180: I HOPE THAT IN THIS NETHER WORLD THOU SHALT ATTAIN ...

I hope that in this nether world thou shalt attain unto heavenly light,
thou wilt free the souls from the gloom of nature, which is the animal
kingdom, and cause them to reach lofty stations in the human kingdom.
Today all people are immersed in the world of nature. That is why thou
dost see jealousy, greed, the struggle for survival, deception, hypocrisy,
tyranny, oppression, disputes, strife, bloodshed, looting and pillaging,
which all emanate from the world of nature. Few are those who have been
freed from this darkness, who have ascended from the world of nature to
the world of man, who have followed the divine Teachings, have served the
world of humanity, are resplendent, merciful, illumined and like unto a
rose garden. Strive thine utmost to become godlike, characterized with His
attributes, illumined and merciful, that thou mayest be freed from every
bond and become attached at heart to the Kingdom of the incomparable Lord.
This is Baha'i bounty, and this is heavenly light.

181: REGARDING THE STATEMENT IN THE HIDDEN WORDS, ...

Regarding the statement in The Hidden Words, that man must renounce his
own self, the meaning is that he must renounce his inordinate desires, his
selfish purposes and the promptings of his human self, and seek out the
holy breathings of the spirit, and follow the yearnings of his higher
self, and immerse himself in the sea of sacrifice, with his heart fixed
upon the beauty of the All-Glorious.

As for the reference in The Hidden Words regarding the Covenant entered
into on Mount Paran, this signifieth that in the sight of God the past,
the present and the future are all one and the same--whereas, relative to
man, the past is gone and forgotten, the present is fleeting, and the
future is within the realm of hope. And it is a basic principle of the Law
of God that in every Prophetic Mission, He entereth into a Covenant with
all believers--a Covenant that endureth until the end of that Mission,
until the promised day when the Personage stipulated at the outset of the
Mission is made manifest. Consider Moses, He Who conversed with God.
Verily, upon Mount Sinai, Moses entered into a Covenant regarding the
Messiah, with all those souls who would live in the day of the Messiah.
And those souls, although they appeared many centuries after Moses, were
nevertheless--so far as the Covenant, which is outside time, was
c