| ←Issue 9 | Star of the West Volume 23 - Issue 10 |
Issue 11→ |
 Proofread onceReturn to PDF view
|
We are working hard to have proofread and nicely formatted text for you to read. Here is our progress on this section:
|
| VOL. 23 | JANUARY, 1933 | No. 10 |
MARTHA L. ROOT
HUSSEIN RABBANI
KEITH RANSOM-KEHLER
Sylvia Margolis
THE teachings of Baha'u'llah are the breaths of the Holy Spirit which create men anew. . . . They are the Light of this age and the Spirit of this century."
BAHA'IS believe that mankind must love mankind; that universal amity must be practiced; that dead dogmas must be thrown away; that we are at the threshold of the Era of Interdependence; that we must forget prejudice; and that universal love must become the dominant note of the twentieth century . . . The tree of humanity is one and is planted by God. The origin is one and the end must also be one."
THE gift of God to this enlightened age is the knowledge of the oneness of mankind and the fundamental oneness of religion. War shall cease between nations, and by the Will of God the Most Great Peace shall come; the world will be seen as a new world, and all men will live as brothers."
| VOL. 23 | JANUARY, 1933 | NO. 10 |
The Manifestations of God, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá | 316 |
Editorial, Stanwood Cobb | 295 |
The Bahá’i View of Authority and Organization, Hussein Rabbani | 298 |
Count Leo Tolstoy and the Bahá’i Movement, Martha L. Root | 302 |
Song of the New Youth, a Poem, Silvia Margolis | 306 |
Letters Home (India), Keith Ransom-Kehler | 308 |
Contributions of the Colleges and Universities of China to Amicable International Relations, Dr. Shaw Chang Lee | 312 |
The Nature of the Divine Manifestations, Glenn A. Shook | 314 |
A Western Visitor in the Land of Bahá’u’lláh | 318 |
Temple Pilgrimages, Orcella Rexford, B. Sc. | 320 |
World Thought and Progress | 323 |
STANWOOD COBB, MARIAM HANEY, BERTHA HYDE KIRKPATRICK | Editors |
MARGARET B. MCDANIEL | Business Manager |
For the United States and Canada
International
|
For Foreign Countries
MRS. ANNIE B. Romer, Great Britain MR. A. SAMIMI, Persia MISS AGNES B. ALEXANDER, Japan and China MOHAMED MUSTAFA EFFENDI, Egypt |
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 The Bahá'i
Magazine, 1000 Chandler Bldg., 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--
The Bahá’i Temple being erected in Wilmette (suburb of Chicago), Illinois. Contributions are voluntarily sent to the Temple Fund by Bahá’is in almost every country of the world (see page 320)
| VOL. 23 | JANUARY, 1933 | NO. 10 |
Divine in origin, all-embracing in scope, equitable in principle, challenging in its features–that a harassed humanity must strive.”
RELIGION, if it is to hold the allegiance of the people today, must not only show a deep concern for the economic problems which confront humanity, but must even be able to demonstrate a remedy and engage in the actual effort of directing the achievement of new and more ideal economic principles. Those who say that religion should not meddle in such affairs are mistaken.
It is not the function of religion merely to bind up the wounds of the fallen. True religion is a creative force, guiding humanity into new and better modes of living. It is only in its decadence that religion abrogates such responsibilities. Plainly, religion cannot compete with other directive forces in the life of today unless it makes use of its prerogative to aid in the construction of a better civilization.
Those who follow the progress of inventions in the field of automatic machinery prophesy that within three years there will be in this country, unless a new economic organization takes place, many more millions unemployed. What machinery is able to do today is little short of the miraculous. It has been estimated that four hundred men working with the most modern type of brick-making machinery,
could make all the bricks needed in this country. In ancient days of hand manufacture, it took five and one-half days to make one pair of shoes; today the shoe industry in this country alone, with its modern machinery equipment, has the capacity of making nine hundred millions shoes per year. A century ago in this country one man produced twenty-five tons of pig-iron a year; today our modern blast furnace technology has made it possible for one man to produce four thousand tons per annum. One modern steel-rolling mill operates without a single human being on the floor.
The technological development of the last twelve years has made almost as striking a revolution in industrial processes as the original industrial revolution of the 18th century which first substituted power machinery for hand labor. From the beginning of the industrial revolution up to the present, power machinery has multiplied the output of the first human machinery nine million times; but by far the greater part of this increase of machinery power over hand power has come within the last thirty years.
A similar change has been taking place on the farm. Machinery
and modern scientific organization have reduced greatly the number of men necessary to employ in agriculture while at the same time multiplying tremendously the amount of crops. A hundred years ago it took six million men to harvest the grain crop of America. Today the same amount of grain could be harvested—with the use of modern machinery—by six thousand men.
THE AMAZING thing about the
present depression is the fact that
it is based not upon scarcity of food
and manufactured goods but upon
an over-production in these fields.
That is to say, the very wealth of
food and goods which machinery
has enabled man to produce has
proved an economic curse under
our present economic organization.
Yet if we analyze the situation we shall perceive that the chief cause of the economic plight of humanity today could be made the means of the greatest permanent prosperity and material happiness which the world has ever known. With such an abundance of food products and of goods it is clearly only a just distribution of the products of machine-labor which is needed in order to assure to every individual the utmost comfort and security.
Let us conceive an analogous imaginary situation: A hundred men are by some accident wrecked on an uninhabited island of equable climate and of considerable natural resources. Some important mechanical equipment and material are salvaged in Robinson Crusoe fashion. These men, organizing some sort of a government, start to
work to prepare shelters for themselves. At the same time they take steps to assure themselves a constant supply of food when the stores brought with them are exhausted. At first it takes all the labor of the group to get shelters built and to secure food, but a time comes when not all of the labor is needed for these purposes. Ingenius channels for the energy of the group are then found, for making life not only secure but pleasing. The power of the tides is harnessed and made to contribute to manufacture.
Can it be conceived that if the whole effort of the group is devoted to ameliorating life upon this desert island, the majority would become wretched and deprived? No! clearly, the more human ingenuity and energy was applied to the life of this group, the more secure and comfortable and happy would be both their corporate and individual life. There is only one possibility of the contrary happening. If the organization of this group should result in an exploitive control by a few members, then and then only could it happen that labor plus machinery might fail to bring comfort and security to all. For greed can destroy all that human ingenuity builds up.
Applying this fable to the life of today, we may see that in reality the only thing that can disturb economic prosperity is greed. Greed can always create obstacles to human welfare. It can obstruct the ideal expression of economic forces. It is not the invention of machinery which is bringing trouble upon the human race, but the economic organization of humanity.
UNDER an ideal economic organization machinery can be nothing but a means to universal comfort, security and happiness. It will create new sources of pleasure and culture at the same time that it increases the amount of leisure for the individual.
One can conceive, as indeed many industrialists are already doing, that the day will come when every workman will own his own plot of land on which he will raise vegetables and flowers, devoting many of his leisure hours happily to the enhancement of his domestic life. With radio, with magazines and books, he will have almost limitless means for increasing his knowledge and improving his culture.
BUT WHAT part does religion
have to play in this economic evolution
of humanity? Religion is, in
fact, the only means by which the
ideal world economic organization
can be brought about. Since self-seeking
motives, greed and exploitation
have been the cause of the
present cataclysm, it is plain that
no ideal economic system can be
established except by the subordination
of the self-seeking emotions
to the altruistic emotion.
One of the chief functions of religion is to ennoble the spiritual nature of the individual man and make him potential material with which to build up ideal institutions. Religion has, however, another function equally as important—that of pointing out, thru implication or explication, the actual type of institution which should regulate the life of humanity. Unless such institutions should appear with the backing of Divine Authority,
how could they be accepted and established universally, as is necessary today?
IN THE NEW WORLD ORDER of
Bahá’u’lláh we have the perfect
pattern of the new economic organization
of humanity, both national
and international. We have here
an industrial system which by
justly sharing the profits of industry
between capital and labor abolishes
dangerous conflict and also
guarantees to the workman a buying
power which enables him to
consume the goods created, thus
assuring normal constant circulation
in the economic body of the
nation. Internationally, the World
Order of Bahá’u’lláh, by abolishing
racial prejudice, warfare and tariff
barriers—produces a free and
healthy flow of raw material and
goods between the countries of the
world. These and other principles
of the New World Order of Bahá’u’lláh,
when put into effect, will
not only heal the present ills of humanity
but will be preventive of
any such debacles in the future.
Can the year 1933, then, be considered too early to attempt wholeheartedly the spiritual awakening of humanity? Drab and dreary as is the outlook, materialistic and self-seeking as are the vast majority of people under every flag, can it be said that there is any better time than the immediate present for launching a reform?
May this year see the turning of the tide, not only toward prosperity but also toward the growth of a vast spiritual consciousness in humanity, a willingness to follow implicitly and unselfishly the guidance of God!
The author, a graduate student in one of the large universities in the East, has an exceedingly illumined concept of what the Bahá’i Teachings are and how they work out in actual practice toward establishing a better social order. Readers of the magazine will remember his two important articles under the title, “The Social Emphasis in the Bahá’i Movement,” published in the October and November 1932 issues of this magazine. Those who have not read them would do well to do so as they form somewhat of an introductory background to the following contribution which defines the attitude of Bahá’is toward organization and administration. The second and concluding part of this article will be published in the February number.
TO a student familiar with the social teachings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá it will be but evident that the problem of authority stands at the very foundations of the Bahá’i social program. Both of these teachers have, as a matter of fact, laid emphasis on the necessity of a coordinating power or agency capable of directing men’s efforts in the right path. They have found the world in a state of chaos and it was their primary aim, therefore, to set up a society in which people could lead a life of peace and prosperity.1 The environment in which they were destined to live was one of moral and political corruption. The rulers and sovereigns under whose rule they carried out their mission were most tyrannical and unjust. Whether in Persia or in Turkey their experiences with the public officials were of the greatest bitterness. Instead of order and tranquility they witnessed social and political confusion. Instead of just and able rulers they saw tyrants and despots. They themselves were twice persecuted; once at the orders of the Shah of Persia and another
1 Cf. Baha’u’llah’s “Epistle to the Son of the Wolf”—pp. 44-48. 2 Baha’u’llah refers to the attempt at the assassination of the Shah by a certain irresponsible and insane Babi.
time at the instigation of the Sultan of Turkey. Indeed, their very existence was under continual threat and they rarely found a moment of happy tranquility in which they could freely engage in their work.
The following passage, in which Bahá’u’lláh relates some of the incidents connected with the early days of His mission, deserves quoting: “We had nothing to do with this odious deed,”2 He says, “and our innocence was indisputably proved before the tribunals. Nevertheless, they arrested us and brought us to the prison in Tihrán, from Niyavaran, which was then the seat of the Royal Residence; on foot, in chains, and with bare head and feet, for a brutal fellow who was accompanying us on horseback snatched the hat from my head, and many executioners and guards hurried us along with the great speed and put us for four months in a place the like of which has not been seen. In reality a dark and narrow cell was far better than the place where this wronged one and his companions were confined. When we entered the prison,
on arrival, they conducted us along a dismal corridor, and thence we descended three steep stairs to the dungeon appointed for us. The place was pitch dark, and its inmates numbered nearly a hundred and fifty-thieves, assassins and highway robbers. Holding such a crowd as this, it yet had no outlet but the passage through which we entered. The pen fails to describe this place and its putrid stench. Most of the company had neither clothes to wear nor mat to lie on. God knows what we endured in that gloomy and loathsome place!”1
And yet, in spite of all these tribulations Bahá’u’lláh never attempted to undermine the social and political institutions under which He lived. He did not reject authority as such, nor did He encourage His followers to revolt against their government. He joyfully accepted what had befallen Him and instead of preaching revolution and sowing the seeds of insurrection and discord He bade His companions to act with justice towards the authorities, to be truthful to them and to serve them to the best of their abilities. His message was one of peace and brotherhood and it is as such that He addresses the rulers of the earth in His Tablets. His was an attitude of respect, though not one of uncritical and blind obedience to authority. It is true that He emphasized the necessity of obedience and respect towards the repositories of power and yet at the same time He warned them to act with justice towards the people, to consider themselves as simple trustees rather than as irresponsible governors and statesmen.2
1 Baha’u’llah—Quoted in J. E. Esslemont's "Baha’u’llah and the New Era”: p. 33. 2 Cf. "Baha’i Scriptures”—p. 112. 3 “Baha’i Scriptures—p. 141. 4 Ibid—p. 138. 5 Ibid—p. 260.
That, in the Bahá’i view obedience to authority is essential for the protection and the safety of mankind, is abundantly proved first by the attitude of submissiveness and respect expressed by the authors of the Bahá’i Faith themselves towards all possessors of authority, whether political or otherwise, and secondly by the specific provisions of their writings.
Indeed, a careful perusal of Bahá’u’lláh’s and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s writings clearly indicates how respectful they were towards the possessors of power and command. Never did they mention their names with the slightest degree of irreverence, though they atrociously suffered at their hands.
Not only so, Bahá’u’lláh as well as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá specifically enjoin their followers to act towards their governments with truthfulness and sincerity. “In every country or government where any of this community reside, they must behave toward that government with faithfulness, trustfulness and truthfulness.”3 And speaking on reverence, Bahá’u’lláh says: “O people of God! I exhort you to reverence. Reverence is, in the primary station, the lord of all virtues. . . . He who is endowed with reverence is endowed with a great station.”4 Furthermore, in His Will and Testament He reveals the following: “It is incumbent upon all to aid those souls who are the dayspring of authority and the dawning-points of command, and who are adorned with the ornaments of equity and justice.”5 And ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself confirming Bahá’u’lláh’s own words declares
in His Will that, “We must obey and be the well-wishers of the governments of the land, regard disloyalty unto a just king as disloyalty to God Himself, and wishing evil to the government a transgression of the cause of God.”‘
ALL THESE statements show that
the Bahá’is are under strict obligation
to respect and obey their
governments and thus be loyal and
faithful citizens. They should act
so for two fundamental reasons;
first, because of the necessity of
authority as the prime requisite of
any social organization, and secondly,
because of the divine origin
of authority itself.
To begin with, it is obvious that under present-day circumstances no social plan can be effectively carried out unless it definitely provides for a certain authoritative body or agency which will have the full competence of adjusting and coordinating the diversified and complex interests of men in their social and corporate life. For, however dispassionate and truthful men may appear yet, it is indubitable that in many of their actions they seem to manifest some selfishness which, unless curbed and wisely regulated, will lead to conflict and war.
Human beings are not pure angels as the anarchists seem to imply. Their motives are not always pure and untarnished. They are not moved to action solely by the desire for service. Back of every human action there is some element of egotism and self assertion. We are all to some extent selfish creatures, seeking our own individual interests often without
1 Shoghi Effendi—“Baha’i Administration”–p. 4.
due consideration to the welfare and interests of our neighbours. And yet, at the same time, these selfish creatures are capable of such a devotion and love that no force, however insidious and persistent, will ever succeed in checking their course of action.
History abundantly proves that under certain circumstances human beings have acted in such a glorious way that they have sacrificed all their interests for the sake of the collective welfare and success. Patriotism has been and still is the mainspring of many noble emotions. To defend their fatherland against the unjust encroachments of foreign invaders many lives have been willingly sacrificed and many sufferings have been shared in common. Perhaps no cause has aroused more zeal and enthusiasm than religious faith. Religion, whether we approve of it or not, has been the strongest bond of unity among all peoples and nations, irrespective of their race and language. It has knit them together so closely that no power has proved of any avail to disunite and separate them. Religion has inspired many noble souls to disregard their own welfare for their neighbor’s sake. It has acted as a strong bulwark against all disrupting forces from within and from without. It has made collective and group life possible by inducing the individuals to joyfully obey the laws of God and those promulgated by His prophets. In such wise the burden of authority has been lightened and instead of being a scourge has come to be looked upon as a heavenly bestowal. “Ye shall know
the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free.”
HUMAN NATURE, therefore, is a
complex bundle of feelings, emotions
and thoughts, which should
be looked upon from different
angles and different viewpoints. It
is not a uniform system but a mixture
of elements as diverse and as
intricate as those which enter into
the composition of our physical
body. The individualists and the
collectivists have both of them
given us a one-sided account of the
nature of man. “Men seem,” remarks
a well known writer, “to be
more separate and individual in
some at least of their actions than
the organic theory of society allows,
and more social than the individualists
allow.” We can not
fully agree with Thomas Hobbes
when he says that the life of man
in the pre-social state was “Solitary,
poor, nasty, brutish and
short” and that his sole incentive
to organize a society was to preserve
and further his individual
selfish interests. For such a conception
seems to indicate that society
is not natural but accidental,
that group life is a deliberate creation
of the rational man and not
the necessary outcome of man’s
social nature. Nor can we accept
the other extremist view held by
Hegel and Idealists, who regard the state as “a self-conscious ethical substance and a self-knowing and self-actualizing individual”, for whose sake the individual should annihilate himself and to whose biddings he should readily submit.
Both, the individualistic and the idealistic interpretations of human nature are too narrow and hence inaccurate. We are moved by a twofold motive: a selfish motive and what we may call a “social service” motive. Egotism and self-sacrifice are both of them essentially human and are deeply rooted in our inner being. The social theorist, therefore, should always take these two elements into consideration, lest he may elaborate a social plan entirely out of harmony with the actual conditions of life. The philosophy of anarchism which is based on too genteel a conception of human nature cannot be a workable theory of social organization. Nor can the extreme socialistic view which disregards the individual and sacrifices him for the sake of the group be an adequate philosophy of corporate life. The truth, as usual, is half-way between the two and it is that which the Bahá’is strive to materialize both through their individual and their collective efforts.
“Surely the world, contracted and transformed into a single highly complex organism by the marvelous progress achieved in the realm of physical science, by the world-wide expansion of commerce and industry, and struggling, under the pressure of world economic forces, amidst the pitfalls of a materialistic civilization, stands in dire need of a restatement of the Truth underlying all the Revelation of the past in a language suited to its essential requirements.”
WHEN I was in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1927, I met the secretary of Count Leo Tolstoy, Mr. Valentin Bulgakov; we had a long talk about Count Tolstoy and his contact with the Bahá’i Movement. Later, in December 1930, I met Miss Alexandra Tolstoy, the youngest daughter of this great Russian writer and humanitarian. She said to me then, “What Mr. Bulgakov has told you about my father’s interest in the Bahá’i Movement is true. He was with him during the last four years of my father’s life; he was his secretary and arranged his library.” Then, too, I corresponded with Mrs. Isabel Grinevsky of Leningrad in 1927 and she wrote me about Count Tolstoy.
It is through these kind friends that I have the facts for this article. An added interest was given to the subject for me when only a few days ago, May 31, 1932, I interviewed the president of a Roman Catholic university in Poland who had met ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1914, in Haifa, Palestine. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said to him that there was no greater writer in Europe than Count Leo Tolstoy. “What a pity that Tolstoy, who so admired the Teachings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, never had the privilege of meeting Him.
“Count Tolstoy knew the Bahá’i Teachings through literature. I think he did not know any Bahá’is personally,” said Mr. Bulgakov in his talk with me. “He first heard
of the Bahá’i Movement in May, 1903, when Mrs. Isabel Grinevsky brought out in Leningrad (the former capital of Russia that then was called St. Petersburg) a great drama called Báb; it was in verse and gave the illumined history of the Forerunner of the Bahá’i Movement, a young man called Báb and His disciples called Letters of the Living; the scenes were laid in Persia. This drama was played in one of the principle theatres of St. Petersburg, in January, 1904, and given a remarkable reception. Some of the critics went far in its praise. For example, the poet Fiedler (who afterward translated the drama into German) said: ‘We receive from the five acts of the poetical drama Báb more information about the Bahá’i Movement than from the deep, scientific researches of Professor Edward G. Browne, Gobineau and Russian sicentists and historians. As the Herold has already published two full feuilletons about the poem, we shall speak only of the performance of the play. Rarely has the renown of any play preceded the performance as has this of Mrs. Grinevsky.’”
The Herold of January, 1904, printed the following:
“The drama appeared in May of last year, 1903, the most inconvenient time for the coming out of a book, but nevertheless pens of critics began to move in the journals and magazines in praise of the author’s work. Moreover, enlightened
--PHOTO--
Count Leo Tolstoy and his secretary, Mr. Valentin Bulgakov, taken in 1910.
Persian society sent an inspired letter of thanks; and above all, Isabel Grinevsky had the high spiritual satisfaction that among those who praised her drama was the lion of contemporary Russian literature, Leo Tolstoy.”
Mr. Wesselitzky, a Russian journalist and president of the Foreign Press Association in London, gave an address about this drama Báb in London, in English and the lecture was published in pamphlet form in French and English. I quote one paragraph from this speech: “Amidst the sorrows of disastrous war and those dreadful inner troubles, that book, Báb, was my only happy impression and it has remained since a permanent source of joy and comfort as a manifest proof of the vitality of Russia and its creative genius.”*
* Taken from a pamphlet, the speech delivered by Mr. Wesselitzky, President of the Foreign Press Association of London, published in French and English. London, 1907, at the press of “Chronide”, 29 Besborough Street, London, S. W.
“Count Tolstoy read this drama Báb with great interest,” Mr. Bulgakov told me, “and sent a letter to Mrs. Grinevsky praising her work and telling her he was in sympathy with these teachings of the Bahá’i Movement.” His letter to her was published in the press of Russia. Mrs. Grinevsky also wrote me about this letter from Count Tolstoy which she has preserved.
Next Count Tolstoy read a booklet by Mr. Arakewian that described further the history of the early followers of the Báb and gave a short account of the teachings. He studied it with eager interest, his secretary told me, and sent a copy of it to one of his friends, Mr. Boulanger, who was writing a book about all religions. Count Tolstoy urged Mr. Boulanger to include a chapter on Bahá’ism in this new
book. Unfortunately the book was not published before Count Tolstoy passed on, then came the world war and it was never printed. “Count Tolstoy’s heart and soul were in all universal movements like the Bahá’i Movement that aim at the unity of all mankind,” said Mr. Bulgakov.
He also told me that Count Tolstoy read with deep appreciation the book, “The Voices of the Peoples“ by Ivan Nagivin, in which the author writes much about different religions, the old Christian sects in Russia, the Indian Religions, and about Bahá’ism. Tolstoy liked this work because it opposed militarism and all fighting and stood for universal peace. He gave copies of this book to several of his friends sending them from his home in Yasnaya Polyana.
When I asked Mr. Bulgakov if Count Tolstoy had Bahá’i books in his library, he replied: “Certainly, he had Bahá’i books in several languages. After he had read the drama Báb and knew of the Bahá’i Movement, he sent and bought what books he could get. I remember a picture in one of the English books–a picture of a young man who looked like Christ, and was the Founder of this movement.”
The secretary said that Count Tolstoy had studied the Bibles of all religions profoundly.
As one of the principles of Bahá’u’lláh is a universal auxiliary language, I asked the secretary what Count Tolstoy thought about such a language to help promote world peace, and quickly he replied: “He thought it was very important, and when he heard for the first time about Esperanto he was so delighted that he took an Esperanto grammar, studied it two hours and wrote a letter in Esperanto! He was then about seventy years old. He knew many languages, Russian, English, French, German, Italian, Hebrew, Greek, Latin.”
Count Tolstoy, I feel, was a Bahá’i in spirit, for the word signifies in the Persian language “Light-bearer”, even though he heard of the Teachings late in life. He was born September 10, 1828, and so was nearly seventy-five when he first learned through the drama Báb of this universal religion for peace which had its rise in Persia about the middle of the nineteenth century. He passed on November 10, 1910, but in one of his last writings, I hear, he penned these words which will be read not only by this generation but by millions yet unborn: “We spend our lives trying to unlock the mystery of the universe, but there was a Turkish Prisoner, Bahá’u’lláh, in ‘Akká, Palestine, who had the key!”
“Mankind needs a universal motive power to quicken it. The inspired Messenger Who is directly assisted by the power of God brings about universal results. Bahá’u’lláh rose as a Light in Persia, and now that Light is going out to the whole world.”
THE world is sick. Everybody talks about it. Everybody also talks about the achievements of Science, and about knowledge of which there is no dearth, and yet the world is sick. Of food there is plenty and yet hungry people walk the streets. Factories turn out clothes and shoes and boots, and yet men and women and children are in rags. This sickness is traced to the great War, and while in one part of the world disarmament is talked about, in another arms are being sharpened for ready use . . . .
“The intellect of humanity is not sick; however great the quantity of false knowledge, there is sufficient appreciation of what is true: who does not know that sacrifice, cooperation, brotherliness, are the remedies? Why are they not applied? There is a gulf between apperception of a fact and its effective use. The will to do must be developed. Our humanity suffers from a weak will, and is not able to do that which it perceives as right. It is sick at heart . . . .
“What are the real causes which produce a poverty-stricken society? Lack of moral perception and of moral stamina . . . . Neither political legislation nor social-service will avail . . . . These cannot inspire humanity to awaken to verities and realities . . . .”—Excerpts from Editorial in The Aryan Path.
- We are the Youth of another World,
- We are the Pulse of another Earth!
- We are the Breath of another Cycle,
- We are the Fruit of another Birth!
- We will not wander erringly
- Where you, our Sires, have lately trod;
- We will not make a mockery
- Of the Commandments of our God!
- Your harbors of security,
- Your citadels of brain and brawn
- All, all have reached their setting-point
- And will not have another dawn—
- They waste away and are consumed!
- But from the Emerald Hill come We,
- The Youth, the Youth of another World,
- All fragrant with fidelity!
- We are the Youth of another World,
- We are the Drops of another Sea!
- We are the Breath of a Golden Era,
- We are the Leaves of a Living Tree!
- We will not stretch an arm to strike,
- We will not lift a sword to slay,
- We will not crush, we will not plunder—
- We are the Youth of another Day!
- We are the Youth of another Age,
- Of another Grace are we the Fruit!
- We will not deal in transient passions,
- We will not waste in vain dispute!
- We are the Youth of another Day,
- We are the Youth of another Grace,
- And we will band the East and West,
- And we will heal the human Race!
- We will not sit in judgment seats,
- We will not learn—greed or lust,
- We’ll make the earth one commonwealth
- We will not cavil with our Trust!
- For we have come from the Emerald Hill
- Bearing composure for the Earth!
- We are the Youth of another World,
- We are the Sons of another Birth!
- We will not follow in your steps,
- We will not tarry in your way,
- We will not war, we will not smite,
- We are the Youth of another Day!
- We will not doubt, we will not wave
- The false bright banners of your might!
- We’ll band our forces fast together—
- We will not cavil with the Light!
- We are the Youth of another World,
- We are the Pulse of another Earth!
- We are the Breath of another Cycle,
- We are the Fruit of another Birth!
- We will not wander erringly
- Where you, our Sires, have lately trod!
- We will not make a mockery
- Of the Commandments of our God!
In her world travels in behalf of the Bahá'i Movement the author takes time to write to friends impressions derived from her varied experiences. These “Letters Home” we are glad to be able to present to the readers of The Bahá'i Magazine. The first “letter”, which appeared in the January 1932 number, described the author’s visit to Nikko and other places in Japan. In the April number she gave some of her impressions of China; and last month an interesting description of her contacts with the Maoris of New Zealand. Herein she has recorded a few of her observations while traveling through India.
DO you recall, in our brave young days, how we longed to go to India to imbibe her hoary wisdom and become impregnated with her spiritual life? To visit India means to readjust every preconception. It is as remarkable as our imaginings but quite different. Japan is inscrutable, China mysterious, India baffling—to the western mind quite incomprehensible.
From her population of three hundred and thirty millions, there are forty millions accredited beggars who for religious reasons are supported by the working population. This army of parasites would abstract, as a minimum, four annas a day from the public wealth. Although, as you undoubtedly remember, my mathematics has never been spectacular, I have a vague idea that this would amount to several million dollars a year, paid as a religious duty to non-producers.
The population is notoriously undernourished, especially requiring oils. I suppose about five per cent of the people use them; but at the great shrines, like Muttra Patna, crowds stand in line waiting to pour monds (eighty pounds) of precious oil or butter onto the altar fires, in payment of some pledge to the gods, or as an inducement for future favors.
In Hyderabad, Deccan, one of the
most enlightened and advanced states in India, as elsewhere, the lepers wander freely through the bazaars. When I remonstrated with one of the officials about it he said blandly: “Just how could we confine them in a lazaretto? The different castes could not occupy the same quarters, they could not eat the same food, they would require different classes of attendants; institutions of this sort would not only tax the state to the utmost because of the endless duplication required, but would create a storm of protest on account of the molestation of established religious customs.”
When a holy beggar sits with a mond of rice in front of him collected in a village where the children are only half-fed, and you say to the headman, “Why do you give far more to this man than he can possibly consume when your children are hungry?” He merely answers, “It was the custom of our fathers,” and this explanation fully satisfied him.
If a cow occupy the narrow lane through which your automobile must pass and you molest her in order to proceed, the villagers come to protest, saying that the cow has her own divine inspiration as to when she wishes to rise or to lie down, and must not be disturbed.
You are to wait, if necessary, two or three hours until the cow moves, but in the intense heat and the famines when men and beasts are exhausted and famishing, if the crows begin to pick at the open sores on the cow’s back, not one of the villagers will disturb himself to drive away the offenders.
That is why I say that India is baffling. My mind is too feeble to reconcile these drastic contradictions.
BUT OUT of my first revulsion and
amazement at these childish incongruities,
came the delighted recognition
of that inner spell and fascination
which India casts upon the
soul. I had the great advantage of
traveling with Pritam Singh, late
Professor of Economics at Allohabad
University, Secretary of
the National Spiritual Assembly
of the Bahá’is of India and
Burma, and Editor of the “Bahá'i
Weekly.” Through his unfailing
kindness and efficiency I saw the
spirit and culture of India in ways
entirely closed to the tourist.
My first glimpse of ancient India was at Benares, and it was here too that I flrst looked upon Holy Mother Ganges. No wonder the Hindus worship this river; winding for eighteen hundred miles across the great central plateau of India it makes fertile a million fields and lends to the earth her glad increase.
Benares is like a fabled city; you can scarcely convince yourself that it is not the reflex of some half-forgotten dream. It is one of the sacred places of the Hindus, for it was here that the sublime Buddha first revealed His mission—the Buddha Whom the Hindus, with
consummate subtlety and acumen, elevated to one of the incarnations of Vishnu, when driving His followers forever from their soil.
To bathe in the Ganges is to receive the protecting embrace of Vishnu Himself, for does not this sanctified flood spring from his very head manifesting in the form of a cow?
At sunrise the banks are astir with life. As we leave the hotel a band of pilgrims travel-stained and eager, who have evidently walked many miles during the night, are passing on their way to the consummation of their deepest yearning—to commingle with God in the holy waves of the Ganges.
Sealed in comfortable hour-glass chairs on the deck of an enormous rowboat, the glittering phantasmagoria unfolds before us as we float along. It is as if some stupendous being sprinkling largesse from a gigantic cornucopia had scattered, with lavish hand, temples, palaces, balustrades and galleries, appropriately to crown these holy precincts.
The temples, serrated pyramids of red sand-stone, crowd against each other from bank to brink, and magnificent palaces reared high of solid masonry dignify the scene. In the distance the slender twin minarets of a mosque remind us that an alien culture has been grafted upon the ancient stem of India; but Islam is here only a formal intruder. (In Agra I shall see the evidences of the Moslem occupation). Flung from the lofty parapets of the palaces are brilliant saris, crimson, saffron, purple, majenta drying in the early sun, and fluttering with every vagrant breeze.
From place to place long flights of broad stairs lead into the river; these are now thronged with worshippers clad in a glorious riot of color, vivid and beautiful. The women do not remove their saris (the six or nine yards of material in which they so gracefully drape themselves) when they enter the river, but the men strip except for the loin cloth, and usually a garland of daffodils or marigolds around the neck.
Of course I realized that nowhere else on earth could this sight be duplicated and I wanted a thousand eyes to impress every detail upon my memory.
Small wooden piers are built out over the river to accommodate the more bathers, and giant umbrellas, twelve feet in diameter, protect them from the sun, already hot at its rising. Naked priests sometimes sit under them, votive offerings of food and money piled before them, with earnest disciples learning from them the discipline of deliverance. The pilgrims, lifting a joyous song, march, a white-clad band, along the irregular path that crowns the bank. Everywhere is color, motion, sound. I have never heard anything, outside a boiler factory, comparable to the infernal din of the Temple bells. The gods must have much stouter nerves than mine if they withstand these strident petitions.
Near the widest flight of steps is the burning ghat where the dead bodies are cremated. On the morning of my arrival a little group of men ran past the car with a body suspended on a narrow crude litter. “Why, what is that?“ I exclaimed. “A corpse”, replied Professor
Singh casually. “They are taking it to the ghat.” Here we find none of the western sentimentality about death. To the Hindu it is a brief and deserved respite between the struggles, trials and sorrows of a multiplicity of earthly existences. Our tender regard for that last souvenir of the soul, the lifeless body, seems to have little place in Hindu psychology.
At this ghat there are three pyres. The mourners, very few in number, sit on a little mound above, while an attendant with a long stick (the fires are intensely hot) pokes the corpse from time to time to make it burn the better. Wood is scarce and expensive. In theory the corpse is burned to ashes and these scattered in the river: in reality if there is not enough wood in the pyre completely to consume the body, its charred remains are thrown in as they are. Immediately next the ghat the city drain empties; a great flow of filthy water may be seen constantly pouring into the stream and immediately next the ghat and the drain is the broadest flight of stairs, the largest amount of piers and the greatest number of bathers.
That millions of people can survive these unhygienic and unsanitary conditions is due to the powerful actinic ray of the Indian sun, to which germs and contagions are a very trifling matter.
The water is by this time swarming with men and women offering their morning prayers; the temples are packed, the piers crowded. Lifting up the water in hollowed hands the worshippers pour libations to the sun. And now departing they fling their gay garlands
upon the surface of the waters, a reminder of their prayers and their pledges.
HERE LIES a man powerless and
lethargic. “What ails him?” I
ask. “He is a twenty-pounder”, I
am told. “He looks more like
twenty stone”, I answer. “What
do you mean?” “He is a sadhu (a
religious beggar) who can eat
twenty pounds of food at a time.”
It seems that an affair of great
credit is to feed these abnormal
men. Ramakrishna at last has a
son. He vows a pilgrimage for
himself and his wife to Benares,
and there, as token of his gratitude,
he will feed two fifteen and one
twenty pounders. The sadhus
gorge with choice food until they
are absolutely distended with this
unnecessary nourishment and then
lie helpless for two or three days
digesting it. They would not dare
take a drink of water lest the food
ferment and kill them. This, with
millions half-starved in India.
Returning to the city a priest accosts us and bids us visit the gold-domed temple. We are not permitted to enter, as we are heathen, but view from a balcony the surging crowd that worships. The dome, a gift from some ancient rajah, is covered with lakhs of pure gold. Carved elephants and bulls, the various incarnations of Krishna, are hung with garlands.
INDIAN LIFE is full of poetry. The
most lovely of their customs is the
use of flowers. There are bouquets
and garlands for every occasion
and the women wear the most
charming decorations of blossoms.
Mr. Telang, a learned and delightful
Hindu, General Secretary of the Theosophical Society, who entertained me the day I spoke at the Theosophical University, told a sweet little story. Some masons who were building a house, for a Moslem, by-the-bye, found a little bunch of wilted flowers by the roadside, abstracted a few of the bricks and placing the drooping bouquet in a small earthen pot of water, built a tiny shrine around it, lighted a candle and started still another place of worship.
On my way out to fill engagements at the Benares Hindu University, I noticed a candle burning in the root of a mighty tree, placed there by some humble devotee who found God everywhere.
Fortunately it was the month of marriages so that I saw a series of these gayest of all festivals. Radiant processions follow the gorgeously apparrelled bride in her litter, with a profusion of extravagant color, flowers and ornaments. The groom, on a richly caparisoned horse rides behind, no less magnificently clad than his lady. There are cymbals, music, song, shouts and laughter. Our western life seems inexcusably drab, inert and self-conscious in comparison to these spontaneous ceremonies.
Several times on returning to the hotel we had to push aside a sacred cow or heifer before we could mount the stairs: one night an enormous creature blocked the entrance. “Ah, here is the main bull,” exclaimed Professor Singh quaintly.
In Benares is situated the most important Hindu University in India. Although it was closed I was given the opportunity of presenting
the Bahá’i message to the faculty, who accorded me very flattering attention. The tendency of the Hindu is not to oppose or persecute but to exclude.
In India I had much the feeling I had in China—that of a crystalization so powerful that nothing except the destruction of the mould could dissolve. “What but the power of Bahá’u’lláh”, I said to my dear companion, “can blot from men’s recollection their outworn superstitions, their paralyzing dogmas and emancipate them for the sublime adventure of making of ‘this world another world that will be filled with the holy ecstacy of the Grace of God?’”
If ever I find time again I want to tell you about my visit to Agra, Aligarh, Amritzar and Hyderabad. I longed for you a thousand times in Burma and Java. No description can convey the reality of “magic easements opening on the
foam in faery lands.” Here are a thousand ancient things to remind us of Beauty but to the Beauty of Holiness, which the Message of Bahá’u’lláh conveys, we turn blind eyes and deaf ears.
Oh, I nearly forgot to tell of my experience with a Brahmin advocate. As you know it is contrary to their most cherished custom to eat with any other than a Brahmin: indeed they lose their caste by so doing. Quite unwittingly I offered him a cup of tea. “You must excuse me; I am orthodox”, he said. “But you Hindus teach that every human being is the immediate Presence of God: that God literally dwells in every created soul. What is there about God so unclean or so offensive that you would not want to drink a cup of tea with him?” He looked enormously embarrassed and nonplussed, but still refused the tea. You see why I call India baffling.
IN EUROPE and America several universities have established a department of Chinese studies or have offered courses in Chinese history and culture. These courses certainly are of help to students to get a better understanding of the culture of old China and an appreciation of some of the biggest issues of China’s present-day problems.
It interests and inspires me very much to visit some of the universities in America where a department
of Chinese studies has been established. If I am not mistaken, Columbia was the first American university to start such a department. The founding of the department was made possible through the generous gift of General Horace W. Carpentier. General Carpentier had a Chinese servant named Dean Lung who had served him faithfully a number of years. It is said that in his humble service Dean Lung had exhibited such characteristics and self-evident virtues that
on his death the General decided that an effort should be made to study the civilization out of which such virtues grew. He made his donation to Columbia—a total of $226,200. General Carpentier also donated to the University of California a sum from the income of which important collections of books both in Chinese and in Japanese were purchased.
In 1928 the Harvard-Yenching Institute in Cambridge, Mass., was established. This most generous gift of Mr. Charles M. Hall of Niagara Falls has enabled the Trustees of Harvard University to organize that department which in the future will be one of the most importont media for international intellectual intercourse and for promotion of amicable international relations between America and the Orient. In McGill University, Montreal, there is a department of Chinese studies, of which Dr. Kiang Kanghu, former professor at the National Imperial University, Peking, and at the National University at Nanking, is the head. In McGill University there is also the Gest Chinese Research Library, which contains, in addition to works in English and European languages, a Chinese collection of several thousand volumes. In the Congressional Library at Washington are found no less than 125,000 volumes of important Chinese works. In the libraries of Columbia, Yale, the University of California and our University of Hawaii are found many notable collections of Chinese and Japanese works. In these works are recorded the intellectual achievements of the great thinkers of the Orient, particularly of the past. At present these works are
only useful to a handful of investigators but in future they should become one of the most important intermediaries of international intellectual understanding.
TO ACQUAINT the students in China with the better aspects of modern Western civilization and with some of the great personalities who are guiding modern thought, prominent college professors from America and Europe have been invited to give lectures in the universities and other educational institutions. In return some of the educational leaders of China have gone abroad to give talks on present-day China and her problems, so as to cultivate an adequate understanding between the Chinese and their friends.
Quite a number of Western professors have been connected with the colleges and universities of China for more than 20 years and they are still there. Their very presence in those educational institutions which they have been serving so unselfishly and loyally shows the existence of harmonious and amicable relationship between them and their Chinese associates. International gatherings of social and academic nature on the college campus are commonplace events in the Chinese educational world today . . . .
It is my sincere hope that the political and economic aspects of international relations will soon be improved so that China’s relationship with all nations will not merely be amicable but truly friendly. And to this end Chinese educators must dedicate their task.-Excerpts from an address by Dr. Shaw Chang Lee. Mid-Pacific Magazine.
In the first chapter in this series, published in the October number, the author stressed the slow evolutionary process of the concept of God from the earliest times. The second chapter, in the November number, treated of the nature of the Divine Manifestations. The third chapter, published in December, emphasized the importance of the Prophet as the way to God and the Medium through Whom the Light flows to the world. The fourth chapter, published herein, concludes the series.
FOR the first time in recorded history we have authentic information on the nature of a Divine Manifestation or Prophet. That is, the Prophet for this day has given us some light about His own station.
Humanity has always struggled with two ideas about God. He is the One, the Absolute, and the Infinite and again He is a moral and personal God. The first concept finds expression in medieval mysticism which is cold and non-personal compared with prophetic religion which is always warm, dynamic and progressive. To the mystic, God is not a revelation in history; God reveals himself to every man in mystical inspirations and visions. Of course mysticism does not always appear in its pure form. The Christian God-mysticism and the Sufist-mysticism of Islam have always shown fervour and personal warmth.
In general, mysticism has been independent of ecclesiastical authority and consequently it has been able to emerge from religious dogma and materialism in the past and we see popular forms of it even today.
Some of the mystics of the past and some modern cults teach that there is a part of the Divine Essence
in each individual or that we are potential gods. Now this is only natural and indicates a real striving toward God, for we may ask, “How can we comprehend the Divine unless there is a little of the Divine within us?”
‘Abdu’l-Bahá tells us that our relation to God is like the connection between the ray and the sun. The rays emanate from the sun but are not part of the sun. Again we are the creation and not a part of the Creator. To illustrate, the author writes a book which may produce a profound effect upon society but the book does not contain a part of the writer. The author might be likened to the essence of the writing as he always transcends the medium which expresses his thought. Again the musician sends forth sound vibrations into the air which may produce visible effects upon his audience but the music is not a part of the composer but rather an emanation, as it were, from the composer.
In speaking of the relation between man, the created, and God, the Creator, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says that this “proceeding”, “coming forth” or “dependence” is like the ray which emanates from the sun or the discourse which comes forth or emanates from the speaker.
There is however another kind of coming forth of proceeding through “manifestation”, like the coming forth of the flower from the seed. In this case the reality or essence of the seed passes into the flower. Man’s proceeding or dependence is not like this, for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says1, “But the appearance through manifestation is the manifestation of the branches, leaves, blossoms and fruit from the seed; for the seed in its own essence becomes branches and fruits, and its reality enters into branches, the leaves and fruits.
“This appearance through manifestation would be for God the most High, simple imperfection, and this is quite impossible; for the implication would be that the absolute Pre-existent is qualified with phenomenal attributes; but if this were so, pure independence would become pure poverty and true existence would become non-existence and this is not possible.”
Hence we, His creatures, emanate from Him like the light which emanates from the sun and are therefore not a part of the reality or essence.
In some respects the great Prophets or Manifestations are like other men. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says2, “We said that the Manifestations have three planes. First the physical reality, which depends upon the body; secondly, the individual reality, that is to say, the rational soul; thirdly, the divine appearance, which is the divine perfections, the cause of the life of existence, of the education of souls, of the guidance of people, and of the
1 “Some Answered Questions”—p. 237. 2 Some Answered Questions p. 177. 3 Some Answered Questions p. 271. 4 Some Answered Questions p. 240. 5 Some Answered Questions p. 241.
enlightment of the contingent world.”
On the other hand ‘Abdu’l-Bahá makes it clear that the Holy Manifestations have a station that is unique. He says that no matter how far the disciples of Christ advance they will never reach the station of Christ3. In this sense Christ was not a man like other men.
Although the Manifestations have a station that is beyond our comprehension, even they are not a part of the Divine. They manifest the attributes and perfections of God in the sense that the perfect mirror reflects the rays of the sun to us. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says4, “But the proceeding through manifestation (if by this is meant the Divine appearance, and not division into parts), we have said, is the proceeding and appearance of the Holy Spirit and the Word which is from God.” He emphasizes the point more strongly in another place5; “And know that the proceeding of the Word and the Holy Spirit from God, which is the proceeding and appearance of manifestation, must not be understood to mean that the Reality of Divinity has been divided, into parts, or multiplied, or that it has descended from the exaltation of holiness and purity. God forbid!”
Was Christ God incarnate? If we mean by this that Christ was the perfect Manifestation of God; that He was the perfect reflection of God and that when men looked upon Him it was as if they looked upon the face of God, then the answer is, yes, for this is the testimony
of Himself. To quote from John 14; “. . he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; . . . I am in the Father and the Father in me..” That is, the Divine attributes of God are reflected in Christ.
God can dwell in us only in the sense that the sun dwells in the mirror.
While we cannot understand the essence of God we are commanded to try and understand the “wisdom and greatness of God”.
To recapitulate; man emanates from God like the ray from the sun and is not therefore a part of the essence or reality of God, and in consequence he is not a potential god. If God were love, mercy, justice, etc. we might manifest Him for we have these attributes but we have shown that the essence lies back of the attributes, so to speak, and is unknowable.
Even the great Prophets like Christ and Bahá’u’lláh do not contain a part of the Divine in the
1 Some answered Questions, p. 256.
sense that the Divine is divided into parts. They manifest to us the Divine Perfections. The proceeding or coming forth, in this case, is not like the ray from the sun, nor the music from the musician for it is not a creation emanating from a creator. Hence the term “emanation“ is not used in this connection. The Manifestions are mediums through which the Divine Perfections are transmitted to us and we may think of their station as anagolous to the fine, polished mirror which reflects perfectly the rays of the sun.
Our knowledge of God comes through His Manifestations and they inform us only of His attributes and not His Reality. Moreover this knowledge is limited by our capacity? “Knowing God, therefore means the comprehension and the knowledge of His attributes and not His Reality. This knowledge of His attributes is also proportioned to the capacity and power of man; and is not absolute.”
NO ONE hath any way to the Reality of Deity except through the instrumentality of the Manifestation. To suppose so is a theory and not a fact. Tablets, Vol. 1, p. 214.
THE KNOWLDGE of the Reality of
the Divinity is impossible and unattainable,
but the knowledge of the
Manifestations of God is the knowledge
of God for the bounties
splendors and divine attributes are
apparent in them. Therefore if
man attains to the knowledge of
the Manifestations of God, he will attain to the knowledge of God; and if he be neglectful of the knowledge of the Holy Manifestation, he will be bereft of the knowledge of God . . . The Holy Manifestations of God are the center of the bounty, signs and perfections of God. (Answered Questions, p. 257.)
THE REALITY of the Divinity is
hidden from all comprehension, and
concealed from the minds of all
men. . . . How can man, the created,
understand the reality of the pure
Essence of the Creator? This plane is unapproachable by the understanding, no explanation is sufficient of its comprehension, and there is no power to indicate it. . . . Minds are powerless to comprehend God . . . every statement and elucidation is defective, all praise and all description are unworthy, every conception is vain, and every meditation is futile. But for this Essence of the essences, this Truth of truths, this Mystery of mysteries, there are reflections. . . . The dawning-place of these splendors, the place of these reflections, and the appearance of these manifestations, are the Holy Dawning-Places, the Universal Realities, and the Divine Beings, who are the true mirrors of the sanctified Essence of God. All the perfections, the bounties, the splendors which come from God, are visible and evident in the Reality of the Holy Manifestations, like the sun which is resplendent in a clear polished mirror with all its perfections and bounties. . . . Therefore all that the human reality knows, discovers and understands of the names, the attributes, and the perfections of God, refer to these Holy Manifestations. . . . The individual Realities of the Divine Manifestations have no separation from the Bounty of God and the Lordly Splendor. In the same way the orb of the sun has no separation from the light. . . . The Divine Manifestations are so many different mirrors, because they have a special individuality, but that which is reflected in the mirrors is One Sun. (Answered Questions.
THE GREATEST proof of a Manifestation
is the Manifestation Himself.
We do not have to prove the existence of the sun. The sun is independent of proof . . . Another great proof of a Manifestation is His power to develop souls. Miracles are but secondary proofs. (Ten Days in the Light of ‘Akká, pp. 32-35.)
WHEN THE Prophets of God appear upon this earth, their validity is established by means of certain proofs. One of the proofs is through the fulfillment of former prophecies, the second proofs are their creative words and phrases which salute the hearts of humanity, the third are their deeds and the fourth are their teachings.
A clear proof of validity lies in the achievements and here we are confronted by certain irrefutable facts . . . . A supreme proof is the teaching. For instance the precepts of Christ were sufficient proof of His validity. There is no greater proof than these teachings. They were the Light of that cycle and the spirit of that age. All that He said accorded with the needs of the humanity of that time. They were peerless and unique.
Consider His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh and His teachings. They are the spirit of this cycle—the light of this age . . . . The principles of Bahá’u’lláh are the remedy and balm for the wounded world; and without their inculcation, reconciliation between the nations will not be reached. These very teachings of Bahá’u’lláh are the greatest proofs of His claim. Such a power hath appeared from Him as will suffice to convince the whole world.
The proof of the sun is its light and heat. (Divine Philosophy, pp. 43-45.)
Readers of the Bahá’i Magazine who have been following Mrs. Keith Ransom-Kehler’s “Letters Home” in which she gives us the high lights of her teaching trip around the world will be interested in the account of her arrival and first days in Tihrán, the capital city of Persia. Two letters glowing with enthusiasm have been recently received by the editors from our Persian brothers A. H. Naimi and A. Samimi, both employed in one of the Legations in Tihrán. Since we cannot print these letters in their entirety we make them the basis of the following brief article.
MRS. RANSOM-KEHLER arrived in Tihrán from Haifa the 29th of last June for a three month’s visit to the land of Bahá’u’lláh in order to associate with Bahá’i friends, strengthen the bonds of unity and understanding between the East and the West and visit the historic places of the Bahá’i Cause. Her visit had been heralded by a letter from Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá’i Cause, introducing Mrs. Ransom-Kehler to the Persian friends.
“On learning of her arrival in Persian territory,” Mr. Samimi says, “a number of friends from Tihrán went to meet her at Qazvin situated at a distance of ninety-six miles from Tihrán. When our visitor, accompanied by a party of the friends, reached Keraj, a village situated half way between Qazvin and Tihrán, they were
joined by a large number of friends who had come to meet their sister. ‘I was much impressed,’ she said, ‘by the warm welcome given to me by the friends and especially to be able to witness with my own eyes the realization of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s promise that the East and West will join together under the banner of unity and brotherhood.’
“When the party reached Tihrán they found that friends, men and women, to the number of about a thousand had gathered in a garden belonging to one of the Bahá’is outside the town to welcome Mrs. Ransom-Kehler. Our dear visitor greeted the friends most warmly and joyously with the Bahá’i greeting of “Alláh-u-Abhá’. She was especially pleased to meet among the friends Dr. Susan I. Moody, Miss Adelaide Sharp and Mrs. Clara H. Sharp, American friends.“
“How soul-refreshing it is to us Persians,” says Mr. Naimi, “to see a Westerner so confirmed in the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh, so freed from the usual materialistic interests of the western world that in spite of delicate health she traveled over the barren plains and mountainous roads of Persia in accordance with the expressed wishes of the Guardian to serve the Cause in the East.”
Mrs. Ransom-Kehler had brought with her greetings and messages of love from the household in Haifa. In a beautiful talk she gave these messages to the friends gathered in the garden to welcome her. A
message from Bahiyyih Khanum* was especially emphasized. It proved to be her last message to the Persian friends. “When saying good-bye to the Greatest Holy Leaf,” Mrs. Ransom-Kehler said, “she told me to give to the men as well as to the women the same message of love equally. She said also, ‘When you enter the holy city of Tihrán, enter it in my name and when you speak, speak in my name.’”
After an enforced rest of two weeks in the hospital Mrs. Ransom-Kehler was able to give a public talk at the first of nine memorial services held on nine successive days in various quarters of the town in honor of the Greatest Holy Leaf. In referring to the message given to her by the Greatest Holy Leaf Mrs. Ransom-Kehler said that she now realized that it was indeed a parting message and signalized the fact that her material life was fast approaching an end.
Mr. Naimi’s description of one of the gatherings where Mrs. Ransom-Kehler spoke gives us a vivid picture of the group. “A great number of the friends, young and old, children and adults, were seated on two symmetrically built flights of steps leading to a spacious elevated veranda covering the front part of a typical Persian house of old style belonging to one of the friends. The steps, the veranda and the rooms in the background
* Bahiyyih Khanum, sister of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’ and known as the Greatest Holy Leaf passed into the next world soon after Mrs. Ransom-Kehler's arrival in Tihran.
were simply packed with friends. Eager faces were seen from all points gazing at the sister from the Occident with such pure feelings of Bahá’i love and gladness of heart that Mrs. Ransom-Kehler could scarcely control the tears as she said: ‘Only the unlimited power of Bahá’u’lláh is able to attract such a love and unity and bring about this soul-to-soul communion between the East and the West.’”
“Mrs. Ransom-Kehler is now trying,” writes Mr. Samimi, “as far as the condition of her health permits, to attend the memorial meetings which are being held in different parts of the town. She cannot help expressing her joy at the sight of the friends of all classes, men, women and children who are eager to attend the meetings and see their spiritual sister from the West. We are glad to witness the ties of real brotherhood and unity which bring the friends from the East and the West closer to each other. We are looking forward to hearing the inspiring lectures of this pure and illumined soul who is the bearer of the message of love from our dear brothers and sisters of the West. These lectures are indeed tending to strengthen the bonds of real brotherhood and friendship which unite the followers of Bahá’u’lláh in these two distant and far-off countries.”
“In this radiant century divine knowledges, merciful attributes and spiritual virtues will attain the highest degree of advancement. The traces home become manifest in Persia.”
BEAUTY is food for the soul, it lifts one above the mundane sphere and places one in rapport with life’s finer forces. Perhaps that is why man has ever exerted his greatest artistic efforts to build and decorate his temples to Deity.
Wherever one travels and in whatever land, more tourists seem drawn to a famous temple than to any other spot. There may be a feeling of spiritual adventure associated with it, who knows, for one often makes these trips even at some personal discomfort.
In the center of Guatemala the lure of an ancient Mayan Temple drew me to wade in dew-bedecked grass to my waist, past huge buttressed trees, covered with long-rope-like vines, in which swung monkeys and bright hued parrots screamed. Opalescent butterflies as blue as a fleck of the tropical sky flitted around us as we approached the ruins of a mighty pyramidal temple buried deep in the heart of the jungle. Its walls were beautifully carved but mute to the question of what manner of people built the temple at Quirigua or what concept of Deity they held.
LATER we took a long, dusty trip
up the Nile to visit the temples of
another civilization. Here again
were evidences that religion gave
rise to art and architecture, for the
Egyptians built magnificent structures
to their gods, decorating
them in color and with sculpture.
Their ceremonials developed music
and rhythm, so man has unfolded
his higher sensibilities simultaneously with his religion, which is always the civilizing factor among all peoples. What mattered that we went back a thousand years in transportation to ride by camel and donkey to the lovely Temple of Isis at Denderah, with its zodiacal ceiling? Pausing to admire an exquisite carving of the winged sun-disk symbolizing the sun god, I recalled Prof. Henry Breasted’s description of King Ikhnaton. “Ikhnaton had gained the belief that one God created not only all the lower creatures but also all the races of men both Egyptians and foreigners. Moreover the king saw in his god a kindly father who maintained all his creatures by his goodness so that even the birds in the marshes were aware of his kindness and uplifted their wings like arms to praise him.” It was remarkable to find at this time “one who had such a vision of the great father of all.” No wonder he was responsible for the building of so many temples.
TO STAND on the site of Solomon’s
Temple in Jerusalem where so
many temples had been builded and
to visualize its magnificence was a
stirring experience even if to-day
the spot is covered by the colorfully
tiled Mosque of Omar, one of the
most beautiful of its kind. We
donned sandals to walk over luxurious
oriental rugs within, thankful
that the changing times permitted
a Christian to view its
sacred Muhammadan precincts.
AND THEN in Europe—who can describe the glories of those magnificent cathedrals of the Middle Ages—Milan, Notre Dame and many others yet to be visited? While standing in the “Street of the Clock”, and admiring the wondrous towers of the Catherdal of Rouen, a proud townsman informed me that this building was erected by master craftsmen. They were artists so inspired by the privilege of building that magnificent structure that they worked day and night without compensation, giving all that was in them, heart and soul, that they might erect a cathedral which would go down through the ages as a monument to their love of God.
BUT THE crowning experience of
all was after journeying from early
dawn up the Mississippi Valley in
an airplane to stand at evening
within that universal Temple of
Light just outside Chicago with the
moonlight streaming through its
dome of glass. Other temples visited
represent love and sacrifice but
the building of this temple in Wilmette,
near Chicago, represents the
love and sacrifice not simply of
those in one locality but of people
from all quarters of the globe. In
regard to this ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has
said:
“Praise be to God, that, at this moment, from every country in the world, according to their various means, contributions are continually being sent toward the fund of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in America. From the day of Adam until now, such a thing has never been witnessed by man, that from the furthermost country of Asia contributions were forwarded to America. . . . The mystery of the edifice is great, and cannot be unveiled yet, but its erection
* Suburb of Chicago, Ill.
is the most important undertaking of the day . . . . Its gates will be flung wide open to mankind; prejudice towards none, love for all.”
To enter the doors of this temple is indeed a bounty of God, for within these walls one feels alive, inspired by an abounding love for all peoples and a deep abiding peace,—free from a disturbed world.
AND FINALLY nearly a year and
a half later we quietly motored out
of Washington, D. C., down a modern
highway in Virginia past a
wooden fence, where a sign with
the drawing of a glorious temple
announced that we had at last come
to the place where history is in the
making. The sign reads that the
outer decoration of the Bahá’i
Temple is in the process of construction
within.
Mr. John J. Earley, the master craftsman under whose direction the outer structure of the dome is being built, greeted us and showed us about. He first called our attention to an upright wooden structure, an exact replica of one-ninth of the dome of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in Wilmette,* reproducing the outer steel work. This is to support the plaster models of the ornamentation that is to cover the outside of the Temple dome; making a building of lacework in stone.
I was impressed by the enormity of the work being carried on there, the great amount of detail involved, the great care being exercised to get every little thing exact, the vast amount of checking to be done, and the problems to be solved for which there was no precedent, since the
building of this Temple is a distinct departure from other forms of architecture and new materials and methods of construction have had to be created. It embodies the first new idea in religious architecture since the thirteenth century.
How wonderful are the ways of Providence! The Bahá’is have for years been trying to erect this Temple to Universal Peace, but it could not have been built before this time for the materials that were to go into it had not been discovered. For instance a new type of non-corrosive metal will be used to hold the ornamentation in place.
Since the Temple must stand for ages like others that have been built, materials must be used that will withstand the climatic conditions around Chicago. It has taken twelve years of study and research to find a material that is not porous, for the outer covering. A sparkling white quartz, the hardest material known next to a diamond, is to form the outer surface of the concrete ornamentation, which will glisten like frost crystals in the sunlight. When it rains it will be washed clear as a diamond so that the building will always present a pristine whiteness, symbolizing the purity and oneness of religion.
When I inquired about the snow accumulation in the design, (for it seemed to me that a heavy snow would break the glass underneath) Mr. Allen McDaniel whose untiring efforts have made much of the engineering work possible, explained that the dome was fitted with steam pipes and during a snow storm the dome would be heated, causing the snow to melt and thus
there would be no accumulation. Every emergency seems to be provided for; it is really remarkable how nothing has been overlooked.
Several units of the dome decoration in plaster were already completed and in place on the dummy wooden structure outside the plant. As I gazed on its beauty, it quite overcame me. I have never seen anything so compelling, it seems to speak and stir the soul to action. I wanted to cry out to the whole earth, “Let us hasten and complete this building, which will do so much to inspire mankind to a better way of living.”
Next we went inside of a long building where there was a blue print seventy feet long, on which was a full size drawing of a rib of the dome. Here was a man carving out the copy of this design, which had been traced on clay in one of the wooden moulds. Next this carved clay was to be cast in plaster, another artist bit by bit would carve away the extra plaster, and then this would be made into a mould into which the final material will be poured. They told me that the artist who works on the carving, as indeed is true of all who are working on the Temple, has captured the spirit that animated the master craftsmen of the middle ages. They work long hours after they are supposed to lay down their tools, so inspired are they by the beauty of the design. I was told that many of the workers were making a thorough study of the Bahá’i writings that they might be even more capable of placing the spiritual essence of them within the lacey work of the Temple decorations.
Everything about this construction is different, one can’t describe it. Even the building of the dome first, is contrary to the usual procedure.
It is a Herculean task. When I commented on the great amount of work involved and wondered how the engineers in charge could get time to attend to it with their other duties, they answered with great radiance in their faces: “We are glad that the conditions of the times are such that our other work does not now demand so much of us and
we have the great privilege of giving almost our entire time to this work.”
Somehow that is the spirit I carried away with me, the joy of sacrifice, the privilege it is to have even a small part in contributing to the erection of so marvelous a structure, that millions will view throughout the ages, that will inspire a spiritual understanding which will bring love and cooperation among all the nations. May its completion be hastened!
“WITH THE most marvelous inventions of the past hundred years, through telegraph, locomotive, cablegram, wireless, radiogram, airplane and others, the world has been reduced to a very small-sized habitat for the human race. No nation can now shut its doors and live sufficient unto itself. Whether we wish it or not, we are bound to be drawn together as a family of nations, each producing what by natural endowment it can best produce and supply the needs of others. Instead of nationalism there is to be internationalism. World consciousness is to take the place of national egotism. Cooperation among nations is to supplant the hitherto bickerings, struggles for supremacy, strikes and wars between them. The establishment of the World Court, the founding of the League of Nations, the resort to arbitration instead of force, the agreement of all the countries of the world to the Kellogg-Briand
Peace Pact, all tend to realize the dream of universal brotherhood so succinctly stated by Confucius over twenty centuries ago that “all within the four seas are brethren.”
“In making the above statement I am not blind to the forces of reaction, jingoism, national pride and jealousies, and the general weakness of human beings. It may take decades, yea even centuries, before we will be able to bring about this ideal state of world brotherhood, cooperation and peace. But shall we desist from pursuing our course because of these difficulties? We shall not. We shall rather redouble our efforts and inculcate in the minds of our children and our children’s children this high idealism till its full realization. May the Lord of the Universe, in whatever name He is named, bless us in these worthy endeavors of ours.”—Dr. C. T. Wang, Pan-Pacific Banquet, Shanghai.
“THERE ARE a few notes of cheer. This afternon a group of students are holding an organization meeting for the promotion of a congress against war. If the universe should blunder again into a gigantic orgy of war and destruction, there are a few intelligent individuals in our universities, pulpits and publications that would strenuously protest. This is more hopeful than the situation in 1914 and 1917 when everyone from ministers to outlaws yelled for the smashing of the Central Powers in a cause that was to “make the world safe for democracy” and a “war that was to end wars.”
“We as college students today are for the most part more mature and more conscious of the problems in the outside world.”—Editorial in The Daily Northwestern, official newspaper of eleven thousand students at Northwestern University.
“WE PERCEIVE in Japan two main
currents of civilization flowing in
many fields—namely that of the
East and the West. But the most
essential is that the current has
the nature of the mixture of the
East and the West.
“From the East Japan has learned much about materialism and utilitarianism, but she is not forgetting to retain the spiritualism and idealism of the East. Japan owes much to the West in the introduction of modern inventions, but she is striving hard to retain oriental art and beauty.
“The progress of western civilization is moving westward and it is going to meet with Eastern civilization somewhere on the Pacific. They say that the meridian is the
dividing line of the East and the West but I must say that it is also the bond between the West and the East. The aim of Japan, considering her geographical situation, is to establish the new type of civilization made by the assimilation of both Western and Eastern civilizations.”—Dr. Kokichi Morimoto, Mid-Pacific Magazine.
“WHEN FOLKS know one another
well they build close and lasting
friendship . . . . Fate has brought
together here a strange citizenry.
It is not so much the people that
make Hawaii different . . . . it is
the thought and feeling that flows
through their minds to level former
prejudices and subdue the community
to a new and vital life.“
From a radio address by Raymond
S. Coll, Managing Editor of The
Honolulu Advertiser.
“A CENTRAL clearing house
should be at work somewhere in the
Pacific area to gather and disseminate
information about professors
who are traveling on sabbatical
leave or furlough so that universities
in their path could take advantage
of their coming. Also, efforts
should be made to develop a
plan whereby professors on leave
could be invited on visiting appointments
at universities across the
ocean. What if language barriers
do exist! Interpreters can be provided.
Take them in socially as well
as educationally. It will prove an
excellent antidote for race prejudice.—David
L. Crawford, President
University of Hawaii, Pacific
Regional Conference, World Federation
of Education Associations.
THE PROMULGATION OF UNIVERSAL PEACE, being The Addresses of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in America, in two volumes. Price, each, $2.50.
BAHÁ'U'LLÁH AND THE NEW ERA, by Dr. J. E. Esslemont, a gifted scientific scholar of England. This is the most comprehensive summary and explanation of the Bahá'í Teachings as yet given in a single volume. Price, $1.00; paper cover, 50 cents.
THE WISDOM TALKS OF 'ABDU'L-BAHÁ in Paris. This series of talks covers a wide range of subjects, and is perhaps the best single volume at a low price in which 'Abdu'l-Bahá explains in His own words the Bahá'í Teaching. Price, paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00.
BAHÁ'Í SCRIPTURES. This book, compiled by Horace Holley, is a remarkable compendium of the Teachings of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá. It contains a vast amount of material and is indexed. This Paper Edition (only ¾-inch thick) Price, $2.50.
THE BAHÁ'Í WORLD, a Biennial International Record (formerly Bahá'í Year Book). Prepared under the auspices of the Bahá'í National Assembly of America with the approval of Shoghi Effendi. Price, cloth, $2.50.
All books may be secured from The Bahá'í Publishing Committee, Post office Box 348, Grand Central Station, New York City.
FIVE MONTHS' subscription to a new subscriber, $1.00; yearly subscription, $3.00. Two subscriptions to one address, $5.00. Three subscriptions to one address, $7.50. Ten new subscriptions to one address, $25.00 (in United States and Canada). If requested, the subscriber may receive one or more copies and have the remaining copies sent to other addresses.
Two subscriptions, one to come each month, and one to be sent in a volume bound in half-leather, at the end of the year, $5.75 of the two subscriptions; postage for bound volume additional.
Single copies, 25 cents each; ten copies to one address, $2.00. Address The Bahá'í Magazine, 1000 Chandler Bldg., Washington, D. C.
The Herald of the South, P. O. Box 90 B, Adelaide, Australia.
Kawkab-i-Hind (Published in Urdu), Karol Bagh, Delhi, India.
La Nova Tago (Published in Esperanto), Friedrich Voglerstrasse 4, Weinheim, Baden, Germany.
Sonne der Wahrheit (Published in German), Stuttgart, Germany.
Bound volumes Nos. 15 and 16, covering the years 1924 to 1925 and 1925 to 1926, contain many of the most valuable and instructive Bahá'í teachings compiled from the writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, on such subjects as Education, Peace, The Solution of the Economic Problem, Cooperation and Unity, Proof of the Existence of God, and others equally as important. They also contain articles on various phases of the Bahá'i Cause and its teachings contributed by Bahá'í writers and presented with clearness and accuracy, reports of conferences and conventions, Bahá'í News and Travel Notes and other interesting information. Volumes 17, 18 and 19 contain valuable material and information for students of religion, sociology, science, etc., both Bahá'ís and non-Bahá'ís.
All volumes carry illustrations of great historical value.
Bound in half leather, each volume $3.50; if two volumes are bound together, for $6.00; postage additional.
All of the bound volumes of earlier years are filled with such remarkable spiritual teachings of the New Age that they constitute a priceless library. Volumes 2, 3, 4 and 5 contain many sublime records of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's teachings, addresses and interviews in Europe and America. (Volumes 2 and 3 are now exhausted and Volume 4 cannot be supplied in a complete form as several numbers of this volume are exhausted.)
Volumes 7 and 8, which are, also, often bound together, contain the wonderful compilations on the Divine Art of Living and the New Covenant.
Volume 9 contains varied records from the Holy Land and 'Abdu'l-Bahá's words on the material, intellectual and spiritual education of children; and both volumes 9 and 10 filled with Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Bahá written after the Great War.
Volumes 11 and 12 contain many Tablets and pictures and inspiring accounts of visits with 'Abdu'l-Bahá at Haifa, where members of all religions and races gathered in unity at the table of the Master. Volume 12 also gives the immortal narrative of His last days on earth and His ascension into the Kingdom.
Volume 13 contains priceless letters of Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Bahá'i Cause, articles of universal interest and other valuable material.
Volume 14 contains letters of Shoghi Effendi, also his translations of the divine writings of Bahá'ulláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá as well as a brilliant series of articles and historical accounts.
Bound in half leather, single volumes $3.50; if two volumes are bound together, for $6.00. Postage additional.
