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| VOL. 19 | JULY, 1928 | NO. 4 |
| Page | |
The Great Need of Peace, ’Abdu’l-Bahá | 127 |
Editorial, Stanwood Cobb | 99 |
The Law of Diminishing Returns, Keith Ransom-Kehler | 102 |
Healing—Spiritual and Material, Chapter II—“Man,” Walter B. Guy, M.D. | 106 |
On The Road of Service, Florence E. Pinchon | 108 |
’Abdu’l-Bahá in America, Chaper III—“Chicago, Ill.,” Dr. Zia Bagdadi | 111 |
True Religion, Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick | 116 |
The World’s Greatest Prisoner, Henrietta C. Wagner | 121 |
American Peace Society’s Conference, Dale S. Cole | 123 |
of 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 |
MARGARET 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 group from among the Bahá´í young men of Tihrán, Persia, who have formed an Association for very active work in the Bahá’í Cause. Dr. Susan I. Moody, in forwarding the picture, states that she knows personally many of these young men and that they are a very representative group. The picture was taken in front of the Hazrat-ol-Ghods (Sacred Place) in a suburb of Tihrán
| VOL. 19 | JULY, 1928 | No. 4 |
the oneness of humanity and destroy the foundations of war and strife. * * * No matter how far the material world advances it cannot establish the happiness of mankind. Only when material and spiritual civilization are linked and coordinated will
happiness be assured.”—’Abdu’l-Bahá.H. G. WELLS, whose thoughts and writings are always on a plane of world vision, asks in his latest book, “Democracy Under Revision,” what can be done to perfect civilization, to establish a political unity which will ensure peace, and to save democracy from the prevailing spirit of commercial greed. He answers his own question by asking another one. “What is there to prevent,” he says, “another politico-religious drive for social and world unity taking hold everywhere of the active and adventurous minority of mankind—that is to say, of all mankind that matters—even quite soon?” Were Mr. Wells, planetary philosopher, to investigate the Bahá’í Movement, he would find it already fulfilling his prophecy.
That there is need of some movement to establish humanity on a sure foundation for world progress, all thinking people will agree. Also, were they, with Mr. Wells, to investigate the Bahá’í Movement, they would find that it not only fully provides all present-day needs of humanity; but what is even more important, that it contains within itself the dynamic which is enabling it to prevail in the face of a million odds, and to spread throughout every race and religion of the world.
MR. WELLS, one might gather, views the religious movements of humanity
in the light of spontaneous, evolutionary drives toward perfection, in which the divine forces play no part. It is true that religions find their inceptions in periods of great world needs, when the intelligent leadership of humanity, disgusted with the prevailing civilization, yearns for reform. But what Mr. Wells fails to see is that this yearning for reform is not itself the sufficient cause of reform, but only the fallow ground in which the seed planted by the Divine Gardener can germinate.
Always, in great movements of religious reform, do we find a fervor, a power of growth, which is the direct result of the overshadowing Divinity working in the hearts of men. It is this Force which brings to any Movement conviction, guidance, and self-sacrifice to the point of martyrdom. Furthermore, the great, epochal, world religions have all been the foundations of unique beings especially mirroring the Divine Beauty and intensively revealing the Divine Will to mankind.
How otherwise could humanity in mass reach that unity and agreement necessary for the triumphal progress of a great Cause? Man, by virtue of his intellectual nature, is diversive. The utterances of a mere reformer, the platform which he presents, tend always to be scanned and dissected
by the analytical tendency of human thought. It is true, that by the power of a dominant and zealous personality a reformer may succeed in producing and maintaining during his lifetime a sufficient working basis of unity for his cause. But at his death a dispersive influence works among his followers and there occur many rifts in the solidity of his cause, which inevitably breaks up into separatist movements and dwindles away into final ineffectiveness. Thus the movements instituted humanly by reforming intellects rarely last in vigorous and effective form more than two generations or three at the most.
THE GREAT Manifestations, on the other hand, and Founders of religion, by reason of being God-inspired, give to their followers such a penetrative force of the Spirit that the Cause instead of languishing at the death of its Founder continues to grow and to multiply by geometrical progression. Far from dying out in three generations, we find it by that time just beginning to display its fullest world-moving power, a power which continues to influence civilization not only for generations but for centuries and milleniums.
This is the kind of “politico-religious” drive that the world needs today, one that has within it the power to grow continuously, and ultimately to prevail over the whole world; a movement that can meet the inspection of the most critical and scientific investigation, yet can satisfy the simplicity of illiterate minds.
This power we find in the Bahá’í Movement, which wins its way in the universities of the West, as effectively as amidst the uneducated herdsmen of Asia. Can mere human ingenuity invent such a movement, capable of appealing to every religion
and race, and to every class of society? That is a question which one would like to ask Mr. Wells. Another question which one would like to ask him is whether he can find anywhere upon the horizon a movement which answers, so nearly as does the Bahá’í Movement, his demand for a politico-religious drive for world unity.
EXAMINE the Bahá’í Cause in all its details, and one will find it answering every need of humanity for today. And most reasonably does it provide for the future needs of humanity by the evolutionary statement that when new planetary needs arise, again through religious inspiration will the Divine Wisdom reveal to man sufficient guidance for his needs. Thus the Bahá’í Cause claims no static and ultimate perfection. It is the destined teaching for the needs of man today. It points the way to world unity and peace, to the solution of the industrial problems and to the necessary spiritual development and evolution of man. Its institutions will perfect the intransigent faults deeply inhering in present-day democracy; faults which Mr. Wells, humanitarian and philosopher, deplores—faults which all enlightened souls deplore.
Let us take heart from Mr. Wells’ keen, brave words, that the desired “drive for social and world unity”—in order to become effective, needs only to take hold at first everywhere of the “active and adventurous minority of mankind.” All reform movements start as minorities. In size they look as the world looks when viewed through the reverse end of a telescope. But in potency they equal the dynamic power of the “Idea” which they represent.
IT IS GOOD, is it not, to belong to and work with the “active and
adventurous minority.” I can conceive no richer blessing in life than this—to stand shoulder to shoulder with comrade pioneers, pushing on, under the leadership and protection of Divine Wisdom, in order to turn wildernesses into blossoming, life-giving terrains; in order to bring to mankind the fruits of peace, of social love, of human solidarity, of assurance of livelihood, of material prosperity, and of spiritual joy.
Thus Bahá’ís everywhere are advancing like armies, raising aloft the divine standards of Bahá’u’lláh, Who instructed the world of humanity through heavenly teachings and Who was the cause of human solidarity. “The teachings of His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh declare the oneness of the human world; they cause religion to be the foundation of union and accord in the world; become conducive to good fellowship between the children of men; conform religion with science and reason; take away political, religious and racial prejudice; uphold the doctrine of perfect equality between men and women; espouse the cause of an international auxiliary language; foster the universalization of education; readjust and equalize in the most
perfect manner the economic relations of the social structure; destroy totally the basis of hostilities and ill-will amongst mankind; constitute the five continents as one continent; suffer the various races of men to become as one race; rend asunder entirely the veils of superstition; reveal in the assemblage of humanity the Light of Truth; illumine the hearts with the ray of guidance; resurrect the spirits with the breath of the Holy Spirit; and baptize the souls with the water of eternal life, the fire of the love of God and the outpouring of the divine spirit.”
Continuing these thoughts in another instruction, ’Abdu’l-Bahá has said: “* * * Now is the beginning of a cycle of reality, a new cycle, a new age, a new century, a new time. * * * Material civilization should go hand in hand with spiritual civilization. * * * Man has two wings: his material development and power and his spiritual understanding and achievements, With one wing along he cannot fly-two wings are necessary. Therefore, no matter how the material civilization advances, without the spiritual great things cannot be accomplished.”
“It is self-evident that humanity is at variance. Human tastes differ; thoughts, nativities, races and tongues are many. The need of a Collective Center by which these differences may be counterbalanced and the people of the world be unified is obvious. Consider how nothing but a spiritual power can bring about this unification; for material conditions and mental aspects are so widely different that agreement and unity are not possible through outer means. It is possible, however, for all to become unified through one spirit, just as all may receive light from one sun. Therefore assisted by the Collective and Divine Center, which is the Law of God and the Reality of His Manifestation, we can overcome these conditions until they pass away entirely and the races advance.”
“Put away the garment of vainglory, and divest thyself of the attire of haughtiness.
“Free thyself from the fetters of this world, and loose thy soul from the prison of self.
“Wings have I bestowed upon thee, that thou mayst fly to the realms of mystic holiness and not to the regions of satanic fancy.
“Do ye know why We have created ye from one clay? That no one should glorify himself over the other. Since We created ye all from the same substance ye must be as one soul * * * that ye may manifest with your being and by your deeds and actions the signs of unity and the spirit of oneness.”-Bahá’u’lláh.
SPEAKING with scientific conservatism, man made his appearance on “this terrestrial ball” a hundred thousand years ago. Just as the new and unexpected element of growth transformed the mineral into the vegetable kingdom; just as the strange and novel appearance of the perception of space and of motion in it projected the animal kingdom into the world; so the capacity of utilizing the objects of space to open increasing avenues of escape from the domination of space characterizes, in one aspect at least, the status of man.
Those who have studied an observation apiary know that the moment the young bee escapes from its larval life, it begins with acute and definitive knowledge to pursue the life of the hive. It is not instructed by any other bee, receives no guidance or direction, and still with the same astounding intelligence of the oldest bees in the community (they are all marked to facilitate positive differentiation), this minute creature with its gigantic mental capacity carries forward the complex and heterogeneous duties of its civic life without a film of hesitation. “How superior to man!” we exclaim—“man, with his infantile helplessness, his ignorance of life’s purposes, his maladjustment to environment, his waste motion, his anti-social procedures! Has there not been indeed a deterioration rather than an advancement in life’s mental powers, when We contrast the assured order of this perfect mechanism of
insect life with the dislocated and disorderly processes of human development?”
But it is inconceivable that the bee could ever invent an instrument that would release it from personal application, thus enhancing its own limited functions. To create certain inanimate mechanisms that it could attach to the stamens of flowers, going twice a day to recover the work of something without any life or intelligence, which not only relieved the strain upon the individual, but gave him time for still further inventions and investigations, lies entirely outside the capacity of animal life.
The power to act upon nature and upon all the kingdoms below him, gives to man an enormous superiority and prestige. His cunning and skill for a hundred millenia have been greater than the bulk, strength, ferocity and deadliness of animal antagonists, and are today disintegrating, by the discovery of still higher laws, the vast and terrifying forces of nature. One small stone hurled from a sling enabled this puny being—man—to fell a creature twice his bulk and strength; a little feathered stick of wood projected from a taut sinew could kill a tiger. We can imagine in the timid heart of this hunted figure the slowly evolving realization of a power and domination that was making him, through quick-wittedness, subtle scheming and muscular dexterity, master over dinosaur, lion or elephant.
The realization grew by leaps and bounds. Ethnologists are generally agreed that a fundamental characterization of savage life is vanity, and we see no signs of its abatement in civilized man. All the mechanism of man’s mind is directed first and foremost to the maintenance of a sense of ecstatic superiority.
This superiority was never shared as a group consciousness. It was always a personal and individual superiority that received recognition, a superiority based upon competition, emulation, the abasement of others. Thus man’s great and added gift of invention assisted in producing the warped and futile worship of the ego. His ideal of life leapt quite away from the ideal of the apiary, an ideal of the common good, of social responsibility, social reciprocity and social equality, to an ideal of personal attainment.
Bahá’u’lláh says: “Although the Bounty of the Bountiful One is continual and free from interruption, yet for every time and age a certain portion is determined and a certain benefit ordained, and these are bestowed on man according to a certain quantity and measure.”
We cannot estimate the enormous benefits that have accrued to humanity through such contemptible attributes as fear and greed. For example: it was the former that perfected in the slinking, insignificant opponent of beast and of nature the increasingly effective instruments of combat that have released us for leisure which is fundamental to all culture; the latter has produced those magnificent organizations and institutions which, when man at last comes into the full stature of a true human consciousness, will be the indispensable means of producing, conserving, distributing and administering the resources and treasures of this earth for social rather than for personal ends.
But, apparently, the assets of a
personal approach to life are finally contributed, for the “quantity and measure” of individualism is becoming rapidly exhausted, because the past five centuries have dedicated themselves to the pitiless unmasking of man’s fictitious and rapturous exaltation of himself. The earth was stationary; the heavens and all the starry host moved about it, or angels hung out the constellations as ornaments to titillate the eye of man. The first blow to our self-aggrandizement came when Copernicus ruthlessly removed us from our vantage point of centrality and made us a third- or fourth-rate planet in a tenth-rate solar system.
Man was a separate creation that held sway over all the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air. The second great blow to our self-congratulation was administered by Darwin. Our physical origin was no more embellished and quite as ignominious and lowly as the primal ooze in which with quaint magnificence those microscopic heralds of life flung out their mighty and indomitable challenge to a material universe. The power of life to surpass and supplant matter is far deeper than intelligence, much closer to the roots of reality than the petty three-dimensional mind of man, itself a transcendant instrument formulated by life to assist life in its supreme adventure of lifting itself alike above physical barriers and the impudent limitations placed upon it by man’s ego.
Now comes the greatest blow of all, the discovery of the subconscious mind by the modern psychologists, that substratum of consciousness that is alike the seat and the insistent manipulator of man’s egotism. Those cunning devices which man invented to thwart the world of nature and circumvent the animal kingdom are crude and clumsy in comparison to the insidious and sinister mechanism produced by the subconscious mind
to further our egotistical pretensions and enhance our domination over the rival egos about us.
As the knowledge of its function and structure becomes more widespread and popular those ever-available resorts of the weak to attract attention to themselves—insomnia, hysteria, nervous instability, and all the weapons in the subconscious armory of people not naturally equipped to take a conspicuous and outstanding place in our glorious heartbreaking struggle here—all these are becoming valueless to promote the demand of the ego for greater attention and deeper appreciation, for as ordinary individuals come more and more to understand that the motive back of all human action, woven into the very fabric of the subconscious, is self-aggrandizement, such things will no longer call forth our pity and sympathy but will remain entirely futile.
As if this were not enough for the poor denuded Self of man, Bahá’u’lláh administers the coup de grace. It is the authoritative signature to a picture painted for the mind of man twenty-five hundred years ago by Gautama Siddartha, the Buddha. When He appeared in India that metaphysical conception that has permeated the hope of man and colored Christian belief was already well established, the conception of an eternal and indestructible ego, called in Brahminical philosophy the atman. The Blessed One said in effect to the great Hindu sages who consulted him: You have a wrong conception of the self; you look upon it as an independent agent performing certain actions; you believe that there is a thinker who thinks, a seer who sees, a hearer who hears. It is like supposing that there is a wind that blows, whereas the blowing is the wind; there is no separate agent back of the flower that has color, form and fragrance: the color, form and fragrance are the flower. There are
qualities and only qualities. When these qualities are expressed in certain modes and in certain effects they become the individual or the personality. All that really exists are these qualities, ever recurring, ever expressing themselves through the lives of segregated individuals.
The convergence of modern psychology toward this goal is arresting and convincing. Hebart, Fechner, Weber, Wundt, Ribot, McDowell, Watson, Koehl emphasize the fact that man is “a peculiar idiosyncrasy of psychic forms, a system of sensations, impulses and motor ideas but not a distinct entity, not a separate unit.”
Bahá’u’lláh puts the eternal visé of the Word of God on the teaching that the ego with all is vaulting vanities is not an ancient and preexistent fragment representing through its voluntary reunion with other egos a formal and interdependent universal life. He tells us that, though man’s essence is ancient, his consciousness of self begins in this earth life. The “I” does not represent a separate ego-consciousness possessing certain impulses, thoughts and aspirations: the reverse is true; there are certain preexistent qualities that finally acquire an ego-consciousness.
The stupendous force of life desiring to make a still more vigorous onslaught on those areas that must be brought into harmonious subjugation to the spiritual order of the universe, at last and as a final means of acquiring wider and more vigilant distribution, projects from its indivisible reality delicate antennae of little, separate living fibers down into a universe of materiality and beastiality which, having fulfilled their evolutionary purpose, must now be fitted to spiritual ends. Seeing only the separate antennae and not the unified, self-contained structure from which they emanate, mankind takes the appearance for the reality and has,
therefore, quite generally mistaken himself for a preexistent and specially created ego.
Bahá’u’lláh teaches that self-consciousness will continue forever; but self-consciousness and an indestructible ego are two entirely different metaphysical entities. He says that He has come to teach the birds of men’s souls a new flight. This, then, seems to be the “quantity and measure” for the new age: not the shaping of a moody and recalcitrant ego to a disciplined admission of others to its ancient rights and privileges, but the growing consciousness that just back of our immediate creation as individuals lies that uniform and inseparable reality in which the spirit of man is eternally embedded.
If we were true egos, selfishness would be the proper pursuit in life; it would be our duty and our purpose to prosper and to protect our rights. That we are not true selves is proven by the fact that every psychiatric case can be traced to some
fixation on the ego: too close a scrutiny of our selves leads inevitably to nervous and in many cases to mental disintegration. Casual psychological investigation shows that “any success (whatever its motive may be) is invariably based upon direct application to the work to be performed, joined to an utter neglect of all personal preferences, pleasures or considerations.”
Astronomy, biology, psychology, metaphysics and religion are helping us today to bury this primitive allegiance to a separate self and to prove that its resurrected spirit of primal unity, as taught by Bahá’u’lláh, can become a most alert and helpful servant in bringing into final solidarity all the scattered powers and forces of life. We are not, as in our blind egotism we have imagined, using these forces, they are using us; and only as we open our narrow personalities more widely to their use can the great triumphant plan of God express itself in human life.
unity of mankind which recognizes that all are sheltered beneath the overshadowing glory of the All-Glorious; that all are servants of one God; for all breathe the same atmosphere, live upon the same earth, move beneath the same heavens, receive effulgence from the same sun and are under the protection of one God. This is the most great unity, and its results are lasting if humanity adheres to it; but mankind has hitherto violated it, adhering to sectarian or other limited unities such as racial, patriotic or unity of self-interests; therefore no great results have been forthcoming. Nevertheless it is certain that the radiance and favors of God are encompassing, minds have developed, perceptions have become acute, sciences and arts are widespread and capacity exists for the proclamation and promulgation of the real and ultimate unity of mankind which will bring forth marvelous results.”
In the following chapter the author describes the origin and reality of man as sharing in all the planes of being. Later chapters will deal with man in his higher spiritual aspect, and the different methods of healing, material and spiritual.—Editor.
“Man should know his own self, and know those things which lead to loftiness or to baseness, to shame or to honor, to affluence or to poverty.”—Bahá’u’lláh.
MAN, the highest expression of life in the physical world, is not a simple organism existing on a plane of life peculiarly his own, but is, on the contrary, an exceedingly complex being, partaking of all planes and all kingdoms and, in addition, occupying a kingdom peculiar to himself.
His Holiness, Bahá’u’lláh, said:
“Ponder over the completeness of the creation of man: All these worlds and all these grades are developed and concealed in him. ‘Dost thou think thy body a small thing, while in thee is enfolded the universe?’ Then an effort is needed that we annihilate the animal condition, in order that the meaning of the human may become manifest.”
Again He said:
“All things of the world arise through man and are manifest in him, through whom they find life and development; and man is dependent for his (spiritual) existence upon the Sun of the Word of God.”
This splendid and tremendous statement is so revolutionary in its claim that, if true, which an enlightened mind cannot in the least degree doubt, puts not only the theories of theologians to shame, but also discloses immediately the childish theories of certain materialistic philosophers, who see man as a descent or an ascent from the animal kingdom through various animal species, including
the apes and other branches of that particular genus.
Man is not a result of an unreasoning, purposeless force coursing through the stream of eternity, through species upon species of animal existence. Nay, rather, man is the purpose of creation, and whether in the embryonic stage of undeveloped and unperfected organism, or as he is today, was and is–man.
The three-weeks’ foetus in the human matrix, with swollen head out of all proportion to its body, its fish-like gills or clefts, its immature eyes and peculiar vascular circulation, is as human as were our progenitors that roamed this planet in the Pliocene period or the glacial epochs.
From the theologians’ standpoint, too, that the creative and sustaining power is Love—Love that seeks to love and to be loved—would that Love create for its expression a pig or a baboon? Can a pig or a baboon, with unselfish, divine longing, turn again to that Source from which it sprang?
Nay, man is the purpose of creation, and all else is subservient thereto. Man, and man alone, can take on and build into his own nature the qualities and attributes of the Loving One, the Merciful One, the Architect of the Universe, its Sustainer and Provider.
The primeval stock, the first animal life then, was man. From that stock all animal life was evolved; and in man alone are found all the qualities of the kingdoms below the Spiritual Kingdom.
We find in man the fidelity of the
dog; the felinity of the tiger and cat; the ferocity of the wolf; the subtlety of the snake; the filth and greed of the hog. We see, also, the restlessness and unmorality of the monkey, and the songs of the birds. The wanderlust corresponds to the migratory instincts of the fowl, and the conjugal fidelity of the married state is found in the deer and the wild geese. Yet man is supreme, for in him is manifest a higher kingdom, a greater consciousness. The animal can never comprehend the power of reason. To the animal the sun will ever travel over the earth, and man, to the animal, must ever be its god.
The physical body of man is derived primarily from the mineral kingdom. In it we find by chemical analysis the eighteen elements necessary for its existence. Without the presence of oxygen, hydrogen, sulphur, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, etc., there could be no organic life. Out of the dust of this planet man is created, and at the end of his life cycle must these minerals return to the dust; thence, to be taken up in the eternal progression of life to be used again and again in repeating organisms of the vegetable and animal kingdoms.
We find, also, that man belongs to the vegetable kingdom. For ages, man’s digestive system has been named the vegetative tract, for as the plant draws its sustenance from the earth, so does man draw his mineral and organized food supplies from this vegetative system. The cellular life likewise absorbs its nutrient by a similar process to the vegetable.
That man is of the animal kingdom is a truism. The similarity of action and reaction, nutrition, reproduction, need no further comment. Man, however, is greater than the animal. In him are contained the superlative reasoning qualities by which he masters the elements. He rides in the air and passes through the depths of
the sea. He speaks through the limits of space. Out of the depths of the earth he produces new and beautiful arts. He unfolds the mysteries of nature. ’Abdu’l-Bahá so beautifully confirms this point of view. He said:
“In man five outer powers exist, which are the agents of perception; that is to say, through these five powers man perceives material beings. These are sight, which perceives visible forms; hearing, which perceives audible sounds; smell, which perceives odors; taste, which perceives foods; and feeling, which is in all parts of the body, and perceives tangible things. These five powers perceive outward existences.
“Man has, also, spiritual powers: imagination, which conceives things; thought, which reflects upon realities; comprehension, which comprehends realities; memory, which retains whatever man imagines, thinks, and comprehends. The intermediary between the five outward powers and the inward powers is the sense which they possess in common; that is to say, the sense which acts between the outer and inner powers conveys to the inward powers whatever the outer powers discern. It is termed the common faculty, because it communicates between the outward and inward powers.
“For instance, sight is one of the outer powers; it sees and perceives this flower, and conveys this perception to the inner power—the common faculty—which transmits this perception to the power of imagination, which in its turn conceives and forms this image and transmits it to the power of thought; the power of thought reflects, and having grasped the reality, conveys it to the power of comprehension; the comprehension, when it has comprehended it, delivers the image of the object perceived to the memory, and the memory keeps it in its repository.
“The outward powers are five: the power of sight, of hearing, of taste, of smell, and of feeling.
“The inner powers are, also, five: the common faculty, and the powers of imagination, thought, comprehension, and memory.”
Let us then bear in mind that man is of all kingdoms: human, animal,
vegetable, and mineral; and still further, in his essence he partakes of that unknown Kingdom whose qualities transcend the lower, and which must function in harmonious relationship with these lower kingdoms, if health, contentment, and the fullness of life are to be realized.
“Service is the magnet which attracts the heavenly strength.”—’Abdu’l-Bahá.
RABINDRANATH TAGORE reminds us in “Sadhana” that Life is like a road and may be regarded from two different points of view. We can imagine this road as merely dividing us from our goal, and so look upon the journey, with its hills and valleys, sharp turnings and surprises, as a surmounting of so many obstructions by force. Or we can consider it as the Way which leads us to our destination; the journey itself already the beginning of our attainment. It is the latter viewpoint which seems peculiarly applicable to one whose life, both metaphorically and literally, is spent upon roads. And also on one of those pathways of service which, stretching in all directions, are as many and varied as the characters and capacities of the pedestrians. But let me at once admit that, along his particular road of service, Mr. Charles Cole, of London, does not walk–but motors. The speed maintained, too, is a steady one, and can always be relied upon to “get one there” on the day and exact time promised, let the weather be fair or stormy, the going rough or smooth. And our friend knows a good road,
--PHOTO--
Mr. Charles Cole on “his road of service”
when it slips away beneath him, for he is no mere motorist, nor even a road-mender, but an engineer and maker of roads. An expert maker, too, as the multitude of drivers on a fine, new macadamized highway leading out of London, known as the Great West Road, and opened two years ago by His Majesty, the King, would gladly testify.
“The road-maker,” as Viscount Leverhulme remarked, “is one of the anonymous servants of humanity, for no one sees the ultimate usefulness of a road at the time it is constructed; yet generations of men travel over it with all their hopes and fears, with all their cares and joys, never once asking who it was that made their way easy for them. A
road-maker’s life is full of rich solitudes and invisible rewards.”
The roads most frequently traversed by our friend seem to run southward, from London to the busy port of Southampton, or through the lovely avenues of the New Forest to a tiny village on its borders. Thence across wide moorlands—in spring a sea of golden gorse, in autumn of purple heather—to Bournemouth Bay, and onward again to a Nursing Home and, Bahá'í Center at Broadstone. Those long avenues of forest trees, of sturdy oaks and ancient beeches which once rang to the music of the huntsman and the tang of the bow, and echo now to the alarms of the motorist and the whirl of flashing wheels, must, I am sure, often wave their overhanging branches in friendly greeting to the familiar broad shoulders and uncovered head of this modern centaur, when, looking as though he and the car were welded together, he sweeps beneath them every few weeks or so, year after year. And presently, if they are watching out, maybe they will see him returning, the automobile filled with the flushed faces of invalids, with Bahá’í friends in need of fresh air, or some tiny girl, who, bright-eyed with excitement, is perched beside the steering-wheel.
’Abdu’l-Bahá said that one of the signs by which we could know the Perfect Master is that “He must be a joy-bringer and a herald of the kingdom of happiness.” And one of the signs by which we can recognize a sincere follower is that he strives to become like his Master: “a remedy to every pain, a balsam of healing and recovery to every wound, to every weak one a support and aid, and a succor to every one that is poor.” And to weary minds and frail bodies, even the harsh hoot of a motor-horn
can sound a note of joy, and come as a thrice-blessed herald to hours of happiness and refreshment.
Seldom it is that Mr. Cole leaves or returns to London alone. Thus Bahá’í friends in town are often enabled to obtain a few days of change to sea or country, or travel elsewhere to serve the Cause. Certainly Bahá’ís in the Bournemouth district would have found it difficult to keep in touch with scattered members and so maintain their group had it not been for the fact that so constantly our friend was found to be “out upon his road.”
This beautiful highway of serving had a strange opening; not by any earthly monarch, but by that stern sovereign before whom we must all, at some time or other, bow our heads—Calamity. For a serious accident happened to Charles Cole, which, after much suffering, resulted in permanent injury to a foot. But “my calamity is my providence; outwardly it is fire and vengeance, yet inwardly naught but light and mercy.” And, in this case, it was destined to become a pleasant providence to others also. Because our friend, being essentially a man of action and believing in “fewness of words but abundance of deeds,” acquired a small motor car.
Loving increases the power to love, and serving the capacity and opportunity for service. This, translated into terms of an automobile, meant increasing engine power and seating accommodation. So that one is tempted to wonder “whereunto this thing will grow”!
But Mr. Cole does not limit his road, and so includes among his other activities membership of a Grand Masonic Lodge, and being a true lover of peace, acts as delegate to the League of Nations’ Union.
During the great coal strike of last
year he energetically did his bit by traveling with a notice on the wind-screen indicating his direction and willingness to give anyone a needed lift. So many a weary tramp experienced the pleasures of practical brotherhood, as he found himself joy-riding toward his destination—service “on the road” being nothing if not impartial and democratic.
But perhaps the strangest occupants the car has ever yet known consisted of a forlorn little family of five—father, mother, three children and a perambulator. They were found, one wet evening, huddled together at a railway station, disconsolate, homeless, and on their dreary way to a workhouse. But, alas! the trains were not running and a conveyance seemed out of the question. After some careful arrangement-for the automobile had not then attained its present dimensions—the family was packed in. But what to do with that perambulator! Only an engineer could, at last, have skillfully balanced it between the heads of the adults. Even to think of such misery and destitution as this family typifies would break one’s heart, did we not know that, at the end of their garden of hope flits the gleam and promise of a brighter, happier day when, “through the manifestation of God’s great equity, the poor of the world will be fully rewarded, so that in the future there will not be the abnormally rich nor the abject poor. * * * The rich shall enjoy his palace, but the poor also shall have his comfortable cottage. Divine justice shall be manifest and all humankind find comfort.”
And those of us who know something of the Great Plan which has been revealed by the Divine Constructor,
Bahá’u’lláh—the opening up of a new and noble Highway for the onward march of civilizations yet undreamed of-shall we not seek to become as Sadrat-el-Muntahas, (sign-posts of love and wisdom,) directing wandering wayfarers to this royal road?
The aspiration of Bahá’ís is to attain that kind of distinction defined by ’Abdu’l-Bahá in the following words:
“The Bahá’ís must be distinguished from others of humanity. But this distinction must not depend upon wealth—that they should become more affluent than other people. I do not desire for you financial distinction. It is not an ordinary distinction I desire—not scientific, commercial, industrial distinction. For you I desire spiritual distinction; that is, you must become eminent and distinguished in morals. In the Love of God you must become distinguished from all else. You must become distinguished for loving humanity; for unity and accord; for love and justice. In brief, you must become distinguished in all the virtues of the human world; for faithfulness and sincerity; for justice and fidelity; for firmness and steadfastness; for philanthropic deeds and service to the human world; for love toward every human being; for unity and accord with all people; for removing prejudices and promoting International Peace. Finally, you must become distinguished for heavenly illumination and acquiring the bestowals of God. I desire this distinction for you. This must be the point of distinction among you.”
This story of ’Abdu’l-Bahá’s visit in America is based on material and notes corrected by ’Abdu’l-Bahá Himself, and which He had turned over to Dr. Bagdadi at the time He was leaving this country. The twofold purpose of this series, which will continue for several months, is, in the words of the author, “First to bring back to the memory of the believers the time of the incomparable days of ’Abdu’l-Bahá’s visit to them and to remind them of His words, His instructions, and His admonitions; and, secondly, to give a picture of His visit so that later believers who did not have the blessing of seeing Him, may benefit by reading a brief history.”—Editor.
ON HIS arrival in Chicago, April 29, 1912, ’Abdu’l-Bahá went to the Plaza Hotel, where the rejoicing Bahá’ís and their friends had followed Him from the railroad station. “You have a beautiful city,” He said. “The divine call was first raised in this city. I am hopeful that in Chicago the Cause of God may obtain the highest efficacy. Just as this city is lighted with electric light, I hope that it may become lighted with the Light of the Kingdom.
“Many meetings, both large and small, were held in Washington. Night and day I had no rest. Unity was established between the white and colored people. Many became believers. Those who were not believers have become very near. Nevertheless, I like Chicago very much, for the call of Bahá’u’lláh was first raised in this city. I am hopeful that you may become confirmed in great services and that you may be in the utmost fellowship and love with each other.”
One of the believers asked for protection from tests and trials. “The most severe tests were in Persia,” said ’Abdu’l-Bahá. “When property was confiscated, the friends were made martyrs, and not for a single moment was there any safety of life.”
Turning to the friends, ’Abdu’l-Bahá said, “I was longing exceedingly for your meeting. Were it not for this longing, the favor of Bahá’u’lláh would not have been with us. When I boarded the boat at
Alexandria (Egypt) I was not feeling well.”
Looking from the window of His apartment in the Plaza Hotel, with Lincoln Park, Clark Street and North Avenue in full view, He said, “These buildings have beautiful views. The park, the streets and city lights can be seen.”
On April 30, 1912, the Bahá’ís of Chicago and newspaper reporters came to visit ’Abdu’l-Bahá. Later, He spoke at Hull House, founded by Miss Jane Addams. It was a real Inter-racial Amity meeting, for the large audience was composed of white and colored people. After the meeting, ’Abdu’l-Bahá noticed many children and unemployed laborers crowding and pushing each other to gain a glimpse of Him. He stood in their midst, and into each hand He dropped a quarter or half dollar.
In the evening, at a public meeting arranged by the Bahá’ís of Chicago at the Masonic Temple, ’Abdu’l-Bahá spoke of the significance of temples and the importance of the Bahá’í Temple—the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár.
On May 1, 1912, ’Abdu’l-Bahá dedicated the Bahá’í Temple grounds in the beautiful village of Wilmette, near Chicago. With an attractive trowel made of solid gold, handed to him by Miss Irene Holmes, ’Abdu’l-Bahá dug the earth to lay the corner stone. He then called on a few of the friends to dig more earth on behalf of different nations and countries, that they also might share in the blessed occasion
and be of those who were remembered. Dr. Ardeshir Iràni, formerly of India, but now residing in Washington, D. C., took the trowel in his hand and dug some of the earth on behalf of the Zoroastrian believers. Agha Sayid Assad’u’llah represented the Muhammadan Bahá'ís. This writer represented the Arabian Bahá’ís. Ghodsieh Ashraf represented the Oriental Bahá’í women. The corner stone finally was laid by ’Abdu’l-Bahá’s own hands.
There is a little history connected with this most favored stone. It is this: When the Temple grounds were bought, Hussein Mazloom, an old Persian Bahá’í, was living in Chicago. He was a hard-working man and could not speak or write a single word in English. But he felt that it was his duty to contribute something that might help the Temple. He had nothing but a pure heart and a sincere purpose, and these qualities inspired him to procure a stone with the hope that perhaps some day it might be included with others that would become a part of the foundation or walls of the Temple. So, with the help of Mrs. Nettie Tobin, of Chicago, a solid white stone was obtained, and Hussein Mazloom carried it on his shoulders and back, to the Temple grounds. But neither Hussein Mazloom, nor any one else, could have even dreamed that the stone was destined to be the corner stone of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkar, the first Bahá’í Temple in America, and that it would be laid by the hands of ’Abdu’l-Bahá with His eternal blessings upon it, and in the presence of an impressive gathering from the four corners of the earth. Such is the fruit of a sincere action and such is the reward for the pure in heart.
May 2, 1912, the Bahá’ís of Chicago and vicinity came to the Plaza Hotel very early in the morning, and this is what ’Abdu’l-Bahá said to them: “The reason for traveling such
a long distance and enduring hardships is for the ignition of light in the Occident, for in the Occidental countries there is great capacity. The inhabitants are not so much captives of imitations and superstitions. The high ideals can be rapidly spread. Today the greatest ideal is service to the world of humanity and universal peace.”
In the afternoon, ’Abdu’l-Bahá spoke at the Federation of Women’s Clubs, at Hotel La Salle, and also attended a reception held in His honor at the same hotel by the Bahá’í women of Chicago.
Later, one of the friends asked a question in regard to human capacity. “People have different capacities,” said ’Abdu’l-Bahá. “In some persons capacity is obtained entirely from natural powers. This expression and appearance of natural capacity is dependent upon education and is subordinate to man’s own efforts; that is to say, natural capacity without human education and efforts cannot appear perfectly and its perfection depends upon efforts and training. The highest expression of man’s capacity is, however, obtained through the training of the Divine Teacher of the world of humanity.”
Another friend asked about association with the wicked or evil-doers. “These are of two kinds,” explained ’Abdu’l-Baha, “one kind where the harm returns to the evil-doer himself, and he is not an assailant. Undoubtedly such an evil-doer must be awakened and trained with wisdom. He is sick; he must be cured. But the other kind, whose menace reaches others, and when association with such a person becomes the cause of immorality—in this case association with such a person is not permissible, except for those who are able to stop, train and win him, and as much as possible strive to improve his morals and uplift his character; otherwise, appeal should be made to the
Centers of Justice to protect human society from the menacing deeds of such persons. In the Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, too, association with all the people of different religions and the recognition of the oneness of mankind is enjoined; but also association with the wicked is prohibited, and it is shown how it is necessary to be careful of the deniers and negative people.”
On May 3, 1912, the Hindus of Chicago, most of them university students, were welcomed by ’Abdu’l-Bahá at the Plaza Hotel. Dr. J. F. C. King accompanied the boys and became a Bahá’í. As a dentist, Dr. King is very successful and he is still residing in Chicago.
One of the friends asked about the time when the Mashriqu’l-Adhkar would be built. “I am not going to discuss the matter of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkar (the Bahá’í Temple),” ’Abdu’l-Bahá replied. “It concerns the (National) Spiritual Assembly. If I have to say anything about it, it must be built immediately.”
On May 4, 1912, ’Abdu’l-Bahá spoke at the Plymouth Congregational Church; and from there He went to the home of the minister, Dr. Ford, where a luncheon was prepared for Him. In the afternoon He spoke to the Theosophical Society at Northwestern University Hall.
To an inquirer about the future of the Orient, ’Abdu’l-Bahá replied, “It cannot progress except through an ideal power and the Divine Cause. Every Divine Manifestation was sent to a people and country that outwardly never had any chance for safety and prosperity. But because they came under the protection of the Divine Cause, they even surpassed all civilized countries. Today, every nation and country that raises the banner of the oneness of the world of humanity, and comes under the protection of this Divine Power, in
the end it shall become the leading power of the world.”
To another inquirer who wished to know the difference between the Bahá’í religion and other religions, ’Abdu’l-Bahá said: “From a fundamental standpoint, the foundation of all religions is one, and all are built on Truth. That is why there is no difference among the Founders of religions and Divine religions as regards the spiritual side of Their message and the spiritual laws which They teach. But the accessories of religion; that is to say, the laws that deal with transactions and small matters—this branch of religion—the outer laws—being dependent upon the exigencies of time and place, must be changed or readjusted in every age.”
To another who inquired about the existence of evil and unhappy things, ’Abdu’l-Bahá said, “In the world of existence and creation, there is no evil. Nay, rather, evil is the absence of good, even as darkness is the absence of light. Change and transformation is an essential requirement of the world of creation, for if change and transformation does not exist, then there can be no composition and growth. And because change, transformation and disintegration are necessary, the opposites have to exist, but in reality there are no opposites. Just as in the sphere of the sun there is no darkness, nor does it have an East or West, yet night, day, light and darkness are of the requirements of this world.”
Then ’Abdu’l-Bahá arose and went to the cemetery. He prayed at the grave of David True, the only son of Mrs. Corinne True, who just a few moments before passing away, opened his eyes, and seeing ’Abdu’l-Bahá at his bedside, he whispered, “O ’Abdu’l-Bahá! I love you! I love you!”
From there ’Abdu’l-Bahá went to All Souls’ Church, where He spoke;
--PHOTO--
’Abdu’l-Bahá with a group of Bahá’í children in Chicago, gathered for a special meeting
and later lunched at the home of Dr. Milburn, the minister.
May 5, 1912, was the day of farewell. Early in the morning all the Bahá’í children of Chicago and their parents filled the large parlor of the Plaza Hotel. None but those who have seen ’Abdu’l-Bahá and witnessed His great love for children and the great love of the children for Him, could ever describe the purity and fragrance of the atmosphere of His meeting with the children, for whenever and wherever there were children, ’Abdu’l-Bahá would go to them and they would come to Him. Yea, even nursing babies knew Him by His peerless personality and also by His unique and resonant voice, calling them, “O my baby! My good baby! My sweet baby!” For one of His countless divine qualities was the quality of incomparable generosity and philanthropy. He was always prepared to meet and please His
visitors, be they high or low, children or poor. And aside from being the treasure of knowledge and wisdom and the ocean of all things of the spirit, ’Abdu’l-Bahá always kept Himself well supplied with material things to bestow upon those who went to Him. Flowers, candy, money, clothing, protection, comfort, etc.; but these were for distribution among the friends and the needy and everybody else but Himself.
After welcoming the children and giving them flowers and candy, ’Abdu’l-Bahá spoke to them as follows: “According to what His Holiness Christ has said, you are the children of the Kingdom, and according to what His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh has said, you are the candles of the world of humanity, for your hearts are in the utmost purity and your souls are in the utmost sanctity. You are not entangled with this world; and like unto a mirror, your hearts are
clean and polished. Your fathers and mothers must educate you with greatest tenderness, and teach you the highest morals and ideals. So that in the utmost perfection you may be imbued with the virtues of the world of humanity. May you progress in all degrees, study sciences and arts, become the manifestations of eternal blessings and the means of great advancements.”
Then ’Abdu’l-Bahá addressed the parents and all the Bahá’ís of Chicago. “I am going away, but you must arise to serve the Word of God. Your hearts must be pure and your intentions sincere in order that you may become recipients of the divine bestowals. Consider that although the sun shines equally upon all things, yet in the clear mirror its reflection is most brilliant, but not so in the black stone. This great effulgence and heat have been produced by the crystal clearness of the glass. If there were no clearness and purity these effects would not be witnessed. Should rain fall upon salty, stony earth, it will never have effect; but when it falls upon good pure soil, green and verdant growth follows and fruits are produced.
“This is the day when pure hearts have a portion of the everlasting bounties, and sanctified souls are being illumined by the eternal manifestations. Praise be to God! you are believers in God, assured by the Word of God and turning to the Kingdom of God. You have heard the Divine call. Your hearts are moved by the breezes of the paradise of Abha. You have good intentions, your purpose is the good pleasure of God. You desire to serve in the Kingdom of the Merciful One. Therefore, arise in the utmost power. Be in perfect unity. Never become angry with one another. Let your eyes be
directed toward the kingdom of truth and not toward the world of the creatures. Love the creatures for the sake of God and not for themselves. You will never become angry when you love them for the sake of God. Humanity is not perfect. There are imperfections in every human being and you will always become unhappy if you look toward the people themselves. But if you look toward God you will love them and be kind to them, for the world of God is the world of perfection and mercy. Therefore do not look at the shortcomings of anybody; see with the sight of forgiveness. The imperfect eye beholds imperfections. The eyes that cover faults look toward the Creator of souls. He created them, trains and provides for them, endows them with capacity and life, sight and hearing; therefore they are the signs of His grandeur. You must love and be kind to everybody, care for the poor, protect the weak, heal the sick, teach and educate the ignorant.
“It is my hope that the unity and harmony of the friends in Chicago may be the cause of the unity of the friends throughout America and that all people may become recipients of their love and kindness. May they be an example for mankind. Then the confirmations of the Kingdom of Abha and the bestowals of the Sun of Reality will be all-encircling.”
Before leaving Chicago for Cleveland, ’Abdu’l-Bahá spoke in All Souls’ Church, Lincoln Center. And that was another real Inter-racial Amity Meeting.
Among the noted persons who became Bahá’ís through ’Abdu’l-Bahá at that time were Mr. and Mrs. Albert R. Vail and Dr. and Mrs. William F. Slater.
(To be continued)
“History informs us that every age has its special ties which bind the people together; but the strongest tie of all ages, the unbreakable tie which binds the hearts together, is the tie of true religion. There is no agency on this planet more potent than the power of religion.”—’Abdu’l-Bahá.
DOES the world today need more religion, a renewal of religion? Serious and sincere people answer this question in two ways. The present leaders in Russia consider religion a menace to the advancement of the nation, and many in China are seeing in Christianity an obstacle to a realization of their nationalistic aims. In every country we find the exploited lower classes looking upon established religion as one means which the more fortunate classes use to keep themselves entrenched in their comfortable positions. Even so eminent a philosopher and so sincere a well-wisher of humanity as Bertrand Russell believes that religion must be entirely done away with before we can have a truly just and ethical world. Many agree with him. Others just as sincere believe that the world needs a great religious or spiritual revival. This divergence of view is due, in part at least, to entirely different conceptions as to what religion is. To the average young person and to many older ones it is something narrow and enslaving, something which deprives them of freedom and fills them with prejudice. Only the other day a good friend said, speaking of her fifteen-year-old daughter: “Religion is repellant to Joan. To her it means narnowness and prejudice. She gets her idea of religion from a few families in the community who somewhat ostentatiously study their Bibles and remain away from church because the minister does not believe as they do.” To such, dogmatic belief is the ultimate criterion in religion, indeed, belief is religion.
Now there are others who think that church attendance is religion or that supporting the church is religion. Still others satisfy their consciences by an occasional gift to charity. Some believe that going through regular forms of prayer and penance makes them religious, and some hold that fasting and miracles make up religion. It is because to so many religion has come to mean creeds, dogmatism, formalism, endless disputes, quarrels and even war and the taking of human life, that we find sincere people going so far as to say that religion is the cause of corruption in the world.
Just now in the history of the world, as in the time of Christ, we have come to a period when dogma and ceremony and outward form have almost completely taken the place of true worship and sincere spirit. This kind of religion is indeed a bar to advancement and reform, as was shown in the recent controversy at Dayton, Tennessee. Such occurrences make it plain why those who see nothing but the disastrous results of decadent religion believe that we must somehow get along without any religion.
Christ condemned empty forms in no uncertain words: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe mint and anise and cummin and have forgotten the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith; but these ought ye to have done and not to have left the other undone.” Christ did not condemn the outward forms, but
showed how worse than meaningless they are, unless they go hand in hand with the true heart that practices “mercy and justice and faith.” Christ showed His followers not a set of dogmas but a way of life and back of this way of life a firm belief in God.
Just as Christ and all the great religious teachers have made plain the true foundation for right living, so Bahá’u’lláh and ’Abdu’l-Bahá have again revealed the “essential foundation or reality of religion” and it in no way differs from Christ’s declaration that the first great commandment is this, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind,” and that the second is like unto it, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” In the short daily prayer given to us by Bahá’u’lláh He has taught us to say, “I bear witness, O Lord my God! that Thou hast created me to know Thee and to adore Thee. I testify at this moment to my weakness and to Thy Might, to my poverty and Thy Wealth. There is none other God but Thee, the Protector, the Self-subsisting.”
Hidden in these words is a complete philosophy of life and a way of life, two things that the most thoughtless need and the thoughful crave. What is the meaning of life and how shall we best live to fulfill this meaning? Two opposite aspects of man are implied in these three sentences—his power and his impotence. It seems arrogant indeed for man to assume that he, the creature, can know the Creator, and therefore it is fitting that as we pray we add testimony to our own weakness and poverty. However little or much we accomplish in this great quest of knowing and adoring God, it is God’s gift to us, His bestowal. “All creatures are dependent upon God, however great may seem
their knowledge, power and independence.”
God has bestowed such wonderful gifts and powers upon man that the very possession of these powers tempts him to disregard the source and to neglect to use the greatest gift of all—the ability to search for and find God.
“Without the help of God man is even as the beasts that perish, but God has bestowed such wonderful power upon him that he might ever look upward and receive His Divine Bounty. But alas! man is not grateful for this supreme good, but sleeps the sleep of negligence, being careless of the great Mercy which God has shown toward him, turning his face away from the light and going on his way in darkness.”
The short prayer referred to hints at another answer as to why there is disagreement in regard to the value of religion in making a better world. Those who find no value in religion hold that man by his own power is able to make indefinite progress in producing a better culture, better government, higher ethical standards. The true religionists believe that the great Prophets who have founded religions have been the Educators of man, leading him to God and that only through these Educators has progress in civilization come into the world.
But to return to the study of the short prayer: “Thou hast created me to know Thee and to adore Thee.” How can we know God, for that is the first step? Surely the finite cannot grasp the infinite. In his essence and entity we cannot know Him. The sun we know by its attributes—its heat and its light. Even a little flower which we can hold in our hands, can pluck and pull apart, we know only by its form, its appearance, its fragrance. We can shatter
it and pull it apart, but who can put it together again?
- “Little flower—but if I could
- understand
- What you are, root and all, and
- all in all,
- I should know what God and man
- is.”
So the finite mind knows God by His attributes. ’Abdu’l-Bahá says: “How then can the reality of man, which is accidental, ever comprehend the Reality of God, which is eternal? It is self-evidently an impossibility. Hence we can observe the traces and attributes of God which are resplendent in all phenomena and shining as the sun at mid-day, and know surely that these emanate from an infinite source. We know they come from a source that is infinite indeed.”
But if complete intellectual comprehension of God is barred from us by our human limitations, if “the way is closed, and seeking is forbidden,” this does not mean that man may not progress indefinitely toward this knowledge as in all knowledge. “The virtues of humanity and the possibilities of human advancement are boundless. There is no end to them, and whatever the degree to which humanity may attain, there are always degrees beyond.”
Nor does it mean that there are not other ways in which we may approach and learn of God. Christ said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” And again: “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” In the “Words of Wisdom” Bahá’u’lláh gives us these words: “The source of all learning is the knowledge of God, exalted be His Glory, and this cannot be attained save through the knowledge of His Divine Manifestation.” In order to know God we must know God’s Manifestation.
To the Christian this means to know Christ, the Muhammadan, to know Muhammad. To the Bahá’í it means to reverence all the great Prophets—Muhammad, Moses, Christ, Buddha and the others and to know them all revealed again in Bahá’u’lláh, the great Master, Whose appearance in the latter day was prophesied by all the former Prophets, and Who brought the great message to Persia and to the world about seventy years ago. The Manifestation of God, ’Abdu’l-Bahá tells us, is like a clear and polished mirror reflecting the qualities and attributes of God. “In the Manifestation of God, the perfectly polished mirror,” He says, “appear the qualities of the Divine in a form that man is capable of comprehending.” Christ’s followers learn to know Him through the account of His life and teachings given us in the Gospels, through the lives of others who reflect His life in theirs, through prayer and meditation. By these same means we know Bahá’u’lláh, but the record of His life and teachings is full and complete, and ’Abdu’l-Bahá, His son, has continued His teachings and interpreted them for us in His own life and writings. So we have most abundant means for knowing the Manifestation of God in this day.
Moreover, as we strive for the knowledge of God we must not forget that all true knowledge leads to God. God is knowledge as well as power and love. “The source of all knowledge is the knowledge of God.” If our aim is right and our heart humble we shall advance in our progress toward the knowledge of God, in all our study which has for its object the understanding of the mysteries of science, of the nature of the mind, of arts, all that has to do with the real progress of mankind. But if we make the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh and ’Abdu’l-Bahá the basis of this
study we shall progress much more rapidly. “The teachings of Bahá’u’lláh are boundless and without end in their far-reaching benefit to mankind,” ’Abdu’l-Bahá tells us. Bahá’u’lláh teaches that ignorance is debasing, and universal education is one of the aims of the Bahá’í teachings. ’Abdu’l-Bahá praises the study of science very much: “Science ever tends to the illumination of the world of humanity. It is the cause of eternal honor to man.” It is the true balance between spiritual knowledge and intellectual knowledge that these Educators wish us to seek, and they ever urge us to understand that spiritual knowledge is fundamental. It is easy to let our knowledge in the world of matter and in the world of the intellect become a substitute for knowledge in the spiritual realm. Knowing God in the spiritual sense quickens all our capacities and opens our minds for all knowledge. Bahá’u’lláh gives the true balance in these words: “The progress of man depends upon faithfulness, wisdom, chastity, intelligence and deeds. He is ever degraded by ignorance, lack of faith, untruth and selfishness. Verily man is not called man until he be imbued with the attributes of the Merciful. He is not man because of wealth and adornment, learning and refinement.”
What is it to worship God and how shall He be worshipped? Shall we join others in attending church and join in prayer and praise? These are good just so far as our spirits and hearts are sincere, but if we do not carry the praise into our daily lives it is mere hypocrisy.
We must make our whole lives an act of worship. ’Abdu’l-Bahá tells us that work performed in the right spirit is worship. “In the Bahá’í cause arts, sciences, and all crafts are counted as worship. The man Who makes a piece of note paper to
the best of his ability, conscientiously concentrating all his forces on perfecting it, is giving to God. Briefly, all effort and exertion put forth by man in the fullness of his heart is worship, if it is prompted by the highest motives and the will to serve humanity. This is worship: to serve mankind and to minister to the needs of the people. Service is a prayer. A physician ministering to the sick, gently, tenderly, free from prejudice, and believing in the solidarity of the human race, is giving praise.”
“True reliance is for the servant to pursue his profession and calling in this world, to hold fast unto the Lord. * * *”
But the question arises, are we able to link up our whole lives with service to God? Are not some things essentially secular and others essentially religious? Someone once asked Mirza Abu’l-Fadl, one of the great Persian Bahá’í teachers, “If all souls’ thoughts were entirely given to holy thoughts of God, what would become of the world from a commercial standpoint?”
His illuminating answer follows in part: “Love, faith, and being filled with the will of God are not contradictory to the temporal affairs that man has to attend to–that is, we can be filled with the love of God and at the same time look after our worldly life and pursuits which are necessary to guarantee our social welfare and prosperity, etc.—though in the beginning it is difficult for us to realize this in ourselves, yet this can become feasible and practical, if we obey the ordinances of God.”
He further says: “Endeavor that man may reach such a point that nothing of this world can prevent him from the love of God, to such an extent that if he goes to sleep he
may have God in his thought, if he engages in trade or temporal occupation, he may do it for the purpose of benefiting his fellow men; and if he walks he may walk to perform that which is best for the people of the world, and that the more he increases in spirituality, the more he may learn about the well-management of his affairs. Man must love the world and all the people therein for the sake of its Maker.”
In all ages there have been those illumined souls who have seemed naturally and easily to live the life of the spirit while engaged in their daily duties. Such a one was Brother Lawrence, a humble Carmelite monk, who, he told an earnest inquirer, was so filled with the consciousness of God that the most menial duties in the monastery kitchen which had formerly been distasteful to him were fulfilled with joy and happiness. “The time of business with me,” said he, “does not differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clutter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquillity as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.”
But someone further questions, Can we not live the good life, be kind and full of benevolent deeds, without any definite consciousness of God? We know at least a few people whose life is one of service and even sacrifice who disclaim any religious motive, any consciousness of the life of the spirit.
’Abdu’l-Bahá being asked what need such people have of divine teaching replied:
“Know that such actions, such efforts and such words are praiseworthy and approved and are the glory of humanity. But these actions alone are not sufficient; they
are a body of greatest loveliness but without spirit. No; that which is the cause of everlasting life, eternal honor, universal enlightenment, real salvation and prosperity, is first of all the knowledge of God. It is known that the knowledge of God is beyond all knowledge, and it is the greatest glory of the human world, for, in the existing knowledge of the reality of things there is material advance, and through it outward civilization progresses; but the knowledge of God is the cause of spiritual progress and attraction, and through it the perception of truth, the exaltation of humanity, divine civilization, rightness of morals, and illumination are obtained.”
And further He says: “In the same way, when a person performs a good action, although it is praiseworthy, if it is not caused by the love and knowledge of God, it is imperfect. Moreover, if you reflect justly, you will see that these good actions of other men who do not know God are also fundamentally caused by the teachings of God; that is to say, that the former Prophets led men to perform these actions, explained their beauty to them, and declared their splendid effects; then these teachings were diffused among men and reached them successively, one after the other, and turned their hearts toward these perfections. When men saw that these actions were considered beautiful, and became the cause of joy and happiness for mankind, they conformed to them. Wherefore these actions come from the teachings of God. But justice is needed to see this, and not controversy and discussion.”
Is this life of the spirit, this search for the knowledge of God, so serious that it may become dull, so weighty that it may burden us? One of the characteristics of the New Age
that we are entering when true religion will be the real basis of life, is that we shall consider it the natural thing. We shall not excuse wrong-doing by saying that it is natural. The good life, the spiritual life, the life that links the spiritual and the material in perfect balance, will be the natural and joyous life, as it is already with many people. To talk and think of God’s guidance, of prayer and the love of God, will be the natural thing. This is already evident in the lives of some children who have been brought up in the Bahá’í faith. To them prayer and keeping close to God are the natural things.
Does all this seem too much like reducing a wonderful soul experience
to a rule? This inner knowledge of God, so cherished by those who possess it, so longed for by the earnest soul, can this be acquired by a rule, by following a formula? No; but we may be started in our search and the way pointed out by those who have traveled it. Somewhere along that way the great experience will come.
What then is the meaning of life and what way must we walk to find that meaning?
“Thou hast created me to know Thee and to adore Thee. I testify at this moment to my weakness and to Thy Might, to my poverty and to Thy Wealth. There is none other God but Thee, the Protector, the Self-subsisting.”
The Tablet (or letter) quoted herein by Mrs. Wagner was written by ’Abdu’l-Bahá to an American Bahá’í at a time when His own imprisonment of over forty years came to an end through the Turkish revolution of 1908. The story of this imprisonment is a dramatic one.—Editor.
THE following is a Tablet written by ’Abdu’l-Bahá while He was still a prisoner of the Turkish Government, the vilest prison, doubtless, upon the earth for many years:
“Of My freedom thou hast expressed great joy. I am free, although I should remain in prison. All fortresses and castles shall not confine Me, and the dungeon cannot bring Me under the narrow bondage of this world.
“The Spirit is ever soaring, even if the body be in the depths. What can these ignorant creatures do? They might imprison the body, but the Spirit they cannot; the Spirit will ever soar in the atmosphere of eternal bliss and glory. Therefore, neither the prison is a cause of sorrow nor freedom from it a source of joy.
“When thou findest the Way to the Kingdom, the earthly world will be of no account, and when thou art illumined the darkness will not affect thee; nay, rather, the four corners of the earth will then be radiant, and every thorn will become a rose and a rose-garden.”
Bahá’u’lláh, the Father of ’Abdu’l-Bahá, was forty years a prisoner of the Persian and Turkish Governments and died a prisoner. ’Abdu’l-Bahá, the Son, shared His Father’s imprisonment from the time He was nine years of age, and for sixteen years after His Father passed away-fifty-six years all told. And yet He could say, “There is no prison but the prison of the self!” He also said, at one time, that it was the freedom of the world outside that kept Him in prison. In other words, it is the
freedom of the people to do as they please, to follow their own lustful desires, that imprisons Messengers of God and causes Them to be sacrificed. But through that sacrifice the thinking people gain a new vision of life and humanity is lifted from the quagmires of self and of passion, and a New Day dawns. It was this that made ’Abdu’l-Bahá happy in prison, knowing that through the sacrifice He was making generations to come would be blessed.
’Abdu’l-Bahá was constantly preaching “radiant acquiescence,” which is another term for non-resistance of evil made joyful, which Jesus taught. He said, “All great movements have advanced through altruism, selflessness and self-sacrifice, and not through the interchange of public opinion.” In other words, the regeneration of the world will not come about by men getting together and saying, “Let us have it so and so,” for immediately they will begin to quarrel—one thinks it should be one way, another person thinks it should be another way.
No, the peace and happiness of the world will be brought about by a spiritual regeneration, by a changing of the hearts, for when the hearts are right, people will do right. All the religions of the past (not excepting Christianity) are like trees that
have grown old and ceased to be prolific. They have produced all the fruit possible for that time. Now then, if we want fruit, we must go to a New Tree, but this New Tree is the same in essence and spirit as the old, just as the spirit which was in Jesus was the same as that in Moses and all the Prophets who preceded Him, only His teachings were adapted to at later generation ever increasing in spirit and power. Did He not say, “I came not to destroy but to fulfill?” Also He said to His disciples, “I have many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now; howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into All Truth.”
It is that Spirit of All Truth which is manifest in the world today, and “he who runs may read.” “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come, buy and eat, without money and without price.”
We know that wrongdoing is rampant all over the earth, but God is not asleep, and He has set in motion upon the earth today those spiritual forces which will make of this old earth what Jesus saw it would become when He gave us that prayer, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
like a mirror wherein the Sun of Reality is reflected. The perfections, the image and light of that Sun have been revealed in the mirror; its heat and illumination are manifest therein, for that pure soul is a perfect expression of the Sun.
These mirrors are the Messengers of God Who tell the story of divinity just as the material mirror reflects the light and disc of the outer sun in the skies. In this way the image and effulgence of the Sun of Reality appear in the mirrors of the Manifestations of God.”
Peace Conferences and all accredited Peace Movements with their constructive programs for the promotion of good will among nations, are helpful in creating the will toward peace. Only one thing, however, can actually accomplish Peace, namely, the spiritualization of mankind, the purifying of motives and the acceptance of the divine laws of this age for the accomplishmient of Universal Peace and Brotherhood. ’Abdu’l-Bahá said in May, 1915, that after the war which was raging then “the workers for the cause of Universal Peace would increase day by day.”—Editor.
TEN years ago, when public buildings were decked with flags, those of several nations were most obviously missing. From May the 6th to May 11th Cleveland’s great public auditorium housed the World Conference on International Justice under the leadership of the American Peace Society. It was a centennial celebration. From every flag-pole an ensign fluttered. This time there were none missing. In the fresh lake breezes the colors of all nations spoke of the effort in progress to promote the cause of international justice.
On the stage, the first night, stood the Ambassadors of Great Britain, France and Germany, also Norway’s representative.
War was stripped of its glory and shown in all its ugliness. The universal clamor for peace that hourly arises from so many hearts and which will not be stilled, was voiced in powerful phrases.
President Coolidge, after expressing regret that he could not attend the Conference, sent the following message, addressed to Congressman Theodore E. Burton, President of The American Peace Society:
“The influence which this (American Peace) society has exerted, now for 100 years, in behalf of international peace, has been of great importance to humanity. Fortunately, during that period, our own country has been involved in but three foreign
wars, two of which did not impose upon us very serious consequences. It must be recognized that this has been due in part to the conditions which surround us, but it also must be admitted that it would not have been possible but for the peaceful attitude of our Government and our people.
“I feel certain that the Conference which the society is now holding, by bringing together representatives of the people of our own country and of foreign nations, will be helpful in promoting a better understanding and a more cordial relationship which will be of great value to humanity.
“I wish especially to commend the constant and effective efforts which you have never failed to put forth in the promotion of the peace of the world. I wish you would extend to the Conference my congratulations and best wishes.”
Sir Esme Howard, British Ambassador, emphasized the real meaning of war: “If we can prove to a man,” he said, “the ordinary man, the inhabitant of Main Street, that if his country goes to war for any issue short of its absolute liberty of action at home, and in defense of that liberty, he will in the future stand a very good chance of being bombed in his home in Main Street—
“If we can show him that even though his country may be victorious,
he will certainly have his taxes increased by two, three, four or five hundred per cent, and may well–owing to a fall in the value of the currency-see his income reduced by half or more—
“If we can make it clear to him that, for the sake of some issue to which he is probably an entire stranger and of which he does not understand the A B C, he risks having to give up that new Ford car next month, or the radio his wife had set her heart on, or even worse, that he may very probably be thrown out of work and his wife and children reduced from comfort to poverty such as has been the fate of millions in Europe—
“Then perhaps the dweller in Main Street may find war less pleasingly dramatic, poetic and thrilling, and may bestir himself to see that as a means of settling disputes between nations it is better abandoned.”
And from M. Paul Claudel, Ambassador of France: “Your society for many years has dedicated its steady and powerful effort to the commendation and establishment of peace among nations, and during many years the only answer was the flashing of guns and the hurrah of marching armies.
“But today another answer is coming to you. It is only a whisper, but it is a whisper which is breathed from every point of the compass. It is only a word, but after all everything in the world has begun by words, and we know that a Word was the beginning of everything. It is only a few signs on a piece of paper, but after all a piece of paper is worth something when it is used to record the Declaration of Independence and ‘la Declaration des Droits de l’Honneur.’”
Baron Friederich von Prittwitz und Gaffron, German Ambassador,
expressed these trenchant thoughts: “The great idea of meeting the calamity of war by application of justice and law has long moved the best minds of the German people. Ever since the times of Immanuel Kant, whose famous treatise on ‘Eternal Peace’ opened new ways on this field of thought, our leaders in philosophy, political economy and politics have not ceased to demand that in the relations between peoples arbitrary force should be replaced by the rule of law.
“As opposed to such endeavor the bloodshed of the last European war would seem to have proven definitely that humanity did not want peace. In truth, however, that great catastrophe has, more than any other happening, roused in the hearts of millions the yearning for justice.
“Death, misery, famine and devastation have spoken in unambiguous terms; slowly, but irresistibly the doctrine of justice forged its way. To fight for this lofty power and to pave the way for its victory through practical work, to which the American Peace Society has consecrated its activities, is the high aim. The American Peace Society may be assured that the German people welcome its work with deep sympathy and with the cordial will of cooperation.
“It seems to me worth mentioning that those who actually fought in the war look at it ever more as one common experience and are also aiming at the establishment of peace as a goal common to all human beings. We talk so often of preparedness in all fields of human enterprise, but little is said of preparedness for peace.”
The Ambassador had been reading the lives of eminent Americans, the better to understand the country to which he is accredited, and he turned to Lincoln’s Cooper Union speech for
a slogan for the work of preparing for peace.
“‘Let us have faith that right makes might!’” he quoted, and continued: “A lasting peace can be established only by the triumph of justice. Only if peaceful methods are arrived at of settling all disputes that have led to wars in the past can war be averted.”
Dr. Fridtjof Nansen, Norway’s representative, vigorously denounced war, and part of his cogent address follows: “Our generation was brought up with the idea of evolution, which taught that the human race is continually developing and making progress,” he said. “But can we say with any confidence today that the white race is making progress, or that the character of man today is above that of his Stone Age ancestors? Alas, we cannot!
“The test should be control of ourselves, and the peoples’ control of themselves, and in this respect they have not much improved. Individuals have improved, but when individuals are combined in groups there has been no improvement. The nations have little character. They are still beasts of prey, and the virtues of generosity and good will toward neighbors, which characterize the individual, are not honored among them.
“The individual who lies and steals is put in jail. Yet if you do these things for your country it is altogether admirable and you are ranked in the forefront of the patriots. So long as we have this double-entry bookkeeping there can be little hope of peace.
“Can you imagine anything more absurd, more unreasonable, more Wicked than that grown-up people, with their eyes open, should desire to kill each other, to annihilate each
other, and do it with their best science and their best brains?”
“Civilizations have been destroyed in the past and there is no guarantee whatever that they will not be destroyed in the future,” Dr. Nansen said. And then he drew the grewsome picture of the end results of war as he found them as a commissioner for the League of Nations in attempting to heal some of the wounds of the last conflict.
He told of the horrors of Siberian prison camps in which men were still being detained a year and a half after the war, of the famine in Russia in which millions died, but not before they had turned to cannibalism, of the persecution of the Armenians.
“These are the effects of war,” he said, “which turns human beings into beasts. I tell you all this to show you how ardently, passionately, I am against war. The scars of the last war have not yet healed; some have not begun to heal. I am convinced the white race will not stand the shock of another. Even if another war were like the last it certainly would wipe us out, yet it will be incomparably worse.”
Brief excerpts from other important addresses at the Conference follow: Rabbi A. H. Silver—“What is taking place in Cleveland this week is, to me, much more than the centennial celebration of the American Peace Society. It is indicative of the gathering momentum of the will to peace that ultimately will destroy war.
“But I am no romanticist. I do not think we have seen the last war, for there is still too much racial and national antipathy in the world. Yet I believe the philosophy of war has been exploded and that this century will find the formula that will give the nations security without
the need of armaments, and justice without resort to war.
“The whole war myth has been exploded, and today the war sentiment can be stimulated only by artificial means. War has been found to be a curse to the victor as well as to the vanquished. It settles no problems. No nation can grow great at the expense of another nation. Today we know that the prosperity of one nation demands the prosperity of every other. And when these elemental truths percolate into the consciousness of men we shall have peace.”
Rev. Gill Robb Wilson, American Legion’s National Chaplain, lamented that America’s young men of a decade ago were so ignorant of the young men of other nations.
“We knew nothing of other peoples,” he confessed, “except as they appeared in the bald outlines of history as victors or vanquished.”
During the war, Dr. Wilson said, American boys moved among English, Belgians, Italians and French. They were surprised to find them as gentle, as lovable and as intelligent as Americans.
“I think most of us were disappointed because we found the Germans to be such fine people,” he added. “The enemy must be made out to be a terrible creature, a vindictive monster, before you want to kill him. If the German boy had known me before the war I do not imagine I would bear these wounds today or that my brother would lie under a cross in Flanders Field. If I had known that German boy I do not suppose there would be the aching hearts of bereaved mothers in the Rhine Valley today.”
This intimate personal testimony of one who knew war by bitter experience
was brought to a close when Dr. Wilson launched the Legion’s Scholarship proposal, namely, that part of the money received by the United States on its foreign debts be used to establish scholarships in America for students in other lands for the promotion of international friendship.
Judge Florence E. Allen, of the Ohio Supreme Court, pleading for the outlawry of war, traced the rise of the conception that the war-making power belongs to the people and not to kings. She pleaded for a “Ten Commandments” among the nations.
Stanislaus Lepkowski, counselor of the Polish legation in Washington, declared that since the war Poland has been pursuing a policy of active cooperation with all other nations toward the establishment of peace.
Discussing the recent Lithuanian crisis he said:
“Lately my government has succeeded in obtaining from the League of Nations a declaration that the state of war alleged to have existed between Lithuania and my country has been replaced by a state of peace.
There were many other important contributions at this Peace Conference which were received with enthusiasm and which will make for progress on the path leading to the goal of Peace, that International Peace which ’Abdu’l-Bahá declared was the world’s greatest need. “Until it is established,” He said, “mankind will not attain composure and tranquillity. It is necessary that the nations and governments organize an International Tribunal to which all their disputes and differences shall be referred. The decision of that Tribunal will be final.”
NOW in this radiant century in which the world of humanity is being matured, it is assumed that the flag of Universal Peace shall become unfurled and shall wave over all regions of the globe. This is the most great principle of Bahá'u'lláh, for the promotion of which all the Bahá'ís are ready to sacrifice their possessions and lives.
Notwithstanding my bodily infirmity and weakness, I have traveled from East to West for the last three years. In every Temple I cried out, and before every audience I raised my voice for the enlistment of their sympathy. I declared the evils of war and explained the benefits of Universal Peace. I elucidated the causes which lead to the honor and glory of the world of humanity and told them of the ferocity and blood-thirstiness of the animal kingdom. I showed the defects of the world of nature and made an exposition of the means whereby the illumination of mankind is fully realized. I unfolded and caused the appearance of the foundation of the divine religions and proclaimed the teachings of His Holiness Bahá'u'lláh. I demonstrated the existence of God by irrefutable, rational proofs, and proved the validity of all the Prophets of God. I gave utterance to my inmost conviction that the reality of religion is the cause of the life of the world of humanity; it is the divine civilization and pure enlightenment.
By the explanation of all these principles my object has been no other than the promotion of Universal Peace. Praise be to God that I found hearing ears, observed seeing eyes and discovered informed hearts.
But on the other hand the well-wishers of the world of humanity and the advocates of Universal Peace must make an extraordinary forward movement, organize important international congresses and invite as delegates the most progressive and influential souls from all parts of the world; so that through their wise counsels and deliberations this ideal of Universal Peace may leap forth out of the world of words into the arena of actuality and practical demonstration.
TODAY the most great service of the Kingdom of God is the promotion of the principle of the unification of mankind, and the establishment of Universal Peace, * * * "While I was journeying throughout America and Europe (1912), I cried in meetings, conventions and churches:
"O, ye noble fiends! The world of humanity is facing in the future a most portentous danger and supreme calamity. The Continent of Europe has become like unto a gunpowder magazine and arsenal, under which are hidden combustible materials of the most inflammatory nature. Its combustion will be dependent upon the sudden and unexpected enkindlement of one tiny spark which shall envelop the whole earth with a world-wide conflagration, causing the total collapse of European civilization through the furious, wild, raging, fiery tongues of war. Therefore, O ye well-wishers of the world of humanity, endeavor by day and by night so that these inflammable materials may not come in touch with the burning fire of racial antipathy and hatred. * * *”
Now all that has been predicted has come to pass, and the lurid flames of this war have emblazoned the horizon of the East and the West, causing a reverberating social earthquake through the columns of the earth. After this war, the workers for the cause of Universal Peace will increase day by day. * * *
--PHOTO--
Bahá'ís at the Feast of Ridván in London, England. This Feast commemorates the Declaration of Bahá'u'lláh as the Promised One of all the Prophets, and during April of every year it is celebrated in every Bahá'í Assembly throughout the world
