Today as Bahai's around the world celebrate The Festival of Ridvan – the holiest and happiest days of the Baha’i year and an auspicious time to establish new projects dedicated to the service of God. I launch my 'new and improved' Baha'i Comment website; BahaiComment.com
It conveniently synchronises with the advent of a strange new world into which our entire planet has been rudely thrust. Over recent weeks the media has struggled to find appropriate phrases to describe today's extraordinary experience of the Covid Pandemic; 'a modern plague', 'uncharted waters'. The capitalist world bewails a 'deep-freeze for the economy'.
Everyone wants someone to find a solution. But its sheer enormity is overwhelming, too hard to fully comprehend or plan for. Many lament the possibility of ever creating a 'new normal'. But in the eyes of a philosopher, sage or religious person, this situation is not new.
In the Old Testament of the Bible, the great King Solomon asserted “There Is Nothing New Under The Sun” -- Ecclesiastes 1:4-11 With these words he dramatically foretold present circumstances on earth, referring to an aspect overlooked by most modern observers - the folly of human existence when the workings of God are omitted.
No matter how exciting life may seem to be “under the sun,” ultimately, it has no value without God. The present time can be seen as the "final dance on the part of wisdom, [the] conclusion of the ways of man". In Solomon's time it signified an end-point to the unfoldment of human wisdom found in the Old Testament, opening the way for the advent of the New that would soon be manifest in the teachings of Christ. 'New' in our present time is the advent of Baha'ullah.
God has never left His creation without guidance. Since the Beginning that was no Beginning - existence being timeless - people over the face of the planet have received great Teachers, Gurus and Holy Souls, singing the same divine song in different words and different voices. This great process will ever continue into the future as part of the eternal unfoldment of human development.
And with each new season in the unfoldment of human civilisation, we experience tests that oblige us to identify new solutions and implement greater skills.