Verily, I say, fasting is the supreme remedy and the most great healing for the disease of self and passion. – Baha’u’llah, p. XVII, The Importance of Obligatory Prayer and Fasting.

This Fast leadeth to the cleansing of the soul from all selfish desires, the acquisition of spiritual attributes, attraction to the breezes of the All-Merciful, and enkindlement with the fire of divine love… Fasting is the cause of the elevation of one’s spiritual station. – Abdu’l-Baha, Ibid., pp. XXVI-XXVII.

On March 1st, millions of Baha’is all around the world will voluntarily stop eating and drinking during the daylight hours for nineteen days in a row. Why?

During the Baha’i Fast, Baha’is abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset each day for the entire Baha’i month of Ala, which comprises the nineteen days before the spring equinox. Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha’i Faith, explains that this annual Baha’i fast:

…is essentially a period of meditation and prayer, of spiritual recuperation, during which the believer must strive to make the necessary readjustments in his inner life, and to refresh and reinvigorate the spiritual forces latent in his soul. Its significance and purpose are, therefore, fundamentally spiritual in character. – Directives from the Guardian, p. 28.

You may not realize it, but most religions have a fasting period sometime during the year—Christians, Jews, Hindus, Taoists, Muslims and Jains all practice some variant of an annual fast. Observant Jews fast for six days, especially on Yom Kippur and Tisha B’Av; Muslims fast during the daylight hours for 30 days during the lunar month of Ramadan; Catholics fast during Lent and other holy days; different Christian denominations fast individually and voluntarily; Hindus fast at various times of the year; many Buddhist practices include fasting, as well.

So fasting has been practiced in different forms and times for millennia as part of religious life, but the principle remains the same—fasting symbolizes detachment from the physical world and from the self. Baha’is view fasting as a spiritual exercise, but recently science has shed new light on its significant role in human biology and physiology—another example of the agreement of science and religion, one of the Baha’i primary principles.

According to recent studies, intermittent fasting has significant health benefits. It promotes optimal physical health by reducing the risk of many chronic illnesses, especially for those who are overweight or obese. Based on the existing evidence from animal studies, fasting has strong effects on health indicators including greater insulin sensitivity, reduced levels of blood pressure, body fat, insulin, glucose, atherogenic lipids, and inflammation. Fasting alleviates disease processes and improves clinical outcomes in disorders such as myocardial infarction, diabetes, stroke, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Fasting, with its general mechanism of triggering adaptive cellular stress responses, results in intensified ability to cope with more severe stress, which prevents disease processes from beginning. Fasting also protects cells from DNA damage, suppresses cell growth and enhances apoptosis of damaged cells—which consequently prevents the formation and growth of cancers. Fasting helps reduce obesity, hypertension, asthma and rheumatoid arthritis. Researchers have now begun to show that fasting even has the potential to delay aging.

With all these health benefits, is fasting difficult? Those who have fasted know that the body gradually adapts to a new routine, and under normal conditions can cope well with lack of nourishment for twelve hours. But the Baha’i teachings say that fasting may not help the healing process if a person is already ill. In some cases, such as diabetics, it would be harmful to fast:

…obligatory prayer and fasting occupy an exalted station in the sight of God. It is, however, in a state of health that their virtue can be realized. In time of ill-health it is not permissible to observe these obligations… – Baha’u’llah, The Most Holy Book, p. 134.

Baha’is fast from the age of maturity, which the Baha’i teachings say begins at 15, until the age of 70. Those who are ill, pregnant and nursing mothers, those doing heavy labor, even those travelling for a long time are all exempt from the fast.

Would you like to try fasting during the Baha’i fast this year? It could increase your physical and spiritual health, and give you a new awakening:

Fasting is the cause of awakening man. The heart becomes tender and the spirituality of man increases. This is produced by the fact that man’s thoughts will be confined to the commemoration of God, and through this awakening and stimulation surely ideal advancements follow. – Abdu’l-Baha, Star of the West, Volume 3, p. 305.

During the past several years, Americans made a distressing “discovery:” we are not a post-racial society and racial animus is still very much alive.

We must focus on recognizing the problems and issues this hard fact calls upon us to face. Where do we start?

Here’s a suggestion: the passages below, from the statement “The Vision of Race Unity: America’s Most Challenging Issue”, published in 1991 by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States, begin by setting forth the foundational principle of Baha’i belief—the oneness of humanity:

The oneness of humanity is the pivot round which revolve all the teachings of the Baha’i Faith. It is at once a statement of principle and an assertion of the ultimate goal of human experience on the planet. More than a century ago Baha’u’llah, the Prophet-Founder of the Baha’i Faith, wrote: “The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.” It is a principle that issues naturally from the genesis and purpose of human existence. The Word of God as presented in the Baha’i writings offers compelling insights as in the following examples:

Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee; therefore I created thee, have engraved on thee Mine image and revealed to thee My beauty.

Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other. Ponder at all times in your hearts how ye were created. Since We have created you all from the same substance it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest. Such is My counsel to you, O concourse of light! Heed ye this counsel that ye may obtain the fruit of holiness from the tree of wondrous glory.

All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization. The Almighty beareth Me witness: To act like the beasts of the field is unworthy of man. Those virtues that befit his dignity are forbearance, mercy, compassion and loving-kindness towards all the peoples and kindreds of the earth.

Having gone through the stages of infancy and turbulent adolescence, humanity is now approaching maturity, a stage that will witness “the reconstruction and demilitarization of the whole civilized world—a world organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life.” In no other country is the promise of organic unity more immediately demonstrable than in the United States because this country is a microcosm of the diverse populations of the earth. Yet this promise remains largely unrealized even here because of the endemic racism that, like a cancer, is corroding the vitals of the nation.

The italicized passages above come from the writings of Baha’u’llah, the prophet and founder of the Baha’i Faith. These scriptures, penned by Baha’u’llah in the latter half of the 19th century, form the foundation of Baha’i belief that we humans are one family—as singer/songwriter Red Grammer put it, “a coat of many colors”.

The U.S. has been called “a grand experiment,” “a nation of immigrants,” “a melting pot” of diversity. As the National Assembly notes, it is “a microcosm of the diverse populations” of the world we live in.

A maxim Baha’is live by, given to us by Baha’u’llah, is Unity in Diversity. Fans of Star Trek may recognize Unity in Diversity as a byword among Vulcans and a concept revered by the United Federation of Planets. (A couple of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s writers were Baha’is; coincidence?) Anyone who saw the most recent Star Trek movie—Star Trek: Beyond—will recognize this theme throughout the film: that there is strength in the unity of diverse peoples.

Conversely and obviously, there is weakness in disunity. Racism is a force for disunity that can erode the strongest of foundations, and ultimately cause the disintegration of the fabric of our society. It is doing that even now.

Baha’is believe that we are not powerless against this dis-unifying force. To preserve this “coat of many colors” we must resist the forces of disintegration. The good news? Each of us has the capacity to do this, and to counter those ugly forces with love, faith, and reason through thought, word and action in any and all of the interactions we have with other human beings.