in the mirror of His Creation. This is the reality of love, the Ancient Love, the Eternal Love. Through one ray of this Love all other love exists.

And finally, the unselfish kind of love demonstrated by Judge O’Connor towards her husband:

• The fourth is the love of man for man. The love which exists between the hearts of believers is prompted by the ideal of the unity of spirits. This love is attained through the knowledge of God, so that men see the Divine Love reflected in the heart. Each sees in the other the Beauty of God reflected in the soul, and finding this point of similarity, they are attracted to one another in love. This love will make all men the waves of one sea, this love will make them all the stars of one heaven and the fruits of one tree. This love will bring the realization of true accord, the foundation of real unity.

(Abdu’l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 180)

Tags: love

• Baha'i Concepts , Inspiration , Society
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