A Miracle in Athens
Martha L. Root
* *
UNDER THE DOME OF GOD
Doris McKay
* *
NOT BY BREAD ALONE
Dale S. Cole
* *
THE NEED OF A WORLD
LANGUAGE
Dr. Albert Guetard
* *
THE SCHOOL OF ADVERSITY
A Brief Study of the Life of Bahiyyih Khanum
Anise Rideout
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| VOL. 25 | JULY, 1934 | No. 4 |
1. Unfettered search after truth, and the abandonment of all superstition and prejudice.
2. The Oneness of Mankind; all are "leaves of one tree, flowers in one garden.”
3. Religion must be a cause of love and harmony, else it is no religion.
4. All religions are one in their fundamental principles.
5. Religion must go hand-in-hand with science. Faith and reason must be in full accord.
6. Universal peace: The establishment of International Arbitration and an International Parliament.
7. The adoption of an International Secondary Language which shall be taught in all the schools of the world.
8. Compulsory education—especially for girls, who will be mothers and the first educators of the next generation.
9. Equal opportunities of development and equal rights and privileges for both sexes.
10. Work for all: No idle rich and no idle poor, "work in the spirit of service is worship."
11. Abolition of extremes of poverty and wealth: Care for the needy.
12. Recognition of the Unity of God and obedience to His Commands, as revealed through His Divine Manifestations.
| CONTENTS | |
An Auxiliary Language, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá | 117 |
Editorial, Stanwood Cobb | 99 |
It Could Occur Again—A Miracle in Athens, Martha L. Root | 102 |
Under the Dome of God, Doris McKay | 106 |
Not By Bread Alone, Dale S. Cole | 110 |
The Need of a World Language, Albert Guerard | 113 |
The School of Adversity–A Brief Study of the Life of Bahiyyih Khanum, Anise Rideout | 118 |
Strengthening the Forces of Peace, Florence E. Pinchon | 123 |
Songs of the Spirit | 126 |
Current Thought and Progress | 127 |
The official Bahá’í Magazine, published monthly in Washington, D.C. By the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada STANWOOD COBB, MARIAM HANEY, BERTHA HYDE KIRKPATRICK. . . . Editors
|
PHOTO BY
BURKE & KORETKE
Chicago, Ill.
Twenty-Sixth Annual Convention of BAHÁ'ÍS of the UNITED STATES and CANADA at the Bahá'ís House of Worship * WILMETTE, ILLINOIS
| VOL. 25 | JULY, 1934 | No. 4 |
new body politic is in process of formation. . . . Thoughts must be lofty and ideals uplifted in order that the world of humanity may become assisted in new conditions of reform.”
THE FUNDAMENTAL trouble with business and politics today is that the expression of greed and selfishness is prevalent in all human activities. The success of the individual is too much based upon the exploitation rather than the service of society. Especially are political organizations—from country village up to huge metropolis, and from county up to state—cynically corrupt; the very foundations of these organizations are the exploitation of the group. But the business world is not much better; for here the rule is self-advancement, even if at the expense of society.
This attitude and practice in human affairs is not merely selfish and unrighteous. It is crude naive folly. For it is mathematically certain, if every member of the Social Group is trying to exploit rather than to enrich the Group, that with the impoverishment and degeneration of the life of the group the individual composing the group is bound to suffer proportionately.
It is a sociological and economic axiom that the welfare of the individual is bound up in the welfare of the group. Therefore it is merely enlightened self-interest for the individual to serve rather than to exploit his group. But enlightened self-interest will never accomplish this reform. The lag between exploitation and the evil results that
follow is too great to deter the individual from exploitation. For frequently an individual may exploit society and become enriched and honored thereby. Frequently, even, a whole generation may thrive on exploitation, leaving the cataclysm to be endured by their successors. As Louis XIV, in his cynical exploitation of the masses which was reaching a point of economic ruin for the state, said “After me the deluge”, so many a modern exploiter of society may reasonably feel that he can unfairly pursue aggrandizement and yet escape ensuing consequences which must fall upon others than he.
No, it is not the individual who will reform himself because of this inescapable organic law of the social group. Rather it must be the social group which from enlightened self-interest knows how to discipline the individual. Instead of rewarding those of its members who are seeking riches and grandeur by methods of exploitation, society should condemn them to swift punishment and social obliquy.
Children know well how to deal with those members of their group who unduly practice greed and selfishness. The boys who make a pig of themselves at the table, taking much more than their share of delicacies; who play unfairly in games; who seek always to get rather than
to give,—to such individuals in the child-world is dealt out social ostracism and often more severe punishments.
How strange it is that this same group, when grown to manhood, will view only with favor and fawning esteem those cunning members of its group who succeed in taking all the cream from the economic milk bottle.
THERE MUST be an entirely new
type of education which will not only
train the individual to realize his
duty to the group, but will also enlighten
the group as to efficacious
methods of dealing with the exploitive
individual.
When I was in college the career motto guiding the practical ideals of the students upon graduation was—“Make Good”. This did not mean: Do good. It meant: Achieve success no matter at what cost. The ideal career of a fellow alumnus held up before the students was that of its greatest (so considered) graduate, a statesman whose ethical principals were so notoriously evil that Emerson was led to say of him—“The noblest brow that ever bore the sign ‘For Sale.’”
There is needed a wholly new type of education based on a new patriotism. Not to die for one’s country, but to live for it righteously is glorious! For centuries, nay for milleniums, youth has been indoctrinated with the concept of the duty of obeying the call to the colors. They must willingly risk their lives in battle when their country was in danger or when it wished to aggrandize itself by conquest. The duty to fight for one’s country has been held the paramount obligation
of citizenship. The Social Group has, until recently, been one hundred per cent successful in conditioning its members into willing subordination to the needs of the group in times of war. Social as well as governmental pressure has inclined and forced men to fight. Woe to him who has shown the white feather in time of military need.
But now we must begin to condition our youth to voluntarily contribute to their country in time of peace. We must indoctrinate them wholesale with ideals of cooperation and service. We must train them to regard the exploiter as the enemy of the group–as something far worse than a pacifist, rather in the class of a traitor. For the exploiter is doing something more fatal to the group than mere non-cooperation. He is in reality betraying his group. And not until the group itself takes in hand the discipline of its recalcitrant members will exploitation be abolished.
LET US not be illusioned. No mere
change in form of government will
right this ancient wrong of exploitation.
There must be a deep-seated
change in the attitude of the individual.
From childhood the individual
must be conditioned into a psychological
attitude of abhorrence for
the exploiter and for exploitation in
any form. This can be done if all
text-books and all instruction are as
efficaciously designed for teaching
this new patriotism as they have
been for teaching the former militaristio
patriotism. (A text-book of
narrative poems published for
Junior High School groups consists
almost of poems in praise of war
and fighting.)
The New Patriotism will call for a wholly new type of literature, for a new kind of text-book, for a new ideal of celebration in art and poesy. Instead of statues to military conquerors we shall have statues, like that erected in Paris to Pasteur, to men of great achievement in advancing civilization. Instead of tales and poems holding up to immortal obliquy the Benedict Arnolds and Ichabod Cranes of history, we must have a literature which pillories our economic and political exploiters.
THERE IS grave question whether
this new conditioning of society can
take place without a new spiritual
force being called into action. The
prevalence of righteousness
throughout the activities of the social
group cannot be achieved by
fear alone. There is needed the
higher counterpart of fear, namely,
love. The individual must be trained
from childhood into noble concepts
of generous service toward his
fellowmen. He must prefer to lose
through methods of ethical dealing
rather than to profit through methods
of unrighteousness. He must
desire to express in his life the
qualities of spiritual man rather
than the qualities of material man.
That old animal self which would
hog all must be subordinated to the
higher spiritual self which stands
ready, if necessary, to give all. It
is this kind of an education which
‘Ahdu’l-Bahá had in mind when He
said to President Bliss of the American
University of Beirut (Syria):
“The universities and colleges of the world must hold fast to three cardinal principles:
“First: Whole-hearted service to the cause of education, the unfolding of the mysteries of nature, the extension of the boundaries of science, the elimination of the causes of ignorance and social evils, a standard universal system of instruction, and the diffusion
of the lights of knowledge and reality.
“Second: Service to the cause of morality, raising the moral tone of the students, inspiring them with the sublimest ethical ideals, teaching them altruism, inculcating in their lives the beauty of holiness and the excellency of virtue, and animating them with the graces and perfections of the religion of God.
“Third: Service to the oneness of the world of humanity; so that each student may consciously realize that he is a brother to all mankind, irrespective of religion or race. The thoughts of universal peace must be instilled in the minds of all the scholars, in order that they may become the armies of peace, the real servants of the body politic—the world. God is the Father of all. Mankind are His children. This globe is one home. Nations are the members of one family. The mothers in their homes, the teachers in the schools, the professors in the colleges, the presidents in the universities, must teach these ideals to the young from the cradle to maturity.”
Fortunately we did not have to wait until every single member of the race becomes thus indoctrinated and spiritualized before the New Society based upon the New Patriotism can be established. Only do we need to train and establish leadership in this direction. Those to whom is given the privilege of higher education should be only such as are capable of devoting themselves to the true welfare of their country. The education of moral morons had best leave off where that of mental morons ends. Let them become hewers of wood and drawers of water for their fellowmen, rather than entrepreneurs, financiers and politicians.
Society must close the gates harshly against all foes who would work havoc within the fold. To this end we need to establish a new enlightened civic consciousness and a new patriotism. There are signs that this great process is already effectively begining in this country and elsewhere. And this evolution will inevitably continue until the New Society emerges.
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ATHENS, Greece, bathed in sunshine, a city of a million souls, a metropolis where the world is constantly coming and going, where tourists flock and scholars tarry, where inhabitants have settled for thousands of years—what is the most thrilling sight in this world-renowned place? To the writer it is Mars Hill, known as Areios Pagos, (which means a small hill belonging to Mars) sheltered just below the mighty Acropolis; for here a miracle took place nearly two thousand years ago, and an even greater spiritual phenomenon could occur again in Athens!
“What is this miracle?” you ask, “and what could be a second one?” That is the story I am going to tell you. Stand with us in the caressing, brilliant sunshine on Mars Hill, today, April 15, 1934,—with my friend Mr. Dionysios S. Devaris, editor of an Athens newspaper, and with this servant, a Bahá’i, a journalist from the United States. You will raise your eyes with us, first to the Acropolis, one of the very beautiful high places of earth. Here in 50 A. D. Paul, an Apostle, who, on his second great missionary journey, had come down from Macedonia, stood just where you are standing. He too, lifted his eyes to this Acropolis and saw also, for the first time, this marvelous Temple built and dedicated to The Unknown God. For Socrates who had preceded Paul by some four hundred years had taught his fellow-citizens
in Athens about one Infinite God. They had compelled Socrates to die on this Mars Hill because of the new ideas he was spreading. But something of his teaching had permeated their consciousness, for centuries afterwards this Temple had been dedicated to the Unknown God—a God so great none could understand Him. Likewise Minerva, the virgin, was adored in this Temple and the oil lamp lighted before her picture was not allowed to become extinguished.
Paul had been invited to come to Mars Hill to speak of the teachings of the new Messiah. Only a few came up to hear him, but the invitation showed first, that the Athenians were tolerant, permitting him to say whatever was in his heart; second, that they were then as now, always searching, always keen, always asking, “What news? What news?” Third, it indicated that the Athenians were prepared by the philosophies of their own Socrates and Plate to listen to fuller truth. Then as now in the twentieth century, the most of them were afraid to stand boldly for a new Revelation when the fiery great Paul stood here on Mars Hill and told his listeners that he would explain to them Who their Unknown God really was. Then he preached to them the Message of Jesus the Christ.
NOW THIS is the miracle: one man who listened to Paul on Mars Hill that morning became a believer. He
The Acropolis, Athens, Greece. The small hill just below is Mars Hill where Paul the Apostle stood and first preached to the Athenians the message of Jesus Christ. Standing on this Mars Hill are Miss Martha L. Root, Bahá’i teacher and United States journalist, and Mr. Dionysios S. Devaris, Athenian editor who translated into Greek the English book, “Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era.” This picture was taken April 15, 1934. Miss Root is the first Bahá’i teacher who spoke in Athens, and Mr. Devaris is the first Greek who has written about the Bahá’i teachings.
was the judge of the tribunal there and his name was Dionysios Areiopagate. Today, nearly two thousand years later he is the great Saint of Greece! A magnificent, imposing new church just being completed has been named Dionysios Areiopagate Church, and the very street beside this mighty Acropolis bears the name Dionysios! Athens was not changed in a day; Christianity was not really established in Athens until the third century A. D., two centuries after Dionysios Areiopagate, the first Athenian Christian, had confessed himself a follower of Jesus the Christ. However, no traveller who saw Athens on Good Friday this year 1934 as I did, when nearly a million people fasted and carried flowers to all their dead, when the very street lamps were swathed in black and kept lighted all
day as well as all night, when at night each church procession bore out, uplifted, the figure in painting of the crucified Christ, can ever doubt the miracle of St. Paul’s preaching on Mars Hill! The Orthodox Church founded by Paul’s followers, as travellers well know, is the state religion not only in Greece, but in Bulgaria, in Jugoslavia, in Rumania and until the revolution in Russia.
Tarry a little on Mars Hill, O reader, and think about St. Paul. The Greeks say he was never well, he had either consumption or malaria, for he was always consumed with fever, yet he never stopped to rest! No man, even the strongest and healthiest, could have endured those tremendously difficult journeys that Paul took, generally on foot, but perhaps sometimes by
mule-back, and survived without Paul’s spirit. St. Paul’s life has illumined history with an example of how the human body can become a most responsive instrument of its master, the spirit.
SIT IN THE sunshine on Mars Hill
and listen to what a Greek, Mr.
Dionysios Devaris, says about the
transition of one religion to a fuller.
He related that this Temple to the
Unknown God gradually came to be
known as the Temple of the Lady
because it contained the famed picture
of Minerva the Virgin, before
whom the light of the oil lamp was
always shining. Then when Christianity
was accepted in Athens
there was no great outer change at
the Temple; Minerva gave her place
to St. Mary, the oil light was never
quenched and St. Mary for many
years was pictured as standing upright
in the image of Minerva and
without the Child.
I said to Mr. Devaris that I was praying for a twentieth century Paul to arise for Bahá’u’lláh in Athens. I had come to Greece in late December, 1927, to tell the Athenians about the life-giving Principles and Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. I stayed two weeks in Athens and later four days in Salonica, lecturing in Salonica University. Through the courteous help of the Esperantists I had first given a public lecture in a hall down below Mars Hill before four hundred persons when I met Mr. Dionysios Devaris, a most brilliant and spiritual man. During my stay he wrote three excellent articles about the Bahá’i Movement in its relation to Christianity. These were published in “Vradhini”. In July, 1933, I returned
to Athens for a few days only and Mr. Devaris kindly offered to translate into Greek Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era, an English book written by Dr. J. E. Esslemont, which has appeared in twenty-eight languages during the past ten years. Now I have returned for the third time. Mr. Devaris is helping me very much in the publication of this book in Greek. We had come up to Mars Hill this sunshiny Sunday morning to speak about the Bahá’i Teachings and to look over some proof sheets of this book.
WE SPOKE first of St. Paul and
then Mr. Devaris expressed his
thoughts about the Bahá’i Teachings.
Among many other things he
told me:
“I believe every real Buddhist, every real Christian, every real Muhammadan is a Bahá’i even if he does not confess it. I think the Bahá’i Movement is so needed in the world today because Christianity is imprisoned in fanaticism and intolerance and Bahá’u’lláh has come to break these chains—not only the fetters of Christianity but of all other religions. To the masses blinded by sectarian feelings, certainly Bahá’u’lláh’s teaching that we can go to any place of worship if God is worshipped there, seems like a profane revolution, but to me this saying of Bahá’u’lláh is a return to the real spiritual freedom.”
Then Mr. Devaris explained that what makes him hopeful the Bahá’i Teachings will be accepted is that men need this Light and the very necessity itself will oblige them sooner or later, to turn to this Sun of Truth, these great new Teachings. He elucidated:
“Men who do not know anything about the Bahá’i Movement begin to realize that a change is near, at least that little ray from the Bahá’i Teachings has succeeded in getting through their darkness. Everybody realizes that we have been going wrong. The fact that some people offer false remedies does not alarm me, for what is untrue will in time pass of itself. We must admit that humanity is at the crossroads, one
path leading to salvation, the other to a precipice, but I do not believe humanity will go down. History has taught us that humanity in its most critical, agonizing times finds its Savior, for is then, at these very crossroads, where humanity has to choose between life and death, the Savior appears.”
Mr. Devaris said that he likes the Bahá’i Movement because it embraces life as a whole, the individual, the mystic, the social, the economic.
I remember that Mr. Devaris said:
“The Greeks begin to believe just what Bahá’u’lláh taught fifty years ago, that work is a sacred thing.”
“The Greeks are spiritual and very religious. We need these Bahá’i Teachings because we must get rid of our prejudices the same as other nations must, but I prefer that the Greeks get acquainted with the Bahá’i Teachings and purify their own religion according to these Teachings, rather than to say quickly: ‘Yes, we are Bahá’is’, and yet not live the Principles. Bahá’u’lláh would be more pleased with the Greek who purifies his own religion through the Bahá’i Revelation than with the Greek who would become Bahá’i only in name.”
We spoke at length about how much more rapidly Bahá’u’lláh’s Teachings can spread in the world today than Jesus Christ’s Message could two thousands years ago; for today, with the express trains, ships, aeroplanes, telegraph, radios, newspapers, international associations, the world has become much more compact than in Paul’s lifetime. Also, we cannot conceive what a bounty it is that Bahá’u’lláh, not quickly put to death as was Jesus, had time to write His Revelation, His Teachings, so that in this new universal cycle humanity has His own Words under His own signature and is not dependent upon what His followers have understood and taught.
Suddenly an itinerant photographer—who takes those instant
pictures, a snapshot, plunges the card into a liquid chemical solution and turns it, dripping wet, over to the individual—came precariously with his outfit up these same slippery stone steps where Paul had come and where we had come up to Mars Hill; he saw us and tool: a picture. It turned out a wonderful view of the Acropolis and Mars Hill, but our conversation had thus been interrupted, and we turned to leave this memorable spot and go back, down into the center of Athens to our work.
However, I halted and said: “Let us linger a moment longer to pray that a twentieth century Paul may arise here in Athens for Bahá’u’lláh’s Faith.” Then Mr. Dionysios Devaris uttered this challenge:
“I do not believe this new Apostle will ever appear from Greece or from any other Western country; he will come from the Orient, from Persia! The atmosphere of our Western world is too material to cultivate and develop such an Apostle. The Easterners are more religious, more spiritual, they take their religion more seriously and they will go to martyrdom for it? It is not very easy for a man to go to martyrdom gladly and happily. Even Christ’s disciples sometimes at the critical moments were afraid, and in the beginning Peter denied his Lord. A man must be full of fine spiritual life to become a martyr, but the Persians attained it!”
“I agree with you”, he added, that our hopes in the coming of a new Apostle like Paul are not vain. I believe Bahá’u’lláh is living and will ever be living: when He finds the soul who is capable of firing the world with these teachings, His Voice will be heard!”
Then we prayed and afterwards descended carefully the steep, slippery stone steps leading down from Mars Hill, but in their hearts forever is burned a challenge: a miracle could occur again in Athens!
“I am aware of the incalculable blessings that must await the termination of a collective enterprise which, by the range and quality of the sacrifices it entailed, deserves to be ranked among the most outstanding examples of Bahá’i solidarity . . .”
VISITORS to the Convention of the Bahá’is of the United States and Canada shaded their eyes and gazed upward at a dome of white against a sky of burning blue. Cars passed endlessly on Sheridan Drive and Lake Michigan sparkled in the bright, hot, sun; the gracious homes of Wilmette, Illinois, bordered the Universal House of Worship. The dome was the center of absorbing interest. Delegates riding out from Chicago on the Elevated saw from the train window its high-lifted bowl above the treetops. Those arriving in automobiles leaned far out for a first glimpse. A year ago in June it had been a structure of glass and steel, imposing
in its proportions—the fifth largest dome in the world—but rigid and bare in appearance. This year it had been clothed in an enveloping shell of a white concrete composition that with its glint of quartz crystals radiated a white light. Before it hardened, this flexible medium had been cast in great moulds in an intricate lace-like design. It might have been an ivory minaret in an ancient tale of Baghdad, in reality it was “the Bahá’i Temple” so challenging in its modernity that it has excited the interest of architects and engineers since its inception. It had risen above its foundations in two years. For its accomplishment these same American
believers, assisted by their Oriental and European brothers, had in the years of the depression sacrificed their means.
AT NINE o’clock of the morning of
May 31st, 1934, the group of delegates
and friends ascended a long
flight of steps to the main auditorium
and entered reverently the
great round room. One hundred
and thirty-five feet above their
bowed heads towered the great
dome. From one of the upper galleries
voices read or chanted the
words of God. Thus was the four
day convention gathered. Each of
the other days, with their busy,
crowded sessions, was preluded by
the half hour of worship beneath the
dome.
The Convention has been held for years in a large nine-sided room beneath the auditorium. For background imagine the walls hung with soft glowing rugs from the oriental shrines, and the perfume and color of great bowls of roses. A skylight in which the curved panels of the ceiling met transmitted the sunbeams which had strayed through the glass of the dome. Soft, parchment-shaded lights dispelled the dimness. In that room in tensely interested rows sat a few hundred Bahá’is, a people who for many years have worked together in a close and loving fellowship to establish the Kingdom of God in this our present age. They represented all races and nationalities, all varieties, of social and educational backgrounds and in this variety lies their great significance to the world. They had found the key to the palace of human relationships—outside that cool, dim room
the social experts of the world were wearily searching for that key. They were aware of the delicate balances of the great living Forces, religion, science, government,—saw them as reconciled, sustaining, and intertwining with each other. They knew that the great Amalgam which had fused these people and these principles was the basic Bahá’i teaching of Oneness which like the ribs of that magnificent dome overhead had brought the circumference to the Center in a firmness and a symmetry that is unshakeable.
UNDER the Dome of God at each
new Convention the principle of
Oneness is put to another testing
as in a laboratory a scientific variety
is unfolded through consecutive
trials. That impulse toward unity,
the special genius of the Bahá’i
Faith, which in its earlier interpretation
was applied to the removing
of the prejudices of race, nation,
class, and creed has in its present
administrative phase focussed unswervingly
on the evolution of government.
We witness the vitality
of the forces at work at this Convention
in which representatives of
all the Bahá’i communities of America
have come together to exercise
their yearly prerogative of consulting
with and making recommendations
to the National Spiritual Assembly,
their elected body. We observe
the power and magnetism of
these emancipated people, so diverse
in themselves, so unified in
their aim, and the event becomes
portentious to the future unification
of mankind. Each day for many
centuries multitudes have prayed
for the coming of the Kingdom of
God on earth. For the Bahá’is this
expectancy has taken definite form, that of a divinely conceived model for world government described by Bahá’u’lláh, revealed in its further details by ‘Abdul-Bahá and amplified by Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Bahá’i Faith.
A DISTINGUISHED sociologist has
said that nations might learn the
secrets of government from the laws
governing the growth of vegetable
organisms. One is reminded of
Bahá’u’lláh’s words with which the
idea of Oneness was first given to
His followers: “Ye are all leaves
of one tree and fruits of one
branch.” At this present stage of
its application Bahá’i Administration
is concerned with the relationship
between the leaves and the
tree, the fruits and the branches.
In the National Spiritual Assembly
and in a correspondingly lesser degree
in the Local Spiritual Assemblies
are vested the powers of central
government. They represent
the future Houses of Justice. The
finger of progress points to the balance
between complete and cheerful
acceptance of the authority of the
governing bodies and individual responsibility
and initiative. A Convention
delegate orients himself as
an active cell in the group mind; as
a point of light in an illumination.
He is encouraged to exercise his full
powers but in the words of Shoghi
Effendi “The unfettered freedom
of the individual should be tempered
with mutual consultation and sacrifice,
and the spirit of initiative and enterprize should be reinforced by a deeper realization of the supreme necessity for concerted action and a fuller devotion to the common weal.” As these years of the formative period go by the tendency to dominance by separate personalities recedes. The ego, common to all of us, suffers a series of successive deaths, such is the discipline of true Bahá’i functioning when the spirit of separateness opposes itself to Oneness. The majority vote represents the verdict of the group mind—to deny obedience after a mature decision has been duly reached is anarchy. As the Convention proceeds each year there is a heightening of vision. In contrast to the divine model, the flaws of humanly limited “views” and worldly opinions have become strikingly apparent. A celestial sense of values is set up and a new order of being, equipped for world citizenship, approaches maturity.
THE LAST session of the Convention
came, the last reports of the
committees had been read, the last
resolutions passed. While tourists
to the World’s fair were passing on
the busy Drive and staring with
wonder and curiosity at the building
which has sounded a new note
in architecture, within, under the
Dome of God the real builders of
“The Divine Edifice”, the World
Order of Bahá’u’lláh, their work
accomplished, arose as one soul to
sing the Bahá’i “Benediction”.
“The treasure houses of God are filled with bounties.”
ANY religion which recognizes above all the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man must of necessity have grave questionings concerning those national enterprises where the deepest spiritual fervor is evoked for purely nationalistic, race, or class ends. In saying this, I am quite willing to admit that the great religions of the world have for the most part abdicated during the past fifty years and perhaps even for much longer than that. Certain outward forms were maintained, vast sums of money were given, churches were built, rituals were observed, alms were distributed, ethical principles were inculcated, but the heart of religion which has to do with faith in the values of a higher world, with the cultivated joy of the inner life which comes from, the Holy Spirit, both immanent and transcendent, was lacking.
Moreover, in spite of the tremendous increase in material things resulting from the stimulus to the human spirit growing out of the Protestant revolt, no truly fruitful effort had been made to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth in terms of social justice. . . .
THE THING which I am arguing for fundamentally
and eventually is a continuous, fluid. open-minded
approach to reality. I cannot help but
feel that the destiny of the world is toward a far
greater unity than that which we now enjoy and
that in order to attain such unity it will be necessary
for the members of the different races,
classes, and creeds to open their hearts and minds
to the unfolding reality of the immediate future in
a way which they have never done before. The
stress and strains of the next twenty years are
going to be peculiarly favorable to such an awakening.
Men will undoubtedly arise who can make
the issues vital and real. I feel it is impossible to
clarify the issues further until such time as the
pressure of events has further sharpened our inner
vision.*
* From an address given in Mandel Hall, University of Chicago.
“Until the heavenly civilization is founded, no result will be forthcoming from the material civilization, even as you observe. See what catastrophes take place! Consider the wars which disturb the world; consider the expression of enmity and hatred! The presence of these wars indicate the fact that the heavenly civilization has not yet been established. If this heavenly civilization be promulgated, all this dust will be dispelled, all these clouds will pass away, and the Sun of Reality with greatest effulgence, with glory, will shine upon mankind.”—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
IT is not a new idea that one of the most certain things in our universe is change. There is an immutable law of change especially concerning human institutions. Is it not strange then that we have not devoted more thought to the ever recurring possibilities of changes and their influence on life? Instead, we, for the most part, resist changes until conditions become intolerable, until we are driven almost to despair by the exigencies of the times. Is it not also strange that when such a juncture is reached in human affairs we immediately assume the attitude of indignation? Indignation against what? Almost everything man-made.
At a meeting of the Franklin Institute, Mr. James Shelby Thomas, LL. D. spoke on “What the Machine is Doing to Mankind.” This address is a defence of the industrial order and in his introductory remarks, the author speaks of change in words probably descriptive of the attitude of many.
“Well, this attacking business is a pleasant and exhilerating exercise. For while we attack, we have no need of doubt and less for constructive planning. We only need to affirm vehemently that whatever is, is wrong. The spell of indignation is upon us. We unconsciously become the high priests of evangelism and change. Change of what sort? It
is no matter. Any sort, just so it is change. ‘Tear down and you will build something better’ is the favorite axiom of critical philosophers, though by now Greece and Rome have good reason for doubting its truth. It is to be observed, however, that the philosopher always leaves the work of reconstruction to more practical people.”
Even in the attitude of indignation is it true that we have “no need for doubt and less for constructive planning”? Mr. Kettering of The General Motors Company has also suggested in a magazine article, that we need not be too concerned about planning for the future. He believes that we will acquire knowledge so rapidly in the future that any long range plans made now will soon be obsolete. He feels that coming generations will not want our plans any more than they will want to pay off long standing bonded debts which they do not incur.
These are provocative and challenging thoughts. We may be indignant, but there comes a time when, if we think at all, we must have doubts and demand changes. And some surely will think about constructive planning for the future. What many have not recognized is that there is an immutable law of change operative in the universe and that there is a Divine Plan. Can we by any possibility
learn this Divine Plan and so make our efforts count?
FROM NUMEROUS sources we are
told that civilization is breaking
down, or at least not advancing as
it should, and something must be
done about it. This civilization, we
are also informed, is a materialistic
one in that it places the emphasis
on things. In the ultimate analysis,
things are composed of matter.
But there is no such thing as matter! Science has quite conclusively proven that when we dissect matter we find only various forms of energy. So is it any wonder that there is no stability in materialism? Its basis, material or matter, does not exist!
Of course this is not quite what the critics of the day mean when they say that our materialistic civilization is endangered, but it is nevertheless scientifically true and suggests interesting possibilities.
Perhaps, since, scientifically speaking, there is no matter, since the foundation stones of such a civilization, as formerly conceived, do not exist, we should turn our attention to energy, for that is the newly discovered building block of the universe.
Energy is applied through the machine. Thus an industrial civilization is predicated. Mr. Thomas said that “all civilizations have been industrial. There is no other way for them to exist. They have differed only in degree and intensity and the variations in them have been determined almost entirely by the wants of men at a given time.”
Here is a suggestion for a profound change—one pertaining to the “wants” of mankind. Hitherto
these have been interpreted as being almost wholly material. Already a great yearning is developing for those things beyond the boundary of the material.
Probably what we really mean when we say that material civilization is threatened, is that we are beginning to realize, vaguely and timorously, that what was written a long, long time ago, may have modern significance, namely—“that man cannot live by bread alone”. Man needs something more than the satisfactions derived from a highly developed external civilization.
GRANTED then that the civilization
of the future must satisfy the higher
longings of mankind can we justifiably
base our next step in building
this civilization on energy? Had
we not better, before going further,
answer the question,—What is
energy?
The technical definition in good standing is, that it is “the capacity to do work”. Instantly we realize that this definition is wholly inadequate. A characteristic of a thing such as “capacity” is not the thing itself. Metals are hard, but we do not define a metal as “the capacity to be hard”.
So, just as we were confronted with the alluring and interesting possibilities of starting construction of a new conception of civilization based on energy, we find that we do not know much about it. Matter seemed quite real, but has proven otherwise. It has failed us in stability. It too obeys the law of change.
Would energy prove any more stable as a foundation? It certainly is not static. It has many forms,
some quite elusive. The more we think about it the more wonderful and elusive it becomes. About all that we can say is that it must be the manifestation of some great power, influence or spirit. Furthermore it is one of the essentials of life—one of the imponderables in many aspects. Perhaps we come closer than we know when we say it is the manifestation of spirit—or spiritual power. For what else can it be?
An appreciation then of the importance of energy, in life as we have it, leads us towards the recognition that energy manifests God. Going a little further it becomes evident that a civilization based upon energy in its highest sense is a spiritual one. If we would have a real and enduring civilization it must be one in which spiritual needs are taken account of, in which spiritual laws are obeyed. It will be universal as to time, place and continuity. God’s spiritual sovereignty embraces all possible civilizations of whatever kind.
IF WE ARE to be good citizens in
this new civilization we must learn
to think in world terms, terms larger
and more comprehensive than
those applying to state or nation, to
a group or race, to a single philosophy
on limited religious conception.
This may require some mental
effort, some character building
to think thus unselfishly. It may
call for some reorganization, some
reconstruction of the individual before
the effects are apparent collectively.
But, if the signs and portents
now visible are not mirages,
we will have to do all this and more.
* ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, ”Promulgation of Universal Peace,” Vol. 2, p. 370.
Changes are imminent—either controlled or uncontrolled. In attempting to control them we do well to remember that “man cannot live by bread alone.”
It is fine mental discipline, especially in times of economic distress to segregate those things in life which are real from those which are not. On the real side of the ledger we would certainly find all those things which have to do with intellectual and spiritual conceptions and significances.
When we realize that we cannot “live by bread alone” the emphasis of life shifts. The accent is no longer placed on material possessions. They are retained but are no longer so important. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has explained this change of emphasis in the following words:
“Bahá’u’lláh teaches that material civilization is incomplete, insufficient and that divine civilization must be established. Material civilization concerns the world of matter or bodies but divine civilization is the realm of ethics and moralities. Until the moral degree of the nations is advanced and human virtues attain a lofty level, happiness for mankind is impossible. The philosophers have founded material civilization. The prophets have founded divine civilization. His Holiness Christ was the founder of heavenly civilization. Mankind receives the bounties of material civilization as well as divine civilization from the heavenly prophets. The capacity for achieving extraordinary and praiseworthy progress is bestowed by them through the breaths of the Holy Spirit, and heavenly civilization is not possible of attainment or accomplishment otherwise. This evidences the need of humanity for heavenly bestowals and until these heavenly bestowals are received, eternal happiness cannot be realized.”*
Man cannot “live by bread alone”; neither on a material basis can a real and lasting civilization be erected, for that “which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit”. Only the spiritual is real, lasting and worthy of attainment.
The following has been compiled with the permission of the author who is Professor of English, Stanford University, from his articles published recently in the “San Francisco Chronicle.” It will be extremely interesting to the readers of this magazine to know that Dr. Guerard met ‘Abdu’l-Bahá personally. He states, “I am in great sympathy with the Bahá’i Movement which I have followed for many years: indeed I had the privilege of listening to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself, at Stanford, some twenty years ago.”
A frontier is in all cases an obstacle to peace and understanding and may at any moment turn into a battle line. Of all frontiers, the most insurmountable, both physically and morally, is that of language. The airplane, the telegraph, and especially the radio may ignore the artificial boundaries traced by diplomats and defended by fortresses; but you carry your own linguistic limitations wherever you go. Language differences turn the most marvellous inventions of the age into a mockery. The most sensitive radio set becomes a cause of exasperation if the sounds it conveys are meaningless to me. It is, language, most of all, that turns the stranger into an alien. The “unspeakable” foreigner is the man with whom we cannot have speech.
Among the worst obstacles to a close federation of Western Europe (by which we mean the whole of Europe minus Soviet Russia) is the fact that this area, barely two-thirds the size of the United States, possesses some forty languages. And by languages I mean not local patois, which are innumerable, but only those dialects that are advancing definite political and cultural claims to recognition; those that are actually taught in schools, and in which books and periodicals are printed; those that are strong enough to create a question; those (this is the supreme test) for the
sake of which men are willing to fight or be persecuted.
In Western Europe the geographical domain of even the most important languages is notably small. The largest, the area of German speech, is smaller than our single state of Texas. If you draw a circle with a radius of 200 miles, with any capital city except Rome as a center, you will find that at least four languages are reached.
BUT MORE confusing than adjoining
nations with different languages
is the fact of populations of different
speech residing in the same territory
under one government. No
map can do full justice to such a
situation, the result of conquest, migration
or infiltration. Frequently
the dominant population belongs to
one linguistic group and the common
people another. There are
Poles under German regime and
White Russians, Lithuanians and
Ruthenians under Polish regime.
Perhaps the most extreme case of
mixed language is provided by the
city of Salonika and its immediate
hinterland in Macedonia. The place
was Turkish for centuries; it is now
under Greek rule, and, due to exchange
of refugees, it is becoming
increasingly Greek. But Turkish
never was used except by a small
minority; and even at present it is
doubtful whether Greek clearly predominates.
At the very gates of the
city are found Macedonian peasants whose Slavic speech shades off imperceptibly from Serb to Bulgar, Rumanian and Albanian tribes hover nearby, and the chief element in the city is Jewish. But these Jews, exiled from Spain ages ago, still speak a Spanish jargon, instead of the Germanized Yiddish of most of their coreligionists. No wonder that the current language should be none of these conflicting tongues, but French, in which the best schools are conducted, and the most widely read papers are published.
Every effort at sincere and efficient cooperation between the countries is thwarted or vitiated by the lack of a common medium of intercourse. The problem is pressing and cannot be denied. Whenever people from different lands come together—and come together they must with increasing frequency—they have to decide upon a method of communication. They may agree upon several languages, With many translations. They may restrict themselves to a couple, as in present day diplomacy. But they have, first of all, to face the language question. For them it is not, as many Americans think, a curiosity, a fad, a Utopia; it is an immediate need. Moreover the practical business of the world—science, travel, commerce—requires means of intercourse. In our splendid Western isolation we are apt to misunderstand the bitterness of this need; we are tempted to ignore or belittle the efforts made to meet it. It is a practical problem in human reconciliation and efficient administration, and it deserves to enlist our sympathy.
BUT THERE must be a way out. World recovery and world peace need world organization. Blind is he who refuses to acknowledge that the remedy must be international like the disease! Nations Will find it hard to organize if they cannot understand one another. Today there is no agreed means of communication. In official gatherings such as the Assembly of the League, two languages at least are official, and many others are heard. There is no sign that a single language will prevail.
The one insurmountable obstacle to the adoption of a single national language for international purposes is that it would reduce all others to a position of inferiority. All assumption of hegemony will be resented by self-respecting foreigners. Nor should this be ruled out of court as mere touchiness. A man who has to use a foreign language, in competition with natives, works under a severe handicap. Even though he should be perfectly correct and clear, he will be constantly, and unconsciously, trembling on the brink of the ridiculous. One little slip of the tongue and the whole effect of a powerful argument is spoiled. This position of inferiority will not be accepted without chafing. At present the necessary interposition of translators is a great weakness. Indeed the interpreter may be harder to understand than the interpreted. To give at leisure an accurate version of a foreign passage is difficult enough; to improvise your rendering, sentence by sentence, is well nigh hopeless.
So pressing is the need, so inadequate the present solutions, that the thought of a simple, neutral, auxiliary
language was bound to arise. In spite of skepticism and derision, it has been gaining ground. For the sake of convenience, we shall refer to such a language as Esperanto, although we are aware that many other solutions have been offered, some of them very attractive. But Esperanto deserves to be the standard bearer of the international language cause. It is the only scheme that has received a prolonged and varied application on a sufficiently large scale. In the course of nearly half a century, hundreds of books and magazines have been printed in it. Over a score of international congresses have been held in which it was the only medium. It is no longer an experiment; it is a demonstration, and to treat it as a mere fad is to expose one’s ignorance.
WE MUST insist that what is proposed
is not a Universal Language,
substituted for all others, but an
Auxiliary Language, exclusively for
international use. No existing tongue
has anything to fear from Esperanto.
Just as a genuine League
of Nations would be a guarantee for
each member nation, and not a menace,
so Esperanto would come not as
rival to native tongues, but as friend
and helper.
It would bring salvation to those minor languages that are now struggling not merely for prestige, but for existence. It would restore a real linguistic democracy; every single speech, even the humblest patois, supreme in its own domain, however small; all men, whatever their native tongue, able to meet on terms of complete equality. This would not make for gray uniformity, but for the richest variety.
If we bear in mind this purely auxiliary character of the new language, we shall readily understand why there is no danger that it should split again into local dialects, as did Latin after the disruption of the Roman Empire. Esperanto will never become Anglo-Esperanto in London and Franco-Esperanto in Paris, because it will never be used by Englishmen among themselves, or by Frenchmen among themselves. Reserved for the international field, it will remain international. The printing press, the airplane, the telephone, the phonograph, the talkie, the radio, are means of diffusion unknown in the fifth century of our era; they make it extremely easy to preserve linguistic unity.
An objection that comes to mind against the use of Esperanto is that it is an “artificial” language. We greatly exaggerate the difference be tween “artificial” and “natural”; in this we are guided by false logic, not by actual experience. No language officially used and taught can be wholly natural. As soon as English was written down, standardized by classics and good society, codified by grammarians, it ceased to evolve with the freedom of a Central African dialect. Its tendency is to become more regular with age; you will have to make quite an effort to create a new irregular plural or another irregular verb.
On the other hand, Esperanto is made up of natural elements grouped according to natural laws. It is not a purely arbitrary conception; it is merely a simplified, standardized language, an anticipation of a natural trend. It borrows its roots from words that are already international; it forms its compounds according
to methods familiar to every European; its grammar is no “invention,” but the basis common to the tongues most widely spoken. When we learn Esperanto we do not have to acquire strange habits of thought; we are simply freed from the incubus of endless irregularities. The grammar of any Esperanto can be written on a postcard and memorized in an hour. The simplicity and regularity of Esperanto grammar makes it an excellent introduction to the study of “natural” languages, including our own.
It is evident that in an “artificial” language each word will be reduced to its essential meaning, without all the associations, all the overtones, that enrich it in a “natural” language. This absence of timbre or harmonics may be a great handicap for a certain form of literature; but it does not affect the precision of the international medium. On the contrary, it compels us to analyze our thought, to express fully all that we want to convey, and nothing more. That is why Esperanto, strangely enough, has been found an instrument of matchless accuracy. The purity of meaning is not clouded by sentiment.
IF THE problem were solved, as it could be tomorrow, the millenium would not start at once. But many of our difficulties would be greatly lightened. Travel and commerce would be facilitated. International gatherings would be far pleasanter and more efficient; they would come within the reach of people of limited education, who already have sympathies and interests beyond the frontiers and ought to have more. Costly scientific publications, addressed to a limited public, would
avoid the delay and expense of several translations; one learned journal could reach the whole world. An international aviation service, an international police corps, even an international army, would cease to be remote Utopias. The marvelous inventions of the last one hundred years in the realm of communication, now thwarted by the language obstacle, would come to full fruition.
Ultimately, the fate of the auxiliary language will depend upon the official action by the governments, the learned bodies, the existing international agencies. But these, conservative by nature, cannot oommit themselves to an untried scheme, however tempting it might be on paper. The role of Esperanto has been precisely to give the world a practical demonstration that such a language could be devised; that it could be used for all purposes, even for literature, even for poetry; that it could be kept free from local differences and perpetual changes. All this Esperanto has definitely achieved. It has met every test. We can and we must, strengthen it, through our support until the governments are compelled to take notice.
Then, when the world is ready for a final solution, it may be wise to re-examine the question in its entirety, with the best expert knowledge and in the light of extensive experience. Until then, all proposed reforms defeat the main object. Esperanto, imperfect as it may be, is alive. Perhaps because it has a soul, the soul of Dr. Zamenhof. To give up every desire for domination and privilege; to plan and work for tomorrow—in no other way can we escape from hatred and strife.
AN AUXILIARY LANGUAGE . . . . . . . . .
all the people will learn and through it converse one with
another.”—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.THIS is a century of illumination surpassing all others in its many discoveries, its great inventions, and its vast and varied undertakings. But the greatest achievement of the age in conferring profit and pleasure on mankind is the creation of an auxiliary language for all. Oneness of language engenders peace and harmony. Oneness of language creates oneness of heart. It sweeps away all misunderstandings among peoples. It gives to the human intellect a broader conception, a more commanding point of view.
TODAY the greatest need of humanity is to understand and to be understood. With the help of the internationa1 language every individual member of a community can learn of world happenings and become in touch with the ethical and scientific discoveries of the age. The auxiliary international language gives to us the key—the key of keys—which unlocks the secrets of the past. By its aid every nation henceforth will be able easily and without difficulty to work out its own scientific discoveries.
ONLY think how the international language will facilitate intercommunication among all the nations of the earth. . . . In the schools they will study two languages—the mother tongue and the international auxiliary language.
HIS Holiness Bahá’u’lláh many years ago [now over seventy years] wrote a book called ‘The Most Holy Book’ one of the fundamental principles of which is the necessity of creating an international language, and He explains the great good and advantage that will result from its use. . . . Once establish this auxiliary language and all will be enabled to understand each other.
The following article concerning the life of Bahiyyih Khanum, sister of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, has been condensed from a more extended story submitted by the author. It has been edited by Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick as limited space unfortunately precludes publication of the manuscript in its entirety.
TWO years have passed since the ascension of Bahíyyih Khanum, the Greatest Holy Leaf. In his cablegram announcing this sad news Shoghi Effendi said, “Plunged in unutterable sorrow, humanity shall erelong recognize its irreparable loss.” It is with the hope of helping humanity to recognize in a greater degree this irreparable loss in the passing of a life “laden with sacred experiences, and rich in imperishahle memories” that this article is written. It is a loving tribute, an attempted expression of tender appreciation for all she attained. Little has been made known of her heroic life. In the future one will surely arise fully capable of doing justice to the life and example of this peerless soul; her memory must in the meantime be kept alive and sacred in the hearts of all.
Through a long life this exalted soul gave triumphantly her glorious services, a life which knew, almost from infancy, successive and disastrous suffering. Our first glimpse of her finds her, a child of six years, obliged to endure a long journey over a mountainous country in bitterest cold, insufficiently clothed, with unfit food and little of it. Bahá’u’lláh, her Father, was an exile from Persia, His native land, and with Him went all His family. Driven from a home of wealth and deprived of their property these
tenderly nurtured people were obliged to take this long journey without money and with only a few articles, hastily collected; which could be bartered along the way for necessities.
The journey lasted one month. Finally the little band of faithful followers of Bahá’u’lláh, with Him arrived in Baghdád in a state of great misery and destitution. Here they settled down with the expectation of remaining indefinitely and here the child grew into girlhood, even then, Shoghi Effendi tells us, “entrusted by the guiding hand of her Father with missions that no girl of her age could, or would be willing to, perform.”
AFTER eleven years Bahá’u’lláh
was again banished,—this time to
Constantinople. And now we see
the girl of seventeen a member of a
caravan containing some seventy
souls enduring the sufferings of a
four months journey over weary
desert sands and rough mountains
in the heat of summer. Arriving at
last at a port of the Black Sea they
completed the journey to Constantinople
by boat. But here they were
allowed to remain only four months
when orders from the Turkish government
sent them on to Adrianople.
In the dead of winter and
with insufficient food and clothing
this painful journey took six weeks.
Bahíyyih Khanum has said that she
was a strong vigorous girl until she was subjected to these terrible exile journeys.
But even here in Adrianople, many hundreds of miles from His native Persia, Bahá’u’lláh was allowed to stay less than five years. His relentless and jealous enemies constantly formed new designs against His life, new plots to discredit the sincerity of His high claims, new calumnies against His flawless character. Indeed His worst enemies were those of His own house and were constantly with Him. We know that everywhere that Bahá’u’lláh went He was loved and respected by all who came to know Him. Often magistrates and others in high authority were filled with sorrow and expressed great sympathy for Bahá’u’lláh and His family. They were powerless, however, in most cases, to suspend or modify orders but must proceed with their execution. And so we see Bahíyyih Khanum, now a young; woman of twenty-one or two experiencing another long journey over land and sea, filled with all kinds of inconveniences and fraught with untold suftering. The end of this journey was the prison fortress of ‘Akká. This prison was reserved especially for murderers, thieves and highway robbers. A sentence to it was commensurate with a sentence to death. The poison of filth and disease soon brought a release in death to those who entered there. Yet few fatalities were suffered by this band of prisoners. Bahíyyih Khanum relates of this last banishment:
“Of my own experiences, perhaps this is the most awful. The
sufferings of the voyage had reduced us almost to the point of death; upon that came the seasickness.
“When we landed in ‘Akká all the people of the town came crowding around us, speaking loudly in Arabic which I understood. Some said that we were to be put in the dungeons and chained; others that we were to be thrown into the sea. The most horrible jests and jeers were hurled at us as we marched through the streets to this dreadful prison. Arriving at the prison barracks, the massive door was closed upon us and the great iron bolts were thrown home.
“Words fail to describe the filth and stench of that vile place. We were nearly up to our ankles in mud in the room into which we were led. The damp, close air combined with other horrible odours caused me to faint. Those about me caught me before I fell; because of the mud and filth there was no place upon which I could he laid.
“On one side of the room a man was weaving a mat for soldiers. One of our friends took this mat and I was laid upon it. They begged for water but were refused; the soldiers would permit no one to leave the prison. There was a pool of water on the dirt floor in which the mat maker had been moistening his rushes. Some of this water was dipped up and strained and put to my lips. I swallowed a little and revived; the water, however, was so foul my stomach rejected it. I fainted again.
“Finally a little of the water was thrown in my face. At length I revived
sufficiently to ascend the stairs.”*
THE suffering of those two years
in the confinment of the unspeakably
poisonous atmosphere of that
terribly crowded prison of ‘Akká
was the final fire that purified the
already almost spotless soul of
Bahíyyih Khanum from the last
vestige of dross. Of this period
Shoghi Effendi writes:
“Not until, however, she had been confined in the company of Bahá’u’lláh within the walls of the prison city of ‘Akká did she display, in the plenitude of her power and in full abundance of her love for Him, those gifts which single her out, next to ‘Abdul-Bahá, among the members of the Holy Family, as the brightest embodiment of that love which is born of God and of that human sympathy which few mortals are capable of evincing.”
At the end of two years Bahá’u'lláh and His family, still prisoners, were allowed to live in a small house, and later in a larger one, within the walls of the prison city and we find the Greatest Holy Leaf devoting herself selflessly and untiringly to the needs of the family and to her Father’s Cause. From early morning until late at night she was occupied with household and other varied duties which to her were precious privileges. Her work was an unceasing prayer, her presence an inspiration to all.
One of the Persian Bahá’is relates that when as a young man of twenty-one he came from Tihrán to Akká to act as secretary and translator for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, he found the heat of ‘Akká hard to endure in contrast to the clear, cool, mountainous
* Related by Bahiyyih Khanum to the Countess M. A. DesCanovarra.
atmosphere of his Persian home. Consequently he wrote often after sundown and far into the night. The Greatest Holy Leaf was always about, busy with her tasks, generally in the kitchen. Many times during the hottest weather a messenger would appear from her with a loving message and a refreshing beverage. No one was forgotten. Each detail of this unusual household was overseen by her, whether it was to give loving counsel or offer carefully prepared food.
AS HEAD of her Father’s household
her social duties became most
exacting, for while Bahá’u’lláh was
a prisoner and submitted to all the
indignities and surveillance which
the authorities thrust upon Him yet
His Presence was sought by officials,
scholars and people of rank as well
as by His followers. “Whether in
the management of the affairs of
His Household,” writes Shoghi
Effendi, “in which she excelled, or
in the social relationships which she
so assiduously cultivated in order
to shield both Bahá’u’lláh and
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, whether in the unfailing
attention she paid to the
everyday needs of her Father, or in
the traits of generosity, of affability
and kindness, which she manifested,
the Greatest Holy Leaf had
by that time abundantly demonstrated
her worthiness to rank as
one of the noblest figures intimately
associated with the lifelong work
of Bahá’u’lláh”
So bitter was the antagonism stirred up by the Opponents of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh that even the gracious hospitality and unstinted benevolence of Bahíyyih Khanum was met with ingratitude, and, indeed,
malicious slander. With such serenity and forebearance did she receive these malevolent acts that Shoghi Effendi says of her: “No calamity, however intense, could obscure the brightness of her saintly face, and no agitation, no matter how severe, could disturb the composure of her gracious and dignified behavior.”
WE MAY do well to reflect upon the life of this noble woman in order to understand in a degree what complete detachment and selfless love means in the development of character. Throughout life she was deprived of most that we are accustomed to consider essential to normal development. School life, girlhood companions, the marriage relation were not for her. In her loyalty to Bahá’u’lláh she even found it necessary to sever many family ties. But her character was perfectly rounded. In the school of suffering her spiritual development was complete so that she was in perfect mastery of any situation in which she found herself. “In the school of adversity”, Shoghi Effendi writes, “she . . . learned . . . the lesson she was destined to teach the great mass of His followers for so long after Him”. (i. e. Bahá’u’lláh).
The depth of the bond which existed between ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and His sister is revealed in letters written by Him to her while He was away on a speaking tour in Europe and America. During His prolonged absence many additional responsibilities fell upon her. “In the day-time and the night-season My thoughts ever turn to thee” He wrote, “Not for one moment do I cease to remember thee. My sorrow and regret concern not Myself, they
center around thee.” And in another letter He says, “However great the distance that separates us, we still feel as though we were seated under the same roof, in one and the same gathering.” Throughout this long separation the heart of Bahíyyih Khanum was constantly buoyed up and gladdened by the news of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s spiritual victories in those distant lands.
This note of joy we find too in another letter written by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in regard to a journey of His sister’s: “The news of thy safe arrival and pleasant stay in that land of Egypt hath reached Me and filled My heart with exceeding gladness. I am thankful to Bahá’u’lláh for the good health thou dost enjoy and for the happiness He hath imparted to the hearts of the loved ones in that land.”
PERHAPS it was concerning this
same journey that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
wrote this exquisite and tender message
to one of His daughters: “It
is incumbent upon thee throughout
the journey to be a close, a constant
and cheerful companion to My honorable
and distinguished sister. Unceasingly,
with the utmost vigor and
devotion, exert thyself by day and
night to gladden her blessed heart;
for all her days she was denied a
moment of tranquillity. She was
astir and restless every hour of her
life.” And, that we who are of
duller insight might know the
source which gave birth to and constantly
nourished the selfless love
and ceaseless activity of His dearly
treasured sister, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá added
these words, “Mothlike she
circled around the undying flame of
the divine Candle, her spirit ablaze
and her heart consumed by the fire
of His Love.”
Those who were privileged to see and talk with Bahíyyih Khanum were strongly conscious of this love and the strength that came from it. Such a one wrote: “Just to sit and look into the eyes of the Greatest Holy Leaf, to feel that spiritual power which she is consciously pouring into the world today, is a bounty beyond words, and will assist a soul throughout all the worlds . . . If you go there with a spiritual hunger, and even a little freed from self, your heart will be filled to overflowing and you shall have tasted that water after which one will thirst no more.”
To another who was a guest in that home in Haifa over which she presided, Shoghi Effendi said: “You are most fortunate to be near the Greatest Holy Leaf, bodily close. I hope that you will be able to receive something of her spirit to take to the friends in America. Her
* Quoted from letter by Shoghi Effendi.
spirit is the remedy for all their troubles.”
The world at large, tragically in need of her healing spirit, is still unaware of Bahíyyih Khanum, unaware of her of whom Bahá’u’lláh wrote, “Verily We have elevated thee to the rank of the most distinguished among thy sex, and have granted thee in My court a station such as no other woman hath surpassed.” But we are assured that future generations “will pay a worthy tribute to the towering grandeur of her spiritual life, to the unique part she played throughout the tumultuous stages of Bahá’i history”, that “history . . shall record for her a share in the advancement and consolidation of the world-wide community which the hand of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had helped to fashion, which no one among the remnants of His Family can rival”.*
“Let us then . . . ponder for a while upon the underlying reason that had made God’s Divine Messengers prefer a life of torture to one of ease, and those blessed martyrs—so many of them cut off in the springtime and promise of their youth—choose death with faces radiant with joy.
“What did the Báb sacrifice His promising youth for except out of a burning desire to have mankind live in unity and peace; and what was the spirit that animated those bold and heroic martyrs but love and adoration to a Cause they wished to triumph? What made Bahá’u’lláh, born and brought up in opulence, fling away all earthly possessions and choose upon Himself unspeakable hardships and deprivation, save for an earnest appeal to the world at large to turn their hatred for one another into genuine love and to make a world seething with blood a peaceful home for God’s children? And why did ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Who could have chosen a life of ease and comfort, prefer to lead a crusade against the strongholds of human hearts and make a direct appeal to individuals as well as groups that unless we love one another with all our might and with all our heart we are absolutely doomed. He carried a crusade not with a sword of steel but with a sword of love and affection.”*—Bahiyyih Khanum.
* From a letter addressed to Friends throughout the West, March 30, 1924.
“The second Light is harmony of ideas in regard to essential matters, and the effect of this will soon be apparent.”—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
CONTEMPLATING the vast audience gathered at a demonstration of the League of Nations’ Union recently held at the Royal Albert Hall, London, one recalled these prophetic words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. For the speakers of the evening, as well as the audience, were representative of all classes and of all shades of political and religious opinions.
Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, in his usual place of honor as chairman, headed a distinguished platform, while ministers and ambassadors belonging to ten other countries supported the meeting by their presence. And all were finding it possible to sink minor differences and unite on the one “essential matter”, the one supreme and vital issue now before England and Europe, and upon which the solution of all other problems must ultimately depend—the maintenance of peace.
In the words of Lord Cecil: “We all reject the old system of international anarchy in which every nation did what it thought right, and enforced its will by force of arms without let or hindrance. That was a disastrous state of things, and if not removed it could only end in the destruction of civilization.”
Lord Halifax, President of the Board of Education, moved a resolution which recorded the profound conviction of the gathering, that only through the collective system
embodied in the League could war be averted and civilization saved, and promising support to the British Government in all efforts to secure the greatest measure of all-round disarmament.
There were those, observed the speaker, who advocated the policy of isolation. But no longer could nations live like Diogenes in his tub, and those who held such an idea were living in a dreamland of their own creation. We had now reached a stage in which when one member of the nations suffered, all must suffer with it, and the policy of indifference and separation spelt disaster to the whole.
Others, again, ascribed our present difficulties to our very attempt to treat the world on an international basis, and considered it a case of conflicting loyalties. But a devotion to the family did not make a man or woman incapable of good citizenship—on the contrary. All human life was built up on a whole series of supporting loyalties. And just as a good family man could also be a worthy citizen, so a patriot could widen his horizon and sphere of service, and become a worthy member, not only of the British Empire, but of the community of nations. For it was now only too evident that, in the words of Nurse Cavell, “patriotism is not enough.”
Or, as over sixty years ago Bahá’u’lláh taught that, in this new Day, “Glory is not his who loves
his native land alone, but glory is his who loves his kind.”
Lord Halifax instanced the unflinching courage and moral resolution displayed, a hundred years ago, by his great ancestor, William Wilberforce, in his struggle to abolish slavery. Only the power of a similar manifestation of belief in the great Cause of which the League was, at present, our chief instrument, could possibly carry us through to ultimate victory.
SIR HERBERT SAMUEL, M. P. who
is acquainted with the Bahá’i Message,
and is a recognized leader of
these forces making for reconstruction
and the establishment of peace
founded upon justice, spoke with
statesmanlike gravity of the crisis
confronting Europe today. Though
cautious in his utterances, one felt
that here was a leader of men who
realized that the nations were being
“weighed in the balances and found
wanting.” Amid the darkening of
counsels, and the loud voices raised
to demand a return to the old and
discredited methods of obtaining security,
it was still possible to discern
the road to salvation.
We were, declared the speaker, faced by four alternatives: isolation—a futile and impossible creed; alliances—a policy that history has proved a most fruitful source of wars; anarchy—where each member of the orchestra played his own tune, and there was no conductor; or the maintenance of the collective and cooperative system as embodied in the League. . . . A compromise was certainly better than nothing; but no compromise, however ingenious, could ultimately avail. Only courageous actions, and a strong,
definite policy could meet the dire needs of this fateful hour.
When Sir Herbert emphasized that the Covenant of the League should be made superior to Peace Treaties, one recalled the grief expressed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on learning the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. “Peace, peace, they cry, but the fire of unquenched hatreds remain in their hearts!”
Peace is not, as some think, said the speaker, a merely negative idea, it is a vital condition of all progress. As the Chinese proverb says: “Lean years follow in the track of great armies.”
Then came a solemn warning. At the close of the last war, all Europe was discussing “self-determination.” Today we were in danger of substituting the principle of “self-extermination.”
THROUGHOUT the speeches that
followed, supporting the resolution
for the abolition of the manufacture
of armaments for private profit, the
audience—a predominantly youthful
one—gave evidence of their awareness
of the sinister forces at work
in this connection, both here and on
the continent. It seemed that they
were indeed ready and eager for
some instrument of Peace that
would really prove effective and
make wars to cease from the earth.
It was encouraging to hear the appeal made to his fellows by the representative of Youth—a well-known tennis star—summoning them to devote their natural energy and courage to combating the powers of evil, of indifference, or of a narrow nationalistic outlook.
He said, that it appalled him to think that he might ever be called
upon to fight those with whom he played his matches.
In this connection, it is interesting to learn how Mr. Vernon Bartlett would personally solve the problem of conflicting loyalties that might arise in any future war. For as a brilliant Broadcaster on international affairs, he has achieved a remarkable reputation and a wide sphere of influence. He declares: “If I were called upon to support my own country in an act of aggression, then loyalty to the principle of internationalism would require that I took the consequences of refusal. But should my country be summoned to co-operate in maintaining the principle of collective action against an aggressor, then I should be found among the first to offer my services.”
This is pacifism hand-in-hand with realism, and it is in harmony with the Bahá’i teaching. For during these days of transition from chaos to the new solidarity and world order, as proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh, military or other coercive action in the cause of justice, unity and peace, may become a positive duty. And ‘Ahdu’l-Bahá said that, in such a case, “Even war is sometimes the great foundation of peace, and destroying is the cause of rebuilding.”
In a letter to Queen Victoria in 1865, Bahá’u’lláh wrote:
“O concourse of Rulers! Compose your differences, then will ye no more need a multitude of warriors, nor the equipments thereof, but merely such as to protect therewith your realms and your peoples. Should one of you arise against another, arise ye, one and all, against him, for this is naught but manifest justice.”
And Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Bahá’i Cause, has warned us that:
“Nothing short of the fire of a severe ordeal, unparalleled in its intensity, can fuse and weld the discordant entities that constitute the elements of present day civilization into the integral components of the world commonwealth of the future.”
To those of us who hold the glorious vision of that commonwealth, and of what the world might, and ultimately will, become, these days of vacillation, re-action and turmoil demand the exercise of the utmost patience. The cry goes up from our weary hearts-“How long! O Lord, how long!” and we have need to remember the counsel and consolation given by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to the friends of peace in Paris:
“Only have faith, patience and courage. This is only the beginning. But surely you will succeed, for God is with you.”
“And as to the world’s evil plight, we need but recall the writings and sayings of Bahá’u’lláh, who, more than fifty years ago, declared in terms prophetic the prime cause of the ills and sufferings of mankind, and set forth their true and divine remedy. ‘Should the Lamp of Religion be hidden,’ He declares, ‘Chaos and confusion will ensue.’ How admirably fitting and applicable are these words to the present state of mankind!”—Shoghi Effendi.
“Treasures lie hidden beneath the Throne of God; the key to those treasures is the tongue of poets.” (From The Dawn-Breakers, pp. 258–9.)
- The poet’s tongue is not his own,
- And he writes with a holden hand;
- In lowliness before the Throne,
- He makes the hidden treasures known
- At God’s express command.
- ”What I have written
- I have written,”
- Said Pilate to his critics, in days of old.
- What poets write
- They do not write
- When inspiration has them in its hold.
- Swayed by the Breath
- Of what God saith,
- They write, perforce, the Truth as it is told.
- That Spirit moves
- The poem proves—
- A fadeless flower of beauty does unfold.
- Not for praise and not for pelf
- To one great aim I cling:
- To make the self a better self,
- The thing a better thing.
- I take from Nature’s storehouse fair,
- I share with him who needs:
- I dread no pain, I fear no care:
- He only lives who bleeds.
- I toil to add to Beauty’s store:
- I sweat to give men food,
- The more I give, I gain the more,
- The wealth of servitude.
- I walk a king amongst the crowd.
- A sceptre high my heart.
- I rule because I serve the proud,
- I reign by humble art.
- I may not hope to conquer death,
- But fear I will and can.
- Joyous I face earth’s final breath,
- I know the wider plan.
- So not for pride and not for pelf
- Towards this far star I wing,
- To make the self a God-like Self,
- The thing a holy thing.
- Dreams are they—but they are God’s dreams!
- Shall we decry them and scorn them?
- That men shall love one another,
- That white shall call black man brother,
- That greed shall pass from the market-place,
- That lust shall yield to love for the race,
- That man shall meet with God face to face—
- Dreams are they all,
- But shall we despise them—
- God’s dreams!
- Dreams are they—to become man’s dreams!
- Can we say nay as they claim us?
- That men shall cease from their hating,
- That war shall soon be abating,
- That the glory of kings and lords shall pale,
- That the pride of dominion and power shall fail,
- That the love of humanity shall prevail—
- Dreams are they all,
- But shall we despise them—
- God’s dreams!
- Why do I smile though shadows creep across
- the future years?
- Why do I smile when others weep and I should
- share their tears?
- Have we not the promise of God who loves and
- shields us all?
- Though the night be dark and the hillside steep,
- He hears us when we call.
- The dawn lies beyond the shadows of night; the
- light of day is ours.
- There’s joy in tears that are shed for love; the
- dew but brightens the flowers.
- Then smile with me though your eyes be dim
- and the lessons of life severe;
- They are stepping stones to a Higher Life and
- the spirit of God is near.
- I bled so many times
- Blood stains my every path.
- I died so many times
- I have no fear of death.
- ’Tis living that I fear,
- On earth or in the sky.
- Without a mighty Truth
- For which to bleed and die.
significant event that is occurring today. . . . If a civilization is in process of being born, the most interesting thing to do is to put oneself in line with the kind of thinking that is heading towards the future.
--Harry Overstreet in his latest book “We Move in New Directions”THERE can be no full understanding of national history which does not take account of universal history. . . . History is not a philosophy teaching by example but morality teaching by example, and morality and social justice are one and indivisible. . . . The primary quality of man is his social quality; his capacity for living and working adequately with other men, adjusting his mind to theirs, maintaining certain faith and unbroken loyalty.” —Sir Willmott Lewis, Washington correspondent of the London Times, in his commencement address at American University.
“IF WE HAVE learned anything
from the past, it is that we must not
let this concurrent machinery of the
physical and social sciences get out
of balance. . . . As my generation
found its magic key in the physical
sciences to unlock a world of plenty
from our inheritance, so you will
find your major task in the social
sciences to control and apportion
that world of plenty which is your
inheritance. How much organized
government must be enlarged, how
much the free action of the individual
must be curtailed, you will discover. . . .
A social order within a
nation must strive not so much for
unattainable equality as manageable
equilibrium.”—Owen D. Young,
commencement address, University of Nebraska, Washington Post.
“THE TRADITIONAL rugged individualism is past, the philosophy of laissez faire is through. . . . The yearnings of the hearts of the people cannot be assuaged with legal sophistries and technical obstructions to the forward movement of humanity. . . . People are not content to follow any system cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition.” —Former Governor William E. Sweet of Colorado in his commencement address, Howard University.
“DENOMINATIONALISM has probably had its place in establishing a certain emphasis or effecting certain liberties, but it has so divided the Christian world in groups that the very divisions have undermined the influence of Christ. . . . “It is high time the denominational barriers should be broken down and the dismembered body of Christ should be restored. Non-Christian peoples in the east are asking missionaries the meaning of this un-Christian anomaly and the first step to the reunion of Christendom is an earnest endeavor on the part of several groups to understand one another. . . . Social institutions which break down religious barriers should be carefully guided and not wholly discouraged. Marriage is one of these.
“While mixed marriages may seem to create difficulties, sometimes they would in the end serve to bring about mutual understanding. Parents and church authorities in giving careful direction to young people in this important matter would be wise to recognize that marriages of this kind may be serving through a perfectly natural impulse the higher end of a reunited Christendom.” —Rev. Dr. Burton H. Robinson, pastor Fairmount—St. Giles Church, Montreal Gazette.
“THE WORLD at large should get back to placing a higher value on honesty, in fact the very highest value. . . . It is a good sign that the public conscience, which has suffered long or has been supinely indifferent, is arousing. . . . Unfortunately not only the morale but the morals of people and nations have slipped. The world sorely needs honest people in business, in professions, and in offices of public trust—in fact in every walk of life.”—John H. Cowles, Sovereign Grand Commander, The Supreme Council 33° Masons, The New Age.
FRANK H. SIMONDS, in his review of the book, “War Unless” . . . by Sisley Huddleston, Paris correspondent of the London Times, states: “Huddleston’s is a little book with a big punch. But the punch does not lie in the logical and unexceptionable manner in which he sets forth the reasons why war is coming, but the cool and contemptuous fashion in which he exposes the post-war politicians and the way in which the “peaceafyers,” professional and otherwise, have helped these politicians disguise the truth
and let us drift into another war, still satisfied that the millennium had arrived, and that, by the simple device of signing a new “scrap of paper”, all the old dangers could be exorcised. “Peace by anesthetic”, that has been the watchword, but unhappily for the sloganites, the patient is beginning to come out of the ether.”—The Saturday Review of Literature.
“AN AUTHOR who is worth the name doesn’t write what he feels will be a commercial hit. Your true author writes what he must write. He says the things that are hammering inside to be said. He releases the dreams that have been milling about in his head, and the release is a compulsion and a relief.”—Charlie Chaplin, Washington Star.
IN EMERGENCY, obsolete methods must give way. Government is continuous emergency. . . . At present and, let us hope, during the coming years, reconstruction of government is, next to the defining of life purpose and the achievement of personal character, the most productive field of endeavor, the field most calling for great service.”—A. E. M.—Antioch Notes.
DR. ERNEST C. MOORE, provost of the University of California at Los Angeles, in the course of a very thoughtful criticism of Communism and other substitutes for democracy, said: “Whether we like it or not, the machine is with us and we are out of work because it is with us; but there is no way of ‘uninventing it.’ We must learn to use it so that all will benefit from it.”—Washington Herald.
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, G. P. O. Box 447 D, 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.
[Page iv]
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."
