Spiritual Nature
Along with obligatory prayer, it is one of the greatest obligations of a Bahá'í and is intended to bring the person closer to God. Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, explains that "It 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. Fasting is symbolic, and a reminder of abstinence from selfish and carnal desires."
Read more about this topic: Nineteen Day Fast
Famous quotes containing the words spiritual and/or nature:
“The kind uncles and aunts of the race are more esteemed than its true spiritual fathers and mothers.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am very much afraid that nature itself is only a first habit, just as habit is a second nature.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)