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| VOL. 24 | JULY, 1933 | No. 4 |
HUSSEIN RABBANI
MARY HANFORD FORD
ALFRED E. LUNT
KEITH RANSOM-KEHLER
BERTHA HYDE KIRKPATRICK
MARION HOLLEY
LEADERS of religion, exponents of political theories, governors of human institutions, who at present are witnessing with perplexity and dismay the bankruptcy of their ideas, and the disintegration of their handiwork, would do well to turn their gaze to the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, and to meditate upon the World Order which, lying enshrined in His teachings, is slowly and imperceptibly rising amid the welter and chaos of present-day civilization. They need have no doubt or anxiety regarding the nature, the origin or validity of the institutions which the adherents of the Faith are building up throughout the world. For these lie embedded in the teachings themselves, unadulterated and unobscured by unwarrantable inferences, or unauthorized interpretations of His Word."
| VOL. 24 | JULY, 1933 | No. 4 |
Editorial, Stanwood Cobb | 99 |
An Interview With ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Mary Hanford Ford | 103 |
Church and State in the Bahá’i Social Order, Hussein Rabbani | 108 |
Letters Home (Persia), Keith Ransom-Kehler | 111 |
Releasing Forces, Twenty-fifth Bahá’i Convention, Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick | 116 |
Youth’s Door of Hope, Marion Holley | 119 |
The Friend of Understanding Love, (a Poem), Elizabeth Hackley | 121 |
The True Sovereign, Alfred E. Lunt | 122 |
Glimpses of the New World Order (Notes on a Visit to Haifa and ‘Akká, Mabel and Sylvia Paine | 126 |
STANWOOD COBB, MARIAM HANEY, BERTHA HYDE KIRKPATRICK | Editors |
MARGARET B. MCDANIEL | Business Manager |
| CONTRIBUTING EDITORS | |
| For the United States and Canada | For Foreign Countries |
| ALFRED E. LUNT MR. LEROY IOAS MRS. LOULIE MATHEWS MRS. MAY MAXWELL MRS. DORIS McKAY MISS SYLVIA PAYNE International MISS MARTHA L. ROOT |
MRS. ANNIE B. Romer, Great Britain |
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--
Some of the delegates and friends assembled for the Twenty-fifth Annual Bahá'i Convention, held June 1-4, 1933, in the Foundation Hall of the Bahá’i Temple now in course of construction near Chicago, Ill. (See page 111.)
| VOL. 24 | JULY, 1933 | No. 4 |
will not be able to realize and express the highest possibilities of life without spiritual graces . . . it is evident that man is in need of divine education and inspiration; that the spirit and bounties of God are essential to his development.”
ONE OF THE most fundamental facts concerning human nature is the variation in personalities and talents as between individuals. A wide range exists between the child born with such a low grade of intelligence that it can hardly be expected to provide successfully for its own life and welfare, and the child born with such an intellectual and creative dowry that it is plainly destined to become a leader.
What about this latter group of individuals, who from birth seem destined not only to successful management of their own lives but to the expression of such powers as will lead to the management, the direction, or the influence of many other lives? How are such great gifts to be used?
Too much in the past have such individual talents been considered as so much capital for the use of which humanity must pay good interest. If the field of operation is that of politics, of military power, of commerce,—the individual possessed of great capacity for leadership has considered it his privilege to wrest from the world all that he could in the way of reward, of power, of luxury of living.
The artist has, it is true, a more generous impulse toward the expression
of his talents—an impulse to bestow upon the world something of everlasting beauty and of joy. Yet here, too, the native power of intelligence or spiritual influence has often been debauched.
There are certain lines of human endeavor where altruism is the expected thing. In the fields of religion, of medicine, of education, and of science we expect the individual possessed of great powers and gifts to have some conscious motive of altruism, some willingness to use his energies and abilities for the benefaction of the human race. Leaders in these fields of endeavor have not failed, in many cases, perhaps in the majority of cases, to live up to this expectation. Whatever of personal, of human ambitions there has been, has been sublimated by ideals of service.
BUT WHY should a few professions only be the restricted field of altruism, of benefaction? What a wonderful world it will be when in all fields of human effort the high principals and ideals will prevail which hitherto have served to guide only the more unselfish professions above described.
And in such a thought we are not voicing a mere utopian wish, but a
matter of grave necessity to the human race. The time has plainly come when powers of leadership in every field of action mast be dedicated to human welfare, must be, or else the race will perish from fratricidal discord. With the spread of education and the awakening of the intellect, the masses will no longer endure exploitation from those whose powers make them natural leaders in the fields of politics and of commerce. Not only will they not endure it, but it will not be economically possible for them to endure it; because, as the present economic collapse has demonstrated, powers of industrial and commercial leadership, when misapplied through greed and lust for power, produce such cataclysmic chaos as to threaten the very existence of civilization. The world cannot go on supinely as the helpless prey of war lords whether of guns or of dollars. The adjustments of economic machinery are too delicate to be any longer the object of personal ambitions and exploitations.
For those who cannot bring themselves to limit their own designs upon humanity and express motives more beneficial, there must be definite limits placed by society; else the world will perish as the prey of chaos and disintegration.
THE PLACE to begin this change as
regards the application of gifts and
powers to human endeavor is not
with the adult world however, but
with the child. From the very beginning
the child must be taught that
his genius is a gift from God and
not a thing which he has himself
created or which he is entitled to selfishly use. Every individual whose gifts are above the ordinary has for that very reason a grave responsibility to society. These gifts are created for useful service, and not for exploitation.
Education should develop these gifts in children without concurrently developing pride, self-esteem, and selfish ambition. In the modern type of “progressive schools” where rivalry is never awakened as between individuals, where prizes are not given, nor attention called to marks or to gradations of scholastic ranks, the egotistic factors of human nature are thereby sublimated if not eliminated. Much can be accomplished by the mere process of secular education—much is indeed being accomplished in schools of the higher type where the whole emphasis is upon social rather than individual development; where service to group achievement for the sake of the group is the ideal rather than personal prowess and prestige.
BUT THIS is not enough. We can
never perfect human nature in the
child merely by leaving out those
factors which tend to produce egotism,
or by encouraging with high
social motives a spirit of helpfulness
and of group-consciousness.
All this is good, but it is not enough. Nothing short of the spiritual training and enlightenment of the child can perfect his nature to the point of real social altruism. The ego is too deeply seated in us all, too dominant a personality factor to be overcome by mere negations or even by redirection. This fundamental egoism
can only effectively be overcome by spiritual direction; by the awakening in the child of an intense desire and aspiration toward the development of the angelic potentiality which all the prophets have insisted is innate in man, yet waiting for development. “Man has two aspects—the physical which is subject to nature, and the merciful or divine which is connected with God . . . if the divine and spiritual should triumph over the human and natural he is verily an angel.”1
When children are definitely trained in these spiritual principles; when they are made to realize that they have a dual nature; that they have that in them which will tend to the exploitation and selfish domination of their fellows while at the same time they have that within them which will enable them to rise to spiritual and social perfection,—then they ought to know what is before them. All but a few will aspire and endeavor to attain that spiritual perfection of their nature which is needed both for their own development and for the sake of a perfected society.
WHEN I came into the Presence
of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Paris in 1913
and He inquired about my educational
work with children, He said,
looking searchingly at me, “Do you
teach them the spiritual things?”
Alas! the answer had to be, “No,
there is no place for it in the curriculum.”
The meaning of His
question has grown larger with
every succeeding year, until now it
stands apparent and open as the
day.
What help is there for the world
1 `Abdu’l-Bahá, “Promulgation of Universal Peace,” pp. 37, 38.
unless children are taught spiritual things? Shall we train and develop minds to exploit and destroy the human race? Of what avail is education if it is to produce recurrent catastrophes and chaos such as exists today throughout the world? Shall we sharpen the sword of egoistic ambition so that it will penetrate the vitals of our planet? Is that what education is to do? Or must it redirect human energy into paths of spiritual effort and attainment, sending out into the world a body of youth dedicated to service as well as to personal advancement?
Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean to imply that even by such spiritual training all personal ambition will be effaced and nothing but motives of service prevail. When such a condition exists, this world will be inhabited by angels. With such a culmination there would be no need of any further evolution upon this planet.
No, even spiritual education will not make angels of human beings in one or two generations. All that we can ask is a proper balance between self-seeking motives and altruistic motives. Even the Prophets of God do not ask of us the utter negation of the self-seeking motives, except in those planetary crises where apostles and martyrs are necessary for the spread of a great Cause. In the ordinary phases of human progress man may seek,—is indeed justified in seeking personal advancement, professional success, and financial security for himself and for his family: “O My Servant! The best of men are they that earn their livelihood by a profession and expend on themselves
and on their kindred, for the love of God, the Lord of all worlds.”1
It is no chimerical dream that we are proposing, but something within the range of possibility and practicability—the harmonizing of the egoistic motive with the altruistic, the awakening in the individual of the sense of his responsibility to society for two definite and weighty reasons: first, because he owes to society an immense debt which he can never individually repay, the bequest to him of the rich gifts of modern civilization, gifts which came from the unselfish labor of those who have previously existed upon this planet; secondly, because God has given him whatever gifts are his for the purpose of service, not for the purpose of exploitation. When therefore the individual is using his gifts for the purpose of exploitation he is denying his real nature; he is sinning against God and man; he is incurring a spiritual debt which if he could see in terms of reality he would realize that ages of suffering might be needed to expiate.
1 Bahá’u’lláh, “Hidden Words,” (Persian) verse 82.
The creative powers in us are, we are told, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the functioning of that great Creative Force which built the universe and which constantly vitalizes it into progress. When these gifts are used blasphemously, so to speak, for egoistic purposes only, contact is gradually cut off from the great Source of Power, and we find these gifts either failing or misdirected with consequent tragedy to the individual. When on the other hand these gifts are used for the benefit of the world, the contact with this Central Power, remains unobstructed the gifts increase in force and magnitude, guidance remains perfect, and the individual prospers and is able to aid humanity in an ever increasing degree.
In the light of this reasoning it is apparent that the greatest success even of the individual is through the path of service. This is a truth which humanity needs to deeply study and acquire, and every child should be taught it as the most fundamental axiom of living. We shall have a different world when this spiritual principle is applied to all fields of human endeavor.
“There is no greater result than bonds of service in the divine kingdom and attainment to the good-pleasure of the Lord. Therefore I desire that your hearts may be directed to the kingdom of God, that your intentions may be pure and sincere, your purposes turned toward altruistic accomplishment unmindful of your own welfare; nay, rather, may all your intentions center in the welfare of humanity and may you seek to sacrifice yourselves in the pathway of devotion to mankind.”
The author, a pioneer American Bahá’i, has made the teaching of the Bahá’i Cause her life work.
IN these difficult days when the entire economic system of the world is in confusion, and when ordinary life has become so hectic as to be almost unbearable, I am reminded again of the memorable visit I made to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the prison of ‘Akká, Palestine in 1907. He had been held there as a prisoner ever since He was incarcerated with the family of Bahá’u’lláh after their exile from Persia.
The great story of the Bahá’i Cause was just beginning to be recognized at that time, and very little of its spiritual and economic teaching was translated and known in the Western World. People who heard the strange tale of the distinguished prisoner of ‘Akká often hastened to visit Him. He was held there by the Sultan of Turkey because He taught ideas out of harmony with the prevailing creed of Muhammadanism though in perfect accord with the system of Muhammad Himself.
These people returned to the Western World with such strangely varying accounts of their interviews, so evidently colored by their own previous conceptions and theories, that one felt confused and realized that any sacrifice was desirable through which one might visit the prison of ‘Akká and speak face to face with its illumined inmate.
So like many others I journeyed across the seas and presented myself
at the door of ‘Akká on the date upon which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had given me permission to come. I did not know then, what I only learned some time later, that at this very moment, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was enduring especially rigorous persecution. He had been living for some years as a political prisoner in His own house within the walls of the town and was even permitted at times to visit Haifa and the Bahji, where was the tomb of Bahá’u’lláh. But the powerful Muhammadan priesthood of Persia and Turkey had long been determined to accomplish His martyrdom and, enraged at His continued escape from this, they finally sent the police to His home, just one month before my arrival, commanded every guest to leave the place instantly, and forbade ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to receive any western friends henceforth. Meanwhile a questionnaire was drawn up to be sent to ‘Akká by a special committee. According to its plan if ‘Abdu’l-Bahá filled out the questionnaire His answers would be so incriminating, that there could be no difficulty in obtaining the Sultan’s signature for His sentence of death. All these danger threats were in the background of my rendezvous with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, but I knew nothing of them.
AT THAT time I had heard various
histories of the emotional experiences
of those who came into the
presence of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at ‘Akká.
Some had fainted, some had fallen at His feet in uncontrollable weeping, all of which behavior I was sure disturbed Him greatly. So I considered carefully how I might avoid such calamitous exhibitions. I was familiar with the story of Victor Hugo and his antagonists of the classic drama in 1830. I remembered that the young Romantacists selected the word Iron as indicative of their invincibility and self-control in contact with their classic opponents. Cold, impenetrable as iron, they met their enemies, successfully. So I decided when I came into the presence of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, if my lips began to tremble and my knees to shake, I would mentally repeat the little word Iron, Iron and become unimpressionable as its black substance. Of course had I prayed at such a moment the emotional disturbance would have been intensified instead of eliminated.
Sure enough as the wonderful figure of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá appeared in the doorway the expected result arrived with Him, but I gazed upon Him, squaring my shoulders, while my mind fastened itself purely upon the black little word Iron, Iron! Can I ever forget how He looked at me with laughing eyes, and began to relate all the tortuous journey that had brought me to ‘Akká, meeting plague and quarantine at every port, and pouring out the contents of my thin pocket book, until it seemed as if nothing would be left in it if I ever reached the bleak walls of the ancient town.
He laughed at me saying: “Many people come here in a gala journey. They stop at the best hotels. They come here when they have nothing
to fear, they travel in a company of friends and are a gay crowd! They do not realize they are on a pilgrimage to a holy place—and that they must pray much before they can understand it. If they do not pray before arriving, they must pray after they come here, but you have been forced to pray for guidance during the entire route, and so you are filled with the sense of prayer. You have lived and attained only through prayer.”
Then he went on telling one amusing story after another, perceiving all the perturbation of my poor nerves, until my knees no longer shook and I was at peace.
But one thing was registered disconsolately in my mind: This radiant and powerful person, this centre of wisdom and love! I knew that I could never ask Him a question, and how should I ever discover all the facts I wanted to know about His great teachings, those teachings which were not yet in printed words for the world to study, but the realities of which were constantly pouring into my consciousness.
Then began the marvelous days which followed, days which transformed and rebuilt, creating certainties from doubts, and eternal realities from ephemeral possibilities.
Can I ever forget the setting of this phenomenal drama? A little gallery ran all around the second story upon which the family of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá lived, and each chamber opened upon the gallery. Also the door of each room was a different and gay color. There were pink, yellow, green and white doors, but no black ones. I asked once why the
doors were all different colors, and was told it was because the family never had money enough for more than one door at a time in those dark and dubious days of imprisonment!
The little room in which I stayed and in which the significant conversations with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá took place, was of the simplest description. The floor was covered with matting, the narrow iron bed and the iron wash stand with larger and smaller holes for bowl and pitcher were of that vermin proof description with which I had become familiar. Everything was scrupulously clean, and there was an abundant supply of sparkling water for bathing and drinking. A wide window looked over the huge town wall upon the blue Mediterranean and before this stretched a divan upon which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sat when He came to see me.
UPON MY arrival in ‘Akká my
mind was filled with pain caused by
the vivid description I had heard
in Paris of another terrible martyrdom
of Bahá’is that had occurred in
Persia. These martyrdoms continued
from the period of the Báb’s
Declaration until the advent of the
present Shah of Persia, who put an
end to all religious persecutions.
The description of these particular
atrocities was so detailed that finally
I could bear no more and cried
out my protest, exclaiming “but
don’t you realize that the martyrs
are in a state of bliss from the moment
the torture begins, and feel
none of the pain inflicted upon
them?”
Where upon the assembled company turned upon me in deep disgust,
and reproached me severely saying: “How dare you say such things! You are taking away all the glory of martyrdom!”
I remained abashed but not convinced, and felt that I must ask ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for the settlement of this disturbing question, but I never asked it. The first morning that He came into my little room He did not sit down, but walked back and forth in the narrow space and presently remarked, while I listened with awe, “There are many kinds of martyrdom. How many times have I prayed for it, but instead of that I have lived on in prison as if with the sword of Damocles suspended by a hair over my head! Each morning as I waken I feel that before the day ends I may be dragged to the public square and shot to death. But nevertheless I have been very happy in this long martyrdom, for no victim suffers from the cruelties inflicted upon him. The instant the torture begins he is in a state of bliss, and feels nothing but the joy of Heaven which surrounds him.”
He paused, looking out through the wide windows at the blue Mediterranean, the view of which beyond the huge walls seemed to eliminate their imprisoning power. Then he added, “So Christ never suffered upon the cross. From the time the crucifixion began His soul was in Heaven and He felt nothing but the Divine Presence. He did not say, speaking in Aramaic: ‘O God; O God why hast Thou forsaken me?’ But this word Sabacthani is similar in sound to another which means glorify, and he actually murmured, ‘O God! O God! How thou dost glorify me.’”
Then He repeated to me such a story of martyrdom as I have never heard elsewhere and which I have not time to relate here. But I can never forget its dramtic expression of joyous deathlessness.
OF ALL these hours spent with
‘Abdu’l-Bahá however, the most
memorable and eloquent were those
in which He described the economic
future of mankind. At that period,
in 1907 the labor saving machines
had not yet affected the labor market
to a serious extent, nor produced
what must be generally recognized
as a high degree of permanent
unemployment but the change
was working and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá well
understood its righteous conclusion.
Sometimes He sat still as He discoursed, speaking in that marvellous, colorful voice, such as none has used I am sure since Christ talked upon the mountainside or in the homes of His friends. Then He would rise in the excitement of what He portrayed, and walk back and forth conscious of nothing but the ideals which possessed Him.
He said: “Today the dynamic energy of the Holy Spirit has poured in such volume through the Messenger of God that even the masses of men have received it, and that was not possible before. Always in the past specially sensitized souls received the influence and acted upon it. But today for the first time the minds of all people have been touched by the spirit, and the result is that the designs of labor saving machines have been clearly revealed to them. It may seem strange to you that the Holy Spirit should give designs for labor saving machines,” he added, “but in
reality every creative impulse of the brain can arise only through contact with the spirit. Without that the brain is merely capable of conventional and traditional action.
“The civilizations of the past have all been founded upon the enslavement of mankind and the poor working class has suffered every oppression for the sake of the enrichment of the few. This limited wealthy class has alone had the privilege of developing individuality. The down trodden worker after laboring long hours each day, has not had sufficient mental capacity at the conclusion of his task to do anything but eat and sleep.
“That all mankind might have opportunity, it was necessary to shorten the hours of labor so that the work of the world could be completed without such demand of strain and effort, and all human beings would have leisure to think and develop individual capacity.
“The labor saving machines were given to create leisure for all mankind.” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá repeated this several times. He was so deeply impressed with this fact that as He spoke He arose and walked back and forth in the little room, His face and eyes shining with joy over the happy future into which He gazed.
“The first decided shortening of the hours will appear,” He declared, “when a legal working day of eight hours is established,” and this of course took place in 1917 when Woodrow Wilson enacted the legal day of eight hours for all federal workers, and really for the workers of the United States.
“But this working day of eight hours is only the beginning,” went
on ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. “Soon there will be a six hour day, a five hour, a three hour day, even less than that, and the worker must be paid more for this management of machines, than he ever received for the exercise of his two hands alone.”
Speaking in 1907, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said, “You cannot understand now, how the labor saving machines can produce leisure for mankind because at present they are all in the hands of the financiers and are used only to increase profits, but that will not continue. The workers will come into their due benefit from the machine that is the divine intention, and one cannot continue to violate the law of God. So with the assurance of a comfortable income from his work, and ample leisure for each one, poverty will be banished and each community will create comfort and opportunity for its citizens. Education will then be universal at the cost of the state, and no person will be deprived of its opportunity.” All these eloquent words and many others which I have not time to note here, were spoken to me by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá without the asking of a single question. His utterance, as always, was directed toward the inner urge of the mind He addressed, and He was perfectly aware that the mentality seeking Him at the moment was deeply interested in the problem of banishing poverty.
THERE IS not space to mention many incidents connected with this visit to ‘Abdu’l-Baha. One was very curious. Invariably as I sat with Him I was conscious of a growing lightness of body, so that I said to myself, if He stays much
longer, I shall not be able to keep my feet on the floor, I shall float up to the ceiling! Invariably then He rose and swiftly left the room with that rapid gliding movement which made one feel He was flying rather than walking. On the last day of my visit He left me in this fashion, and I stood by the little table in the centre of the room. As I gazed after Him the words flashed through my mind, “I have been here, I have seen Him, and everything is just as I knew it would be.” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá paused on the threshhold, looked back at me with His eyes full of laughter and repeated the words that had in the same instant passed through my mind: “You have been here, you have seen me and everything is just as you knew it would be!”
The wonderful words He said to me in farewell I can never forget. In expressing my profound appreciation for all His gracious kindness to me and the wealth of knowledge and illumination he had given me, I finally cried out, “O ‘Abdu’l-Bahá! WWhy cannot all the world come here to see You as I have done and receive this understanding of life and its meaning, this light of the Spirit!”
He looked at me for a moment with a sort of sadness, and then replied, “Dearly beloved, many people cross the ocean and cross the desert and come here to see me. They stay sometimes a week—a month—a year and then they go away. They have not seem me at all.” He paused a moment with a far away look in His eyes and added, smiling as He took my hands—“It is better to meet me in the worlds of love!”
This gifted author, a graduate of one of the large universities in the Near East, has been contributing a series of articles in The Bahá’i Magazine on certain social phases of the Bahá’i religion, all of which have been read and studied with great profit. Herein he presents a vivid picture of the Bahá'i State of the future and how its religious character becomes clear and practical.
THE problem of the relations between Church and State is one of the oldest and the most delicate problems in the whole field of political history. It has aroused many important issues and given birth to innumerable complications from the beginnings of medieval history down to the present time. The solutions offered by various writers throughout the centuries are diverse and often incompatible with a realistic view of social phenomena. Some have thought to settle the whole issue by admitting that Church and State—both being essential and divine in character—should stand on an equal basis, while others have minimized the role of the State and attributed to the Church an unlimited authority over its members. We need not enter into a detailed study of these different theories, for such an attempt would be beyond the scope of this essay. Suffice it to say that the problem of Church and State attained its highest pitch during the Middle Ages when the Pope and the Emperor came into conflict over the question of their respective jurisdiction and authority. For many long centuries this struggle continued until it culminated in the final victory of the papal over the imperial power during the thirteenth
and the two following centuries. With the Reformation the international supremacy of the Church was not only reduced but utterly abolished.
The State now made its appearance and was destined to assume the leadership. The call for universalism was at last stifled and it gave place to the new ideal of national independence. Europe, instead of forming a united Christendom under the spiritual and temporal jurisdiction of a single Church, was divided into a series of national and territorial sovereign states. Gone were the days of Gregory VII and Innocent III before whom emperors had to bow and ask for mercy. The state had, indeed, through the working of innumerable forces succeeded in vindicating its rights and prerogatives, and established itself on firm foundations. It had won the challenge and thrown off the yoke of an absolute and intolerant ecclesiastical power. It was now the turn of the Church to suffer persecutions at the hands of her age-long enemy which she had so ruthlessly combated. And ever since that time the State, unforgetful of the past, has always looked with suspicion towards the Church. In many countries it has refused to
give it legal recognition, while in some others it has severely shaken its organization and persecuted its followers. And still in some others it has allied itself with it, only to persecute other churches and religious bodies.
IN THE Bahá’i political system
all these sources of trouble which
have for so long sapped the
energies of men and prevented
every peaceful cooperative undertaking
are once for all banished
and people are trained to forget
their religious prejudices and
fanaticism and to strive for the
realization of their common welfare.
For under a Bahá’i social and political regime the two institutions of Church and State, which are today so widely separated, are united into a single whole and are blended together in such a wise as to make every possible friction in the future highly improbable. Not only so, but the very problem of Church and State will cease to exist. The State being religious, and religious in the Bahá’i sense of the word, will organize itself along lines which are at once practical and broad. For the Bahá’i Faith is fundamentally a social force. It conceives of religion not as a mere individual phenomenon but essentially as a means whereby the entire community can find its way towards a better social order. Thus considered religion can no more be dissociated from man’s every day life. And how could it be separated from the State since it is its very purpose to carry out what every political organization attempts to do, namely to maintain peace and order and to enable the individual
to realize the best that is in him? This is why the Bahá’is condemn asceticism and favor a life which is at once fruitful and progressive. Theirs is a religion practical in its aims and all-embracing in its scope. It is even more inclusive than the State itself, having in view not only man’s external and public life, but directing and moulding the private life of the individual as well.
BUT HOW will such a fusion between
Church and State take place?
And to what results will such a
sort of combination lead? The
Bahá’i state we have said will be
religious and religious in the deepest
sense of the word. For the
Bahá’is believe that religious and
political phenomena have some
common ground; and that any attempt
at creating a gulf between
them is not only superficial but disastrous
in its results.
But religion under this new dispensation will have features that are alien to practically every existing religious sect today. For the Bahá’i principles are of two kinds. There are those which are specifically Bahá’i in character and concern. To such a category belong all the various ordinances such as prayer, fasting, etc. No one has the right to impose them on any person. For such an act would be tantamount to an interference in his personal beliefs. To the second class belong all the social and humanitarian teachings such as universal peace, universal language and other various sociological principles which are of general concern.
These humanitarian teachings constitute the nucleus of the Bahá’i
social and political program which the Bahá’i state of the future will attempt to carry out. These principles, being broad and universal, can in no wise contradict at least in a general way the doctrines and creeds of any group living within the confines of the Bahá’i state. They stand at the basis of every social, political, and religious system of thought in this age and are advocated to a large extent at least by all peoples irrespective of their creed, race or language.
With such a point of view, what we have already remarked concerning the Bahá’i state of the future and its religious character becomes clear and practical. Since the Bahá’i Faith has no elaborate creeds and dogmas and no complicated system of theology and possesses no sacerdotal hierarchy, it becomes easy to conceive of its evolving one day into a political2 and social organization adequate to cope with the needs of a highly complex society. It is also obvious that under such a system the problem of separation between Church. and State can find no place. As a certain writer puts it: “The separation of Church and State can only be temporary—a momentary stage in the march of societies. If, at a time when the sovereign did not affiliate the spiritual and temporal power under his sway, history shows us that with the old sectarian religions the State has seen the formidable power of the Church (with which it has had to reckon and sometimes to struggle) take shape in face of it, and often against it, it could not be thus then in the future city founded on
1 H. Dreyfus, “The Universal Religion: Bahá’ísm,” pp. 111-113.
Bahá’i principles. The absence of all religious ceremonies, and consequently of the clergy and priestly hierarchy, does not admit of there ever being a question of separation of Church and State. . . .
“In the presence of religious unity, the State will be religious; not that it must give to all its acts a mystical appearance, which could not be in keeping with their material object . . . . But, religion being put into practice in all acts of life, from the minister of state down to the humblest official, each one will be penetrated by the sacred character of his responsibility and of his mission which he is bound to fulfill in conformity with divine law.”1
In every country, the majority of whose inhabitants are fully recognized Bahá’is, the establishment of a Bahá’i government is an easy matter. They will be called upon to take hold of the reins of government and to carry out their program and to enforce it in so far as it will be deemed feasible. The minority of the people are under the strict obligation to obey the injunctions and wishes of the majority, provided that such an obedience on their part will not entail a violation of their essential rights and duties.
For let there be no misgiving as to the true nature of the Bahá’i state. The minorities, whether religious or otherwise, living within its boundaries can in no wise be afraid of being persecuted or suffer their freedom of action to be curtailed. For the corner-stone of the Bahá’i state is the principle of toleration, without which no real
life is possible. While it is true that a government representing the wishes of the majority is entitled to obedience by the minority, yet the latter should not be suppressed or its rights violated by the majority. Men should develop a sufficient breadth of view which would enable them to tolerate views and
ideas that are different from theirs. They should try to widen their horizon and to realize that truth is not the monopoly of any single party or group. The more deeply one goes into a given problem the greater becomes his conviction in the relativity of human knowledge and experience.
This is the fifth installment of “Letters Home” describing the author’s pilgrimage to historic Bahá’i sites in Persia and her visits among the Bahá'is of that land. In her own words, “There is nothing so lovely as the face of a Persian Bahá’i.” Herein is a beautiful description of her visit to Babul, Bahnamir and Arabkhayl.
IN Babul (Bárfarush) I stopped in the home of dear Dr. and Mrs. Faruk Bassar. In order to insure my perfect comfort and quietude, the Bassar family had moved out bodily; the doctor had even changed his office and dispensary into another house. Every provision had been made for my happiness and repose.
It requires “a pen far abler than mine” to begin a recitation of the epic glory of the Bahá’is of Babul. Theirs is a poor community; there is no really rich person amongst them, but their charities and tender care of those from nonBahá’i communities is a perfect exemplification of the command of Bahá’u’lláh to make the poor amongst us our trust, and of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to make the enemy the true brother.
The idol of Babul a few years ago was a dervish who preached a crusade of extermination against the Bahá’is. Falling at last the victim of a most loathesome disease he
1 Bahá’i meeting place.
was abandoned by his followers and left in filth and agony to die alone. It was then that the Bahá’is came to his assistance, (being careful always to have with them Muslim witnesses to attest the innocence of their ministrations) and proved the only friends to ease his dying days.
DUE TO having my talks interpreted,
the meetings are twice as
long as if I could speak directly.
Naturally people get tired and restless
elsewhere after sitting for two
hours; but in Babul they were as
eager at the end of the meeting as
at the beginning and always gave
the impression of wanting me to
talk two hours longer.
“Ah happy boughs that canst not lose thy leaves. Nor bid the Spring adieu.”
Again and again they have accumulated money to build their Hazirat-ul-Quds1 only to have it swept away in the face of some crying human need.
There is a freshness, a spontaneity, a simplicity, a beauty about the true Bahá’i life that searches the core of the heart, wringing the essential drops of its distillation, in a perfume that haunts the memory and purifies the soul. So it will ever be as I look back upon my days in Babul.
The rains were still bravely holding off as if nature herself, so purblind to human needs and wishes, could not deny me the joy of my visit to two Bahá’i villages.
The villagers came at once, on my arrival, to invite me to Arabkhayl and Bahnamir about ten and twelve miles distant, but the Babul Assembly said that they feared to have me undertake the journey lest I be imprisoned by the rains.
The next day to my utter amazement—and humiliation, that such a thing should happen to one so unworthy—I was summoned to the salon to meet eight women from these dear villages who, fearing that my visit would not be accomplished, had come four farsangs1 on foot to see me. They were not young and vigorous, but middle-aged like myself. It touched me profoundly and I determined that come what would, I must certainly go to those places.
The Babuli are very witty. I mentioned, with tears, to a group of women who called later, how deeply this evidence of Bahá’i devotion had moved me. “Think of their walking ten miles or more to see me,” I exclaimed. “If they had come fifty miles on their heads it might be worthy of comment,” was the reply, “but to walk ten miles to greet a western friend sent by the Guardian
1 A farsang is about three miles.
is of no consequence whatever.”
When we announced to the invitation committee that I would spend two days in the villages they posted topspeed back to build a road for me. By the time a few more western Bahá’is visit Persia there will be a great network of new highways.
Through the bounty of God the day was radiantly sunny. You can’t imagine what sod and shrubbery and trees and verdure really mean until you have lived in the desert. It was like paradise.
Two deep streams divide the villages from Babul. The first ferry took our car with no difficulty, but the second was leaking badly. We were obliged to abandon mechanical locomotion and to leave the new road yawning for use.
Since they had expected us to ride up in state in our automobiles there were no horses to accommodate our party, so we sat on our luggage by the river bank until the villagers came galloping a herd of horses to convey us.
And once more our cavalcade started, and once more the unparallelled cordiality of a Bahá’i reception awaited me. Scattered from the river’s brink to the outskirts of the first village were increasingly large groups waving me welcome. Again the ringing cry “Alláh-u-Abhá” proclaimed its unifying power.
The countryside filled me with an ache of longing. I had been so continuously in deserts, jungles, spice islands, barren regions and exotic climes, that the quiet beauty of the ferns and grass and shrubs and trees of my childhood brought a happy nostalgia and gratitude.
Mounted, literally, on at high-horse (which was no great change
for me) my long-suffering Rahmatullah once more balanced me across these fertile fields, filled now with hosts of joyous faces.
As usual the Muslims ran to their hedgerows or crowded to the roadside, eager to witness for themselves whether there was any truth in the fantastic suggestion that this despised Bahá’i religion had actually conquered the sea, planting its Standard in distant alien lands.
It certainly was the Bahá’is’ day of triumph; for though what they had to display wasn’t much to see—only a tired old woman astride a tall horse—nevertheless it was a proof of their contention that, out of the fire and blood of their persecutions and torments, a flame of belief and devotion had encircled the earth.
In all my life I have never been more stirred and touched than when, approaching the Bahá’i school-house, the lilt of children’s voices reached me and then into full view came these adorable tots singing me a rousing welcome. It was as if some angelic Joshua had bade me heart and mind to stand still, leaving my spirit to soar with their voices. We stopped until the ringing song was finished and then rode on to the hospitable home where luncheon was served.
THE VILLAGE life of Persia is uneventful
and archaic. Between
farm work and preparation for the
weekly fair every one keeps busy
with a changeless routine.
The women weave a very charming material out of the pith of a kind of pampas grass or reed. Intertwining silver threads or bright woolens, they produce an actual work of art. Later when I write you of our enforced stay in a Muslim village to escape the floods, I shall speak in greater detail about the glimpse of rustic Persia that I’ve caught there.
Today the villages made holiday. Before leaving for Bahnamir several hundred of
the Friends gathered in the garden of the Hazirat-ul-Quds, the Muslim Women coming with their children to share the excitement. Rugs were spread in abundance and as at the miracle of the loaves and the fishes the men, women and children “sat down in companies.”
How much more miraculous to feed hungry souls with the bread of life than to feed hungry mouths with bread of grain. Once again Bahá’u’lláh has reiterated the sanctity of peace and love and joy and self-sacrifice, and once again “the common people hear Him gladly.”
When I had finished speaking, the same school-boy chorus delighted me, and then round me pressed the same shining host of happy Bahá’is that I had seen throughout my joyous and eventful journey.
I had arisen very early to breakfast with the Governor-General before leaving and now it was nearing sunset and I must spend the night in the adjoining village. So I said farewell until the morning, for I would pass this way again on my return.
THROUGH vista after vista, as we
wound among lovely lanes and
hedge-rows, I would catch first a
glimpse and then a picture of a
crowd of gaily clad men and women
with their little ones raising the
holy greeting “Allah-u-Abha” as
soon as they beheld me.
We were nearing Bahnamir, and, entering a little copse, I heard for the first time in many years the swooning song of the nightingale for it is always Spring in Mazindaran the province of Bahá’u’lláh. Even Keats could not adequately describe that melody though what lovelier lines could be suggested than
- “The self-same song that found a path
- Through the sad heart of Ruth when, sick
- for home,
- She stood in tears amid the alien corn.”
--PHOTO--
A party of incense-bearers and villagers of Arabkhayl and Bahnamir greeting Mrs. Keith Ransom-Kehler and her escort who rode on horseback to visit them.
The first trill rends the heart asunder and then the essence of the soul starts flowing from a thousand wounds where each fresh note has pierced it. I felt again the agonizing joy of watching a sunrise in the Bruner pass; I knew the same rapt ecstacy as when first I heard the Message of Bahá’u’lláh. Now to reread the Tablet, “Lo! The Nightingale of Paradise singeth upon the Tree of Eternity,” starts a sweet and overwhelming tumult in my breast. One note from a tiny, feathered creature sets the heart aglow: how much more does the heavenly song of that eternal Nightingale quicken the lifeless soul.
We did not pause, for the whole village was eagerly drawn up awaiting our arrival. As we neared it the glorious refreshing sound of men’s voices—a well trained chorus—singing a vigorous song of praise, was sweeter to me than the nightingale.
I passed through a veritable hail of flowers and blossoms flung from every side.
At the next turn of the road the school boys were singing, and then to my profound delight the school girls. Women in Persia are generally so repressed and timid that any evidence of their activity always gives me great pleasure.
Proceeding through this shower of flowers and petals I witnessed a ceremony peculiar to Persia. Women bearing bright brass trays with offerings of fruit, perfume, flowers and incense, continuously sprinkled me with rose-water and tossed their fragrant smoking spices in my path. It is hard to reproduce the gay festivity of the scene. The beautiful voices; the intoxicating odors, the bright flowers, the gala attire, but above all the kind and eager faces lent a great spirit to the fete. In this whole earth I think that there is nothing so lovely as the face of a Persian Bahá’i.
GATHERED for the evening meal Dr. Bessar told of how he and a
Bahá’i companion barely escaped death in this village at the hands of assassins hired to murder them. Whereupon I recounted the exceedingly interesting story, written for The Bahá'i Magazine by Siyyid Mustafa Rumi, of a similar experience in Macassar.
I had intended to go to bed at once but, as usual in Bahá’i gatherings, we sat late talking of the Cause and of the Teachings.
The next morning we were early astir to speak to a group before the Bahá’i school-house similar to the gathering in Arabkhayl. At parting there were prayers and flowers and gifts; and then far out on the road from Arabkhayl a concourse of incense-bearers drew near to greet me. They anointed us with rose-water, strewed flowers and incense in our path and drew up as a kind of bodyguard at the place where our leave-taking had been arranged.
The mere recollection of that fragrant sojourn animates my spirit and inspires my heart. The simple goodness, the extreme generosity,
the radiant kindness of these dear villagers will ever remain a happy benediction.
At least twelve reliable witnesses can be summoned to attest the truth that from the time we left Bábul no drop of rain fell until we had crossed the first dangerous ferry on our way back and were safe in the car; then it poured; stopped abruptly when we had to leave the car to cross the second ferry; began again when we were safe inside. Stopped once more when we reached Bábul until we were properly disposed, and than rained on and on; this later put us in danger of life and limb. But that story is for another midnight.
Dear, quiet little towns! Kind, gentle folk! You “tease me out of thought as doth eternity.” Your blossoms will strew my way, your song will gladden my breast, your perfume will stir my heart, your incense will lift my prayers, your welcome will refresh my dreams as through bleak and barren days to come, again and again reliving that gracious interlude, I wander along the fern-fringed paths of Mazindaran.
- “Through the moon-dappled groves
- of memory
- Fling out your soul-drenched song,
- oh nightingale.”
“True religion is the foundation of spiritual union, the union of thought, the union of susceptibilities, the unity of customs, and the ideal chain binding together all the children of men. Through its practical realization, the minds and souls will receive development by divine instruction; they will become assisted to investigate reality, attain to a lofty station of wisdom and establish the basis of a divine civilization.
FORTY years ago the Columbian Exposition was held in Chicago. At that time it was considered a matter of marvelous progress that by pressing a button in Washington President Cleveland could release forces in Chicago which would start a fountain playing on the exposition grounds and set the wheels in motion which opened the exposition.
On May 27, 1933, the great Century of Progress Exposition was opened in that same city. As a symbol of progress in science and invention that has been made in these forty years the idea was conceived of using the energy from the brilliant star Arcturus to release the forces for inaugurating this exposition. This star (or sun) is so distant that the light which left there forty years ago is just now arriving at the earth. By means of the marvelous photo-electric cell, unknown forty years ago, by means of amplifiers and relays the small amount of light that reaches the earth from this far-off body is caught at the Yerkes Observatory (or some other if it is cloudy there) and transformed into forces which illumine the 424 acres devoted to the exposition with the brilliance and beauty of many colored lights. The imagination is caught by this conception and plays around the symbolism involved. This spectacular display of the release of hidden physical forces is marvelous indeed.
One cannot cease to wonder at the ingenuity and profundity of man’s mind which thus brings forth nature’s secrets or to go even further and ask—what power behind man’s mind enables him to discover and invent such magic wonders? And yet in spite of his achievements in the physical world, or perhaps because of them, man is still undeveloped in the spiritual realm. For most are unaware that in close connection with both these world occasions, events occurred of far greater import to the future of mankind, when spiritual forces were released which are destined to bring about greater changes than have ever been known in recorded history.
Forty years ago at the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in connection with the Columbian Exposition already referred to, the name of Bahá’u’lláh was first mentioned on the American continent and these prophetic words from His lips were quoted:
“These fruitless strifes, these ruinous Wars shall pass away, and the ‘Most Great Peace’ shall come. . . . Let not a man glory in this, that he loves his country; let him rather glory in this that he loves his kind.”
Hardly a handful gave heed. No one understood then and the world at large is still unaware of the forces liberated on that occasion, or of the connection which the coming of Bahá’u’lláh to earth has with the inventions of progress that have caused such great changes and such
great catastrophes during these forty years.
On June first, five days later than the opening of the exposition and less than twenty miles away on the shores of the same lake, in the foundation hall of a temple dedicated to the oneness of humanity, the oneness of all religions, the harmony of science and religion and to universal peace, a temple which when completed will be, perhaps, the most delicately and exquisitely beautiful architectural thing ever yet conceived by the mind of man, two or three hundred people gathered, drawn together by unseen forces to meditate and consult in regard to the Divine Plan for the New World Order of Bahá’u’lláh and things pertaining thereto. This gathering was, as far as the world at large is concerned, unheralded and unproclaimed.
DURING THE first morning of the
convention a letter was read from
Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the
Bahá’i Cause. In this letter were
reviewed the outstanding events of
the history of this Cause in America
for the forty years just past. It
pointed out the achievements which
the small number of American
Bahá’is have accomplished, in spite
of great reverses, in establishing the
Cause in this country, in helping to
spread it through the world and in
relieving difficult situations in other
countries. In its entirety it gave
evidence of the creative forces
brought to man’s consciousness by
the advent of Bahá’u’lláh and released
again and again through the
bounty of ’Abdu’l-Bahá. At the end
were pointed out some tremendous
tasks yet to be accomplished.
The mingled feelings caused by the Guardian’s letter, feelings of gratitude for things accomplished, of humility for failures and of great responsibility for future developments of the Bahá’i Cause were intensified by the reading of the Guardian’s cablegram in the first afternoon of the convention. The long letter in a measure prepared its hearers for the dynamic concentration of its message in the cablegram. It was the message for which all waited, the latest word which would put the delegates in tune with the Guardian and with the forces of the unseen world. It called upon the American Bahá’is to “seize the opportunity to release forces which will usher in (an) era whose splendor must outshine (the) heroic age of our beloved Cause.”
What were these forces? Could these delegates rise to the now present opportunity? The forces are spiritual forces, unseen yet all-powerful. It is these forces which change the current of human thought, which indeed change human nature.
How are spiritual forces released? Is there any other way than by getting into harmony with the will of God? And then through love which engenders severance and self-sacrifice by rendering “instant, exact, and complete obedience?” The spirit finds expression through material means. The commands given by Bahá’u’lláh must be understood, unity must be completely established in order that unified action may result. The art of taking counsel together is one of the means that Bahá’u’lláh has established for bringing forth the shining spark of truth.
Quietly then, though stirred to the depths by the Guardian’s message the delegates proceeded to take counsel together concerning the numerous problems that face Bahá’is and concerning activities that constantly increase as the Cause grows.
THE ALL-IMPORTANT subject, the
first to be discussed, was the
Temple. Indeed the convention cannot
be considered apart from the
Temple. One mighty challenge was
to release forces which will beautifully
clothe its dome. The feelings
of peace, love and harmony and the
lofty aspirations that filled the
hearts of those assembled for worship
under the dome each morning,
give but a hint of the mystery of
this Temple which, ’Abdu’l-Bahá
has said, “is great and cannot be revealed”,
and of the forces that will
be released upon its completion.
The signs of activity about the Temple, the workmen erecting scaffolding and raising the great steel arms that were to lift the units of ornamentation to the dome; the actual molding of the ornamental covering of the base of one of the great ribs of the dome; the simple ceremony of unveiling the first exquisitely designed and executed, and dazzlingly white units for covering the sections of the dome; the illustrated talk by Mr. John Earley, in whose laboratories these marvelous ornaments are being produced, revealing the combination of artistry, skill, and mathematical accuracy required to produce these works of art; the talk by Mr. Allen McDaniel, the chairman of the Temple committee, which made known among other things the fact that the skilled
workmen who helped to produce these works of art voluntarily reduced their own wages as well as worked overtime; other instances related showing the hand of divine guidance in the erection of the Temple; the many words quoted from ’Abdu’l-Bahá and the Guardian setting out the primal importance of building the Temple; the stories of most touching sacrifices of Persian and other Eastern friends and of many in America; the gifts from every continent and from the most distant corners of the earth; the inspiration received from the Unity Feast Friday evening when by song, chanting and reading of the inspired words the thoughts were directed to the spiritual realm;—all these quickened the determination to arise with new vigor for the early completion of the all-important work of ornamenting the dome. By common consent the subject came up again and again, all things giving way when any one was moved to speak on this subject or to present an offering, or to account some sacrificial deed of one not present.
The gifts flowed in steadily, many of them, even as last year, representing great power in their sacrificial value. The feeling that there was need of a deepened devotion that should cause a steady flow of funds equal or greater than the high crest was voiced. Another delegate reminded the hearers that the words of the Báb to His first disciples, “I am preparing you for a mighty Day”, applies equally to the humble followers of Bahá’u’lláh of the present day. That the Bahá’is in America must release the spiritual forces of twenty thousand martyrs
in Persia if we would arise to seize our great opportunity, was pointed out by another. Many practical suggestions for saving and economizing were made. A resolution embodying all these inspiring and suggestive remarks was formulated requesting the National Spiritual Assembly to organize and distribute them among all the believers.
Among many other subjects discussed, the most important were: the nonpolitical character of the Bahá’i Faith; local Assembly problems; the teaching program; and the Bahá’i Summer Schools.
A larger number of young people was in attendance than ever before and more than once a few clear
words from one of them served to clarify a situation and revealed deep spiritual insight. At their dinner conference Sunday ninety-nine were in attendance.
Is it too much to hope that at this convention forces were quietly released through the uniting of the true and loyal followers of the Faith which will enable America to come into that place of spiritual leadership indicated by ‘Abdu’l-’Bahá? In his last letter Shoghi Effendi quotes these words from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “The American continent gives signs and evidences of very great advancement. Its future is even more promising, for its influence and illumination are far-reaching. It will lead all nations spiritually.“
THESE are testing days for the young of America. These are times to try what measure of patience is theirs, what resilience of hope is at call. For the latest generation to come of age has been launched by its sponsors upon a sea of chaos unexampled in the memory of our race. What employment can the college man find? Where will a boy with an eager talent exercise and mature it? What couple dares choose the adventure of children without economic stability?
Yet these are not the matters of greatest import. The pocketbook
touches the spring of many actions, but a thorough chaos presses still further. Young persons of today are at war not only against a disintegrating economic life; they must surmount as well the disappearance of all of those basic relationships and customs which make today enough like yesterday that a man may feel comfortable and at ease. For here is the problem: the order into which this generation was born does not appeal to it. Indeed, the principles of that culture seem positively to be lacking in sincerity and integrity. Therefore those principles cannot take hold; they cannot
guide behavior. They cannot cement a defunct family tie, outline a normal ethics, or steer bizarre night life into the channels of sane recreation. The world looks on at the flaunting of everything it knows, quite impotent to interest or direct these alien offspring. For young people today do not belong. They are strangers to their native land, and, like strangers, unimpelled to accept its duties or assume its obligations. And when they would ask for a responsibility, the world has none to give them. Is it any wonder that “the song of life has lost its virility,”* and that only the soundest mind preserves its energy and ambition?
THE FOREGOING is indeed a dark
picture, but of late years Bahá’is
have discerned upon it a streak of
light. For among their own young
people a contrast is mounting.
There has been no clearer epitome
of that contrast than the dinner
meeting held during the recent National
Convention of the Bahá’is of
the United States and Canada.
Imagine, if you will, a large hall, where are seated ninety-nine persons. The appearance is of youth; an enthusiasm and brightness, an undercurrent of joy pervades the room. The program begins. Seven speakers, in quick succession, rise to emphasize some aspect of the Bahá’i Faith. They talk with an unconscious eloquence which grows from the heart of deep conviction. The group listens intently. Opportunity, courage, intelligence, responsible administration, prayer—these are the brilliant facets of the Cause which they hold up before
* ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in “Divine Philosophy.”
their fellows. Often they speak of Shoghi Effendi. A sense of the gravest affection and respect animates them as they direct attention to the Guardian of the Faith. Here is a leader whose judgment they accept, whose example they intend to emulate, whose oneness with them as citizens in the new world order they appreciate. The last speaker is finished. Someone in the group rises to respond. And there succeeds for a half hour an interchange of belief and urgent ambition for service, so vibrant in sincerity that the whole group seems stirred to thrilling motion. Here is a meeting which must energize not only those who form it, but every young Bahá’i who hears of and understands it.
Is it possible that these are members of the unlucky younger generation? Where is the cynicism, the weariness of spirit, the prevalent despair? There can be but one answer. Here is a group of youth which has found its creative opportunity. These are persons charged with a peculiar task; these are the builders of the new society.
THERE ARE times in the history of
man when undoubted impulses appear,
when the idea of an order
more equitable in design takes hold
of minds, when a new will enters
the social body. These are the times
of great religions, of the efflorescence
of moral vigor, of purpose
and power to change the very bases
of life and the characters of men.
Such epochs draw their strange
strength from men of extraordinary
stature,—from Moses, from
Jesus, from Muhammad, from
Bahá’u’lláh. For we live in such a period, and it is our destiny to witness the shaping of a new culture unique and inevitable. Bahá’u’lláh has, in His own words, “seized the lives and has begun a new creation.”
Now the joy of Bahá’i young people derives itself from this very sense of captivity. Their lives have become vehicles of responsibility. Their endeavors are promised to the construction of a magnificent ideal. Their abilities are awakened in the arena of necessary effort. Their powers find release through the discipline of obedience to a recognized leader. And in Bahá’u’lláh they touch that Center which organizes, unites and fires their every motion. They have become the “celestial warriors” of a new world order!
Bahá’i young people, quite like
their contemporaries, do not belong to today. The cramped scope of nations, the prejudices of mind, the outmoded techniques for the conduct of affairs, have no appeal for any of them. Rather do they envision the idea of an ordered society which shall include the resources of the whole world. Thus their object is not disdain for a weak today, but intelligence and loyalty placed at the service of a sturdy tomorrow. Bahá’i youth is animated youth. Young Bahá’is are already citizens of the future.
From this attitude proceeds the possibility of adjustment to our present chaos. Here is balance in the tumultuous stream of events. Here, in a renewed Faith, young persons may attain vitality and health. For Bahá’u’lláh has brightened old inadequacies with a new way of living, and opened to this shopworn world a “door of hope.”
- None but Thee can understand our hearts,
- O Friend of Love Divine!
- Tho we seek thru all the world for friends,
- Whose love will be like Thine!
- None but Thee can understand our failures,
- And know our deepest need;
- Only Thou canst lift us from ourselves,
- Our burdened souls relieve.
- None but Thee can satisfy our longing,
- Our Father and our God!
- None but Thee can understand our problems,
- The road that we have trod.
- Only Thou canst lead us out of darkness
- And light in us increase;
- Only Thou canst raise us from our death
- In self, and give us peace!
Verily, those who have denied God and adhered unto nature as nature is, are indeed void of both science and wisdom, are they not of the erring?”
The first and second installments of this article were published in the May and June numbers respectively and pointed out the great truth that nature is in itself incapable of establishing values or achieving perfections, also the author brings out vividly the dual nature of man. In this third installment he affirms the necessity of the recognition and acceptance of the True Sovereign to save man from the world of nature.
MANY of the natural impulses, rightly used and under the control of man’s reality, are by no means destructive. The perpetuation of the race, the satisfaction of the requirements of food, shelter and warmth, the physical zest of exercise and manly sports, the struggle against injustice, the ambition of achievement in the fulfilment of the individual destiny, the urge of work, and many other phases of life upon the earth are more or less primitive impulses quite outside the destructive, prohibited category.
The Command in this New Age is, on the other hand, directed against the plain sources of unhappiness and disorder now rampant in human society. Among these are disunity and discord in the religious, political and economic life; selfishness and treachery; living unto oneself; race prejudice; hypocrisy, lies and deceit; cruelty; slander, gossip and backbiting, (this last trinity of sin being sternly forbidden by the Divine Law-giver of this new cycle); oppression in every form; becoming a cause of sorrow to others; war; supinely
following the beliefs and practices of ancestors by failing to investigate for oneself the reality of every matter; mendicancy; parasitism; the separation of humanity by virtue of class, religious and racial barriers; making religion a cause of hatred and animosity between divergent sects; discrimination against womankind; the captivity of the world of Nature; political and industrial corruption; belief in those dogmas and imitations of truth that are not acceptable to both religion and science; departure from the Divine Foundations established by the Prophets of God and cleaving to man-made systems; denial or rejection of the True Sovereign.
Without exception, these seeds of unhappiness are emanations from the natural, contingent world. Without exception they are prohibited and condemned by God at this time. Human society has become so infiltrated with these poisons that our old friend, the pessimist confidently says—“The burden of proof lies with those who dispute my conclusions.”
As against this, we would, with the right degree of modesty, refer to the fundamental structure upon which this exposition is based. And to the differentiations and demonstrations thus far made we would add, very briefly, this: Life is a process of emancipation from the grosser limitations into the refinements
of true existence. All these proofs are sufficiently contained in the structure of creation, itself. The mineral substance shakes off its inertia by becoming absorbed into the expanding life of the plant. The cells of the plant, in turn, its roots firmly imprisoned in the earth, take on locomotion through assimilation into the swiftly moving animal, as well as into the perfected atoms of the human body. There, these lowly cells meet and contact with a being animated with the mysterious power of thought. This process is the emancipation and progress of the uncouth mineral atom to an infinitely high station.
This law of physical advancement is not reversed in the realm of mind and soul. The unity of arrangement uncovered by science in the atom is affirmed by the scientist to be the same as that disclosed in the great stellar systems. And since the law of unity is basic, and evidently an essential part of the celestial plan, we discover it, likewise, in the world of mind and spirit. Consequently the advancement of humanity, inspired by the mental and spiritual susceptibilities, must ever be in the direction of new conquests over the hampering shackles of its outgrown consciousness. This, in order that the new freedom may be availed of. Note, too, that the very nature and quality of the mineral cell is lost and transformed in its upward ascent.
EMERGENCE from the fog-ridden
swamps of Nature presupposes and
is conditioned upon the acceptance
1 Bahá’u’lláh, Bahá’i Scriptures, p. 152. 2 Bahá’u’lláh, Hidden Words (Arabic) verse 64.
of the True Sovereign. For this task requires fortitude, faith and understanding without which the capacity necessary to attract, as a magnet, the divine confirmation cannot appear. So great a salvation requires recognition of its Source; such a sweeping emancipation can be viewed only in the light of the mercy and forgiveness of God, like unto the heavenly table set before the returned, repentant prodigal.
“In this Day, a great banquet is celebrated in the Supreme Concourse; for all that was promised in the divine Books has appeared. This is the Day of the most great rejoicing. All must direct themselves to the Court of Nearness with the utmost joy, happiness, exultation and gladness, and deliver themselves from the fire of separation.“1
“O Son of Man! My majesty is My bestowal to thee, and My grandeur the token of My Mercy unto thee. That which beseemeth Me none shall understand, nor can any one recount. Verily! I have treasured it in My hidden storehouses and in the tabernacles of My command, as a token of My loving-kindness unto My servants and mercy unto My people?”2
Finally, let it not be supposed that we fail to recognize the real battle-ground as resident in the very soul of man, for these elemental forces are very flesh of his flesh, fabric of his texture, interwoven into the fibres of his being and implanted in his consciousness as with barbed hooks of steel.
Yet, it is man who embodies these forces. It is he who supplies
the intelligence to convert them into deeds. These intangible proclivities embedded within him find expression only through his entity and his instrumentality. So tenaciously do these tendencies cling to our every-day thoughts that were we to analyze our lives wholly from the point of view of the lower self, the problem would appear hopeless. In this dilemma, the pessimist is entangled. The attachment of the soul, through its downward flight, to the nether elements is encouraged by inheritance, tradition and example, as well as by its own mistaken hunger. But in every man whose departure from the divine command has not become habitual to the point of callousness, the consciousness of sin sets up the ever recurring fire of remorse. What secret and hidden agonies, what real suffering goes on in the hearts day after day throughout the length and breadth of humanity’s domain, as the voice of conscience, the stinging reproach of our inner reality and identity calls us to account. What despair and sense of bafflement oppresses us as we again and yet again submit to forces seemingly impossible to control. What sacrifice could be too great for deliverance from that taskmaster, that false guide, obedience to whose suggestions has brought upon us both the past and the present calamities. Sin, in this sense, is used as the equivalent of remoteness from God.
Our sense of shame is because the nobler element within us, the divinely bestowed reality, is fully aware of the surrender of the conscious ego to inferior and wholly mortal snares. The transfer of consciousness
to the plane of reality, however, unfurls the wings of the human spirit and through this union with the conscious self, the fortification is perfected. Then are the words of the saying made manifest:
“Love does not accept a soul alive to its own desires; a falcon preys not on a dead mouse.”
HEREIN is foreshadowed the Divine
Purpose and the reason of existence
of the human race. The
field of nature is the battleground;
the contending forces are the dual
human elements each striving to
control the flight of the soul; both
opposing ensigns bear the insignia
“Reality” but one is true and the
other is false; the battle slogans
are, respectively, “ Know thy
Lord”; and “Exalt thyself”; the
rewards of victory are the immortal
and eternal life, on the one
hand; and, on the other, mortality;
the sovereigns, the True One, and
the usurper. Through the infinite
wisdom of the Creator, this dramatic
setting for the enactment of
humanity’s salvation has been established.
That the century and
cycle in which we are fortunate
enough to live marks the advent of
the decisive struggle as well as the
victory of the True Sovereign
through the enlightenment of the
race, none who are even slightly informed
of the meanings of the Holy
Books, or of the almost miraculous
changes now taking place in human
psychology, can doubt.
The Divine Love which is the heart and center of the Holy Spirit is warming the frozen hearts, stirring them into that restlessness and pain previously mentioned as the clear sign of entrance into the
New World Order. The Messianic outpourings are flowing once again. The Commands of God and the Divine explanations of this problem are a living water to the wanderers in the arid desert. The mirages of the desert, its vanishing oases, its clear but bitter water are revealed as gross counterfeits of that pure, refreshing stream one drop of which dissolves the phantasmagoria of Nature’s age-old drama.
IN AN ADDRESS to the Theosophical
Society in New York, December
4th, 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá touched
upon this problem in these words:
“—The human reality stands between two grades, the world of the animal and the world of divinity. Were the animal in man to become predominant, man would become even lower than the brute. Were the heavenly powers in him to become controlling, he would become the most superior being in the world of existence. Consider, in man there is rancor; in man there is struggle for existence; in the nature of man there is propensity for warfare; innate in man there is love of self; in him there is jealousy, and so on with all the other imperfections found in the animal. For instance, in the animal there is ferocity; there is also ferocity in man. In the animal there is what is called hypocrisy or slyness, like unto that in the fox; and in the animal there is greed—and there is ignorance. So, we find all these defects in man. In the animal are injustice and tyranny; so, likewise, in man. The reality of man, therefore, is clad, one may say, in its outer form, in the garment of the animal, the garment of the world of
nature, of the world of darkness; that is, the world of imperfection, the world of infinite baseness.”
“On the other hand, we find that there is justice in man; there is sincerity, faithfulness, wisdom, light; that there is mercy and pity in him; that there is in him intellect, comprehension, the power to grasp the reality of things, the ability to discover the reality of existence. Consequently we say that man is a reality that stands between light and darkness, possessing three aspects, three phases; one is the human aspect; one is the divine, heavenly aspect; and one is the natural or animal aspect. The animal aspect is darkness, the heavenly aspect is light in light.”
“To return to the point: The holy Manifestations of God come into the world in order to effect the disappearance of the physical, the animal, dark aspect of man, so that the darkness within him may be dispelled, his imperfections eradicated, that his spiritual, heavenly phase may become manifest, his Godlike quality become paramount, and his perfections become visible; that his innate, great power may become known, and all the virtues of the world of humanity potential within him may come to life. Thus, the holy Manifestations of God are the educators and trainers of the world of existence, the teachers of mankind. They liberate men from the world of darkness and of nature. They deliver him from gloom, from error, from hideousness, from ignorance, from imperfection, and, likewise, from all the evil qualities. Then they cause him to be clad in the garment of perfection and high virtues.”
“O ye people of the world! The virtue of this most great Manifestation is that We have effaced from the Book whatever was the cause of differences, corruption and discord, and recorded therein that which leads to unity, harmony and concord. Joy unto those who act in accordance therewith!”
In this fourth installment, the conversation of Shoghi Effendi to the pilgrims is on the subjects of international government and education, especially with reference to an important letter written by Shoghi Effendi to the American Bahá’is, later published under the title “The Goal of a New World Order.” The first and second installments of these “Notes” were published respectively in the March and April numbers, and told of their arrival in Haifa and the meeting with Shoghi Effendi and the members of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s family; also of their visit to ‘Akká and the old prison quarters where Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Their followers were incarcerated so many years with unspeakable hardships and sufferings. The third installment which appeared in the June number gave a further description of the barracks at ‘Akka and a brief description of Bahji.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17th. Shoghi Effendi told us a little of the last and happiest part of Bahá’u’lláh’s life spent at Bahji, visited by us the previous day. It was there that He wrote the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf in which He summarized His former writings. He died in that same room in which He met Prof. Browne. His death was the peaceful ending of a life Whose constantly extending influence our generation but faintly comprehends when it comprehends at all.
The conversation dwelt a little on prayer and Shoghi Effendi emphasized the importance of an unconstrained approach to God. Pour out your heart freely and fully. Then do something. God cannot work through you unless you act. Of prayer for health he said that prayer
helps, but we must not lose sight of the fact that ill health may be good. Suffering, he thought very helpful both to individuals and nations. What is important is to pray always with a willingness for God’s will to be done.
Apropos of the recent death of Dr. Forel, the distinguished Swiss scientist, and the publication of his will, in which he declared himself a Bahá’i, we discussed Dr. Forel’s idea of God and the Bahá’i idea of God. Bahá’is believe in a personal God. This of course does not imply an anthropomorphic God, but a conscious God.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18TH. At
tea with the ladies the talk was
about our plans to go to Nazareth,
Jerusalem, and other places of interest
in Palestine. The ladies told
how ‘Abdu’l-Bahá always longed to
go to Jerusalem but never was able,
One time He asked some one who
was going to Jerusalem to touch its
walls for Him, to touch the walls of
that city made sacred by Christ’s
sufferings. I have heard a Bahá’i
returned from a visit to Haifa in
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s life time tell how
‘Abdu’l-Bahá told him when he was
in Jerusalem to walk the Via Dolorosa.
This Bahá’i said he never
could describe to any one the depth
and the poignancy of the experience
as he trod that way.
But today all who had been to Jerusalem agreed there was another side to it. One said she always felt oppressed with another sorrow when she came near Jerusalem, a sorrow caused by the strife of the sects. Not so different a sorrow after all from what pierced the heart of Christ as He walked His Via Dolorosa, for did He not pray that same night before He parted from His followers, “Not for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one?” The strife of the sects, not the oneness for which the world is sick unto death, we found in Jerusalem.
But the open country with its simple villages, its vineyards, the survival of ancient modes of travel and labor, its rugged hills, still are the ideal setting for Hebrew and Christian story and many a cherished phrase from the Psalms and many an incident from the life of Christ came vividly to mind as we drove from Nazareth to Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the Jordan River, and the Sea of Galilee.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23RD.—Shoghi
Effendi is writing a general letter*
to the Bahá’i friends of the Occident.
We have the privilege of
getting glimpses of its growth.
Evidently it will emphasize political
conditions of the world at large,
show their inevitable progress toward
another world war, after
which will emerge the new world
state. He spoke of Bahá’u’lláh’s
prophecy revealed in 1878, in which
He refers to the turmoil and agitation
of the world, its waywardness
* Later published by the Bahá’i Publishing Committee under the title “The Goal of a New World Order.”
and irreligion, as it hastens to a plight too grievous to be disclosed. The prophecy ends with a beautiful promise of the unfurling of the Divine Standard.
At last appears on the horizon the “parliament of nations” the “federation of the world.” Americans particularly should be much interested in two passages in this great document which has just come from the pen of Shoghi Effendi: one giving the interview between ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and an American congressman, in which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá answers the congressman’s question, “How can I best serve my country?” with the reply, “By striving in your capacity as a citizen of the world to assist in the eventual application of the principle of federalism underlying the government of your own country to the relationship now existing between the peoples and nations of the world,” and the passage in which Shoghi Effendi compares the formation of the future world state to the unification of the states of the North American continent. “It would be no exaggeration,” he writes, “to say that the absence of those facilities which modern scientific progress has placed at the service of humanity in our time, made of the problem of welding the American states into a single federation, similar though they were in certain traditions, a task infinitely more complex than that which confronts a divided humanity in its efforts to achieve the unity of all mankind.”
In this latter passage one sees the
dominant spirit of faith which animates the Guardian of the Bahá’i Cause as it did ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Who replied to those “few who, unaware of the power latent in human endeavor, consider this matter (true civilization, universal peace through a federation of the governments of the world) as highly impracticable nay even beyond the scope of man’s utmost efforts.” “Such is not the case, however. On the contrary, thanks to the unfailing grace of God, the loving kindness of His favored ones, the unrivaled endeavors of wise and capable souls and the thoughts and ideas of the peerless leaders of this age nothing whatsoever can be regarded as unattainable. Endeavor, ceaseless endeavor is required—an indomitable determination. Many a cause past ages have regarded as purely visionary, yet in this day has become most easy and practicable. Why should this most great and lofty cause—the day star of the firmament of true civilization and the cause of the glory, the advancement, the well being and success of all humanity—be regarded as impossible of achievement? Surely the day will come when its beauteous
light shall shed illumination upon the assemblage of man.”
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23RD. The
conversation at tea this afternoon
was about schools. The Bahá’i
teachings emphasize universal education
and the equality of men and
women. As these principles are
new to Oriental Bahá’is and difficult
for them to apply, the women of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s family feel an especial
obligation to observe them
conscientiously by giving their
children a very complete education.
This often means sending them to
Europe, as educational opportunities
there are greater than in the
Near East. Often these young people
have to transfer from one school
to another. These transfers are
difficult, as there is not even so uniform
a curriculum as in Europe and
America. One of the interesting
points in the Bahá’i educational
program is that it calls for “a
standard, universal system of instruction.”
This will certainly make
for greater convenience as well as
furthering the attainment of the
more important ideals of mutual
understanding, sympathy and unity
among different nations, races and
between the sexes.
“He is a true Bahá’i who strives by day and by night to progress and advance along the path of human endeavor, whose most cherished desire is so to live and act as to enrich and illuminate the world, whose source of inspiration is the essence of divine virtue, whose aim in life is so to conduct himself as to be the cause of infinite progress. Only when he attains unto such perfect gifts can it be said of him that he is a true Bahá’i. For in this holy dispensation–the crowning glory of bygone ages and cycles—true Faith is no mere acknowledgment of the Unity of God, but rather the living of a life that will manifest all the perfections and virtues implied in such belief.”
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.
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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.
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