PRIMARY CATEGORIES OF EXISTENCE - THE THREE WORLDS OF GOD

Every Reality that is brought into existence begins with a Source.  It has as its purpose its creator¹s purpose in causing it to BE, and its first existence is in the mind of its maker.  There also is chosen the power which the inventor will provide for carrying out his purpose.  There, too, will be  devised the procedure for achieving the purpose.  Single acts are planned that will make up that total action, and the attributes essential to the procedure will be decided upon.  Finally these aspects will be manifested, or brought down into the outer world of form and space.  Then the creation will be given a name to designate the reality - the whole thing, what it is for and how it operates.  Of course the inventor must explain what is not obvious about his creation when it is launched into the material scene. We are told that Existence, as a total Reality, with all of its features, including man, is a production of God.  So when we learn that our Inventor has provided a detailed explanation of the purpose of that creation and how it should be handled in order for it to operate successfully, why wouldn¹t we be eager to listen?

In the past, perhaps understanding did not seem to be important.  Or, like little children who ask, ³Where did I come from?  and are told, ³The doctor brought you,² people may have been satisfied with their first simple answer: God created the heaven and the earth, including you. (Gen. 1:1) And if the awakening heart asked, ³But WHAT am I?²  it was once enough to be told that after forming him, God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and he became a living soul.  Gen.2:7,W/G 34 (b) But we are not satisfied with that today.  This is a new age, and our reasoning power, ³totally absent² in the infancy of the human race,  BWFp337-8,W/G 57 (e), is now a dominant force in our life and growth.  So the Science of Reality must define the term, ³living soul², before our questions can be answered.  As intellectual beings, we can be seriously handicapped and confused by what we don¹t know, or by concepts that prove to be illusions.  For reasoning is only helpful when based on true hypotheses. We turn to sciences for enlightenment.  But that viewpoint is from the ground up, and based on human acts and attributes;  and we know more about our own, at least, than any scientist can tell us.  I want to know who I am in terms of my own experiences, my ultimate goal, my real purpose in life, and my latent potentialities that I can sense inwardly but that I am unable to understand or REAL-ize.  In short, I need an over-all view of my reality that only my Creator can share or can reveal.  And that is what Bahá¹u¹lláh   has been commissioned to bring to mankind.  That is the Science of the reality of man. The fact is that the Prophets of God, in explaining Existence to us, all began with our Source.  This is evidence of Their divine vision or innate knowledge.  They have all had that over-all view of life -  the superhuman view that only the consciousness of a Manifestation of God can encompass.  SAQp.180-1,W/G 39 (p) So we have known for long ages that ³In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.²  Bahá¹u¹lláh   enlarges tremendously this simple verity. Who or What is God?, people are asking today.  This is a question of primary importance.  It is one that as teachers we must be able to answer authoritatively.  But even more important, as ³living souls.² we MUST have a dynamic consciousness of our Origin, including the Purpose and Power that underlie the outer Self, for  otherwise we are out of touch with our own reality. In the past, these aspects of Existence have only been known by the Creator Himself and in the Greater World that plays a part in the process of divine Creating.  (B.P. p.125 mid.) But today they have been unveiled to the Lesser World through the loving ministrations of the Báb  and Bahá¹u¹lláh  , the Twin Messengers from that Greater World, assisted by God¹s Causing, God¹s Spirit and Power, God¹s Will and God¹s Word; and so we are blessed with the Revelation that we desire. Enlightenment needed from the over-all viewpoint begins with these simple basic explanations that enlarge on Genesis 1:1: ³Lauded by Thy name, O Lord my God!  I testify that Thou wast a hidden Treasure wrapped within Thine immemorial Being and an impenetrable Mystery enshrined in Thine own Essence.  Wishing to reveal Thyself, Thou didst call into being the Greater and the Lesser Worlds, and didst choose man above all Thy creatures, and didst make Him a sign of both of these worlds, O Thou Who art our Lord, the Most Compassionate!²( BWF p. 70-1 W/G 11 (z),) ³Know that the conditions of existence are limited to the conditions of servitude, of Prophethood, and of Deity.²  BWF p.328 W/G 13 (b),