The Significance of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation/The Forces of the Revelation

The Forces of the Revelation

Introduction

In the last two chapters we examined the claim of Baha’u’ 14h in relation to His station and the nature of His Revelation. In the next two chapters we will look at the potent forces released by the Revelation and their impact on individuals and society.

“Within the throat of this Youth,” Baha’u’ lah states, “there lie imprisoned accents which, if revealed to mankind to an extent smaller than a needle’s eye, would suffice to cause every mountain to crumble, the leaves of the trees to be discolored and their fruits to fall; would compel every head to bow down in worship and every face to turn in adoration to turn unto this omnipotent Ruler... .”! The forces of Baha’u’llah’s Revelation are unprecedented in their quantity and potency.

Shoghi Effendi writes: “The weight of the potentialities with which this Faith, possessing no peer or equal in the world’s spiritual history, and marking the culmination of a universal prophetic cycle, has been endowed, staggers our imagination. The brightness of the millennial glory which it must shed in the fullness of time dazzles our eyes.”” This chapter can only offer an introduction to the study of the forces driving Baha’u’llah’s Faith toward its ultimate goal.

1 In The World Order of Baha'u'llah 108-09 2 God Passes By, Foreward, xi

39 [Page 40]Overview

The Revelation of Baha’u’llah has released tremendous spiritual energy’ into the world. This energy has had, is having, and will continue to have an impact that will not be fully understood or appreciated until far into the future.

The spiritual energies released by Baha’u’llah endow all things with new potential. These energies propel and direct the unfoldment of the new capacities so that God’s purpose for creation—the realization of oneness through the establishment of unity—is ultimately achieved. The Covenant provides the instrument that directs and canalizes the forces of the Revelation.*

Shoghi Effendi states: “The creative energies released at the hour of the birth of His Revelation, endowing mankind with the potentialities of the attainment of maturity are deranging, during the present transitional age the equilibrium of the entire planet as the inevitable prelude to the consummation in world unity of the coming of age of the human race.”° In investigating this impact of the forces of Baha’u ’1lah’s Revelation we will examine three areas:

e the awesome forces infused into the world; ¢ the organic process which these forces drive; and ¢ the outcome of the forces in the attainment of unity.

Explanation

To see how the forces of Baha’u’llah’s Revelation act in the world, we can return to the analogy of the sun used in the first chapter.

¢ Dawn, the first light of the sun, brings life to the world. All of creation responds to the change from night to day. Birds begin to sing, pollen is released, and plants begin to capture the sun’s energy to help them grow. Even activity that occurred at night was due to the energy provided by the sun from the previous day. Without the sun’s heat and light there would be no life.

3 Referred to variously as power (The Advent of Divine Justice 80), forces (The World Order of Bahd’u’llah 107), breezes (Epistle to the Son of the Wolf 114), energies (The Promised Day is Come 122), and in other ways.

4 See The Covenant: Its Meaning and Origin and Our Attitude Toward It, another study booklet in

this series. 5 Citadel of Faith 81

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[Page 41]Through the forces of His Revelation Baha’u’ll4h has brought into being a new creation. “We have,” He states, “. . . breathed a new life into every human frame and instilled into every word a fresh potency. All created things proclaim the evidences of this world-wide regeneration.”®

Seasons of the year change according to the relationship

between the sun and the earth. In the Day of God, the forces of the Revelation of Baha’u ’Ilah are like the energy of the sun at the summer solstice. This is the time of year when the sun is at its highest point in relation to the earth. The days are longest,

and the sun’s heat and light are more intense.

Regarding the intensity of the forces of His Revelation, Baha’u’1lah writes: “Know thou of a certainty that the day Star of Truth hath, in this Day, shed upon the world a radiance, the like of which bygone ages have never witnessed.”

° The intensity of the sun during the summer season provides a chance to grow crops. The energy of the sun drives the organic process of the plant that makes it grow.

In the same way, the forces of Baha’u’lla4h’s Revelation “have instilled into humanity the capacity to attain . . . [the] final stage in its organic growth and collective evolution.’””®

° The plants have within them the potential to yield fruits and vegetables. The energy of the summer sun ripens the fruits and vegetables for harvest time.

The forces of Baha’u’llah’s Revelation instill new potential in individuals and society. These forces can be tapped to achieve this potential. The Golden Age of the Baha’ Faith, “inspired and directed by the creative energies released by Baha’u’llah’s World Order,” will “witness the unification of all the peoples and nations of the world, the establishment of the Most Great Peace, [and] the inauguration of the Kingdom of the Father upon earth.”

6 The World Order of Baha’u’llah 107 8 Shoghi Effendi, The Promised Day is Come 118 7 Gleanings 319 9 Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By 411-12

41 [Page 42]1. “[Baha’u’llah’s] ministry . . . by virtue of its creative power, its cleansing force, its healing influences, and the irresistible operation of the world-directing, world-shaping forces it released, stands unparalleled in the religious annals of the entire human race. ...’ —Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By 106

>

2. “It is in Our power, should We wish it, to enable a speck of floating dust to generate, in less than the twinkling of an eye, suns of infinite, of unimaginable splendor, to cause a dewdrop to develop into vast and numberless oceans, to infuse into every letter such a force as to empower it to unfold all the knowledge of past and future ages.” — Baha'u'llah, in The World Order of Bahd’u’lldh 107

3. “‘T testify that no sooner had the First Word proceeded, through the potency of Thy will and purpose, . . . than the whole creation was revolutionized, and all that are in the heavens and all that are on earth were stirred to the depths. Through that Word the realities of all created things were shaken, were divided, separated, scattered, combined and reunited, disclosing, in both the contingent world and the heavenly kingdom, entities of a new creation, and revealing, in the unseen realms, the signs and tokens of Thy unity and oneness.” —Bahd’u’llh, Prayers and Meditations 295-96

4. “‘The whole earth is now in a stage of pregnancy. . . . Immeasurably exalted is the breeze that wafteth from the garment of thy Lord, the Glorified! For lo, it hath breathed its fragrance and made all things new! .. .’ “The onrushing winds of the grace of God, have passed over all things. Every creature hath been endowed with all the potentialities it can carry. And yet the peoples of the world have denied this grace! Every tree hath been endowed with the choicest fruits, every ocean enriched with the most luminous gems. Man, himself, hath been invested with the gifts of understanding and knowledge. The whole creation hath been made the recipient of the revelation of the All-Merciful, and the earth the repository of things inscrutable to all except God... . The time is approaching when

every created thing will have cast its burden.”” —Baha’u’llah, in The World Order of Bahd’u’llah 169

5. “Behold how, in this Day, the Beginning is reflected in the End, how out of Stillness Motion hath been engendered. This motion hath been generated by the potent energies which the words of the Almighty have released throughout the entire creation.”

—Baha’u’ lah, Gleanings 168

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The Awesome Power Infused into the World

unparalleled: having no equal or rival and being single in kind or excellence

annals: a chronological record of events

infuse: pour in; to steep

entities: things which have existence in space or time

advent: arrival

fragrance: a sweet or pleasant odor

endowed: provided

potentialities: things that can develop or become actual

luminous: shining, giving light, radiant

invested: provided with a quality

repository: a place where something is deposited or stored

inscrutable: being beyond one’s powers to discover, understand, or explain

cast its burden: a reference to the fulfillment of the earth’s “stage of pregnancy”

engendered: caused something immaterial; generated, induced [Page 43]6. “A process, God-impelled, endowed with measureless potentialities, mysterious in its workings, . . . infinitely rich in its promise for the regeneration and redemption of human kind, had been set in motion in Shir4z, had gained momentum successively in Tihran, Baghdad, Adrianople, and ‘Akka, had projected itself across the seas, poured its generative influences into the West, and manifested the initial evidences of its marvelous, world-energizing force in the midst of the North American continent.

“Tt... had gathered speed . . . until it had encircled the earth. . . . It had repulsed every onslaught directed against it. . . and had exalted to heights of incredible courage the weakest and humblest among those who had arisen and become willing instruments of its revolutionizing power.” —Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By 402

7. “The Instrument He had forged, the Covenant He had Himself instituted, had canalized, after His passing, the forces released by Him in the course of a forty-year ministry, had preserved the unity of His Faith and provided the impulse required to propel it forward to achieve its destiny.” —Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By 405

8. “Conscious of their high calling, confident in the societybuilding power which their Faith possesses, they press forward undeterred and undismayed, in their efforts to fashion and perfect the necessary instruments wherein the embryonic World Order of Baha’u’lléh can mature and develop. It is this building process, slow and unobtrusive, to which the life of the world-wide Baha’i Community is wholly consecrated, that constitutes the one hope of a stricken society. For this process is actuated by the generating influence of God’s changeless Purpose, and is evolving within the framework of the Administrative Order of His Faith.

“In a world the structure of whose political and social institutions is impaired, whose vision is befogged, whose conscience is bewildered, whose religious systems have become anemic and lost their virtue, this healing Agency, this leavening Power, this cementing Force, intensely alive and all-pervasive, has been taking shape, is crystallizing into institutions, is mobilizing its forces, and is preparing for the spiritual conquest and the complete redemption of mankind. Though the society which incarnates its ideals be small, and its direct and tangible benefits as yet inconsiderable, yet the potentialities with which it has been endowed, and through which it is destined to regenerate the individual and rebuild a broken world, are incalculable.” —Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahd’u’lldh 195

The Forces Drive an Organic Process

impelled: urged forward regeneration: renewal

redemption: freeing from sin and its consequences

generative: creative repulsed: drove back onslaught: attack

revolutionizing: changing radically

canalized: channeled or

directed the flow of

undeterred: not discouraged or prevented from achieving something fashion: form or construct

embryonic: in an early stage of development

unobtrusive: not pushy, does not intrude

consecrated: devoted actuated: moved to action

impaired: diminished in quality or value

befogged: confused anemic: not sufficient leavening: introducing one thing into another so as to

change or affect it

crystallizing: taking definite shape

tangible: real; able to be touched

inconsiderable.insignificant

43 [Page 44]9. “In this wondrous Age. . . the Word of God hath infused such awesome power into the inmost essence of humankind that He hath stripped men’s human qualities of all effect, and hath, with His allconquering might, unified the peoples in a vast sea of oneness.” —Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’ l-Bahd 20

10. “Praise be to God, today the splendor of the Word of God hath illumined every horizon, and from all sects, races, tribes, nations and communities souls have come together in the light of the Word, assembled, united and agreed in perfect harmony. Oh! What a great number of meetings are held adorned with souls from various races and diverse sects! Anyone attending these will be struck with amazement, and might suppose that these souls are all of one land, one nationality, one community, one thought, one belief and one opinion; whereas, in fact, one is an American, the other an African, one cometh from Asia and another from Europe, one is a native of India, another is from Turkestan, one is an Arab, another a Tajik, another a Persian and yet another a Greek. Notwithstanding such diversity they associate in perfect harmony and unity... . Verily, this is from the penetrative power of the Word of God! If all the forces of the universe were to combine they would not be able thus to gather a single assemblage so imbued with the sentiments of love, affection, attraction and enkindlement as to unite the members of different races and to raise up from the heart of the world a voice that shall dispel war and strife, uproot dissension and disputation, usher in the era of universal peace and establish unity and concord amongst men.” —Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’I-Bahd 292

11. “The ages of its infancy and childhood are past, never again to return, while the Great Age, the consummation of all ages, which must signalize the coming of age of the entire human race, is yet to come. .. . This will indeed be the fitting climax of that process of integration which, starting with the family . . . must, after having called successively into being the tribe, the city-state and the nation, continue to operate until it culminates in the unification of the whole world, the final object and the crowning glory of human evolution on this planet. . . . It is the creative energies which His Revelation has released in the ‘year sixty’ and later reinforced by the successive effusions of celestial power vouchsafed in the ‘year nine’ and the ‘year eighty’ to all mankind, that have instilled into humanity the capacity to attain this final stage in its organic and collective evolution.” —Shoghi Effendi, The Promised Day is Come 117-18

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Outcome of the Process: Unity

awesome: inspiring respectful fear or wonder

essence: the most basic, significant, and indispensable element, attribute, quality, property, or aspect of a thing

penetrative: tending to affect deeply or pass through or into

assemblage: a number of individuals come or brought together

imbued: to introduce one thing into another so as to change or affect it

dissension: the state of those who disagree and lack harmony

disputation: argument

year sixty: Islamic year 1260, (1844 A.D.); reference to the date of the declaration of the Bab

effusions: unrestrained expression or flow

year nine: 1853; reference to the date nine years after the Revelation of the Bab when Baha'u'llah received His Revelation from God

year eighty: Islamic year 1280, (1863 A.D.); reference to the date of the declaration of Baha’u'llah’s mission

For more quotations on topics raised in this lesson

see the index, page 83. [Page 45]Ua estat

“... The majestic process, set in motion at the dawn of the Adamic cycle, ... commenced six thousand years ago. . . . The first part of this process was the slow and steady growth of th[e] tree of divine revelation ... as a direct consequence of the light and warmth imparted to it by a series of progressive dispensations associated with Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad and other Prophets, and of the vernal showers of blood shed by countless martyrs in their path. The second part of this process was the fruition of this tree ... when the Bab appeared as the perfect fruit and declared His mission in the Year Sixty in the city of Shiraz. The third part was the grinding of this sacred seed, of infinite preciousness and potency, in the mill of adversity, causing it to yield its oil, six years later, in the city of Tabriz. The fourth part was the ignition of this oil by the hand of Providence in the depths and amidst the darkness of the Siyah-Chal of Tihran. . . . The fifth, was the clothing of that flickering light, which had scarcely penetrated the adjoining territory of ‘Iraq, in the lamp of revelation, after an eclipse lasting no less than ten years, in the city of Baghdad. The sixth, was the spread of the radiance of that light, shining with added brilliancy in its crystal globe in Adrianople, and later on in the fortress town of ‘Akka, to thirteen countries in the Asiatic and African continents. The seventh was its projection, . . . in the course of the ministry of the Center of the Covenant, across the seas and the shedding of its illumination upon twenty sovereign states and dependencies in the American, the European, and Australian continents. The eighth part of that process was the diffusion of that same light . . . over ninetyfour sovereign states, dependencies and islands of the planet... utilizing the agencies of a newly emerged, divinely appointed Administrative Order, and which... culminated in the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Baha’u’llah’s Mission. The ninth part of this process . . . is the further diffusion of that same light over one hundred and thirty-one additional territories and islands in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, through the operation of a decade-long world spiritual crusade. .. . And finally the tenth part of this mighty process must be the penetration of that light, in the course of numerous crusades and of successive epochs of both the Formative and Golden Ages of the Faith, into all the remaining territories of the globe through the erection of the entire machinery of Baha’u’llah’s Administrative Order in all territories, both East and West, the stage at which the light of God’s triumphant Faith shining in all its power and glory will have suffused and enveloped the entire planet.” —Shoghi Effendi, Messages to the Bahd’t World 153-55

commenced: started

vernal: of, relating to, or resembling the spring of the year

fruition: state of bearing fruit

Siyah-Chal (see-yah-chol): the black pit in the slums of Tihran where, in August 1852, Baha'u'llah was chained and imprisoned underground with thieves and assassins; the place where Baha'u'llah received the intimations of His Mission

eclipse: total or partial obscuring

diffusion: spreading out widely

crusade: a remedial enterprise undertaken with zeal and enthusiasm :

penetration: the process of entering or spreading throughout

suffused: something introduced into another thing so as to change or affect it

45 [Page 46]Further Study

Select one of the passages from the “Readings” section.

What does the passage say? In what specific ways can this passage be applied in your life?

List any unanswered questions about the lesson you may want to explore in more depth. Use the index on page 83 and the additional reading below to help you find answers to your questions.

1.

2.

The Power of Divine Assistance

Crisis and Victory Compilations, including writings of Baha’u’llah, ‘Abdu’1-Baha, and Shoghi Effendi, that address aspects of the forces involved in the unfoldment of the Faith.

God Passes By, by Shoghi Effendi (see the index of that book) History of the Faith that includes repeated references to the forces of Baha’u’ llah’s Revelation. See especially the Foreward.

The Forces of Light and Darkness, by Hooper Dunbar Audio tapes of a class given at the Louhelen Baha’ School.

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Personal Reflection

Remaining Questions

Additional Reading [Page 47]Questions

1. List three ways that the forces released by Baha’u’llah’s Revelation are described in the writings:

2. (Circle all that apply.) The forces of Baha’u’llah’s Revelation:

a. are unmatched by those of past religions b. have upset the world’s stability

c. have recreated the world

d. have infused the world with new potential

3. (Circle all that apply.) The organic process driven by the forces of Baha’u’1lah’s Revelation involves:

a. the spread of the Faith

b. the rebuilding of society

c. the transformation of individuals

d. new potential, rather than tangible benefits

4. (Circle all that apply.) The unity created by the forces of Baha’u’llah’s Revelation:

is demonstrated in the Baha’{ community

. is like the unity found among various groups will lead to the unity of all people

. will lead to world peace

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47 [Page 48]Answers

The following are suggested answers. Depending on your understanding of the quotes, you may have different answers. Consider the suggested answers a starting point for thought and discussion.

1. The forces released by Baha’u’llah’s Revelation are described in the writings as: “power” (#8, page 43), “force” (#1 and #2, page 42), “breezes” (#4, page 42), “energies” (#5, page 42), “influence” (#1, page 42), “potency” (#3, page 42), and “radiance” (page 41).

2. a,b,c, and d. For “a,” see #1, page 42; for “b,” see #5, page 42; for “c,” see #3, page 42; and for “d,” see #4, page 42.

3. a,b, and c. For “a,” see #6, page 43. For “b” and “c,” see #8, page 43. Regarding “d,” while Shoghi Effendi (in #8, page 43) notes that the tangible benefits of the Faith are “as yet” (the message was written in 1936) inconsiderable and that is potentialities were great, he did not mean that its benefits would never be tangible. In fact, he assures us the process driven by the forces of the Faith is “destined to regenerate the individual and rebuild a broken world”—two very tangible results.

4. a,c, and d. For “a,” “c,” and “d,” see #10, page 44. Regarding ““b,” the same quote indicates that “if all the forces of the universe were to combine they would not be able thus to gather a single assemblage so imbued with the sentiments of love, affection, attraction and enkindlement. .. .”

DIR t SS CN

How do the forces of the Revelation produce unity among individuals? In society?

How would you describe for a seeker the organic process unfolding in the world?

What do you think is the relationship between the forces of Baha’u’llah’s Revelation and the Word of God? (Refer especially to the quotations on page 44.)

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