In this world we are influenced by two sentiments, joy and pain.
Joy gives us wings! In times of joy our strength is more vital, our intellect
keener, and our understanding less clouded. We seem better able to cope with
the world and to find our sphere of usefulness. But when sadness visits us we
become weak, our strength leaves us, our comprehension is dim and our
intelligence veiled. The actualities of life seem to elude our grasp, the eyes
of our spirits fail to discover the sacred mysteries, and we become even as
dead beings.
There is no human being untouched by these two influences;
but all the sorrow and the grief that exist come from the world of matter—the
spiritual world bestows only the joy! If
we suffer it is the outcome of material things, and all the trials and troubles
come from this world of illusion.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a talk, 22 November 1911,
Paris; ‘Paris Talks’)
