Many people may say that in a world of 5 or 6 billion people, how can one individual make any difference? There are many ways of looking at this, but for now I choose to use the following:
Let's say that you start out by changing one heart a year. And let's say that for each heart that you change, each one of them changes one heart per year. This is not an unreasonable goal. Let's look at what the numbers are for the total number of hearts changed. At the end of the first year, there are two hearts changed, you and the first person who changes their heart in response to your teaching. At the end of the second year, both of you have gone out and changed the hearts of two other souls, and so the total number is four. The year after that, the number increases to eight. So you see that each year the total number of souls doubles. Let's look at the results in table form:
Year______________________Souls
1__________________________2
2__________________________4
3__________________________8
4_________________________16
5_________________________32
6_________________________64
7________________________128
8________________________256
9________________________512
10_____________________1,024
11_____________________2,048
12_____________________4,096
13_____________________8,192
14____________________16,384
15____________________32,768
16____________________65,536
17___________________131,072
18___________________262,144
19___________________524,288
20_________________1,048,576
21_________________2,097,152
22_________________4,194,304
23_________________8,388,608
24________________16,777,216
25________________33,554,432
26________________67,108,864
27_______________134,217,728
28_______________268,435,456
29_______________536,870,912
30_____________1,073,741,824
31_____________2,147,483,648
32_____________4,294,967,296
-----------current population of the entire earth-------------->
33_____________8,589,934,592
So 32 years doesn't seem so bad a length of time to change the entire world, one heart at a time. If we began this process in 1967, we'd be done by now.
In India, there is a Baha'i Temple that demonstrates this principle. When the initial design for the temple was proposed, people said that to build it in Europe would have been almost impossible. But to build it in India, with manual labor, where the workers spoke 10 different languages, where there were frequent power outages, and where monsoons could disrupt any construction plans, would surely be impossible. Each petal of the superstructure consisted of a concrete leaf that had to be poured according to a continuous 48 hour schedule, that if it were disrupted more than 10 minutes, would not set properly. Yet this temple was built, in spite of the insurmountable odds, because each individual played their part to the best of their ability, instead of shaking their heads and lamenting how impossible their task was.
The Universal House of Justice, the supreme administrative body of the Baha'i faith, put it this way:
Dear Friends: The days pass swiftly as the twinkle of a star. Make your mark now, at this crucial turning point of a juncture, the like of which shall never return. Make that mark in deeds that will ensure for you celestial blessings -- guarantee for you, for the entire race, a future beyond any earthly reckoning.
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