Bahai Education/Education in Principle/I-400. Objectives of Education

I-400. OBJECTIVES OF EDUCATION

a. knowledge of God: 1) enable them to attain the knowledge of Him and of themselves: GL:C:205 2) We have decreed, O people, that the highest and last end of all learning be the recognition of Him Who is the Object of all knowledge: GL:XCVIII:199 3) I bear witness, O my God, that Thou hast created me to know Thee and to worship Thee: KA:100 4) The first duty prescribed by God for His servants is the recognition of Him Who is the Dayspring of His Revelation and the Fountain of His laws, Who representeth the Godhead in both the Kingdom of His Cause and the world of creation: KA:K1 5) by one word more he was guided to recognize the Source of his education: GL:CXXII:259-260

b. knowledge of self: 1) knowledge of self and recognition of that which leadeth unto loftiness or to lowliness, glory of abasement, wealth or poverty: TB:34 2) enable them to attain the knowledge of Him and of themselves: GL:C:205 3) The Purpose of the one true God, exalted be His glory, in revealing Himself unto men is to lay bare those gems that lie hidden within the mine of their true and inmost selves: GL:CXXXII:287 4) gain a true knowledge of your own selves--a knowledge which is the same as the comprehension of Mine own Being. Ye would find yourselves independent of all else but Me, and would perceive, with your inner and outer eye, and as manifest as the revelation of My effulgent Name, the seas of My loving-kindness and bounty moving within you: GL:CLII:326-327 5) True loss is for him whose days have been spent in utter ignorance of his self: TB:156

c. independent consciousness: 1) thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor: AHW:#2 2) the man of insight who will behold the Words of God with his own eyes and rid himself of the opinions and notions of the peoples of the earth: TB:188 3) God endowed man with ears that he may hear the message of reality and conferred upon him the gift of reason by which he may discover things for himself...Man is not intended to see through the eyes of another, hear through another's ears nor comprehend with another's brain: PUP:293 4) The essence of all that We have revealed for thee is Justice, is for man to free himself from idle fancy and imitation, discern with the eye of oneness His glorious handiwork, and look into all things with a searching eye: TB:157

d. realization of divine teachings: 1) observe every ordinance of Him Who is the Desire of the world: KA:K1 2) mankind in its entirety must firmly adhere to whatsoever hath been revealed and vouchsafed unto it: TB:89 3) it is incumbent upon everyone to obey Him in whatsoever God hath ordained: TB:109 4) it is incumbent upon everyone to firmly adhere to and observe that which hath streamed from Our Most Exalted Pen: TB:130 5) it is incumbent upon everyone to observe that which hath been sent down by Him Who is the Revealer, the All-Knowing: TB:188 6) in every art and skill, God loveth the highest perfection: Baha'u'llah, Bahá'í Education, #20, p. 5

e. attainment to spiritual life: 1) The Prophets and Messengers have been sent down for the sole purpose of guiding mankind to the Straight Path of Truth. the purpose underlying their revelation hath been to educate all men, that they may, at the hour of death, ascend, in the utmost purity and sanctity and with absolute detachment, to the throne of the Most High: GL:LXXXI:156-157