Discovering Our Spiritual Reality — With Faraneh Vargha-Khadem

Have you ever looked up at the sky, and wondered how the universe evolved? That sense of wonder, says our Moments of Meaning guest Faraneh Vargha-Khadem, defines our need for transcendence. 

RELATED: We’re All Made of Stars. What Does This Mean Spiritually?

In this episode of the Moments of Meaning podcast, Professor Varga-Khadem, a cognitive neuroscientist and a Baha’i, reveals how the Baha’i teachings led her on a journey of inner discovery that culminated in her fascinating, insightful profession – and her lifelong interest in discovering and studying the spiritual capacities we human beings all possess.

She cites this penetrating passage from a letter written by Abdu’l-Baha to Ella Goodall Cooper as her inspiration:

… Humanity consists of the spiritual reality, and that reality is penetrative in all things, and it is that reality which discovers the invisible mysteries, and through that reality all sciences, arts, and inventions become known and manifest. Whatever thou beholdest of the works of man is but a faint ray of that reality. It encircles all things and comprehends all things.

“I think all human beings are born with the need, and the drive for transcendence,” Professor Varga-Khadem says in the podcast, “… and it’s this motivation, this need for transcendence, this need for going beyond ourselves, that drive sciences and the arts and all the inventions. And this is what Abdul Baha refers to when he talks about the fact that from the world of the invisible, we translate things and bring them into the world of visible.”

Please listen here as Professor Varga-Khadem explains her moment of meaning and what it has meant for her inner and outer life.