'Abdu'l-Baha
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THE HAND THAT DIRECTS
Lidia Zamenhof
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AN ORDERED SOCIAL LIFE
Helen Pilkington Bishop
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SWEDEN AND AMERICA
DISCUSS EDUCATION
Martha L. Root
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MATERIAL EVIDENCES OF GOD
Robert Lee Moffett
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| VOL. 25 | DECEMBER, 1934 | No. 9 |
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 Glory of Christ—‘Abdu’l-Bahá | 258 |
The Bahá’i Administrative System, Shoghi Effendi | 269 |
Editorial, Stanwood Cobb | 259 |
The Hand That Directs, Lidja Zamenhof | 262 |
An Ordered Social Life, Helen Pilkington Bishop | 266 |
Sweden and America Discuss Education, Martha L. Root | 270 |
The Mystery of Sacrifice, a Poem, Alice Simmons Cox | 273 |
Portals to Freedom, An Autobiographical Story, Chapter 3 | 274 |
Material Evidences of God, Robert Lee Moffett | 278 |
The Collective Center, Joyce Lyon | 281 |
The Declaration of Interdependence, Dale S. Cole | 283 |
The Struggle for Peace, Excerpts from Addresses at an Assembly of the League of Nations | 286 |
Current Thought and Progress | 287 |
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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CHRIST . . . . . . .
the glory of Christ and the
glory of an earthly conqueror!”THE church bells are pealing in memory of His Holiness Jesus Christ although more than nineteen hundred years have passed since He lived upon the earth. This is through the power of the spirit. No material power could do this. Yet people in their blindness deny Christ, seeking to perpetuate their names in worldly deeds. Everyone wishes to be remembered. Through earthly and material accomplishments one will hardly be remembered nine years while the memory and glory of Christ continue after nineteen hundred years have passed. For His Name is eternal and His Glory everlasting. Therefore man should hear with attentive ear the call of the spiritual world, seeking first the Kingdom of God and its perfections. This is eternal life; this is everlasting remembrance.
IN His day Christ was called satan, beelzebub, but hear the bells now ringing for Him! He was the Word of God and not satan. They mocked Him, led Him through the city upon a donkey, crowned Him with thorns, spat upon His blessed face and crucified Him, but He is now with God and in God because He was the Word and not satan.
FIFTY years ago no one would touch the Christian bible in Persia. Bahá’u’lláh came and asked “Why?” They said, “It is not the Word of God.” He said, “You must read it with understanding of its meanings, not as those who merely recite its words.” Now Bahá’is all over the East read the bible and understand its spiritual teaching. Bahá’u’lláh spread the cause of Christ and opened the book of the Christians and Jews. He removed the barriers of “Names.” He proved that all the Divine Prophets taught the same reality and that to deny one is to deny the others, for all are in perfect oneness with God.”
SEE what Christ has accomplished! Witness what one soul who was crucified has accomplished! He was alone! alone! but the traces of His work and the signs of His Message have filled the world. . . . Consider the essential teachings of His Holiness, Jesus Christ, you will see they are lights. They are the very source of life. They are the cause of happiness for the human race, but subsequently imitations appeared, which imitations becloud the Sun of Reality. That has nothing to do with the Reality of Christ. . . . Christ is always Christ.”
| VOL. 25 | DECEMBER, 1934 | No. 9 |
and totters, commotion and chaos will ensue and the order of things will be utterly upset. The ideal safeguard, namely, the religion of God . . . is the all inclusive power which guarantees the felicity of the
world of mankind.”—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.THE CHIEF objection to religion in this practical and scientific age has been that it does not enough meet the realities of life. The modern materialist looks upon religion as a sort of vague and mystical philosophy fanned at times into the ecstacy of worship—which postulates a soul undiscoverable by scientific methods and a God who regulates the universe and the affairs of humanity. He looks upon religion with scorn because it does not seem to be an effective force in the vital life of the community, the nation, and the world.
The forces which at present seem to play the controlling part in humanity are those which emanate from the world of science, of industry, of commerce and of politics. With these forces every individual has to grapple at one time or another. They enter so directly into life that no one can deny their existence; and they impinge so closely upon our attention as to absorb it and to shut out from such obscured vision the universe itself.
IT MAY be said in answer to this critique of religion that the obsession of the man of today with so-called practical affairs of the mart and his blindness to higher and more subtle forces operative in the universe is no proof that there are no such forces. A large coin held before
the eye can conceal the whole world! Symbolically speaking, this coin which conceals the world of reality from the eyes of modern materialists is greed and the fearsome struggle for existence.
Furthermore it may be pointed out, in answer to the materialist’s concept of religion, that far from being unpractical, true religion is in reality the most practical and effective expression of humanity.
Much that passes under the name of religion is as untrue as it is unvital.
In a materialistic age such as this, institutional religion is apt to degenerate into form without a soul, into rituals and emotional stimuli which end in vapidity. Such expressions of religion are not practical. They bring little help to the individual. It is perhaps for this reason that so many individuals have ceased to attend church; they find nothing there that can aid them to meet the exigencies of life.
But real religion, which we may describe as the actual contact of the spirit of man with the Infinite Spirit which created him, has been, is, and always will be the most practical means of meeting successfully the necessities of life. To the materialist, it is true, these moments of realization of contact with the Divine may seem but the imaginations of mysticism. But let us look
at some of the successful manifestations of this religious expression.
WE HAD in the founders of New
England a people who believed in
God and successfully sought His
guidance. Narrow-minded, one-track
minds many of them might
have been; but impractical no one
could call them. Did they not successfully
meet, by the very means of
their religious zeal and guidance,
the exigencies of pioneer life in a
land full of perils, both of climate
and savage environment? Did they
not conceive, create and perpetuate
one of the most practical cultures
the world has ever known? The
very essence of the New England
soul is efficient practicality combined
with dutifulness.
Another group of ardent religionists, more mystical even in their spiritual habits than the Puritans, fled from England to seek freedom of worship on these shores. In the Quakers, followers of the Light who sought within themselves through connection with this Light always a guidance for their actions, we behold a people who built with remarkable success all the appurtenances of civilization amidst a barren wilderness. The Quakers have been eminently practical. They have also been eminently successful. A careful study of the causes of their business success might be found to lie in constructive spiritual qualities which were the direct result of their religious idealism and spiritual practices. Even to this day no one can call the Quakers unpractical. They are canny, far-sighted, shrewd yet honest, industrious, and kindly even in their business and professional relations. Success and
high achievement have been theirs out of all proportion to their numbers.
Again in the modern sect of Christian Scientists we behold a group seeking to guide their lives by devotion and spiritual meditation practiced daily. They too, as a group, have met with phenomenal success far out of proportion to their numbers.
And now the Oxford Movement looms upon the horizon, achieving a remarkable growth through its power to mold the lives of its adherents and to satisfy their desires for an effective guide to life. These Oxfordites believe in prayer, in meditation and guidance. They study the Word of God daily and make such study a prelude to each day’s activities. In their public meetings they give remarkable testimonies to the effectiveness of guidance which they find; and this testimony comes not chiefly from those types who have been considered by the materialist as naturally religious—that is to say, dreamy, poetic, or psychopathic individuals—but from men of affairs, business men, journalists, officials and others who are doing practical work and are playing a significant part in world affairs.
THE GREATEST practical advantage
of religion remains, however, still to
be considered. The purpose of religion
is not only to fructify and
guide the life of the individual; its
purpose also is to establish foundations
for a stable and harmonious
organization of humanity. The most
important function of religion for
the life of today is its application
to the development in human beings
of those qualities which work toward harmony and unity.
Let us compare the benefits which religion has to offer in this direction with the effects of materialism in the world today. Where has materialism produced stability, unity and harmony in human affairs? Do we find in the jungle-like competition which prevails in industry, commerce and world trade those evidences of harmony, unity and stability which the world so imperatively needs? On the contrary we find materialism to be the very core of the poison which has produced the almost complete disintegration of human society today. We find it, untaught by the shocking lessons of the World War, expressing itself more rampantly today than ever before in ways of disunity, disharmony and disintegration.
WHERE, THEN, are those practical
benefits which the materialistic
philosopher derides religion for failing
to produce? Let the materialists
produce these values which humanity
requires ere it perish. Let the materialists come together and do something of practical value for the world; that is to say, save the world from its chaos and distress—for this is the only service which is of any practical value today. The religionists may well throw out this challenge to materialists; but if they wait for an answer they will wait until Doomsday, for the materialists can never produce the solution to this problem.
The solution to the problem of world chaos lies not in materialism but in the practicality of religion—that is, in the power of religion to better the lives of individuals and peoples by inspiring those qualities of sympathy, of tolerance and understanding which alone can make for the unity of the world.
Religion, far from being impractical, is the only effective force in the world today. When we have more of it prevailing amongst men of the mart, we may hope to establish a civilization which has something of stability and perfection.
“If men followed the holy counsels and the teachings of the Prophets, if Divine Light shone in all hearts, and men were really religious, we should soon see peace on earth, and the Kingdom of God among men. The laws of God may be likened unto the soul, and material progress unto the body. If the body was not animated by the soul, it would cease to exist. . . . Unless ethics be improved, the world of humanity will be incapable of true advancement."—“Abdu’l-Bahá.
The author (daughter of Dr. Ludovic Zamenhof, creator of Esperanto) gave the following stirring address at a special Bahá’i Esperanto session held cotemporaneously with the Twenty-sixth Universal Congress of Esperanto in Stockholm, Sweden, August 4–12, 1934. The translator has adhered to a literal translation in order to faithfully express the author's intent and purpose.
ONE day, sitting in a public garden, I beheld the following scene: Close to a bench on which his father sat, a very small boy played. He made cakes in the sand and threw pebbles in the little lake. He enjoyed the beauty of the summer weather. But the sun soon inclined to the west, the shadows lengthened and a breeze began to blow through the garden. “Come, little son, it is time to go home”, the voice of the father was heard to say. But the son did not obey. He still wished to make more sand cakes and to throw more pebbles into the water. The father repeated his words but the son remained deaf. The father approached to lead the child from the lake and the boy commenced to shout his protest. Then the father said: “I will leave you alone; I no longer wish such a bad child”. But the child did not believe that and was not even able to imagine that his father would leave him alone. Nevertheless, several minutes later, he looked all around and did not see his father. Terror seized him. The beautiful garden appeared as a desert, or labyrinth of paths among which he was unable to find the way home. And full of fear he wept and repented, loudly calling his father whom he believed to have gone away. But the father had not gone; he had only hidden behind a tree, that the little son might through
fear learn a lesson in obedience. When the child had repented sufficiently, he suddenly saw before him his beloved father, who had neither left nor forgotten him, but pardoned him and, holding his hand, led him home.
Another day, walking in the same garden, I again saw the same persons. This time the boy did not make sand cakes, but dug a hole with such seriousness as though the well-being of the whole garden depended on his work. Opposite him, with the same serious mien, his little sister dug another hole. The children began to hamper each other, sharp words followed and finally the boy lifted his hand and hit his sister. The cry and noise brought the father to them, who punished the boy with severe words and some blows.
EACH OF US has witnessed similar
scenes many times, or perchance in
the hero of this story one may recognize
himself of former years.
Much time has passed since our
childhood. We have grown. We
play no more with sand. Nevertheless,
we remain children, and alas
often we are bad children. We wish
only to play in the garden of life—and
we forget that when our day is
finished, we must return to our
Father’s house. And when He asks
us what we did in the day of our
life, we will answer: “We played with sand and threw pebbles into the water, and the lesson which we had to learn, we learned not”.
We threw pebbles into water, we built castles of sand—these signify that we did work which endured not, outlasted nothing, and from which we learned nothing.
What must we learn?
Our whole life is ceaseless learning.
The child learns first to speak
and to walk, afterward to knead
little clay pots, and later, he goes to
school, where having commenced
with the alphabet and elementary
arithmetic, he enlarges his knowledge,
until his mind lifts him above
the earth to explore the mysteries of
the solar systems and the milky
ways.
And if his mind also inclines toward analytical work, he will begin to investigate the material universe about him until finally in the construction of the atom, that tiny universe, he will uncover the same laws which govern the solar systems. There will come to him those true words of Bahá’u’lláh: “If you split the smallest speck of dust, you will find in it a world”.
He will bow his head before that eternal law, before that unwritten code of universal harmony. He will begin to feel himself as only one small instrument in that eternal symphony, and he will realize that he must not be a grating instrument—but one in harmony with the symphony of existence.
WHAT IS that eternal harmony,
that power, penetrating through
and holding in its will, the universe?
It is exactly that which we comprehend
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Miss Lidia Zamenhof
by the word “God”. We are able to name it by a thousand names, in a thousand different tongues; no matter, the essence remains the same. It is important that we understand that those thousand names name one sole and same eternal and boundless Being.
There are people who deny the existence of that Power; some, truly the most naive, deny because they are unable to see, hear and feel that Power. They cannot “capture” God in the net of their perception. They deny, as a blind one denies, what he sees not. They deny, saying that the idea of God is childish fantasy which no serious proofs confirm. They fail to comprehend that everything which exists eloquently attests to the potency of that which created. One green leaf attests to that Power better than thick volumes could possibly do. The hum of summer insects,
enjoying their existence, their creation, is a voice far stronger than the loud talk of those who do not understand that there does not exist an effect without a cause; that where there is a creature, there must be a Creator. Seeing a table, they realize that there must have been a lumberman who cut the wood, a furniture maker who gave it form, but seeing before them worlds and suns, they do not comprehend that there must be an intellect which planned them, a Power which brought them into being, a Hand which directs them.
There are people who believed and lost their faith. O, that is the fate of many of those who prayed but found their prayers unfulfilled; those in sickness petitioned for health; those in misery asked help for those whom death had robbed of their best beloved; finally, millions of those who lived through the hell of the war, of those who having missed bombs and gases, vainly search for the most miserable existence. All these rebellious, hopeless ones ask: “Truly, does a God exist? Where is He? Why did He create so much misery and cause so many tears to flow?”
Or it appears to these people that beside God another and equal power reigns in the world which is the scene of an eternal battle between the good God and the prince of darkness.
THE BAHA’I teachings proclaim
the nonexistence of evil. Is it possible
to imagine a power which
would be able to stand against the
Creator of everything? To believe
in satan means, in fact, not to believe
in God, for it means not to believe
in His most essential attributes: His Goodness and His Power over Everything.
If we investigate the construction of our planet, we find in it most diverse elements, and we are able to certify that these elements are also in the sun, from which our earth has come. We are not able to imagine elements in the earth which are foreign to the sun, but in reality we find on the earth that which is not in the sun. For example, we are unable to suppose that on the sun is water, and what is more, ice! But we can believe that the sun has oxygen and hydrogen, which combined in our conditions, produces water, and which at a considerably lower temperature, forms ice.
By the same token, whatever we observe in the world of creation, we may be certain that it came from the Creator. And because He is the harmony itself, from Him can come no evil, for harmony and evil cannot exist together.
That which we call evil, is only lack of good. Darkness is only lack of light. Blindness is only lack of Vision. These are but passing circumstances, often created by ourselves. They will pass, for eternity is an attribute of God, and to Him only good belongs.
One may say, on the contrary, that small is the consolation to the blind to assert that blindness will pass together with his life, but that is the viewpoint of the short-sighted. For life does not pass.
With full assurance the Bahá’i teachings assert the undying quality of the human spirit. The body is only an instrument, which during a certain time the spirit uses, to express itself. Even if the instrument
is defective, the hand which uses it does not perish. The body is as a garment which becoming outworn is cast away, but together with the garment, is not cast away the thing which it carries. Again, the body is as a cage in which lives the bird of the spirit, and when the cage is broken the spirit flies to heavenly heights.
When corporeal life shall cease and the blind eyes are closed, other eyes will open and the joys of the spiritual world will recompense those who with eyes of the body saw not the brilliance of the material sun.
WHAT IS TRUE of man is also true of mankind. It, also, must learn the lesson of harmony and that harmony it must find, before everything else, in itself. It must be as a chord, in which one tone does not grate against another, but together with the others, form a beautiful harmony. It must exhale perfume, as a garden, where blossom fraternally many different flowers, one beside another. It must feel itself as one tree, rich with many brotherly leaves, one sea, abounding in many brotherly drops.
Also, humanity is as a child in the garden of life. How often great peoples and powerful nations bake cakes of sand, or, digging holes, strike their brothers, jealous of a piece of earth,—for a piece of that earth which at the end will be only their tomb. How often humanity disobeys the voice of the Father,
and afterward, when that Father, always loving, hides His Visage, it is overcome with woe and becomes lost in the labyrinth of little paths, among which it is unable to find the way home. And it is necessary that great be its penitence and that great be its longing for the Father, so that He may re-appear and conduct the child home to peace and harmony.
Frequently the voice has sounded, but humanity has not always recognized it. Humanity is as a child, who having seen his father yesterday in an old suit, today does not recognize him in new clothes. Yesterday, having heard and recognized God’s voice, sounding from the mouth of one Prophet, humanity does not again know that voice if another Prophet sounds it. Nevertheless, eternal is the same voice and the teachings are the same. Behold! in the last century it began to sound in the land of Persia, from the mouth of Bahá’u’lláh, the Prophet of the new day. The ancient truth He brought again to the world. Formerly it has been said: “Love your neighbor”, but today louder and vaster sounds the decree: “Glory is not to him who loves his own people, but glory is to him who loves humanity.”
During a long time the darkness of night has veiled the way of humanity and this dark way has seemed to be the kingdom of bats. But the light has reappeared! The Bahá’i teachings bring to the world a New and Brilliant Day!
The following is the concluding chapter of the thesis on the Bahá’i Religion—submitted by the author for her degree of B. A. conferred by Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Other chapters from this thesis have been published from time to time.
THE student of culture finds the Bahá’i Faith to be the most remarkable manifestation of the religious spirit since the spectacular rise of Islam. It appeared upon the background of medieval Persia among a people whose national character exhibited ignorance, fanaticism, cupidity and slothfulness.
THE INITIAL impulse was the Báb,
a young man Whose influence was
not due to advantages of education
or prestige. Nor does the ideological
basis of His doctrine account
for its attraction; it was not new in
the sense of novelty. Indeed, the
Báb declared that He had come to
restore the purity of religion. The
influence exercised by the Báb upon
His contemporaries was due to the
persuasive spiritual power which
animated Him.
His chosen apostles, the “Eighteen Letters of the Living”, were the innovators in a pattern of behavior which departed radically from the formal piety of a mechanical religion. The claim which they advanced for the Báb was “a live option”; it created emotional conflict between old loyalties and the new values; it was received with zeal or attacked with passion, but few remained indifferent. These intimate associates of the Báb were martyred under circumstances which have been scarcely paralleled in religious history. Their willing sacrifice cannot be explained by
those scholastic descriptions of personality which seek to reduce behavior to terms which define biological satisfactions. The “Eighteen” abandoned security when they deprived themselves of the benefits which the law offered to Muslims, but denied to “heretics” Many of them had recognition until they identified themselves with the cause of the obscure wool-monger from Shiráz. The desire for response or a thirst for power can scarcely be a sufficient drive for individuals who combined the essentials of leadership with submission to the Báb—a singular combination in so many highly differentiated personalities. Undoubtedly, they broke the monotony of a voluptuous civilization by new experience; but the Báb had warned them of its type—imprisonment, exile, refinements of torture then characteristic of Iran, and ignominious death, frequently without the burial to which the mores attach so great a significance. Such were the choices of a people whom ethnologists have described as cowardly and egotistical.
NO DOUBT some of the early Bábis
were too exuberant, and exceeded
the bounds of moderation to the degree
that they provoked resistance
from the conservative elements.
After all, their Movement was less a
system of instruction than an
energy. Although fanaticism was a
prominent trait in Persia the recorded utterances and the attitudes in which these pioneers met death indubitably prove that it was not emotionalism, superb but irrational, which swept so many to martyrdom. It was an unshakable conviction, passionate or serene according to the individual temperament, that by standing firm in a great cause they were perpetuating a Religion which would bestow an era of enlightenment. A cogent example is Tahirih’s defense before the dignitaries of Church and State: “You can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women.”* The apostles of the Báb were enthusiasts, uncompromising, impassioned, illumined; the type of those who must ever inspire the simple at heart, the Hegelians, and the social philosophers who hold to the preponderate role played in history by those who are consecrated to a cause which is greater than themselves.
THE BAB emphasized the regeneration
of Islam; Bahá’u’lláh of the
world. The latter discarded Muslim
insularities and appealed directly
to all men for the renewal of the
spirit of religion. The potency of
His influence is apparent when one
reflects that His sworn enemies
testified to His power; that about
seventy of His followers chose exile
with Him rather than separation
from Him; and that His teachings
were spread throughout the Near
East during His own lifetime by
those who gained His presence in a
Turkish prison.
Bahá’u’lláh was the beginning of Bahá’i experience for the West; it was through Him that Bahá’is
* Tahirih, well known in Bahá’i history as Qurratu'l-‘Ayn was martyred for her faith.
acknowledged the Báb as Prophet and Forerunner of the New Era.
Bahá’u’lláh anticipated the needs of the modern world and adumbrated the form of a world-culture in which religions should be harmonized; social classes reconciled; economic competition replaced by co-operation; and political isolation by international government. He not only gave these definite teachings, but He enjoined the reshaping of the social institutions with which they are identified. His teachings are free from the extremes of the secular schools which deny the life of the spirit, and the arrogance of those religions which lay claim to a monopoly of truth. The beauty of other religions and the worth of other groups is taught by Bahá’u’lláh.
THE RECEPTION of this Message
in the West was due to the missionary
tour of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. He
stressed the social significance of
the Faith rather than the metaphysical
basis: in the universities He
spoke of the compatibility of reason
and faith; in the synagogues, of the
Prophets as the educators of the
race; to peace societies, of the unification
of races, nations, religions,
and classes; to Christians of the return
of the Spirit of Christ.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá contacted the individual; He satisfied the human heart by spiritual experience and awakened the desire for the maximum of self-development. The independent exploration of truth on all planes became the purpose of those whom He attracted. Each discovered according to his capacity, but the process of sharing related him to his fellows. Regardless of
individual differences the orbit of such activity became the Bahá’i community; it comprises intellectuals and mystics, Jews and Christians, the colored and the white, the rich and the poor. Their common bond is devotion to the universal aims of Bahá’u’lláh.
Even to believe that these aims can be realized alters the psychology of the individual: the modern temper of futility gives way to the zest of activity. Consciously or unconsciously the individual acts according to these aims and thus helps to accomplish their realization. The conviction of the possibility of world unity and peace makes of this age the most important in history, and participation in its universal trends not only an obligation but an adventure. This world-view inheres in the recognition of one’s common humanity irrespective of distinctions of race, nation, caste, or creed. It is supplemented by attitudes such as the responsibility of developing one’s latent capacities for the enrichment of the group; ready cooperation; and the performance of labor as an act of worship. These attitudes are cultivated in the group; definite training is given for an ordered social life.
These attitudes are not mere ideals for they are imbedded in structural form, in Bahá’i institutions such as schools, libraries, summer recreation centers, houses of worship. Provision is made for the requirements of the social life of
the community. Moreover, all participate in the election of representatives. The administrative bodies of local and national assemblies, the institutions of the Guardianship, and the future Universal Assembly provide a pyramiding of wills into a definite scheme of world organization.
THE BAHA’I Faith has united
Orientals and Occidentals in a community
of minds and hearts.
Through the Faith the Bahá’is of
the agricultural Villages of Persia
and the Near East are devoted to
universal aims which transcend the
internationalism accepted by advanced
western groups. The significance
of this idealism is the high
probability of its diffusion; and conviction
deeply held releases the will
to action beyond the immediately
possible.
The diffusion of the Bahá’i Religion is a social-psychological process; but its invention was an individual phenomenon. At its Source are two individuals, the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh. The Báb was the initial impulse; Bahá’u’lláh is the Author of the Message which has been accepted both in the East and the West.
The Bahá’i Religion is steadily growing because it meets actual human needs, as they are now recognized by social science. The major trends of recent sociology are a scientific confirmation of the intuitive wisdom of the Prophets, the Founders of religion.
THE BAHA’I ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM . . . . . . .
which animates it is the establishment of the New World Order as
adumbrated by Bahá’u’lláh.”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.
IT should be noted. . . that this Administrative Order is fundamentally different from anything that any Prophet has previously established, inasmuch as Bahá’u’lláh has Himself revealed its principles, established its institutions, appointed the person to interpret His Word and conferred the necessary authority on the body designed to supplement and apply His legislative ordinances. Therein lies the secret of its strength, its fundamental distinction, and the guarantee against disintegration and schism.
IT would be utterly misleading to attempt a comparison between this unique, this divinely-conceived Order and any of the diverse systems which the minds of men, at various periods of their history, have contrived for the government of human institutions. Such an attempt would in itself betray a lack of complete appreciation of the excellence of the handiwork of its great Author. How could it be otherwise when we remember that this Order constitutes the very pattern of that divine civilization which the almighty Law of Bahá’u’lláh is designed to establish upon earth? . . .
THIS new-born Administrative Order incorporates within its structure certain elements which are to be found in each of the three recognized forms of secular government, without being in any sense a mere replica of any one of them, and without introducing within its machinery any of the objectionable features which they inherently possess. It blends and harmonizes, as no government fashioned by mortal hands has as yet accomplished, the salutary truths which each of these systems undoubtedly contains without vitiating the integrity of those God-given verities on which it is ultimately founded.”*
* Quotations from “The Dispensation of Bahá‘u'lláh".
Martha Root, international Bahá’i teacher and journalist, here describes the discussion at the dinner of the Swedish-American Society, at which she was a guest, in Stockholm, October 12, 1934. The speaker of the evening was Grefvinna Estelle Bernadotte of Wisborg, a niece of His Majesty King Oscar Gustaf V of Sweden. (An American by birth, Grefvinna Bernadotte was formerly Miss Estelle Manville of New York). The following discussion on education will be of interest to readers of the Bahá’i Magazine not only because such occasions do much to promote international friendship and understanding but because so many of the points in the Countess Bernadotte’s address are in line with the ideals of Bahá’i education.
AT this time when political disagreements and trade jealousies are tending to separate nations, when disarmament conferences are failing and naval parleys bid fair to come to naught we must not forget the less prominent groups in various countries that are doing their bit to create friendship and understanding among nations. Such a group is the Swedish-American Society in Stockholm whose aim is to further social bonds and sympathetic relations between the Swedes and the people of the United States. This society has been the means of forming innumerable ties on both sides the Atlantic between the people of these two nations.
At a dinner recently given by this Society Countess Berradotte spoke on the subject of education. The Countess, who was introduced by Mr. Borye Brilioth, the presiding officer of the evening, assured her audience that she did not wish to pose as an authority on education, but wished simply to give some thoughts, based on her own reading, observation and experience, as an introduction to a discussion on the subject. In the course of her talk she first dwelt on a few general
* On this point `Abdu'l-Bahá says: “In the scheme of human life the teacher and his system of teaching plays the most important role, carrying with it the heaviest responsibilities and most subtle influence."
points in the field of education and then suggested certain things which each country might learn from the other in educational lines.
In her general remarks the speaker stressed the extremely responsible position the teacher holds and the responsibility of the parents in cooperating with the teacher. The burden of seeing to it that the next generation is better equipped to solve its problems than we have been, is on the shoulders of both parents and teachers
“In Ancient Greece”, Countess Bernadotte said, “the teachers were looked upon as one of the most important groups,* and rightly so. The man or woman who has the responsibility of training the future citizens of a country has just as important a job as the men or women in the present government of that country.”
Another important point in the general remarks of the Countess was that “the ideal school is a place where children, learn how to learn.” The essential thing is that the child be taught to concentrate, given the key to the mastery of the studying process, not that information be crammed into him. Indeed many
--PHOTO--
Stockholm, View from the Townhall-Tower
educators believe that the acquiring of information takes care of itself largely if a child’s natural curiosity and desire to know and understand is not thwarted by too much interference and regimentation on the part of the adult. “There is no better expression of the children’s innate desire to learn than the ever growing stream of questions they ask from the time they begin to put words together into sentences”, said the speaker.
AMERICAN schools and colleges
have long emphasized vocational
training as a means of fitting young
people to follow a certain profession,
art or trade for a livelihood.
In recent years certain colleges are
adding special courses for training
students for public careers in government
service at home or abroad.
Countess Bernadette quoted somewhat
at length to show how such
work has been developed at Princeton
University where President
Dodds introduced a public careers
course four years ago. He now believes that “the New Deal, which had to draft its brains from college faculties and private business, has amply proved his thesis of the need of brilliant professional public servants in the United States. . . . The students are campus leaders, Princetonian editors, football men, class presidents. They spend their summers living abroad in native homes, attending government conferences. Each year the school has five conferences on public affairs of its own. Then students pretend they are a senate committee, a New York City charter commission, a League of Nations Assembly, and proceed to thresh out the question at hand with all due form and ceremony. At the final conference last May, the school was the United States Ways and Means Committee considering the reciprocal tariff bill.” It is said that these young conferees voted for amendments which the real United States Senate adopted one week later.
“Princeton has lately begun to lead the nation in graduates accepted for the United States Foreign Service.”*
BUT WHEREAS specialized training
may be invaluable in preparing
youth for earning their livlihood
just the opposite of this,—a broad
liberal culture on a sound ethical
basis would seem to be necessary if
we are to fit our young people for
the new, unknown and constantly
arising problems of the future.
“One rightly asks”, said the speaker,
“how is it possible to know what
will be necessary twenty years
hence.” But a flexible, searching,
open mind coupled with firm and
assured ethical principles are certainly
parts of the equipment which
are needed to meet unforeseen
situations and which modern education
should provide.
Countess Bernadotte suggested the honor system as an aid in developing self respect and moral stamina. “This is not”, she said, “self-governing or sjalv-styrelse, but more hedersbegreppssytem. It is the system whereby the individual child has only its own self-respect to answer to for its actions. If the self-respect of certain individuals is rather tarnished, the attitude of the other children towards these will in most cases stimulate the slack ones to polish up their self-respect and become part of the honor group. There is no time in a human being’s life which is so purely idealistic as childhood and youth. Most of the individuals in that stage of development are not yet familiar with the grinding effect the world has upon
* On the point of government service it should be made clear that while Bahá’is are warned not to become entangled in politics and political issues, they are encouraged to serve their governments in non-political administrative positions.
their ideals. That is why I believe the honor system inculcated in the school age of the coming generations of citizens will help towards making man’s world a better place to live and work in.”
ANOTHER practical suggestion
which would tend to liberalize and
broaden the minds of young people
as well as furnish them much information
was made by the speaker.
She believes that a greater stress
should be placed upon current
events in our schools. In regard to
this Countess Bernadotte said,
“Would it not be advisable, in the
light of guiding our children’s reading
of the daily newspaper, to teach
them how to pick the worth while
from the trash. . . . My own experience
of Current Events speaks
strongly for a period once a week,
when the outstanding events of the
week are read out and discussed
. . . before the whole school.” The
Countess pointed out too how much
America might learn from Swedish
schools in regard to a better use of
the radio in education.
In her closing remarks the Countess said that she would like to give expression to her feeling about what in general each country could learn from the other. America, she said, seemed to her to be the land of new ideas, but America’s weakness was in a lack of discrimination as to whether the new ideas were good or bad. People in America are too prone, she believes, to make a fad of any new idea and only find out after the idea has proved a failure that it was unsound. Also since a good idea may, too, become a fad,
it is often overlooked and discounted by the more conservative people, or perhaps even lost sight of, for a time, at least. Sweden, on the other hand, she believes to be a land where ideas are considered and weighed carefully. Since the Swedish people are more slow to take up new ideas before they are proven they may gain in the end. Sweden has two advantages which make it easier to adapt new ideas to her needs. One is that her population is homogeneous, of one nationality; another is that her people are spread over a relatively small area.
AFTER THE address of Countess
Bernadotte a most interesting discussion
developed in which several
of the foremost educators of Sweden pointed out what the two countries can learn from each other in the new educational methods. The American minister of Sweden, Mr. L. A. Steinhardt, in a talk brief but full of truth and humor gave the viewpoint of the boys and girls of both countries naming studies they would like to have taken out of the curriculum and new courses they would like to have introduced.
Surely occasions like this Swedish-American dinner-discussion, where representative people get together in a friendly exchange of ideas, have a value which cannot be estimated. May such occasions increase.
- A lily bloomed because a bulb was torn,
- A caterpillar wove a golden mesh,
- Discarding it with joy when wings were born;
- A martyr rose triumphant from the flesh.
- These things I saw with wonderment and pain,
- As, led by love, I climbed a mountain slope;—
- On levels far below gleamed ripened grain,
- Small seeds to hold the resurrection hope!
- And then I saw on shining laurel blades
- The emerald tracery of crossing bars,
- And knew that cells must break to build facades
- Of giant shrubs that yearn to meet the stars.
- Oh, Love, Who spreads white arms above my earth,
- Thy mantle robes the mystic cross of birth!
“The authorized Interpreter and Exemplar of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings was His eldest son ‘Abud’l-Bahá (Servant of Bahá) who was appointed by his Father as the Center to whom all Bahá‘is should turn for instruction and guidance."
TO estimate, even to imagine, the possibilities of the human soul is beyond man’s thinking. “I am man’s mystery and he is My mystery.” And ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says that no man can know himself since it is impossible to look at oneself from without. Because of this, and because men commonly tend to accept a lower estimate of their own capacities rather than a higher, a certain heroism is essential to high attainment. This is true, of course, when the goal is a material one. It is not generally realized that it is much more true when the plane of seeking is spiritual. To accept the dictum that nothing is too good to be true, and nothing is too high to be attained, requires a willingness to run counter to the accepted standards of men, who, as a rule, measure their ambitions by a quite different standard.
AFTER MEETING ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
life, as I have intimated, assumed
a quite different aspect. But in
what that difference consisted I
could not then determine, and after
these twenty-two years I cannot
now determine except that a goal
had emerged from the mists surrounding
worthy of supreme struggle
and sacrifice. I began to see,
dimly indeed but clearly enough to
give me hope, that even if I could
not know myself, I knew with certainty,
* Seven Valleys by Bahá'u'lláh.
that heights far beyond ever before dreamed attainable, lay before me and could be reached. This was all I knew but it was much. I remember saying to myself over and over: “At last the desire of my soul is in sight.” In sight, but alas how far away! I gazed at ‘Abdu’l-Bahá with a mixture of hope and despair. The world and I in turmoil and here was peace. He sat or stood, walked or talked in a world of His own, yet with beckoning hands to all who yearned and strove. It seemed to me that He stood at the heart of a whirlwind in a place of supreme quiet, or at the hypothetical but perfectly still center of a rapidly revolving flywheel. I looked at this stillness, this quietude, this immeasurable calm in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and it filled me with a restless longing akin to despair. Is it any wonder I was unhappy? For I was desperately unhappy. Was I not in the outer circle of that raging tornado? And to attain that Center of stillness meant the traversing of the storm. But to know there was a Center: nay, to see One sitting calmly there, was a knowledge, a glimspe, never before attained. And so, another divine paradox; in my misery of doubting hope lay the first hint of divine assurance I had ever known. I remembered another arresting phrase in the Seven Valleys* and said to myself: Though
I search for a hundred thousand years for the Beauty of the Friend I shall never despair for He will assuredly direct me into His way.
NOT LONG after that great first experience
with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá I was
again talking with Him. It was in
the beautiful home of the family of
one of the friends who seemed to
feel that all which they possessed
was too little to express their adoring
love. Entering their home the
roar of the city, the elegance and
luxury of Riverside Drive, the poverty
and wealth of our modern civilization
all seemed to merge into a
unit of nothingness and one entered
an atmosphere of Reality. These
heavenly souls who thus demonstrated
beyond any words their self-dedication
had a direct influence upon
my hesitating feet of which they
could have had no suspicion. My
heart throughout all worlds shall
echo with thankfulness to them.
In this home I had become a constant habituè. I could not keep away. One day ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the interpreter and I were alone in one of the smaller reception rooms on the ground floor. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had been speaking of some Christian doctrine and His interpretation of the words of Christ were so different from the accepted one that I could not restrain an expression of remonstrance. I remember speaking with some heat:
“How is it possible to be so sure?” I asked. "‘No one can say with certainty what Jesus meant after all these centuries of misinterpretation and strife.”
“It is quite possible”, said ‘Abdu’l-Bahá calmly.
It is indicative of my spiritual
turmoil and my blindness to His station, that instead of His serenity and tone of authority impressing me as warranted it drove me to actual impatience. “That I cannot believe,” I exclaimed.
I shall never forget the glance of outraged dignity the interpreter cast upon me. It was as though he would say: “Who are you to contradict or even question ‘Abdu’l-Bahá!”
But not so did ‘Abdu’l-Bahá look at me. How I thank God that it was not! He looked at me a long moment before He spoke. His calm, beautiful eyes searched my soul with such love and understanding that all my momentary heat evaporated. He smiled as winningly as a lover smiles upon his beloved, and the arms of His spirit seemed to embrace me as He said softly: “You try your way and I will try mine.”
It was as though a cool hand had been laid upon a fevered brow; as though a cup of nectar had been held to parched lips; as though a key had unlocked my hard-bolted crusted and rusted heart. The tears started and my voice trembled, “I’m sorry”, I murmured.
OFTEN since that day have I pondered
on the tragic possibilities of
the effect of an expression of the
face. I have even thought I should
like to write a book on The Glance
that Saved the World, taking as a
text the way Jesus must have looked
upon Peter after the three-fold
denial. What could that glance have
carried to the fear-stricken, doubting,
angry Peter? Surely not the
self-righteous, dignified look in the
eyes of the interpreter. As surely
it must have been something approaching
the expression of all-embracing love, forgiveness and understanding with which 'Abdu'l-Bahá calmed and soothed and assured my heart.
Upon that glance which Jesus cast upon Peter as he went to the Cross certainly hung the destinies of Christianity. Had it not been one of forgiveness and love Peter would not have gone out and "wept bitterly". Neither, in all probability, would he have died a martyr to the Cause of Him whom he denied in that moment of angry fear. Is it too much to go one step further and assert that the destinies of the world hung upon that moment of time when the eyes of Peter and His Master met and he read therein not what his soul knew he deserved but what the mercy of God conferred as a bounty on His part.
Of one thing I am sure: upon that glance of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, upon that moment in which He turned upon me the search light of His inner being, hung my destiny throughout all the ages of immortal life. And not only my own destiny, which, after all is of slight importance compared to the hope of the world, but the destiny of the uncounted millions who throughout the coming generations of men are interwoven with mine. For any thoughtful mind looking back upon so many as three-score years, must be amazed, if not horrified, by the consideration of the effect of a single careless gesture, word or facial expression. Like a pebble cast into a calm pool the ripples from that little deed spread and spread to infinity. And, as they spread, they touch the ripples from tens, scores, thousands of other deeds, expressions, gestures
thoughts; each affected by each until one becomes conscious of the vast responsibility each soul takes upon itself by the mere fact of acting his part, living his life through one little moment of time. He sees himself a king affecting for better or worse every soul in the world, sooner or later, by the very breath he draws, the thoughts of his inmost heart. Bahá'u'lláh says somewhere that "he who quickens one soul in this Day it is as if he quickened every soul in the world." Is not this His meaning?
IN ALL of my many opportunities of meeting, of listening to and talking with 'Abdu'l-Bahá I was impressed, and constantly more deeply impressed, with His method of teaching souls. That is the word. He did not attempt to reach the mind alone. He sought the soul, the reality of every one He met. Oh, He could be logical, even scientific in His presentation of an argument, as He demonstrated constantly in the many addresses I have heard Him give and the many more I have read. But it was not the logic of the schoolmen, not the science of the class room. His lightest word, His slightest association with a soul was shot through with an illuminating radiance which lifted the hearer to a higher plane of consciousness. Our hearts burned within us when He spoke. And He never argued, of course. Nor did He press a point. He left one free. There was never an assumption of authority, rather He was ever the personification of humility. He taught "as if offering a gift to a king."' He never told me what I should do, beyond suggesting that what I was doing was
right. Nor did He ever tell me what I should believe. He made Truth and Love so beautiful and royal that the heart perforce did reverence. He showed me by His voice, manner, bearing, smile, how I should be, knowing that out of the pure soil of being the good fruit of deeds and words would surely spring.
There was a strange, awe-inspiring mingling of humility and majesty, relaxation and power in His slightest word or gesture which made me long to understand its source. What made Him so different, so immeasurably superior to any other man I had ever met?
Ir was to be expected that the spiritual turmoil in which my life was now submerged should have a deep effect upon the duties of my ministry. My ideals began to change almost from the moment of my first contact with 'Abdu'l-Bahá. I remember that the dearly loved young wife of one of the members of my church was suddenly taken very ill about this time. I had then been under this divine influence only a few weeks. I was not a Bahá'i. I did not accept Bahá'u'lláh as the Manifestation of God. I knew very little of what I heard spoken of as the "station" of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. But I was enthralled with the vision of a spiritual beauty, a hope of spiritual attainment which drew me as with cords of steel. I read the Hidden Words, the Seven Valleys, The Book of Assurance,* the beautiful prayers, constantly. So when this friend came to me as his minister and with tears asked me to pray for the recovery of his wife, saying that his physician held out little hope,
* Books by Baha'ulláh.
that she was daily growing weaker and that his only hope was in the goodness of God, I instinctively turned to the healing prayers in the Bahá'i prayer book. Together we nine times repeated:
"O my Lord! Thy Name is her healing. Thy rememberance is her remedy. To be near Thee is her hope and Thy love is her joyous companion. Thy mercy is her need and her aid in this world and in the worlds to come. Thou art the Giver, all-knowing and wise."
The husband knew nothing, or very little, of the Bahá'i Cause. I certainly had made no effort to explain the teachings to him. It was all too new to me to permit of that. I marvelled at the time, or immediately after, at my timerity and at his unhesitating and grateful acceptance of the prayers. Perhaps it was with his tongue in his cheek, though he was distraught enough to grasp at any hope. Of that I can know nothing, but I do know that his wife's recovery dated from that hour and she was soon well.
I speak of this only as an illustration of the new relationships with souls that began at this time. When Christ said to His fisher disciples: "Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men," He must have meant that "following" to be a matter of spiritual consciousness out of which flows loving deeds. As though He would say: "Be like Me and men will love you as they love Me, and you will be able to serve men as I have served you." At any rate that is what 'Abdu'l-Bahá was constantly showing me, that the only way I could teach men the Way of Life was by walking therein myself. "I am the Way."
(To be continued)
“If we wish to come in touch with the Reality of Divinity we do so by recognizing its phenomena, its attributes and traces which are widespread in the universe. . . . When we look at the reality of this subject, we see that the bounties of God are infinite, without beginning and without end.”—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
AMONG a certain class of intellectuals, there are those who seem to take a kind of pride in their scorn of all religious beliefs. These individuals insist that a belief in anything above or beyond this physical existence, is rank superstition. Religion, with all its supernaturalism, they assert, is nothing but a somewhat refined form of beliefs originally held by savages, and handed clown to this generation. Such ideas, these intellectuals assert, had their origin in the brain of man at a time when all the phenomena of nature was considered as a direct act of a personal God.
This type of reasoner rejects everything of a divine nature, everything relating to another world, in large part because convinced that all that is, is matter. Such persons regard all force, all so-called intelligence, all feeling, as but the interaction of one form of matter upon another form of the same thing. This rejection of all religious concepts is, of course, pure materialism—premised upon the idea that all causes reside in the qualities and properties of matter.
TO THE materialist of this type,
such phenomena as the holy lives of
the Prophets, the self sacrifice of
noble men and women of all ages—thousands
of them willing to be tortured
and to die for their faith,-mean
nothing relating to the spiritual.
A martyr, to a materialist, is
simply a highly sensitive person whose emotion has gotten the better of his common sense. According to that form of reasoning, the emotion expressed in the willingness to suffer for an ideal or a supposed truth, is nothing but an example of an unusual combination of chemical reactions in the brain and nervous system, making the victim happy to suffer punishment, rather than to face the loss of his ideals or his self respect, or his hope for rewards in a supposed life hereafter.
If we can assume that such a materialistically minded person may hold these views in all sincerity, and no doubt many of them do, it might be worth while to consider whether we can point out any evidence of a kind which would be impressive to this type of mind, and actually refute conclusions which exclude the possibility of an Infinite Being and life after physical death.
I have met scientists of note who express the conviction that, regardless of what we may believe about the matter, the physical universe in which we live bears no evidence which we have been able to discover that any plan or purpose in creation exists. They tell me they find nothing on this plane which, for its creation or composition, would require an overshadowing intelligence, such as is part of the religious conception of God.
I have had great difficulty in understanding how even an extreme
materialist could hold such a view, if willing honestly to face facts well within his own knowledge. It seems to be human nature to make our facts fit the theory for which we hold a preference, rather than to make the theory fit the known facts. Few men probably are of that purely scientific type which can always and on all subjects forget their preconceived notions.
IN AN address in Paris, France,
February 9, 1913, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá explained
the three theories as to the
composition of physical matter. He
said that these theories are: 1—accidental
composition; 2, involuntary
composition; and 3, voluntary
composition.
Accidental composition He described as composition by a chance arrangement of the particles; involuntary composition, means that particles of matter come together due to an inherent quality within themselves; while voluntary composition is explained as due to the action of a superior Will acting according to an intelligent plan. In this most interesting analysis, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá makes clear that both accidental and involuntary composition are alike irrational, and that positive proofs exist that discredit both of these theories.
ACCORDING to this analysis, for example,
that ingenious arrangement
of material elements which we call
a watch, would be classified as
“voluntary composition.” The
watch was planned and the elements
put into their place by an intelligence,
with a purpose. A moment’s
reflection will make clear to anyone
that no by-chance shuffling of the
elements composing the watch could ever cause them to accidentally take the exact form of a watch.
It is further evident, I feel sure that, even if we were unaware as to the purpose for which a mechanical device as complicated, yet well organized as a watch, we would nevertheless quickly decide that such a mechanism must have been planned and put together by an intelligence of some kind. It would be apparent also, that behind the plan of design and assembly must have been a purpose—a planned function.
If, as I believe is true, the very existence of a watch, conclusively indicates that an intelligence planned its composition, is it not evident by the same definite type of reasoning that our universe required an intelligence to bring it into its present marvellously organized being? Surely the millions of varying composite forms in the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms, are, many of them, even more wonderfully made than anything that the mind of man has conceived.
AND HOW wonderfully are our own bodies builded! Can we rationally contend that, by a mere chance shuffling of the elements, these human temples of ours were formed? Can we reasonably maintain that these complex organizations in infinite variety are the result of laws residing inherently in the three material kingdoms, which cause them to come together, because composition is their very nature?
No. As ‘Abdu’l-Bahá points out, if it were the essential nature of these elements to unite on their own account, we could not explain decomposition,
which is the inevitable fate of all composed things.
And what of the whirling universes that extend for thousands of light years out into stellar space? Are not these systems of suns and planets even more complex and systematic in their plan of organization than that of the time piece which we carry in our pockets? Can anyone sensibly say that these organizations of heavenly bodies “just happened” to get into their present geometrically perfect relationships?
But what of the plan or purpose of it all? A moment’s contemplation of the enormity of the mere physical universe—a realization that all this is but the outer form of a far greater spiritual infinity, makes evident that any adequate comprehension of the probable purpose of the thing is entirely out of the question. We have no powers which would enable us to understand the very existence of more than a minute portion of the structure of God’s creation. Its function and purposes, by its very magnitude, is not for us to see, or know, or even to imagine.
God has given us a sort of reason, and a very limited perception. We can see that there is existence,
but of the exact essential nature of that existence, we know practically nothing. We can perceive clear evidences of an intelligent plan and purpose, even in the physical structure of these specks of dust which come within the range of our vision. But as to the extent or nature of that intelligence or purpose-we have no faculties with which to touch even its fringe. God sends His Manifestations to teach us, again and again. His message deals with how to live—and Oh, so little of that is able to enter the cramped portals of our hearts. But of the Plan, the Ultimate Purpose—of that God speaks, if at all, in symbols the meaning of which no man comprehendeth.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá puts the problem in this language: “God is infinite, and as terms are finite, the nature of God is not to be expressed in terms. But as man desires to express God in some way, he calls God ‘love’ and ‘truth’, because these are the highest things he knows. Life is eternal, so man, in order to express God’s infinity, calls God ‘Life’. But these things in themselves are not God. God is the source of all, and all things that are, are mirrors, reflecting (a part of) His glory.”
“It is perfectly evident that man did not create himself and that he cannot do so, How could man of his own weakness create such a mighty being? Therefore the Creator of man must be more perfect and powerful than man. If the Creative Cause of man be simply on the same level with mom, then man himself should be able to create, whereas we know very well that we cannot create even our own likeness. Therefore the Creator of man must be endowed with superlative intelligence and power in all points that creation involves and implies.”—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
“It is self-evident that humanity is at variance. Human tastes differ; thoughts, nativities, races and tongues are many. The need of a Collective Center by which these differences may be counterbalanced and the people of the world be unified is obvious.”
IF we analyze the concept of a center, we can see the center as a focal point of attraction. Coexistent with it are other entities removed from the center, which have been created with a vital connection with the central point. There are two aspects to this connection. The separate bodies are attracted to the center, and at the same time the center is a source of life to them. As we think about this concept it seems marvelously beautiful. And it should seem so to us, because it is the most fundamental principle in our lives.
Throughout the physical world we find the center represented. The smallest unit, the atom, is composed of widely separated electrical particles in a state of tension with the nucleus as center. It is interesting that the atom, the basic unit from which all things are formed, has been compared in structure and relative distance between parts to our vast solar system.
In the darkness of the solar system, the sun is the center of light and life for the planets. Without the sun, the earth would be a dead, inert mass, incapable of change. The sun is the cause of the multiple life—the unceasing growth and development on the earth’s surface. Although the earth is removed from the sun it receives power and energy through the rays of heat and light. And in the changes of the
* ‘Abdu'l-Bahá, “Bahá’i Scriptures,” par. 825.
seasons we see the evidence of the earth’s continual connection and response to its center of bounty.
IN MAN’S world of thoughts, hearts, and spirits there is also a center of inspiration and life. For humanity the collective center is the Manifestation of God. The Manifestations are like the life-giving sun, and man, helpless and limited, is like the earth. As the sun is remote from the earth, so is the Divine Reality remote from man, absolutely independent in its essence. But an intermediary there must be. For the earth it is the rays of the sun; for man it is the ever-present power of the Holy Spirit.
The Manifestations reflect the Divine Reality which “represents power absolute, capacity for all things, fulfilment for all the needs of man.”* A Manifestation has three stations or conditions. The first is the physical. And the physical body, since it is a composition in the phenomenal world, is subject to decomposition. This is the only station that mankind has in common with the Manifestation. The second station, the rational soul or individual reality which has a beginning but no end, is holy and distinguished from all others by its essential perfection. In the same way the sun’s particles have the property, essential to them, of producing rays and light, and differ from the particles
of the moon which can only reflect light. The third station is the Holy Reality which has no beginning and no end. It is the Preexistent Bounty which shines through the individuality like the light through the glass globe of a lamp. The human body of the Manifestation is like the niche illumined by the lamp. Although the niche be detroyed, the light is shining always.
The Holy Spirit, the intermediary which brings God to man, is the bounty of God emanating from the Manifestation. It does not descend or enter into man but like the mental realities has a direct connection. Knowledge is a state of the intelligence, an intellectual condition, and thoughts are like images reflected in a mirror. In the same way the splendour of the Holy Spirit appears as in a mirror.
THE RELATIONSHIP between man
and the Collective Center is indeed
vital. Bahá’u’lláh said, “. . . man is
dependent for his (spiritual) existence
upon the Sun of the Word of
God.”1 It is through the Manifestations
that man learns of the
essential and eternal. The Creative
Word is the source of all good, all
wisdom and power. The innate
light which the Manifestations have,
the knowledge and understanding
of all things in the universe, is mirrored
in the minds and hearts of
men. This light is reflected in an
individual according to his capacity;
in different people it gives rise to
different attainments.
The coming of a Manifestation results in a wonderful expansion and creation in the world of thought. Witness the flowering of Arabian culture in Baghdád and Andalusia
1 Bahá'i Scriptures, par. 142. 2 Divine Philosophy, p. 52. 3 Some Answered Questions, p. 184.
after the appearance of Muhammad. With the perspective of time we can appreciate the change wrought from obscurity and the actual addition made to the world by new ideas, new beauties, and noble characters. Consider the marvels already uncovered in the very beginning of this era of Bahá’u’lláh—the extraordinary progress in science and communication, in freedom and fellowship.
THE REVELATION of God is continuous
and progressive through the
ages. Each of the Manifestations inaugurates
a cycle during which his
laws prevail. His teachings are the
spirit of that age. When a cycle is
completed by the appearance of a
new Manifestation, a new cycle begins.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá said: “The
great ones are from all time in
their glorious station, their reality
is luminous from the beginning, the
reality that causes the qualities of
God to appear, but the day of their
manifestation is the day when they
proclaim themselves upon this
earth.”2 The cycles are stages in
the unending evolution of the one
Divine Religion. Each Revelation
is limited in accordance with the
spiritual capacity of mankind at
that time. And in the course of
man’s divine education, every Revelation
is more ample than the last.
Each of the cycles forms a part of a larger, universal cycle which covers an exceedingly long period of time.
“In such a cycle” says ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “the Manifestations appear with splendour in the realm of the visible, until a great and universal Manifestation makes the world the centre of his radiance. His appearance causes the world to attain to maturity, and the extension of his cycle is very great. . . . We are in the cycle which began with Adam, and its universal Manifestation is Bahá’u’lláh.”3
“The principle of the Oneness of Mankind—the pivot round which all the teachings of Bahá'u’lláh revolve—is no mere outburst of ignorant emotionalism or an expression of vague and pious hope. . . . Its message is applicable not only to the individual, but concerns itself primarily with the nature of those essential relationships that must bind all the states and nations as members of one human family.”*
ONE of the most influential human documents ever written, was the American Declaration of Independence. It broke the bonds with a past, with a set of conditions which had become intolerable.
Today, it seems necessary that we declare our independence from certain limiting factors, and at the same time recognize the inter-dependence of all parts of the world in the fundamentals of life.
The introduction to such a declaration might read—
“When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary” for the people of the world “to dissolve” these bonds which bind them to obsolete and outgrown doctrines, they must, of necessity, have recourse to that guidance which is embodied in the Divine Plan for the complete and unreserved unity of the sons of men.
THE CUMULATIVE effects of economic difficulties, political disagreements, national misunderstandings, racial antagonisms and religious impotency have brought mankind face to face with forces which he “can neither understand nor control.”
The fundamental problem, however, which faces humanity is not the solution of economic, political and social problems as such, but the
* “The Goal of a New World Order”, p. 22.
correction of those underlying maladjustments which give rise to these dilemmas. Economic, political and social relationships are “but facets of the indivisible substance of life.” It is with the substance of life that we must deal and this substance is not compounded of material elements.
Sir Alfred Ewing, addressing the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in speaking of the “pageant of discovery and invention”, said: “Man was ethically unprepared for so great a bounty. In the slow evolution of morals he is still unfit for the tremendous responsibility it entails. The command of nature has been put into his hands before he knows how to command himself.”
Before man can command nature and control his environment completely, he must learn to control himself, individually and collectively. Certainly individual effort is essential. Only by trying can we attain a personal consciousness of the significance of passing events, of shifting values, and of the steps necessary to the solution of such problems as have never before confronted humanity. Each must try to understand for himself, for as the Syrian philosopher Gibran suggests—
“The vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.
"And even each one of you stands, alone in God's knowledge, so must each one of you be alone in his knowledge of God and in his understanding of the earth."
HOW THEN are we as individuals and members of a social organism, to find a method and develop a technique of accomplishment, adequate to the emergency?
The answer is—by making effective a "new principle of human action", a force which works "outward from the hearts to the external world." This is the principle of unity and concord, applied in the spirit of sincere consultation.
In recent years, men have been intrigued with the possibility of splitting the atom. Great and many have been the speculations as to the advantages of the release of sub-atomic energy. We wonder what benefits will result, what we will get. We are much interested in the economic and physical possibilities. Our acquisitive instinct is alert.
In giving rein to such speculations, we have apparently overlooked the possibility of there being a force possessing far greater sources of benefit to mankind than those which might result from the use of sub-atomic energy. That force is one which has always existed. Examples of its potency may be drawn from many phases of existence. It is a force of tremendous spiritual power. It is available for use today as it has been in the past and will be in the future. It is a living principle of action which can be utilized. It is the force of concerted thought, feeling and action; of harmony, of cooperation, of unity.
The atomic structure is an example of unified existence and action, for its constituent parts live, move and have their being, as it were, in complete harmony, bound by the very laws which govern their existence. It is by the destruction of this unity within the atom that man hopes to gain.
IN THE physical world we may gain by destroying the unity of and within the atom, but in the realm of human affairs this policy has already been carried too far. The present discordant and disorganized state of the world is evidence sufficient that the reverse must be achieved if humanity is to prosper materially and spiritually.
An old prophet once said—"with all thy getting get understanding." Certainly that is a prime requisite of the world today. Understanding begets harmony and cooperation. Where understanding exists, suspicion, prejudice, envy, greed and hatred do not thrive.
Our present system of living is at least theoretically predicated upon voluntary and almost unconscious cooperation, involving the interchange of services, although accomplished by the use of a medium of exchange.
This system evolved from necessity. It was not adopted by common consent as the highest expression of ethical justice. Civilization may be considered as a rather blundering experiment in cooperative endeavor. Originally man had little need for cooperation. Gradually he came to appreciate the benefits of the division of labor. And out of this evolution has grown the highly complicated social and industrial
organism of the present time, which has now ceased to function satisfactorily.
To CORRECT the troubles of this organism is not only desirable but imperative. Is it not strange that the corrective power of unified action has never been really tried, despite the fact that there are examples of its effectiveness on every hand, in every sphere of life!
The wisdom of the ages past, present and future is found in the guiding words of Bahá'u'lláh.
"We desire the good of the world and the happiness of the nations... that all nations should become one in faith and all men as brothers; that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity of religion should cease, and differences of race be annuled....Yet so it shall be; these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the "Most Great Peace" shall come. . . . Let not a man glory in this, that he loves his country; let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind."
And 'Abdu'l-Bahá said:
"This is a new cycle of human power. All the horizons of the
world are luminous and the world will become indeed as a garden and a paradise. It is the hour of unity of the sons of men and of the drawing together of all races and classes."
"The gift of God to this enlightened age is the knowledge of the oneness of mankind and the fundamental oneness of religion. War shall cease between nations, and by the will of God the Most Great Peace shall come; the world will be seen as a new world, and all men will live as brothers."
As this is the "hour of the unity of the sons of men" we must live under a greater constitution—the Covenant of God for this enlightened age.
To borrow familiar phrases—
We, the people of the world in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty and concord, to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish a new constitution for the Federation of Mankind.
"These fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away . . ."
"Verily the century of radiance has dawned, minds are advancing, perceptions are broadening, realization of human possibilities are becoming universal, susceptibilities are developing, the discovery of realities is progressing. Therefore it is necessary that we should cast aside all the prejudices of ignorance, discard superannuated beliefs in traditions of past ages and raise aloft the banner of international agreement. . . . The laws and institutes of former governments cannot be current today, for legislation must be in conformity with the needs and requirements of the body-politic at this time."
Excerpts from Addresses given at the Assembly of the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, September 1934.
PEACE can be secured only on the basis of the goodwill of peoples towards each other, and is it not evident that there can be no goodwill when men see the things that mean most to them in life—things that transcend life itself—being attacked? Common sense declares this to be true, and the whole course of human history confirms it. . . . To exclude religion from the domain of human conduct is to deprive morals and ethics of all the sanctions which support them against the stress of individual or national greed. Mere devotion to abstract ideals or principles is bound to crumble before the onslaught of fierce human passions, unless a super-natural motive intervenes to support it. Does not our daily experience prove that this is so? DeValera, Irish Free State.
THERE can be no denying that the world of today is passing through a deep-seated crisis comparable to the greatest crises which the history of mankind has ever known: it is a crisis in ideas, morals and religious beliefs, a crisis in world economic affairs, a crisis in internal political and social conditions and systems, and a far-reaching crisis in international relations, with threats of wars and revolutions of all kinds—in short, a state of general instability and anxiety as to what tomorrow has in store in all these fields.—Dr. Benes of Czechoslovakia.
THERE are obviously two group-propelling tendencies
in mankind: on the one hand, the synergetic association of their productive and spiritual forces combining to ensure peace and prosperity for all; and, on the other hand, the instinctive and egoistic manifestations, whether held as sacred or not, whether superhuman or merely inhuman, which still form the core of national power. These two contradictory tendencies, instead of balancing each other by means of a satisfactory compromise. . . . seem now to have reverted to the tragic culminating-point of their millennial conflict, thus bringing civilisation itself into deadly peril—M. Mayard of Haiti.
I AM one of those believers who refuse to admit that war is firmly rooted in human nature and inevitable in the development of communities. I believe that war, like all other human crimes, can be prevented, and that at a more advanced stage of society it will be put down and punished. Nevertheless, in spite of the intense work of propaganda and education already carried out in the most civilised countries of the world, this creative work of solidarity is only just painfully emerging from a crisis which threatened to destroy it. We have anxiously followed this League crisis, which was happily only a growing-pain from which the League will recover all the stronger, and which is largely explained by the relative lack of success attending some of its activities.—C. de Mata of Portugal.
communication, to isolate races. If suicidal competition between the various races is to be avoided there must be a greater sense of fellowship brought about. This greater sense of fellowship can best be fostered through the medium of inter-missionary endeavors.
"There must not only be missionaries from the West, but also from the East. The interchange of missionaries should lead to the establishment of a Universal Church which would claim a loyalty surpassing even that of loyalty to one's country. Thus, and thus only, can internecine strife between nation and nation, and race and race, be overcome."—Raymond P. Currier, Chief Executive of the Student
Volunteer Movement.Birth Throes of a New System: "The depression is more than a recurrence of an economic cycle. We are suffering the birth throes of a new system. . . . Of a new civilization. . . . One in which social justice must play the leading role if democracy is to survive."
"There are conflicts between capital and labor. . . . between religions . . . between theories and outworn facts.
"But as we are faced with the knowledge that our concepts are antidated and antiquated, we feel about our heads the lusty winds that always accompany the onward march of men and nations.
"With these moves in new directions, with this widening of areas, we are confronted with the questions of where America is going, where lies her destiny.
"We cannot blame the machine of democracy for our ills. We, ourselves, betrayed the machine, just as man was not betrayed by money, but himself played the role of betrayer."—Dr. Dorothy Reed, head of the Sociology Department, University of Kansas City.
Modernizing Persia: "Westernization
in a generation. In Persia the nomad population—one-quarter of the total—is being forcibly settled in villages which they dislike intensely. Education is improving, hospitals, railways, roads are being built, with consequent broadening of outlook among the people. Thousands of youths are being 'exported' to study in western universities, with the intention that they shall return to Persia and give their native land the benefit of their erudition. . . . Among the innovations of the new regime is a railway from the Caspian Sea to the Gulf, a tremendous project: tunnels totalling fifteen miles in length must be built, the cost will obviously be enormous."—Brig. Gen. Sir Percy Sykes, K. C. I. E., C. B., C. M. G, in an address at the People's Forum, Montreal. Montreal Gazette.
What College Education Offers Women: "A college education should develop a woman's sensibilities and powers so she will be a better human being. Woman's greatest need is a preparation of the heart and mind. The women's colleges ask four years in which to cultivate the things of the spirit. In these
years intellectual culture, habits of study, a nobler certainty is developed that should last throughout life. In a changing, disappointing world, the college education offers a woman something imperishable. It gives her resources within herself so that she can find pleasure and teach the members of her family to find pleasure that is not dependent upon money or environment."—Mrs. Dwight W. Morrow, in her radio address on "College Women and the New Leisure."
First and Last: "Religion is the first and last thing. It is the universal language of all human hearts, no matter what their age, race, nationality or creed may be. Though different forms may be employed to visualize that Something which stands beyond, behind and within the flux of passing forms, yet is the desire of each man the same. And though different may be the language and symbols used to give meaning to all that passes—the while it eludes apprehension,—yet the hearts of all men speak a common language. Though our temperaments differ, yet are we dedicated to one august destiny and united in one common quest for that which is ultimately ideal. Ever the vision leads on, sometimes with many gods, sometimes with one; sometimes with many saviors, sometimes with one; sometimes with a holy land washed by ocean shores, sometimes with holy lands implanted in men's hearts. Because we are grandly human we shall ever build our altars, offer our prayers, sing our hymns. But more and more shall we learn that beneath all our variations abides an eternal Unity
which makes us brothers one of another."—W. Waldemar W. Argow, Th. D. May Memorial Church, Syracuse, N. Y.
The Right to Work: "Mr. Walter Lippmann in "The Method of Freedom" shows that the conditions of modern political economy tend to polarize the community into two classes: a body of voters who have nothing to lose, proletarian; and a company of plutocrats who exploit government for power and profit. . . . Hence the security of freedom is to abolish the extremes. It is to make "the middle condition" coincident as nearly as possible with the total population of the state, not by improverishing the rich but, by enriching the poor. . . . Everybody should be guaranteed his liberty in the form of 'the right to work' and the income necessary for existence."—A. M. Kallen in the "Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science".
Toward a Better Social Structure: "Be intelligent and courageous to realize that economic systems are made for man, not man for the economic system; earnestly and seriously set about to make the system right—for something is terribly wrong with it. . . . We are living in an age of abundance. . . . All we need to do is to be ingenious enough to devise a system to make distribution more equitable than it is at present, so all may have their share in nature's bounty. . . . The social structure is breaking about our heads, but there will be building something a little better."—Dr. G. O. Fallis, B. D., C. B. E. of Toronto. Montreal Gazette.
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[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."
