arthra

One of the beliefs among Baha'is is that a Manifestation of God has innate knowledge.. I believe there is some reference to this in various religious traditions and Hold Books so decided to enter some of them here...A reference to a spiritual primary school can be found in the Writings of the Bab:

May the glances of Him Whom God shall make manifest illumine this letter at the primary school.[1]

[1 In one of His Tablets 'Abdu'l-Bahá explains that some were misled by this statement and thought that the school referred to was a physical school for the training of unlettered children, whereas it referred to a spiritual school sanctified from the limits of the contingent world.

(The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 5)

and

Say, We, in truth, entered the school of inner meaning and exposition at a time when the minds of all that dwell on earth were wrapt in heedlessness. We beheld what the Merciful Lord had revealed, accepted the gift He [the Bab] had offered Me of the verses of God, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting, and hearkened to that to which He had attested in the Tablet. We, verily, are the Witness. We responded to His call at Our Own behest, and We are, in truth, the Ordainer. O people of the Bayan! We entered the School of God when ye were slumbering on your couches, and perused the Tablet when ye were fast asleep. By the righteousness of God, the True One, We had read it before it was revealed, and ye were utterly unaware. Indeed Our knowledge had encompassed the Book when ye were yet unborn.

(The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 6)

So here what are call some intimations to this concept of innate knowledge:

I'm sure many of you have heard this charming story:

There was, moreover, at Jerusalem, a certain man named Zacchaeus, who taught boys. He said to Joseph: Why, O Joseph, dost thou not bring Jesus to the to learn his letters? Joseph agreed to do so, and reported the matter to the Lady Mary. They therefore took Him to the master; and he, as soon as he saw Him, wrote out the alphabet for Him, and told Him to say Aleph. And when He had said Aleph, the master ordered Him to pronounce Beth. And the Lord Jesus said to him: Tell me first the meaning of the letter Aleph, and then I shall pronounce Beth. And when the master threatened to flog Him, the Lord Jesus explained to him the meanings of the letters Aleph and Beth; also which figures of the letter were straight, which crooked, which drawn round into a spiral, which marked with points, which without them, why one letter went before another; and many other things He began to recount and to elucidate which the master himself had never either heard or read in any book. The Lord Jesus, moreover, said to the master: Listen, and I shall say them to thee. And He began clearly and distinctly to repeat Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Daleth, on to Tau. And the master was astonished, and said: I think that this boy was born before Noah. And turning to Joseph, be said: Thou hast brought to me to be taught a boy more learned than all the masters. To the Lady Mary also be said: This son of thine has no need of instruction.

From the Arab Infancy Gospel

Here is a simialr story about the Bab enering school:

The master took the Qur'án from the tray of sweetmeats and opened it, saying to the Báb, "Come, read!" The Báb smiled. "As you please," He said. The master asked Him to repeat, "He is the Deliverer, the All-Knowing."

The Child remained silent, and the master repeated the verse; yet He still kept silent, and the master continued persistently.


The Báb asked the master, "Who is 'He'? Please explain."

The master replied, "'He' is God. You're merely a child, why concern yourself with the meaning of 'He'?"

The Báb answered the master:- "I am the Deliverer, the All-Knowing!"


The master flew into a furious rage and picked up his stick. "Never utter such things here!" he exclaimed, shaking. His uncle couldn't restrain his smile. The Báb commenced reciting, and after ordering certain arrangements, His uncle left. ...

On another occasion, the Báb was asked to recite the opening words of the Qur'an. The Báb was unwilling, pleading that He would need to know what the words signify before attempting to pronounce them.
When the schoolmaster pretended not to know their meaning, the Báb began to explain them with such a sweetness, knowledge and fluency, that the master was left dumbstruck that he was the student of this Child.
Source:

http://bahai-library.org/file.php?fi...childhoodofbab

arthra

Some of you may have read the epic poem of Edwin Arnold's 'Light of Asia" Book One which is based on the Life of the Buddha .. Here is a charming excerpt about when the Buddha was sent to school:


"Who is the wisest man, great sirs," he asked,
"To teach my Prince that which a Prince should know?"
Whereto gave answer each with instant voice
"King! Viswamitra is the wisest one,
The furthest seen in Scriptures, and the best
In learning, and the manual arts, and all."
Thus Viswamitra came and heard commands;
And, on a day found fortunate, the Prince
Took up his slate of ox-red sandal-wood,
All-beautified by gems around the rim,
And Sprinkled smooth with dust of emery,
These took he, and his writing-stick, and stood
With eyes bent down before the Sage, who said,
"Child, write this Scripture," speaking slow the verse
"Gâyatrî" named, which only High-born hear: --

Om, tatsaviturvarenyam
Bhargo devasya dhîmahi
Dhiyo yo na prachodayât.
"Acharya, I write," meekly replied
The Prince, and quickly on the dust he drew --
Not in one script, but many characters --
The sacred verse; Nagri and Dakshin, Nî,
Mangal, Parusha, Yava, Tirthi, Uk,
Darad, Sikhyani, Mana, Madhyachar,
The pictured writings and the speech of signs,
Tokens of cave-men and the sea-peoples,
Of those who worship snakes beneath the earth,
And those who flame adore and the sun's orb,
The Magians and the dwellers on the mounds;
Of all the nations all strange scripts he traced
One after other with his writing-stick,
Reading the master's verse in every tongue;
And Viswamitra said, "It is enough..."

arthra

For Baha'is it's the same innate knowledge that all the Manifestations of God have.. that's one reason I've posted comparisons between the stories of the Buddha, Jesus and the Bab, because there are striking parallels between Them... Yes the incident of Jesus teaching the Elders in the Temple is a good example.. we don't know exactly what was taught but it is a good case in point!



Similar to this are the birth stories that both the Buddha and Jesus spoke in the cradle.. Of course we would take this to be a symbolic story that there in innate knowledge in the Manifestations:

The story of Jesus is recorded in the Qur'an that He spoke as a child/infant

when Mary
appears with the child, and they ask questions of her, she points to
the child. They respond; "How can we talk to one who is a child in
the cradle." And the day-old child says; "Verily! I am a slave to
Allah. He has given me the Scriptures and made me a prophet."


and in the Buddhist stories it goes like this:

Then the Queen and her son were showered with perfumed blossoms, and two streams of sparkling water poured from the sky to bathe them. And the infant stood, and took seven steps, and proclaimed “I alone am the World-Honored One!”

Source:

http://buddhism.about.com/od/buddha/a/birthofbuddha.htm

Innate knowledge means a Manifestation doesn't have to learn the way we do because God is perfectly reflected in Them to us... So it isn't "acquired" knowledge the way it is with us.

The Manifestaion is an Intermediary between God and His creation we believe.

dattaswami

God takes the human body to unify all religions

To unify all the religions in the world and to give exceptional spiritual guidance to the entire humanity, God alone, who is capable of possessing such exceptional spiritual knowledge called Prajnanam, takes the human body.

The main aim of God entering into the world is to give excellent guidance to the spiritual aspirants. No soul can give such exceptional guidance equal to God. Such guidance is based on the exceptional unique knowledge of omniscient God. Since He is the author of the spiritual scriptures, He alone can give the correct interpretation and the essence of all the scriptures.

Since the same God came in different forms to different parts of the world and gave the exceptional spiritual guidance to the entire humanity through the scriptures of various religions, He alone can correlate all the scriptures and establish the Universal Spirituality and the subsequent peace and harmony in the world. Such basic exceptional and universal spiritual knowledge is called as Prajnanam. For this purpose, it goes without saying that the suitable medium to fulfill this main aim is only the human body. Hence, God comes in human form only to accomplish this excellent goal.


The divine knowledge alone can be the proof of the God

The divine knowledge alone can be the proof of the God as per Veda. The exceptional quality of the divine knowledge (Prajnanam) is the spontaneous proof. You can experience the available highest quality of the knowledge and there is no need of any testing procedure for that. How are you selecting the Miss. World? You are experiencing the spontaneous beauty directly and there is no need of instruments to test the beauty. You are selecting the top most beauty in the available competition. If you say that some higher beauty may exist somewhere and some time in this world, the result of the competition can never be declared.

Only ugly sadists may tell like that. Gita says that the possessor of such top most knowledge that can give the most perfect guidance to the souls is God Himself (Jnanitvatmaiva…). The importance of Divine knowledge is only due to the importance of correct guidance in the spiritual path. For this the exhibition of miracle is not required. The exhibition of super power through the miracle is needed only for the low level atheists and to punish the low level devils. When a Police Officer is invited to address the college, he goes in normal civil dress. When he has to deal with criminals, he will be in the Police uniform. Even there, he will send his subordinates in the uniform to deal with the criminals. But he will not send his subordinates in uniform to address the college.

Similarly God comes to preach the Divine knowledge and sends His subordinates to exhibit miracles. Since majority is in the lower strata, the miracles have to be exhibited widely. Hence God gives the Super powers even to devils. The miracles include even the miraculous experiences in the life of any one, which prove the existence of unimaginable God.

Miracles and knowledge are the two requirements of people here in lower and higher levels respectively. Generally God meets directly the requirement of higher level. The liberated souls who are the servants of God generally meet the requirement of lower level.






Knowledge from the God in human form or Sadguru or Human incarnation:

The Sadguru (teacher of true knowledge of God, who is also a human incarnation of God) gives the right knowledge, even without your service. You can serve Him only when you are convinced. Your service to Him will help Him help others. Infact a Sadguru does not need your service because He is God Himself. He can help others by His own powers.

But you will not get the right benefit from Him, because you did not show gratefulness to Him. Suppose a doctor gives you medicines for some illness without asking for fees and you get cured. If you do not pay his fees due to your greediness, even though you are capable of paying, you will die with a new disease.



All human incarnations are the same

All the human incarnations have the single common point which is the spiritual guidance given to the human beings since that is the most important program. Other factors like the physical form, dress, language, culture and composition of the three qualities are not important and variation occurs as you can see Jesus, Rama and Krishna. Therefore, God is represented by this common characteristic of true spiritual knowledge only (Satyam Jnanamanantam Brahma…, Prajnanam Brahma…Veda; Jnanitvatmaiva….Gita).



Special divine knowledge called as ‘Prajnanam’

The identity card for the Lord is this special divine knowledge called as ‘Prajnanam’ (Prajnanam Brahma—Veda; Jnaneetvatmaiva, Vedaishchasarvaih—Gita). Miracles are not the identity marks of the Lord since they are like removable jewels, which can even be donated to others. Demons got these supernatural powers from the Lord by rigid penance and they too performed miracles. The word Prajnanam means the special divine knowledge, which cannot be explained by anybody other than the Lord. This Prajnanam is like the yellow thread (Mangala sutram) around the neck of a married lady, which can never be removed and can never be donated to others.

Thus, even this Prajnanam is not the inherent characteristic of the Lord but is only an associated ornament. However, since it is inseparable, it can be treated as the inherent characteristic of the Lord and can be useful to reach the Lord. Even by getting this Prajnanam, you have not directly touched the Lord and therefore, the Lord remains unimaginable and is not touched by words, mind, intelligence and logic (Yatovachah…Manasasaha, Yobuddheh, Naishatarkena—Veda; Maamtu Veda Na—Gita).

The final indicating sign to recognize God in human form

You are excited on realizing some body as God and you will not freely move with Him to clarify your doubts. On seeing the common external characteristics, your anxiety and excitement get neutralized so that you will freely mix with God thinking Him as a normal human being. This point is limited to God only. Every soul is affected by the characteristics and therefore, you being a soul should not imitate God. Recently, I heard that some Judge told that sex before marriage is not wrong as in the case of Radha and Krishna. Krishna lifted the huge mountain and let every body follow Krishna after lifting the mountain!

The same Krishna in the form of Rama practiced the way, which should be practiced by every human being. You should imitate Rama in practice and follow what Krishna said in Gita. Krishna showed the nature of God, which is untouched by any quality. Rama showed the nature of every human soul. Through Krishna, you should know God and through Rama you should know your self. Krishna was after married ladies (Gopikas) and Ravana was also after married ladies. Both lifted huge mountains. In fact, Ravana lifted a bigger mountain called Kailasha. Then, what is the difference between Krishna and Ravana? Both should be God as per the logic. Krishna lifted the mountain to protect the true devotees. Ravana lifted the mountain to exhibit his ego. Apart from this, Krishna preached wonderful knowledge in the form of Gita, which is the guide for any spiritual aspirant. Ravana did not preach so.

Therefore, the final indicating sign to recognize God in human form is only the infinite wonderful knowledge given by God. Hence, Vedas say that God is the true infinite knowledge and this means that you should recognize God by His true knowledge only in the ultimate filtration. The knowledge is also the characteristic of the medium only and can be treated as the characteristic of God due to its constant association. A married lady is recognized by the yellow thread in her neck and it can be treated as the original characteristic of the lady due to its constant association. Actually, God is unimaginable and no characteristic of God is imaginable.

cire perdue

Dattaswami,
I find the concepts from Hinduism similar to Baha'i Teachings. It is not a difficult leap to translate them into what God has sent in this day. One would have to realize that if it is indeed God Who has sent the teachings of the Baha'i Faith then those will clarify and expand the knowledge we already had. One cannot expect to superimpose previous teachings that have sometimes had thousands of years to be affected by mankind to fit perfectly on the newest teachings from God. It requires a "hearing" ear and a "seeing" eye to comprehend the new Words and to sift through and discard the older teachings. If one can accept the new Teachings then one can make a new allegiance. Seeing what others have believed usually enhances what I understand, but my standard of truth because I have accepted the Baha'i Faith is its Writings which do not contain misunderstandings that have come from human misconceptions about the Teachings from the past Messengers of God. Cire Perdue

dattaswami

OK

The same Lord came to different parts of the world in different age to preach the same Divine Knowledge. All the scriptures of the world are the records of the knowledge given by the same Lord and hence cannot contradict each other. Yet we find sometimes that there are some glaring contradictions between different scriptures of the world. This is in part due to fact that the Lord taught the same truth in different ages and places in a slightly different way, so as to suit the culture and language of the people. This is only an extraneous difference. The essential knowledge is the same. Correct interpretation will remove the contradiction.
Sometimes there may be an apparent difference even in the essential meaning.

In such as case the inconsistency is probably caused by corruption of the scripture over generations. Comparison with other scriptures of the world will help in removing the corrupted portions in each scripture. Here it becomes essential to bring in experience as a prama?a or a valid means of knowledge. While comparing contradictory views in different scriptures, the view which agrees with experience or anubhuti should be taken as correct.