‘The Second Coming’

In the gathering economic crisis I am reminded of the words of W.B. Yeats in “The Second Coming” that

“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world…”

Yeats also looked forward with trepidation to an ironic “Second Coming” asking in the final lines of the poem-

             “what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”

Happily the real (and far friendlier) Second Coming has already arrived. In the words of Bahá’u'lláh

“The Divine Springtime is come, O Most Exalted Pen, for the Festival of the All-Merciful is fast approaching. Bestir thyself, and magnify, before the entire creation, the name of God, and celebrate His praise, in such wise that all created things may be regenerated and made new. Speak, and hold not thy peace. The day star of blissfulness shineth above the horizon of Our name, the Blissful, inasmuch as the kingdom of the name of God hath been adorned with the ornament of the name of thy Lord, the Creator of the heavens. Arise before the nations of the earth, and arm thyself with the power of this Most Great Name, and be not of those who tarry”.

‘Spiritual Solutions To Economic Problems’

I have just returned from giving a presentation on ‘Spiritual Solutions To Economic Problems’. I had an interesting conversation with members of the audience (including a Sikh and a Hindu gentleman). It was heartening to hear the common agreement on the need for a new economic paradigm based on spiritual values. One of the quotations I used was from a message from the supreme governing body of the Baha’i Faith, The Universal House Of Justice. It reads- 

‘This unprecedented economic crisis, together with the social breakdown it has helped to engender, reflects a profound error of conception about human nature itself. For the levels of response elicited from human beings by the incentives of the prevailing order are not only inadequate, but seem almost irrelevant in the face of world events. We are being shown that, unless the development of society finds a purpose beyond the mere amelioration of material conditions, it will fail of attaining even these goals. That purpose must be sought in spiritual dimensions of life and motivation that transcend a constantly changing economic landscape and an artificially imposed division of human societies into “developed” and “developing”.

This perceptive analysis of the need for change was taken from The Prosperity of Humankind first published in 1995 but perhaps even more relevant now than it was over a decade ago.