APPRECIATION
Dr. Rexford Newcomb
* *
THE WORLD ORDER OF
BAHA'U'LLAH
Hasan M. Balyuzi
* *
The CULTURE OF THE AMERICAN
INDIAN
Alice E. Scott
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THE LAND OF FOUR FAITHS
Hussein Rabbani
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MR HARALD THILANDER
AND
HIS PUBLICATIONS FOR THE
BLIND IN SWEDEN
Nellie S. French
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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 | |
The Remedy for War, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá | 179 |
Editorial, Stanwood Cobb | 163 |
The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, Hasan M. Balyuzi | 166 |
The Greek Press and the Bahá’i Movement, Dionysios S. Devaris | 170 |
The Culture of the American Indian, Alice E. Scott | 172 |
The Land of Four Faiths, Hussein Rabbani | 176 |
A Moral Program for Peace, Julien Benda | 178 |
A Message to Bahá’i Youth, A. Rochan | 180 |
What is a Bahá’i Summer School, Sylvia Paine | 181 |
Mr. Harald Thilander and His Publications for the Blind in Sweden, Nellie S. French | 185 |
Songs of the Spirit | 187 |
The Bahá’i Temple—An Appreciation, Dr. Rexford Newcomb | 188 |
A Swedish Newspaper Report, Translation by Selma Gustavson | 190 |
Current Thought and Progress | 191 |
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
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| VOL. 25 | SEPTEMBER, 1934 | No. 6 |
The illiterate fishermen and savage Arabs through it were enabled to solve such problems as were puzzles to eminent sages from the beginning of time. It awakens within us that brilliant intuition which makes us independent of all tuition, and endows us with an all-embracing power of spiritual understanding.”
THE PURPOSE of education is to develop the powers of the individual. But to center upon man’s intellectual powers is to develop only a fraction of the real man. For man in his reality is infinitely more than intellect.
The new education of today is adding to the traditional intellectual goals highly important goals of a creative nature. The modern educator strives to develop the creative powers of the individual, feeling that these powers are of more importance to the race and to the individual himself than are even the intellectual powers.
There is still a further power which a few rare individuals have well developed today, pioneers in a realm in which the whole human race will one day be at home and enabled to function. This is the power of intuition. It is a power so rare and so little understood that no one knows just how to define it or how to state its constituents. All we can do is to describe its workings.
Through intuition man seems able to attain to a knowledge or guidance which is impossible for him to acquire through intellection. By being able to estimate intuitively whether the outcome of a certain course of action would be favorable or unfavorable, one is able to avoid many difficulties. And when in the midst of unavoidable dilemmas intuition
helps us to find the way out. Through intuition man is enabled to complete his quest for new discoveries and inventions, thus capturing a central idea which the intellect, even when most powerfully and assiduously directed upon the problem, had failed to attain. Through intuition we are assisted in realizing the thoughts and motives of other people and are thus able to steer our way more safely in the midst of the human whirlpools and vortices of life.
A FEW THOUSAND years ago intellectual
man was a rarity and exercised
an enormous power by means
of this advanced development. So
today there are men and women
here and there who have unusually
developed powers of intuition, thus
possessing an important advantage
over others in the conduct of life.
Intuitional perception is clearly of immense value in all professional work. To the doctor it brings added powers of diagnosis; to the teacher a closer rapport with his pupil; to the merchant or financier it brings a clarity and correctness of financial vision which makes markedly for success. In the exercise of military genius, intuitional judgment swiftly exercised in moments of crisis is frequently the added factor which induces victory. In fact there is no career in which intuition is not an immense aid. If this be true, how
important it is for education to awaken and train if possible intuitional powers in all students.
But have all people such powers? Or is intuition, like genius, a gift reserved for the few? A careful study of the phenomenon of intuition would lead one to believe that it is a power possessed by all people, though at present exercised by few. Intuition is closely connected with the workings of the subconscious mind, whatever that may be. It is when the focus of activity is changed from the conscious to the subconscious that the intuitional powers begin to function. It is in this mysterious plane of the subconscious, or as I would prefer to call it, the super-conscious, that intuition is at home. We are dealing here with a higher self—hidden usually even from its own possessor—to whom we state our problems and to whom we turn for guidance and decision.
All people, not a, few, possess this inner guide, this wiser self, which is not moved and played upon by illusionary motives as are the desire-nature and the intellect of man. Here is a self which unperturbed seems able to weigh calmly every claim and render unprejudiced judgment. But wherefrom does this higher self, this reality of our being, get its wisdom? Is it not through contact with the Infinite Source of all wisdom?
Plato speaks of the archetypal World of the Ideal from which the artist and the seer derive their inspirations. Here truth resides in its pristine purity. Here is beauty. Here is perfect goodness. The higher self of man, making contact with this World of the Ideal, brings
back to earth as much of goodness, beauty, and truth as its limited capacity enables.
Yet nothing can be brought back to this lower plane in its original perfection. Just as man’s intellect is fallible, so man’s intuition is short of omiscience. It makes contact with the Infinite—but cannot comprehend the Infinite, nor perfectly translate it into terms of the finite. What it does succeed in capturing is a much greater proportion of beauty, goodness, and truth than can be attained in any other way.
The higher wisdom which intuition brings to bear upon the problems of life is closely connected with those spiritual guidances which men and women have always sought, down through the ages, by means of prayer and earnest spiritual effort. The higher self of man, which we may call his soul, making contact by means of prayer with the Infinite Source of wisdom, may secure a guidance which is impeccable. There have been many individuals in the history of religious life upon this planet who have rightly managed all their affairs, even down to daily details, by means of such guidance. It is no uncommon phenomenon, if we measure it in terms of centuries; yet very rare if we measure it in terms of the habits and powers of ordinary men.
The inspiration of the artist, the intuition of the scientist and inventor, the guidance of the saint—can we do anything by means of education to awaken, develop and train these powers? Certainly there is no process yet developed for accomplishing this—no educational process available in scholastic circles. Yet such means can be
evolved, just as there have been evolved means for developing man’s intellectual and aesthetic nature.
First the student must be given faith in such powers and be lead to realize his possession of this priceless gift. There must be a thorough study of the whole phenomenon of intuition, and discussions of individual experiences. There must then be opportunity for the exercise and expression of these powers. The best means of developing the intuitive faculty is the practice of meditation, as used by many religionists, and described by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as follows:
“Through the faculty of meditation man attains to eternal life. . . . The spirit of man is itself informed and strengthened during meditation; through it affairs of which man knew nothing are unfolded before his view. Through it he receives divine inspiration. . . .”
The greatest authorities on this possession and use of the intuition are the Manifestations of God, for They function more through the intuitional than through the intellectual powers, and They alone possess in its perfection the power of immediate knowledge. If we study Their writings, Their teachings, we will find ample material for helping us to develop this intuitional side of our nature. Here we have the real authorities in the matter, and their directions incorporated into an educational system would more speedily than any other method produce the goals desired. This means that education must cease to be secular, and become spiritual.
All this is far in the future. There is not even the beginning, in the present educational world, of realization of such powers—much less any conscious effort to awaken and develop them. It is a hard enough
task to persuade the educational world to the importance of developing the creative side of the child. Even when we see the creative nature of man functioning commonly around us and producing daily results of enormous value to general progress as well as to the individual,—in spite of all this evidence before us hardly one percent of all educators are consciously aware of the importance of making creative development a goal of education. How then can we expect the educational world to investigate even, and much less to adopt, methods for developing intuition.
And yet education, in its capacity of homoculture, must accept responsibility for developing every power which resides in man, no matter how reeondite. It is by perceiving ultimate though hidden values in plants and trees that the agriculturist and horticulturist have developed new and valuable varieties of food, (As Luther Burbank once said, he merely aided nature to accomplish what it was reaching out for). So educationists have constantly been discovering new goals for humanity, goals expressive of values and powers as yet undeveloped in the masses.
The function of the educator, if rightly understood, is the most important of any profession. He must know human nature, know its weaknesses and also its powers, more fully than any other man. It is to him that humanity must look for new visions and new human values. The educator, seen in this light, is a human engineer whose province it is to perfect the human race—to aid it to evolve constantly toward new powers and new goals. There is no limit to this process.
“The creative energies released by the Law of Bahá’u’lláh, permeating and evolving within the mind of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, have, by their very impact and close interaction, given birth to an instrument which may be viewed as the Charter of the New World Order which is at once the glory and the promise of this most great Dispensation.”
WHILE in London, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was asked by a journalist to relate His experiences of prison life. He smiled and said: “There is no prison save the prison of self.” Perhaps this sentence may give us a clue to the remedy for the world-wide ailments of the body-politic today. We need only to glance around us to realize that today individuals live in self, families reside in self, communities dwell in self and nations abide by self. All are deaf and blind to realities surrounding them. What can be the first and foremost task of the Bahá’i Cause but to liberate the human race from the bondage of self?
Someone might say that ascetics and hermits have had this same end in view. In the seclusion of their caves and cells they have struggled to purge themselves of “self.” Their object has been the elimination of the ego but with no thought of their fellow men,—a stupendous and impossible task, as impracticable and harmful as undesirable. The Bahá’i Cause aims at mastering and subduing the ego and employing its huge reservoirs of initiative and energy and its colossal potentialities in the service of humanity. Fierce competition is a natural corollary of selfishness. It is the fashion to call it “struggle for existence,” and wrap it in the gossamer disguise of biological necessity. Nothing is more alien to the
spirit of Bahá’u’lláh’s World Order than unbridled competition. This must be abandoned and cooperation must take its place.
Some of the basic instructions of Bahá’u’lláh concern work. Work done in the right spirit is ranked by Him as worship. “The basest of men,” He asserts, “are they who yield no fruit on earth, and they verily are accounted among the dead, nay better are the dead in the sight of God than those idle and worthless souls.” “The best of men,” again He says, “are they that earn their livelihood by a profession and expend on themselves and their kindred for the love of God, the lord of all worlds.” What stronger indictment against social parasites need we have?
THIS AT once brings us to the
cardinal question of capital and
labor. Let me dispel all doubts by
stating at the outset that the Bahá’i
Cause stands on a higher and vastly
larger plane than either of our principal
schools of economic thought.
Whereas Capitalists are impelled
by the interests of the more favored
few, and the Socialists demand the
rights of the great mass of workers,
the Bahá’is take a detached view,
and consider the two contending
factions of capital and labor as inevitable
and indispensable organs of
the body-politic. It is both disastrous
and criminal to suppress one at
the expense of the other. No solution can be obtained, unless both the capitalist and the laborer admit frankly their interdependence, and start afresh on that solid and firm basis. Bahá’u’lláh’s thesis is a wise and just system of taxation and of distribution of public funds, combined with voluntary sharing in industry. Bahá’u’lláh would dismiss from human minds the very idea of deprivation whenever the social well-being of all conflicts with individual comfort and luxury. The rich should not be stripped of their property and wealth. The poor man must not be in want of necessities. Rather the rich should feel in themselves that no ease and peace can be imaginable as long as abject misery is the lot of millions of their fellow men.
But how can this spirit of responsibility of the fortunate for the unfortunate be brought about? Human nature, we are told, cannot be changed. But if mankind is to live on, it must undergo a great unprecedented transformation. What we term human nature and view oftentimes with resigned repugnance is only a faint shadow of the ruling traits of jungle life. However appalling and beastly man was years ago, his predatory and wicked instincts were limited in their application by the lack of efficient method and instrument. Today we live in a world rampant with dangerous possibilities. Man has in his possession the most devilish means of destruction. Thus the very preservation of the human race decrees subordination of this dreaded human nature.
THERE ARE people who believe that
under harsh discipline and external pressure, man can be reformed. They assume that force and suppression can induce men to visualize the common weal. These zealots lose sight of a secret. We can blow air into a balloon but not indefinitely. A limit passed, it will burst. If we wish to proceed with our pleasure, we have first to increase the capacity of our plaything. And so it is with humanity.
The only way to correct conditions is through just laws; but, in order to have just laws, and also complete obedience to law, man must be changed from within. This change of human nature makes possible a willing and intelligent obedience. Without this inner growth some become scheming and resentful.
Both Bahá’u’lláh and ’Abdu’l-Bahá lived long lives of suffering and deprivation in order to show us that the spirit within can conquer so-called human nature and substitute love for hate and justice for greed.
But a desire for justice for all does not mean absolute equality. This is a chimera that has decoyed men into baseless assumptions and deleterious experiments. Bahá’u’lláh is emphatic on this point: we can not have absolute equality. But the fact that ranks and degrees are inevitable does not entail oppression and irresponsibility. Bahá’u’lláh declares unequivocably for equality of opportunity and absolute, unconditional equality in the sight of God. Compulsory universal education affords equal chances to all.
Furthermore, God recognizes no distinction of color, race, language, nationality, religion, wealth and
position. “O children of vainglory, for a fleeting sovereignty ye have abandoned my imperishable dominion and have adorned yourselves With mortal hues, and pride yourselves therein. By My Beauty! All will I gather neath the unicolored canopy of dust and efface all these diverse colors save them that choose My own, and that is purging from all colors.”
This oneness of humankind, which in the words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, is “the gift of God to this age, “constitutes the cornerstone of Bahá’u’lláh’s dispensation. Here a pitfall should be warned against. Unity and uniformity are two different themes. Uniformity is deadening. It paralyzes human faculties, and dries up all fountains of originality and creative thought. Bahá’u’lláh never supported the idea of uniformity. By comparing the world and its multiforms of race, nationality and language, to a garden effulgent with varieties of plant life, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá showed the undesirability of reducing all to one type. One of the glories of Bahá’u’lláh’s World Order is the fact that it sanctions “unity in diversity.”
The Bahá’i Cause, then, champions universal tolerance and appreciation rather than the enchaining of the human intellect to produce one type. No violent move, however, against political order and social equilibrium is permitted. But as long as a movement is peaceful and works through befitting channels, no person or persons should have the right of prevention. Men are free to express what they think and feel. But if on a vital point two should disagree and drag others into the vortex of their conflict,
both are deemed wrong. Thus demagogues and charlatans lose their standing.
THE WORLD ORDER of Bahá’u’lláh ordains the establishment of a Supreme Tribunal, a supernational, fully-sovereign body exercising control over any and every affair, problem or occasion that affects international relations. The words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá will best explain the nature of this tribunal:
“Although the League of Nations has been brought into existence, yet it is incapable of establishing universal peace. But the Supreme Tribunal which His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh has described will fulfil this sacred task with the utmost might and power. And His plan is this; that the national assemblies of each country and nation—that is to say, parliaments—should elect two or three persons who are the choicest men of that nation and are well informed concerning international laws and relations between governments and aware of the essential needs of the world of humanity in this day. The number of these representatives should be in proportion to the number of the inhabitants of that country. The election of these souls who are chosen by the national assembly, that is, the parliament, must be confirmed by the upper house, the Congress, and the Cabinet and also by the president or monarch so that these persons may be the elected ones of all the nation and the government. From among these people the members of the Supreme Tribunal will be elected and all mankind will thus have a share therein, for everyone of these delegates is fully representative of his nation.
“When the Supreme Tribunal gives a ruling on any international question, either unanimously or by majority-rule, there will no longer be any pretext for the plaintiff or ground of objection for the defendant. In case any of the governments or nations in the execution of the irrefutable decision of the Supreme Tribunal, be negligent or dilatory, the rest of the nations will rise up against it, because all governments and nations of the world are the supporters of this Supreme Tribunal. Consider what a firm foundation this is. But by a limited and restricted league the purpose will not be realized as it ought and should.”
From these words it is evident that Bahá’u’lláh inculcates the notion of collective responsibility, even in world affairs. More than sixty years ago, He foretold and foresaw the present sad plight of a bewildered humanity. Now, we are beginning to comprehend that no nation can act as the sole judge of its conduct and behavior. Now, the full connotation of Bahá’u’lláh’s warnings and exhortations is being
revealed to us. Now, we are forced to admit that unity is the urgent need of the hour. Today we stand at the cross roads, face to face with a critical and momentous decision. Which path are we to take, order or anarchy?
LOOKING IN perspective at the
projected World Order of Bahá’u’lláh,
three salient features command
our immediate attention,—Justice,
Unity and Love. The followers
of Bahá’u’lláh aspire to a new
order in which war, discord, jealousy
and competition are eliminated,
not merely because they are
banned and tabooed, but because the
human soul will rise to such an elevation
of justice and wisdom that
greed and carnage will seem childish,
brutish and outgrown. The
World Order of Bahá’u’lláh is not
a negative system. It does not simply
forbid. Its richness, potency
and animating, revitalizing spiritual
power, have not failed those who
have enlisted on its side. A structure
founded on justice, unity, love
and appreciation will inevitably
have peace within its walls.
“The rise and establishment of this Administrative Order—the shell that shields and enshrines so precious a gem—constitutes the hall-mark of this second and formative age of the Bahá’i era. It will come to be regarded, as it recedes farther and farther from our eyes, as the chief agency empowered to usher in the concluding phase, the consummation of this glorious Dispensation.
“Let no one, while this System is still in its infancy, misconceive its character belittle its significance or misrepresent its purpose. The bedrock on which this Administrative Order is founded is God’s immutable purpose for mankind in this day. The Source from which it derives its inspiration is no one less than Bahá’u’lláh Himself. . . . The central, the underlying aim which animates it is the establishment of the New World Order as adumbrated by Bahá’u’lláh. . . .”
ONE of the many proofs of the great need of our times for something more spiritual is the attitude of the Greek press towards the two Bahá’is who visited Athens in these days. Miss Martha L. Root, New York and Pittsburgh magazine writer and journalist, came the first of April, 1934; and Mr. Abdul Hussein Naimi from Tihran, Persia, passed through Athens and remained May first, second and third. It was a coincidence that they were here at the same time, and their visits were much too brief.
The reception of these two Bahá’is by the press has been extraordinary. Our press, like any other, deals generally with political events. It is divided into two hostile camps representing two great political parties, one fighting the other; but these two camps were united and in harmony in speaking about the Bahá’i Movement. This shows they have taken the Bahá’i Faith seriously as something much above the daily political strifes to which they ordinarily devote themselves. The interest shown is all the more significant because when one group of Greek papers praises an event, a person, a movement, often the other side (namely, the other five papers—for they are divided five newspapers on each side) ignores or attacks it. This time all the newspapers put aside their strifes and spoke with their hearts.
1 Mrs. Tsaldaris, wife of the Prime Minister of Greece, is the daughter of the late President of the National University of Athens, Dr. Lambros, who was also former Premier of Greece.
These two Bahá’is, Miss Root and Mr. Naimi, were not considered as subjects of curiosity but were taken seriously by all the papers without any exception. This means the newspapers outdid themselves, for generally all topics outside politics have one common purpose which is to satisfy the curiosity of the readers.
An excerpt from Vradhini (The Evening Paper) follows:
“Miss Root with Mrs. Tsaldaris: Yesterday morning at ten o’clock Mrs. Lina Tsaldaris1 received in a long interview the American journalist and representative of the Bahá’i Movement, Miss Martha Root, and the Persian delegate of the Bahá’i Faith, Mr. Abdul Hussein Naimi of Tihrán. Miss Root spoke long to Mrs. Tsaldaris about the new Faith Bahá’i which counts millions of followers all over the world and whose scope is the brotherhood of the peoples and the establishment of universal peace. Miss Root in going out from the home of the Prime Minister said the following: ‘I consider my meeting with Mrs. Tsaldaris as the most beautiful success of our Cause in Greece. Mrs. Tsaldaris is not only a lady of very broad education but a great soul, and I am happy to hear you say that what she thinks has great weight with the Greek people and that her influence is so profound.’ Miss Root will remain in Athens ten
days longer supervising the printing of the work Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era in the Greek language, and Mr. Naimi left yesterday, May third, at three o’clock, for Constantinople and thence for Tihrán.”
This article was also published with slight changes in four other papers.
Mrs. Tsaldaris asked her guests about the Bahá’i Movement. She was interested and wanted to read more about it. Since it was a formal visit, and we were talking with the wife of the Prime Minister, I asked her secretary three times if our time was over and we should leave. But he said ‘no”. It was a most happy visit.
Mrs. Tsaldaris is the leader of every intellectual movement here. At the time when Greece first took part in the Exposition of Art at Venice, the participation was chiefly due to Mrs. Tsaldaris. She is a patroness for every worthwhile intellectual event such as literary readings and lectures. She is unusually spiritual and very liberal.
The Athinaika Nea (Athenian News) printed an enthusiastic article. The interviewer after learning from Miss Root about the Bahá’i principles and the history of the Movement exclaimed, “Then I am a Bahá’i also, because I have no prejudices.” But Mr. Naimi smiled. So it seems that lack of prejudice is not a sufficient basis for becoming a Bahá’i.
Valuable articles of varying length were printed in all other papers so that during those three days at least five hundred thousand
1 Mayor Kotzias, an outstanding humanitarian, has established a unique summer resort for children of the poor.
It is like a small republic. (Editors)
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From left: Mr. Dionysios S. Devaris of Athens, Greece, Miss Martha L. Root of the United States, Mr. Abdul Hussein Naimi of Tihrán, Persia.
people all over Greece read about the Bahá’i Teachings.
Later the American journalist had an audience with the Mayor of Athens, Mr. Kostas Kotzias,1 and on May 16, she spoke in Archeological Hall under the auspices of the Esperantists before five hundred and fifty people on the subject: “Esperanto as a Way to Peace and the Principles of the Bahá’i Movement.”
As a result of the visits of Miss Root and Mr. Naimi several have wished to establish a Bahá’i group in Athens.
The following article, written at the request of the editors, treats for the most part, of the history of the Indian in the southwestern part of the United States. There is so much of cruelty and injustice tn the history of European settlement in America that it is refreshing to contemplate the harmonious relations possible of establishment whenever justice and love are practiced. The author’s unprejudiced and sympathetic view-point will particularly interest Bahá’is. Mrs. Scott, an alumnus of the University of California at Berkeley is now President of the American Association of University Women in her home town.
THE American Indian and his achievements are of particular interest to the people of the United States, because they afford a study of human history on this continent and because Americans have forcibly intervened in the destiny of the race. Probably nowhere in the world is it possible to observe so well the reaction of a land and nature upon its population. Here was a people isolated and undisturbed by invaders for many centuries. Racial types and characteristics were developed without acute conflict of interest because of the vast space in which this people dwelt.
Ages of cultural history and perhaps a series of civilizations must have passed on these American continents before the white man’s invasion and the beginning of written American history. Mr. James Henderson believes that the beginning of the Basket-Maker period was three thousand or more years ago. The cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde in Colorado had been abandoned and were falling into ruins when the Spanish conquistadors reached New Mexico in 1540.
WE KNOW from excavations that
these Indians raised hardy varieties
of maize, squashes, gourds, beans,
and, in warmer sections, cotton. Seepage in the valleys, even without irrigation as such, helped the growing of crops. At the present time, fair crops are grown in favorable seasons on the tops of mesas. For example, the Indians of Acoma, the Sky Village, about seventy miles west of Albuquerque engage in agriculture. Excavations show that the surplus crops of the favorable seasons were stored to be used when there was a drought for storage pits were used. Sometimes these were natural and sometimes they were made in caverns under over-hanging cliffs, protected from inclement weather. James Henderson says that these storage pits may have suggested pit dwellings which long preceded the pueblos and cliff dwellings such as we have at Pueblo Bonito, near Grant’s and Canyon de los Frijoles near Espanola, above Santa Fe.
In the earlier days when game was too scarce to afford a very great portion of their food, the Indians depended on maize to a great extent. They used rabbits both for food and clothing; wild turkeys served for food, and their feathers for decoration.
The Indians had no horses, cattle, or sheep until the coming of the
Spanish conquistadors in 1540. These facts show why the southwest Indians developed along the lines of agriculture while the Plains Indians, dependent upon large herds of bison for their meat supply, were nomadic. This natural and necessary use of weapons for a livelihood encouraged warlike habits rather than the peaceful arts of rug weaving and pottery making enjoyed by the Pueblo Indians.
The people of the Red Race have venerated the powers of nature, because they owed everlasting gratitude to the warmth of the sun, the fertilizing action of the rain, and the reproductive response of the earth. They express their gratitude by bringing gifts and performing dramatic ceremonies with song and dance at various opportune seasons of the year. For the purpose of bringing rainfall in August, for example, the Hopis of Arizona stage the weird snake dance as an obeisance to the rain gods. The Zunis too have their form of supplication for rain. These religious rites do not prevent them from also using practical procedure to save their crops.
Dwellings excavated in the south-west, e. g, Chaco Canyon, testify not only to a high order of physical strength, but to mental virility and esthetic sense. Achievements in design and color in their textile weaving and pottery making are notable. Mr. Stanley Vestal says that pottery making represents the highest development of technique, and that it was one of the most important and distinctive elements of the south-west culture. The need of pottery vessels to hold and carry water encouraged the development of decorative
art, which reached a high plane in the course of the centuries—witness the beautiful shiny black bowls and vases of Maria of San Ildefouso and her daughter, which are sought the world over.
A common misconception of the Indian has been the tradition of savage cruelty, acquired during the period of early American history when the Indian was torn from the very soil in which his physical and spiritual character were rooted. It was a purely human reaction and not a permanent characteristic of the race. If we judge him by his works—the remains of his monuments, temples, sculpture, fabrics and utensils,—we are bound to give him a worthy place among the races.
OF SPECIAL interest at this time,
when the whole modern world is
troubled over the kind of government
it shall have, is the form of
government which developed among
these Indian tribes. In their lives
of adventure there was great opportunity
for leadership so chieftaincy
without overlordship arose. The
sense of individual freedom was too
great to permit of dynasties. In
regard to the Pueblo government
Dr. Hewett says: “The Pueblo government
was a model of state craft.
There was always solicitude for the
people, exaltation of the tribe, never
of the individual or self.” This
self-effacement was a constant trait
of the Indian character and still is.
The Indian race left no personal
history, only tribal or communal.
He was not boastful of personal
power as are the modern Americans
and Europeans. The evidence of
his cultural remains shows that the
life of the Indian was highly unified
and socialized. His religion entered into every form of activity,—esthetic, industrial and social. He put his whole spiritual life into all of his actions, always with the thought of the people. Ancestors were venerated, but not mentioned by name. Wisdom was of the ancients.
IF WE WOULD judge the Indians
fairly, we must rid ourselves of our
ancient prejudices, and remember
that the degeneracy among them
has gradually crept in since the Indian
came in contact with the white
man. The studies and excavations
of the archeologists help us to know
the Indians prior to the invasion of
the white man and a sympathetic
study of their present lives makes us
understand that fine characteristics
still remain in spite of corrupting
habits and vices learned from the
white man.
When we study our history in relation to the Indian we find it is without glory to us. From the beginning the conflict to subdue a race has been unequal and, although we have robbed him of his lands, unsuccessful. For the Indian tribes of the United States and Canada still remain for the most part unconquered and “uncivilized”. They still retain their self-respect and independence in spite of the powers that would destroy their tribal existence. We have tried to convert them and found it not easy, in fact, practically impossible. Religious conversion involves the eradication of an age-old culture and the destruction of the very soul of the race. It is just about impossible to impose an alien culture upon a subjugated people; far better would it be to make our culture and civilization
so attractive that the Indians would deliberately select from it. For it is neither through stupidity nor perverseness that the Indians resist our well-meaning efforts for their betterment; rather there is a conflict between new standards and age-old ideals of authority, morality, and justice. Our ideas seem as perverted to them as theirs do to us.
The Indian believes that a promise should be kept, that authority, being the will of all, must be obeyed. The observance of his ceremonies or “dances” is his religion. Our ceremonies to him are paganisms. Dr. Hewett says: “He is simply guilty of belonging to the race that thinks it came from the womb of the Earth Mother, instead of the one that believes its common ancestor to have been fashioned ‘from the dust of the ground!’”
WE SCARCELY realize yet what a
debt we owe the Indian. We are
conscious that we have deprived
him of lands and homes, but not that
much of our own culture is derived
from his. In coping with nature
and unfamiliar situations the early
white settlers learned much from
the Red Man. In fact, they would
hardly have survived without the
aid, voluntary or enforced, of their
so-called enemies. We can make
some slight amends for our past offenses
by making an effort to understand
the race and help to preserve
what is valuable in its culture. We
must try to understand the spiritual
side of the race as well as its material
and linguistic aspects. There
should be a destiny for the American
Indian more honorable than to
be exploited as material for stirring
fiction and spectacular exhibition.
His is a race of splendid works and noble characteristics, that, in spite of the adversities of the past four hundred years, may be blended with its conquerors while preserving its own arts and culture. From him we have received much. To him we may give much. Indeed our government is showing a greater understanding, greater fairness, and greater good will toward the Indians than ever before, and it is receiving cooperation from them. They need instruction in disease prevention, sanitation, and erosion control. Have we not much to think about ourselves when we learn that the Navajos, in their recent council meeting at Keams Canyon, Arizona, have warned the American towns adjoining their reservation that they must clean up vice conditions? Otherwise the Indians will refuse to
participate in the annual exhibit of ceremonial dances after January 1st, 1935.
Let me quote, in conclusion, from Dr. Edgar L. Hewett: “Viewed from any standpoint, it is a noble heritage that comes down to us from the long past of America—a heritage of experience, of thought, of expression, recorded in art, religion, social order—results of fervent aspiration and mighty effort; a race pressing its way toward the sun, running its course and passing into shadows.”
(The author is indebted to Mr. Stanley Vestal, “Colorado Short Stories of the Past and Present,” published by the University of Colorado; Dr. Edgar L. Hewett, “Ancient Life in the American Southwest;” Dr. T. M. Pearce and Mr. Telfair Henden of the University of New Mexico, “America in the South West”)
“You must give great importance in teaching the Indians, i. e., the aborigines of America. For these souls are like the ancient inhabitants of Peninsular Arabia, who, previous to the Manifestation of His Holiness Muhammad, were treated as savages. But when the Muhammadic light shone forth in their midst, they became so illumined that they brightened the world. Likewise, should these Indians and aborigines be educated and obtain guidance, there is no doubt that through the divine teachings they will become so enlightened as in turn to shed light to all regions.”
IN his recently published book on Palestine1 Mr. Norman Bentwich, who was formerly Attorney General in the Palestine government, and who is now Professor of International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and who may be well considered as one of the leading authorities on modern Palestine, makes the following significant statement:
“Palestine may indeed be now regarded as the land not of three but of four faiths, because the Bahá’i creed, which has its centre of faith and pilgrimage in Acre and Haifa, is attaining to the character of a world religion. So far as its influence goes in the land, it is a factor making for international and inter-religious understanding.”2
IT IS, indeed, significant and challenging to every one who has the interest of Palestine at heart that such an eminent writer and scholar as Mr. Bentwich should make a statement which is tantamount to a challenge to the three main religious bodies who today, to an almost equal extent, consider the Holy Land not only as their religious but as their cultural centre, and in which they have had and still claim to have such a wide range of interests.
The statement is the more significant when viewed in the light of the rapid economic and political transformations through which that country is now passing—transformations which sooner or later will
1 “Palestine” by Norman Bentwich—London, Bean 1934. 2 Ibid p. 235.
bring, if not the masses, at least the intelligentsia of the country to a deeper realization of the cultural and religions values so essential to the building up and maintenance of a civilization.
For the outstanding feature of modern Palestine, and one which will for many years continue to impress every foreign visitor to that country is the increasingly rapid mechanization and industrialization of the land. From a relatively backward and medieval country of not more than half a million inhabitants, Palestine has during the last fourteen years, thanks to the wise and energetic administration of the British government, evolved into a progressive and prosperous country of more than one million inhabitants. Despite the conflicting and continually clashing interests and rights of the Arab and Jewish communities it has made a swift headway in the process of capitalization. The wave of Jewish immigration, particularly in the last two years, has given an added momentum to this process of economic reorganization, with the result that today the Holy Land is the only country which can be said to be really prosperous. The severe and unprecedented economic crisis that has brought so much confusion and misery to peoples and nations is practically unknown in this part of the world. While other countries are suffering from unemployment, Palestine has actually a shortage of
labor, due to the new industries and economic enterprises initiated by the use of foreign capital.
SO THE Palestine of today is being
rapidly Westernized, and this tendency
towards westernization is
being felt in every department of
life, in the economic as well as in the
intellectual and political. But this
eagerness to adopt and apply western
methods of living is in the nature
of a copy, and is hence rather
mechanical in character. The East
and the West have indeed been
brought into a closer and more intimate
contact than ever, and this
has opened the way for a social experiment
which is unique in many
ways.
But despite this close physical proximity between the Arab and the Jewish sections of the population there is a wide gulf separating the two communities. And even if such a gulf is eventually filled in, the fact remains that the whole country is developing in the direction of western materialism, and is losing rapidly that religious and moral consciousness which history has shown to be the mainspring of civilization itself.
Religious communities are, indeed, very numerous and their institutions, whether in the form of churches or schools, are distributed all over the country. But in so far as their influence is concerned they pertain more to the dead past than to the living present. In fact they exist rather than live. For far from fulfilling their true mission, which is to open the way for greater interracial and interreligious understanding and cooperation, they add to the confusion of thought and action which is so hopelessly disturbing
the peace and retarding the progress of the country.
AND IT IS precisely in this connection that Professor Bentwich’s statement concerning the role and character of the Bahá’i Movement acquires its full significance. One should go even further and state that this Movement is not only a factor working for peace and understanding between races and religions in Palestine, but that it is actually the only factor working in that direction. For although the teachings and principles it advocates cannot, for reasons that are only too obvious, draw the attention and influence the mind of the public in Palestine as effectively as they should, they nevertheless constitute the sole panacea for the innumerable spiritual and moral diseases which are ravaging that land. In a country in which religious and political hatreds and animosities are in a continual state of ebullition, and in which riots and outbreaks are the rule rather than the exception the Gospel of Bahá’u’lláh has not much chance to effectively impress and mold the public mind. But the day will surely come when as a result of the excessive material developments which are now rapidly taking place both the leaders and the masses will have to stop and think of the consequences of their actions and to come to the realization that the way to peace and happiness does not lie in pure material advantages and gains but is essentially to be found in a state of harmonious spiritual relationship between man and God—a state which will inevitably bring about the necessary readjustments in our personal and social relationships.
FIRST, what is peace? Peace is not merely the avoidance of war by the European nations as a result of the skill of their diplomats, even over a considerable period of time, the while armaments grow and mutual suspicions flourish and national prides smart—the while, in a word, war hovers over the Continent as it has since 1918. That is not peace. I adopt Spinoza’s definition: “Peace is not absence of war, but a virtue that springs from strength of soul.” In other words, the problem of peace is more than anything else a moral problem. It is a problem of moral reformation. That of course is not to say that it is not also an economic problem, a problem of statesmanship, a problem of law. What I mean is that in addition to being those things, and more distinctively, it is a moral problem, and especially therefore a matter for our moral educators.
A number of writers preach peace in perfectly good faith, but meantime say things which I believe are false and which do actual harm to the cause of peace. In the first place, they lead people to expect too much of official organizations devoted to peace. They fail to lay enough stress on the fact that such organizations can prove effective only to the extent that they have public support; that peace will be achieved only through the desire of the peoples for peace, through a change in their moral outlook in the world; that peace is a gift that the peoples must make to themselves,
* Quoted from an article in "Foreign Affairs,” for July, 1934.
that it will not be handed down to them by some power from above, that their governments can be nothing more than their intelligent agents, not their transcendent benefactors.
Others think the best interests of peace are served by urging the peoples to know each other better and to visit each other back and forth, assuring them that in this way they will eradicate the sense of their differences from their hearts and replace it With the sense of their human brotherhood. That seems to me very doubtful. One may quite well argue the contrary, that contacts with foreigners intensify differences. I recently read a book by a Lettish scholar which contended that the French and the Germans first became conscious of their antagonisms when they were fighting shoulder to shoulder in the Crusades. . . . Peace is to be the product of a spiritual effort on the part of men, not of wholesale gallivantings over the surface of the globe. In any event, the “mutual understanders” would bring peace to men by mechanical agencies, making no demands on their inner strength of soul.
I hope that I shall not be misunderstood. I am not insisting that national differences be wiped out. . . . The peoples, rather, should be urged to take their spiritual stand in a region of the soul where national differences become unimportant.*
THE REMEDY FOR WAR . . . . . . . .
be expended on that which will be conducive to the spiritualization of
mankind.”—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.WARS will succeed, peace measures and pacific documents will remain dead letters unless the Word of God and His Supreme Power comes to exercise its influence. Not until this is attained may lasting peace be realized.”
NOT until the darkness of differences among men is dissipated will the pavilion of unity cast its shadow over all regions: otherwise rest and composure, peace and universal reconciliation are unachieveable.”
ALL wise men witness that these Divine Teachings [Bahá’i] are the very spirit of this age and the light of this cycle; humanity will never find peace and tranquility without the spreading of these teachings, nor will it attain perfect civilization.
ALTHOUGH the representatives of various governments are assembled in Paris in order to lay the foundations of Universal Peace and thus bestow rest and comfort upon the world of humanity, yet misunderstanding among some individuals is still predominant and self-interest still prevails. In such an atmosphere Universal Peace will not be practicable, nay, rather, fresh difficulties will arise. This is because interests are conflicting and aims are at variance. . . . Universal Peace will not be brought about through human power and shall not shine in full splendor unless this weighty and important matter will be realized through the Word of God and be made to shine forth through the influence of the Kingdom of God. Eventually it shall be thoroughly established through the Power of Bahá’u’lláh.” (January, 1919.)
BY a general agreement all the governments of the world must disarm simultaneously. It Will not do if one lays down its arms and the other refuses to do so. The nations of the world must concur with each other concerning this supremely important subject, thus they may abandon together the deadly weapons of human slaughter.”
The author is a student in the University of Paris and a devoted follower of the Bahá’i Teachings. His primary interest is in encouraging all Bahá’i youth to realize fully “their manifold and sacred responsibilities” for future service in the New World Order of Bahá’u’lláh.
IT seems that every great movement is subject to the same law as that which governs the seasons in Nature. After a period of sleep and cold stagnation, Spring is born, to be followed by Summer with its blossoms and ripening fruits, at length passing into the full maturity and abundance of Autumn.
In the season of Spring signs of new life appear; but the loosening of frozen rivers and the melting of the snows beneath the increasing power of the sun create also floods and storms that sweep the land and work destruction. So that Spring-time is likely to be a period of many tests, difficulties and danger. But Spring passes into Summer; the earth has been prepared and refreshed and there come the long days of activity, unfoldment and growth, leading at last to Autumn with its fruition and peace.
Just so, when a divine Manifestation appears, His Cause is at first hindered by the opposition of nearly all the world. The adherents of the old, crystallized order of things resist with fear and hatred, the influx of new ideas and ideals and the birth of change. Therefore those who become pioneers of a spiritual springtide will have to meet an
avalanche of trials, privations and martyrdom.
HISTORY bears witness to the fact
that the opening period of the
Bahá’i Cause demanded a sublimity
of sacrifice, on the part of a far
greater number of its followers,
than the initiation of any previous
religion. But with the plaster of
their blood and the bricks of their
bodies they well and truly laid the
foundations of that New World
Order which is the Bahá’i Movement.
This period is passing and Summer is at hand, the season of activity and construction, the opportunity for the unfoldment of every latent power and capacity among those Who seek to carry on the great work so nobly begun.
The responsibility for its continued progress and ultimate achievement rests, in a large measure, upon the Bahá’i Youth of today—heirs of a unique spiritual heritage. If we do not want the heroic efforts and sacrifice of those who have bequeathed to us this heritage to remain fruitless, we must be ready to follow in their footsteps, arise to serve, and never rest until the work is accomplished.
“If thou wishest to know the divine remedy which will heal man from all sickness and will give him the health of the divine kingdom, know that it is the precepts and teachings of God. Guard them sacredly.”—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
“The teaching of the [Bahá’i] Administration is . . . an indispensable feature of every Bahá’i Summer School, and its special significance can be better understood if we realize the great need of every believer today for at more adequate understanding of the social principles and laws of the Faith.”—Shoghi Effendi.
A young couple, driving one evening on a state road a few miles from Flint, Michigan, chanced to pass a house surrounded by numerous white buildings of various sizes. One of the buildings bore the name “Louhelen Ranch” and the general appearance of the place as well as the number of people belied its being an ordinary farm. Overwhelmed with curiosity these people drove into the yard and inquired if the ranch specialized in renting riding horses. Two ladies explained that this was a Bahá’i Summer School where people from all over the country met together for two weeks to discuss problems of the world and to study the solution of them which Bahá’u’lláh, a wonderful Persian leader and teacher had propounded eighty years ago in the far away Orient. Eagerly these two inquirers listened to the story so familiar to Bahá’is of the spiritual awakening which took place in the middle of the last century in Persia and of the principles, world wide and universal in import, which were enunciated by the leaders of the Bahá’i Faith, that religion for the New Age born in the most backward of countries and amid direst persecutions of fanatical Islamic clergy. “How delicious this water is,” exclaimed the young lady as she stood with a cup of drinking water in her hand and listened, spellbound to the words which a young Bahá’i girl told her concerning
the principles and aims of the Bahá’i Movement. “Why,” the visitor exclaimed, “I have been longing and searching for truths such as these for many years.” And as the young couple drove away, a half hour later, promising to return at their earliest opportunity they remarked “We feel as if we had really come home at last.”
These words express in perhaps the simplest terms possible the sentiments of those who each summer attend the fourteen day conference of Bahá’is and those interested in learning of the Bahá’i teachings. For those who have been affiliated with the Faith for many years this annual summer conference offers an opportunity to meet with Bahá’is from other localities, to form new friendships as well as to renew old ones. For newcomers it is a unique way of catching the essence of the Bahá’i message by being a part of a group in which unity, cooperation and brotherly love are practiced as well as preached. Much as we may lecture, read, and discourse about the spirit of the Bahá’i Faith, we can most effectively convey these ideas to our hearers by showing them through actions how the spirit may animate and control one’s daily life.
BUT A BAHA’I summer school is
not a group of physically detached
or ethereal individuals who gather
for a week to tell each other how
--PHOTO--
Showing some of the buildings at the Bahá’i Summer School, Louhelen Ranch, Flint, Michigan.
happy they are to be together. It embodies a beautiful balance of the practical, the spiritual, and the intellectual; a balance which should be maintained in the life of every one who desires the fullest and most purposeful existence. A glimpse of the daily program may serve as an illustration of this point. The day begins after breakfast with moments of prayer and meditation by the whole group together, and then follow talks of about forty-five minutes each on various phases of the Bahá’i teachings. These include narratives of the early days of Bahá’i history, the principles of Bahá’i government and administration, as well as the more purely spiritual phases of the teachings.
The afternoons are left free save for a short public lecture designed to give inquirers an introduction to the Bahá’i message. The younger members of the group often go swimming in an attractive lake nearby, others may play tennis, organize a baseball team or ride
horseback. Those of more moderate physical ambition go for strolls in the beautifully wooded ravine nearby, or sit under the trees by the house and chat. Often informal discussion groups are in process where one has the opportunity to share with others his own problems or thoughts on the subject nearest and dearest to him.
Again in the evening the whole group meets together, this time for a brief and relaxing program of stories, stunts or games. On some evenings intimate incidents connected with the lives of the founders of the Faith, Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and Their families are related by those who may have known ‘Abdu’l-Bahá personally or visited in His home in Haifa, Palestine. Personal experiences of Bahá’i teachers, as well as descriptions of and stories concerning the Bahá’i Temple in Wilmette also find a place in the evening’s program. Stunt nights include everything from classical piano solos to recitations
of limerick and good natured burlesques on various members of the conference. Group singing also has an important part in the evening program and frequently the day closes with a marshmallow roast and sing around the camp fire in the ravine.
Four days of the two weeks summer school were for the first time this year devoted exclusively to young Bahá’is and their friends. A daily program, similar to the one we have just outlined was followed and, save for those adults whom the young people themselves had previously chosen to give the lectures, adults were absent or kept tactfully in the background. The young people felt that their first attempt to carry on a summer conference for youth met with happy and worth while results.
BOTH THE YOUNG people’s and
general conferences alike attracted
more new people, people who had
heard nothing of the Bahá’i Movement
previously, than ever before.
And through the means of this
gathering inquirers were enabled to
know that Bahá’is are not a cult
living in tents and following elaborate
rituals, but normal people
striving to live sane and well balanced
lives and to introduce into
their daily thoughts and aspirations
more of what is in the finest and
highest sense intelligent and spiritual.
The Bahá’i Cause is one which
is, truly, universal in scope and capable
of attracting people of all
walks and interests of life. The
loving harmony with which people
of widely varying backgrounds and
interests met and lived together for
these fourteen days served as an
admirable living example of this truth, so familiar to Bahá’is.
It is a commonly accepted maxim that any group enterprise requires leadership by one or a few individuals, and there was leadership in the activities which characterized this summer school. It was, however, not the autocracy of one personality or an exclusive clique of persons. The keynote of the plan for government and administration laid down in the Bahá’i teachings is consultation rather than personal dictatorship. Programs were planned, meetings arranged, after thoughtful and prayerful deliberation of a group, and suggestions and criticisms were invited from all members of the conference. The school is deeply indebted to the host and hostess, who own the two hundred and eighty acre farm where these conferences are held and who accomplish so successfully the enormous task of furnishing pleasant and comfortable living accommodations. But it cannot truly be said that the school is wholly dependent on the vision and energy of any one person. A conscious effort is made to vary the teaching personnel from year to year and to offer a wide variety of approaches to the fundamental truths of the Bahá’i Faith. Many visitors have remarked on the complete lack of petty factionalism and gossip at these conferences.
TO SERVE AS a means for deepening
one’s knowledge of the animating
principles of the Bahá’i Faith;
to offer opportunity for Bahá’is
from various localities to meet with
one another to form new friendships
and renew old ones; to inform
those who know little or nothing
of the Cause; and lastly to serve as a testing ground in which the spirit and precepts of the Faith may be practiced—these are the chief aims and ends of the Bahá’i Summer Conferences. And it is this last function on which I would dwell particularly in closing.
In the Bahá’i teachings are laid down the principles on which the Commonwealth in future years must be based. Bahá’is are not Utopians in the sense that they dream and plan for ideal future states and seek to withdraw themselves from their present surroundings to establish small communities in which their visions are put into practice. They endeavor to be active, wide awake citizens, to participate in life around them, to associate freely with classes, creeds, and nationalities other than their own. Hence at the present stage of development of the Bahá’i Faith the best opportunity that is offered for the Bahá’is to live together, to form a small model of a Bahá’i community, is presented in these Bahá’i summer conferences, held annually in three localities in the United States (the far West at Geyserville, California; the Central States at Louhelen Ranch near Flint, Michigan; the Eastern states at Greenacre, near Eliot, Maine). Here can the exalted standard of daily living by individuals and groups, laid down for Bahá’is by the Founders of the Faith, be put into practice, and here can strangers and inquirers catch a glimpse of the spirit
* Bahá'i Administration, pp. 121-122.
which is animating the Bahá’i Faith in all corners of the globe today.
I AM REMINDED of the words of
Shoghi Effendi, present Guardian
of the Bahá’i Faith, uttered a few
years ago with reference to the activities
at the Bahá’i summer colony
at Greenacre, Maine:
May it . . . (the conference at Greenacre)—serve to banish once and for all every misgiving and mistrust as to the attitudes that should characterize the conduct of the members of the Bahá’i family. . . . May the assembled believers, now but a tiny nucleus of the Bahá’i Commonwealth of the future, so exemplify that spirit of universal love and fellowship as to invoke in the minds of their associates the vision of that future city of God which the almighty aim of Bahá’u’lláh can alone establish. . . . By the sublimity of their principles, the warmth of their love, the spotless purity of their character, and the depth of their devotion and piety, let them demonstrate to their fellow-countrymen the ennobling reality of a power that shall weld a disrupted world. . . . We can prove ourselves worthy of our Cause only if in our individual conduct and corporate life we sedulously emulate the example of our beloved Master (‘Abdu’l-Bahá) whom the terrors of tyranny, the storms of incessant abuse, the oppressiveness of humiliation, never caused to deviate a hair’s breadth from the revealed Law of Bahá’u’lláh.”*
DURING our recent brief sojourn in Stockholm, made interesting and valuable through an unexpected and delightful meeting with Miss Martha Root, Bahá’i lecturer and teacher, we were able, with her assistance, to have an interview with one of Sweden’s outstanding literary geniuses. Because of certain efforts in behalf of the blind, Miss Root knew that we would have much in common with Mr. and Mrs. Harald Thilander, and accordingly at an appointed hour, these delightful people came to the Grand Hotel in Stockholm to call on us.
IF WE mention here the physical
handicaps under which Mr. Thilander
is working it is because of his
amazing accomplishments and his
beautiful spirit that we venture to
do so. Totally blind, and seriously
crippled in both arms he must also
depend upon an apparatus to convey
to him the sound of his wife’s voice,
for it was through the medium of a
conversation in Esperanto with Mrs.
Thilander that our messages were
conveyed to him. Mrs. Thilander
herself is nearly sightless, and since
she was unacquainted with the English
language we found Esperanto
our best vehicle, although Mr. Thilander
being master of six languages
modestly replied to us in English.
OUR INTERVIEW naturally turned
upon the subject of the Bahá’i
--PHOTO--
Mr. and Mrs. Harald Thilander.
Faith of which Mr. Thilander had first learned through a small book]et which he had received from Miss Root some time before. So attracted was he to the spirit and principles of the Faith because as he puts it, “It is the religion of life, built upon deeds—not merely words,” that he translated the booklet into Esperanto Braille, and sent a copy of it to each of the subscribers to his various magazines and a large quantity to Dr. Echner in Praha.
BESIDES BEING an accomplished linguist Mr. Thilander is the owner and editor of a number of periodicals. An enumeration of these will give an idea of the large amount of work which Mr. Thilander accomplishes. This he does through the aid of a man who reads to him, and an office force consisting of two blind men and one who sees.
One of the Swedish publications has a circulation of nine hundred fifty. Its title translated into English is The Weekly Review for the Blind. Mr. Thilander chooses and edits all the material which is printed in this weekly. In this connection he was deeply interested in the fact that Miss Helen Keller had read of the Bahá’i Cause and had received and graciously acknowledged some Bahá’i books in Braille.
His most important publication in Swedish Braille is Gefrata Rondo, a religious paper which is founded on liberal ideas and expresses the liberal Church. This has a subscription list of five hundred sixty-five. A quarterly Esperanto magazine is called Lumo Sur Lavojo. The Esperanto Ligilo has one thousand readers. Then there is the Radio Journal, a Swedish weekly for the blind. The Northland Musical Gazette, printed in Norwegian, Swedish and Danish has a monthly circulation of one hundred fifty. Mr. Thilander also publishes three foreign
magazines, one Spanish, one Irish and one Bulgarian.
Besides the above and Lumo which appears semi-annually, there is a Woman’s Magazine published in Swedish Braille in which Mrs. Thilander also assists. This has a monthly circulation of three hundred and fifty copies.
THE ACCOMPANYING photograph
can give but a meagre impression of
these two remarkable people, the
charm of their sincere interest and
the light in their faces which is expressive
of that great inner Light
which they so beautifully reflect.
AT THE close of this impressive
interview Mr. Thilander asked if he
might hope to have something more
on the Bahá’i Faith to give to his
readers, and it was then that our
modest efforts in Braille transcription
seemed to receive the divine
confirmation, and how joyously we
promised that the new National
Bahá’i Committee for Braille Transcription
would send him as soon as
possible some products of their devoted
labors for the spread of the
Bahá’i Message—the Message of
the New Day. We told him, too,
that this interview would be printed
in our Bahá’i Magazine, and with a
radiant smile he replied: “Don’t
say anything about me, the person
means nothing, it is only the work
which matters.”
of the teachings of all the Prophets . . . These holy words and teachings are the remedy for the body-politic, the divine prescription and real cure for
the disorders which afflict the world.”—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
- The crimson rays of the setting sun,
- Shone from the western sky,
- As my Master entered His garden,
- At the close of the day, to pray.
- The silvery throated nightingale
- Sent forth his glorious song,
- And the fragance of the roses,
- On the balmy breeze was borne.
- I saw my Lord and Master
- In a haze of golden light,
- His Form of Power and Majesty
- Was robed in dazzling white.
- The flowers that bloomed around Him,
- Of every kind and hue,
- Were sending their perfume upward,
- While drenched in heavenly dew.
- By the side of a pond where lillies grew,
- He paused and prayed awhile,
- And the very place seemed flooded
- With the radiance of His smile.
- The air itself seemed vibrant
- With a power undefined,
- As He prayed for peace triumphant,
- And unity of mankind.
- He prayed for another garden
- Where birds of knowledge soar
- In the meadows of the souls of man,
- That their wisdom may be pure.
- He prayed that knowledge, faith, and love,
- Into the heart of man be both,
- And the flowers of human kindness,
- Like a crown the head adorn.
- That the cause of God be nourished,
- And spread through all the land,
- Though sin and strife still flourish,
- With the foes on every hand.
- Then as I watched and waited,
- He vanished from my sight,
- But the Glory of His Beauty,
- Filled my soul with pure delight.
- My heart was filled with singing,
- As I passed along my way,
- For my Master had walked in His garden,
- At the close of the day, to pray.
- A slender wing-ed bird
- Perched himself on a Cedar bough
- In the deep of midnight,
- And sang his song of love.
- He wooed the spirit of the night
- As though she were his bride of light
- Ah! mocking bird!
- Sweet messenger of mystery,
- Melodious soul of prophecy.
- So in a time not long ago
- A Bird of Paradise
- Sang His melody of Love and Right
- Into the gloom and midnight
- Of the world.
- Sang from a prison dank and dark,
- With chains around His neck and heart;
- Sang to the stricken life of humanity
- His song of the Oneness of humankind,
- That the earth might know the Light—
- “His song is My song,” saith the Lord of Hosts.
ARCHITECTURE is, and always has been, an index to the life and thought of an age or a race. Throughout history the aims, the ambitions, the ideals of mankind have been built into those structures which man in his strength has reared to symbolize his relationship to his fellow man or his relationship to what he considered God.
Man is, and always has been, incurably religious and prodigiously inventive. His earliest monuments were shelters to shield his body from the elements, but almost as early came some sort of a sanctuary in the sacred precincts of which he attempted through certain rites of propitiation to make whatever contact he might with those unseen forces which he felt ruled and guided his destinies. Thus the early house symbolized the brotherhood of man, the temple the sonship of man to whatever God may be.
IN THE design of the Bahá’i Temple
on the shores of Lake Michigan*
the late Louis Bourgeois, beloved
of man generally and of artists
and architects in particular,
has conceived a temple which at
once symbolizes the brotherhood of
man and his kinship to God. Framed
of steel, the constructive material
of modern architecture, but clothed
with a protective covering of concrete
to withstand the ravages of
the elements, this “Temple of
* Wilmette near Chicago, Ill.
Light” opens upon the terrain of human experience nine great doorways which beckon men and women of every race and clime, of every faith and conviction, of every condition of freedom or servitude to enter here into a recognition of that kinship and brotherhood without which the modern world will be able to make little further progress.
Entering these portals, one comes presently into a great lofty central space, the aspiring structural lines of which, reaching from the lower planes of human relationship, as symbolized by the outlying wings of the temple, gracefully, yet with assurance, contrive to define the triumphantly beautiful dome that crowns the structure.
The dome, pointed in form, aiming as assuredly as did the aspiring lines of the medieval cathedrals toward higher and better things, achieves not only through its symbolism but also through its structural propriety and sheer loveliness of form, a beauty not matched by any domical structure since the construction of Michelangelo’s dome on the Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome.
Thus this building points out through its symbolism that out of the yearnings, the hopes, the aspirations of man there comes the recognition of the essential oneness of mankind, the oneness of Godhead, and the essential continuity and unity of all human experience.
WE must use the faculties with which God has endowed us and search after Truth fearlessly and with unbiased minds. We must not accept traditional dogmas that are contrary to reason, nor pretend to believe doctrines which we cannot understand. To do so is superstition and not true religion. Bahá’u’lláh enjoins justice on all His followers and defines it as ‘the freedom of man from superstition and blind imitation, so that he may perceive the Manifestations of God with the eye of oneness and consider all things with keen sight.’”
Reality Is One . .
THE first principle Bahá’u’lláh urged was the independent investigation of Truth. Each individual is following the faith of his ancestors who themselves are lost in the maze of tradition. Reality is steeped in dogmas and doctrines. If each investigate for himself, he will find that Reality is one, does not admit of multiplicity, is not divisible. All will find the same foundation and all will be at peace.”
“It is imperative that we should renounce our own particular prejudices if we earnestly desire to seek the Truth. Unless we make a distinction in our minds between dogma, superstition and prejudice on the one hand, and Truth on the other, we cannot succeed.”
“Reality or Truth is one, yet there are many religious beliefs, denominations, creeds and differing opinions in the world today. Why should these differences exist? Because they do not investigate and examine the fundamental unity which is one and unchangeable. If they seek the Reality itself they will agree and be united; for Reality is indivisible and not multiple. It is evident therefore that there is nothing of greater importance to mankind than the investigation of Truth.”
The following is an extract from the Swedish paper “Svenska Dagbladet” reporting an interview with Mrs. Stuart W. French of Pasadena, Calif., on a recent visit to Stockholm.
THE [Bahá’i] Movement has proved itself able to recreate the hearts and lives of people and so to make of them spiritually new individuals. A firm and acceptable foundation has already been established by this Movement on which thinking people of all religions, races, nationalities and classes can unite themselves into one single harmonious family. The Bahá’is believe that their teachings, for the first time, have created precepts for the upbuilding of a new civilization, in which cooperation will take the place of competition, friendship of animosity, revolt will give way to willing assent and selfishness and worldly desires to the will of God.
Bahá’is do not stand in opposition in any way whatsoever to the existing religions. According to the Bahá’i teachings all the great religions are only parts of one Divine Plan and all the great prophets and
founders of religions have taught the same great fundamental truths. It is their biased followers and disciples not being able to see the Reality who have fallen into strife among themselves. In our day, however, humanity has attained to such spiritual capacity that it is ripe for the purpose of uniting in a universal religion; and through the technical developments of railroads, steamboats, postal system, the press, telegraph, and telephone, airplanes, wireless telegraphy and radio the material contact between people has been facilitated. And through Esperanto a means has been supplied for facilitating the understanding between peoples of different languages. The only thing still to be demanded is the change of hearts. It is for that the Bahá’is are striving. Bahá’u’lláh is our Prophet and it is He Who will create the New Era into which humanity is about to enter.
impossible for us to think. They cause the heart to rust and a rusty heart cannot weigh the hard, cold facts.”
might force the world into it again. Even so, I hope the rest of the world would join to get the mad man in some way into chains just as we do when an individual mad man runs amuck upon our streets.”—Dr.
Robert A. Millikan of the California Institute of Technology.THE most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.—Albert Einstein—World Digest.
“THE NEWSPAPER of tomorrow will deal with revolutionary ideas, with daring social experiments rather than tarry too long among passing incidents, frivolities and empty rumors. I look for more informational articles recording progress in architecture, drama, music, literature, the leisure arts, science and religion, written by specialists who bring to their task keen intellects, well-furnished minds. . . .
“The reading public of tomorrow will have scant patience with newspapers run by professional patriots, by political demagogues, and promoters interested solely in dividends. Party organs have ceased to serve, and belong to the past of journalism rather than to its future.
The newspaper of today and tomorrow, caught in the vortex of social reconstruction, is to have a tremendous share in building a more enlightened civilization where all men may have a better chance to work and live. Business, industry, polities, affairs of government, the
vast pageantry of contemporary life, await the skillful interpreter who knows whereof he writes.—Prof. H. F. Harrington, School of Journalism, Northwestern University. Alumni News.
“NOT INDEED by fratricidal strife, but by the cooperation that is God’s will, can the nations solve the great problems of our era”.—Dr. Englebert Dollfuss of Austria, at the last session of the Council, Assembly of the League of Nations.
THE ANNOUNCEMENT this week of the British government’s plan for the immediate construction of a new railway project to begin at Haifa and extend across the Transjordan to the remote regions in Persia has stirred a new awakening to tourists’ possibilities in the Near East. The plan to parallel the great biblical rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates with electric engines has already brought a changed attitude of mind from native communities, according to steamship and tourist officials who see Haifa and Palestine the center of expanding arteries in the new empire development.
“No project since the Suez Canal has offered possibilities of such a trade and tourist boom for all eastern Mediterranean coast ports,” said one travel authority. . . . The projected railway lines, to cost more
than 7,000,000 pounds, will make Haifa the western terminal. The old biblical coast city, with its influx of Jewish colonists and capital, is already being transformed into an industrial port.-Washington Star.
“THE MACHINE has not betrayed us. We have betrayed the machine. Science and technology have given us the means by which we may emancipate the race from poverty, drudgery, and insecurity. If we now prove incapable of using these means to the full, the verdict of history upon us will be that we were a people strangled by our own success.”—Dr. Glenn Frank, President University of Wisconsin.
IS THE world finished? Have we reached the pinnacle of progress already, with nothing outstanding ahead of us? The Glooms would have it so, but 500 leaders in science and industry believe otherwise; and, in no uncertain terms, proclaim, by inference, that today is our period of adolescence. They say the 21st Century will be the “Coming-of-Age” Century of mankind.
The occasion for the expression of this philosophy of achievement was a meeting in the Hall of Progress in the General Motors Building, Century of Progress Exposition, to which these 500 specialists were invited by Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Were it not for the fact that these men are all hard-bitten realists who deal in facts rather than dreams, one might be inclined to suggest that they had allowed their imaginations to run away with them. Their predictions of what we may expect
in future years were so amazing as to be almost beyond conception.
Such fields as housing, transportation, medicine, education, communications, radio, television, new consumable products, and new useful services came within the range of discussion by these learned men. One by one they spoke, and all agreed that science and industry are on the threshold of great achievements.
Airplanes will be powered from stations on the ground. Electric motors will run by sunlight. Infectious disease will be eliminated. Regular transoceanic airplane schedules will be run. Slums will be wiped out by low-cost prefabricated houses. Man will live to the Biblical threescore years and ten. All houses will be air-conditioned. Facsimile radio will “manufacture” your “newspaper” in your home. These are but a few of the suggestions of what developments to look for in the next decade, according to various authorities at the meeting.—Editorial, Scientific American.
FORTY YEARS ago, a young Czecho-slovakian, Thomas Bata, was so shocked by the fact that so many of his fellow-citizens walked barefoot because shoes at that time were too expensive, that he decided there and then to do something about it. He started manufacturing cheap shoes and he died a millionaire, but to the end of his life he was inspired by the same ideal. And there are many people like Bata who work for a definite purpose other than that of making money.—Condensed from Le Mois, Paris, Magazine Digest.
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."
