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Bahai Soul Explained
Bahai Soul This is an article posted by Jack McLean who is a Bahai scholar, teacher, essayist and poet published in the fields of spirituality, theology and poetry in Ottawa and is in answer to the question “What is the nature of our soul?” With belief in the soul, an article of faith common to all religions, with the exception of Buddhism, we enter into the heart of religion. The soul has, of course, both secular and sacred meanings. Kia motors is now manufacturing a car called Soul. I suppose it means that the vehicles touches your soul or represents some sort of materialization of soul, or like the soul, it travels. We speak of “soul music,” which combines gospel music—the soul connection—and rhythm and blues. When we are joyful or grieve, it is the soul that is affected.
But in spiritual or metaphysical terms, the soul represents our original divine identity, an entity created by God, a divine endowment, for whose care we are directly responsible. The soul is that immortal reality that survives the death of the physical body. So belief in the soul is absolutely essential to spiritual life, for much hangs on it. It is the ne plus ultra of the human’s divine life. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (1844-1921), the son of the Prophet-Founder Bahá’u’lláh (1817-1892), and the authorized interpreter of his teachings, wrote in an extended letter to the distinguished Swiss psychiatrist and entomologist (ant-scientist), co-founder of the neuron theory, Dr. Auguste Forel (1848-1931): “It is through the power of the soul that the mind comprehendeth, imagineth and exerteth its influence, whilst the soul is a power that is free.
The mind comprehendeth the abstract by the aid of the concrete, but the soul hath limitless manifestations of its own. The mind is circumscribed, the soul limitless. It is by the aid of such senses as those of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, that the mind comprehendeth, whereas the soul is free from all agencies. The soul as thou observest, whether it be in sleep or waking, is in motion and ever active. Possibly it may, whilst in a dream, unravel an intricate problem, incapable of solution in the waking state” (Tablet to August Forel, p. 7). Bahá’u’lláh writes: “The soul of man is the sun by which his body is illumined, and from which it draweth its sustenance, and should be so regarded” (Gleanings, p. 153). Bahai Soul Explained
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