As soon as a soul begins to wonder, not what he can do to please himself, but what he ought to do; when he allows himself to consider the difference between right and wrong; when he begins to ponder the purpose of his life; when, in other words, he becomes a person of discernment, he has taken the first step away from true godlessness. Truth and Right and Justice and Mercy are Names of God, and whoever seeks those is on the path to seeking God. Many a self-styled atheist is not really an atheist at all; he is merely a person who has seen beyond the superficialities of traditional religion in his search for truth. I think this is what we're seeing happen now in the East. People who are theoretical atheists, many of them, have been at heart truly spiritual people and merely haven't known what they were looking for, and now they're finding it.
When he starts to think in that way, any person, atheist or not, will begin to look around for examples, for patterns of behaviour that are apparently successful and which he can follow to achieve similar success. He will start out with a whole range of behaviour patterns that he has learned from childhood. These he may maintain, or he may discard them for other patterns. But even then, unless he finds a central point of reference outside himself, he will find it very difficult to rise above his current level. It's like pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps-- you just can't do it.
So long as he remains the centre of his own universe, he remains limited by his own nature. Alas, we have all met members of the Baha'i community who have suffered from this limitation. Take, for example, someone who is afire for social justice and who, from his own experience in life and from ideas that he has drawn from others, has evolved a philosophy of social reform that is very close to the teachings of Baha'u'llah. When he meets the Faith, he finds a whole community of people with similar ideas. He declares himself a Baha'i and is registered as a member of the community. If his attraction does not develop into true understanding of the teachings and into obedience to Baha'u'llah, he sooner or later meets with Baha'i teachings which do not fit into his own philosophy, so he challenges them and tries to change the Faith to be closer to his own ideals. He does not succeed, so, in disillusionment, he leaves the Faith and drifts off to link up with others of like mind with whom, in due course, he comes again to disagree. Because he is self-centred he remains alone, in a sense, throughout his life. He may connect with some people but then break up again.
Thus, for the full development of the individual soul, and to enable it to work in harmony with other souls for the evolution of human society, it is essential for each human being to recognize the insufficiency of his own self and
To admit that God is God, to accept that one is but a small part of His creation, and to understand that the fruition of the exercise of one's own independent authority is to surrender it to the authority of God, can be a very humbling and painful experience. Once done, however, it brings an accession of joy and strength that can scarcely be imagined, because one ceases to be alone, one becomes a willing integral part of the whole motion of the universe. It is a revelation of the mystery of sacrifice and of the astonishing fact that
~ Mr. Ian Semple on 26 July 1991 in the Reception Concourse of the Seat of the Universal House of Justice in connection with the Spiritual Enrichment Programme at the Baha'i World Centre
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