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Detachment And The Seeker Of Truth
Bahá'u'lláh, Founder of the Bahá'í Faith, in much of His Writings emphatically exhorts all people, especially religious seekers, to independently investigate truth. In the Hidden Words, a book of pithy aphorisms, Bahá'u'lláh writes:"O SON OF SPIRIT! The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. Ponder this in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to be. Verily justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving-kindness. Set it then before thine eyes." (Part I, no. 2)
In this maxim, Bahá'u'lláh enjoins on the seeker to avoid seeing "though the eyes of others," but rather to use his "own eyes"—that is, when investigating religion (or anything else for that matter), all preconceived notions and prejudices should be abandoned in order that the truth may be perceived. Indeed, as stated in the above quotation from the Kitáb-i-Íqan (The Book of Certitude), the seeker should be detached to the point that in his heart "no remnant of either love or hate may linger therein." Attachments of any kind will deter the seeker from making an unbiased assessment in his investigation. According to the Bahá'í Writings, God has given man the capacity to discover the truth for himself. Therefore what others think or say—whether true or not—is irrelevant to the seeker of truth. This is an individual spiritual quest, and it is therefore the seeker alone who must determine, with the faculties that God has endowed him with, the truth for himself.
Pertinent to this matter is another Hidden Word by Bahá'u'lláh:
"O MAN OF TWO VISIONS! Close one eye and open the other. Close one to the world and all that is therein, and open the other to the hallowed beauty of the Beloved." (Part II, no. 12)
This is an issue of great moment, for Bahá'u'lláh indicates the level of detachment that one should have to this worldly existence, and obversely, the level of attachment that is necessary to the spiritual realm. How can the seeker begin to comprehend—to even the slightest degree—the mysteries of God, while enrapt in this ephemeral life' Bahá'u'lláh rhetorically states,
"O MY FRIEND IN WORD! Ponder awhile. Hast thou ever heard that friend and foe should abide in one heart' Cast out then the stranger, that the Friend may enter His home." (no. 26)
The "foe" in this instance is human attachment to the material sphere, or materialism. If it is the case that, as Bahá'u'lláh says in the next Hidden Word, "all that is in heaven and earth I have ordained for thee, except the human heart, which I have made the habitation of My beauty and glory," then we can never hope to decipher the truth while in a materialistic state of mind, since our hearts are "occupied" in such a case. The endeavor of the spiritual investigation of truth is not one that is to be met suppositionally, or merely intellectually. In fact, if one looks back on religious history (i.e., Christianity, Islam), one will readily admit that in the majority of cases when the Beloved appeared, the intellectuals of the time were the first to reject Him, along with the religious leaders. They were kept back from recognizing Him since, despite how intelligent or well-versed they were, they subscribed to their material natures (e.g., lust for leadership) rather than their spiritual ones. Says Bahá'u'lláh: "The learned and the wise have for long years striven and failed to attain the presence of the All-Glorious; they have spent their lives in search of Him, yet did not behold the beauty of His countenance" (no. 22).