Bahá’í World/Volume 16/The Institution of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár
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V
THE INSTITUTION OF THE MASflRIQU’L-AILIKAR
1.FOREWORD
Blessed is he who directeth his steps towards the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár at the hour of dawn, communing with Him, attuned to His remembrance, imploring His forgiveness. And having entered therein, let him sit in silence to hearken unto the verses of God, the Sovereign, the Almighty, the All—Praised. Say, the Mashriqu’l-Afikdr is in truth any House raised in towns or villages, for mention of Me. Thus hath it been named before
His Throne; would that ye know it.
MANY discerning minds have testified to the profoundly significant change which has taken place during recent years in the character of popular religious thinking. Religion has developed an entirely new emphasis, more especially for the layman, quite independent of the older sectarian divisions.
Instead of considering that religion is a matter of turning toward an abstract creed, the average religionist today is concerned With the practical applications of religion to the problems of human life. Religion, in brief, after having apparently lost its influence in terms of theology, has been restored more powerfully than ever as a spirit of brotherhood, an impulse toward unity, and an ideal making for a more enlightened civilization throughout the world.
Against this background, the institution of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár stands revealed as the supreme expression of all those modern religious tendencies animated by social ideals which do not repudiate the reality of spiritual experience but seek to transform it into a dynamic striving for unity. The Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, when clearly understood, gives the world its most potent agency for applying mystical vision or idealistic aspiration to the service of humanity. It makes visible and concrete those deeper meanings and wider possibilities of religion which could not be realized until the dawn of this universal age.
The term ‘Mashriqu’l-Adhkár’ means literally, ‘Dawning-place of the praise of God.’
To appreciate the significance of this Bahá’í
Baha’u’llah, Kitáb-i-Aqdas
institution, we must lay aside all customary ideas of the churches and cathedrals of the past. The Mashriqu’l-Adhkár fulfils the original intention of religion in each dispensation, before that intention had become altered and veiled by human invention and belief.
The Mashriqu’l-Adhkár is a channel releasing spiritual powers for social regeneration because it fills a different function than that assumed by the sectarian church. Its essential purpose is to provide a community meetingplace for all who are seeking to worship God, and achieves this purpose by interposing no man-made veils between the worshipper and the Supreme. Thus, the Mashriqu’l-Atfitkér is freely open to people of all Faiths on equal terms, who now realize the universality of Baha’u’llah in revealing the oneness of all the Prophets. Moreover, since the Bahá’í Faith has no professional clergy, the worshipper entering the Temple hears no sermon and takes part in no ritual the emotional effect of which is to establish a separate group consciousness.
Integral with the Temple are its accessory buildings, without which the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár would not be a complete social institution. These buildings are to be devoted to such activities as a school for science, a hospice, a hospital, an asylum for orphans. Here the circle of spiritual experience at last joins, as prayer and worship are allied directly to creative sewice, eliminating the static subjective elements from religion and laying a foundation for a new and higher type of human association.
HORACE HOLLEY
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2. THE SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MAgflRIQU’L-AQHKAR
A LETTER FROM SHOGHI EFFENDI
IT should be borne in mind that the central edifice of the Mashriqu’l-Acflkar, round which in the fullness of time shall cluster such institutions of social service as shall afford relief to the suffering, sustenance to the poor, shelter to the wayfarer, solace to the bereaved, and education to the ignorant, should be regarded apart from these dependencies, as a house solely designed and entirely dedicated to the worship of God in accordance with the few yet definitely prescribed principles established by Bahá’u’lláh in the Kitdb-i—Aqdas. It should not be inferred, however, from this general statement that the interior of the central edifice itself will be converted into a conglomeration of religious services conducted along lines associated with the traditional procedure obtaining in churches, mosques, synagogues, and other temples of worship. Its various avenues of approach, all converging towards the central hall beneath its dome, will not serve as admittance to those sectarian adherents of rigid formulae and manmade creeds, each bent, according to his way, to observe his rites, recite his prayers, perform his ablutions, and display the particular symbols of his faith within separately defined sections of Bahá’u’lláh’s Universal House of Worship. Far from the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár offering such a spectacle of incoherent and confused sectarian Observances and rites, a condition wholly incompatible with the provisions of the Aqdas and irreconcilable with the spirit it inculcates, the central House of Bahá’í worship, enshrined within the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, will gather within its chastened walls, in a serenely spiritual atmosphere, only those who, discarding forever the trappings of elaborate and ostentatious ceremony, are willing worshippers of the one true God, as manifested in this age in the Person of Bahá’u’lláh. To them will the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár symbolize the fundamental verity underlying the Bahá’í Faith, that religious truth is not absolute but relative, that Divine Rev elation is not final but progressive. Theirs will be the conviction that an all-loving and everwatchful Father Who, in the past, and at various stages in the evolution of mankind, has sent forth His Prophets as the Bearers of His Message and the Manifestations of His Light to mankind, cannot at this critical period of their civilization withhold from His children the guidance which they sorely need amid the darkness which has beset them, and which neither the light of science nor that of human intellect and wisdom can succeed in dissipating. And thus having recognized in Bahá’u’lláh the source whence this celestial light proceeds, they will irresistibly feel attracted to seek the shelter of His house, and congregate therein, unhampered by ceremonials and unfettered by creed, to render homage to the one true God, the Essence and Orb of eternal Truth, and to exalt and magnify the name of His Messengers and Prophets Who, from time immemorial even unto our day, have, under divers circumstances and in varying measure, mirrored forth to a dark and wayward world the light of heavenly guidance.
But however inspiring the conception of Bahá’í worship, as witnessed in the central edifice of this exalted Temple, it cannot be regarded as the sole, nor even the essential, factor in the part which the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, as designed by Bahá’u’lláh, is destined to play in the organic life of the Bahá’í community. Divorced from the social, humanitarian, educational and scientific pursuits centring around the dependencies of the Mashriqu’l-Adjkér, Bahá’í worship, however exalted in its conception, however passionate in fervor, can never hope to achieve beyond the meagre and often transitory results produced by the contemplations of the ascetic or the communion of the passive worshipper. It cannot afford lasting satisfaction and benefit to the worshipper himself, much less to humanity in general, unless and until translated
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THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHA’U’LLAH
and transfused into that dynamic and disinterested service to the cause of humanity which it is the supreme privilege of the dependencies of the Mashriqu’l-Acfltkar to facilitate and promote. Nor will the exertions, no matter how disinterested and strenuous, of those who within the precincts of the Mashriqu’l-Adjkar will be engaged in administering the affairs of the future Bahá’í commonwealth, fructify and prosper unless they are brought into close and daily communion with those spiritual agencies centring in and radiating from the central shrine of the Mashriqu’l-Adjkar. Nothing short of direct and constant interaction between the spiritual forces emanating from this House of Worship centring in the heart of the Mashriqu’l-Adjkar, and the energies consciously displayed by those who administer its afl‘airs in their service to humanity can possibly
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provide the necessary agency capable of removing the ills that have so long and so grievously afflicted humanity. For it is assuredly upon the consciousness of the efficacy of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, reinforced on one hand by spiritual communion with His Spirit, and on the other by the intelligent application and the faithful execution of the principles and laws He revealed, that the salvation of a world in travail must ultimately depend. And of all the institutions that stand associated with His Holy Name, surely none save the institution of the Mashriqu’l-Adfikar can most adequately provide the essentials of Bahá’í worship and service, both so vital to the regeneration of the world. Therein lies the secret of the loftiness, of the potency, of the unique position of the
Mashriqu’l-Adjkar as one of the outstanding institutions conceived by Baha’u’llah. 25 October 1929.
a » .. ,5 The Mother Temple of Latin America, on Cerro Sonsonate, Panama. This House of Worship
was dedicated 29 April 1972.
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- Temple Land
METHES 7000 500 0 I 2 KILOMETRES SCALE LEGEND 1. DELHI GATE 5, PARLIAMENT HOU_SE 9‘ SAFDARJANG AIRPORT 2. CONNAUGHT PLACE 6. RASHTRAPATI BHAVAN 10. HUMAYUN TOMB 3‘ INDIA GATE 7‘ BUDDHA GARDEN 11. ROCK TEMPLE 4. BIRLA TEMPLE 8. SAFDARJANG TOMB 12‘ KALKAJI TEMPLE
Map of New Delhi showing location of the national Hagiratu’l-Quds of India and site of the Bahd’z' Temple.
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3. THE MOTHER TEMPLE OF THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT
EARLY in the Ten Year Crusade the goal assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of India of acquiring a Temple site for the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of India was achieved. At the time of the Intercontinental Conference in October 1953 an admirable site was found through the efforts of Shoghi Effendi’s representative to that conference and members of the National Spiritual Assembly of India. This site, a few miles south of Delhi, on the road to Agra, the city of the Taj Mahal, is so located that any building erected on it will be readily visible to the thousands who pass daily by rail or highway between Delhi and important centres in the southern part of India.
It is interesting to note that the village situated on the Temple land is called Bahapur (literally the village of Baha), and that opposite is a Hindu temple dedicated to Kalka Avatar. Kalka Avatar, according to Hindu belief, is one of the names of the Promised One of the Hindus whose appearance in the latter day will herald the age of peace, prosperity and universal brotherhood.
Shortly after purchasing the Temple site the National Spiritual Assembly built a low wall around it and erected a marker. On special
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Following the Bahá’í International Teaching C0
occasions, and particularly when a visiting Hand of the Cause was in attendance, members of the National Spiritual Assembly and other Bahá’í friends would gather at the site for prayers.
Unfortunately, due to a change in the town planning scheme for the land around Delhi, the area on which the Bahá’í House of Worship was to be constructed was zoned as a greenbelt for the town and legally no construction could be undertaken in this zone. But in view of the special nature of the Mashriqu’l-Agmkar, which will be open to all mankind regardless of race, colour, caste or religion, and whose surroundings will be beautiful parkland, the National Spiritual Assembly of India is trying hard to obtain permission for its construction. Although they have not yet obtained final permission they have been given encouragement and promises by high authorities that eventually they will be able to overcome objections and undertake construction of the building. A goal of the Five Year Plan for India requires that the construction of the Indian Mashriqu’l-Adhkár be initiated, and it is hoped that by the end of the plan, Riḍván 1979, a design for the Temple will be announced by the Universal House of Justice.
.. ‘3
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nference held in New Delhi in October 1953, a group of Bahd’z's (shown above) gathered for prayers at the site of the future Mother Temple of the Indian subcontinent.
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488 / /’ I / K ‘be/// / // I l __‘ / \\\ (f/ L\\ / l K National \ w/ \-\\/ ‘7’ Hagiratu’l-Quds }‘\‘// {I Endowment Property (I I \ I ) Vailima— o ’
Official Residence of Head of State
/J ( .1, «‘0‘ f ‘6" x /J \q?\ 5 Q” J] / / I Temple Land r? ( ( \\ // Scale \/ fl 0 1/2 7mi/e (1 /’ WESTERN SA MOA
Map showing location ofihe Imliona/ Hagiratu’l-Quds 0/ Western Samoa and site of I/Iefirsl Mashriqu’l-Agifika'r Of the Pacific Islands.
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489
4. THE FIRST MAERIQU’L-AILIKAR OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS
AT the beginning of the Five Year Plan the National Spiritual Assembly of Samoa already owned a Temple site of approximately four acres, but because of its low elevation and general configuration it was decided to look for a more suitable piece of land. Since there is little freehold property available for purchase in Apia, Western Samoa, finding a suitable plot posed some diificulties.
However, in July 1975 the committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of Samoa charged with the responsibility of securing an appropriate site located a twelve-acre lot at an elevation of 1,800 feet, overlooking the city of Apia and not far from Vailima, the official residence of His Highness Malietoa Tanumaflli II. His Highness visited the land and was delighted with its location. It was decided to negotiate with the owner for its purchase. A price, which included
accepting the former Temple site in trade as part of the transaction, was agreed upon, and the formal conveyance was accepted by the National Spiritual Assembly on 11 November 1975.
Most of the city of Apia can be seen from the site, and when the Temple has been erected it should be clearly visible from a wide area below. Another advantage of this particular site is that a relatively new two-storey house, admirably suited for use as a caretaker’s cottage, already stands on the property.
As is the case with the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in India, the Five Year Plan requires that construction of the Temple be initiated before the end of the plan at Riḍván 1979, but as there are no applicable zoning restrictions in Samoa, it is hoped that the project will have proceeded beyond initiation before the end of the plan.
View ofsite Of the Bahá’í House of Worship to be built in Western Samoa.
