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| VOL. 20 | DECEMBER, 1929 | No. 9 |
| Page | |
Editorial, Stanwood Cobb | 259 |
Bahá’u’lláh—The Super-man, Zeine Nour-ud-dine Zeine | 262 |
Albania and the Destiny of Europe, Martha L. Root | 268 |
Steps Toward the Larger Life, Walter B. Guy, M. D. | 272 |
A Visit to a Bahá'i Garden, Doris McKay | 278 |
How to Attain the Christ Spirit—Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick | 281 |
The Pilgrims of Mount Fuji, Agnes B. Alexander | 285 |
The Tools of Thinking, Arthur E. Morgan | 287 |
later co-operation 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 “Bahá'i Garden” at the beautiful summer home of Mrs. Frances L. Esty on Lake Erie near Buffalo, N. Y. (see page 278)
| VOL. 20 | DECEMBER, 1929 | NO. 9 |
divine, everlasting sovereignty, not a Napoleonic sovereignty that vanisheth in a short time. For well-nigh two thousand years this sovereignty of Christ hath been established, and until now it endureth, and to all eternity that Holy Being will be exalted upon
an everlasting throne.”—’Abdu’l-Bahá.CHRIST’S central teaching “Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and all these things shall be added unto you,” is applicable not only to the individual but to humanity as a whole in all its organized forms.
Since all institutions are the expression of ideas, and rely for their maintenance upon human volition, intelligence and effort, it follows clearly that the existence and efficiency of all forms of human organization depend upon the spirit with which they are engendered, inaugurated, and administered.
Plainly the organized patterns of human life cannot rise consistently above the spiritual level of the people whose ideals they express. Great leaders can, it is true, establish for a time institutions above the capacity-level of their people. But as soon as the magic of personality and will is withdrawn from such perfectly modeled institutions, due to the death of their founders, these institutions fall quickly back in practice to the intellectual and spiritual level of the people who compose them.
Such is the lesson which history reads us. And it is for this reason, if for none other, that democracy—which is a far less efficient form of government than that of benevolent
despotism–is yet preferable and in fact inevitable as the predominant form of all human organization.
If our institutions—political, economic, educational and social—are to be democratic, how all-important then is the degree of intelligence and spiritualization attained by the peoples who express such institutions. For humanity in its organized life is not radically different from humanity in its individual life. Nor can organized humanity, by means of organization, create a world of higher pattern than it is capable of conceiving and of intensely desiring to the point of effectively volitioned effort.
THE SPIRITUAL EDUCATION of humanity
must, therefore, take precedence
over every other type of effort—no
matter how idealistic, desirable,
or promising.
Let us suppose for the moment that Jesus had accepted Satan’s dazzling invitation to become world ruler; and that, as even His disciples confidently expected, He had fulfilled the Messianic hope by bringing the expected deliverance from Rome and triumphal Hebrew leadership to the bold height of world dominion.
What a magnificent rule He could have achieved! How perfect the patterns into which he could have formed humanity! What model institutions He would have bequeathed the world!
Yet upon His death—what of permanence would have remained? Others before Christ had built up perfect institutions-yet these institutions had languished. Time, the universal Destroyer, acts the role of Death to institutions as to individuals. No, nothing would have been left today but an ineffective memory, as powerless for accomplishment of good as is the shadow cast by the Great Pyramid.
Or supposing Paul, having been welcomed by Felix, Governor of Judea, had been invited by him to remain as state counselor, to build up ideal institutions for the people of his province. What a wonderful city could have been constructed!
But instead, Destiny made of Paul a wandering pilgrim and exhausted his strength and ability in visits to scattered handfuls of Believers mostly nondescript as regards race, intelligence, and social position.
No CHRIST DID NOT found an Empire, nor Paul a Model City. They have played and are still playing a more effective part in the life of humanity. Paul by his missionary work helped to establish the spiritual teachings of his Master; and by his epistles—painfully composed in the distraction of endless journeyings—has enlightened, inspired, and helped to perfect innumerable human hearts. Paul’s power for good remains as immortal as the art of printing.
And Jesus, in His Christhood, undertook the mission of laying the great foundations for all future structures of organized humanity–foundations immaterial and imperceptible, existing not on the outer plane but in the heart of man.
By means of Christ’s precepts, spiritual teachings, and energizing power, humanity has been helped to evolve to a plane of higher capacity. Its institutions, expressing a spiritually evolving society, have become ever more perfect—culminating in the great humanitarian movements of the Nineteenth Century.
Regard for the rights and welfare of the individual, prison and hospital reforms, humane treatment of the insane, the restraint by an enlightened society of cruelty to children and to animals,—these and countless other humane measures reflect the new spirit of humanity as evolved under nineteen centuries of Christ’s dispensation.
IT IS A SLOW PROCESS! So slow, so heavy the heart of man to move forward and upwards, that Christ, foreseeing this, wept bitter tears. “I would have gathered you up into my infinite Heart of Love,” He said, “but ye would not.”
Slowly, painfully, man has advanced, mounting step by step the Path that leads to human perfection as imaged by the Divine. And ever, as humanity progresses, new and more dazzling structures are erected expressive of the heightened capacity.
And now, it would seem, there must be a swifter accelerated progress.
The heart of humanity must become more aglow with universal love, its spirit more sensitively responsive to divine vibrations-in order that it may build enduring structures of Universal Peace, Universal Prosperity, and World Brotherhood.
In other words, we must seek more earnestly the Kingdom of Heaven, and pray that these things shall be added unto us. The possession of the Spirit guarantees growth from within—and in the process of such growth, perfect forms will inevitably be expressed.
THE Reality of Christ, that is to say the Word of God, is the cause of spiritual life. It is a “quickening spirit,” meaning that all the imperfections which come from the requirements of the physical life of man, are transformed into human perfections by the teachings and education of that spirit. Therefore Christ was a quickening spirit, and the cause of life in all mankind. The position of Christ was that of absolute perfection; He made His divine perfections shine like the sun upon all believing souls, and the bounties of the Light shone and radiated in the reality of man. . . . The Reality of Christ was a clear and polished Mirror of the greatest purity and fineness, and the Sun of Reality—that is to say, the Essence of Oneness with its infinite perfections and attributes—became visible in the Mirror.
HE [Christ] loved all humanity, but they treated Him as an enemy and were incapable of appreciating Him. They set no value on His Words, and were not illumined by the flame of His Love. . . It was not until many years after His ascension that they knew Who He was, and at the time of His ascension He had only a very few disciples; only a comparatively small following believed His precepts and followed His Laws. The ignorant said, “Who is this individual; He has only a few disciples?” But those who knew said, “He is the Sun Who will shine in the East and in the West. He is the Manifestation Who shall give life to the world.” What the first disciples had seen the world realized later.
IN the latter half of the nineteenth century there lived a man who had a dark and gloomy picture of nature and life. For him, the world was a scene of bitter travail, of never-ending struggle: it was a hard and cruel tragedy. But instead of fleeing with aversion and disgust from the struggle, he cried with a mad courage: “Tied to the wheel of things therefore let us keep on;” and he preached the Superman. He fearlessly sounded the call to abandon all pity and tender compassion, to despise love and humility, to disregard the tears of the disheartened and the laments of the wounded, to fight and labor for the future, so that in the ages to come a nobler race of men, a band of heroes may live in this world, and man rise to be a God. “Lo, I preach to you the Superman,” cried his mouthpiece Zarathustra. “The Superman is the meaning of the earth.” Friedrich Nietzsche took his lesson from Nature and Nature’s processes, therefore he considered the Christian love “a slave-morality, a code of submission and weakness and disease.”
Nietzsche was born in the year 1844. In that same year a young man of about twenty-seven years of age fearlessly embraced the Cause of the Báb, and heralded with a mighty resolution the principles of that Messenger of God. But man is naturally conservative and obstinately so; people cannot easily abandon their cherished beliefs of centuries long, no matter how copious the mosses of superstition have
grown over them, and how thick the weeds of fanaticism have covered them. They violently oppose any movement that strikes at the core of their dogmas and traditions, and when they find that it grows and begins to live and breathe in the hearts of many people, they become wildly jealous of it. And jealousy leads to hatred, and hatred sets the flames of persecution ablaze. So the frivolous children of men rose against the Promised One of all the prophets. They did exactly what they had done before to the Shepherd of the Valley of the Nile, to the young Carpenter of Nazareth, to the Camel-Driver of Arabia; namely, they despised and rejected Him. Once more, the world became the scene of a bitter Tragedy, the like of which it had never seen before.
The intolerant and bigoted people of Persia sought every means to block the path of Bahá’u’lláh’s mission. They subjected to the torture of bastinado His tender feet that not a thorn had pricked before. They threw Him into the dismal dungeon of Tihrán, and loaded His gentle neck with the heaviest chains and fetters. Finally, they sacked His house and confiscated His property. This Man who was of a noble lineage and wealthy family, who spent most of His time in the garden or in the fields, had now to smell the foul air, the stifling atmosphere and the putridness of an underground gaol. He who once was surrounded with ministers and people of the Court, had to live during
four months among thieves and murderers in a “gloomy and loathsome place.” “In reality a dark and narrow cell,” He wrote later, “were far better than the place where this wronged one and his companions were confined.” But the persecutions did not end here: this was but the first scene of a long and heart-breaking tragedy; for when once unbridled and aroused the cruelty of man knows no limits and his truculence respects no boundaries. Accordingly, Bahá’u’lláh, accompanied by His family and a band of faithful believers was exiled to Baghdad, from whence He departed alone “to deserts of solitude and spent two years in the wilderness of isolation.” But the flames of persecution and oppression waxed higher and another tyrannical actor, the Sultan of Turkey, took part in this human drama. Thus, after a stay of well nigh twelve years at the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, Bahá’u’lláh was summoned to Constantinople. Consequently after three and a half months of suffering and hardships, He, His family and a number of His disciples reached the capital of the Ottoman Empire. To make a long and doleful story short it is enough to say that the prisoners were again moved on to Adrianople under rain and snow, and from thence to the Most Great Prison, the “Metropolis of the Owl”—’Akká—where for two years Bahá’u’lláh lived in a dark cell and for seven years in one room.
AT THE AGE OF seventy-five, in
1892, after forty years of living
martyrdom, Bahá’u’lláh left this
transitory world and stepped into His Abhá Kingdom.
Here was a Man Who chose the shackle and chain and abandoned comfort and ease, Who tasted the bitterness of violent afflictions and oppressions of ungrateful mortals, and yet His heart never recoiled. He wrote to the King of Persia, “tho weariness should weaken me, and hunger should destroy me, tho my couch should be made of the hard rock and my associates of the beasts of the desert, I will not blench, but will be patient as the resolute and determined are patient, in the strength of God, the King of Pre-existence, the Creator of all the nations; and under all circumstances I give thanks to God.” He considered the afflictions that befell Him as a source of comfort and happiness, for He saw in them “the gift of the Divine Love.” “In truth I say,” Bahá’u’lláh wrote, “whatsoever befalleth in the Pathway of the Lord is the well-beloved of the soul and the desire of the heart. Deadly venom, in His Path is but sweetness itself, and torment, in His Name, but cool and refreshing water.” That is why “in the darkness of the dungeon He shone like a star,” and “in the narrowness of the prison, He found the spaciousness of a palace.”
Bahá’u’lláh never attended any school, nor sat at the feet of any philosopher: “I have not studied the sciences which men have,” He wrote “neither have I entered the colleges.” Yet the power of His eloquence and learning can neither be competed with nor denied; for His education was divine and His training spiritual. As Jesus answered the Jews who “marvelled
saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned,” “My teaching is not mine, but His that sent me” (Gospel of St. John, Ch. VII, V. 15-16), so Bahá’u’lláh wrote to the Sháh of Persia, “Oh Sháh, in truth I was an ordinary man asleep upon my couch, when the breezes of the Most Glorious passed over me, giving understanding of that which has been. This thing is not from me, but from One mighty and all-knowing.” Neither wordly riches nor material powers did assist Him, nay they rather sought His destruction. Yet His influence grew ever stronger, for “He drew his strength from divine power, which always triumphs.” Two Eastern monarchs opposed Him—they lost their thrones; two Western Emperors were heedless of His admonitions—they were abased and grievous calamities befell their once great empires—even as He had foretold. The hope of His enemies was shattered and their efforts ruined; naught remains of them but “their histories which express the folly of their dreams, their lack of understanding, and the inefficiency of their deeds.” The more they tried to stifle His proclamation and to extinguish the flames of His teachings, the more they spread, burning down before them the weeds of prejudice and superstition, removing the barriers of ignorance and dispelling whatever was dark and sinful in the secret places of the human heart.
Surely this Man was more than a human being. “In spite of all difficulties, He was ever in an exalted state; His face shone continually. He had the presence of a king. One cannot imagine any one with more
majesty. One would have said that He was enjoying the greatest comfort.” Did Professor E. G. Browne not write of Him that His “piercing eyes seemed to read one’s very soul; power and authority sat on that ample brow; . . .” that “He . . is the object of a devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vain?” Did ’Abdu’l-Bahá not say of Him that “even those who deny the divinity of the Cause do not contest Bahá’u’lláh’s greatness, His extraordinary power, His universal wisdom; in a word that He was a Super-Man?”
BUT IF THE MODERN skeptic does not consider the Life of Bahá’u’lláh a proof of His superhuman power, he can find a living testimony to His greatness in the effect that His Teachings have produced upon the lives of hundreds of thousands of men and women thruout the world. For the Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh are not philosophical doctrines nor was He a mere philosopher. Philosophy has never accomplished in the least degree, anything similar to what the teachings of the Prophets have done for humanity. The Apostle Paul repudiated philosophy as not being able to spiritually educate the world, when he wrote in his Epistle to the Colossians: “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” From Socrates down to Bergson, the world has seen a number of distinguished and eminent philosophers. Many of them saw the evils of their time, wrote against them, and proposed remedies.
But of what moral influence have their teachings been? Have they brought any peace and happiness into the world? Their theories and speculations often unintelligible and “a master-piece of obscurity;” their schemes of social regeneration, usually, if not always, impracticable; their systems of ethics, “cold and unsympathetic;” their metaphysical doctrines, a mass of conundrums, they have been of a temporary influence. I do not say that the world has not gained intellectually from philosophical teachings, but I maintain that philosophy has not spiritually influenced humanity. It has never civilized or animated a nation.
On the other hand, Moses, a simple shepherd, uneducated and far from being a philosopher, “was able to instruct and develop a whole nation which had been in a state of demoralization, but which, thru His influence reached a very enlightened civilization.” Jesus Christ, a humble carpenter, brought peace and happiness and unity among the warring and bloodthirsty tribes and nations that accepted His message. The Arabian Prophet, an illiterate camel-driver, who appeared among savage and barbarous tribes in the burning sands of the Arabian Peninsula, was able to raise the Arab peoples from the unfathomable depths of ignorance and atrociousness into which they had sunk, to the towering heights of civilization, a civilization that, during the Middle-Ages, carried to Europe the seeds and flowers of arts and sciences. What philosopher, with all the paraphernalia of his learning and wisdom, has ever been able to do anything at all
similar to what those Men did? Finally, the climax was reached when Bahá’u’lláh appeared in the world. During well-nigh half a century of imprisonment, captivity, exile, persecution and oppression, He unfurled the banner of the Most Great Peace, and sounded the call of Unity, of the Oneness of Mankind and the Oneness of all the Religions: “That all nations should become one in faith, and all men as brothers; that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity of religion should cease, and differences of race be annuled.” The result was that thousands of people flocked under His standard, and today hundreds of thousands of men and women of different and hostile races, creeds, sects and religions have accepted the glorious message of Bahá’u’lláh. In the words of Dr. Alfred W. Martin, “this religious movement (the Bahá’i Movement) has a million and more adherents, including people from all parts of the globe and representing a remarkable variety of race, color, class and creed.”
AND NOW, WE ENTER upon a supreme
and unique feature of Bahá’u’lláh’s
Teachings—their universality.
Those of us who live in the East know that for a Muhammadan to become a Christian, is a rare phenomenon, and conversely; that it is nothing short of a “miracle” to “convert” a Jew to Islam; that, in brief, all the effort and eagerness and ardor with which the followers of the three great religions, to say nothing of the Buddhists, have tried to “absorb” each other have
not been of any appreciable result. But the Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh have drawn together Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Confucianists, Hindus, Jews, Christians, Muhammadans, Skeptics, Freethinkers and Atheists, and have united them with the bonds of love, understanding and service. Moreover, the followers of Bahá’u’lláh are enjoined to “consort with all the peoples and kindreds and religions of the world with the utmost truthfulness, uprightness, faithfulness, kindliness, good-will and friendliness.” When 'Abdul-Bahá was once asked by an American journalist, “What are the Teachings of the Bahá’i Revelation and in what does it differ from other religions?” He replied: "While all the other religions are hating and denouncing each other, the Bahá’is are the friends of all religions and the lovers of all peoples, and their aim is to unite and harmonize all.” “The Spirit which pervades the Bahá’is,” wrote Prof. E. G. Browne, “is such that it can hardly fail to affect most powerfully all subjected to its influence. Let those who have not seen disbelieve me if they will, but should that spirit once reveal itself to them, they will experience an emotion they are not likely to forget.” The testimony of Myron H. Phelps is not less expressive: “If we analyze this spirit which pervades the Bahá’is, if we seek to penetrate that which marks them off from other men, the conclusion to which we are brought is that its essence is expressed in the one word Love. These men are lovers, lovers of God, of their Master and Teacher, of each other, and of all mankind.”
One or two illustrations may not
be out of place. It is reported that once a Bahá’i said, “when I was an orthodox Muhammadan, I used to wash my hands after shaking hands with a Christian, thinking myself polluted; now I want to shake hands with all the world.” This is only one case out of thousands of similar ones that show the regenerating influence of Bahá’u’lláh’s Teachings. “Were you to enter any of the Bahá’i assemblies in the Orient,” said ’Abdul-Bahá in His address to “The Spiritual Alliance” in Paris, “you would behold the Mussulmans, Buddhists, Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians associating together in a spirit of unity and brotherhood, to such an extent that no one can differentiate them one from another.” Surely, the world had never seen before, such a heterogeneous group “associating together in a spirit of unity and brotherhood.” No wonder then if a photographer in Paris, being given negatives of Bahá’i groups from India to be developed and printed, would not believe that those pictures were genuine. “The people in these groups,” said he, “are of such mixed caste that they could never be brought together without killing one another. Therefore it is evident that these pictures are not genuine.” The late Dr. Dreyfus-Barney had to explain to him that it was the power of Bahá’u’lláh and His Teachings that had removed the feelings of animosity and hatred that once separated those natives, and had succeeded in so changing and renewing their hearts. Is this not a superhuman power? What then becomes of Christ’s test: “By their fruits ye shall know them?”
REFLECTING WITH A candid and unbiased mind upon all that has been said, tho very brief and all too-inadequately expressed, the conclusion is irresistible that Bahá’u’lláh was indeed a Super-Man. But how vastly different from the Superman described and preached by Nietzsche! Not thru the sword and buckler, not by combat and fighting, did He win the day, but thru Love, the same Love that Nietzsche called ineffective and weak and a “slave-morality,” did He conquer the human heart and proclaim the cause of human brotherhood, until His Name has now reached the antipodes.
The world is passing thru a bitter travail and social unrest. Submerged in the quagmire of materialism, drunk with the foolish pride of scientific achievements, intoxicated with national rivalry, buried in artificiality, and steeped in greed and commercialism, the people of the Earth are marching towards the edge of a deep and dark precipice. They are listening to songs that have lost their charm and purity; they “have joined to worship stars of faded splendor and have turned in prayer unto darkened horizons.” More than fifty years ago Bahá’u’lláh said, “The world is in turmoil and its agitation waxeth day by day. Its face is turned towards waywardness and irreligion. So grievous shall be its plight that to disclose it now would not be meet and seemly. Many a day shall pass ere it be relieved from its sore travail.”
I am not a pessimist, nay, I have always tried to take a most hopeful view of the universe; and yet when today one looks around and finds
everywhere corruption of character, spiritual lethargy, and moral stagnation, one cannot help thinking that the world is headed for perdition. Alas, surrounded by blind and relentless matter, and a skeptic world of science, how many have lost their faith in a Divine Love, and now only hear
- “Its melancholy, long, withdrawing
- roar,
- Retreating, to the breath
- Of the night-wind, down the vast
- edges drear
- And naked shingles of the
- world!” . . .
Unless humanity awakens from its deep somnolence; unless it hastens to master the dreadful forces which science has conferred; unless it recovers again its soul which has been covered up by the dust and rust of material civilization; unless it attunes the chords of its heart to heavenly music; unless all this happens, nations will decay and civilization will crumble. They will be destroyed by the same forces that built them, like an eagle wounded by its own feather. So it has been in the past, so it will be in the future. But, no, God forbid, it shall not be so! The signs of “the fullness of time” have become manifest. The lights of dawn have already spread bright and strong on the mountain tops. The divine spark has touched and transformed many hearts. An “Army of Life” is growing rapidly day by day. It will not be long ere the Sun of Truth shall dissipate the dark clouds and illumine the whole of humanity, “then will the Divine Standard be unfurled, then will the Nightingale of Holiness warble its melody upon the Tree of Life.”
This is the second and last installment on the author's visit to Albania, the first article having been published last month depicting material conditions, while the article this month features the spiritual aspects of the life of the Albanians.
ALBANIA offers interesting research to the student of religions. Toleration exists there as it exists nowhere else in Europe. The Moslems, the Roman Catholics and the Greek Orthodox Catholics have learned to live together amicably. Two-thirds of the population, statistics state, are Muhammadans. The Queen Mother said that in Mati, her mountain region, the church bells ring out on both Moslem and Christian fete days. Very often Albanian children have both Moslem and Christian names; for example, Muhammad John or Qazim Thanasi. In Albania people do not carry in their conversation such thoughts as, “you are Muhammadan, I am Roman Catholic.” There they do not differentiate so much between religions. Albanians have never been converted to Islamism through coercion exercised on them by Moslem Albanians. In many families there are both Christians and Moslems in the same household. A law has been passed in King Zog’s reign that a Moslem may marry a Christian and a Christian may marry a Moslem.
One morning the writer called upon the Prime Minister Mr. Kotta, when the subject of religion came into the conversation. She said, “I have just learned today that Constantine the Great, institutor of the Christian Empire itself, was an Albanian. Certainly Europe has Albania to thank for the promotion
of the great spiritual civilization of the western world.” Mr. Kotta replied, “Yes, that is true, and it is also true that if Scanderbeg had not resisted the Turkish invasion for so many years, Muhammadanism would have swept Europe. Constantinople had fallen and the little Kingdom of Albania for a long time was the only bulwark of Christianity and Western civilization in the Balkans.”
The Prime Minister said something else that we as Bahá’is believe too: “But Muhammad also brought a great civilization to the Arabs. His religion was a great contribution to spiritual culture.”
Mr. Kotta told me that His Majesty Zog I is a Sunnite Muhammadan, very liberal, and his Majesty has said: “I do not care whether my people are Muhammadans, Catholics or Greek Orthodox, if they are loyal Albanians. Religion is a private matter.” One of their poets, the patriot Wassa Pasha, expressed this same Albanian ideal in verse, the thought of which is:
- “Wake up, ye Albanians, wake up,
- Become united in a single faith;
- Priests and mullahs are trying to
- fool you
- So as to keep you divided and enslaved;
- Let not mosques and churches keep
- you apart,
- The true religion of the Albanian is
- his national ideal!”
There is an instance in the history of this country when a police guard consisting of two hundred Moslems functioned successfully under the command of a Christian Chief. One Catholic pastor and his flock helped some Moslems build a mosque. Of course there are some religious prejudices in every country, but who knows? The Albanians trained by centuries of Muhammadans, Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Catholics working together, sometimes fighting together to save their race, may be just the people with great capacity to promote universal principles for world unity. One feels a yearning love for the Albanian people. When St. Paul preached Jesus Christ’s teachings to them in Durazzo and other places, they listened and believed. Albania gave to the world not only Constantine the Great, but she gave also St. Jerome who translated the Holy Scriptures from Greek into Latin, and she gave Pope Sylvester. What she has done once she may do again in this universal cycle just opening.
The Albanians say: “Anything which is exact and useful is welcome. We do not have prejudices and we welcome anything which will improve our condition. When the writer talked with the editor of ‘Gazetes se Re.” (“The New Newspaper”) about Bahá’u’lláh’s Principles for unity in religions and the abolishing of prejudices, he wrote an article in the issue of September third, under the title, “The Bahá’i Teachings take the God-part of all the religions.” This editor said he liked what Bahá’u’lláh wrote about studying all religions to find the Truth for oneself. He said he would
read the works of Bahá’u’lláh and perhaps he would find other statements with which he could agree.
The Albanians use the expression “little by little” so often, and the writer thinks this policy is the secret of their success. Nothing is done in a hurry. A year ago the Queen Mother and the Princesses laid aside the veil and began to wear hats. The Muhammadans had a great Congress in Tirana and voted some social reforms, one of which was that the veil should be abolished. The Chief of the Congress declared that the veil had nothing to do with religion. The rich and well-to-do women in Albania wear hats. The women in Tirana, on September first, did not step out on their balconies to watch the parade unless they had on hats.
The writer also was in Tirana the day the law was put into effect that women should no longer wear the charshaf over the head. For nearly five hundred years this coat or cloak was worn pulled over the face so that only one eye showed. Some very old women who had come in from the country to the post office that morning were very upset. They wore the cloak dragging on the ground. Poor dears! They had not yet learned that there is a world beyond Tirana and Durazzo where women go about with both eyes (and more) showing! The progressive women say that when foreigners come to their country they see the poor with veils and think that all Albania is still wearing the veil. Well, the hats at the Royal Court on September first were Paris’ best creations!
The Greek Orthodox Catholic Church also has reforms. A Congress
was held in Korcha this summer, and there they completed the work begun in 1922 of separating definitely from the Patriarch in Constantinople. Now this Albanian Church has a “Synod of Albania” that will represent the Head of the Church.
Branched off from the Sunnite Muhammadans is a sect or group in Albania who call themselves “Bektashis.” This is a monastic order and their priests are called dervishes; unlike the regular Muhammadan clergy, these dervishes are celibates and entirely devoted to the religious life. They are grouped around their monasteries With a “baba” (father) as their head. One of their most important monasteries is that in Kalkandelen. The Bektashi doctrine is a secret discipline which is revealed fully only to members. I hear that its theology is pantheistic and as such, it is intolerant to all formalism. It hates all barriers that divide souls from one another and from God. It finds the way to union with God in a universal love and general tolerance. The ethics of the Bektashis attempt to substitute the external morality of precepts and commandments by some principles of universal charity and brotherhood.
Perhaps it would be well to quote the exact Words of Mr. Constantine A. Chekrezi, himself an Albanian, who took his A. B. degree in Harvard. He says: “The Bektashis, or Reformed Moslems, which include a large part of the Moslem population in Albania, constitute the Protestant element of Islamism. The rise of this group marks a liberal reaction against the fanaticism
and the rigorous rules of the faith of Muhammad. The Bektashis are free-thinkers and skeptics in religious matters; their belief is imbued with a pure humanitarian philosophy and they lead a life of religious contemplation. Their doctrines are borrowed mainly from the Stoics and they have cast off every ritual of the Moslem faith.” I observed that the Muhammadans in Albania consider the Bektashis as a separate sect, for they did not invite them to their Muhammadan Congress this summer.
Even apropos of religion it is only natural to wonder whom this svelte, strong-minded, strong-willed King Zog I of the Albanians will marry. Should he ever choose an Italian Christian Princess the northern fighting tribes of Albania are Roman Catholics and would probably approve. The southern peace-loving Moslems might perhaps let it pass unchallenged, but this is not sure. His path is not easy in marriage, in religion, in affairs of state, but his remarkable diplomacy has brought him safely so far.
The King’s meteoric career is a drama more impelling than a play before the footlights. He has been a young soldier, a Captain, a Minister of War, a Minister of Interior, a Prime Minister, a President and now a king. Ahmed Zogu came to Tirana as a conqueror on December 24, 1925, after he had quelled a rebellion and expelled Fan Noli, revolutionist leader who had attached himself to the Bolsheviks. Ahmed Zogu found Albania’s treasury empty; matters were in a desperate situation. There were no communications, roads were only a few temporary
makeshifts left by the occupation armies. There was no reliable police force, no safety of life. There were brigands in the land. Two Americans had just been killed on the road from Tirana to Scutari.
Then this is what happened: in three months’ time Ahmed Zogu had signed a contract with an Italian financial group for the loan of ten million dollars for the foundation of a bank of state. By the middle of March in this same year an Assembly for a Constitution had been formed and Ahmed Zogu proclaimed President of the Republic of Albania. In June a Parliament was called and these two conventions sanctioned. Towards the end of this year 1926, higher officers came from Italy to help Albania organize an army.
Then suddenly in November, 1926, a new revolution begins in the north. It is very dangerous, for the insurgents come to within four miles of Scutari. If Scutari falls all is lost. Ahmed Zogu had only a few regular soldiers, but he sent with them irregular troops from the mountains of Dibra and Mati, and the rebellion was put down. All
Europe and Albania too was surprised in this same week to hear that the First Treaty of Tirana had been signed. This was not an ordinary treaty of friendship with Italy, but in this treaty Italy guarantees the regime of Ahmed Zogu against all revolutions at home and danger abroad. The whole world was excited over this.
Up to this time Ahmed Zogu had not had a great army. He had only wished a good police force, but now he invited ten or twelve British officers to come to Albania and organize the police force. It is organized somewhat as an army. Then the government began to give half its budget to the army development, and now the army is very modern, well trained and well equipped.
Another surprise came to the world when on November 22, 1927, a Second Treaty With Tirana was announced. This is a military alliance with Italy, and a strong army guarantee against revolution. On September first, 1928, Ahmed Zogu was made Zog I, King of the Albanians. By this wording the Albanian minorities throughout the world can feel they are remembered.
All mankind is but one fold, and God, the Kindly Shepherd, loving unto all of them. For if He loved them not, He would have created them not, neither provided for them, nor protected them, nor even nurtured them. For inasmuch as He has vouchsafed all these blessings unto them, He, of a certainty, loveth them, one and all.
This is but Truth itself, manifest even as the sun, the light whereof none can deny. This is verily the Way of God, and there is no Way greater than His Way. It behooveth us one and all, to walk in His ways, and not in the ways of men.”
THE traveler on life’s pathway seeking peace, joy, fruition of life's purpose, often wanders lonely, desolate and lost; looking for what he knows not, yet ever dissatisfied at the progress made and the environment about him. He is out of place, as it were, amongst his own kind.
A more or less constant feeling of dissatisfaction envelops him, and distraught, irritable—his intimate companions ofttimes feel embarrassed by his presence, which further emphasizes his discomfort and increases his sense of isolation.
It is to the one thus bewildered that these words are addressed: that one who is seeking for satisfaction in life; for a larger consciousness; that one, who, beating against the bars of sensuality, the futility of mere animal existence, and fluttering inside of the cage of mortal life longs, in truth, to attain spiritual development and thereby become conscious of the world of reality, though he may not fully understand the spiritual nature of his struggle.
To such a one I would say that there is a world of reality; a world of joy, truth and perfection. And that the above mentioned condition of disillusion and dissatisfaction are but the natural phenomena that precede the birth to a larger and happier consciousness.
In fact, if we look closely into evolution, we shall realize more and more as we progress along the pathway that leads to truth—that evolution
per se is not so much an evolution of form, but in a truer and more interior sense a process of expansion of consciousness from kingdom to kingdom, and as life goes forward on its destined path more complex vehicles are demanded for its expression; more highly evolved organisms are necessary for the life consciousness to function more perfectly.
If we take this point of view, we can then readily see that the unrest and dissatisfaction of life and environment are but the necessary phenomena preparatory to birth into a larger world than that in which we now live.
The low forms of animal existence are but dimly aware of their environment but as we go upward in the scale of life we find an ever increasing consciousness of environment and adjustment thereto. The plodding peasant leaning on his hoe but dimly senses the beauties of nature, while to the spiritual mind, the glory of nature in its wondrous changes of color, form and light, is full of the love and beauty and power of its Creator. There is no limitation to perfection, to truth, to true joy and happiness, except the limitation of our cerebral consciousness, or mental capacity.
This consciousness, however, is not a stable, fixed quantity. Its perfect expression is not given to the fortunate few, but on the contrary is the heritage of all mankind. Science has conclusively proven that all races of men, from the
African jungle to the great universities, have an innate capacity for development and achievement.
We are reliably informed that only a small portion of the cells in the gray layer of the brain are put into use, and that therefore in every one of us, there are untold possibilities for greater achievement, expression, and attainment to those things that make for the true realities and which alone bring to us contentment and joy of living. Let us then realize more and more each. day that this unrest, this yearning for better things, this longing for a happier and more perfect expression, is a necessary process ere we can step into the larger life.
His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh has said that this struggle for freedom from self is the state that must be acquired ere we pass on to greater happiness. In the Prologue to His book, the “Seven Valleys” He tells us that were we to taste the fruit of spiritual knowledge and advancement, we would be constantly yearning for the soul’s growth above the earthly abode and dwell in the realities of existence.
IT Is A MANIFEST truism that all the world is seeking happiness, yet only a few attain thereto. Most of mankind, believing wealth is the great desideratum, long passionately for its possession. They ignore the truth existing everywhere, namely, that wealth of itself does not increase the measure of man’s content to any appreciable degree, as evidenced by the insanities, suicides, and various mental psychoses among the wealthy of all classes.
Others seek happiness in the pursuit of “pleasure.” Our cabarets nightly are filled with habitues seeking the glare of lights and noisy jazz syncopations with their gross appeal. And likewise there is more or less resort to artificial and alcoholic stimulation. These but create a temporary exhilaration and forgetfulness of troubles or unfilled desires. Some seek happiness in constant and ofttimes aimless travel. They go from place to place, yet are ever filled with unsatisfied longings and desires.
Not in these or similar ways can that which will satisfy be found. How then is true happiness or reality attained?
We find mentioned by great teachers of the past, definite statements that there is a state of consciousness in which sorrow and despair are unknown or overcome, and true contentment reigns. It is variously known as Abraham’s bosom, Paradise, Nirvana, the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of Abha or Glory. To the one who attains, is promised an eternal life, freedom from the wheel of—what is called life; all tears are wiped away, and existence is no longer fretful and fruitless, but goes on instead to ever greater achievement and fruition.
The way, they say, is ever the same, namely—by the giving up in totality of the desires of the ego, the flesh and the world and all they offer to mankind in the way of fame, riches, wealth, ease, comfort; and, if need be, even relatives and friends are to become of secondary consideration. The will, instead, is centered wholly on the attainment of the pearl of great price, or in
other words, the life everlasting.
’Abdu’l-Bahá has very beautifully explained this law of sacrifice—how the mineral is taken up and raised to the vegetable kingdom; the vegetable or fruit to the animal; and the animal as it is sacrificed to and eaten by man, is in its essence raised to the human kingdom. Evolution, He said, does not stop with attainment to the human, but still another kingdom awaits us, namely, the Spiritual, or as He termed it, the Kingdom of Reality. The upward urge is that which causes the discontent and disillusionment of human life; and as the spirit of man becomes too large, as it were, for the natural human environment, it seeks larger expression. Struggling to escape from the limitations of its vehicle, it strives inarticulately for its true home.
How, then, is this attained?
The writer, in a well remembered interview, in 1912, with ’Abdu’l-Bahá, asked Him this same very important question. The reply was that through any channel of unselfish service this kingdom was gained. Through music, art, philanthrophy, through science. All ways that took the form of unselfish service for the moral uplift of humanity, were but roads to spiritual life and its attainment.
The Speakers or Revealers of the Word stand as Beacon Lights in the darkness of intellectuality and the desert of materialistic philosophy. They, in Their sublime self-detachment stand as Mighty Trees in the desert of aimless lives and sterile pursuits. Their all-embracing love gives shelter to the weary one.
Their divine utterances are food and drink to the hungry and thirsty ones. And comforted and refreshed the pilgrims of earth, no longer wandering among mirages of sinful pleasure or rocks of despair, travel swiftly and surely to the True Home where love is king; joy is enthroned; and life eternal is theirs. For in the Messenger of Love, the Way is found, the search is ended, the heart is lllumined and the journey begun. “Kneel down and thank God that you have been invited to enter into His Kingdom,” said ’Abdu’l-Bahá.
IN “THE SEVEN VALLEYS,” Bahá’u’lláh has written that, “In this journey the traveler will reach no destination without patience nor will he attain to his aim.”
Steadfastly plodding forward, undismayed by falls, tests or failures, ever seeking the spiritual heights, the pilgrim is cheered onward by these illuminating words in the Qur’an—“Those who strive strenuously for us we will assuredly direct them into our ways.” The journey is begun alone and yet not alone, for although unseen, the eye of Love perceives; though unheard, an ever-present Voice guides; the ineffable revealed Word gives power.
It is written in the “Voice of the Silence:” “Behold O Happy Pilgrim, the portal that faces thee is high and wide, seems easy of access. The road that leads there through is straight and smooth in the green. ’Tis like a sunny glade in the dark forest depths, a spot on earth mirrored
from Amit-Abha's Paradise. There nightingales of hope and birds of radiant plumage sing, perched in green bowers, chanting success to fearless pilgrims.” So it is with the beginning of the road. Joy surges in the heart. Songs spring from the soul. Celestial light beams o’er the candidate for spiritual life and all seems serene.
But not for long. The self that has to die, the self that has to be given up for the greater self; the lower instincts that have to be placed on the altar as was the ram in place of Isaac—struggle for existence. The world that is depised offers that which it previously denied—wealth, fame, comfort, friendships, the joy of the flesh. These will not be silent but demand their accustomed tribute. Fatigue, grief and despair loom ahead, obscure and darken the pathway to the heights of divine unity. Doubt whispers and ardor is chilled. Is it worth while? Is it true? Am I not one of the many fools suffering from illusion? Friends plead and others deride—Is it true? Is it true?
“MAN, KNOW THYSELF,” is as true today as when written two thousand years ago. And in this journey of discovery of the true self, such knowledge is important. Down the ages we find records of those who sought and found; also other records of those who failed, and in failing like Lucifer in the ancient allegory, fell from the heights of bliss to the darkness of sensuality and unbelief.
The twenty-third Psalm of David is a complete epitome of the journey from self to the real self.
In every age man is linked to God by God’s Appointed Servant. Men of sorrows and acquainted with grief, ever showing forth Divine Love and through utter defeat attaining to the fullest victory. These are the Gates; the Way; the Sadrat-el-Montahas. So in the aforementioned Song of David we find the joyous declaration of one who through sore travail had found the goal. “The Lord is my Shepherd,” (therefore) “I shall not want.” Overshadowed by that Divine Love and Radiance all true wealth was his. Led by the Most High, he found, “Green pastures and still waters.” Led by that Divine Hand he “walked in the path of righteousness for his name’s sake,” that is for His Love ’s sake.
And yet the darkness must come; the valley of the shadow must be trod; for the lower instincts and desires must die. So David named it the “Valley of the Shadow of Death.”
There are two things mentioned which support the pilgrim through this valley, namely, “Thy Rod and thy Staff”—the Rod of the Law; implicit obedience to the Divine Law is obligatory, for the spiritual and moral laws declared and renewed from age to age, are for the protection of men; and “Thy Staff“ is that which supports in time of danger. His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh named it the strong rope, the firm handle. Another time it is the Ark, and those who enter in are protected and safe. In the Covenant of Jesus or the promises of God,
through Jesus-we find these words—”Knock and it shall be opened unto you; seek and ye shall find.” It is the love of the disciple for his Lord and the Love of the Lord for the struggling one seemingly traveling alone in the darkness, seeking the feet of his Lord. Bahá’u’lláh, in the “Seven Valleys” instructs that, “In all the journeys the traveler must not deviate even for a hair’s breadth” from the religious life, from divine truth and the fruit or teachings of his Lord. His hope, his success, his attainment depends alone in, “Abiding in the secret place of the Most High”—the love and approval of his Lord-and in that Ark of Protection he finds, as was written so many centuries ago, that when overshadowed by this all-enveloping Love, he truly dwells under the Shadow, (or the protecting care) of the Almighty. “For the Lord, his Lord, is his refuge and strength, and underneath are the everlasting Arms.”
THE GATE IS PASSED; the way is found. Undaunted by shadow and gloom, falls and temptations, the Pilgrim passes on. The greatest sin at this stage of the journey is giving up or looking backward; for
he who putteth his hand to the plow and looking back, is not worthy of the Kingdom, and will, like Lot’s wife, crystalize into dead salt—and, lifeless, enter the abyss of despair and futile longing.
“Carry On” is the cry, even when life is blackest and the victory seems impossible. The darkness that must recur over and over again is but the smoke of destruction of sensual life burning in the fire of the Love of God; the darkness of doubt and ignorance. Is it not written that, “God is as a consuming fire?” E’re the feet can tread the spiritual heights, earthly and sensual attributes must needs be consumed.
Again in the “Seven Valleys” it is written:—“When a sincere lover and agreeable friend attains to the meeting of the Beloved and Desired One, a fire is enkindled from the radiance of the beauty of the beloved and the heat of the heart of the lover which consumes all coverings and veils; Nay whatever is within him, even marrow and skin will thereby be burnt and naught remains except the Friend.”
This, then, is the Goal; this is the attainment; this is the complete blending of man with God, and God with man. This is the eternal life and its full perfection.
“May we share in the divine bounties of the Kingdom. May the world be for you no obstacle hiding the Sun of Truth from your sight as the human body of Christ hid His Divinity from the people of His Day.”
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Japanese twin medical students, friends of Miss Agnes Alexander, Baha’i teacher residing in Japan. These sisters were the first to enter the Woman’s Medical College near Tokyo.
These progressive Japanese maidens are ardent Esperantists.
In an article by them published in the November Baha’i Magazine, they advocated the study of Esperanto by all scientists.
WE went out of the house by way of a dedicated garden door and stood looking down upon a Bahá’i garden that September morning. The mellow slanting light of autumn was in the sunshine which poured down its blessing upon it to be caught in the sparkle of dew. We saw a sea of upturned faces of flowers while in the midst of them St. Francis of Assisi stood holding a bird in his hand, and with a spray of ivy draping his somber robe.
Here was a garden built in the spirit of the gardens at Haifa—Haifa where the tradition of gardens living in the heart of the young Guardian of the Bahá’i Cause has caused beautiful verdure to spread upward over the wilderness of the Mt. Carmel slopes. Under his direction gardens so lovely have blossomed there that strangers throng these paths seeking a lost beauty.
In the garden in Palestine had walked a white robed figure followed frequently by a devoted old gardener. ’Abdu’l-Bahá had bent His beloved face above the flowers there, had eaten the choice oranges offered Him in pride by the old servant who later would have slain himself when His Master walked there no more. The young Guardian walks there now speaking with the tongue of wisdom to visitors from east and west.
In Persia there had been gardens of great splendor in the childhood home of Bahá’u’lláh. In God’s
Name was the youth to ride forth from the paradise of the Persian nobleman to the prison hole at Tihrán. Weary years afterward in a garden, that of Ridván in Baghdád, the Ancient Beauty spoke proclaiming from the lips of the Promised One the Word that was to revivify the world. The garden of Bahjí in Palestine, called also Ridván, was the retreat of the Prophet in the last years of His life. A story comes to us, a note of peace for those sunset hours of the Prisoner of ’Akká, that He poured tea there at the end of day, serving with His own hands those faithful ones who had come to Him from afar. The splash of fountains, the whisper of green leaves and the voice of Bahá’u’lláh speaking to His near ones—in the garden!
The gardens of the Orient, symbols at all times of the poetry and mysticism of the East, have been the meeting-place of God and man. From these, fragrances have been wafted by the wind of God which have enraptured the East and which are stealing like the pervasive perfume of attar of roses even to the busy, heedless centers of the western world. It seemed that day of which I spoke as we stood in the doorway gazing at this garden that the flowers growed with a soft fire and the stir of the leaves was a whispered chant. It was as if those sacred eastern gardens had thrust a bough across the sea.
Our hostess quoted from ’Abdu’l-Bahá, “This is the planet of tribulation
and torment and the mission of the Great Masters is to turn men away from these anxieties and to infuse life with infinite joy.” She added, “Is this not what a garden does for us—if it is made with that inner spiritual understanding?”
She had, three years ago, while gazing down from her window upon an unused strip of green, seen in her imagination a clear picture of a dream garden lying there. From the plan suggested by her mental picture she directed the construction of the garden with its terraced steps, flagstone walks and hospitable garden-house. She spent hours working in the garden. At the touch of the young plants in the solitude of spring she felt the veil grow thin between the worlds, recaptured there a lost companionship, planted there the rose of love.
As we now walked and talked along its paths we read the garden’s first message to its guests beautifully lettered on a sign swinging from a bracket on the garden-house:
- “Light is good in whatsoever lamp
- it is burning.
- “A rose is beautiful in whatsoever
- garden it may bloom,”
On the other face of the sign are the words:
“A star is as radiant whether it shines from the east or from the west.”
We paused before the figure of the Christian saint, who, unlike his more austere brethren had been caught in the dream of Nature—to find God there. One recalls here the words of Tagore who looks upon a flower as “a messenger from the king;” the message: “He
sent me. I am a messenger of the beautiful, the One whose soul is the bliss of love. This island of isolation has been bridged over by Him and He has not forgotten thee. . . . He will draw thee unto Him and make thee His own.”
St. Francis, living a life of solitude amid the beauties of nature greeted the beasts, the birds and the flowers as if they were indeed “messengers.” His words are inscribed on a bronze tablet, “My little sisters, the birds. God feedeth you and giveth you the springs and fountains for your drink.” This bronze statue of St. Francis was modeled in Italy by Anna Coleman Ladd. Her bust of ’Abdu’l-Bahá stands in another Bahá’i garden.
Visitors are diverted by the whimsical concept of a wishing-stone set in a little court of flag-stones before the arched entrance of the garden house. “One wish for yourself and one for the garden,” our hostess tells each guest. Scarcely one who does not wish for heartsease—ease from the burden of his loss, or his cares or his doubts. Heartsease grows here. Sometimes people weep in this garden and their smiles make rainbows! Framed in the garden house is a poem written by the young son of our hostess while still a child. It is called, “Happiness.”
- “A bit of soil,
- Some little seeds and sunshine
- Will make a garden full of happiness
- For you and me.”
In the guest book a friend had written from John Burroughs, “I come here to find myself. It is so easy to get lost in the world.”
Really, such a place is like a shrine, leaving in the memory of those who come there the lingering touch of holiness. The garden becomes vocal with the sound of the utterances of Bahá’u’lláh and ’Abdu’l-Bahá; powerful and life-conferring words are read and discussed here, and these words are carried from here to the outside world.
Our hostess said, “I always keep books to give away after the talks in the garden.” One cannot but realize, after this beautiful example, that a garden, a home or a heart dedicated to “the mention of God” reaches out vitally into other lives because it must. It becomes a power by which an inestimable service is rendered to mankind.
On the morning of our departure we sat sharing the sunshine with the flowers as we added our prayer to the brooding tender influence of this “lovesome spot.” There was with us the knowledge of an even greater interpretation of the garden than that of the gentle doctrine of the union of individual man with God as taught by St. Francis, for example. This was because ’Abdu’l-Bahá has awakened in His followers the consciousness of a life more vast in its application. No student of the Bahá’i teachings who does not acquire the habit of thinking in universal terms.
In the age in which we are living
humanity in general must find God. The world must become as a garden. The garden is the paradise of the vegetable world; we can attain a like paradise here on earth if we make the necessary step in world evolution required of us now.
’Abdu’l-Bahá has often used the garden, where the simple pansy and the expensive imported lily grow side by side, as His illustration of the potential unity of mankind. In the Tablet to the Hague He says: “Consider the flowers of the rose garden. Although they are of different kinds, various colors and diverse forms and appearances, yet as they drink from one water, are swayed by one breeze and grow by the warmth and light of one sun, this variation and this difference cause each to enhance the beauty and splender of the others. . . . If in a garden the flowers and fragrant herbs, the blossoms and fruits, the leaves, branches and trees are of one kind, of one form, of one color, and of one arrangement, there is no beauty or charm, but when there is variety in the world of oneness, they will be displayed in the most perfect glory, beauty, exaltation and perfection. Today nothing but the power of the Word of God which encompasses the realities of things can bring the thoughts, minds, hearts and spirits under the shade of One Tree.”
“The teachings of Bahá’u’lláh are the breaths of the Holy Spirit which create men anew.”
WHAT is the Christ spirit? Where shall we look for it? Whence comes it? As “the time draws near the birth of Christ” these are some of the many questions that come to the mind. Surely in a Christian land we ought to find this Christ spirit everywhere, a spirit of life, light, love, service, pervading and permeating our homes, our churches, our schools, our places of business and labor, of recreation and pleasure. “Peace and good will, good will and peace, peace and good will to all mankind.”
But if we are altogether too conscious that we do not find the Christ spirit everywhere, we are equally certain that we can find it somewhere. Last summer, a fine young woman, a native of India, the head of a girls’ school there, joined herself for a few days to a group of people in one of our Central States who had recently organized themselves into an adult folk-school. As she was leaving she said with genuine sincerity and real emotion: “This is the first place in America where I have not felt like a foreigner. I really feel that I belong here, am one of this group.”
Surely the Christ spirit, good will to men, must have been in that school. But our friend from India (the Princess we called her for the title seemed to fit her quiet dignity and strength of character) had been in America a whole year before she found this spirit. Yes, the young people of the theological seminary where she was studying were very
polite, perhaps even kind, but in such a distant way that she never could forget that she was a foreigner. Surely, the Christ spirit must be in that theological seminary, hidden perhaps behind screens of formality and thoughtlessness. We sometimes forget “I was a stranger and ye took me in.”
The Princess told us that in India the people in some of the humblest homes would share their food and shelter to make a stranger comfortable and at home. Can the Christ spirit be found in India, a so-called heathen country, even among those who have not heard of Christ? Whence comes it?
The Princess told us too of a shocking and painful experience she had had shortly before coming to our school. Feeling the need for rest and quiet away from the big city she had sought these in a midwest community where was located a prosperous state normal school. Here going quietly about her way, but wearing her graceful native dress, she had been arrested not once but twice, accused of vagrancy and of begging from door to door, handled most roughly and taken to the police station. Was it fear, or ignorant prejudice, or petty desire to show power and authority that caused this gentle stranger within our gates to suffer so unnecessarily? Does the Christ spirit really pervade this Christian land?
“When a man turns his face to God he finds sunshine everywhere,” ’Abdu’l-Bahá said to a group of listeners in Paris; “all men are
his brothers. Let not conventionality cause you to seem cold and unsympathetic when you meet strange people, from other countries. Do not look at them as though you suspected them of being evil-doers, thieves, and boors. You think it necessary to be very careful, not to expose yourselves to the risk of making acquaintance with such, possibly, undesirable people. I ask you not to think only of yourselves. Be kind to the strangers. . . . In this way, even if, sometimes, what you at first suspected should be true, still go out of your way to be kind to them; this kindness will help them to become better. After all why should any foreign people be treated as strangers?” We are reminded of Christ’s story of the Good Samaritan, of his injunction to love even our enemies, to give away not only our coat, but our cloak also. “If you love them that love you, what reward have you?”
The peace on earth which we so ardently long for, the peace not only in individual hearts, but the cessation of war and strife will speedily follow when good-will to men really exists. ’Adbu’l-Bahá says further, ”What profit is there in agreeing that universal friendship is good, and talking of the solidarity of the human race as a grand ideal? Unless these thoughts are transferred into the world of action, they are useless.”
Good-will to all mankind! The basis for peace on earth must be this Christ spirit of universal love. “Love is greater than peace, for peace is founded upon love. Love is the objective point of peace; peace is an outcome of love. Until
love is attained, peace cannot be; but there is a socalled peace without love. The love which is from God is the fundamental. This love is the object of all human attainment, the radiance of heaven, the light of man.” Thus ’Abdu’l-Bahá explains simply the relation between peace and love.
There is a book with the beautiful and hopeful title, “The Promulgation of Universal Peace.”* When one looks in the index he finds four references to peace and twenty-one to love. There are more than one-hundred-fifty references to Christ. In this book there is a great deal, too, about such subjects as the oneness of humanity, the oneness of religions, the necessity of universal education, economic justice, the harm done and strife caused by such irrational and foolish things as racial, religious and national prejudices. If one thinks clearly and logically he will realize that all these things are basic to any true and lasting peace in the world and that a mighty and powerful universal love is fundamental to all these.
It is worth one’s while to read, to study indeed, this book if one would understand how closely all these subjects are linked together and how the Christ spirit, universal love, is the root and foundation of them all; that it is a wonderful creative force; that it is another manifestation of that force which works in the realm of nature, binding atoms and molecules together, causing the planets and distant suns to move in their courses and causing law and order to reign in
* Addresses of ’Abdu’l-Bahá in America.
all the worlds of the universe. When man has learned to obey this great law of love as perfectly and completely as nature obeys her manifestations of it, the man-made part of the world will move too in orderly fashion, and peace, mercy and justice will prevail.
Sometimes we get badly confused on this subject of love, there are so many kinds of love and some kinds are very selfish. The Christ spirit is universal love. ’Abdu’l-Bahá makes us see clearly what this means; how difficult it is, too, to attain. “There are in reality,” He says, “many kinds of love and each in itself is limited and finite. There is the love of country, or the patriotic love, there is the love of friendship, the love of man and woman—each one is finite and limited. There is only one love which is unlimited and divine, and that is the love which comes with the breath of the Holy Spirit—the love of God—which breaks all barriers and sweeps all before it. . . . So if you love, endeavor to love divinely. If you love your country, love it not with the narrow feeling that it must be loved because it is yours alone, but with the greater consciousness that your home is a part of the universe. If you love brother or comrade or wife, love each one as a part of God, and not in the narrow sense of possession which renders the love selfish and exclusive.”
Whence comes this Christ spirit, this universal love? “It comes with the breath of the Holy Spirit.” “The breeze of God blowing constantly through your love will purify it, and make it divine so that the breath of the Holy Spirit will enter into your being and unite you
to God.” It came to earth with the Christ child more than nineteen hundred years ago. Christ “breathed the breath of the Holy Spirit into the body of the world, and established an illumined civilization,” and it has been radiating from Him with divine effulgence through all these nineteen centuries. We cannot doubt that other Divine Messengers such as Moses, Buddha, Muhammad, have shed rays of universal love on the earth and are still radiating it to those who turn their faces to the Divine Reality in these Heavenly Messengers and are not led astray by man-made creeds and dogmas that have grown up around their lives and teachings.
We think of Buddha as the messenger of love but we are apt to think of Moses as the stern law-giver. Each of the ten commandments, however, is based on love and justice to God and man. In the Mosaic law we find, too, such passages as these: “Love ye therefore the stranger; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.” “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” As Christians we are accustomed to view Muhammad and His teachings through the eyes of religious prejudice, but Muhammad taught that Christ was the Word of God, the Spirit of God. These and other Messengers from God made love, harmony and unity the basis of their message.
’Abdu’l-Bahá tells us that we must not be confused by names but always look for the Spirit of Truth, the Divine Sun of Truth, and we shall find it shining from all the Divine Messengers. “Turn your faces to the Sun of Reality,”
’Abdu’l-Bahá tells us, then we, too, will receive rays of the universal love, the Christ Spirit.
Why does God send again and again to earth these Holy Beings embodying the Christ Spirit? ’Abdu’l-Bahá has carefully explained this for us: “It is a long time since the Sun of Truth mirrored forth by the Lord Christ has shed its radiance upon the West, for the Face of God has been veiled by the sin and forgetfulness of man. If the followers of the Lord Christ had continued to follow out these principles with steadfast faithfulness, there would have been no need for a renewal of the Christian Message, no necessity for a re-awakening of His people, for a great and glorious civilization would now be ruling the world and the kingdom of heaven would have come on earth. But instead of this what has taken place? Men turned away their faces from following the divinely illuminated precepts of their Master and winter fell upon the hearts of men. For as the body of man depends, for life, upon the rays of the sun, so cannot the celestial virtues grow in the souls without the radiance of the Sun of Truth.
“God leaves not His children comfortless, but, when the darkness of winter overshadows them, then again He sends His Messengers, the Prophets, with a renewal of the
blessed Spring. The Sun of Truth appears again on the horizon of the world shining into the eyes of those who sleep, awaking them to behold the glory of a new dawn.”
And He further says:
“But now again, praise be to God the Holy Spirit speaks anew to the world! The constellation of love and wisdom and power, is once more shining from the Divine Horizon to give joy to all who turn their faces to the Light of God. Bahá’ulláh has rent the veil of prejudice and superstition which was stifling the souls of men. Let us pray to God that the breath of the Holy Spirit may again give hope and refreshment to the people. . . . Then shall humanity put on a new garment in the radiance of the love of God, and it shall be the Dawn of a New Creation! Then will the mercy of the Most Merciful be showered on all mankind and they will arise to a new life.”
Let us ask God to purify our hearts and minds of all pride, ignorance and prejudice that we may listen with the inner ear to the Glad Tidings of the present day and recognize with the eye of insight, the Sun of Truth from whatever point in the horizon He arises and, filled with the Christ spirit, may do our part to shed the goodwill upon all mankind that will bring about the New Spiritual Civilization.
"If you reflect upon the essential teachings of Jesus, you will realize that they are the light of the world. Nobody can question their truth. They are the very source of life and the cause of happiness to the human race. The forms and superstitious which appeared and obscured the light did not affect the Reality of Christ.”
RETURNING from Honolulu in the summer of 1927, Dr. Shiroshi Nasu of Tokyo Imperial University wrote me: ”As our steamer nears Yokohama, Fuji San is in sight. This is the symbol of our welcome to you! Come to Japan!”
Mount Fuji, or “Fuji San,” as it is called in Japan, greets one at sea in clear weather, and bids the departing traveler farewell with the same calm majesty. It is the most beloved spot in all Japan. In Japanese art and literature it is as unique as universal. For a thousand years its perfections have been celebrated in song and story, yet all its beauty is never exhausted. The word “Fuji,” written in two characters means, “not two,” that is, "there cannot be such another mountain. Fuji San peerless and alone in symmetry and majesty!
In summer when the snow disappears from the slopes of the mountain, thousands of pilgrims of all ages toil up to its summit, 12,365 feet. To the pilgrims Fuji San is a sacred shrine. Differing from other mountain climbs, it is not ascended by them merely for the sake of hiking, or sightseeing, but rather for acquiring merit in Buddhist conception. Every visit to it, they believe, brings spiritual reward and forgiveness of sins.
This summer I was privileged to make the ascent of the sacred mountain which had been the symbol of my return to Japan for the third time. Starting from Tokyo in the early morning, I met many people on the station platform whence travelers begin the first stage of the
journey. They were clad in white robes with mushroom-shaped straw head-coverings, and carried long wooden staffs. Bells were attached to their belts which tinkled as they moved about. These were the pilgrims who for three days before starting on their pilgrimage prepare themselves, abstaining from eating meat, and in the morning, before reciting prayers, clean themselves by throwing buckets of water over their bodies.
From the foot of Mount Fuji, five routes lead to the summit. By one of these the first four miles can now be spanned by automobile. From there the mountain is divided into nine stations before the summit is reached. Ascending the mountain, the pilgrims have their garments and staffs stamped at each of these stations with the mark of the station, and at death are buried in these garments which bear the stamps of their pilgrimages.
The road up the mountain to the fifth station lay through shaded woods perfumed with fragrant wild flowers. On reaching here, night had fallen, and I remained with a guide who carried my luggage, at one of the Rest Houses which now are found at every station. After the midnight hour had passed, the moon came up and soon were heard voices of pilgrims passing up the trail. In rythmic unison they repeated the words, “Roku kon Shojo.” Although at the time I was not aware of the true significance of these words, yet their repetition conveyed a suggestion of strength.
--PHOTO--
Mount Fuji
Under the light of the moon I followed with the pilgrims up the slippery ashy trail, until at the seventh station the moon slowly disappeared as the dawn came. Here with many pilgrims we stood silent while the wonderful change took place in nature. To the pilgrims, the sunrise is the supreme moment, to meet which they ascend the mountain. It is the time for prayer and worship. All stood in reverence with heads bared while from under the clouds the glorious sun rose illuminating the mountain side and revealing the five lakes picturesquely set at its foot. Looking down the mountain, as far as the eye could see, there was a continuous white-robed procession ascending the winding trail, for not only the pilgrims, but almost all others who climbed were dressed in white.
Again we started up the trail meeting many kind and friendly pilgrims, among whom were some who were weak and were being helped
along by the strong, and again and again were the words repeated, which had attracted me in the early morning, “Roku kon Shojo.” At the eighth station there is a Post Office where mail can be posted to all parts of the world, stamped from this lofty mountain. From here the climb became more tedious, but at last the reward—attainment to the summit.
Returning to the world below, there came the realization of an inner attainment gained through the effort made in the ascent of the sacred mountain. The words which had so often been repeated on the mountain side, I found to mean the purification of the six roots of evil—the eye, ear, tongue, nose, heart and body. By purifying these, evil thoughts are driven away and the heart becomes pure. Literally translated the words mean, “roku kon—six roots,” and “Shojo—pure.” To the pilgrims these words are a potent prayer.
We are pleased to reprint in The Bahá’i Magazine an admirable treatment of the subject of language as a medium for thought, written for and printed in the “Antioch Notes” by Dr. Morgan, gifted thinker and educator of the “new school.” Psychology points out thott it is probable that actual thought cannot grow by means of words, even silent thought. Let the reader try the experiment and he will find himself speaking words within his mind as he tries to think. If words are the necessary tools for thought, it follows that highly evolved spiritual thinking can best be done by means of a highly evolved spiritual language. The matter of language, both as a medium of spiritual expression and as an international bond, is of great interest naturally to all Bahá’is.
ROMAN writers discussed the possibility of sometime mastering long division. They thought it essentially difficult, whereas the difficulty was the inadequacy of Roman numerals as tools for mathematical thinking. With Arabic numbers, long division became simple. It is said the number system of the Mayans is superior to the Arabic. Much difficulty in thinking is due to the crudeness of our mental tools. Scientific study of these might revolutionize our ability to master ideas.
BECAUSE SOME one of the Indo-European languages is used by nearly every western people, we think of the general structure of that language group as essential to effective thinking. The apparent inferiority of Mongolian languages strengthened this opinion.
Yet the general structure of Indo-European languages furnishes only one of very many possible ways of handling ideas. I am told by ethnologists that the languages of some American Indians differ in fundamental design from either the European or the Mongolian, and in some cases supply innately better, simpler, and more economical tools
for thinking. The fact that languages differ greatly in effectiveness and beauty casts doubt upon the idea that “natural” development must of necessity bring the best possible results.
OUR THINKING is greatly influenced by the structure, the possibilities, and the limitations of language. Every language is a chance growth—elaborated, refined, mutilated, or debased, by circumstances. Perfected in many details by long use and by the discrimination of genius, it still maintains deep-seated limitations which usage fails to remove; just as the human body, wonderfully perfected in detail by selective evolution, retains uncorrected fundamental mechanical defeets.
No chance development in any field can equal the application of scientific methods with masterful skill and insight to the fulfillment of wisely considered purpose. Improvement of the tools of thinking, through the creation of a scientifically designed synthetic language, is within the range of practical possibility. Such a result will not be matured quickly by a lone genius, as was the attempt with Esperanto, but will be the mature fruit of far-flung
research and constructive efforts of many men for a long period.
THE WASTE DUE to language barriers
grows constantly more unendurable.
Few men are able to acquaint
themselves with world literature
in their fields. Foreign trade
is handicapped, international confidence
impaired, progress in art
and science delayed. We burden
children with the long grind of language
study, to provide halting use
of the speech and literature of one
or two other peoples.
All but the most brilliant thinkers, especially in minor tongues, are doomed to relative obscurity abroad, their writings available, if at all, only in translations that fail to carry over the keen edge of genius. I long wondered why, in European opinion, Poe was the only great American poet, until I was told that he was the only one adequately translated. The world loses the outlooks of other peoples. Conversely, a nation like Brazil or Japan to a considerable degree is cut off from the main currents of world thought, and tends to remain provincial in all but superficial conformities.
WITH THE DEVELOPMENT of the radio and of talking pictures we dream of the Americanization of the world, with all nations learning the English tongue. The fulfillment of this dream will be resisted with the terrific force of nationalism.
Russia, Germany, France, the Spanish countries, and Japan will not acquiesce in the overlordship of English. They will find protection in a synthetic international auxiliary language, a medium of expression
giving every people access to the international mind, with special advantage to none.
A world language is certain. Events are pushing resistlessly to compel it. The only question is whether it can be anticipated and given adequate preparation. Whether it is an awkward, hastily devised expedient—perhaps a promising but inadequate instrument like Esperanto—or whether it becomes a master contribution of science to the economical and beautiful handling of ideas, may depend on developments of the next generation.
NEVER HAS SCIENCE entered a new field to create order, economy, and unity where before was chaos and conflict, but that it has been bitterly attacked as a base intruder. Never was this more apparent than in the discussion of a synthetic language. The slow growth of usage, traditional scholars claim, is the only road to excellence.
Qualified men can make a critical study of the processes of thinking and of communication, and can synthesize an auxiliary international language of essential simplicity, economy, and beauty—a contribution to the clarity and effectiveness of human thinking that will pass down the ages. The International Auxiliary Language Association of America, with the services of able scholars in varied fields, in a cautious and limited way, is making the beginnings of such a study.
Contributions of science to the tools of thought and language may be no less significant than its contributions to the recording and transmission of sound and light.
