SERVICE: Adopting a spiritual attitude to financial prosperity

A fascinating article on the US Bahá'í website about a couple that offers courses in financial planning states in part that to a very great extent, wealth lies "in knowledge about budgeting, spending and investing." One of their workshops is titled "Riding the Financial Waves: Wealth and Prosperity Through Character Education." A positive review of a few of the principles they teach is found in the article "Facts About..." included below.

Their company is called Mind Treasures (see their website here).
Besides the virtue of service, the endeavor incorporates understanding for the living of a better life.

The Bahá'í writings also emphasize the importance of wealth. Bahá'u'lláh says:

...man should know his own self and recognize that which leadeth unto loftiness or lowliness, glory or abasement, wealth or poverty. Having attained the stage of fulfilment and reached his maturity, man standeth in need of wealth, and such wealth as he acquireth through crafts or professions is commendable and praiseworthy in the estimation of men of wisdom, and especially in the eyes of servants who dedicate themselves to the education of the world and to the edification of its peoples... (1)

Facts About Making Socially Responsible Investing

By Alvero Godwillas, Published Jun 28, 2007

An awareness of the guidelines for socially responsible investing can open-up a path to wealth. That fact stands out to any viewer of the web site www.mindtreasures.com. Alex Mazloom, the operator of that site has done an excellent job of presenting the many "treasures" about socially responsible investing.

Mazloom's treasures help to define the meaning of responsible investing. His treasures unearth the relation between responsible investing and concern for others. His web site equates responsible investing with a willingness to dedicate money to the welfare of society.

The information on mindtreasures.com acts like a series of guideposts on the road to responsible investing. The web site slants its material toward younger adults. It includes quotes such as this: "Having attained the stage of fulfillment and reached his maturity, man standeth in need of wealth, and such wealth as he acquireth through crafts or professions is commendable and praiseworthy..."

The facts about responsible investing incorporate the information in the above "guideposts." In the following paragraphs, the reader will find details on that information. Those details pull-back the curtain on the best ways to amass and handle wealth.

Education represents the first step on the road to responsible investing. The future investor should acquire a deeper understanding of wealth. Possession of many material goods does not show the possession of material means.

An appreciation of that fact should lead to a better feel for how to manage money. That is another valuable fact, a fact that relates to responsible investing. Management of money requires formation of a good financial strategy.

Obviously the earning of money should be part of any financial strategy. The treasures of the mind ought to include knowledge about many different ways to acquire wealth. There is no one way to get rich. Older adults often obscure that fact from the eyes and ears of younger adults.

Many older adults are like the men in the movie The Graduate, starring Dustin Hoffman. Those men give the graduate all manner of advice, such as "Try plastics." They present opinions, not facts.

It is a fact that education should be part of responsible investing. Youth should put money and time into getting a good education. That fact was illustrated in a second Hollywood movie, Stand and Deliver. During that movie the math teacher drives with a student down a road. He comes to a dead end. He then says that a life plan that does not incorporate education puts a person on a road with a dead end.

Some of the treasures on Mazloom's web site put education in the limelight. One of those treasures offers these words of wisdom: "Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone cause it to reveal its treasures and enable mankind to benefit therefrom."

]The above quote highlights the connection between education and responsible investing. Education is an investment. Society benefits from that investment. The knowledge gained in school, or in a training program, can allow a person to better utilize his or her talents.

A person who has found a way to fully utilize his or her talents is bound to contribute to society. He or she stands an excellent chance of becoming a socially responsible investor. That fact offers far greater challenges than a push to "try plastics." (2)


Notes:

(1) Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh Revealed After the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, p. 35
(2) Review taken from the website (corrected slightly here by me):
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/291305/facts_about_making_socially_responsible.html
The author's quotes are from the Bahá'í writings unless otherwise stated.

DETACHMENT and RESPONSIBILITY: Violence against women - 45 % of married men in an Indian state acknowledged physically abusing their wives

An article in CBC news (Canada) highlights the alarmingly high incidence of abuse against women in Indian families. In it, such violence is characterized as "deep-rooted. Women are abused at the point of conception."

The following horrifying story and report is indicative of the gravity of the problem, and of the desperate condition of human society in general. It adds perspective to the words of Bahá'u'lláh when He observes:

Witness how the world is being afflicted with a fresh calamity every day. Its tribulation is continually deepening... [The world's] sickness is approaching the stage of utter hopelessness, inasmuch as the true Physician is debarred from administering the remedy, whilst unskilled practitioners are regarded with favor, and are accorded full freedom to act. …The dust of sedition hath clouded the hearts of men, and blinded their eyes... (1)

Might not some detachment and responsibility be of assistance to the aggressors here?

Last Saturday, in the heart of India's south New Delhi, two men poured acid and gasoline on Tarveen Suri, 36, then set her on fire. They burned 80 per cent of her body. Police are investigating what they call a "strained" relationship with her husband.

Suri is just one of thousands of Indian women attacked yearly as a result of domestic violence. A UNICEF report in 2000 stated 45 per cent of married men in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh acknowledged physically abusing their wives during marriage.

That same report states that 5,000 women are killed by their husbands and in-laws each year in "accidental" kitchen fires. Other killings take the form of acid attacks and honour killings. Yet other atrocious behaviour plaguing some Indian women includes bride burning, female infanticide, eviction of widows and murders over dowry issues. ...

Old traditions die hard

Abuse of south Asian women isn't just confined to India and Pakistan. When immigrants seek a new life in Canada, sometimes the old traditions die hard. In the past year, several B.C. women of Indo-Canadian descent have died as a result of domestic violence. They include Manjit Panghali, a young mother whose body was found burned in October by a roadside in Delta. Her husband, Mukhtiar Panghali, was charged in connection with her death. That same month, Navreet Kaur Waraich, the mother of a four-month-old boy, was stabbed to death in Surrey. Her husband, Jatinder, has been charged.
Sadeqa Siddiqui, co-ordinator of Montreal's South Asian Community Women's Centre, says, "The problem is that women are considered second-class citizens. This is a male society — men are ruling."

The Hidden Words of Bahá'u'lláh poignantly address such ingrained assumptions of superiority or authority towards other human beings:

O Children of Men! Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other. Ponder at all times in your hearts how ye were created. Since We have created you all from one same substance it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest. Such is My counsel to you, O concourse of light! Heed ye this counsel that ye may obtain the fruit of holiness from the tree of wondrous glory. (2)

The article contiues:

Narang says many young boys grow up with violence in the home and end up repeating it with their own wives. Educating them to change their behaviour is important. Men must be told that their attitudes need to shift and that it's a human rights issue, she says. As well, Narang says women need to be taught they're not objects of abuse just because they've seen their mothers and grandmothers in that situation.

"Society needs to know that it was happening 100 years ago, but in the 21st century we are not going to take it. Abuse is abuse."

Thankfully, as the article indicates, the necessary efforts to educate the new generations in proper human attitudes, values and conduct are under way. This is in accordance with Bahá'í precepts, which underline the centrality of education and proper schooling for the civilizing of humanity. 'Abdu'l-Bahá says:

The root cause of wrongdoing is ignorance, and we must therefore hold fast to the tools of perception and knowledge. Good character must be taught. Light must be spread afar, so that, in the school of humanity, all may acquire the heavenly characteristics of the spirit, and see for themselves beyond any doubt that there is no fiercer Hell, no more fiery abyss, than to possess a character that is evil and unsound... The individual must be educated to such a high degree that he would rather have his throat cut than tell a lie, and would think it easier to be slashed with a sword or pierced with a spear than to utter calumny or be carried away by wrath. Thus will be kindled the sense of human dignity and pride, to burn away the reapings of lustful appetites... It followeth that the children’s school must be a place of utmost discipline and order, that instruction must be thorough, and provision must be made for the rectification and refinement of character; so that, in his earliest years, within the very essence of the child, the divine foundation will be laid and the structure of holiness raised up. Know that this matter of instruction, of character rectification and refinement, of heartening and encouraging the child, is of the utmost importance, for such are basic principles of God. (3)

View the complete article here.

Bahá'ís everywhere are actively involved in furthering their children and youths' spiritual and moral training, offering children's and moral development classes open to the general public whenever feasible. They also work to realize full equality between the sexes.


Notes:

(1) Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, XVI, p. 39
(2) The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh, Arabic no. 68
(3) Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Sec. 111, pp. 136–37)

CLEANLINESS: Lack of safe water and adequate sanitation is the world's single largest cause of illness

.
The following two articles highlight the central importance of clean water and sanitation for particularly health and social economy (eye-opening excerpts from them are included farther down):

- Water as a Right and Key to Social Stability
- 2.6 Billion Wait in Line for Toilets

Under the definition for the word 'sanitation' in the dictionary we find "...the preservation of health; the use of sanitary measures; hygiene."

With regard to health and purity, the Bahá'í writings state:

"God loveth those who are pure. Naught in the...sight of God is more loved than purity and immaculate cleanliness...." (1)

As seen here, cleanliness has become a matter of religious duty to the believer. And
what motivation could be greater than this! As a matter of fact, it has been the case in all the religions of God. 'Abdu'l-Bahá says:

"Observe how pleasing is cleanliness in the sight of God, and how specifically it is emphasized in the Holy Books of the Prophets; for the Scriptures forbid the eating or the use of any unclean thing." (2)

“External cleanliness, although it is but a physical thing, has great influence upon spirituality. … The fact of having a pure and spotless body exercises an influence upon the spirit of man.” (3)

Sanitation may be an issue to us on an individual level, but we should never lose sight of it as a social concern as well, which must be included as an inseparable aspect of religious and practical training, starting from earliest childhood. The benefits accruing from such simple measures can be easily imagined, not but least after reading the following from these articles:

DEVELOPMENT: 2.6 Billion Wait in Line for Toilets

"every dollar invested in people gaining access to water and sanitation returns six dollars in health, livelihood and educational benefits."

"Lack of safe water and adequate sanitation is the world's single largest cause of illness," it says, and "can spread such diseases as diarrhoea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, hepatitis, polio, trachoma and tapeworms -- many of which can be fatal to people in the developing world."
...
"Urban centres in developing countries have grown rapidly without adequate infrastructure planning, resulting in million of immigrants who have little access to safe sanitation or water supplies. This puts the entire population at risk, causing serious environmental damage."

Around the world, he said, "about two out of every five of our fellow human beings lack access to sanitation services... This is simply unacceptable."

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38915

DEVELOPMENT: Water as a Right and Key to Social Stability

The United Nations says more than one billion people do not have access to safe drinking water worldwide, while more than two billion have no access to proper sanitation facilities.
...
Addressing the 17th annual World Water Week in the Swedish capital of Stockholm, Tibaijuka told a meeting of more than 2,000 water professionals, technicians, scientists and policy makers, that water is going to be the dominant world issue far into the current century.

"The supply of water may threaten the social stability of the world," she warned.
...
A study by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) released here says a minimum investment of 8.0 billion dollars annually would assure that every country in that region could halve the proportion of people without access to water supply and improved sanitation.

Arjun Thapan, the author of the study, says that once that target is reached, the 8.0 billion dollar annual investment will yield a 54 billion dollar annual return.

"It is the height of economic irrationality to not invest in these vital services," he said.

The report, titled "Asia Water Watch 2015", stresses that the impact of this resource is so diffuse that every dollar invested in people gaining access to water and sanitation returns six dollars in health, livelihood and educational benefits.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38898

Another article from 2003 on this issue may be found here.


Notes:

(1) The Báb, Selections... (SWB) p. 80
(2) ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections From the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 147
(3) ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, cited in Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era, p. 104

DETERMINATION gives results - and not to forget gentleness

Determined conservation efforts by scientists and governments were cited by researchers as the cause of various positive trends in the environment, such as reduced damage to Peruvian rain forests, a resurgence of rare birds in Europe and a return of the black-footed ferret in Wyoming, in this article headlined in UN Wire.

Even so, this is obviously not nearly enough to offset the overwhelming destruction of our living environment that is taking place all over the world. Examples abound, like the endagered status of these "monster" fishes (close the advertisement, then click through the photo gallery to view some amazing species), or of vanishing coral reefs and rainforests.

Such determination to protect the environment and work for the social good should ultimately become universal, and a way of life for all of us. 'Abdu'l-Bahá explains the role of education in achieving it:

"...the people are as the human body, and determination and the will to struggle are as the soul, and a soulless body does not move. ...the spread of education will release this dynamic power." (1)

And with regard to the role of the environment and creation Bahá'u'lláh states:

"[I] have ordained for thy training every atom in existence and the essence of all created things." (2)

We should thus do our best to not disrupt the least of these atoms and creatures that God has graciously bestowed upon us for our education. 'Abdu'l-Bahá says:

"Unless ye must,
Bruise not the serpent in the dust,
How much less wound a man.
And if ye can,
No ant should ye alarm,
Much less a brother harm." (3)

So as we muster our determination to protect the environment (or work for another worthy cause) this passage advises us to proceed as well with the virtue of gentleness when dealing with it.

You may explore the beautiful human virtues deeper here.


Notes:

(1) ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Secret of Divine Civilization, p. 112

(2) The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh, #32 (Persian section)

(3) ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections From the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, #206, p. 256

An exemplary servant of the Cause, by her many VIRTUES

(Adapted from an article in The American Bahá'í, 3 August 2007)

Javidukht Khadem embodied the Bahá'í spirit of teaching, encouragement and wisdom throughout her long life. She passed away July 1, 2007, in Highland Park, Illinois, at 94 years of age.

She [supported] the work of the Hand of the Cause Zikrullah Khadem during their 53-year marriage...Married in 1933, the couple oversaw a household that was always a "nucleus of peace, love, and harmony," their daughter Jena Khadem Khodadad wrote... "There was never any question about which was more important, the Bahá'í Faith or her family. The dilemma did not exist, as the two were integral."

Foundation for service

A 1953 visit to the United States...provided Javidukht with her first major experience teaching the Faith in North America... "I learned," Javidukht wrote, "that the key to accomplishing any goal is taking the first step and relying on God's assistance."

Hospitality was priority

The first order of business, wrote their daughter May Khadem Czerniejewski, was finding a home with enough space for hospitable gatherings of 50 or more people. Quite often that was the scale of the firesides Javidukht hosted regularly over the four decades to follow...until she was nearly 90 years old. Dozens of guests were welcomed into an immaculately decorated home with sumptuous food, a well-chosen speaker and often music. "Hundreds of believers over those decades were welcomed to the Cause through her energetic, devoted perseverance," says a statement from her family.

The following is the message from The Universal House of Justice on the occasion of Javidukht Khadem's passing (in abbreviated telegram-form):
_____________________________________________________________________________
Transmitted by email
TO: The National Spiritual Assembly of DATE: 2 July 2007
the Bahá’ís of the United States
_____________________________________________________________________________

MESSAGE:
We deeply sympathize in the great loss to your community of dearly loved Javidukht Khadem. This stalwart, ever-buoyant handmaiden of Bahá’u’lláh, so gifted with a winning personality and a generosity of spirit, drew on an irrepressible energy that sustained her manifold efforts in service to the Cause of God—as mother of five children, as Auxiliary Board member for thirty-six years, as author of a biography of her esteemed husband—but especially that charged her indomitable passion for teaching, which extended through some four decades of regular firesides in her home. Kindly convey our heartfelt condolences to the members of her dear family, and be assured of our ardent prayers in the Holy Shrines that her soul may attain to ineffable joy in the Abhá Kingdom.

The Universal House of Justice