Virtues | Happiness

Are you well and happy?

Source: Portals to Freedom | Mahmud’s Diary

‘Abdu’l-Baha often asked individuals, ‘Are you well and happy?’ explaining:

We must always be happy… for it is impossible to live in the Spiritual World and be sad. God desires happiness for all His creatures. For man especially is this joy ordained for he has the capacity to understand Reality. The world of the spirit is open to him as it is not to the kingdoms of Nature below him. It is through the power of this spirit-energy that he is able to conquer Nature and bend its forces to his will. God has sent His Messengers all through the ages to aid men in this conquest. I cannot recall the exact words, of course, but His point of view and the atmosphere of Truth created is indelibly impressed upon my consciousness (Portals to Freedom).

‘Abdu’l-Baha emphasized this again stating a group of followers:

You must always be happy. You must associate with joyous and happy people and be adorned with divine morals. Happiness has a direct influence in preserving our health while being upset causes illness. The basis of eternal happiness is spirituality and divine virtue, which is not followed by sorrow. But physical happiness is subject to a thousand changes and vicissitudes.

Have you heard the story of the emperor who looked into the mirror and became very sad and despondent? He said, `Oh! What a healthy and vigorous body I had but how worn it has become now! What a handsome face I had but how ugly it has become now! What graceful stature I had but how bent my body has become with age!’ Thus he spoke one by one of the physical conditions of his youth and expressed his sadness at their loss. Such is the end of the physical happiness.

Another friend asked about tribulations and unexpected accidents. `Abdu’l-Baha replied:

The chain of creation is interwoven in a natural law and divine order. Everything is interlinked. A link cannot be broken without affecting that natural order. Everything that happens is in conformity with this order and is based on consummate wisdom. Because it is decreed by God that every plant that grows must wither, all flourishing vegetation must fade away, every combination must disperse and all compositions must disintegrate. These are the necessary consequences of that universal law and of all relationships and is interpreted as divine decree.

In every meeting `Abdu’l-Baha gives this kind of philosophical explanation to complex problems, thus illuminating the hearts (Mahmud’s Diary).