UNITY IS KEY TO WORLD PEACE

Baha’u'llah has written
“The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established. ”
“So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.”…

Abdul Baha has written
“Unity is necessary to existence. Love is the very cause of life, on the other hand, separation brings death. In the world of material creation…all things owe their actual life to unity. The elements which compose wood, mineral, or stone are held together by the law of attraction..So is it with the great body of humanity.”

Contemplating on these words, I realise that we will not solve our problems be it environmental, racial harmony, the global economy etc, until we achieve this unity. Yet, we have it all backwards. We have this idea that unity is this far off goal for which we must first solve all these problems to achieve.

Having it backwards is why we seem to be going deeper and deeper into the troubles of our own making.

Equality of men and women



Baha’i writings about women:

“The equality of men and women is not, at the present time, universally applied. In those areas where traditional inequality still hampers its progress, Baha'is are called to take the lead in practicing the equality of men and women. Baha’i women and girls are encouraged to take part in the social, spiritual and administrative activities of their communities.”..She must become proficient in the arts and sciences and prove by her accomplishments that her abilities and powers have merely been latent. Demonstrations of force, are neither becoming nor effective in the cause of womanhood and equality.” “Women must endeavor to attain greater perfection, to be men’s equal in every respect, to make progress in all in which she has been backward, so that men will be compelled to acknowledge her equality of capacity and attainment”

Importance of equality given a high station in Baha’i faith.

“The emancipation of women, the achievement of full equality between the sexes, is one of the most important, though less acknowledged prerequisites of peace. The denial of such equality perpetrates an injustice against one half of the world’s population and promotes in men harmful attitudes and habits, which are carried from the family, to the workplace, to political life, and ultimately to international relations. There are no grounds, moral, practical, or biological, upon which such denial can be justified. Only as women are welcomed into full partnership in all fields of human endeavor will the moral and psychological climate be created in which international peace can emerge.”

While we empower ourselves, we need to educate men on how we approach things differently, and we need to learn also the rules of their game…so we can understand… much of the conflict is because of lack of understanding on both sides. This has been called the Age of women…. But this is not a gender issue. This is a quality…. for men as well as women.. With the balancing of the male and female aspects of mankind, will we see true progress in any venture we undertake including the Internet.

. “The world of humanity has two wings- one is women and the other men. Not until both wings are equally developed can the bird fly. Should one wing remain weak, flight is impossible. Not until the world of women become equal to the world of men in the acquisitions of virtues and perfection’s, can success and prosperity be attained as they ought to be”

“The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established. ”

In the Baha'i writings, Abdul Baha describes how world unity shall come about through the seven candles:
•The first candle is unity in the political realm
•The second candle is unity of thought in world undertakings
•The third candle is unity in freedom
•The fourth candle is unity in religion
•The fifth candle is the unity of nations -causing all the peoples of the world to regard themselves as citizens of one common fatherland
•The sixth candle is unity of races, making all that dwell on earth peoples and kindreds of one race
•The seventh candle is unity of language- the choice of a universal tongue in which all peoples will be instructed and converse.

We are very lucky in this age that we live in times where the oneness of mankind is a lot easier to visualise. We have global aviation, telecommunication satellites, global broadcasting that brings events such as in Tienammen square right into our living rooms. Through the birth of things like computer networks and the Internet, we are beginning to link mentally as well as physically. In fact. Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon is reported to experienced instant global consciousness looking at the earth from the moon.

YET WE HAVE PROBLEMS STILL TODAY…..
this linking will not happen because of technology alone. Technology is but a tool and can in fact be used either way, as a tool for creation or destruction. We still have problems today…… The next level of linkage that needs to happen is the linking of consciousness- a linking of soul-to-soul.

The deeper implications of this Oneness of Mankind, implies an organic change in the structure of present day society, a change such as the world has not yet experienced. It represents the consummation of human evolution- the next step is the high synergistic society where there will be a linking together of the consciousness of mankind..