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THE
SPIRITUAL REVOLUTION
[Page 2]
THE
SPIRITUAL
REVOLUTION
Published by The Canadian Bahá’í’ Community National Office 7290 Leslie St..Thornhill,Ontario
GLOBAL REVOLUTION is the dominant fact of life in our age. Throughout the world, men are rebelling against the dead weight of the past. Typically, the challenge to traditional institutions and assumptions now insists on the need for changes which reach to the very roots of the social order. Typically, too, it manifests an increasing readiness to resort to force to achieve such changes.
0‘3
THE ORIGIN of this vast upheaval has been the subject of unending academic and public discussion. In seeking to comprehend a phenomenon which clearly goes far beyond demands for specific political, social, and economic reforms, social scientists have felt compelled to formulate a new vocabulary. They depict the crisis as a “cultural" revolution, a challenge to the “quality” of modern life, a search for “relevancy” and “authenticity”. However suggestive such terminology may be, it remains tragically inadequate to grasp the reality of human experience in the second half of the twentieth century. It is apparent that we in fact are witnessing a massive revulsion on the part of mankind against ways of life that, in their nature and their goal, are seen as anti-iife. In so sweeping and profound a reaction violence is incidental. The essential revolution advances quietly, often for a time unnoticed, in the hearts of millions of people who spiritually ”drop out” of a world they have found meaningless. The routine tasks may or may not be done; laws may be obeyed or flouted; but the roots of faith — without which no society can long endure — have been severed.
This is the first thing that can with confidence be said about the revolution of our times: it is in essence spiritual.
The first Voice to make this statement, a century ago, was that of Bahá’u’lláh, Founder of the Bahá’í Faith. In announcing Himself to be the Messenger of God awaited by all the world’s religions, Bahá’u’lláh declared the unification of mankind in one people and one universal social order to be the Will of God in this age. He asserted that the revelation of this divine purpose had set in motion forces within both man and society that will in time transform human existence:
/ testify that no sooner had the First Word proceeded, through the potency of Thy will and purpose, out of His mouth . . . than the whole creation was revolutionized, and all that are in the heavens and a// that are on earth were stirred t0 the depths. Through that Word the realities of all created th/ngs were shaken, were divided, separated, scattered, comb/ned and reunited, disclosmg, in both the contingent world and the heavenly kingdom, entities of a new creation. . . . 1
Bahá’u’lláh’s declaration of His Mission was rejected by the rulers of society to whom He addressed it in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Humanity was therefore left to struggle with those forces of which He had spoken, but left to do so in a context not of search for global unification, but rather of attachment to national, racial, cultural, class, or political loyalties. The fruit is the world we live in. There is not on earth today a social system which can be said to serve man’s needs. There is none in which human identity does not seem endangered. There is none which appears to possess real moral authority. This is as true of socialistic societies as it is of capitalistic ones; as true of cultures based on Christian values as it is of those founded on Islam or Buddhism.
[Page 6]
ln briefly tracing the course of mankind‘s
struggle over the past century, Shoghi Effendi,
the appointed Guardian of Bahá’u’lláh’s Message,
underlined a further characteristic of the resulting
CI'ISISZ
Every system, short of the unification of the human race, has been tried, repeatedly tried, and been found wanting. Wars again and again have been fought, and conferences without number have met and deliberated. Treaties, pacts and covenants have been painstakingly negotiated, concluded and revised. Systems of government have been patiently tested, have been continually recast and superseded. Economic plans of reconstruction have been carefully devised, and meticulously executed. And yet crisis has succeeded crisis, and the rapidity with which a perilously unstable world is declining has been correspondingly accelerated. A yawning gulf threatens to involve in one common disaster both the satisfied and dissatisfied nations, democracies and dictatorships, capitalists and wage-earners, Europeans and Asiatics, Jew and Gentile, white and 1 colored. 2
The second feature of the revolution is that it is universal.
The elements of society most keenly sensitive to the crisis are the underprivileged, the youth, and the minority cultures. Unlike those who are deeply involved in the existing order, they do not have the emotional commitment to the status quo which past habits or considerable personal investment bring. In their eyes present-day civilization stands or falls on its own record. In a technological age that record is coldly exposed for all to read. The evidence is now overwhelming that Western civilization like its older counterparts in other areas of the world has failed the test of such an examination. That is to say, its values have been largely rejected by the people on whom those values must depend for their survival. One may or may not‘feel that the examination has been adequate or fair. What demands attention is the almost deafening verdict expressed in the spreading apathy and withdrawal of our times; We are being told that present-day civilization, morally speaking, is not one in which human beings can live and grow.
This fact throws into sharp relief a third feature of the modern crisis which is implicit in what has already been said: the revolution is entirely out of man’s control.
Nor is there any prospect that it can in some way be brought under human control. The history of the hundred years since Bahá’u’lláh declared His Mission provides whatever evidence is needed to support Shoghi Effendi’s judgment that:
Humanity. . . has, alas, strayed too far and suffered too great a decline to be redeemed through the unaided efforts of the best among its recognized rulers and statesmen — however disinterested their motives, however concerted their action, however unsparing in their zeal and devotion to its cause. No scheme Which the calculations Of the highest statesmanship may yet devise; n0 doctrine which the most distinguished exponents of economic theory may hope to advance; n0 principle Which the most ardent Of mora/ists may strive to inculcate, can provide, in the last resort, adequa te foundations upon Which the future of a distracted world can be built.3
[Page 8]
FOR BAHA’IS, recognition that the process of
social breakdown is irreversible is both a great
burden and a real benefit. An incalculably large
part of the suffering of our times is the result of
men’s struggle somehow to avoid the realization
pressed on them by their own experience. Only
with the greatest reluctance do we let go our illusions. The greatest of modern illusions is that man
can save himself. No one can be said to have
dispassionately examined the record of the past
several decades who still retains this belief. The
process is irreversible because it is a part of
natu re itself:
All created things, (‘Aba’u’l—Bahá“ has said), are expressions of the affinity and cohesion of elementary substances, and non-existence is the absence of their attraction and agreement. Various elements unite harmoniously in composition but when these elements become discordant, repelling each other, decomposition and non-existence result. 5
Shoghi Effendi relates this basic principle of existence to the institutional and social life of mankind:
If long-cherished ideals and time-honored institutions, if certain social assumptions and religious formulae have ceased to promote the welfare of the generality of mankind, if they no longer minister to the needs of a continually evolving humanity, let them be swept away and relegated to the limbo of obsolescent and forgotten doctrines. Why should these, in a world subject to the immutable law of change and decay, be exempt from the deterioration that must needs overtake every human institution? 6
The most important thing about the revolution is where it is going. Humanity has been described as “evolution become conscious of itself”. For nearly six thousand years our world was the private preserve of a small leisured class. Now, almost overnight, in the wake of the universal Revelation of God promised in all the sacred scriptures of the past, people everywhere are awakening to the possibilities of human life. Something that can truly be called humanity is being born.
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One thing only is lacking. “The whole of mankind”. Shoghi Effendi states, “is groaning, is dying
to be led to unity. . . .”7 The achievement of such a
unity involves the building of a society fit for
human beings to live in. That is where the revolution is going. However long and bloody the
process, mankind is struggling blindly toward the
creation of-a world community.
if; ‘D c.
BAHA’IS BELIEVE that the “nucleus” and “pattern”8 of that community already exist, as the result of a hundred years of work by the spirit of Bahá’u’lláh. Slowly, over the past century, as the Bahá’í teachings have been carried to all parts of the world, people of every racial and national origin have embraced them. As they have done so they have sought to give these teachings effect not only in their personal lives, but also in their social relationships.
Bahá’u’lláh’s conception of organic community has been summed up in these words:
In the human body, every cell, every organ, every nerve has its part to play. When all do so the body is healthy, vigorous, radiant, ready for every call made upon it. No cell, however humble, lives apart from the body, whether in serving it or receiving from it. This. . . is supremely true of the body of the Bahá’í world community, for this body is already an organism, united in its aspirations, unified in its methods, seeking assistance and confirmation from the same Source, and il/umined with the conscious knowledge of its unity . . . . The Bahá’í world community, growing like a healthy new body, develops new cells, new organs, new functions and powers as it presses on to its maturity, when every soul, living for the Cause of God, will receive from that Cause, health, assurance, and the overflowing bounties Of Bahá’u’l/éh which are diffused through His divine/y-ordained order. 9
[Page 10]
Bahá’u’lláh’s Community has now passed the
first critical century of its evolution. In contrast to
the deepening disorder of the world around it, its
original unity remains unbroken, as both its expansion and diversification rapidly accelerate. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s vision of world unity emerging from worldwide revolution begins to take on form and
substance:
In the contingent world there are many collective centers which are conducive to association and unity between the children of men. For example, patriotism is a collective center; nationalism is a collective center; identity of interests is a collective center; political alliance is a collective centre; the union of ideals is a collective center, and the prosperity of the world of humanity is dependent upon the organization and promotion of the collective centers. Nevertheless, all the above institutions are in reality the matter and not the substance, accidental and not eternal — temporary and not everlasting. With the appearance of great revolutions and upheavals, all these collective centers are swept away. But the Collective Center of the Kingdom, embodying the Institutions and Divine Teachings, is the eternal Collective Center. It establishes relationship between the East and the West, organizes the oneness of the world of humanity, and destroys the foundation of differences.10
.‘z; ,0;
FROM THE FOREGOING it will be apparent why those who have recognized Bahá’u’lláh regard the weII-beaten path of political action not merely as pointless, but as wasteful of urgently needed resources. That is not to denigrate the work of others. It relates solely to the inescapable priorities imposed by recognition of God’s Messenger to our age and of the Mission entrusted to Him. Again, in the words of Shoghi Effendi:
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What we Bahá’ís must face is the fact that
society is disintegrating so rapidly that moral
issues which were clear a half century ago are
now hopelessly confused and . . . mixed up
with battling political interests. That is why the
Bahá’ís must turn all their forces into the channel of building up the Bahá’í Cause and its
administration. They can neither change nor
help the world in any other way at present. If
they become involved in the issues the governments of the world are struggling over, they will
be lost. But if they build up the Bahá’ípattern they
can offer it as a remedy when all else has
failed.11
RATHER, the challenge which Bahá’u’lláh places before the individual who recognizes Him, is to work for the realization of a new pattern of human life. As men of all backgrounds have responded in ever increasing numbers, the implications of the challenge to the individual have steadily become clearer. Shoghi Effendi explains:
. . . the object of life to a Bahá’í is to promote the oneness of mankind. The whole object of our lives is bound up with the lives of all human beings; not a personal salvation we are seeking, but a universal one. . . . Our aim is to produce a world civilization which will in turn react on the character of the individual. It is, in a way, the inverse of Christianity which started with the individual unit and through it reached out to the conglomerate life of men.12
The pursuit of such an objective requires a transformation in the individual‘s order of moral priorities that is as revolutionary as any other aspect of the modern condition.
The human virtue to which Bahá’u’lláh assigns the highest place is justice. He says: ”O Son of Spirit! The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me . . . . By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbour.” This central moral attribute Bahá’u’lláh sets in the context of community growth: “The purpose of justice is the appearance of unity among people.”13
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lntimately related to justice in building healthy
social relationships is love. Going beyond ”the
golden rule” of past revelations, Bahá’u’lláh
teaches that the creation of a human community
that incarnates the principle of "unity in diversity”
requires that men learn literally to “prefer others”
to themselves. We do this when we focus on the
good qualities of our fellow men, and, as individuals, resolutely overlook those qualities we do
not admire. The effect is to nourish the desirable
attributes which are noticed and praised, just as
the effect of censure and coldness is to blight
individual sense of self-worth and inhibit spiritual
growth.
Detachment becomes another moral attribute of prime importance in such a context. Freed from the ascetic connotations of the past, detachment serves a vital function in such areas as the process of consultation on which Bahá’í institutional life entirely depends. Attachment to the self includes attachment to ideas which are “mine”, to the ego which can be bruised, to the desire for one’s own wishes to be accepted. The central principle of consultation, however, is the struggle of the group to find a collective mind, through which the spirit of Bahá’u’lláh can communicate with them. As in all other areas of moral effort, the group reacts upon the individual by requiring a a conscious effort at detachment, until this becomes a habit.
Then, too, it is only by living in a community that an individual can discover and gradually eradicate the universal disease of prejudice. The more one works with people of varying backgrounds, the more one finds one’s prejudices are groundless. This includes not merely racial differences, but the much-discussed “generation gap” between the ideals of youth and those of the adult, the vast differences between the “haves” and the “have—nots”, the division between the welleducated and the illiterate, the discrimination against women, and the host of other forms which this age—old enemy of social order assumes.
Honesty is a moral quality which assumes new significance in the deliberate attempt to build an organically united society. Man today lives in a hypocritical society wherein each person tends to develop a mask to hide his own feelings. We
10
also tend to say those things which we think will please our listeners (and something else when we are away from them). This has become so much a pattern that we sometimes even learn to hide our true feelings from ourselves, because we seek acceptance and feel that we must conform to the generally accepted viewpoint. The whole basis of Bahá’í consultation is quite opposite to this. “Let us . . . remember that at the very root of the Cause lies the principle of the undoubted right of the individual to seIf-expression . . . .” “Truthfulness is the foundation of all the virtues . . . . Without truthfulness, progress and success in all the worlds of God are impossible for any soul.” 14
Justice, love, detachment, honesty, freedom from prejudice — these are a few of the spiritual qualities which Bahá’u’lláh has redefined and emphasized as the focus for the individual’s inner battle. In laying particular stress on these and other human attributes which directly serve the development of community life, therefore, Baha’u’ Iléh has created a new system of moral priorities. The ethical standards which man has inherited from past religions and cultures do not necessarily contribute equally, or in some cases at all, to the emergence of a universal civilization which represents the Iong-awaited establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. That Kingdom has its own integrity and its own processes of organic growth, and those who would serve it can do so only in harmony with this divinely-ordained pattern.
“O friends! Be not careless of the virtues with which ye have been endowed, neither be neglectful of your high destiny.” ”Beware lest the powers of the earth alarm you, or the might of the nations weaken you, or the tumult of the people of discord deter you, or the exponents of earthly glory sadden you.” ”This Day a door is open wider than both heaven and earth. The eye of the mercy of Him Who is the Desire of the worlds is turned towards a// men. An act, however infinitesimal, is, when viewed in the mirror of the knowledge of God, mightier than a mountain.” ”One righteous act is endowed with a potency that can so elevate the dust as to cause it to pass beyond the heaven of heavens. It can tear every bond asunder, and hath the power to restore the force that hath spent itself and vanished..’fl5
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THE FORM of the global society toward which
mankind is being impelled must match these ideals;
must indeed arise from the same divine impulse.
The age-old issue of authority in the organization
of human affairs must find a solution which not only
unites the diverse peoples of the world, but protects
and nurtures their individual capacity.
The uniqueness of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh lies in its response to this challenge. Fundamental to its teachings is the assertion that the “age of human maturity” has dawned, and that mankind is capable of responding to divine order in its social life. The central thrust of Bahauflllahs mission, therefore, was the establishment of His “Covenant”. Through this Covenant, for the first time in history, a Manifestation of God has Himself founded the institutions for the organization of the community life of those who recognize Him. Acting on His assurance, democratically elected Bahá’í “Assemblies” have been formed at both local and national levels. In all their essentials these institutions are faithful reflections of the Will of God as revealed in the comprehensive written statements of His Messenger. Today they form one organically united administrative system embracing the whole earth.
In 1963, on the hundredth anniversary of Bahá’u’lláh’s declaration of His Mission, the crowning unit of His embryonic World Order was successfully raised. in April of that year some 500 elected representatives of Baha u ’lláh’ s followers in every part of the globe gathered at the Bahá’í World Centre on the slopes of Mount Carmel in the Holy Land. There they carried out the first democratic worldwide election in history. The international administrative body born that day had been conceived a century earlier by Bahá’ u’lláh. It assumed the name given it by Him, “The Universal House of Justice”.
With the emergence of this central organ of Bahá’u’lláh’s Cause, the social model He conceived a century ago stands essentially complete. Separated entirely from the arena of political dispute it seeks to demonstrate conclusively the truth its members have discovered: that mankind can learn to live as one human family.
12
As yet it represents no more than the “first shaping” of the community that will gradually be built by the growing numbers of people of every background who are entering it.To His House of Justice Bahá’u’lláh has assigned a wide range of discretion in adapting the institutions and ordinances of this community to the exigencies of an “ever-advancing civilization”. The essential pattern however has been set, and its viability clearly demonstrated.
FAR AHEAD lies the ultimate objective of Bahá’u’lláh's coming, the establishment of the global society toward which the universal revolution of our times is resistlessly impelling all mankind. The present generation of Bahá’u’lláh’s followers will not see the attainment of this goal. What they know is that it is attainable; that their individual and collective efforts bring it daily nearer; and that in this lies the real meaning of life.
The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, whose supreme mission is none other but the achievement of this organic and spiritual unity of the whole body of nations, should, if we be faithful to its implications, be regarded as signa/izing through its advent the coming of age of the entire human race. It should be viewed not merely as yet another spiritual revival in the ever—changing fortunes of mankind, not only as a further stage in a chain of progressive Revelations, nor even as the culmination of one of a series of recurrent prophetic cycles, but rather as marking the last and highest stage in the stupendous evolution of man's collective life on this planet. The emergence of a world community, the consciousness of world citizenship, the founding of a world civilization and culture. . . .15
14
THROUGH REVOLUTION TO COMMUNITY Excerpts from the Bahá’í Writings
THE BAB: God hath set all things free from one another that they may be sustained by Him alone, and nothing in the heavens or in the earth, but God, sustains them.17
Bahá’u’lláh: Verily, He (Jesus) said: ‘Come ye after Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men’. In this day, however, We say: ‘Come ye after Me, that We may make you to become the quickeners of mankind’. Verily, God Ioveth those who are working in His path in groups, for they are a solid foundation.18
‘ABDU’L—BAHA: Consider ye that He says ‘in groups’, united and bound together. . . with sincere intentions, good designs, useful advices, divine moralities, beautiful actions, spiritual qualities . . . . When the holy souls, through the angelic power, will arise to show forth these celestial characteristics, establishing a band of harmony, each of these souls shall be regarded as one thousand persons. ...O ye friends of God! Strive to attain to this high and sublime station and show forth such a brightness in these days that its radiance may appear from the eternal horizons. This is the real foundation of the Cause of God; this is the essence of the divine doctrine. . . .19
THE GUARDIAN: Who else can be the blissful if not the community of the Most Great Name, whose world-embracing, continually consolidating activities constitute the one integrating process in a world whose institutions, secular as well as religious, are for the most part dissolving? . . . Conscious of their high calling, confident in the society-building 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 Bahá’u’lláh can mature and develop. It is this building process, slow and unobtrusive, to which the life of the world-wide Bahá’íCommunity is wholly consecrated, that constitutes the one hope of a stricken society.20
THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE: We should constantly be on our guard lest the glitter and tinsel of an affluent society should lead us to think that such superficial adjustments . . . as an extension to all members of the human race of the benefits of a high standard of living, of education, medical care, technological knowledge — will of themselves fulfill the glorious mission of Bahá’u’ lláh. Far otherwise . . . . ‘The principle of the oneness of mankind,’ (the Guardian writes), ‘implies an organic change in the structure of present-day society, a change such as the world has not yet experienced.’ . . . Dearly-Ioved friends, this is the theme we must pursue in our efforts to deepen in the Cause. What is Bahá’u’lláh's purpose for the human race? For what ends did He submit to the appalling cruelties and indignities heaped upon Him? What does He mean by ’a new race of men’? What are the profound changes which He will bring about?21
16
References:
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19. 20. 21.
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Bahá’í World Faith, p. 93. World Order of Bahá’u’l/éh, p. 190. Ibid, pp. 33, 34.
. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was The Son and appointed
Successor of Bahá’u’lláh. Foundations of World Unity, p. 20. World Order of Bahá’u’l/éh, p. 42. Ibid, p. 201.
Ibid, p. 144.
Wellspring of Guidance, pp. 37-38. Bahá’í World Faith, p. 419. Wellspring of Guidance, p. 135.
. Quoted by Rúḥíyyih Khánum,
Bahá’í News, no. 231, (May 1950), pp. 6-8.
. Bahá’í World Faith, p. 156.
Ibid p. 182.
Bahá’í Administration, p. 63.
Bahá’í World Faith, p. 384.
Advent of Divine Justice, pp. 63, 69, 65, 20. Shoqhi Effendi, in World Order of Bahá’uV/éh, p. 163.
The Báb was the Prophet-Herald of Bahá’u’Iléh The quotation is from His Tablet
‘E/ Kadir’ (“The Mighty”).
Promised Day Is Come, p. 124.
Bahá’í World Faith, p. 401.
Ibid, pp. 401-402.
World Order of Bahá’u’l/a'h,’pp. 194-195. Wellspring of Guidance, pp. 113-114.
“/ testify that no sooner had the First Word proceeded, through the potency of Thy will and purpose, out of His mouth . . . than the whole creation was revolutionized, and a// that are in the heavens and al/ that are on earth were stirred t0 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. . . .”1
18
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Printed in Canada 1974
