| ←Issue 9 | Star of the West Volume 16 - Issue 10 |
Issue 11→ |
 Proofread onceReturn to PDF view
|
We are working hard to have proofread and nicely formatted text for you to read. Here is our progress on this section:
|
CONSIDER the human world. See how nations have come and gone. They have been of all minds and purposes. Some were mere captives of self and desire, engulfed in the passions of the lower nature. They attained to wealth, to the comforts of life, to fame. And what was the final outcome? Utter evanescence and oblivion. Reflect upon this. Look upon it with the eye of admonition. No trace of them remains, no fruit, no result, no benefit; they have gone utterly; complete effacement.
Souls have appeared in the world who were pure and undefiled, who have directed their attention toward God, seeking the reward of God, attaining nearness to the Threshold of God, acceptable in the good pleasure of God. They have been the lights of guidance and stars of the Supreme Concourse. Consider these souls, shining like stars in the horizon of sanctity forever more.
--PHOTO-- MASHREQ’UL-AZKAR Louis Bourgeois Architect
The Bahá’í Magazine
STAR OF THE WEST
| VOL. 16 | JANUARY, 1926 | No. 10 |
RELIGIONISTS are not the only people looking and longing for the Kingdom of God. This thought-wave seems to strike all minds devoted to the establishment of more ideal conditions for humanity. One is not a little surprised, however, to find a historian making such an eloquent plea for a spiritualized humanity as in the following words with which J. S. Howland ends his newly published “Brief History of Civilization:”
“The permanency of the progress thus far made depends upon the manner in which our modern freedom and civilization are based upon the deep spiritual truths first enunciated in the East. For without the spirit of love and brotherhood and service for the future, and without the conquest of selfish instinct, our civilization must be revealed as no true and permanent civilization, but merely a superficial culture or a transitory phase fated to such destruction as overtook Rome.
“Yet there has never been so great a hope before mankind as there is to-day, so great a hope of civilization, so great a hope of the coming of the Kingdom of God. That hope can only be realized as every man in all the earth freely and willingly devotes his whole life and all its activities to the service of humanity.”
“TRUE CIVILIZATION,” he has previously defined, “is the condition in which every man shall devote every side of his nature, in its fullest capacity, to free and willing service of humanity as a whole.” These are the words of a scholar in Oxford University, who has in the course of his studies analyzed carefully all the historic civilizations of humanity, as expressed by different races and at different times. He comes to the conclusion that those civilizations best survive which best express brotherhood and service.
ONE MIGHT DESPAIR, however, of seeing such an ideal state of humanity brought about when one views the motives back of even those institutions at present most contributing to our material civilization. Does not one find acquisition, exploitation dominating the life not only of the individuals but also of the commercial and political organizations composing our present-day civilization? From a man on the inside of one of our greatest industries we heard recently of valuable inventions
stifled, quashed, because they would upset the flow of wealth accruing from existing manufactures. Thus, from the most selfish of motives, not only are the individual inventors deprived of the fruit of their genius, but the whole public is deprived of a better and cheaper article. It does not need much acquaintance with industrial and commercial life to realize how far from the ideal of “free and willing service of humanity” our present civilization is.
WHAT IS the solution? Can we perfect civilization by adding still more to its material advancement? H. G. Wells, than whom no one has thought more deeply into the evils and implications of the present world order, in his “World Set Free,” pictures with an imagination so insighted as to approximate truth the results to the world of the discovery in 1953 of a new source of power, released from the atom.
“The thing had come upon an unprepared humanity,” he explains. “It seemed as though human society was to be smashed by its own magnificent gains. There had been no attempt anywhere even to compute the probable dislocations this flood of inexpensive energy would produce in human affairs. . . . The world in these days was not really governed at all. Government was a treaty, not a design; it was forensic, conservative, disputatious, unseeing, unthinking, uncreative. The world was so little governed that with the very coming of plenty, in the full tide of an incalculable abundance, when everything necessary to satisfy human needs and everything necessary to realize such will and purpose as existed then in human hearts was already at hand, one has still to tell of hardship, famine, anger, confusion, conflict and incoherent suffering. There was no scheme for the distribution of this vast new wealth; there was no clear conception that any such distribution was possible.
“Under this tremendous dawn of power and freedom, under a sky ablaze with promise, in the very presence of science standing like some bountiful goddess over all the squat darkness of human life, holding patiently in her strong arms, until men chose to take them, security, plenty, the solution of riddles, the key of the bravest adventures, in her very presence, and with the earnest of her gifts in court, the world was to witness,” and Mr. Wells goes on to describe selfish, dishonest litigation over the patents for this invention. Soon a world-devastating war breaks out, in which atomic bombs are used to destroy whole cities, until the world’s most populous and civilized places are reduced to complete ruin. Then at last men come to their senses, and establish a cooperative world-government, working out entirely new ideals.
WE TRUST that Mr. Wells’ dream of what happens in 1953 is not a prophecy. Yet the worlds situation looks ominous, unless a change comes in the affairs of man. How is this change to come about? Through a different organization of society? Mr. Wells so conceives. But so great a thinker as James Harvey Robinson, in his book “Mind in the Making,” says that the reorganization of society or of government would not do away with the present evils. What we need is a change of attitude.
LET US put it more strongly. What we need is a change in human nature. A world given to individualism,
self-seeking, brute competition, exploitation, cannot, under no-matter-what configurations it is cast, attain that civilization conceived of as the Kingdom of God. For the prime requisite for the attainment of the Kingdom of God on earth is the ascendancy in the human heart of motives of sympathy, altruism, cooperation, self-sacrifice for the group welfare. These heavenly qualities must reign, or there will be no God’s Kingdom on this, till now, tear-stained planet.
Christ, through whose message twenty centuries ago the idea of a divine civilization on earth has gained such hold upon men’s vision in the one prayer He left us, has taught us to repeat daily the definition of the Kingdom of God as that condition of humanity in which God’s will shall be done on earth as it is in Heaven. And Plato, the great philosopher, was granted a glorious vision of that super-world in which all things exist in their perfection—the architypal world of which this world is but a broken reflection.
IT IS a help to men’s endeavor, to realize that the ideal configuration of humanity actually exists, in God’s plan at least; and that the task before us is not so much to create something uncreated as to appropriate those gifts which already await us, claim our heritage as men made in the image of God, and bring heaven to earth.
This is a difficult task. So difficult that the average man is wont to say that it is impossible. “Abolish war? It can’t be done! Not till you change human nature,” is the skeptical reply with which the man in the street rebuffs the idealist. The logic of this answer is irrefutable, but its assumption false. True it is, that we cannot abolish war until we change human nature; but not true, that human nature must remain unchanged, that man must eternally express on earth carnality.
IT IS THE purpose of the Manifestations of God to enable man to sublimate his nature, to become endowed with divine characteristics, to acquire those spiritual qualities which he is heir to as a son of God—love, mercy, compassion, tending to cooperative living. If these qualities can be awakened in man, then the natural, free expression of his nature will result in a happy, orderly civilization, a true brotherhood of man. But until these qualities are established in man, no amount of external restraint, no amount of government or no new kind of government, can enable a loftier civilization. For the very fibre and heart’s blood of our present civilization is egoism. Its foundation is self-seeking, and its superstructure an expression of the appropriative-self.
WHAT CAN change man’s nature? Can the appeal of God, through love and kindness? Can the Call of His Manifestations? Christ once stood looking over the habitations of Jerusalem and uttered that sad plaint, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the Prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”
Have we gained anything in spiritual capacity since that day, under two millenniums of the dispensation of the Christ?
May our actions so characterize us that it may be said of each one of us, “There is a friend of God.”—'Abdu’l-Bahá.
THIS CENTURY is the century of the Sun of Truth. This century is the century of the establishment of the Kingdom of God upon the earth. (Star, Vol. 9, p. 7.)
THE DIVINE Kingdom is like a beautiful garden, but if the people who enter into that garden be blind, they cannot realize anything of the beauty of the flowers; and if they should be deaf, they cannot hear the melodies of the nightingale of that garden; and if they have caught cold, they cannot smell the fragrance of the flowers. What is the reason? It is because the deaf and the blind have not the capacity and ability to feel these things. It is as if they had not entered into that garden. And so it is with the divine Kingdom of God. Its stores are open: those who have capacity can get the benefit, and if they have not capacity they will get no benefit at all. . . (Table Talks at Aqá, p. 17.)
MAN IS rescued from the exigencies of nature by training and culture; consequently education is necessary, obligatory. But education is of various kinds. There is a training and development of the physical body which insures strength and growth. There is intellectual education or mental training for which schools and colleges are founded. The third kind of education is that of the spirit. Through the breaths of the Holy Spirit, man is uplifted into the world of moralities and illumined by the lights of divine bestowals. . . .
The spirit of man must acquire its bounties from the Kingdom of God in order that it may become the mirror and manifestation of lights and the dawning-point of divine traces, because the human reality is like the soil. If no bounty of rain descends from heaven upon the soil, if no heat of the sun penetrates, it will remain black, forbidding, unproductive; but when the moistening shower and the effulgent glow of the sun rays fall upon it, beautiful and redolent flowers grow from its bosom. Similarly the human spirit or reality of man, unless it becomes the recipient of the lights of the kingdom, develops divine susceptibilities and consciously reflects the effulgence of God, will not be the manifestation of ideal bounties; for only the reality of man can become the mirror wherein the lights of God are revealed. The reality of man will then be as the spirit of this world; for just as the animus of life quickens the physical human body, so the body of the world will receive its vivification through the animating virtue of the sanctified spirit of man. (Pro. of U. P., Vol. 2, p. 324.)
IF MEN followed the holy counsels and the teachings of the Prophets, if Divine Light shone in all hearts, and men were really religious, we should soon see peace on earth, and the Kingdom of God among men. The laws of God may be likened unto the soul, and material progress unto the body. If the body was not animated by the soul, it would cease to exist. . . . All our sorrow, pain, shame and grief are born in the world of matter; whereas the Spiritual Kingdom never causes sadness. A man living with his thoughts in this
Kingdom knows perpetual joy. . . (Wisdom Talks in Paris.)
UNLESS ethics be improved, the world of humanity will be incapable of true advancement. Real advancement is dependent upon the world of humanity becoming a center of divine morals, becoming a place of the effulgences of the Merciful, becoming a mirror reflecting the bestowals of God. Thereby the world of humanity will become the image and likeness of God. Until these virtues reveal themselves in the world of humanity, real progress and advancement will not be possible. (Star, Vol. 4, p. 191.)
IN THE unmistakable and universal re-formation we are witnessing, when outer conditions of humanity are receiving such impetus, when human life is assuming a new aspect, when sciences are stimulated afresh, inventions and discoveries increasing, civic laws undergoing change and moralities evidencing uplift and betterment, is it possible that spiritual impulses and influences should not be renewed and reformed? Naturally new spiritual thoughts and inclinations must also become manifest. If spirituality be not renewed, what fruits come from mere physical reformation? For instance, the body of man may improve, the quality of bone and sinew may advance, the hand may develop, of what use is the rest? The important factor in human improvement is the mind. In the world of the mind there must needs be development and improvement. There must be re-formation in the kingdom of the human spirit, otherwise no result will be attained from betterment of the mere physical structure. . . . Similarly, of what avail is the re-formation of physical conditions unless they are concomitant with spiritual reformations? For the essential reality is the spirit, the foundation basis is the spirit, the life of man is due to the spirit; the happiness, the animus, the radiance, the glory of man—all are due to the spirit; and if in the spirit no reformation takes place, there will be no result to human existence. . . . The purpose is that the world of existence is dependent for its progress upon re-formation; otherwise it will be as dead. . . . Thoughts must be lofty and ideals uplifted in order that the world of humanity may become assisted in new conditions of reform. When this re-formation affects every degree, then will come the very “day of the Lord” of which all the Prophets have spoken. (Star, Vol. 4, p. 119.)
THAT WHICH is the cause of everlasting life, eternal honor, universal enlightenment, real salvation and prosperity is, first of all, the knowledge of God. It is known that the knowledge of God is beyond all knowledge, and it is the greatest glory of the human world. For, in the existing knowledge of the reality of things, there is material advantage and through it outward civilization progresses; but the knowledge of God is the cause of spiritual progress and attraction, and through it the perception of truth, the exaltation of humanity, divine civilization, rightness of morals and illumination are obtained.
Secondly, comes the love of God, the light of which shines in the hearts of those who know God; its brilliant rays illuminate the horizon and give to man the life of the Kingdom. (Ans. Questions, p. 338.)
HISTORY informs us that every age has its special ties which bind
the people together; but the strongest tie of all ages, the unbreakable tie which binds the hearts together, is the tie of true religion. Religion has been the means of uniting contending nations and harmonizing warring tribes. There is no agency on this planet more potent than the power of religion. . . .
By religion I mean the world of celestial attributes. After the moral aspect of humanity becomes readjusted, then the greatest unity will be realized; but without this moral readjustment it is impossible to establish harmony and concord, for it is a fact that war, conflict, friction and strife are but the visible results of deterioration of morality and corruption of character. But when the morality of humanity is beautified with praiseworthy virtues there will be an end to war. (Divine Philosophy, p. 176.)
IT IS therefore evident and proved that an effort must be put forward to carry out the purpose and plan of the teachings of God in order that in this great day of days the world may be reformed, souls resuscitated, a new spirit of life found, hearts become illumined, mankind rescued from the bondage of nature, saved from the baseness of materialism and attain spirituality and radiance in attraction toward the Divine Kingdom. This is necessary. This is needful. (Star, Vol. 3, No. 18, p. 7.)
THIS IS the time for man to strive and put forth his greatest efforts in spiritual directions. Material civilization has reached an advanced plane, but now there is need of spiritual civilization. Material civilization alone will not satisfy; it cannot meet the conditions and requirements of the present age. Its benefits are limited to the world of matter. There is no limitation to the spirit of man, for spirit in itself is progressive, and if the divine civilization be established the spirit of man will advance. Discoveries of the real, will become more and more possible, and the influence of divine guidance will be increasingly recognized. All this is conducive to the divine form of civilization. . . . Material civilization has advanced unmistakably, but because it is not associated with divine civilization, evil and wickedness abound. (Pro. of U. P., Vol. 1, p. 97, 99.)
NO MATTER how far the material world advances it cannot establish the happiness of mankind. Only when material and spiritual civilization are linked and coordinated will happiness be assured. . . . If the moral precepts and foundations of divine civilization become united with the material advancement of man, there is no doubt that the happiness of the human world will be attained and from every direction the glad-tidings of peace upon earth will be announced. Then humankind will achieve extraordinary progress, the sphere of human intelligence will be immeasurably enlarged, wonderful inventions will appear and the spirit of God will reveal itself; all men will consort in joy and fragrance, and life eternal will be conferred upon the children of the kingdom. Then will the power of the divine make itself effective and the breath of the Holy Spirit penetrate the essence of all things. Therefore, the material and the divine or merciful civilizations must progress together until the highest aspirations and desires of humanity shall become realized. (Pro. of U. P., Vol. 1, p. 105.)
FOR MAN, two wings are necessary. One wing is the physical
power and material civilization; the other is the spiritual power and divine civilization. With one wing only, flight is impossible. Two wings are essential. Therefore no matter how much material civilization advances it cannot attain to perfection except through uplift of the spiritual civilization. (Pro. of U. P., Vol. 1, p. 10.)
THE WORLD of humanity shall become the manifestation of the lights of divinity, and the bestowals of God shall surround all. From the standpoints of both material and spiritual civilization extraordinary progress and development will be witnessed. In this present cycle there will be an evolution in civilization unparalleled in the history of the world. The world of humanity has heretofore been in the stage of infancy; now it is approaching maturity. Just as the individual human organism having attained the period of maturity reaches its fullest degree of physical strength and ripened intellectual faculties, so that in one year of this ripened period there is witnessed an unprecedented measure of development, likewise the world of humanity in this cycle of its completeness and consummation will realize an immeasurable upward progress; and that power of accomplishment whereof each individual human reality is the depository of God, that outworking universal spirit like the intellectual faculty, will reveal itself in infinite degrees of perfection.
Therefore, thank ye God that ye have come into the plane of existence in this radiant century wherein the bestowals of God are appearing from all directions, when the doors of the Kingdom have been opened unto you, the call of God is being raised and the virtues of the human world are in the process of unfoldment. The day has come when all darkness is to be dispelled and the Sun of Truth shall shine forth radiantly. (Pro. of U. P., Vol. 1, p. 35.)
THE SIGNS of God are resplendent and the teachings of the heavenly messengers are being spread. May the hearts be directed to the Kingdom of God and become illuminated by witnessing the lights of God in order that all created beings may obtain a portion of the divine bestowals. May the spirit of life be restored through the divine graces of the Almighty and may the East and West be bound together. May oneness and harmony become manifest in all regions. May the people of the world become as one family and obtain the everlasting bounty. (Pro. of U. P., Vol. 1, p. 100.)
O GOD! verily the world is in need of reformation. Bestow upon it a new existence. Give it newness of thoughts and reveal unto it heavenly sciences. Breathe into it a fresh spirit and grant unto it a holier and higher purpose. . . . Endow souls with new perceptions and confer upon them new virtues. (Pro. of U. P., Vol. 2, p. 270.)
THE New Jerusalem has descended many times. It appears truly from the clouds, but they are clouds of mentality and not of weather. The heavenly city arises as Baha’u’llah tells us with the appearance of the Messenger of God. He is a mighty channel through which the Holy Spirit pours to all mankind, becoming a cause of quickening and new life to the entire planet. With his advent another civilization begins, another type of humanity is visible; science, art and architecture gain added power and life. Men cannot think the same thoughts as before in the day of a messenger of God. They must create and not copy.
This was notably a fact in the case of Christ and in that of Muhammad. We have grown to think of Christ as a purely theological and dogmatic figure identified by sorrow and the stigmata. But in reality he was the most glorious personage. When he entered a room, one forgot all else, because no other possessed his happiness, his force, his irresistible charm.
Recall, for instance, his interview with the Samaritan woman. He had seated himself upon the curb of Jacob’s well, to wait for the return of his disciples, who had gone to buy food; also no doubt to be ready for the Samaritan woman, whom he must have seen arriving. Can you picture him seated there in all the splendor of his youth, his radiance and wisdom?
He asked her for a drink, and then added that if she knew who was pleading for water she would beg of him and receive such a draught that she would never again be thirsty. She glanced at him in surprise and replied rather scoffingly to his suggestion that his gift would forever quench thirst. One can see her in the ripeness and arrogance of her beauty. But his next word arrested her, revealing his complete knowledge of all the secrets of her life. She must have bent her head while the flush mounted in her cheek, as she listened to the truth about herself.
He had torn away her veils and touched her secret thought, so she spoke of the prophecies, of the coming Messiah who would reveal all truth. He said wonderful words to her, knowing she could understand:
“But the hour cometh and now is, when the true worshipper shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him, in spirit and in truth.”
How her heart burned when she heard such words! And because of such burning he revealed to her his station. Her thought was full of the Messiah. “When he cometh he will reveal all things.” “And Jesus said unto her, I that speak unto thee am he!”
Can you wonder that she dropped her water bucket and ran to inform her friends of such a stupendous event? For she had seen the Saviour face to face! Before such an adventure everything else paled and lost its importance. She no doubt forgot from that moment that she was a Samaritan and could not worship in Jerusalem. For she had entered the heavenly city. The sunshine glittered henceforth upon its pinnacles, and she walked its streets
in happiness and faith. The heavenly city recognizes no social, racial nor religious differences. It extends over the entire globe, its citizens speak all languages and are united to all faiths. Their minds have been illumined by the light of the Messenger, and with whatever faith they are incorporated they have broken down the barriers and they feel that all religions are one. This has brought them into the heavenly city, so that, whether they live in Topeka, Kansas, or in Bagdad, they know its laws and its intricate byways.
’Abdu’l-Bahá has described this wide illumination of the Messenger in numerous passages. In the great tablet to Daniel Sutton he says:
“Thou hast written regarding the verse of the gospel that it is categorically understood that in the day of the Manifestation of Christ all the souls will hear the Call and obey it. Know thou that faith is of two kinds. The first is faith of words, of the lips (objective faith), obedience with all the limbs of the body, and it is dependent upon the will of man. The second is subjective faith and natural obedience. There is no doubt that in the day of the Manifestation of Christ, all the contingent beings, whether in the first degree or second degree, had subjective and natural faith in His Holiness Christ. For the creational objects are all parts, but Christ is the whole; therefore the part is subordinate to the whole and obedient to it. The contingent beings are structures, but Christ is the foundation; therefore the structure stands firmly on and owes its existence to the foundation.
“The existing things are branches, leaves and blossoms, while Christ is the root of the tree. It is evident that the branch, the leaf, the blossom and the fruit are obedient to the tree. This is subjective faith. But the knowing, discerning faith which consists of the knowledge of God and the comprehension of the divine Words, there is very little in every age. That is why it is said, ‘Many are called but few are chosen.’ This is the truth.”
In addressing Arthur Cuthbert of England, ’Abdu’l-Bahá gives a different answer to a similar question. He says:
“Know thou that the distinguished individual of every age is according to the virtues of that age? The Distinguished Personage who was in the former cycle, his power and virtues were according to the former age, but in this brilliant age and Divine Cycle, the Noble Personage, the Radiant Star, the Distinguished One, will manifest with virtues which will eventually amaze the people, for he is in spiritual virtues and divine perfections loftier than all the individuals, nay, rather he is the Source of Divine Benediction, and the Center of the Radiant Circle. He is certainly comprehensive. There is no doubt that he will reveal himself to such a degree as to bring all under His overshadowing shelter. . . .
“The whole attracts the part and the center of the circle is the axis of the compass. Consider His Holiness the Spirit (Christ); since he was the center of spiritual power and the origin of divine benediction, although in the beginning he gathered but few under his power, yet later through that conquering power he ushered all sects under the shadow of the Christian tabernacle. Compare the present with the past; see the great difference. By this thou canst measure and reach the Reality and know of a certainty that the difference among the sects of the world is due to the difference of comprehensions.
So long as the perceptive powers differ, surely the opinions and thoughts also differ. But if One Great Perceptive Power which comprehends all comes to the center, the differing opinions become united and ideal unity and oneness are revealed.”
Baha’u’llah gives a marvellous description of the city in one of his books called “The Iqán” (Book of Assurance), beginning with the 137th page. He tells us first how the seeker who is in search of this city must first cleanse and purify the heart. He must free himself from greed and selfishness, “consider backbiting an error,” love his neighbor and be eager to share with him his possessions, “bestowing a portion upon the destitute and not refusing benevolence and favor to the unfortunate.”
All the joys of life and of the spirit are found in this city and there we discover our real kin. It may happen in the law of our existence that the family relationship has not been the most pleasant, and an inner comprehension has not been granted us through our brothers and aunts. But the true relatives are in the world, nevertheless, and we discover them in the heavenly city, as we develop the new senses that supplement the five we brought with us from the animal kingdom.
Baha’u’llah says: “When the lamp of search, longing, effort, fervor, love, rapture, attraction and devotion is enkindled in the heart, and the breeze of love blows forth from the direction of Unity, the darkness of error, doubt and uncertainty will be dispelled and the lights of knowledge and assurance will encompass the pillars of existence. Then the ideal herald will dawn as the true morn from the Divine City, with spiritual glad tidings, and awaken the heart, soul and spirit from the sleep of negligence, with the trumpet of knowledge. Then the favors and confirmations of the eternal Holy Spirit will impart such a new life that one will find himself the possessor of a new eye, a new ear, a new heart, and a new mind, and will direct his attention to the clear, universal signs and to the hidden individual secrets. With the new eye of God he will see a door open in every atom for attainment to the stations of positive knowledge, certain truth and evident light, and will perceive in all things the mysteries of the splendor of Oneness and the traces of the Manifestation of eternity.
“What shall we mention of the signs, tokens, appearances and splendors ordained in that city, by the command of the King of Names and Attributes! It quencheth thirst without water, and increaseth the heat of the love of God without fire! The ideal consummate wisdom is hidden in every plant, and a thousand nightingales of speech are in ecstasy and rapture upon every rose branch. The mystery of the fire of Moses is revealed in its wonderful tulips, and the breath of the Holy Spirit of Jesus emanates from its fragrance of holiness. It bestows wealth without gold, and grants immortality without death. A paradise is concealed in every leaf, and a hundred wisdoms are treasured in every one of its chambers. Those who earnestly endeavor in the way of God after severance from all else, will become so attached to that city they will not abandon it for an instant. They will hear conclusive proofs from the hyacinth of that assembly and will receive clear arguments from the beauty of the rose and the melody of the nightingale. This city is renewed and adorned every one thousand years, more or less. Therefore, O
my friend! we must make an effort to attain to that city, and remove the veils of glory, through divine favors and lordly compassion, so that we may sacrifice the withered soul in the path of the New Beloved, and show forth a hundred thousand supplications and humiliations in order to be favored with that attainment. . . . In these cities sustenance is provided and eternal blessings are appointed. They bestow spiritual food and provide preexistent benefit. They confer the wealth of unity upon the people of abstraction, bestow a portion upon the portionless, and favor the wanderers in the desert of ignorance with the cup of knowledge. In these cities are treasured and deposited the guidance, favor, knowledge, understanding, faith and assurance of all the heavens and earth.”
In that spiritual city walk the illumined ones. All touch spiritually the Lord of the city, though they may not know his name, and all feel the happiness that surges through its unbounded horizons blessing the inhabitants of every country and community.
of humanity, the century of justice; this century is the century of universal peace, the century of the dawn of the Sun of Reality; this century is the century of the establishment of the Kingdom of God upon this earth; therefore, let us grasp every means to promote the federation of the world, that we may become the recipients of the divine outpourings.”
(BAHÁ'Í TEMPLE)
CORINNE TRUE“In this age Bahá’u’lláh has breathed the Holy Spirit into the dead body of the world.”
“His Holiness, Bahá’u’lláh, has reiterated or reestablished the quintessence of the teachings of all the Prophets.”
“Today His Holiness, Bahá’u’lláh, is the Collective Center of unity for all humanity.”
A BUILDING of unequaled architectural design is in process of erection in one of the loveliest parts of Chicago, on the most popular automobile drive of that city, overlooking Lake Michigan and just as one enters the charming suburb of Wilmette. We are attracted to make inquiry because of its uniqueness.
Upon investigation we find this edifice is to have nine sides, nine entrances, surrounded by nine gardens, nine paths interlacing the gardens, nine fountains in these charming gardens. At the convergence of these paths and gardens stands the magnificent Bahá’í Temple, the design executed by Mr. Louis J. Bourgeois, and chosen as the model for the central edifice by the delegates to the Bahá’í Convention, held in New York City, April 26 to 29, 1920. The height is to be one hundred sixty-two feet above the main floor, the diameter of the superstructure one hundred sixty-two feet, and the diameter of the base two hundred and five feet. Circular steps lead from the gardens to the main floor, and a magnificent dome caps the structure. Now that, through investigation, we know of the architectural design and the geometrical gardens, the inquirer exclaims, “Who are the people undertaking this unique task? Are they a sect of any of the world famed religious movements? A knowledge of the projectors of such a beautiful and novel undertaking will surely be of intense interest.
We find a great World Movement promulgating the oneness of humanity and the oneness of the great world religions, is back of this project, and its adherents extend throughout the known world. It is the Bahá’í Movement, so named because its founder and originator is Bahá’u’lláh, and its adherents are called Bahá’ís.
Who was Bahá’u’lláh—the name is Oriental? Where did he arise to promulgate his great universality? Surely he is peerless in that his Movement is founded upon two such universal ideals: namely, that all the religions are one, and that all men constitute one humanity, one great brotherhood. No religion that we have investigated in our search for Reality is practicing these two essential onenesses.
We are becoming more than interested, we are captivated, as we investigate further, as we note the unlimited outlook of this Movement. Bahá’u’lláh teaches men, “Glory is not his who loves his own, but who loves humanity!” The great universal principles enjoined upon the world by its Founder clearly prove to the unprejudiced investigator that
here is a Movement whose Originator surely is no ordinary teacher. His world plan is for universal religion, universal education, agreement of science and religion, absolute equality of men and women, universal peace established between all nations and all races, a universal auxiliary language. As we learn of these principles, we are convinced that Bahá’u’lláh, the source and originator of such noble ideals, is a unique and peerless educator of mankind. From whence came this great educator and trainer of the Bahá’í Movement? Who has established it upon such noble and advanced postulates?
We turn to the annals of His life’s history with keenest interest to learn what native land could give to the world such a majestic figure. We wonder what country possessed educational institutions so broad and unfettered in their traditions that the Founder of this Movement could have been taught the tenets of a World Federation! Especially curious are we to discover His nativity because of the date of His birth, November 12, 1817–a time in history when the spiritual and moral gloom enshrouding the world was at its densest, hardly penetrated by a single ray of light. We are intensely eager to ascertain His native land, to discover what country was so advanced at that time as to produce such a countryman. We are more than astonished to learn that so great a teacher and trainer of men was born in the land of Persia. Persia has occupied a unique place in the history of the world. In her days of early greatness she has been a veritable queen among nations, unrivalled in civilization, in power and in splendor, giving to the world great kings and statesmen, prophets and poets, philosophers and artists. Zoroaster, Cyrus, and Darius, Hafiz and Firdawsi, Sa’di and Omar Khayyam are a few of her famous sons. Yet in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries she had sunk to a condition of deplorable degradation. Her government was corrupt and in desperate financial straights; some of her rulers were feeble and others monsters of cruelty. Her priests were bigoted and intolerant. Her people ignorant and superstitious. Social as well as religious affairs were in a state of hopeless decadence. Education was neglected. Her people looked upon western science and art as unclean and contrary to religion. In his nativity from such a land he resembles the Holy Nazarene of whom the people said “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” In the face of all these densely dark conditions the Founder of the Bahá’í Movement arose in the East and the rays of this Life-giving Orb have encircled the globe, and we find growing up in the heart of the western continent this Temple, this superb symbol of His universal ideals.
To construct a material building and purchase so large a tract of land for its site surely entails the expenditure of considerable sums of money. We naturally look to see if the Bahá’ís in Chicago have alone financed this undertaking. Another big surprise awaits our inquirer. He finds that the adherents of this Movement from the four corners of the globe have voluntarily and joyously sent their contributions to Chicago for this edifice. From India, China, Japan, Turkey, Persia, Russia, Egypt, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, South America, all parts of Europe, the United States and Canada, and even the isles of the seas, have come these free-will offerings.
For the first time in the history of man, the East is joining hands with
the West in founding an Institution built upon the broadest principles known.
How can the fanatical Oriental be so transformed as to voluntarily unite with the Occidental infidel in a project to construct an Institution whose doors will be open to all the nations and all the religions, where there will be drawn no line of demarkation? ’Abdu’l-Bahá, the son of Bahá’u’lláh tells us—“When these institutions”—which are the accessories to the great central House of Worship—“college, hospital, hospice, and establishments for the incurables, university for the study of higher sciences and advanced educational courses, and various philanthropic buildings, are built, its doors will be open to all the nations and all religions. There will be drawn absolutely no line of demarkation. Its charities will be dispensed irrespective of color or race. Its gates will be flung wide to mankind; prejudice towards none, love for all. “The central building” (now in the process of construction, “will be devoted to the purposes of prayer and worship. Thus for the time religion will become harmonized with science, and science will be the handmaid of religion, both showering their material and spiritual gifts on all humanity. In this way the people will be lifted out of the quagmires of slothfulness and bigotry.”
We here learn that this beautiful House of Worship surrounded by its charming gardens and fountains is but one unit of the Mashriq’Ul-Adhkar. This is the unit to be constructed first; and attracts our immediate attention. The majestic nine-sided edifice with its beautiful dome standing in the midst of nine beautiful gardens, with the nine cooling fountains, and the nine interlacing paths leading up to the circular steps that admit us to the interior of our edifice, are surely a geometrical arrangement that must embody a great truth. Here we have an impressive symbol which will give expression to an ideal that makes for the realization of spiritual development, pure and righteous living, and universal brotherhood, the symbol on the Western Continent of the Universal Principles and Truths uttered by Bahá’u’lláh.
When minds are liberated from the prejudices of bigotry and ancestral worship, and man is untrammeled in his search for truth and investigation of reality, he discovers that all the great religions are turning to a Reality which is the source of all their moral and spiritual life. The Jew calls this Divine Reality, Moses; the Buddhist, Buddha; the Muhammadan, Muhammad; the Christian, Christ, etc., and from these Divine Realities have emanated the Law of God and the Knowledge of God.
The nine paths of our gardens symbolize the nine great paths to Truth opened by the Founders of the nine great world religions. Each of the religions planted a Garden of Eden, with a fountain in the center, symbolizing the Holy Book of Scripture by which each garden is irrigated with the Water of Life (the Word of God) causing the plants and trees of the Godly attributes to spring up in the being of man and refresh and revitalize humanity with spiritual fragrance and beauty, upbuilding in one or another part of the earth a new civilization resultant from the laws and ordinances recorded in each book.
We observe that the nine paths of these gardens converge in the one central building–the House of
Prayer and Worship. Likewise do we find that the nine great religions converge in one great Central Goal—namely, the establishing of the Kingdom of God upon earth, one Fatherhood and one great brotherhood.
Throughout the books of the great religions runs a golden chain of promise, each Prophet adding his pearl to this divine necklace, all admonishing man that a time would come when man would beat his sword and spear into implements of husbandry, and man would learn war no more and this earth would become the throne upon which God’s Kingdom would be established, one God and one humanity.
This central building will be the point where mankind, so widely separated in the past by prejudices and mutual unfriendliness, will be harmoniously united in the worship of the One God. Through the founding of such institutions where Science and Religion unite to uplift mankind, does Bahá’u’lláh purpose to supplant all religious, racial and scientific differences, and implant in the heart of humanity the great Oneness of God and man.
After learning all the noble ideals to be embodied in the Mashriq’Ul-Adhkar still a reaction may come in the mind of the inquirer. He may say the world has had multitudes of Utopian dreams, what proof have we that this one may not be doomed to the same fate? Let us cite to you the fact that already Bahá’u’lláh’s plan is in practical operation in the Mashriq’Ul-Adhkar completed in Eshkabad, Russia. And here in America the beautiful site comprising several acres of choice land has been entirely paid for and the tremendous concrete foundations firmly laid and also paid for, so that the Foundation Hall that you now see is absolutely clear of all indebtedness and plans are in operation to raise the amount needed for the main floor so that construction may be resumed.
Surely this edifice has passed from the realm of ideality into the realm of actuality, when so much has already been accomplished by the united efforts of the Bahá’ís throughout the world, men and women brought up in the tenets of all the nine great religions. Has it not already proven to you its power to remove from the people the prejudices and superstitions of the past, and to unite the widely separated people of all creeds and races?
The site in Wilmette was chosen and purchased for the Mashriq’Ul-Adhkar because it was the most beautiful site available in Chicago or its immediate environs, commanding a magnificent outlook over Lake Michigan, attracting both land and seafaring travelers to this great symbolic structure reminding them ever of God and brotherhood.
The name Mashriq’Ul-Adhkar is Oriental and perhaps excites wonderment; It is an Arabic term signifying “the dawning-place of the mentionings of God.” Why has it not been translated into English? Let us stop to consider. Has history produced a plan resembling in any feature this Institutional Plan of Bahá’u’lláh, covering buildings to be devoted to the religious, scientific, charitable and philanthropic education of mankind, and to be erected by the voluntary contributions of the followers of Bahá’u’lláh throughout the world? We have found no English, word that conveyed the meaning of our Bahá’í institutions and this compelled us to introduce into America the name given by the Originator. This dawning-place is not only one for prayer and worship, but a place
from which the inspirations of prayer and worship will immediately be transmuted into actual and selfless service to humanity through its accessory buildings. Knowing the real purpose of the Mashriq’Ul-Adhkar and its great benefits to humanity, we soon cease to be cognizant of the strangeness of name and unhesitatingly adopt it in English.
When in the years to come all of the component parts of this Collective Plan are completed, nowhere in the world will be found a group of buildings so beautiful, so inspiring and so beneficial to mankind. Here will be taught the basic Principles of the great World Movement founded by Bahá’u’11áh.
HENRY W. HETZEL
PRESIDENT OF ESPERANTO ASSOCIATION or NORTH AMERICAMODERN invention, and especially the rapid increase in the means of communication, are bringing our neighbors and ourselves in contacts increasingly numerous and intimate. If this is not to be supplemented by an increased sense of mutual dependence and tolerance, misunderstandings and enmities are bound to arise and to deepen. If the world is to be saved from future wars and if civilization itself is not to perish utterly, the peoples of all countries must cultivate the fullest degree of interrelations. Acknowledging the heaven-ordained fact of their interdependence, they must seek the fulfillment of their highest ideals through world wide cooperation.
Yet in the very tool of communication and cooperation, language, there have always been and are potentialities for keeping alive the spirit of suspicion and aloofness. National tongues are not only distressingly numerous, exceedingly cumbrous, illogical and difficult to master, but they are too much tinctured with the characteristics, psychology and prejudices of the countries where they are native. The ”world democracy,” heralded on all sides by far-seeing statesmen and enlightened thinkers, demands neutrality even in its choice and use of a vehicle of thought.
The advantages of a common speech for the whole world are obvious. Far from desiring the abolition or even the weakening of any of the existing national languages in which the culture of the race is wrapped up, the world does need a common, neutral tongue. The inventions of man are fast making this globe of ours a very small place, indeed. Whether we like it or not, we are rubbing elbows with our neighbors more than ever before and the relations thus set up are bound to become even more intimate. Great movements—economic, philosophic, religious and humanitarian—are becoming as much at home in one country as in another. Grave problems of statecraft, education, science and
industry are arising which, as they concern the human race as a whole, can only be solved by the united and cooperating intelligence of all mankind.
The world has been for ages, and still is, suffering from an over-emphasis on mere nationality. A national consciousness is, of course, not to be deplored—at least as a step from a narrow tribal isolation in the direction of a wider solidarity. But today, mountains and deserts, rivers and oceans have lost their power to separate men; the chief barriers now are linguistic ones, which, determining as they do in large measure the confines of nationality, tend to fix even the economic frontiers.
The world has long ago gotten used to certain codes for universal communication; for instance, there is nothing strange to us in the internationality of the Arabic numerals, musical notation, the metric system, chemical symbols, and signaling at sea, and yet in the matter of mere speech we are helpless. A mariner by means of signals raised aloft may convey some crude idea to a passing ship of another nationality, but should he step upon its deck he and its commander would find a conversation impossible.
Though not the first project to meet the growing world need, Esperanto, the work of Dr. L. L. Zamenhof, of Warsaw, in 1887, immediately attracted an attention that was more than academic and in a few years it had far out-distanced its competitors, both as to the extent of its literature and the number of its a adherents. Its root-words, prefixes and suffixes were selected on the principle of “maximum internationality,” and so easy and logical is the formation of derivatives that only a few hundred primary words need be learned. An Esperantist actually coins words as he goes along, and, even by a person who may never have heard such words before, he is instantly and precisely understood. The spelling is phonetic, the tonic accent is always on the penultimate syllable, and the whole grammar is stated in sixteen simple rules (without an exception), which many people have actually learned in an hour! The following specimens scarcely require a translation:
“Simpla, fleksebla, belsona, vere intermacia en siaj elementoj, la lingvo Esperanto prezentas al la mondo civilizita la sole veran solvon de lingvo internacia; char, tre facila por homoj nemulte instruitaj, Esperanto estas komprenata sen peno de la personoj bone edukitaj. Nil faktoj atestas la meriton praktikan de la nomita lingvo.”
Far from being a “universal” language in the sense that it aims to displace existing, national tongues for home use, Esperanto has a record of accomplishment as an auxiliary language that has long ago lifted it above the level of a mere project. During its thirty-eight years of existence it has become, say its advocates, an every-day, practical means of communication between thousands of people in all parts of the world. Correspondence between Esperantists, all the way from stamp collecting and the mere exchange of picture post-cards up to discussions of philosophy, scientific matters and world politics are common-places, as may easily be seen by any one glancing through the correspondence columns of the journals (now about one hundred twenty-five of them), regularly published in the language in all parts of the world. Text books for instruction have appeared in at least thirty-eight languages, including such little
known ones as Catalonian, Finnish, Japanese, Croatian, Arabic, Icelandic and Welsh. Of translated works from national literature there are many thousands, all the way from Mother Goose to the Bible, including masterpieces of Shakespeare, Hawthorne, Tolstoi, Dumas, Anderson, Maeterlinck, Dickens, Moliere, Schiller, Poe, Hugo, Heine, Ibsen and others. Many a gem from the lesser known tongues, such as Finnish and Bulgarian, has been published, which before (on account of the costs of translation and publication in other national tongues) was seldom or never read outside of its own country. The original works, though not forming as extensive a list as the translations, are nevertheless fairly numerous and cover a wide range of subjects–scientific, mathematical and linguistic treatises, guide books for travelers, and of course fiction, being examples.
Tourists find Esperanto of considerable help. Thousands have visited foreign shores and journeyed through other countries of Europe, and by the aid of the international language have had their travels made more pleasant and profitable than could otherwise have been. This statement will not sound significant to the person who can “get along in Europe on English alone.” He can “get along,” but the person who can merely do this must limit his conversation to waiters, ticket sellers and porters. To the Esperantist alone belongs the joy of meeting foreigners, as many as one has time to meet in any journey or in any visited city and of conversing with a freedom and on a linguistic equality that is never experienced when any national tongue is the medium. In at least a dozen big cities of Europe there are Esperantist policemen specially trained (in the case of Seville, Spain, specially compensated), to be of service to the visiting foreigner who has already taken the little trouble to meet him upon the linguistic middle ground. Thanks to the services of the “Universala Esperanto-Associo” whose “delegitoj” or consuls are in every big city (and many small towns) of Europe and the rest of the world, the visitor is assured of a welcome and guidance such as no tourist agency can give. The testimony is unanimous that the fine spirit of helpfulness thus displayed reveals the fact that the bond of union is something more than the mere possession of a language in common; it is a fine faith in the possibility of a better world through complete mutual understanding.
International congresses of the usual kind, whether for professional, religious, commercial or scientific aims, not only have felt the diversity of tongues to be a serious handicap, but they have never been able to forget the nationalistic differences among their members. Compared to this kind of a gathering with its inevitable division into mutually uncomprehending linguistic groups and its restriction to two or three “official” languages, a congress of Esperantists stands out in refreshing contrast. There have been seventeen of these since 1905; that at Nuremberg in 1923 was attended by as many as five thousand delegates from forty-three different countries and representing about the same number of national tongues.
Not only in the general business sessions, where the formal speeches, the unprepared discussion and chance remarks, are all in the international language, but in a dozen or more “side congresses” Esperanto is the sole medium heard. Delegates talk
shop with no uncomprehending auditor, with perfect geysers of technical terms, too, and with a vigor and a naturalness that is only paralleled where every one speaks the same mother tongue.
There is usually a play and a musical evening—perhaps an opera and even a vaudeville show–to say nothing of several excursions and many informal social gatherings; and not a word of any national tongue heard the whole week through! Plays have been presented at such congresses by professionals who six or eight weeks before the event had not even begun the study of the language. As an illustration of the fact that congresses wherein Esperanto is used are not limited solely to propagandists of the language let us take the Commercial Congress which met in Venice in April, 1923. Here were over two hundred official delegates from twenty-three different countries, representing eighty-nine Chambers of Commerce, thirty tourists’ associations, twenty-one international fairs, and over sixty industrial federations (business men, and not long-haired idealists, merely), conducting its three-days’ program entirely in Esperanto. As an indication of how easily the language may be acquired, it is significant that a number of the speech-makers actually learned all they needed of Esperanto on their way to the Congress.
In all these gatherings and, in truth, upon every occasion where the international language is used orally, one striking fact makes itself evident—the absolute uniformity of pronunciation. As far as speech is any indication, you cannot tell the Spaniard from the Bulgarian, or either from the Swede, and the laughable mistakes that are made in such guesses at one another’s nationality are among the commonplaces of Esperanto world-gatherings. The significant fact is impressed upon all, visitors as well as participants, that the sense of nationality completely has disappeared and is all but forgotten!
The idealistic side of an Esperanto congress finds its climax and its appropriate symbol in the religious service, always a feature of such a gathering. Here you are in a big church filled with worshippers from at least twenty different countries and you hear, in a language perfectly understood by all, the priest, pastor, or rabbi, as the case may be, preach the brotherhood of man now being realized through a neutral medium, when heart speaks to heart across the boundary line. Here, when you see every head bowed in reverence before the same and all important verities and realize that before you is actually assembled the world, you will concede the claim that something big has come to pass in the affairs of men. At least, here is one new thing under the sun! And, however unimaginative you may be, does not the sight before you hold a promise of tremendous importance for civilization and the spiritual welfare of the race?
“His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh many years ago wrote a book: called ‘The Most Holy Book,’ one of the fundamental principles of which is the necessity of creating an International Language, and he explains the great good and advantage that will result from its use. . . .
“He wrote to the kings and rulers of the various nations recommending that one language should be sanctioned and adopted by all governments. According to this, each nation should acquire the universal language in, addition to its natal tongue.”
--PHOTO--
Delegates to the Seventeenth International Esperanto Congress at Geneva, Switzerland, assembled in the garden of the Palace of the League of Nations. Bahá'í delegates from Pittsburgh, Chicago, Geneva, London and Stuttgart were present.
(See opposite page)
ALL the world loves Geneva, the charming little city in the heart of Europe. God loves her, too, for He has given her the most splendid view of Mt. Blanc and at her feet has laid the exquisite Lake Leman about which poets and bards write and sing. However, it is the spirit of Geneva which is even more lovely than her setting. From Geneva came a John Calvin, came the Red Cross, and now more than three hundred and fifty international associations have their annual sessions in this “City of Nations.” Geneva, an independent city and very small–one hundred fifty thousand population–has had the courage to stretch out her arms in tender sympathy to the world outside her gates. Thirty-five international organizations have permanent headquarters here. Among the best known are the League of Nations, the International Esperanto Association, the new International Bahá’í Bureau, International Red Cross Society, World’s Alliance of Y. M. C. A., International Labor Bureau, International Union for Help to Children, World Union for Women, Women’s League for Peace and Freedom.
The Seventeenth Annual Esperanto Congress, held the first week in August, had many happy features. Eight hundred delegates and many other Esperanto visitors from every corner of the globe greeted one another up and down the streets. Countenances and costumes were different, but the “dear language” and the little star (Esperanto symbol—were the same. The five points in this star represent the five continents, the White background is the universal color of peace and the green is the Esperanto color of hope).
Come with me, O friendly reader, into the International Bahá’í Bureau, where the two Bahá’í Esperanto sessions are held. People from more than twenty-five countries come in to learn, “What IS THE Bahá’í Movement?” Some come two hours ahead of the time announced, others troop in just on the hour, still others come very late from technical group meetings. Tea is served before and after the programs. The Czechoslavakian talks with the Scotsman, the Japanese with men from South America, Australian women with peace workers from Holland, the joyous hubbub rises to the white ceiling in ONE TONGUE—the Masterpiece of Zamenhof!
Over the tea cups the writer heard many interesting bits of conversation anent the Bahá’í Cause and Esperanto. Here are a few about the linguistic international. One Chinese who had recently come from Peking said: “I feel myself at home in Geneva this week, because everywhere I go I understand and am understood. Next week when the Esperantists leave I shall again be a stranger in a strange land.” A Litvian added, “When I meet some one whom I long to know as a brother and a comrade, if I cannot understand
his language, I still am a stranger.”
Another man expressed the inner meaning of Esperantism when he said: “As love is the modern language of society, the principle of a universal language must be love and that is the principle of Esperanto.”
Mr. Romain Rolland, the writer, said that Esperanto is a “literary language.” A Geneva University Professor, Mr. Charles Baudouin, said: “Esperanto gives us the impression of being a work of art; of being a splendid piece of architecture with clear outlines, unembarrassed by excess of ornament; so that we ask ourselves how anything so beautiful can be constructed of so few materials. Esperanto is alive, viable. It is the work of a man of genius. It is the output of one man and one life. Zamenhof discovered his language by ‘continually thinking about it’ as Newton said when speaking of his own discovery.”
Another delegate remarked that Esperanto is the language of the future. Boys and girls who expect to travel when they are grown, should study Esperanto. They cannot learn all languages, but with this international tongue they can converse with people in every city. They can begin now and interchange letters and picture postcards with the youth in faraway lands. They will supplement their reading and geography by knowing something of the character and customs of their overseas neighbors. There are many small countries in Europe; perhaps American boys and girls do not know them well, but they have very interesting peoples.
One of the League of Nations’ secretaries said that more was accomplished in the Bahá’í session of two hours than the other international societies could have made clear in a whole day, for there were no language difficulties.
The Esperantists, and they included some of the best thinkers of Europe, listened with intense interest to the Bahá'í principles. Mr. Edouard Combe, Esperantist and journalist on “La Tribune de Geneve,” was present, and wrote an excellent article about the Bahá'í Movement. The leading papers of Rome, Milan, and journals in Spain followed with Bahá'í articles; newspapers in Ukrania, Bulgaria, journals in the Far East, also in Australia and South Africa have written about these two Bahá’í Esperanto sessions, and about the Bahá'í Movement.
Certainly the Seventeenth Universal Esperanto Congress shows the world that Esperanto is not a mere dream of idealists in the minds of a few, but that it lives and breathes in the hearts of a great people scattered over the entire globe. It was possible to address representatives of more than fifty nationalities and to bring them together in the great cause of peace on earth.
Following this foreword is a resumé of an account which will show the European attitude towards the Bahá'í Movement and Esperanto.
Professor Charles Baudouin of Geneva University, Geneva, Switzerland, and one of the speakers at the Bahá'í sessions in the Seventeenth Universal Esperanto Congress in Geneva, wrote an article on the Bahá’í Movement for “Coenobium,” Lugano and Milan, Italy. Later this article was published in his book, “Contemporary Studies.” Here are a few excerpts:
“We westerners are too apt to imagine that the huge continent of Asia is sleeping as soundly as a mummy.
We smile at the vanity of the ancient Hebrews, who believed themselves to be the chosen people. We are amazed at the intolerance of the Greeks and Romans, who looked upon the members of all other races as barbarians. Nevertheless, we ourselves are like the Hebrews, the Greeks and the Romans. As Europeans we believe Europe to be the only world that matters, though from time to time we may turn a paternal eye towards America, regarding our offspring in the New World with mingled feelings of condescension and pride.
“However, the great cataclysm of 1914 is leading some of us to undertake a critical examination of the inviolable dogma that the European nations are the elect. Has there not been of late years a demonstration of the nullity of modern civilization—the nullity which had already been proclaimed by Rousseau, Carlyle, Ruskin, Tolstoy, and Nietzche? We are now inclined to listen more attentively to whispers from the East. Our self-complacency has been disturbed by such utterances as that of Rabondranath Tagore, who, lecturing at the Imperial University of Tokyo on June 18, 1916, foretold a great future for Asia. The political civilization of Europe was ‘carnivorous and cannibalistic in its tendencies.’ The East was patient, and could afford to wait until the West, ‘hurrying after the expedient’ had to halt for want of breath. ‘Europe, while busily speeding to her engagements, disdainfully casts her glance from her carriage window at the reaper reaping his harvest in the field, and in her intoxication of speed cannot but think him as slow and ever receding backwards. But the speed comes to an end, the engagement loses its meaning, and the hungry heart clamors for food, till at last she comes to the lonely reaper reaping his harvest in the sun. For if the office cannot wait, or the buying or selling, or the craving for excitement—love waits, and beauty, and the wisdom of suffering and the fruits of patient devotion and reverent meekness of simple faith. And thus shall wait the East till her time comes.’
“When we turn our eyes towards Asia, we are astonished to find how much we have misunderstood it; and we blush when we realize our previous ignorance of the fact that, towards the middle of the nineteenth century, Asia gave birth to a great religious movement—a movement signalized for its spiritual purity, one which has had thousands of martyrs, one which Tolstoy has described. H. Dreyfus-Barney, the French historian of this movement, says, that it is not ‘a new religion,’ but ‘religion renewed,’ and that it provides ‘the only possible basis for a mutual understanding between religion and free thought.’ Above all, we are impressed by the fact that, in our own time, such a manifestation can occur, and that the new faith should have undergone a development far more extensive than that undergone in the same space of time nearly two thousand years ago by budding Christianity.”
Then Prof. Baudouin gives an excellent history of the Bahá'í Movement. In speaking of the Teachings, later, he says: “Baháism is not a metaphysical system. It has neither priests nor dogmas. Mirza Husain (Bahá’u’lláh) says that it is intellectually incumbent upon each one to follow in all things his own reason and the guidance of the natural lights. . . .
“An idea which plays a leading part in Bahá’u’lláh’s teaching is that
of the ‘prophets’ which was likewise dominant in Jewish and in Muhammadan teaching. But the Baháist conception of the prophet is wider and freer in scope than that characteristic of the earlier creeds. The prophet, the inspired sage, is not made known to us by the material signs which, according to the credulous, bore witness to the prophetic mission of Moses, Jesus, or Muhammad. In this day he is a man who, because of his past life and his social position, is likely to be despised by the proud. ‘Such a man as Jesus, is unhesitatingly treated as an unbeliever, and is speedily put to death. Though a hundred thousand voices proclaim it, still most people will deny that the son of an unknown man can be the Messiah.’
“Socrates is said to have declared that philosophy came from heaven; Bahá’u’lláh makes the same claim for religion. He insists that the great revelations of the past can be renewed today. The miracles related. in the sacred writings are of a spiritual nature, and they are no less miraculous now than of yore.
“The prophet is not disclosed to the peoples by signs obvious to all. Far from it, the prophet is a protestant and an innovator, and this inevitably makes him hated by those who are under the dominion of traditional views.”
Again, Prof. Baudouin says: “It would seem that the tendency which found expression in the Bahá’í Movement was in conformity, with the general need of our age. The law of love, according to Bahá’u’lláh, is something more than a precept for the regulation of the individual life; it is essentially social, for it aims at regulating the whole development of social life. That is why he is so severe a critic of the patriotism which plays so large a part in the national life of our day. Love of our native land is legitimate, but this love must not be exclusive. A man should love his country more than he loves his house (this is the dogma held by every patriot). But Bahá’u’lláh adds that he should love the divine world more than he loves his country. From this standpoint patriotism is seen to be an intermediate stage on the road of renunciation, an incomplete and hybrid religion, something we have to get beyond. Throughout his life, Bahá’u’lláh regarded the ideal of universal peace as one of the most important of his aims.
“Bahá’u’lláh is not only a Prophet, he is a poet. Like all the great mystics, he uses a language packed with imagery, and his symbols, with their exotic flavor, give what he has to say an added charm.”
The article closes with the paragraph: “Such is the new voice that sounds to us from Asia. Such is the new dawn in the East. We should give them our close attention; we should abandon our customary mood of disdainful superiority. If Bahá’u’lláh’s principles are to become our spiritual food, they must be relived by the religious spirits of Europe, must be rethought by minds schooled in the western mode of thought. But in its existing form, the Bahá’í Teaching may serve, amidst our present chaos, to open for us a road leading to solace and to comfort; may restore our confidence in the spiritual destiny of man. It reveals to us how the human mind is in travail; it gives us an inkling of the fact that the greatest happenings of the day are not the ones we were inclined to regard as the most momentous, not the ones which are making the loudest noise.”
AND WESTERN CIVILIZATIONS
PROF. MASAHARU ANESAKIEditor’s Note: Prof. Anesaki is head of the department of Comparative Religions in the Tokyo Imperial University. He was invited to be a delegate to the Institute of Pacific Relations, but was unable to attend. The following talk was given. by him while he was in Honolulu for the day on his return voyage to Japan, the day before the opening of the Institute.
IT GOES without saying that the East means, as it did in ancient times, chiefly Asia, and the West, Europe, and later America. East and West are facing each other across the Pacific.
As for Europe and America, they are united_by the same strain of civilization and culture, so there have been no difficulties about the Atlantic relations save some minor ones. Not so with regard to the relations between both sides of the Pacific. Here are found some deep-rooted differences, which, fortunately, however, have not yet led to any dangerous crises, and which I earnestly hope will never occasion fatal disruptions.
Unlike the Atlantic relations, the relations across the Pacific are not based upon intellectual, economic, political and moral ideas flowing from one side only. In the Pacific the currents of culture and civilization start from both sides and run into each other. The Occidental and Oriental elements coming together necessarily occasion conflicts and difficulties, though I do not consider these difficulties beyond harmonious settlement.
In history different strains of culture have met and antagonisms and difficulties have arisen. For instance, the clash of the Hebrew and Hellenic ideas are shown in the work of Paul and Peter. Then farther down in history the invasion from the north of the Germanic tribes who came down and ravaged and pillaged the ancient civilization of the Mediterranean races. There is a feeling that the domination of one over the other is a necessary fact. This remains true to a certain degree, at present, but it does not mean that it will be so forever. Take France, for example. The French are not a homogeneous people, and yet in spite of this they make up one nation unified in development and nationality. I personally feel that too much is made of nationalism. In history you see a repetition of different civilizations meeting and conflicting with one another. Out of such conflicts has come degeneration sometimes, but more often the result has been a happy union of cultures.
Now you are going to tackle this great program of the Pacific relations. You will take up subjects one by one and discuss them thoroughly. This is certainly true in a sense, but I wonder whether it is not a fundamental error of science to reduce everything to economic effect. We cannot live without bread, but “one cannot live by bread alone.” Its distribution and consumption is a very important matter, especially in this century of industry and commerce. But more important is the question of our attitude towards wealth.
Wealth in itself is not necessarily an objectionable thing; it has a value undoubtedly. It is, however, our attitude, whether as producer or consumer, that is of importance. In the same way every factor in human life might be reduced to the commercial, intellectual, economic, or spiritual attitude of man towards life.
In the present time the West represents the progressive side of humanity. The Western Peoples are active and aggressive. The chief banner of the West is Progress. The word and the idea of Progress is not so old as many people think. It began in the 18th century. Before that time your ancestors did not speak so much of progress. Many years ago people thought that the end of the world was approaching, whether towards a millennium or to a fatal end. Therefore progress was not regarded as the principal thing.
Now human life necessarily implies progress and progress means speed. Yes, speed, but where are you going?
The Orientals did not know how to make speed and were therefore stagnant. But we are now speed-making, or aim at speed-making. Where are we going?
Real Progress is a good thing. It supplies us with telephones, motor cars, and finally bombs.
Do the Occidentals have any idea of where they are going? We Orientals do not know where we are going. I wonder whether the Europeans know where they are going, especially the Germans. Germany is in a state of depression. Some of her scholars cry that civilization 1S doomed. I do not mean to press the point, but I just wish to state my opinion as to the value of progress when viewed apart from the moral and spiritual values of human life. Progress and physical conveniences are in a sense treasures of human life. The United States Constitution tells us that attainment of happiness is a right of man. But happiness changes from time to time. It may be found in a hermit’s cell or in a motor car.
Coming back to the East, our civilization has been stationary for ten centuries. This does not look very hopeful. Some people have lost hope. None of our people are entirely optimistic. That peculiar situation in the East, that is to say, in China, Japan and India, is one of the difficulties we are facing. It is a result of our civilization. We had a feudal system under which land was regarded as given by some one else. The peasant owning and cultivating a piece of land was supposed to derive his rights from the feudal lord, and he from the king, and the king derived and received his rights to rule from heaven. Everything was given from above to those below. So in the family, the children had to obey the father or the chief of the family. The latter was not so much an autocrat as that he represented family tradition. He was held responsible to his ancestors, and hence ancestor worship. This respectful observance towards superiors resulted in contentment with one’s present condition. This was illustrated by marriage. In the Orient marriage is arranged by the parents or even the uncles and aunts of the persons to be married. In former times it often happened that they did not see each other until the wedding ceremony. This system brought about the trouble over the so-called “picture brides” of Japan. Sometimes the man did not even see his bride’s picture. Everything is arranged by the parents and is accepted as a matter of
course by the young people. Conditions have changed now due to the influx of western ideas. But this attitude of acceptance has permeated the life of the Orient up to the present. It has its counterpart in religious faith and ecstatic contemplation.
The early Christians, especially the mystics, understood religion as a matter of receptivity and peace. They interpreted the Way of the Cross in a negative manner. To them man was the instrument of God’s will. He should give up everything superficial to receive the real will of God. The modern Christian’s motto is progress and activity, expressing itself in missions, Y. M. C. A.’s, charitable works, swimming pools, etc. I refer to those activities not to criticize, but in order to emphasize by contrast the medieval attitude and the modern Christian attitude. Christianity and Christian people are the bearers of progress, physical science, and industry. This difference between the Occidental and Oriental ideas of religion is the same difference as that in their civilizations. One is expressed in movement and the other in contemplation. The Occidentals find expression in progress and take pleasure in making speed. The Orientals are changing many of their ways and adopting things from the West, but still their attitude toward life is one of contemplation. This is shown in Oriental fatalism. Every one of us has something of this. I do not know whether the Chinese strikers have this attitude, but when they return to their homes, when they go back to their families and especially when they go to the tombs of their ancestors, they will look at life with the attitude of contemplation. This attitude of contemplation is best expressed in the Oriental term “Nirvana.” They feel they are a part of the cosmic life and of nature.
Now the Orientals are forced to take a new attitude towards life. They must achieve progress. They must have factories, engines, locomotives, and battleships or they will be crushed. This new activity in the Orient is necessarily accompanied with confusion and troubles. This is especially true in China where they have had to adopt new ideas very quickly after centuries of doing things the same way. But the Oriental has not entirely given up his attitude of serenity and contemplation.
If the meeting of these two civilizations means only conflict, then there is no hope of better relations between the East and West. The East will have to be crushed by Western material progress, especially by the Nordic races which are dominating the world. Shall we be crushed or try something else and achieve progress without giving up our old attitude towards life?
I wonder whether Occidental progress is to rule or whether all aspects of life can be put on the basis of spiritual principles or ideals! We should not be aspiring after motor cars and airplanes only, but should aspire to a higher life, and make the present good count towards the future.
--PHOTO--
Major Robert Whitney Imbrie, American Vice-Consul, assassinated by a fanatical mob in Tihrán, Persia, July 18, 1924. (See opposite page.)
Editor’s Note: Dr. Moody, now in America on account of her health, lived in Tihrán, Persia, for fifteen years, and was well known and beloved as a practicing physician and as head of the Tarbiat School—a school founded and maintained by Bahá’ís. For several years fanatical Muhammadans, incited by some of their priests, had been insulting and even threatening Dr. Moody and her associate nurse, Miss Elizabeth Stewart, and others. These threats had come to a climax during the brief consulate of Major Imbrie, when it seemed that their very life was in danger. The following tribute to Major Imbrie for his gallant protection at a moment of great peril, is self-explanatory.
Major Imbrie’s memory is lovingly enshrined in the hearts of all Persian Bahá’ís, who, weeping, proclaimed this real Christian brother “Our Martyr.” To the truth of this bear witness those one hundred and thirty-eight stab wounds inflicted amid the cries of “Bábi,” “Bahá’í.”
Later, sincere Muhammadans came, saying: “We Were ashamed to come before you. A blot has fallen upon the good name of Persia, which can never be wiped out.”
I can always hear the clear, ringing tones in which Major Imbrie said: “Doctor, if you are afraid I will come to your house tonight and protect you.” Disclaiming any physical fear, he then insisted upon our accepting police protection, and that night the homes of all Bahá’ís which had been threatened by stoning, looting, or by insulting language, were guarded and the general looting or slaughter was intercepted.
Alas! when opportunity offered the mob revengefully slew our protector.
more than material riches; material comforts are only a branch, but the root of the exaltation of man is the good attributes and virtues which are the adornments of his reality. These are the divine appearances, the heavenly bounties, the sublime emotions, the love and knowledge of God; universal wisdom, intellectual perception, scientific discoveries, justice, equity, truthfulness, benevolence, natural courage, and innate fortitude; the respect for rights and the keeping of agreements and covenants; rectitude in all circumstances; serving the truth under all conditions; the sacrifice of one’s life for the good of all people; kindness and esteem for all nations; obedience to the teachings of God; service in the Divine Kingdom; the guidance of the people, and the education of the nations and races. This is the prosperity of the human world! This is the exaltation of man in the world! This is eternal life and heavenly honor!
These virtues do not appear from the reality of man except through the power of God and the divine teachings, for they need supernatural power for their manifestation. It may be that in the world of nature a trace of these perfections may appear; but they are not established and lasting; they are like the rays of the sun upon the wall.
As the compassionate God has placed such a wonderful crown upon the head of man, man should strive that its brilliant jewels may become visible in the world.
