Christ announced, "That which is born of the flesh is
flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit," meaning that man
must be born again. As the babe is born into the light of this physical world,
so must the physical and intellectual man be born into the light of the world
of Divinity. In the matrix of the mother the unborn child was deprived and
unconscious of the world of material existence, but after its birth it beheld
the wonders and beauties of a new realm of life and being. In the world of the
matrix it was utterly ignorant and unable to conceive of these new conditions,
but after its transformation it discovers the radiant sun, trees, flowers and
an infinite range of blessings and bounties awaiting it. In the human plane and
kingdom man is a captive of nature and ignorant of the divine world until born
of the breaths of the Holy Spirit out of physical conditions of limitation and
deprivation. Then he beholds the reality of the spiritual realm and Kingdom,
realizes the narrow restrictions of the mere human world of existence and
becomes conscious of the unlimited and infinite glories of the world of God.
Therefore, no matter how man may advance upon the physical and intellectual
plane, he is ever in need of the boundless virtues of Divinity, the protection
of the Holy Spirit and the face of God.
('Abdu'l-Baha, from a talk, 27 August 1912,
Boston Massachusetts, ‘The Promulgation of Universal Peace’)
