Soul AND Spirit

(Compiled from ‘Abdu'l-Bahá's Teachings)

Soul is the human will to live temporally. Spirit is the Divine Will to live forever. Salvation is the quickening of soul into Spirit. All souls are alike in essence or quality as created. Owing to environment, soul-needs differ; rich and poor, wise and ignorant, etc. Environment has its dark side and its light side. Development has its good aspects and bad aspects. Sin is the absence of Righteousness. Righteousness is doing the Will of God. All souls have a free will to choose or refuse the Will of God. Each soul has its station of individuality in which it may develop itself, but a soul cannot leave its own station for another station or individuality. Man accomplishes his true growth when the soul develops in its own station. His station does not change; simply his capacity for knowing God is increased and developed. Knowledge of God is the only spiritual development. The Power of the Manifestations of God is beyond question inasmuch as human development invariably follows their Teachings. This development is unmistakably toward a higher existence. Every Manifestation teaches the Existence of God. As their Power is evident their Knowledge must likewise be true. The soul can prove the Existence of God through its intellectual powers, but the true perception of God is through the spiritual eye of the soul. This Knowledge transcends mere mental proof; it is spiritual Sight; it is Vision. The atheist has intelligence of the mere mind. His words denying the existence of God are in reality evidence that God exists. The atheist's real station of development is not ours to judge or estimate. Spirit is Oneness of vision and Knowledge. The mind has many attributes or powers. The Spirit is Conscious Perception. When all the powers of the soul work together and are concentrated upon God, the soul has its highest employment. Spirit is like the Sun, the Source of all Light, alone in Its Station. The mind or soul has many lights, as the stars. The mind or soul manifests itself throughout the whole body in perfect harmony. The Spirit or Spirit of God manifests Itself throughout the whole body of the universe and is in perfect harmony wherever manifest. A wicked soul is the only thing out of harmony in the universe. As it does not come into the flow of the Divine Will, it is not of the Spirit. This failure of the soul has led man to believe that God will give the wicked soul another opportunity by allowing it to return in another body and atone for its failure. There is no proof of this outside or inside the Holy Book of Scriptures. Whatever is the destiny of the wicked soul in the hereafter, we know that its development rests with the Mercy of God. A wicked soul, lacking development, is nonexistent spiritually, just as in the station of the tree, the stone is nonexistent because the stone lacks the powers and development of the tree. Therefore, a soul which continues in a condition of non-development through violating the Will of God suffers extinction and is spiritually nonexistent. The fields and flowers of the Spiritual Realm are pointed out to us by the Manifestations who walk amid their glories. It remains for the soul of man to follow them in these paths of eternal life, through the exercise of its own human will.

Source: Julia M. Grundy, Ten Days in the Light of Akka (1907). Available at bahai-library.com.

Grundy, J. M.. (1907). *Ten Days in the Light of Akka*. https://bahai-library.com/grundy_ten_days_akka