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| VOL. 18 | DECEMBER, 1927 | No. 9 |
| Page | |
Editorial, Stanwood Cobb | 259| |
The Coming of the Glory—Chapter II, “Night,” Florence E. Pinchon | 262| |
Air-Mindedness, Dale S. Cole | 266| |
Reflections of a Bahá’í Traveler, Siegfried Schopflocher | 271| |
A Modern Pilgrimage to Bahá’í Shrines, Gertrude Richardson Brigham, Ph.D. | 278| |
’Abdu’l-Bahá’s Table, Shahnaz Waite | 283| |
Fleshly Veils, Dr. Walter B. Guy | 286| |
of Mi'rza Ahmad Sohrab and Dr. Zia M. Bagdadi; preserved, fostered and by them turned over to the National Spiritual Assembly, with all
valuable assets, as a gift of love to the Cause of God.STANWOOD COBB | Editor |
MARIAM HANEY | Associate Editor |
ALLEN B. MCDANIEL | Business Manager |
Subscriptions: $3.00 per year; 25 cents a copy. Two copies to same name and address, $5.00 per year. Please send change of address by the middle of the month and be sure to send OLD as well as NEW address. Kindly send all communications and make postoffice orders and checks payable to Baha'i News Service, 706 Otis Building, Washington, D. C., U. S. A. Entered as second-class matter April 9, 1911, at the postoffice at Washington, D. C., under the Act of March 3, 1897. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103 Act of October 3, 1917, authorized September 1, 1922.
--PHOTO--
A few camera views from the Bahá’í Teaching Institute organized and established last summer at Geyserville, Calif., through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. John Bosch. 1 and 5. The Feast preceding the opening of the Institute. 2. Mr. Leroy Ioas and some of the “kiddies” in attendance. 3. Grace Holley and Mr. and Mrs. Bosch. 4. Mrs. Aoki (an American) and her illumined and gifted children. The Father is a Japanese.
| VOL. 18 | DECEMBER, 1927 | No. 9 |
the efficacy of the Holy Spirit. Until the Holy Spirit becomes effective, interpenetrating the hearts and spirits, and until perfect reasonable faith shall obtain in the minds of men, it is impossible for the social body to be inspired with security and confidence * * * therefore we must endeavor that the Holy Spirit shall peacefully
influence the minds and hearts.”—’Abdu’l-Bahá.THE GREATEST gift of Christ to the world was not His system of ethics—which had already been announced here and there by the Hebrew prophets—but His gift of the Holy Spirit, enabling mankind to live the high ethics that He taught. For how can man sublimate his innate selfishness—that ego-centric quality which he shares by nature with the world of the animal—how can he achieve the Christian virtues and reach the lofty spiritual station of self-sacrifice, except through the aid of the Holy Spirit?
Just as man grows and develops on the physical plane solely as a result of the sun’s action upon matter, so man can grow and develop on the spiritual plane only as a result of that Spiritual Sun which we call the Holy Spirit. It is, as ’Abdu’l-Bahá shows, the intermediary between God and man, as the sun’s rays are the intermediary between the glowing sphere itself and the dark and inert mass of matter which we call earth. What a miracle the sun performs on it! Through its agency the earth becomes alive, dowered with the power of growth, blooming with warmth and life, and evolving ever fairer and fairer forms of physical expression.
IT WOULD BE difficult to conceive what the earth would be like without the life-giving power of the sun. Were that luminary to cease its beneficent action, after a time the cold of inter-stellar space, approximately two hundred and seventy degrees below zero, would replace the comfortable belt of atmosphere, sun-warmed, which keeps our temperature within the range of human necessity. Vegetable life, unable longer by the aid of the sun’s rays to transmute the inert chemical matter of earth into chlorophyl, cellulose, and other plant tissue, would faint and die. The animal world, no longer having its needed food from the vegetable world, would also perish. And man, with his utmost ingenuity, his inventiveness, his marvelous scientific power over earth’s resources, would begin to realize how absolute is his dependence upon the rays of the sun, not only for light and warmth, but for all his means of subsistence. Were he to maintain, by his power of science, existence for a brief period of time against the rigors of inter-stellar cold, yet inevitably he, too, with the vegetable and animal world, must perish for lack of food. Then would the earth lie cold and dark in space, void of
life, soundless save for the splintering of frost-bitten crags. It is difficult for us, sitting in the caressing warmth of the sun’s rays, looking off over beautiful fields aglow with light, to realize to what giver of bounty we owe our physical life.
AND SO IT IS in the world of spirit. Here it is the Eternal Sun which nourishes our souls, which makes possible their growth and their very existence. Raying its power to us by the intermediary of the Holy Spirit, it causes in our spiritual nature all that movement of life and growth which the physical sun causes in our earthly nature. It is man’s capacity to receive the rays of the Holy Spirit and to integrate them into spiritual bone and muscle which distinguishes him from the beast. Noble as are the higher qualities of animals, making them indeed superior to ignoble man, the animal must yet stay within its natural delimitation. It can never know God, nor by receptivity, aspiration and prayer draw to it the life-giving force of the Holy Spirit.
Man, on the other hand, through the power of the Holy Spirit, can develop a spiritual nature, expressing the virtues of the Kingdom. The important thing to realize in this connection is that without the aid of the Holy Spirit man can never commence and carry out his spiritual evolution; can never pass from the essential nature of the animal world into the essential nature of the spiritual world which is his goal. And just as the physical world, when deprived of the sun’s life-giving rays, will revert to the plane of lifeless and inert matter, so when deprived of the Holy Spirit man reverts to the animal, or if he has never left the plane of the animal, he remains a prisoner of that nether world.
Therefore it is clear that the greatest gift the Manifestations of
God bring to earth is the power of the Holy Spirit, of which they are the exceptional and intended channels. Through these Holy Personalities flow a tremendous dynamic of love, of heart-resuscitating warmth, of spiritual life-giving energy. This force They share with all who have the spiritual capacity to know and seek it, until the whole earth becomes flooded with these rays and a new springtime of religion appears.
JUST AS in the physical springtime the sun, from a special position and station, pours down an increased life-giving power upon the earth and awakens dead and sleeping nature into transcendent life, so in this spiritual springtime a tremendously increased force of the Spirit is shed upon mankind, awakening, resuscitating, impelling spiritual growth and the development of spiritual qualities. Humanity is renewed in the likeness of God. The divine virtues appear. Men become angelic. Self-sacrifice and love manifest their blazing warmth, which melts the frigidity of hearts and starts an upward growth. This spiritual awakening of humanity, through the power of the Holy Spirit, becomes manifest in marvelous institutions expressing the justice, the consideration, the love engendered in individual hearts. Such has been the rise of the great world religions, finding their birth in the spiritual dynamic brought them by a Manifestation of God, and their direction and guidance in the divine ethics which He establishes.
But at last the springtide force, after passing through the maturity of its summer, begins to decline. For man, not ever graced with this special and epochal outpouring of the Holy Spirit, begins to lack the spiritual force to enable adequate expression of the ethics of his religion.
Finally the winter of religion arrives, a desolate period of spiritual cold and inertia. Now it is time for a New Springtime. And faithful to His law of spiritual love, as He is faithful to His law of the physical seasons, God again renews the faith of mankind through a New Manifestation Who becomes again a special channel for God’s dispensation.
SUCH IS THE situation today. Through the power of Bahá’u’lláh a new spiritual dynamic is flooding the earth. All mankind are recipients, even unconsciously, of its grace, of its health-giving spiritual life. But
how much more fortunate and blessed are those who, becoming aware of the presence of this Divine Power, consciously turn to it for aid.
Again, by the aid of the Holy Spirit—renewed for the sake of this marvelous century—humanity will blossom out into divine fruitage of the virtues of the Kingdom. A New Civilization will arise, patterned after the divine laws and ethics of Bahá’u’lláh and based upon the four-square foundations of faith, prayer, love, and service.
This, it seems, is the greatest thought humanity can hold at Christmastide-the thought of God’s gift to man of the Holy Spirit.
clear as the sun at midday from the books and tablets of His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh. The object of the Bahá’í Cause is identical with the object of the Bible and the Gospel. The Bahá’ís must be informed as to the contents of the Old and New Testaments.
“Concerning the faith of the Bahá’ís as to the station of His Holiness Christ, they believe He is the Word of God.”
* * * *
“There are prepared souls in every religion. Today God is working in all the churches instructing many souls in celestial brotherhood. These souls are related by invisible and spiritual ties and are being ripened by the Holy Spirit.”
Under the subtitle “The Argument” Chapter 1 of this series of articles was published in the November Star of the West and showed the need and requirements of the times; the second chapter which follows reviews history and shows how “night” was at its darkest before the coming of the New Day. The third chapter entitled “The Morning Star” will follow in the January number.-Editor.
STANDING now, as we believe, in the morning hours of a new era in history, it is difficult, indeed almost painful to glance backwards and recall the gloomy winter of materialism and discontent which lay over Europe and the world generally during the eighteenth and the larger part of the nineteenth centuries. So quickly and drastically have conditions altered, that these past centuries seem already submerged in the ocean of oblivion.
But at this time, the world, by bitter antagonisms and prejudices, was riven, like the surface of a mighty glacier, into innumerable and dangerous fissures. Fissures which threatened, even then, to widen into a world cataclysm. Herein lurked yawning abysses of wars, revolutions and agnosticism, into which humanity was constantly stumbling. Guides were few, and the lights that still shone, feeble and uncertain. Cold mists enveloped the minds of men—the mists of racial, religious, sectarian, patriotic and class hatred and antagonisms.
Universal peace was, as yet, undreamt of as a possibility. Sympathies were confined within national bonds. The ideals of brotherhood in the social world and cooperation in the economic, were unrecognized. And education for the poorer classes was rudimentary or grossly lacking.
The discoveries of modern science had disclosed to thinking people the bigotry and superstitions enclosing, like a hard shell the pure gem of religion. And, in disgust, they threw
the gem itself away. As Carlyle, when Writing of the eighteenth century, pointed out:
“There was need once more of a Divine Revelation to the torpid and frivolous children of men, if they were not to sink altogether into the ape condition.”
Revolutions, strife, lust, greed, economic rivalries and bitter animosity between science and religion were denizens of this almost starless night.
How striking are the contrasts presented by even the material conditions of those days and ours!
As we rise from the earth and spread our shining wings, or with lightning speed flash by in our motor cars, we gaze back with pitying surprise at the lumbering stagecoach and the early railroads of the days of Dickens.
From the freedom of modern woman, we recall with a wondering smile the foolish restrictions and conventions, the crinolines and manners of the early Victorian era.
Facing the marvels of radio and the recent astounding discoveries of science regarding ether and energy, vibration and light, to remember the days of the first telegraph and postal services. From our luxurious liners and express trains that seem almost to annihilate distance, to the times when to ordinary folk a journey anywhere was in the nature of an adventure!
With scarcely a track of land on the globe unexplored, to the days when intrepid men still sought pathways to the Poles, and Livingstone toiled through menacing jungles, where today hover airplanes or rattles the Cape to Cairo “through.”
Surely, during the last eighty years, the revolving wheel of Time has spun with amazing rapidity; set into a quickened and ever-increasing motion by that mysterious spiritual Power that is now revitalizing and renewing the face of the whole earth.
In Persia, also, at this period, the night was at its darkest, as it always is just before the dawn. To most of us Persia seems a somewhat remote, unknowable land. It is, possibly, associated in our minds with a glamoured jumble of the colorful tales of the “Arabian Nights,” a peacock throne, roses and nightingales, lovely carpets and Omar Khayyam.
Or, perchance, recalling a little history, we remember the Pass of Thermopylæ; the ancient military glories of a vast and imperious empire; the fame and splendor of Xerxes and Darius, of Artaxerxes and Prince Cyrus; and the conquering Nadir Shah, who, in his last triumph, sweeping through India, brought back the most precious and glittering trophy ever wrenched from its rightful owners—the said peacock throne.
But alas! This famous land has fallen from all its former proud estate, and during the last century had sunk into the depths of utter decadence and depravity. The country was governed by a kind of feudal system similar to that of England in the Middle Ages. Government and the administration of justice were utterly inefficient and hopelessly corrupt. Pillage and robbery were of
common occurrence and life everywhere was unsafe. Bribery and dishonesty pervaded all departments of social and political life. Education was shockingly neglected. Women were kept in ignorance and seclusion, and were not permitted in the streets, unless enveloped in a heavy black veil, covering the head and whole body, called a “Chadur.” As a certain writer has described them: “Like black, shapeless phantoms they steal silently along in the shadow of the walls.”
Yet are the Persians a naturally gay people, fond of meetings and fêtes, of music and flowers. They are fine horsemen and love sport; they are hospitable and friendly, with charming manners and remarkable courtesy. That this charm can conceal treachery and even cold-blooded cruelty, earning the Persian the title of “courtly primitive,” is due, very largely, to the decadence of his religion and the tyranny and corruption of his government. For the same reason lying had come to be “almost part of the instinct of self-preservation.” An easy, somewhat natural process, for the Persian speech is extremely ornate, from our viewpoint, embellishment, amplification and beautiful poetical allusion forming part of its very fabric.
It is, therefore, a land where poets receive their full meed of appreciation, the shrines of the most venerated being often places of pilgrimage. Among the most famous, one calls to mind the two poets of Shiraz—Hafiz, who gave to the world perfect models of lyrical composition, and Sa’di whose ghazals are rich in spiritual thought, sparkling wit and graceful expression. While the allegorical and mystical poems of Jeláhuddin-Rumi, the Sufi, are sublime in ideas and utterance.
But-and it is a very significant but—at the time of which we are writing, religion, which in the East
is by far the most important factor in civilization, had become utterly degenerate. Religion is a source of inspiration and an integral part of Eastern life to an extent that we of the West can scarcely imagine. Muhammadanism, the prevailing religion, was split-like Christianity-into a number of rival sects, of which the Shi’ite was the principal or state form. The spirit of its Founder, and the pure essence of His teachings had become overlaid and lost beneath a mass of mere ritual and ceremonies, gross superstition and perversion. The priests were corrupt, bigoted and self-seeking; but so great was their hold over the illiterate masses that even government had to submit to their dictates. The Muhammadan reviled and regarded as unclean all men of different faiths to his own. Picture him actually washing the money he had taken from a Jew or Christian before putting it in his pocket! Similarly the Jews hated and cursed the Muhammadans and Christians, while the Zoroastrians regarded their fellow countrymen as unworthy of association. Thus was this unhappy country shrouded in intense moral and spiritual gloom.
These were the dark conditions prevailing in the land which had, at this time, been chosen by God, in His inscrutable wisdom, as the stage whereon was to be enacted the sublimest
Drama of the Ages. The very somberness of the background served but to enhance the Radiance which would illuminate it “above the brightness of the sun at noonday.”
For, amid such a state of affairs as this, in some souls the flame of pure religion burnt brightly. Here and there throughout the country were to be found groups of people, many of them highly cultured and gifted, who had kept their spiritual vision clear. Men and women who longed for the coming of God’s Kingdom upon earth; and who believed in the promises made in the Qur'àn, as in our own Scriptures, that a Mahdi or Messiah would soon come again to men, in order to establish a reign of righteousness and peace. With hearts torn by the terrible materialism and corruption around them, they waited and watched for signs of the long-expected Coming. And in 1843, some among them set out, like the Three Wise Men, on a long and definite search for this Master of a New Day, this Star of Guidance and of the Morning.
In the Bhagavad-Gita, the sacred writings of India, we read: “When the darkness is deepest, then come I forth again.” And in the hour of the world’s darkness, in the hour of Persia’s midnight, there was a great cry heard: “Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to meet him!”
Moses. Muhammed and all the Prophets have revoiced that same foundation of reality. Therefore the purposes and accomplishments of the divine messengers have been one and the same. They were the source of advancement to the body-politic and the cause of the honor and divine civilization of humanity the foundation of which is one and the same in every dispensation. It is evident then that the proofs of the validity and inspiration of a Prophet of God are the deeds of beneficent accomplishment and greatness emanating from Him. If He proves to be instrumental in the elevation and betterment of mankind, He is undoubtedly a valid and heavenly messenger.”
THE Divine Reality is unthinkable, limitless, eternal, immortal and invisible.
The world of creation is bound by natural law, finite and mortal.
The Infinite Reality cannot be said to ascend or descend. It is beyond the understanding of man and cannot be described in terms which apply to the phenomenal sphere of the created world. Man, then, is in extreme need of the only power by which he is able to receive help from the Divine Reality, that Power alone bringing him into contact with the Source of all life.
An intermediary is needed to bring two extremes into relation with each other. Riches and poverty, plenty and need; without an intermediary power there could be no relation between these pairs of opposites.
So we can say that there must be a Mediator between God and man, and this is none other than the Holy Spirit which brings the created earth into relation with the “Unthinkable One,” the Divine Reality.
The Divine Reality may be likened to the sun and the Holy Spirit to the rays of the sun. As the rays of the sun bring the light and warmth of the sun to the earth, giving life to all created beings, so do the Manifestations (of God) bring the power of the Holy Spirit from the Divine Sun of Reality to give light and life to the souls of men.
The Holy Spirit is the Light from the Sun of Truth bringing, by its Infinite power, life and illumination to all mankind, flooding all souls with divine radiance, conveying the blessings of God’s mercy to the whole world. The earth without the medium of the warmth and light of the rays of the sun could receive no benefits from the sun. Likewise the Holy Spirit is the very cause of the life of man; without the Holy Spirit he would have no intellect, he would be unable to acquire his scientific knowledge by which his great influence over the rest of creation is gained. The illumination of the Holy Spirit gives to man the power of thought and enables him to make discoveries by which he bends the laws of nature to his will. The Holy Spirit it is which, through the mediation of the Prophets of God, teaches spiritual virtues to man and enables him to attain eternal life. All these blessings are brought to man by the Holy Spirit; therefore we can understand that the Holy Spirit is the Intermediary between the Creator and the created; the Holy Spirit quickens the souls of men.
It is interesting to note that when ’Abdu’l-Bahá was crossing the Atlantic en route to America in 1912 He made the striking statement that in the future traveling across the ocean would be by airship; steamers would be used only for freight.—Editor.
THERE is a great and increasing interest in universal forces which has been stimulated by the effects of the Great War, by the advances of science, by the radio and airplane. This state of mind has been characterized as “air-mindedness.”
Many of us have lived to witness the full development of the automobile from the days of the once famous “horseless carriage.” We have watched the radio industry grow into immense proportions all in the brief space of a few years, but it has remained for the psychological factor popularly termed “the Lindbergh effect” to awaken our comprehensions to the status and possibilities of air transport. Colonel Lindbergh did something to the emotions and powers of imagination of the world at large which we are a little at a loss to interpret fully.
The fact that thousands of eyes were moist as the young pioneer of trans-Atlantic flight came down between throngs suggests that, perhaps, something is happening to us as citizens of the world which cannot be explained alone on the grounds of simple hero worship.
To be able to picture in our minds that intrepid and lonely flight across the dark waters may have made it easier for us to apprehend the great potentialities of the future, and may it not awaken our sensibilities to what for lack of another term we may call the spiritual nuances of the matter? For anything that tends to annihilate time and space, in their effects on life, cannot be without deeper meanings, subtle influences and far-reaching results.
To the alert it is quite manifest that there are at least two very
puissant forces at work tending to crystallize a conception of the world as a community of interests rather than as a patchwork of conflicting endeavors. These two forces, springing from the field of applied science, are the radio and the airplane. Both are air effects-at least in a popular sense we may so classify them. Both tend to increase the interchange of ideas, to bring about closer contacts between distant peoples, to foster better understandings and to accent the interplay of emotions. In short, they are levelers of barriers which have stood almost since the beginning of time.
Is it conceivable that this passing lightly over barriers in transportation and communication can be without effect in the years to come? Will the little lines drawn on maps to designate this country from that mean so much as they have in the troublesome years gone by?
The air has become a great bridge, as it were, over which, or to be more exact, a medium through which the messengers of good will fly now at tremendous speeds but through which they will pass in the future at much greater velocities, bringing communities now remote within a few hours of each other. In the past we measured journeys with miles as the unit. In the future, hours and minutes will be our gauge.
It has been the experience of the past that whenever two peoples are brought into close contact with each other through facile means of communication and transportation, a leveling process is instigated. They may be as wide apart as the Poles in
the era preceding intercourse, but just as soon as they begin to travel each into the other’s territory, ideas are exchanged and carried back home. They come to understand each other and to appreciate alternate points of view. Gradually some common customs and usages spring up in both countries and in varying degrees–the two communities become more and more homogeneous. There may still be a painted post or stone pillar marking a boundary line, with armed sentries dodging out of box-like huts, but as contacts increase that line becomes more and more an imaginary one and its usefulness is more and more relegated to the adornment of maps. If such experience is true of two adjacent countries as intercourse quickens, is it not logical to suppose and even to expect that some similar course of events will follow between communities lying thousands of miles apart and even separated by other communities? It is now possible to pass freely over boundary lines both by radio communication and by airplane. This racially and nationally divided world is becoming more a mutual home.
We are speaking of great forces, liberated within the age, which are having and will continue to have a profound and far-reaching effect on the character of the world, on life itself and on the relationships of peoples.
Just how great these forces are is hard to estimate. We are probably too close to them to be fully cognizant of all their potentialities. We have become inured to the wonders of science and are dilatory in appreciating or trying to fathom the economic, psychcological, political and spiritual portents of the things which are happening with such accelerated speed.
During the development of the automobile very little attention was
paid to the effects it might have on the life of peoples. Those interested were too busy improving the machine, in counting dollars and production totals to realize that what they were constructing out of physical materials was destined to reconstruct the life of nations. It would be an interesting diversion to endeavor to list all the effects of the automobile on life; The ramifications would be numerous and penetrating. With such speed have transitions been enacted that our popular philosophizers have been left far in arrears in accounting and explaining these effects. In fact, the moralists had not caught up with the automobile when the radio was upon them and now they are triply involved in the combined effects and influences of the three.
Of course, it is easy to speak of the educational value of the radio. Think of the lectures it will be feasible to broadcast! Think of the music! What a great opportunity for any kind of propaganda we have at our service! One man can now speak to millions!
But just as we were too busy riding about in our fine cars or counting the profits from automobile stock so we have been too engrossed in wiring and rewiring our receivers or testing this new set against that—to meditate at any great length on the radio as an internationalizing influence.
It remained for a single young man in an airplane to awaken our realization of the possibilities of the air transport, and in the light thus shed we can see that old boundaries are not going to mean so much in the future. It is easier now to understand the influences of the automobile on life and to speculate more certainly about the radio.
The commercial era of air transport dawns in a more liberal day. There is something spiritual about
our acceptance of the possibilities of the air—at least deeper significances are suggested. There is more romance about it. It fires the imagination. It touches the emotions.
Is it not greatly to be desired, then, that this great industry to be, realize now in the days of its infancy some of the broader aspects of its immanence?
Whatever may be the money-making opportunities presented by air transport the mere earning of dividends is not its primary function, and what a departure it would be from customary industrial history, were the leaders in the field to adopt as their watchword some phrase which would suggest the service possible to render, for there is no doubt that the airplane is destined to be one of the most, if not the greatest, element ever freed for the internationalizing of the world.
With the increase in broadcasting ranges it seemed quite natural that some interest be shown in an international language. Most of us had previously taken slight notice of the attempts of far-seeing persons who have worked untiringly for years to promote a universal tongue. But overnight almost, it seemed quite a good thing to have. And after we became used to the idea of needing it for the reception of foreign radio programs it gradually began to seem to a number of us that it would be a mighty good thing for the business world to have a common language in which affairs might be conducted. Why had not some one stressed the business phase of the matter before?
And now if we are to travel over great distances by plane, jumping across several countries in a day or night, would it not be an excellent thing for us to have some sort of common currency to obviate the difficulties
of exchange? A common currency would be a great convenience to travelers, and if the signs are right, we are going to be travelers more than ever before and on a scale unimagined a few years ago. If convenient to travelers a common monetary system might be found of use industrially and commercially—at least the possibility is not remote.
But if we do develop a common currency we will have also to formulate a more or less universal economic policy. It is the next logical step, and if we work out such an economic policy, the next thing anyone knows will be a common political scheme and before many children have flown we will be taking seriously suggestions for an international congress.
Perhaps, who knows, that should it be desirable to hold a convention of nations at some future time, there not only will be representatives of the various countries, but there will be those there who will represent mankind! These representatives at large will be an innovation. Never in the history of this battle-cursed world has there been occasion to elect or select representatives of mankind before a parliament of the nations. But if something does not happen to stop the forces now set in motion toward the internationalization of the world this contingency will most assuredly happen.
The conviction that there is surely growing apace a real world consciousness is not as fantastic as it may seem. It is the natural sequence of events as contacts increase. Further, there is a very practical side to it. The tendency of industry and commerce today is to operate on ever-widening scales. This is a day of great corporations and combinations. The smaller manufacturer, for instance, is either absorbed into a centrally administered organization or left to
fight mass production alone as best he may. The cry is for more and more goods at lower and lower prices. Whatever may be the general effect on quality of goods and general culture, mass production has been found to pay. It pays because costs are lower, and business can be conducted on sounder economic principles. What has proven true within a nation, nationally, can be applied internationally.
We have already seen proposals of immense industrial combinations abroad. We have even heard of the projected Industrial United States of Europe, which is but a step in the process of actually internationalizing trade. The day will come when nations as such mean very little to the large industrial and commercial corporations which will be then operating as smoothly as our national ones do now.
Such a state of affairs will not, possibly, be brought about because it is earnestly desired and planned for, so much as through those agencies which make the conduct of such a business easy, and these agencies will be such servants as the radio and air transport.
A flight map of the future may still show fine lines indicating national segregations but they will mean no more than state boundaries do to us today.
In fact, it does not require very active powers of imagination to surmise what would have happened in this country if our various states had kept their individual industrial and political entity. The world at large is in some such state today. But as our railroads and automobiles speed over the inter-state lines without so much as a thought, the future will see international intercourse similarly developed, and when that time comes there will be a distinct world consciousness which will make such things as a common language,
common currency and community of interests seem not only logical but necessary.
This concept is not too big for the world. When we realize that our little planet is only a speck of dust in the universe we are not so likely to place undue stress on the largeness of any idea which applies to it alone. It would be too fantastic to project or even suggest inter-planetal industrial relationships at this time, but the thought of international ones does not seem so tremendous in the light of such a fantasy.
If cooperation pays nationally it is only logical to suppose that it could pay universally. In the past it has been hampered by geographical isolations, prejudices, and jealousies. The leveling instruments will have to come into play to efface, in their effects, barriers which have fostered misunderstanding and arrogant individuality.
A certain amount of individuality may have to be surrendered on the part of nations in a scheme of international cooperation but personality will still remain a virtue. Each country may still retain its own peculiar attributes, just as our states do now. Each country may have its own mother tongue supplemented by one universal language by means of which it will communicate with the remainder of the world.
International cooperation has been sluggish because the instruments of easy contact have been lacking. It is easy to set up a barrier at the frontier to trains and automobiles, but not so easy to stop an airpline at a given line. It flies blithely over such impediments.
And so to be air-minded today means to be cognizant of the possibilities for the internationalization of human affairs. This presupposes an immense expansion and great
progress. In due time it will affect individual lives in a multitude of ways. We must learn to think in world terms—to be more universal. Air transport will make this necessary whether we want it or not. It is one of the signs of the times, and unfortunate is the man who presumes to stand in the way of progress. Advancement has a way of crushing individuals who attempt obstruction or of passing them without notice. It is no more considerate of political units.
This then is, perhaps, in the great scheme of things, the real function of air transport in its broadest aspects. Incidentally it may be a very profitable business. It may be a very pleasurable means of travel. It may hold us spellbound with its romance. But back of or above all other considerations, to be air-minded is to appreciate that air transport is a great force working effectively for the elimination of boundaries and all that they signify in the way of misunderstanding, prejudice and isolation. This is certainly a spiritual phase of the matter, for anything that effects civilization as a whole cannot be called otherwise.
To be air-minded is to be broadminded—to think in terms international rather than national; to realize that the next great period in the development of human affairs will be on a world basis rather than on a divisional one. This suggests a complexity of problems. However, science is perfecting methods which make international intercourse in all aspects of life easier, and as we become more accustomed to their use and more skilled in their application, obstacles which seem almost too great now, will dwindle into relative insignificance before the fact that we fly on the wings of progress.
Ways and means have always been
found to remove obstructions to industrial and commercial progress. Political obstacles seem to be more stubborn, probably because the real desire to remove them has not arisen. Nothing can long withstand the pressure of wealth administered effectively; it has a way of dissolving clouds when its own welfare is involved.
Commercial air transport will attain a momentum which will be irresistible. It may not be today, nor tomorrow, for much scientific work is still to be done, but what we have already accomplished more than points the way. So, although we may not appreciate that we are dealing with a great spiritual force working for the betterment of mankind, and although we may simply see it as a commercial and industrial opportunity, nevertheless those who are truly air-minded today see and comprehend the immense possibilities which are potential in air transport and the radio.
To be air-minded is not simply to boost for a local airport in our city, to take a hop now and then, to send our mail by plane, or to engage in the manufacture of air equipment—it is much more than that. It is to learn to think in world values and influences, to relegate prejudice, superstition and jealousy to oblivion and synchronize our individual, national, industrial and commercial viewpoints to the rhythm of the air-cooled motors which hum above our heads.
How great a service air transport is to render to the world cannot be even suggested, but not the least of its benefits will be entirely outside what we choose to call the industrial life of the world. As political barriers become more or less insignificant a deeper understanding will grow between peoples. There will be no cause for war. Much time, energy, and resource hitherto devoted
to defense and aggression can be diverted to educational, industrial, agricultural and cultural pursuits. The times will become generally more beneficent. Immense progress will not only be possible but inevitable.
Such changes cannot come about without affecting the inner life of mankind. With common language, common currency, common policies of cooperation, a common philosophical and religious consciousness will develop. Then we may see the brotherhood of man, exemplified practically, not brought about by Utopian endeavors so much as actually forced upon us by the advances
of applied science. However it may come, its influences will be beyond present measure, and who can say that it may not be the working out of that “great scheme of things entire”?
This is the picture which those engaged in the promotion of air transport can view as inspiration for their labors. We are trying to direct a tremendous force for universal betterment. Let it be recognized as such. Let that realization be a part of our air-mindedness. Such appreciation cannot help but deepen our interest and accelerate progress.
The following is the second in a series of “Travel Stories” by the author. The first, published in the November member of this magazine, was on the subject of Brazil, and particularly Rio de Janeiro. This chapter describes a visit to Argentina, Chile, and other places.—Editor.
IT HAS been well said that the last century belonged to America, but that the present one is South America’s. As we leave Brazil, a country larger than the United States (leaving out Alaska), it does not take a very close observer to realize the developments which are in store for mankind in this Southern Hemisphere. The feeling ripens into conviction when we later rejoin the friends we had left in Rio de Janeiro and interchange with them the experiences and impressions we have gathered.
The trip from Santos to Buenos Aires occupies about five days, with a short stop in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, a comparatively small republic which was part of Brazil up to less than a century ago and which is the only part of its vast domain Brazil has ever lost. Montevideo is a flourishing city built
around a mountain. On arrival there we immediately become aware of a difference in culture and civilization. We have left the Portuguese sphere of influence and have reached a typical Spanish-American country.
Going up the La Plata is somewhat perilous and it is difficult for big boats to follow the channel up to Buenos Aires. The river (the “Silvery River”) is so enormously wide—50 to 100 miles in places—that one never sees the opposite shore, which gives rise to the saying that the La Plata is a hundred miles wide but only three feet deep. We reach. Buenos Aires in the early morning, and on going ashore one thing that strikes us is the difference in language. The Brazilians claimed that Spanish is merely a dialect of Portuguese, while the Argentinians, of course, asserted that Portuguese is obviously a dialect of Spanish. As a matter of fact
in both languages it is easy to find a similarity of root, and it is not difficult for anyone with linguistic ability to comprehend both languages.
It is most remarkable in landing in a city which today boasts a population of two million five hundred thousand, that a hundred years ago it was hardly fifty thousand. It was with the advent of Industrialism in Europe, when the densely populated countries of that continent could no longer feed their population, that the
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Buenos Aires–Avenue de Mayo
real development of Argentina set in, with an eye to foodstuffs rather than precious metals.
When Buenos Aires was first settled, thirty mares and seven stallions were brought over. Thirty years later we find historians remarking on the numerous herds of horses roaming all along the coast and along the shores of the La Plata. The pampas are a huge granary; and it was interesting to me as a Canadian to see conditions so like those in Canada so far as agriculture was concerned. Naturally, conditions otherwise differ
very much. There are great estancias of vast extent, some of fifty thousand to one hundred thousand hectares, and others much larger still; and these were no doubt originally grants of land to grandees and hidalgos.
All of South America, with the exception of Brazil, has been under Spanish dominion. Its development has probably been slower because the administrative powers made it incumbent upon settlers to be either
Spanish or Portuguese, and consequently Catholic. When Alexander von Humboldt explored South America and came to the northern part in the vicinity of the Amazon and Orinoco, he was turned back because only Portuguese were allowed to set foot in Brazil. These restrictions were in force even after the time when the South American countries gained their independence after Joseph Bonaparte ascended the throne of Spain following the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. However, these things are all past
history. The population of this great city—to the extent of sixty per cent I am told—is of Italian origin, although the mass of the people is fused into a Spanish-speaking unity, purely Argentinian in sentiment and feeling, and an example to the whole world as a blending of races and aspirations.
Although the passage to Buenos Aires up the La Plata is so difficult, the city has splendid docks and basins, completed in 1900, capable of accommodating twenty million tons of shipping. The approach by sea is not prepossessing, for the banks of the La Plata are both flat and muddy. Nor does the city appear to much better advantage immediately on landing. Its greatness is not fully realized until one plunges into its network of streets, purely Spanish in character, absolutely straight, and intersecting at right angles, which makes it very easy to find one’s way about. The city has been greatly improved and developed in recent years and the beautiful Avenida de Mayo would do credit to any capital in the world, with its length of about two miles, flanked with most magnificent buildings.
Darwin, who visited Buenos Aires in the middle of the last century, estimated the population at sixty thousand, and specially remarked upon the hospitality of the people. I can truly state that where Darwin met sixty thousand hospitable people it was my privilege to meet two and a half millions. I was led to believe once upon a time that true hospitality only existed in the Orient, but now I can truly include Buenos Aires in that category.
It was my good fortune to make the acquaintance of a prominent Buenos Aires barrister on my trip from New York south, and my better fortune still to encounter him again in his native city.
We very often exhibit hospitality out of a sense of duty, but that was not so with the hospitality I experienced in this beautiful city of Buenos Aires, and particularly from this new-found brother and all his friends as well—it was not duty but pleasure, and it came from the heart in a manner not to be described. Unfortunately I had to leave earlier than I expected, in order to reach Panama in time to catch a boat to New Zealand; and I never regretted anything so much as not to be able to take advantage of an arrangement which my friend had made, as the administrator of an estancia of one hundred thousand acres, for me to stay at his house in La Plata for a few days and witness an exhibition by the “gauchos” (South American cowboys) of rough-riding and other local customs, especially what my friend described in Spanish as “roasting an ox in its skin.” I hope that my new brother, as well as those of his friends whom I met, will see these lines, and realize, as I then did, that there is only one home for all humanity—the love of God.
Buenos Aires may be described as a gay city, but it reflects the life of a well-behaved and prosperous population, who work during the day to take their leisure and enjoyment in the evening—even into the early hours of the morning. The domestic side of life in Buenos Aires is brought home to one very pleasantly when one sees in a public place—perhaps at a dinner-dance at a hotel—the daughter of the family sheltered by the presence of her father and mother while she receives the dignified attentions of the young man who is courting her.
On the trip across the Andes to Chile we pass through the three typical
parts of the Argentine, the lowlands, the table-lands and the cordilleras, into the Andes. While traversing the pampas we witness various phases of agricultural life and cattle-raising, with the whole country bathed in sunshine. God has not, however, made life here too easy for His children. The great problem is water, and the country looks arid, dependent as it is upon rain for purposes of irrigation. The government has strict laws regulating the amount of water that can be taken by individuals from the sources of supply.
The journey to Mendoza takes about 22 hours but there are excellent trains with up-to-date dining-and sleeping-cars, good food and excellent service. Mendoza is at an altitude of six thousand feet, in the center of a vineyard district. After a short stop between change of trains we continue our journey across the Andes following the course of a river until we ascend to
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Chile—A mountain pass of the Andes
a height of eleven thousand feet where every turn of the road reveals new beauties and wonders. Eventually we reach the snow line. As we emerge from a large tunnel which is the boundary between Argentina and Chile, we see at the highest point a large and beautiful monument to Christ the Saviour.
The story of this statue, which commemorates the peaceful settlement by arbitration of boundary
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“The Christ of the Andes.” Commemorates settlement by arbitration of boundary disputes between Argentina and Chile
disputes between Chile and Argentina which were fast leading to war, is one of the bright spots in the dark history of human conflict.
As time went on during the journey I became acquainted with my fellow passengers. There was a mother with her family of daughters returning home from Europe and they gave me my first impression of Chilean patriotism. They were bound for Santiago, the beautiful capital of Chile, and one of the daughters when the train was in the middle of the tunnel produced a small gramophone which played the Chilean national anthem. It was amusing to hear a few days later that she was elated at having made an “Americano” stand up to the strains of the anthem as the train entered Chile, but it was my privilege to send word to her by letter to reassure her, stating that it was no hardship, but a pleasure, and adding that after all there is
one anthem which may apply to us all and that is the real love which we have for all people when we conceive this world as the home of one human race, a love which finds expression in one universal hymn to the Glory of God.
Valparaiso (or Vale of Paradise) is the great seaport of Chile on the
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A native Indian type of Chile. Few realize that there are over ten million Indians living in the New World. ’Abdu’l-Bahá stated that the Indian race, through education, might one day play a worthy part in the future civilization
Pacific. It has not yet recovered from the great earthquake which occurred, I believe, in 1910. We find a great number of funicular railways which owe their existence to the fact that there is very little space between the mountains and the bay, which is circular in shape, one side terminating in the beautiful suburb of San Marino. Valparaiso
is the commercial capital and there are many important industries centered there.
One very interesting acquaintanceship I made was with a gentleman of German origin who had been a lieutenant on a German warship, was interned during the Great War, and had married a Peruvian lady. During the period of internment he had been allowed great freedom and was permitted to go about freely on parole; and he had a remarkable knowledge of the country. It was most interesting to see the reaction of this friend and his wife on hearing the Bahá’í Message. The lady was particularly impressed with the advocacy of the freedom of women, not from any selfish motive but rather to use this power to educate women and children generally and so release the great potentialities which have been stored up in that great section of humanity for such a long time.
There are various steamship lines between Valparaiso and the Panama Canal Zone, where they then diverge either to New York or to European ports. These ships make many calls with sufficient time for the traveler to form some idea of such ports as Antafogasta, Iquique, Mollendo and many others. The coast seems to be almost inaccessible, as though God had veiled the interior of the country. Here again the country is arid; there are no trees and no water, and everything looks bare. I am told that the average rainfall along this coast is three inches per century! Yet the interior of the country is quite fertile and the introduction of water will make a paradise of what would otherwise be a desert. The coast is exceedingly rich in minerals and we watch thousands of tons of
copper and bags and bags of tin ore and other materials being taken on board from lighters, since large vessels cannot dock.
Another valuable asset of this part of the world are the rocks and little islands which the traveler is amazed to see covered with what he takes to be snow glittering in the sunlight, but which in reality is guano, an industry jealously guarded and protected by the government.
The temperature, even as we approach the equator, remains remarkably cool if not actually cold, due to the current bearing the name of Alexander von Humboldt, which sweeps the coast line as far as the equator. As we approach the coast of Ecuador and Peru (after many inspections and other regulations) the scenery changes and becomes more verdant, due to tropical rains, and we arrive at last at Callao, the seaport of Lima.
To Peru we are indebted for quinine. The wife of the then Viceroy, the Count of Chinchon, fell ill of a tertian fever and was cured by doses of Peruvian bark (quinine) which was afterwards termed quincona. This happened in the early part of the 17th century; and the valuable drug which was thus given to the world was introduced into Europe by a Jesuit priest and named after the Countess; but the world of Protestantism strongly objected to and prohibited the use of this God-sent drug because it was introduced from Catholic sources! It has since been abundantly demonstrated that quinine is beneficial to both Catholic and Protestant, does not discriminate between Moslem and Hindu, and will cure Jew and Infidel alike!
It would not be within the scope of this article to do more than refer to the old and great civilization of the Incas nor to the workings of Spanish influence and the Holy Inquisition
in this capital; but we must say a few words about our companions on board ship.
The South American Continent has fortunately been spared so far from the ravages of the tourist and even more so the East Coast. The passengers are mostly of the high-class commercial type who travel from port to port. There were a number of German gentlemen representatives of firms of international repute, chemists demonstrating their products and showing the various methods in which they are employed. It was interesting to listen to conversations carried on in German, and it was my great privilege in giving expression to what I thought about the subject they were discussing to introduce the Bahá’í principles. It was most gratifying to experience a full acceptance of all the fundamental Bahá’í principles and, best of all, the appeal to the spiritual nature. For the experience of these people during the past fifteen years had demonstrated the utter futility of efforts toward fame and personal ambition without giving proper regard to the spiritual side of life and particularly the felicity of our neighbors.
There was a very distinguished lady on board who had been sent to Europe by the Quakers and had done splendid work. She understood German perfectly and had received the Bahá’í Message indirectly through overhearing my conversation with my German friend. She came to me afterwards and expressed her happiness at coming in contact with something she had never before even dreamt of. Another surprise was a chance conversation which flourished into a splendid friendship with a husband and wife who were opera-singers en route to Panama. Both were familiar with the name of ’Abdu’l-Bahá, and it was wonderful
to know that some of these great teachings had found a place among the Argentine people.
From Callao we proceeded quickly to Balboa, the Pacific entrance to the Canal. To Americans the history of the Canal is too well-known to be mentioned here, but the work which has been accomplished there is stupendous. What used to be twenty-five years ago the most fever-ridden and pestilential zone in the world is today a model of sanitation. To the Bahá’í traveler, however, the polyglot and cosmopolitan aspect of Panama City, which is outside the Canal Zone, is most inspiring. It was my privilege to meet people of advanced ideas who were only too anxious to express them in deed and action and they offered an opportunity to show how the Bahá’í Cause was the only way in which to work toward the realization of their high ideals. There one finds Indian Hindus living peaceably with their Indian Muhammadan brothers, a state of affairs which would be unheard of in their native land.
I had an unexpectedly long wait at Panama and utilized a few days in visiting Costa Rica, its seaport Puerto Limon, and its capital San José. The trip to the capital, where the railroad reaches an altitude of four thousand feet, is unsurpassed scenically, the road following the seashore and then ascending along a wide river through a deep valley, finally reaching the crest in the midst of exotic and luxuriant tropical vegetation which is beyond all description.
San José is very Catholic and one sees printed signs all over the city and in the windows of both the poor and the rich reading “Viva Cristo Rey,” which means “Long Live Christ the King.” This amused me,
rather, and I asked one man whether it would not be better for the people to carry their religion in their hearts instead of in their windows. He replied, “We seem to hold the same views on religion.” I had taken an interest in his young adopted son and when I made him acquainted with the principles of Bahá’u’lláh, he caused quite a sensation as he read out of one of the little Bahá’í booklets to a crowd of about one hundred persons who had gathered round us in the street. He said he should be able to use quite a number of these booklets to great advantage.
I made the acquaintance of a number of other Costa Ricans on this trip—doctors, pharmacists and other professional men. Let us hope that the few seeds planted in this remote region will, God willing, bear fruit. That the spirit of the people is such that they will uphold Truth when they recognize it may be instanced by the behavior of Marmol, the great Argentinian, who, when thrown by the tyrant Rosas into a dungeon, inscribed with a burnt stick the following quatrain on the walls of his prison:
- Wretch! set before me dreadful
- Death,
- And all my limbs in fetters bind;
- Thou canst not quench my moral
- breath
- Nor place a chain upon my mind.
This is a glimmer from a prison in South America; but Bahá’ís the world over have before them that great and shining life of Bahá’u’lláh which shone from the prison of ’Akká and which they must reflect in the fullness of its radiance and purity to illumine the souls and hearts of all manknid and so release them from their great prison of Self.
Dr. Brigham, who sometimes uses the nom de plume of Victor Flambeau, is a writer and lecturer of note, and is in charge of the Art Department at George Washington University. She has traveled much in Europe, in China, and in the Near East, and more recently has returned from a trip to Palestine here described.—Editor.
HAVING studied the history of the Bahá’í Movement for a year past, I determined to go as a pilgrim to Haifa and ’Akká during my summer holiday. I wished also to learn more of the geography of the Near East; so I made at the same time a comprehensive tour of the Mediterranean countries—Greece, the Bosphorus, Syria, Palestine, and upper Egypt. The entire journey was exceptionally pleasant and instructive, but foremost in memory stands out the visit to the Bahá’í Shrines and the Holy Household at Haifa.
At various stops along our way, Robert College in Constantinople and the American colleges at Smyrna and Beirut, I mentioned my mission to visit the Bahá’ís at Haifa, and heard always favorable comments about them, the names of the Revealers of the Bahá’í Faith particularly.
We arrived in Nazareth on Saturday evening, after a long and arduous motor trip of sightseeing from Damascus, with stops at Capernaum and Tiberias, the Sea of Galilee. ’Abdu’l-Bahá repaired to Tiberias at one time to visit the medicinal springs for hot-water bathing.
The present Governor of Tiberias, Badi Bushrui, is an ardent Bahá’í. Tiberias was formerly so infested with flies that it was said in derision that the king of the flies had his throne here, but it is now much improved.
On Sunday morning while others in our party of thirty-six went to
church or sightseeing, I took a seat in a public automobile going to Haifa, where I arrived in about an hour or a little more, and went to the Hotel Majestic with a letter from our dragoman.
Later the same day when I succeeded in finding the Persian colony, and the home of the Bahá’í Household, I was met by Rouha Khanum, one of the daughters of ’Abdu’l-Bahá. Her cordial welcome made me feel at home, and the day being hot, she sent for iced lemonade for my little guide and myself—most refreshing after our long walk in the sun. We had an hour’s chat together in English. She begged me to remain as their guest at the Bahá’í Pilgrim House. When, after returning to the hotel for my belongings, I came back to accept their cordial invitation, Fugeta, a Japanese Bahá’í first greeted me, and then I was met by Miss Effie Baker, from Australia, now hostess at the Western Pilgrim House.
This Western Pilgrim House, designed by Mr. Charles Mason Remey, was lately renovated, and is now in first-class condition, with new furnishings. It is beautiful. I was the first guest to be entertained there since the improvements and taking out of the old furniture. As there were no other visitors, and the summer was rather quiet, the members of the Household all seemed to enjoy an unexpected summer pligrim, and of course to me it was a delightful experience.
After five o’clock tea together, Miss Baker and I went up Mount Carmel with Rouha Khanum, to the Shrines of the Báb and the Master. We observed the lovely view of the Mediterranean, which was so often enjoyed by ’Abdu’l-Bahá, and strolled in the luxuriant gardens now extended in terraces by direction of Shoghi Effendi, who has also had the clump of large cypress trees where Bahá-u’lláh used to sit, enclosed for protection. The effects are really gorgeous.
Miss Baker and I entered the Shrines alone, and according to custom I removed my shoes at the door, walked to the Threshold, and prostrated myself as at an altar. Then, moving backward, we withdrew, and joined Rouha Khanum, with some Persian ladies, their Bahá’í guests in the garden above. They greeted me most charmingly, and I regretted knowing no words of Persian to return their courtesy. After the chanting of prayers, we went to the Shrines again where some one was softly chanting. I was deeply touched and immensely impressed by the quiet beauty of the spot, its atmosphere of peace, the richness of the numerous large Persian rugs, and the perfume of flowers, jasmine and tube roses. We remained about the Shrines until it grew dark and the beacon light on Mount Carmel was turned on, sending its rays far out over the harbor.
Shoghi Effendi was not in Haifa at this time. The other members of the Holy Household were at home as usual. On our return we had a delicious Persian dinner together at the Pilgrim House, with Miss Baker as hostess, two young men of the household, Soheil Effendi Afnan and Monieb Jalal Afnan, both gradsons of ’Abdu’l-Bahá, and Fugeta, the Japanese Bahá’í, who has lived there many years. Monieb Afnan had attended as
a freshman the American College at Beirut, which I had already visited. Soheil Afnan had graduated from this institution, I understood. He had been also at Oxford and speaks with an attractive Oxford accent. He talked of Bahá’í matters in London and elsewhere, and especially did he speak of the life of ’Abdu’l-Bahá. He suggested that I read the new Persian history of the Bahá’í Movement.
The following morning I rose at five, in time for the sunrise, as I learned that Miss Baker and Fugeta had their tea by five-thirty always. Although Miss Baker had offered to bring my breakfast to my room, of course I would not permit it. Later I saw Fugeta’s gardens, his Canaries and others birds, his goldfish, and his immense Persian cat. Having lived in America before going to Haifa, Fugeta inquired about the friends and remembered all whom I mentioned.
Later in the morning Miss Baker with two of the young ladies of the Household—Soraya Khanum and Mariam Khanum, granddaughters of Abdu’l-Bahá—accompanied me to Akká and Bahjí. The drive along the seashore was exhilarating. It was a bright fair day, the rule here in summer, as it is not as hot as elsewhere in the Near East.
The old prison is now transformed into a model reformatory where gardens and modern improvements give employment to the prisoners who are comfortable and happy, thanks to the warden, Mr. Pike, an artist and a British officer of the World War. He accompanied us himself through the prison, where of course I was most interested in the rooms in which Bahá’u’lláh and ’Abdu’l-Bahá had been confined. The contrast was extraordinary from the wretched prison and courtyard where Bahá’u’lláh and His company of nearly
eighty members had been incarcerated to the inviting conditions of today, giving increasing testimony to the power of the Bahá’í spirit.
Mr. Pike also showed us the Museum with its interesting collection of relics and antiques, and conducted us to a lower apartment, a fine old Norman crypt now being excavated, a section that had never before been shown to any of the party—a place horribly dusty but fascinating.
Next the ladies took me to see the three houses in which the Family had lived from time to time while in ’Akká, of course under prison supervision. Especially I noted the house where Americans—and particularly our Washington friends—had visited The Master while He was still a prisoner. Both the young girls had been born there (one was nineteen and the other a trifle older), which made it seem very recent. We went inside the houses and saw several apartments and rooms, kept vacant as shrines, where Bahá’u’lláh and ’Abdu’l-Bahá had lived and meditated, still filled with that atmosphere of peace which seems to permeate all Their associations. We left our shoes at the door, entering with due reverence. Everywhere smiling faces greeted us, the young girls especially who were recognized.
We then motored to Bahjí, where we visited the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh, amid the same peaceful and appropriate surroundings. The rich rugs in the Shrine give great beauty and take away the usual melancholy of such associations. I had lately seen the tombs of Alexander the Great, Saladin, and Napoleon, but they paled to insignificance in comparison with the beauty and simple grandeur of the Bahá’í Shrines.
The gardens at Bahjí are very beautiful. It was here that some of the party gathered handfuls of jasmine blooms for me; their perfume was intense and wonderful.
Afterwards we drove to the Ridván Garden, as I did not wish to miss that, in order to have clearly in mind the geography of all the places. The Gardens there have been somewhat restored, and were now in full bloom. We sat beneath the original mulberry trees where Bahá’u’lláh used to meditate. The gardener’s wife brought us white grapes to eat. The girls gathered more flowers for me. Here and there I took snaps of the scenes around us.
We then returned to the Pilgrim House at Haifa for lunch. In the afternoon the Ladies of the Holy Household sent for me, and it was then that I had my greatest experience. I was accompanied across the street by Fugeta to the house where ’Abdu’l-Bahá had lived, and there I was met by the Holy Mother (as the widow of ’Abdu’l-Bahá is called), who welcomed us most kindly, and invited me into her private room. Rouha Khanum, her daugher, came in a moment and acted as our interpreter, and we had a long and intimate conversation of which I afterward made some notes. Bahiyyih Khanum, the distinguished sister of ’Abdu’l-Bahá, came also, and they were both very sweet to me, and seemed pleased at my coming now when there were no other visitors. Bahiyyih Khanum looks frail, but both were in their usual health they said, and keenly interested in everything going on among the Bahá’ís. They are gracious and dignified, and seem enveloped in a beautiful spiritual peace.
Of course they were anxious to hear of the American Bahá’ís, and asked about several friends whom I knew only by name. They said that the news of the progress of Bahá’í work is their greatest joy, and that it is for that they live. During the afternoon Persian tea was served in small glass cups. I feared that I might be staying too long and perhaps
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1. House where Bahá’u’lláh was confined for nine years at ’Akká. 2. Inner court of the old prison at ’Akká. 3. The Most Great Prison at ’Akká, showing tower in which Bahá’u’lláh and His followers were imprisoned. 4.’Abdu’l-Bahá on His way to visit the Báb’s Holy Shrine on Mt. Carmel. 5. View at ’Akká from barracks, showing Carmel and Haifa in the distance.
tiring them and more than once suggested going, but they insisted that my visit was only too short. After a time one of the ladies brought out a beautiful string of amber beads ninety-five in number—a Bahá’í rosary—which she gave me with a little bag of sweet lavender; and the other gave me a ring stone such as worn by Bahá’ís. They are precious souvenirs of this wonderful pilgrimage.
We talked of many matters, and they invited me to give my services to the Bahá’í Cause. They reminded me that the behavior of a Bahá’í, wherever he may be, should always be such that he may be recognized as a Bahá’í. They suggested my reading carefully all the written works of Bahá’u’lláh and ’Abdu’l-Bahá, so far as translated, now that I know something of the history of the Movement. Munirih Khanum, the Holy Mother, told me that she finds great pleasure in reading the Bible in Persian, and showed me her copy, a fine old edition. I replied that I envied her the ability to read Persian, but hoped when next I visited her to be able to read it and perhaps speak it at least a little.
Bahiyyih Khanum conducted me into an adjoinnig room to see the three portraits of the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh, and ’Abdu’l-Bahá. I gazed long at the pensive, poetic face of the Báb, a picture I had so desired to see; then at the commanding features of Bahá’u’lláh, full of power, somewhat resembling Michael Angelo’s famous statue of Moses in Rome; and finally at the familiar face of ’Abdu’l-Bahá, so full of tenderness. As the first two portraits are never copied, they are unknown to us in the Occident.
All too soon Fugeta came to say that the car had arrived, in which I had engaged a seat back to Nazareth, and I knew the time had come
for parting. It was a loving farewell with the words “Alláh-u-Abhá (God is the Most Glorious) exchanged between us. Fugeta had put up a basket of delicious fruit for me from The Master’s garden, with a spray of fragrant tuberose on the top, and the big bunch of flowers from Bahjí. Some of these latter I gave to the ladies of our party when I again met them at dinner that evening on my return to Nazareth.
I found myself much rested rather than tired by the added trip. Many seemed interested to hear something of the Bahá’í Movement and of my pilgrimage to the Holy City of Haifa. Next morning we continued our tour to Jerusalem. The Inspector General of Schools of Palestine, Mirza Hossein Rouhie, is a well-known Bahá’í in Jerusalem, a very popular man among all sects. I heard many complimentary words about the Bahá’ís from people in Jerusalem.
Continuing our journey we arrived in Egypt for a short stay in Cairo and a visit to the Pyramids. We sailed from Alexandria, where I remembered that ’Abdu’l-Bahá had visited Ramleh (a suburb) shortly after His release from prison in 1909, and again in 1913 on his return from America and Europe. We sailed from here for Marseilles, arriving on August 18, a little over five weeks from the time we had left in July. I hastened to Paris ahead of my party, in order to return to New York and reach Green Acre* before the season there closed, as the Ladies of the Household had asked me to do.
In retrospect my pilgrimage appeared altogether satisfying. I found myself deeply impressed by the dignity and sincerity and spirituality of the Bahá’ís in Haifa, and in entire sympathy with the meaning of the Movement which is creating a new world outlook.
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* The Bahá’í summer colony at Eliot, Me.
This is the first of a series of articles or compilations giving interesting experiences of those who came into personal contact with ’Abdu’l-Bahá during His lifetime either in the Holy Land or during His visit to the West. We will welcome any contributions to this section which we purpose to continue from time to time.—Editor.
AT NO time in the history of human events has such a table existed, as existed in the prison home of ’Abdu’l-Bahá, in the penal colony city of ’Akká, Syria, during a period extending from about 1895 to 1909 when ’Abdu’l-Bahá, having been set free in 1908, moved with His family to Haifa, ending this chapter in the history of the Bahá’í Cause. The comparatively few who were privileged to visit ’Abdu’l-Bahá in this prison, and sit at this table as His guests, coming from all parts of the globe, and drawn by the magnet of the “Fire of the Love of God” will never forget it. The realization of the spiritual significance of this experience, its unparalleled uniqueness; its tragic and dramatic setting, and the effect upon the hearts of those so honored as to “break bread” together under such sacred circumstances, grows clearer, and more wonderful as the years pass. Many of the band of pilgrims who were called to this spiritual banquet have joined the “choir invisible” and are with the Master behind the veils in higher realms today; and yearly the band grows less. Future generations will have knowledge of this—the Master’s table—only through long transmitted narration.
It was at this table that all of the so-called “Table-Talks of ’Abdu’l-Bahá” were given, and later were brought back to America by the different pilgrims and shared with friends. Many of these “Table-Talks” have been published.
It was ’Abdu’l-Bahá’s custom to have the meals served in courses. At the beginning, before the first course
was served, and then at the end of each following course, while the dishes were quietly removed, He would speak to the friends along spiritual lines only, giving forth the great Teaching of Bahá’u’lláh in a simplified form, expounding the Word of God from the sacred scriptures of the different religions, and at the same time feeding the material body of man. As each course was served, all would eat, then at its removal ’Abdu’l-Bahá would take up the thread of His discourse just where He had left off, with perfect continuity, so the material and spiritual meal progressed side by side.
The penetration of His Word was most marked. He would tenderly express some beautiful thoughts, like the following, for instance, and magically they would be understood both by “mind and heart,” and could never be forgotten:
“There is a kind of food which needs neither knife nor fork and of which every one may partake with perfect ease and benefit. It is the food spiritual. This food brings life and stimulation instead of indolence and apathy. It brings peace and content to the one who partakes of it; the more food the more joy and peace. For the Spirit is always eager to furnish sustenance to the soul.”
“God be praised. At this table we are joined in Spiritual relationship. We are all of one family because we are under the Shadow of Bahá’u’lláh. Look at the earth. Of itself it is worthless, yet it can reflect the light and heat of the sun. Clouds gather, the rains descend and
the earth becomes fruitful. In the same way the Spirit of God gives life to the soul of man and the Breeze of God awakens the soul from its sleep. Peter was only a catcher of fishes yet his attainment was very great. Ananias the High Priest was much greater in the eyes of the world yet he was deprived while Peter received the bounty of God.”
“That which is most delicious in the world of existence is love. Love is the best condiment. * * * For instance, the food on this table is nothing, indeed very simple; yet because it is prompted by love it is delicious.
“The Lord’s Supper of Christ was indeed a very common thing; but because there was excessive love among the individual members who convened there, that table surpassed the royal tables, and it was established as the Lord’s Supper. Even now at this time it is known as such. This was due to the love which existed between Jesus Christ and the disciples.”
It is hard to bring to the Western mind, so filled with the material things of life, and with the “pomp and circumstance” of the social and ritualistic customs, an adequate description of this remarkable table, for the environment that surrounded it was one unknown in this “land of the free.” Picture if you will one whose rank was that of the oldest son of a Prince of Persia, who had known vast wealth and every luxury His country afforded, imprisoned forty years because of His faith in the Message of Universal Brotherhood and Unity given forth by His Father, Bahá’u’lláh, the Revealer of the Bahá’í Revelation and His promulgation of these Divine Ideals. Stripped of all wealth, all of the simplest comforts of life, a prisoner amid the scum of the Orient, the felons of Syria, yet creating about
Him an atmosphere of absolute spirituality, purity, beauty and refinement. A prison home with its stark, bare whitewashed walls and meager furniture, without the walls of its gardens the rabble of ’Akká, the poor diseased and degenerate, yet within its doors one found heaven; found a luminous “White Spot” in the midst of darkness and despair.
’Abdu’l-Bahá has said: “The spiritual life is symbolized by simplicity and contemplation, combined with usefulness and well-directed activity”; and this was the rule whereby
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The Master’s table in the dining room of His prison home. From the windows is an imposing view of the old sea-wall of ’Akká and the Mediterranean Sea
all of the inmates of ’Abdu’l-Bahá’s home governed their lives.
The now world-famous dining-room, in the center of which stood the Master’s table, faced the blue Mediterranean Sea, and overlooked the ancient double seawall of ’Akká. There were one or two paintings, by Bahá’í artists, unframed and framed, which hung upon the wall; an old-fashioned clock which ticked drowsily; some modern cane-seated chairs, the gift of some of the friends who had visited there; and the Master’s table with its immaculate appointments. There were always fragrant flowers upon it, and the simple Persian food was ever served with a
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View from the dining room window of ’Abdu’l-Bahá’s Prison Home
spirit of utmost love, which added much to its delicious flavors. The perfume of white jasmine and of attar of roses filled the air. In one corner near the door of entrance stood a basin of water, in which ’Abdu’l-Bahá, according to an Oriental custom, always washed His hands after eating.
Horace Holley in his “Modern Social Religion” has so beautifully described this—the Master’s table—in these words: “To ’Abdu’l-Bahá, as a Teacher and friend, came men and women from every race, religion and nation, to sit at His table, like favored guests, questioning Him about the social, spiritual or moral program each had most at heart; and after a stay lasting from a few hours to many months, returning home, inspired, renewed, and enlightened. The world surely never possessed such a guest-house as this.
“Within its doors the rigid castes of India melted away, the racial prejudice of Jew, Christian and Muhammedan became less than a memory; and every convention save the essential law of warm hearts and aspiring minds broke down, banned and forbidden by the unifying sympathy of the Master’s house. It was like King Arthur and the Round Table, but an Arthur who knighted women as well as men, and sent them away not with the sword but with the WORD.”
It was indeed the supper of Divine Love, of Unity and spiritual communion.
Here Buddhists, Parsees, Zoroastrians, Muhammedans, Christians, Jews, and all other faiths met and in perfect love and unity, at that blessed table, “broke bread together,” in the Kingdom of Divine Love. No greater symbol of unity could be given in the Orient than this breaking of bread together, for it stands as a symbol of recognition and union. This in itself has been one of the great miracles performed by Abdu’l-Bahá—what greater one could we ask? To take these hostile races and religions, that outside of the walls of that prison home were at war with each other, their hearts filled with hatred and oppression—and through the Power of the Love of God, which flowed through Him—to merge them all into one. This is the miracle of miracles, and the one upon which the salvation of the world depends. Without this unity and love it needs must perish.
During one evening meal, at the Master’s table, as the writer sat next to Him listening to His words of infinite wisdom, she looked at a glass filled with water in front of her place, and the thought involuntarily flashed through her mind, with a great yearning, “Oh! if only Abdu’l-Bahá would take my heart and empty it of every preconceived idea and earthly desire, just as one would take this glass and empty it, and then refill it with divine Love and understanding.” It was just a flash of consciousness, yet ’Abdul’-Bahá seemed to read it. He was in the midst of His discourse; He stopped abruptly (but no one seemed to notice it) and addressed His attendant who served the friends. He said but a few words in Persian to him, then continued His conversation. No one’s attention was interrupted by
the circumstance; all were listening eagerly to His every word said to them. The attendant came quietly up behind the writer, reached over and removed her glass from the table and taking it over to the corner of the room, emptied its contents of water into the water-basin, then returned the empty glass to its former place. Still no one noticed what had happened. ’Abdu’l-Bahá continued to speak, the while reaching over and taking the water-bottle on the table in His hand, and in the most casual manner, still talking on the subject of His discourse, refilled her empty glass, then set the water-bottle back in its place. No one save
the writer and ’Abdu’l-Bahá knew what had transpired. Her heart was filled with unspeakable joy. This proved conclusively that the innermost thoughts and the innermost desires of the hearts of all present were an open book to ’Abdu’l-Bahá, and that His love encompassed all.
To have sat at the Master’s table, and to have heard Him say: “You are gathered together at this table, so may you be gathered together in the Kingdom, and as you are with Me today, so shall you be throughout all the worlds of God,” is to know what the Reality of the Lord’s Supper truly is and to have received God’s Benediction.
HIS Holiness Bahá’u’lláh said, ‘‘All things arise through man and are manifest in him.” An ancient poet said, “God speaks to man through man, and manifests Himself through natural law.” ’Abdu’l-Bahá said, “This has been the mission of all the divine messengers—to make man conscious of his eternal part.”
The writer once asked an agnostic to define his ideal of a perfect man. He answered by enumerating one by one the divine abstract qualities that a perfect man should possess, such as universal compassion, integrity, purity, honesty, fearlessness, tolerance, wisdom, etc. I said, “the qualities of the ideal man which you have so beautifully expressed are what we understand to be the requirements of a Prophet, Manifestation or Messenger of God.”
These Manifestations appear in the world at regular intervals or cycles. They come to renew religion, to reopen the closed door, to reestablish the highway to the
knowledge of God and the acquirement of the divine virtues.
Although these Prophets appear “singly and alone,” each one coming out of a different religion, race, and tongue and each bearing a special gift, each emphasizing a special quality; yet in reality They are all one: one in that sense that though they have different bodies and names, yet as the sun is reflected in many mirrors, so the one Divine Essence is reflected in every Manifestation. “The hearts are many but Love is One.”
As spiritual evolution goes slowly on, humanity faltering but surely taking on and building into its character more and more of those qualities and characteristics that make for perfection, yet looking back into the past we can see how each Divine Messenger brought His own special gift to mankind, being first of all its beautiful Exemplar both in His life and doctrine.
Zoroaster of ancient Persia brought to us, and emphasized in His teaching,
the purity of the Creator; the sacred fire, ever burning on the altars of His temples typifies the cleansing powers of the spirit of God. The towers of silence in Bombay testify to the need of personal purity.
A beautiful prayer by Bahá’u’lláh contains this same wonderful ideal of the purifying spirit of God: “O God, create in the hearts of Thy beloved the fire of Thy Love, that it may burn the thought of everything save Thee!”
The Prophet Abraham brought to our humanity the great truth—the oneness of God. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord Thy God, is one God.” Down through the ages has come this wonderful truth, upheld tenaciously to the present day in poetry and literature, and it is yet the opening of the ritual of burial for every faithful Jew. In the midst of universal idolatry and belief in many deities, Abraham, cast out of home and country, “singly and alone” proclaimed His message of the oneness of God.
The Prophet Moses brought to humanity the truth that God is a God of love and justice. The story of His life is intensely interesting; adopted by a daughter of the reigning King, raised in the palace of the hated Pharaohs, His early mission to His own people was disastrous. He was rejected by them and convicted of manslaughter. He fled to desert lands. Forty years later, sent back by Divine instruction to the toiling, helpless slaves, who through dire misery and sorrow had their hearts opened at last to God’s Messenger. He taught, protected and finally guided them out of slavery into the desert of Arabia, where He established in their hearts the law and justice of God and finally led them to their Promised Land.
’Abdu’l-Bahá said in “Some Answered
Questions”: “This people from the depths of degradation were lifted up to the heights of glory. They were captive, they became free; they were the most ignorant of people, they became the most wise.” As a result of the institutions that Moses gave them they attained a position which entitled them to honor among all nations, and their fame spread to all lands, to such a degree indeed among surrounding nations that if one wished to praise a man, one said, “Surely he is an Israelite.”
“Moses established the religious law and the civil law; these gave life to the people of Israel and led them to the highest possible degree of civilization at that period. In spite of His evil repute, how wonderfully He was guided by a supernatural power in establishing His great institutions and laws.” It is evident that Moses gave to the Hebrew nation not only freedom and dignity, but also spiritual as well as material laws; this is manifest in the writings of David, Psalm 37: “The Law of God is in his heart: none of his steps shall slide.”
The divine gift which Jesus, the lowly Nazarene, brought to humanity was the knowledge of the love of God and immortality—“the love that passeth understanding.” Only those in His day who had the Light of God in their hearts, were able to pierce through the fleshly veil and perceive His Glorious Station. “The man of sorrows,” “the fatherless one,” “the carpenter’s son,” were His titles among His own people. “He came to His own and His own received Him not.” Poor, homeless, a wandering religious teacher, put to an ignominious death, crowned with thorns, yet that Love was planted for all time in the hearts of His loved ones, and faith in an eternal life has forever been merged into the consciousness of the human race.
That head bowed down by woe and
pain, crowned and bleeding from its circlet of thorns, rises supreme down through the ages, while to this day kings, queens, rulers and their peoples acknowledge His Kingdom and pay deepest reverence to His Glorious Station. Truly, “that which was hidden shall become manifest.”
Muhammad, the Arabian, the camel-driver, the illiterate one, who among the people of His day could see His glorious station! How could an illiterate obscure man of a degraded nomadic tribe bring to humanity such a wonderful power and spiritual message, lift up those idolatrous benighted savages to a most glorious civilization which at one period (1200 A. D.) was one of the greatest ever known upon this earth! How did He implant in human hearts the truth of “resignation to God” and to ever work in harmony with the Will of God! Also out of illiteracy, to create a new language, to write in such a pure strain that even His own people ever failed to reach that exalted literary style.
Men of the world today yet fail to see through that fleshly veil and do Him honor. The dignity of Abraham, the wisdom of Moses, the love of the Christ were but part of that glory and power veiled to earthly eyes.
What shall be said of the three great Prophets of our day—the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh and ’Abdu’l-Bahá? Time alone can give the world a true estimate of Their glorious station, and what of that future time when all
shall hear the call to unity, when our divine obligation to each other shall become the law of our being? War, strife, greed and crime shall be forgotten; peace, love, charity and purity shall be enthroned and established in the hearts of men. For this the Báb and thousands upon thousands of His loved ones went to a martyr’s death; Bahá’u’lláh and ’Abdu’l-Bahá to torture, exile, and lifelong imprisonment.
The acceptance of the Bahá’í Message means “life and life more abundantly”; it means the acceptance of the messages of the Divine Prophets of the past and to live the message of the Prophets of today. In the Words of ’Abdu’l-Bahá Himself, “The Bahá’í Message is a call to religious unity and not an invitation to a new religion, not a new path to immortality. God forbid! It is the ancient path cleared of the débris of imaginations and superstitions of men, of the débris of strife and misunderstanding and is again made a clear path to the sincere seeker that he may enter therein in assurance and find that the Word of God is One Word though the Speakers were many.” And those who long for the realities, who are willing to travel the path of the “independent investigation of truth” will be able to penetrate the “fleshly veils” and see for himself the “Glory of God” and realize that he, too, is one with that kingdom “whose glory shall have no end.”
Erratum—The beautiful scenes of Haifa and ’Akká published in the August number of The Bahá’í Magazine were mistakenly ascribed to Mrs. Jeann Bolles. They were taken by her son, Randolph Bolles, and we are glad to take this opportunity to acknowledge the service of this young man. We congratulate him upon his artistic ability, for these were among the most beautiful pictures we have ever seen of that region.—Editor.
