ESPERANTO AND THE BAHÁ’Í TEACHINGS
BY JAMES F. MORTON, JR.
THE need of an international language has long been felt among the forward-looking men and women of all lands. Both ideal and utilitarian considerations urgently demand the establishment of such a language at the earliest possible moment. The practical handicaps in connection with all international intercourse and especially in all international congresses and similar gatherings, arising from lack of a common tongue, are becoming more manifest each year. The growth of the international spirit makes more glaring the lack of an efficient vehicle through which it may function.
It is obvious that national languages, no matter how widespread, will not serve the turn. The objection to them lies deeper than their complex structure, their abundant irregularities, their numerous idioms. Each of them embodies centuries of the separate history and experience of a race, with the past and present phases of racial psychology that have developed. Into each natural language the spirit of a people has been wrought. Its wonderful power of expressing the thoughts, sentiment and ideals that particularly distinguish its own group, is precisely the impassible barrier against its adequacy to meet the needs of other groups. A national bias is so deeply lodged in it as to be irremovable by any simplification or other scheme of adaptation. Hence it can never be made neutral, in such a way that all people shall feel equally at home in it. Moreover, the adoption of such a language, instead of allaying the causes of misunderstanding and ill will, would in some measure intensify them, since it would arouse the strongest jealousies and suspicions on the part of the greater nations whose tongues had been passed over for the favored one.
The international use, then, of any national language must in the nature of the case be a very limited one. It cannot be assumed that even the foremost men of all nations are skilled linguists, even when they are placed in a position where ability to comprehend one another perfectly would be of the utmost importance to themselves and to the world. No man can tell how serious has been the consequence of the lack of a common language in a single case. When the foremost representatives of the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan met at Versailles, to develop principles by which the peace of the world should be established and the course of all future history determined, it was found that there was not one language which all of them could understand; and the precision of the ideas expressed and discussed suffered accordingly with serious effects from which it is probable [Page 154]
that the world is today suffering and must suffer for a long time to come.
It is obvious that no international language can take the place of a natural language for the special purposes of everyday use within a national group. The respective affections, with accompanying obligations, belonging to family, neighborhood, town or city, state and nation, representing an ever-widening circle of interests and duties, are all to be correlated, and in no sense conflict with one another. In the same way, none of these, in a properly ordered world, can ever conflict with the still wider circle of love and duty toward mankind as a whole. The natural languages have grown in accordance with fixed principles planted in the human mind and disposition, and exactly fit the local and national needs of complete expression. Each one of them, even the least widely used, ought to be perpetuated, and its history and literature preserved as a permanent part of the cultural treasure of the human race. The adoption of an international language will not have the slightest tendency to weaken or destroy anyone of them. Its function will be to promote effective intercommunication among men and women of different lands. To do so, it must ignore the separate characteristics of particular races, and possess simply the universal human qualities, which will be recognized by all as held in common by them and their fellows of every land.
For several hundred years, there have been some in every generation who have not been blind to the need of such a medium. First to voice this need in clear accents was the great Bohemian pioneer of sound educational principles, known and honored by the whole world under the name of Comenius. Attempts to put the conception into practice, however, were long unsuccessful. Something like 150 abortive experiments preceded the invention of Esperanto, only one of which, Volapuk, seemed for a short time, in spite of its glaring faults, destined to find acceptance on account of the increasing realization of the crying need. The main trouble with all these undertakings was apparently their concentration upon utilitarian aims, and their indifference to the larger ideals of the unity of mankind. Hence the best of them inevitably turned out to be mechanical and lifeless. There was no spiritual instinct in the minds of their creators; and no soul could appear in the languages themselves.
In the mean time, in the middle of the ninteenth century, the divine message of Bahá’u’lláh suddenly brought a sublime radiance to dispel the clouds of ignorance and prejudice by which the minds of men had been darkened. The bigoted mullás of Persia were aghast at the audacity of one who spoke with the consciousness of divinely bestowed authority, and who dared to substitute for their partial vision of theological doctrine the “strange innovation” (actually referred to by one of them in some such term) of the Brotherhood of Man. A new age was opened; and the influence of the God-sent messenger permeated receptive souls everywhere, even among those who lived and died without hearing the name of the divine teacher. Among the clear instructions of Bahá’u’lláh, put forth with the same urgency as any other of his teachings, was that of the selection or creation of an international language for the promotion of unity among mankind. This was no thought of a mere utilitarian project, but a direct command for the services of God by the creation of an instrument for bringing the thoughts of his children into closer harmony. Over and over again in the sacred [Page 155]
Tablets, this is insisted on as a duty, “so that the whole world,” as declared in the Tablet of Ishráqát, ”may thereby be considered as one native land and one part.”
The ultimate choice of such a universally accepted international language, which is to be taught “to the children in the schools of the world,” must be made by agreement among the nations of the world, either through their present rulers, or if they fail to do so, by the House of Justice, when, in the divine providence, the duties of universal administration shall be placed upon its shoulders. In the mean time, however, there is an obvious step to be taken, if in any way possible, in the creation and voluntary use by all who recognize the principle of one international language, to be thoroughly tested in every way; that when the time comes for final official choice and universal instruction in the chosen tongue, those who are to decide shall have abundant experience to guide them, whether they are to ratify the language already in wide use, to accept it with modifications or to decide upon a different one.
In the creation of Esperanto, this condition has been fully met. Dr. Zamenhof, its author, grew up from boyhood with an inborn love of mankind and longing to bring about a reconciliation among its conflicting elements. His lifework was inspired, not like the efforts of his unsuccessful predecessors, by a mere desire to facilitate commercial, scientific or diplomatic activities, or to promote the comfort and pleasure of travelers, desirable and valuable as these and other uses of an international language certainly are, but primarily to destroy the causes of misunderstanding and hate among his fellowmen by furnishing them with a means of coming to a better understanding. The light that reached him, and found him ready to follow its guidance, was, though he knew it not with his intellectual realization, the divine radiance. As a result, his work remains, bringing forth constant fruits for good. It would take many pages to enter into detail regarding Esperanto and its accomplishments. Suffice it to say here that its followers are found in every land, and constitute a cross-section of every branch of human society. It is being used for myriads of purposes by an ever-increasing number of adherents. It breathes in itself a spirit of international fellowship; and the feeling of comradeship among Esperantists everywhere is almost incredible in its intensity.
That the mission of Esperanto is in harmony with the divine teachings, is manifest by a multitude of proofs. Chief of all is the repeated expression by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá of his approval of the Esperanto cause and his earnest wish that all followers of the Bahá’í truth shall adhere to it. In his message to Esperantists in 1912, he wrote: “All through America I have encouraged the Bahá’ís to study Esperanto; and to the extent of my ability I will strive in its spread and promotion.” Again, in 1913, He said in Paris: “Now, praise be to God that Dr. Zamenhof has invented the Esperanto language. It has all the potential qualities of becoming the international means of communication. All of us must be grateful and thankful to him for this noble effort; for in this way he has served his fellowmen well. He has invented a language which will bestow the greatest benefits on all people. With untiring effort and self-sacrifice on the part of its devotees it will become universal. Therefore everyone of us must study this language, and spread it as far as possible, so that day by day it may receive a wider recognition, be accepted by all nations and governments
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of the world, and become a part of the curriculum in all the public schools. I hope that the language of all the future international conferences and congresses will become Esperanto, so that all people may acquire only two languages—one their own tongue and the other the international auxiliary language. Then perfect union will be established between all the people of the world.”
The foregoing are not isolated expressions by the great Teacher, but are typical of repeated utterances, which indicate how deeply his heart was concerned on the subject. In a Tablet addressed to the writer of these lines in 1920, it is written: “As to thy attendance at the Esperanto Conference. . . . it is very advisable. Thou shouldst show utmost efficiency thereat, in order to spread the divine teachings, one of which is the oneness of language.”
Incumbent as it is on all intelligent well-wishers of their kind to lend their aid to the furtherance of this vital factor in promoting consciousness of unity among the peoples, there is a special burden laid among the followers of the Bahá’í Teachings, for whom the repeatedly expressed wish of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá should mark the path of a duty not to be shirked under any conceivable pretext. He, no one of whose words was ever lightly or indifferently uttered, declares: “Every one of us must study this language, and spread it as far as possible.” The blessing for faithfulness rests not in mere acquiescence, but in strict and active obedience. The Esperantists, who are toiling night and day in a cause thus carrying into action the precepts of Bahá’u’lláh, and in which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has specifically commanded the professed followers of the Revelation of this age to participate, are looking intently at the actions of those who name themselves Bahá’ís, and are wondering why so few among them have responded to this injunction of the Master.
Universal obedience to this divinely given command will mean the installation of a deeper spiritual consciousness into the Esperanto movement, and the intensive spread, by this great vehicle, of the divine Teachings throughout the most progressive groups of lovers of their kind in every land on earth. It will also hasten the speedy execution of this one of the original principles enunciated at the very beginning of the great Revelation; and when the world has once adopted and put into action a single one of the precepts of the Manifestation of the age, the way for acceptance of the companion truths will have been made far more easy.
