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On today’s program, we are pleased to share with you excerpts from “The Seven Valleys,” written by Lord Bahá’u’lláh (vegetarian), collected and translated in the book “The Call of the Divine Beloved.” Here, we learn of the soul’s journey to unite with the Divine.“‘Show us the right way; that is, honor us with the love of Thine Essence, that we may be freed from occupation with ourselves and anything else save Thee, and may become wholly Thine; that we may know only Thee, and see only Thee, and think of none save Thee.’”“If thou be a man of communion and prayer, soar upon the wings of assistance from the holy ones, that thou may behold the mysteries of the Friend and attain the lights of the Beloved: ‘Verily, we are God’s, and to Him shall we return.’After passing through the Valley of Knowledge, which is the last station of limitation, the wayfarer comes to the First Station of Unity and drinks from the cup of oneness, and gazes upon the manifestations of singleness. In this station he pierces the veils of plurality, flees the realms of the flesh, and ascends unto the Heaven of unity. With the ear of God he hears; with the eye of God he beholds the mysteries of divine creation. He steps into the inner sanctuary of the Friend and, as an intimate, shares the pavilion of the Well-Beloved. He stretches forth the hand of truth from the sleeve of the Absolute and reveals the mysteries of divine power. He sees in himself neither name nor fame nor rank, but finds his own praise in the praise of God, and in the name of God beholds his own. To him ‘all songs are from that sovereign King’ and every melody from Him. He sits on the throne of ‘Say, all things are of God’ and reclines upon the seat of ‘There is no power nor strength but in God alone.’ He looks upon all things with the eye of Unity, and sees the effulgent rays of the Sun of Truth shining from the dayspring of the Divine Essence upon all created things alike, and beholds the lights of Unity reflected upon all creation.”“It is known to thine eminence that all the variations which the wayfarer in the stages of his journey beholds in the realms of being, proceed from his own vision. […] Yea, to the beetle a sweet fragrance seems foul, and to the man sick of a rheum a pleasant perfume avails nothing. Wherefore has it been said for the guidance of the ignorant: Cleanse thou the rheum from out thine head And breathe the breath of God instead.”
