Bahá’í World/Volume 7/The Bahá’í Faith and Eastern Scholars

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[Page 682]

THE BAHÁ’Í FAITH AND EASTERN SCHOLARS

BY MARTHA L. ROOT

UNTIL East and West embrace one another as brothers there can be no millennium on this globe, but I bring you the glad tidings that in the progress of the Bahá’í Faith throughout the five continents there is a leaven that is slowly but surely raising "the thousand years of peace” into reality! In my latest journey to the Far East, since I left San Francisco, on May twentieth, 1937, to now, February twentieth, 1938, I have met a number of scholars, editors and a few rulers who have expressed appreciation and ardent interest in the Bahá’í Teachings for brotherhood. Ex oriente lux! From out the East are coming true and unprejudiced great thinkers who are studying and beginning to give a deep and scholarly presentation of the Bahá’í Faith in its relation to other Faiths and to the life of the Orient.

First in Honolulu, where I went ashore for a few hours on May twenty-fifth, I had an interview with Professor Shao Chang Lee, Professor of Chinese History and Philosophy in the University of Hawaii. He stated that he had first heard of the Bahá’í Teachings in San Francisco, in 1919, where he had been asked to give a lecture on "Chinese Philosophy” in the Bahá’í Center there. Later he had met Mrs. Samuel Baldwin, Miss Muther, Miss Julia Goldman and the other Bahá’ís of Hawaii. "The idea of Confucius that under heaven all men are brothers seems to be a good preparation for the Chinese to understand the Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh,” he said, and he added that the late Dr. Y. S. Tsao, former President of Tsing Hua University in Peiping, his teacher and his friend, had been a great exponent of the Bahá’í Teachings in China and had translated several Bahá’í books into the Chinese language. “I visited him in 1928, 1933, and 1935,” said Professor Lee, “and learned from him; and Dr. Tsao was a powerful influence in promoting the Bahá’í Faith in China.”

I found Professor Lee very friendly to the Teachings and he told me: "I am going to study the book 'Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh’ and write about it—reverently, not just as a review.

“You ask me how I think the Bahá’í Teachings can be promoted in Hawaii and in China: they will be readily received if people understand they are not to replace what they have, but revitalize, fulfill their old Faiths. If we believe the Bahá’í Faith is a unifying spiritual force—and certainly Bahá’u’lláh has proclaimed the unity of mankind and reverence ‘for one Supreme God-then Hawaii is a great field. Here the East and West meet, the Bahá’í teachings would surely have a place.” I understood from him that day that the University of Hawaii is a Western institution most closely associated with the universities of the Orient. Set midway between the Occident and the Orient in the midst of a population representative of both the East and the West, it is committed to a programme of education in the field of human service.

Japan, as I have written in other volumes of “Bahá’í World,” has scholars and writers who have given illuminating interviews about the Bahá’í Faith. All notes for my articles about Japan and China were lost in the war in Shanghai in August, 1937, but I wish to speak about Dr. Toyohiko Kagawa, one of the bright spiritual lights in Eastern Asia. He is a Christian who "lives the life,” and he is a brilliant understanding writer. He is a flaming evangelist, a social reformer and a crystal-clear writer of religious books and of best-selling novels. I had the bounty to meet him. He told me that he had first heard of the Bahá’í Faith when he was in Tokyo studying in the university, but that [Page 683] he had no Bahá’í books. He said, "What I know of the Bahá’í Teachings I like them, and I wish to give you a message for the Bahá’ís: let us take hands and work for the universal peace of the world.”

In his humble home there was a sweet spirit of peace and the Glory of God shone upon him and his wife and children and all his household. I said to him, “Who are all these young men? Are they your secretaries?” He smiled at them and said no, they were his friends. My inner eye saw—he shared his house with youth who had no money to rent rooms while they were studying in the schools. One had just brought him such a carefully chosen little nosegay of wild flowers from a field, a fragrant gift of love.

Dr. Kagawa, though he has much trouble with his eyes and sometimes cannot see at all, still in his big dark glasses he was painstakingly going over a whole book correcting it for a poor man who did not know how to write very well! Dr. Kagawa thanked me for the books "Gleanings,” "Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era” and "Divine Economies,” specially the last as he had just published a book on economics himself, entitled "The Economic Foundation of World Peace.” He said he would read them with interest. As he stood at the gate bowing when I left, tears of respect and love and loyalty were in my eyes. He is a perfect Christian, therefore he is a Bahá’í, a "Light-bearer,” for that is what the word means. His life helps all of humanity who know him to rise up above its faintness in these cataclysmic days.

Owing to the bombings in Shanghai from which I barely escaped alive, my notes are lost, but Mr. Walter H. Chen, the noted Chinese journalist, for twenty years editor of "The North China Daily News” in Shanghai and writer of "The New Life Movement” of China, a friend of Generalissimo and Mrs. Chiang Kai-shek, said to me that Chinese people are very interested in the Bahá’í Teachings. He quoted from "Hidden Words” of Bahá’u’lláh and said that he loves these noble aims. "Our people will like the Bahá’í principles, for like our own New Life Movement they are based on social regeneration through character building. He told me that their movement instills in the hearts of their people the importance of courtesy, service, respect for the rights of others and honor. The power to live this life comes through religion.

Dr. Y. S. Tsao, the great Chinese scholar who has written much about the Bahá’í Faith and had translated four important Bahá’í books, had passed on a few months before I reached Shanghai.

Mr. Chan S. Liu, a devoted Bahá’í of Canton and a young scholar of great promise, had translated and published "Hidden Words” by Bahá’u’lláh, and he had a large book of “Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh” translated just ready for the press when the air raids on Canton began. He had intended to visit me in Shanghai on his way to Nanking and give me an interview and I had planned to spend two months in Canton to meet several Chinese scholars who are interested in the Teachings, but the war stopped everything.

I wish to speak one word about Manila. I had escaped from Shanghai and reached Manila the evening of August twentieth, 1937. A journalist interviewed me as I stepped from the ship and five minutes later came the worst earthquake Manila has known in a century. However, next morning a newspaper carried the big headline “Bahá’í lecturer says war is hell.” A young Professor of the University of the Philippines and a young teacher in the schools seeing this headline came to call. They had studied the Bahá’í Teachings from books in the Philippine National Library and had written articles and lectured on the Faith, but had never met a believer. The young teacher said, "There is something in these Bahá’í Teachings which appeals to me. I hope I am a Bahá’í and I wish to promote this universal religion. I assure you the Bahá’í books are never idle in this Philippine National Library.”

Stopping a few hours in Penang, the editor of the largest and best newspaper, an Oxford man, said, "I’ll study these Bahá’í Teachings and speak about them before the Rotary Club of Penang.”

Colombo, Ceylon, where I stopped for one month has a Mayor, Dr. R. Saravanamuttu, who is most liberal in his spiritual thinking. He said to me in an interview, “Any one in whom religious consciousness has been

[Page 684]

Members of the Unity of the East and West Committee of Ṭihrán, Írán, 1937.

awakened will see truth in all religions and cease to quarrel about the superiority or inferiority of any of them.” He gave as an example, the Mahatma Gandhi, saying, "Gandhi has drawn the attention of the people of India to Jesus Christ more than any Christian missionary or of all of them put together.” Dr. Saravanamuttu is himself a Christian and Mr. Gandhi is a Hindu. Dr. Saravanamuttu said he would read the Bahá’í Teachings for peace with great interest.

Dr. Mary Rutman, member of the Colombo City Council and one of the greatest workers for humanity in Ceylon, said, "I like the Bahá’í Teachings.” Some editors and journalists in Colombo wrote excellent articles and expressed deep interest. Some university students there said, "Remember your class is waiting for you when you can return to Colombo to teach us.”

Coming to Burma, Mr. D. A. Anklesaria, a lawyer of Rangoon, a well known Theosophist and writer, author of "Talks on Zoroastrianism,” presided at two of my lectures. He spoke with such clearness that I asked him to write his statement about the Bahá’í Faith and here it is:

“A little over twenty five years ago when I joined the Olcott Lodge, Rangoon Theosophical Society, my attention was drawn to a very interesting book in the library, ‘The Religious Systems of the World.’ In that book there was an article on the Bahá’í Faith. Since then I came in touch personally with some members of the Bahá’í Faith in Rangoon including my friend, the late Sayed Janab ‘Alí, a brother-advocate of the Rangoon High Court. During the last quarter of a century several missioners of the Bahá’í Faith have passed through Rangoon and I have had the pleasure and privilege to meet them and hear their discourses. Two years ago, after I had finished my series of ‘Talks on Zoroastrianism’ at the Town Branch of the Y.M.C.A., among the questions from the floor was the following:—

"Q. Would Zoroastrians be willing to join a systematic religion; or is Bahá’ísm a modern expression of Zoroastrianism?

“My answer was in these words:

“A. As regards the Bahá’í Faith, in my opinion it can be compared to Sikhism in India. The great Guru Nanak tried to reconcile Islám to Hinduism and failed. Bahá’u’lláh tried to reconcile Islám to [Page 685] Zoroastrianism and he succeeded. When the future historian traces the causes of the rise of Írán from the depth of degradation to which she had reached, he may say that the credit was due to two sons of Írán (1) Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith and (2) His Imperial Majesty Riḍá Sháh Pahlavi, the man of the age. 'Zinde bad Írán.’ Long live Írán, the land of Zarathustra’s birth and life!

“This clearly shows my personal view of the beauty and usefulness of the Bahá’í faith in serving as a bridge between religions, apparently considered hostile, but essentially one.

"Recently when Miss Martha L. Root, the missioner of the Bahá’í Faith, spoke in Rangoon under the auspices of the local Arya Somaj and the Theosophical Society, I made certain observations from the chair which amount to this:‘That the Bahá’í teaching and the teaching of the Theosophical Society are almost identical. Both lay stress on the unity of life and its inevitable corollary, the Brotherhood of Man. Both are respectively the nucleus of people who believe in the Unity of life and the Brotherhood of man. In consequence of this conviction, every Theosophist and every Bahá’í has respect for the various religions prevailing in the world, and their great Founders. Both believe, in a way, in the inner government of the world which guides the evolution of humanity with the object of bringing every human being to the realization of the implications of the Unity of life. Quarrels and strife we have had in the past, and are having in the present to a dreadful extent. But Theosophists and Bahá’ís are certain, that in the end love must triumph over hatred and strife. To quote just one passage from the "Book of Íqán” (i.e. Assurance —Certainty), the Revered Bahá’u’lláh says at page 153:—

‘ “It is clear and evident to thee that all the Prophets are the Temples of the Cause of God, who have appeared clothed in diverse attire. If thou wilt observe with discriminating eyes, thou wilt behold them all abiding in the same tabernacle, soaring in the same heaven, seated upon the same throne, uttering the same speech, and proclaiming the same Faith. Such is the unity of those essences of being, those luminaries of infinite and immeasurable splendor.” ’

“In fact as I have said more than once every member of a Theosophical Society is one more Bahá’í added to the members of the Bahá’í Faith and vice versa, every Bahá’í is one more member added to the Theosophical Society inasmuch as they have a common object, viz., that of spreading the message of the brotherhood of man and all that it implies, and trying to live the message in order to make it a thing of living faith and not merely an object of intellectual acceptance. I wish the Bahá’í Faith all progress and prosperity.”

Mr. W. J. Grant, Editor of “The Rangoon Daily Times,” Rangoon, has been most friendly to the Bahá’í Teachings. Articles explaining the Teachings, news of the progress of the Cause in the whole five continents appear regularly in that widely circulated newspaper, the largest in Burma.

In an editorial he has made the following statement about the Bahá’í Faith: “The higher critics seem never to have realized that what they are attacking is not religion as it is practised in the world to-day. Perhaps certain religions have been more fortunate than others in the manner of their exhibition to the world. A system which has been heard much of in Rangoon in recent times is the Bahá’í Faith. We do not pretend to know much about it, but so far as we can judge, its Teachings are beautifully ethical and those who carry its gracious intentions are sincere to the core.”

Sir S. Radhakrishnan, one of India’s most forward-looking erudite scholars, said to me at the Second Indian Cultural Conference held under the fine auspices of the Indian Research Institute, Calcutta, December fourth to seventh, 1937, "I have sympathy with the spirit of the Bahá’í Teachings, we are all Bahá’ís universally.” He was President at the opening of this great Conference and said among other things, "Religion has been the bearer of human culture and supreme achievement of man’s profound expression. In spite of a continuous struggle [Page 686] with superstition, India has held fast for centuries to the ideal of the spirit. Not only have we made out of the Aryans, the Dravidians, and aboriginal tribes, Hindus, but we have given religious education to the large part of the world.”

He spoke of the increasing influence of the Eastern thought on the Western civilization: “The civilization of the East, India and China, which is built upon passivism, tolerance, non-aggressiveness, cultivation of the inner life are long-lived while those based on ambition and adventure, aggression and courage are short-lived. The Eastern civilization has endured centuries of wars, pestilence and human misrule and yet has survived. No Western civilization has lived over a thousand years. The West by its great scientific achievements has made the world outwardly into one, has provided us with all the material appliances essential for the development of the world culture but it has not touched the basis of culture, the configuration of life and mind. The molds are cracking, further growth in the old molds is not possible; so, as on previous occasions, the eyes of the West are turned towards the East.”

Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Bahá’í Cause, who lives in Haifa, Palestine, and the National Spiritual Assemblies of the United States and Canada, India and Burma cabled greetings to this Conference. They also cabled to the First Convention of Religions’ Congress likewise held under the direction of the Indian Research Institute in Calcutta, December eighth to eleventh. These were read and broadcast all over India. Shoghi Effendi wired, "Kindly convey to the Second Indian Cultural Conference my best wishes and assurance of prayers for the success of their deliberations.” These greetings were presented with a short speech about the Bahá’í Faith for religion and culture.

Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, India’s best known woman, a poet whose works are translated into many languages, and the most brilliant and enchanting woman speaker I have ever heard, a member of the Indian Congress strong in public life, spoke at the opening of this Cultural Conference. She had met ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in London, and when she knew a Bahá’í was to give the greetings to the Conference she sent for her and invited that Bahá’í to sit next to her on the platform.

Mrs. Naidu said in her speech that religion and culture are twin-born. “The coordinated cultures of the many races that have become Indian in the process of time shall be the consolidated gift of India to the world,” were her words. The thought is akin to her poem to India:

"The nations that in fettered darkness weep Crave thee to lead them where great mornings break.”

During a visit with her alone, later, she said that the Báb’s and Bahá’u’lláh’s suffering for the triumph of their Faith had appealed to her. "I like any one who brings sincere thought and will believe in it, suffer for it, die for it.” As we spoke of the Bahá’í Faith she related that her interest in the Movement, strangely enough, had not begun with the Báb, but with the woman disciple, Qurratu’l-‘Ayn known as Ṭáhirih the Pure One, the first martyr for the cause of woman suffrage. She loves Ṭáhirih’s poetry, for she herself is a great poet whose penetratingly sweet lyrics sing with a rapture all their own.

She had with her that day in Calcutta a rosary which had been ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s. She said, “I prize it just as much as any Bahá’í who would be happy to possess it.” Music was in her heart and soul that morning and with “words steeped in feeling,” to use her own expression, she told me that the Bahá’í Teachings are wonderful. They have a much more modern appeal, she thinks, and they are a measure of social emancipation as well as a religion. She reads them for culture too.

It interested me to know that India’s three greatest souls, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Rabindra Nath Tagore and Mrs. Sarojini Naidu had all three contacted the Bahá’í Teachings. Mr. Gandhi was in Calcutta when I was there, but I did not ask to have an audience as he was very ill—I say audience because to be in his presence is not an ordinary event in anybody’s life; but I do hope to meet him later. Friends of mine who have visited him say that he knows the Bahá’í Teachings very well, has read a number of the books and thinks very highly of the Bahá’í Faith. He has invited Bahá’ís to be his guests.

[Page 687] Bahá’ís throughout the world, through their very Teachings that "it is better to be killed than to kill,” know that Mahatma Gandhi’s great contribution to spiritual culture has been his message of non-violence-he has sown the seeds of this non-violence thought and action upon the world’s virgin soil, not alone as a policy but also as a living philosophy. He, by practical example, prevented what otherwise might have resulted in a bloody war in India. Who knows! Other nations may some day remember this shining experiment! Mahatma Gandhi’s religion, by whatever name he calls it, is universal, is "Light-bearing”!

Through participation in the First Convention of Religions’ Congress in Calcutta, I met Professor M. Hidayat Hosain, Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, now Philological Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society Library, Number One, Park Street, Calcutta. He is one of the greatest scholars in all India, in Íránian and Arabic languages, and is named in the list of compilers of "Concordance de la Tradition Musulmane” printed in Holland in 1936, which is proof that he is one of the leading Orientalists of the World. He is probably the greatest Indian scholar who has arisen to write about the Bahá’í Faith. Professor Hosain has a most interesting article entitled “A Female Martyr of the Bábí Faith” published in a book called “Proceedings of the Idara-i-mararif-i-Islamia,” a Convention held in Lahore in 1933, and the volume is dedicated to the Nizam of Hyderabád, Deccan.

This Calcutta Professor said that he had come to know of the Bahá’í Teachings at first hand (and not alone from books), when Ibn Asdáq, a cultured, learned Bahá’í teacher, came from Írán to Calcutta in about 1902-03. "He was very charming, very cultured, a fine liberalist and I studied with him Bahá’u’lláh’s great work Íqán.” It was Ibn Asdaq who wrote to Írán to ask that information about Ṭáhirih the martyr be sent to me. He also wrote to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sent me a Tablet in 1906.”

Introducing his heroine Ṭáhirih, also known as Qurratu’l-‘Ayn, in his book he says: “Many noblemen have sacrificed their precious lives for the sake of the religion that they held to be true. The annals of the civilized world abound with such instances. In 'Tarikh-ul-Islám’ there is the record of many such heroes of imperishable fame but few among them belong to the fair sex. Whatever may be the reason for this dearth of the names of female martyrs in our history it is not a fact that Moslem ladies have been behind in championing the cause of religion. I am giving you a short sketch of a most cultured lady of wide reputation who gave up her life for the sake of the Bábí Faith which she believed in with her whole heart and preached with great fervor.” And then follows the long article.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in some Tablets to India quoted lines from Hafiz, the Íránian poet, "All parrots of India will become sweet-tongued when this Persian candy reaches Bengal,” inferring that when the sugar of the Bahá’í Teachings becomes dissolved in Bengal, great sweetness will be enjoyed.

Dr. T. Bahadur Sapru of Allahabád, while he did not speak on the Bahá’í Faith—I did not meet him at the Religions’ Convention but met his friend—said he often wished that India could establish direct cultural contact with Írán. This is coming, for young professors going to Ṭihrán to make deeper studies in Íránian language are meeting Bahá’ís just as Oriental scholars from England, Denmark and Czechoslovakia have done.

The next journey was to Shantiniketan (it means the "Home of Quiet,” "The Home of Peace”) to visit Dr. Rabindra Nath Tagore on December 14, 1937. Mr. Isfandiar Bakhtiari of Karachi, an Íránian by birth, was with me. The poet said, “I met ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Chicago, in 1912. He was staying in an hotel; He was talking to His followers who gathered around Him and I, too, spoke with Him. He very kindly asked me if possible, to come and see Him in His own place in Haifa. I always thought I would try to go, but it wasn't to be like that. The years went by and one day I read in the newspapers that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had passed.”

Dr. Tagore spoke of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá with deep appreciation; he also said that the Bahá’í Faith is a great ideal to establish and that they in Shantiniketan welcome all the great spiritual aims, that he hopes a Chair of the [Page 688] Bahá’í Religion can be arranged in their international university. Dr. Tagore’s center is not only one of the very important cultural institutions of the Hindus in India, but it is also an all-Asia center of great potency. He spoke with Mr. Bakhtiari of his pleasurable trip to Írán and asked particularly about the progress of the Bahá’í Cause in the land of its birth; he praised the tolerance and fineness of the Íránian Bahá’ís. The poet said, too, that they have some very good books about the Bahá’í Teachings in the university library. The visit with Dr. Tagore was a most happy one.

The audience with Their Highnesses the Maharaja of Travancore and his mother the Maharani of Travancore in the Royal Palace, December 22, 1937, was very happy and illuminating. The Maharaja, H. H. Sir Balai Rama Varma, twenty-six years old, is so smiling, cheerful, natural, buoyant, he puts one at ease, for his manners are from the heart. He had just done such an epoch-making deed in his tempo of reform, it was being much discussed all over India. After six thousand years of caste system under the Hindu religion, this young Maharaja had, on his birthday, November 12, 1936, with one stroke of the pen at a great religious festival announced that all State Hindu Temples shall be opened to all people. Thus the “untouchables” can now go into the temples “to the feet of God” as they say, to worship. Now there are no longer untouchables in Travancore. Before that these oppressed classes of India not only could not go into the temples to pray, but they could not even go near the temples, nor bathe in the public tanks or go near a public well.

Since this proclamation I saw with my own eyes how non-caste Hindu officers go in processions with H. H. the Maharaja along with the other higher caste Hindu officers. This proclamation truly is as outstanding as some of the big edicts of King Asoka of India in the remote past. It ranks in line with our own President Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation of freedom for the slaves, and another parallel is what the women of Great Britain did to promote the woman suffrage idea, not alone for their own countrywomen but for greater opportunities of women all over the world.

Perhaps only in India can one really realize what this great gesture of the Maharaja of Travancore means. He has perceived the signs of this universal age of brotherhood and by his courageous act has removed a hard barrier enforced for sixty centuries. It does not mean that he is not a Hindu, he is a liberal, most spiritual Hindu. His own Dewan (Prime Minister), Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Aiyar, said, “It is entirely due to His Highness’ broad vision and impartial attitude towards all his subjects that this proclamation has been made.”

Certainly it is a challenge to other Hindu States and patrons of Hindu Temples to realize the necessity for bringing about dynamic reforms. India is agog with excitement over this unprecedented deed of the young Maharaja of Travancore who is raising Hinduism to its deserved glory.

His charming mother, the Maharani of Travancore, Her Highness Setu Parvati Bai, is one of the most delightfully well-educated women in India today. She possesses the cultures of both the East and the West, is a famous conversationalist, a fine lecturer and writer, and just as her son she has a keen sense of humor, and yet is very spiritual, an ideal Hindu. An audience with them is something that always remains a joy.

We spoke of the unity of religions and of some Bahá’í books. She said that from time immemorial people of all religions had come to settle in Travancore, and that there are no prejudices. "There is only one GodHead,” she said, "but the manifold paths to Him are different. The fundamental truth can never vary, so why should we fight about it?”

She is a great believer in higher education for women and told me that in their men’s colleges there are lady professors and tutors and some of the teachers are younger than the pupils. There is a lady judge in Travancore; lady clerks work side by side with men and co-education has been advanced remarkably in Travancore. Girls take part in all the mixed games, the whole atmosphere is healthful and inspiring. The fact that matriarchy has prevailed in Travancore for more than a thousand years may have something to do with the importance given to the education of the girl. But all education, [Page 689] both that of the girl and the boy, is very high in Travancore; this state has the highest literacy in all India. Many women who came to the Ninth All India Oriental Conference when I was in Trivandrum, came in their own names, under their own titles and not just as wives.

The Bahá’í solution of the economic problem was spoken of during our audience that afternoon. They both thought it was very interesting but H. H. the Maharani said that it would be difficult to start an experiment in economies with a 350,000,000 population such as India has today. Suddenly she suggested, "Could it not be carried out first in some small country, such as Palestine, where the Bahá’í Cause has its headquarters and see it work there? Let it start with a clean slate and see how love and brotherhood can solve the economic problems.” She meant the specific set of Laws and the definite institutions and all the essentials of a Divine Economy provided by Bahá’u’lláh—could not these be tried out thoroughly in Palestine as a model for the other countries to follow?

Palestine is very good, but the whole world needs these economic transformations. Palestine might be a model so far as the central storehouses are concerned, but this would be a minor point. All the governments must join hands for these major problems such as a Universal League of Nations, universal education, a universal auxiliary language, an International Court of Arbitration, the universal doing away of customs barriers, and the change of heart through religion—these must be carried through by all nations simultaneously.

I found their Highnesses the Maharaja and the Maharani and their friends so noble, liberal, and they were so pleasant and most gracious to the highest and to the humblest. It is rulers like these with great capacity, vision and a wide tolerance who can render great service for the upliftment of their own subjects and of all humanity.

The Maharaja of Travancore said to me, "It is a matter of special pride to us that the Syriac, the Catholic, the Protestant and the Muslim Faiths and philosophies are cultivated in this state with zeal in mutual peace; we welcome truth. We shall read with interest the principles of Bahá’u’lláh for world peace.”

Living in Trivandrum is the British Resident of the Madras States, Mr. Clarmont P. Skrine, and Mr. Isfandiar Bakhtiari of Karachi and I had the pleasure of meeting him; he is a friend of the Maharaja. He told us that his father, the late F. H. Skrine, had written a book about the Bahá’í Faith nearly thirty years ago. His father had been in the Administrative Department of Civil Service in Bengal for many years, but after returning to London in 1897, he had heard of the Bahá’í Teachings and had made a deep study of them.

Dr. James H. Cousins of the University of Travancore sometimes travels with H. H. the Maharaja. His wife, Mrs. Cousins, President of the All India Women’s Conference, stopped over in Haifa, Palestine, on her way back to India to visit Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Bahá’í work. Both Dr. and Mrs. Cousins know the Bahá’í Teachings. They told me, that same day in Trivandrum, that when they were living in Ireland in 1906, Sir William Barrett, Dean of the Royal College of Science, Ireland, a famous physicist, initiator of the Society of Psychical Research, had given them a copy of the first edition of “The Splendour of God,” a Bahá’í book. It was their first contact with the Bahá’í Faith. They are both spreaders of Light and they loaned this book to many groups of young students.

The Travancore Journalists’ Association gave a tea the next afternoon to hear about the rise of the Bahá’í Movement and what Bahá’u’lláh has said about the power of the press to make a better world.

Dewan Bahadur K. S. Ramaswami Sastri, a brilliant scholar and a District and Sessions Judge of Madras, has been studying the Bahá’í Teachings, learning of the Faith first from Bahá’í books in the University of Madras Library where he is a member of the University Senate. Twice he presided when I lectured in Madras, and I give here a few salient facts he expressed as Chairman of the meeting:

"When we evaluate the teachings of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi in relation to the travail of humanity today, we can realize how they [Page 690]stand for universal peace and world-cooperation. It is quite natural that such teachings should be the gift of Írán to the world, because Íránian thought is a blend of Aryan philosophy and Islámic religion. Such a country, however, fell from its high state. In ‘The Dawn-Breakers’ it is stated: ‘Inefficiency and wretchedness, the fruit of moral decay, filled the land. From the highest to the lowest there appeared neither the capacity to carry out methods of reform nor even the will seriously to institute them. National conceit preached a grandiose self content. A pall of immobility lay over all things, and a general paralysis of mind made any development impossible.’ It was reserved for the Bahá’í Prophets to give a shaking to such stagnation of mind and body, and to fuse Aryan philosophy and Islámic religion. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said: ‘In former times Írán was verily the heart of the world and shone among the nations like a lighted taper.’ He, in His turn, made Írán shine like a lighted taper.

“The Bahá’í Prophets have propounded the idea of a League of Religions and recognize all the prophets of all the religions. The Bahá’í Movement works for the harmony of science and religion, because they deal with the truths of the seen and unseen and have no reason to be in conflict with each other. It preaches the equality of the sexes and of the classes. It educates men and women for love and service and is a powerful force making for universal peace.

“Thus the Bahá’í religion may well be described as a Faith which unites what Swami Vivekananda described as the Vedantic mind and the Islamic heart. It aims at inspiring men to be ready to carry out the will of God and to love their fellowmen.

“Bahá’u’lláh said, ‘I stand life in hand ready.’ He said further, ‘It is better to be killed than to kill.’ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said, ‘Dost thou desire to love God? Love thy fellowmen, for in them ye see the image and likeness of God.’

“We in India hear in these words a familiar strain that has come down to us along the long and resounding corridor of time echoing the words ‘Om Santih Santih Santih’ (‘Peace, Peace, Peace’), the sound whereof seems to touch the roof of the sky. We hear the strain that thrilled us in the soft accents of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and in the leonine words of Swami Vivekananda, and in the social and political gospel of Mahatma Gandhi.

’ “Islám in its highest mood means the recognition of the Divine Will and the surrender of every will to it in utter peace and resignation. It dissociated the thought of God from any image or symbol and disseminated the ideal of universal brotherhood. Buddhism stresses righteousness and Christianity stresses love. Hinduism emphasizes the divine unity of all things and shows the central unity in all diversity, the prismatic colors heightening the charm of their united glory in the white light of Brahman.

“Miss Martha Root has seen many countries and cultures and civilizations and aims at the spread of the essential Bah teachings in the interests of world peace and world cooperation. She is bearing aloft ‘that banner with the strange device—Excelsior’ and is working strenuously for the brotherhood of man and the unity of the world.”

When Dewan Bahadur Sastri was Chairman at the second lecture, he said: “It is significant that the years 1936 and 1938 have been connected not only with the wars against Abyssinia and China but also with the celebration of the centenary of the birth of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and the extension of the Bahá’í Faith. The latter events signify that there is an upward trend in the life of humanity. Tolstoi rightly pointed out that he felt drawn to the Bahá’í Faith because of its stress on equality and brotherhood and of its sacrifice of material life to the service of God.

“The League of Nations has been a failure, first because some of the nations went into it in a half-hearted way and all the nations did not go into it and some of the big nations stood out of it, and secondly because the League was unarmed while the nations were fully armed to the teeth and are today arming themselves more and more. The basic cause for this sad state of things is that the mind of man has been allured by science and its religion of power, and has turned away from Faith and its religion of service. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says that ‘war is the most preventable human accident’ and yet it seems [Page 691] today to be the most unpreventable and recurring human incident. The Bahá’í Faith aims at removing the discord between science and faith and suppressing and sublimating the overgrown egoism of man.

“For achieving this object, it proposes to establish the equality of the sexes and to give a new orientation of education. Women will redress the balance of life in the future. The new education aims at homoculture and the enrichment of the entire personality by substituting the true heroisms and victories of peace for the false hcroisms and victories of war.

“In these two directions great work awaits the Bahá’í Faith. Hinduism, the mother of religions, has a wide tolerance of outlook. It is said that the Bahá’í Movement leaves all the doors open; that is the attitude of Hinduism also. Other religions close the skylights and windows and the doors and keep only the street door open and even that partially open. The Hindu doctrines of Incarnation and of Grace and Devotion have even today a great contribution to make to the life of humanity.

“It looks as if the Bahá’í Faith will stimulate the best elements in each religion and bring about a real League of Religions and a Real League of Nations.”

A short visit was made to Adyar, Madras, December twenty-seventh, 1937, where the International Theosophical Conference was in session in their world headquarters. In their great lecture hall, on the wall panels devoted to great spiritual leaders, the front panel at the left, as one enters, contains the insignia of the Greatest Name and over it is written "Bahá’u’lláh”; it is very beautiful. Mr. Hirendra Nath Datta, Vice-President of this international organization, said that the Bahá’í Teachings are the highest essence of Hinduism. The Bahá’í collection of books in their library is very good and is constantly used by university students of Madras.

The Librarian of the University of Madras Library, Dr. S. R. Ranganathan, said he is keenly interested to build up the department of Bahá’í books. He already has a fine selection, he keeps in touch with the N. S. A. of the United States and Canada and wishes to get every new Bahá’í book that is published.

Sir Dewan M. Ismail, Dewan of Mysore State, an Íránian by birth, a most liberal understanding Muslim, received Mrs. Shirin Fozdar and me, two Bahá’ís, in his beautiful home in Bangalore City on January twenty-fifth and again in early February. His spirit is very "Bahá’í,” for he is most kind to people of every religion. I said this to him and he smiled replying, “I’m sure that if I really lived my Muḥammadan religion you would say, ‘He is a Bahá’í!’ ”

Deeds are the test of one’s Faith; and when I saw that he embraced a Jew, made a cordial speech at the laying of the foundation stone of a Christian church, was most considerate to an Ahmadiyyih priest, and did everything to help Mrs. Fozdar and me so that our visit to Bangalore was most successful and happy, I ask: if this is not "Light-bearing,” “Bahá’í,” then what is it? He invited us to a great garden party where he himself was the guest of honor and introduced us to some of his friends as Bahá’ís. He spoke of a Professor in their state who he said has made a deep study of the Bahá’í Teachings.

This charming Dewan said to some Hindus: “I am serving a Hindu State and a Maharaja who is the embodiment of all that is best in Hindu culture and Hindu civilization. It is difficult to imagine a more pious, devoted Hindu. It is not a matter of surprise if I am so wholeheartedly with you in the service of your religion and your culture. I feel—a feeling which I venture to express in all humility and sincerity—that one pleases Providence more by serving other Faiths than one’s own. Paradoxical as that may sound, I believe it is nevertheless quite true, for to serve other Faiths calls for something nobler than passive tolerance. I think and feel that I have no more inspiring example to follow in this matter than that of His Highness the Maharaja of Mysore himself who reigns over all of us with so much love and wisdom, treating all communities and all religions alike.”

Dr. Anwar Iqbal Qureshi, Head of the Economics Department of the University of Hyderabád, after my lecture to the students of the university said in his concluding remarks: “I wish the politicians of Russia, Japan, Germany and Italy could have been present and heard this talk. I hope with her that there will be one religion in the world. [Page 692] Youth has revolted against religion, but you young men who have education, on you the responsibility falls, for you can grasp the fundamentals of unity. Apply yourselves to the problems of the world. If we can find an approach, as our lecturer suggests, to the universal auxiliary language problem it will go a long way to help us and to help make a better world. If we can evolve a system of language the world will come much nearer.”

This university which teaches in the vernacular in addition to teaching the foreign languages is one of the finest. It is in large measure the students, the alumni from these outstanding Indian universities who are ushering in what is popularly called the great Indian Renaissance; and I observed that some of the very capable Bahá’ís in India—as well as in other lands—first heard of the Teachings through lectures in their schools.

The Mithic Society of Bangalore City, one of the highest cultural organizations there, arranged for three Bahá’í lectures in their Daly Memorial Hall, and the Honorary Secretary, Mr. S. Srikantaya, ably presided at all three events, speaking of the Cause with understanding. He said the last evening, that whether we agree or disagree with the Bahá’í High Prophet, Bahá’u’lláh, these Teachings are well worthy of study and of a deep consideration and thought. Professors in Mysore University, Mysore City, said that what they and the students need is a great quickening in religion and if the Bahá’í Teachings bring that, they are well worth studying. Another professor said that the fact that this Bahá’í Faith, the youngest and most flexible religion, has come up out of the most conservative Faith shows its universalism.

Sir Akbar Hydari, Prime Minister of Hyderabád, Deccan, is very interested in Ṭáhirih, loves her poems and he was most kind to Mrs. Fozdar and to me when we were in Hyderabád, in early February. Lady Hydari is President of the Hyderabád Ladies’ Association Club and when we lectured there in their clubhouse, Princess Niloufer Farhat Begam Sahiba graciously presided. She is the wife of the second son of the Nizam of Hyderabád, Deccan, and was a grand niece of Sultan ‘Abdu’l-Hamid of Turkey. Many cultured people in Hyderabád know Ṭáhirih’s poems, and when Mrs. Fozdar spoke over the radio in Hyderabad about Ṭáhirih, a gramophone record was made of the speech and also her singing of Ṭáhirih’s poems.

The Honorable Jamnadas M. Mehta, Mayor of Bombay, 1936-37, and one of the great thinkers and eloquent speakers of India today, said to me in a conversation last October: “I am deeply impressed by the broad and catholic principles of the Bahá’í Faith and I am trying to study its Teachings more and more. As I said the other evening at the meeting over which I presided in the Bahá’í Hall when you spoke and several members of the National Spiritual Assembly of India and Burma also took part, the Faith which is consecrated by the willing sacrifice of over twenty thousand human beings cannot but inspire respect and confidence even among those who belong to other Faiths. As a Hindu, I can honestly subscribe to almost all the tenets of the Bahá’í Movement because they are so nearly identical with our own teachings.

“There has always been a great thirst for knowledge here in India. Toleration is even more conspicuous and you can be sure of an adequate hearing for the Bahá’í principles wherever you will go. For myself, I shall keep in increasing touch with the Bahá’ís.”

India is wide awake today—conferences in religions, sciences, Oriental Studies, education and peace are participated in by many hundreds of men and women. Many of these conventions, many universities, religious societies, clubs, are opening their doors to the Bahá’í Message. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said that when these Bahá’í Teachings are widely known in India they will spread very rapidly.