Transcript:Adib Taherzadeh/Growing in the Bahá’í Faith/Day 3

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Transcript of: Growing in the Bahá’í Faith (Day 3) by Adib Taherzadeh

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[00:00:00]Well, thank you, John. I feel that we could deal with some of these questions, and then, as we go on, I'm sure a lot of subjects will open up that we can talk about. Yesterday and the day before, as some of you may know, we dealt with a comprehensive sort of survey of the life of a Baháʼí. And the theme was what should we do? How can we live to enable our faith to grow? And I think we still can talk about that, naturally. You can talk around it and about this, but I think this morning we'll pick up this question here. Is the person who has written this here? You are. It says, please tell the story.... Oh, story about circumambulation. Huh. [laughter] I thought you meant the wisdom of it all. Well, first of all, I think I will mention this circumambulating as you know, in the Faith. This is a way of showing one's love and devotion to one that you worship as your God, as your Lord, you circumambulate around him. And this is actually a law. This is a principle of nature. Again in nature, you can find the parallel for this. You will find always an object which depends upon its creator. It revolves around it, you know. For instance, the earth revolves around the sun. It's in love with it. This is a love relationship, and the satellite revolves around the earth. It is the force of love, really, as we know. I mean from point of view of physics, we know what holds the satellite in motion. It is that force of attraction, which is the love and the speed of its action that make it circumambulate its beloved. And so it is a law of nature that if you depend on someone as your Creator, you circumambulate around it. And this is why when you go to the shrines, the act of circumambulating the shrine is an act of devotion to your Lord. In the Writings, we also we come across this statement many a times that the lovers circumambulate around their beloved.

[00:03:15]Now the story of circumambulation which is a story I mentioned to our friend in here and he has recorded in his tape, I think... See, I am always reluctant to talk about these accounts unless it is in writing. I feel we must be very accurate and correct in quoting these things because when the disciples of Bahá’u’lláh have recorded such incidents or such accounts, they have recorded it to the best of their ability and knowledge. And all we can do is to translate it and convey it. To try to put our own words to it, it sort of snowballs a little bit. I mentioned yesterday that we must not try to verbally communicate these stories and this particular story that you have asked me to say - and I don't know how you come to know about it. Probably Red [?] must have told you this. He's hiding way there. This is already recorded in the videotape. Well, I will tell you this story, but don't go and tell everybody about this, really. Just keep it for yourself, because I say this to you. First of all such stories which relate to us the greatness of the Cause and such stories which relate to us things like miracles, things which sounds and looks like miracles, these things, we are not supposed to consider them as miracles because Bahá’u’lláh says do not attribute any miracles to Him. He says this will degrade the station of the Manifestation of God. These accounts are only good for people who have seen them. And often people who had seen some of these accounts, I remember in the when I was a young boy and they wouldn't tell us. They were very reluctant to talk about it because they didn't want to make it a point by which people would say, "Oh, yes, this is the proof of the of the truth of this faith. You know, we never bring miracles as the proof of the truth of this faith. And as I said, Bahá’u’lláh says, no one should activate miracles to Him. Although ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has said that you can talk about it because it will give people joy and excitement, and it will uplift the souls to think about it. But we are not attributing miracles here. As I said, Bahá’u’lláh says it will degrade the station of the Manifestation of God. Now, they were reluctant, those people who were the origin of all these stories. They were reluctant to say it because, and especially when there were people who were not Baháʼís, they would never say it to them. They would wait until people really become deep in the Faith who could sort of take it and put it in the right perspective.

[00:06:52]Now I will tell you the story of Bahá’u’lláh. You know that when Bahá’u’lláh was in the House of 'Abbúd,. That's the time that he, as you know, He spent about seven years in those two houses which is now called the House of 'Abbúd. And He had never seen a blade of grass, really, something green, trees which He was so fond of. He really kept - as I said yesterday, the Manifestation of God submits himself entirely to what His enemies do to Him. He never uses His powers to stop them persecuting Him. And so Bahá’u’lláh submitted to His enemies and He did not leave that house. Although the several governors who had come, they were so friendly. Some of them became so much the admirers of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. And in one or two cases, they even met Bahá’u’lláh in the House of 'Abbúd that they became so much carried away with His powers. And they saw His glory that they openly said that, of course, Bahá’u’lláh could leave the town if He wanted it. And ‘Abdu’l-Bahá could leave the town if He wanted it, but you see, they were incarcerated in that city according to the edict of the Sultan. Now Bahá’u’lláh had mentioned to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on one occasion that it is nine years, He said, that He had not seen any sceneries of green and trees and flowers. And ‘Abdu’l-Bahá immediately realized that His will now is that He should leave this place. And as you all may have heard, I'm sure He went out and He rented this gardens outside Baghdad, outside 'Akká known as the Mansion of Mazra'ih nowadays. The Mansion of Mazra'ih, as you see it now, those of you who have seen it, has been developed further since those days of Bahá’u’lláh. And those days were much smaller and much more primitive than what it is today. But certain basic part of the house is still there. The room of Bahá’u’lláh is still there and all those things. Things have been added to it. Things have not really, there's not much change in it except things have been added to it. Rooms have been added.

[00:09:48]So ‘Abdu’l-Bahá rented this for a very reasonable price. And then He arranged the making of a special carriage. In those days, there were no thing, no such thing as carriages around. And then He came to Bahá’u’lláh and He said the carriage is ready. The gardens, the house outside is ready. And that, He said, "Please. You can come out and let's go." Bahá’u’lláh said to him no. He said no. He was a prisoner and he was staying there. Now here is a point that you must remember. I mentioned yesterday the relationship that Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had, it was not the same relationship as an ordinary son and the father. You know how it is, how informal is the relationship of the son and the father that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá could sort of insist and persist and say, "Oh please, come on, let's go." And this sort of thing. It wasn't like this. Bahá’u’lláh was his Lord. He had recognized Him so much that none of us can ever recognize Bahá’u’lláh to that extent. And He showed such humility and such submissiveness to Bahá’u’lláh that no person can ever do. And in fact, it was 'Abdu'l-Baha who taught the believers. You know, whenever believers came to the Holy Land, whenever believers came to the Holy Land to attain the presence of Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá would prepare them, prepare them for coming in contact with Bahá’u’lláh. He would even look at their clothes and see whether their clothes were good enough. And if it wasn't, which in many cases were not, He would give them a new coat, new clothes to wear, so that when they go into the presence of Bahá’u’lláh, they are very well, you know, they look the best. And so you know, and He taught them the lessons in humility and self-effacement and reverence. He taught them, prepared them for this.

[00:12:28]Well, so you can imagine when Bahá’u’lláh said no He will not go, that He was a prisoner in that house, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá could not insist. He could not say anymore, but then He decided He better get somebody who is not a believer. He could insist. And so He went along and He saw the Mufti of 'Akká , who's the religious head of the city. And he was one of those great admirers of Bahá’u’lláh, this Mufti. A man by the name of Miri, he was `Alíy-i-Mírí. He was a very devoted person. He was really devoted to Bahá’u’lláh. And he wasn't only in admirers, but he really became a worshipper, you can say, of Bahá’u’lláh. He had seen so many miracles, really, that man in his life during that short period that Bahá’u’lláh was in 'Akká . He once came to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and he said to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, he said, "Everytime I stand to pray, Bahá’u’lláh appears in front of me. I pray to him." You see, this is how the influence of the power of God can change the hearts of people. And at first He was a great, I wouldn't say enemy, but he was a very difficult person. He was very much against the Faith and founder of the Faith. And he met Bahá’u’lláh in the barracks of 'Akká, this man. And he was so proud that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá kept on reminding him when he went to the presence of Bahá’u’lláh that he must change his attitude. And if ever he wanted to say anything, if this man wanted to say anything in the presence of Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá would say, "Be quiet. Don't say anything." You know, this is how He really enabled him to see gradually the greatness and the power of the Faith. And then came a time that this Mufti of 'Akká became such an admirer of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that if he ever walked with Him, he always walked behind the Master, which is a very important sign in the East. If you walk with somebody, it depends who you are and who he is. If he is more important than you, you never walk in front of him. You always stay a step behind. And he always walked behind the Master.

[00:15:31]And anyhow, this man came to Bahá’u’lláh and he said that, "Why aren't you going to this house outside 'Akká?" And Bahá’u’lláh said to him that he was a prisoner. He will not go. And he said, he insisted, and he said, "Everything is ready. You are not a prisoner. No one keep can keep you a prisoner." And remember this, the edict of the sultan was still in force. The edict of the sultan was still in force. And he said he will not leave Bahá’u’lláh. He just kept on. He clung to the hem of Bahá’u’lláh's clothes, garment and he knelt before Him. And he said not until He accepts this leaving the house will he leave Him. And so Bahá’u’lláh said okay. And then, as you know, he went to the Mansion of Mazra'ih for the first time. And He went in that carriage and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says, "I took Him there and I returned back to 'Akká myself." And so Bahá’u’lláh then spent mostly the months of summer and the months of, when the weather was not very cold in the springtime, sometime in the autumn, He spent in that house, but He often came back to 'Akká. You mustn't think that when He went into that house that He never came back. Oh no, He came back many a time to 'Akká. And after all, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was living in the House of 'Abbúd. The mother of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was living there. The Greatest Holy Leaf was living there at the time. And so He often came to the House of 'Abbúd. And then, as you know, this Mansion of Bahjí came into the picture. The mansion of Bahjí was completed by the same man who owned the house, part of the House of 'Abbúd, a man called ʻUdi Khammar. He built, he finished. He completely finished - it was half-built building. ʻUdi Khammar, he finished it and he made it a residence for himself. He wanted to move into this great palace in the outside, in the- of 'Akká. But as you know the details how the outbreak of cholera take place and how ‘Abdu’l-Bahá went long and rented that from him. And Bahá’u’lláh then moved into that.

[00:18:18]Now when He moved, He really did not move from the Mansion of Mazra'ih into the mansion of Bahjí. It happened that he was in 'Akká. When he left for the Mansion of Bahjí, He left 'Akká from the House of 'Abbúd to the Mansion of Bahjí. And it was just that the time that my father was in the presence of Bahá’u’lláh at that time as a pilgrim. And he said that when this building was rented by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the believers went there along with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and they washed the building with soap and water and everything else because it is a marble building in the top part of it, you know. And they washed it all and cleaned it for the coming, that Bahá’u’lláh will come into it. And the first people who moved in were the family of Bahá’u’lláh, but not the mother of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá or the Greatest Holy Leaf or ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself. They did not move. And the reasons for it, now we don't go into it. Then one day it was known that Bahá’u’lláh is going to move to that mansion. And as you know, 'Akká in those days did not have any public lighting. The whole area was in the dark at night, absolutely dark, but some Baháʼís of India had sent to Bahá’u’lláh a very unusually large lamp, oil lamp. You know, oil, the wick, the oil. And this lamp was brought into the mansion and it was put in the hall. And it was, you could see it from distance, the light shining in the mansion. So now this is the background to it. So one day Bahá’u’lláh was to go and move to this mansion. And my father and Nabil, both of them, were living in a little room in one of the streets of 'Akká. The street of 'Akká called Súq-i-Abyad, which means the White Market. And when you live in that place, they had a window which was overlooking the road, and the only way that someone can come from the House of 'Abbúd to go through the gate and go out of 'Akká is to pass in front of that house.

[00:21:21]And so they were standing behind the window, waiting just for the time that Bahá’u’lláh would be passing in front of their house, in front of their room. And they waited and waited until near sunset, before sunset. And then suddenly they saw that Bahá’u’lláh was then riding a donkey. It was very custom. This was the only way in those days. It was not the carriage, just a donkey. And behind was another, was Bahá’u’lláh's servant, about 10 yards behind Him. He was riding on his donkey. And the two passed in front of this room and as soon as it passed and they saw Him, Nabil said, "Let us go and follow them." So the two of them came out and they walked behind about 200 yards away following Bahá’u’lláh. And when they reached the gates of the city, the guards showed their respects to Bahá’u’lláh and He went out. And these two also went out afterwards. And soon it became dark evidently, and then they could see. Eventually they reached the point that they could see the light in the mansion. [audio cuts off] -around for their cattle to eat. And one man went up one of these very tall trees, very, very tall. And when he went very, very tall up and went to the very top of it, suddenly he slipped a little bit and he fell down very high up. And he knew he's going to be killed. There's no question about it, falling from that height. At that moment, in desperation, in a fraction, and all this coming in a split second, he turned to God, and he said, "If you save me, I'll give all my cattle to you. All that I have." And that's all he had. "All my cattle to you, for you. I don't want them. Please save me."

[00:23:51]And of course, God heard Him and He said, "Okay, we'll test Him." See, God with all His tests. He, instead of falling down on the ground, he fell on another branch. And he just hardly help himself, but it was when he looked down, it was again dangerous but it wasn't as dangerous as before. He was further down, so he again began to pray.

[00:24:23]"Please save me from here," he said. But he said, "You know, last time when I was on the top of the tree, I said I'll give all my cattle to you. I think it's not fair," he said, "that I should give all my cattle to you, really actually. I think half of the cattle for you and after all, I have a wife and family and children. You don't want. What will you do with all the cattle anyhow? I'll keep half of it and the other. You save me, I'll keep the half and then you keep the other half."

[00:24:59]So God said, "Okay, we let him go down a little bit more." So this time he fell down. And he came down and he landed on another branch which wasn't at all as high as the previous one. But still he saw, now, if he falls down, he's not going to be killed. The danger of death is gone.

[00:25:20]So he said, "You know, really God, I was becoming very sentimental and carried away. I was really carried away. I think this is all together an unfair situation. I mean, what will you do with- I have a wife. I have children. I've lived all these years. I've gathered these cattle and now give you half of it. Really, what will you do with the half? Really, that's unfair. I was carried away," he said, "when I was up there. I'll make a deal with you." He said, "I'll have all the cattle and you have all the milk and the cream." So God said, "Okay, that's all right. Fair enough." And He let Him drop down to the ground. And when he dropped down to the ground, he said to himself, "What milk? What butter? Oh no, you don't want it. Really, I was all, this was all unusual excitement on my part. You don't need it." Now, you see, I said this story. Now, at this time in the history of mankind, we are now on the ground. Our foot is on the ground and we are safe, but a time will come, I can assure you, that we will be on the top. And then we are ready to give everything. And then it may not be just work out for us. This is what happened in Persia because the world conditions will really dramatically change. We talked. The world conditions will deteriorate with such speed now that it is going to bring about what Bahá’u’lláh has foreshadowed: the limbs of mankind to quake. Shoghi Effendi mentions, he says the cities will burn. The atmosphere of the earth will be contaminated. And he said these are only either accompanying or will herald the coming of that great calamity which mankind must go through. He has written this. So that it is our really work and our privilege now to arise and serve the Cause of God and be sure of His assistance. He'll come to us if our motive is right.

[00:27:51]Well, I feel that you've had plenty of - you're tired and we can go out, Mr. Chairman, huh? Have a cup of tea and then we can come back again. But this time, I will certainly deal with all the questions that you have written. [laughter] I have them all in here.

[00:28:20]All right, well, I am going to look at something which is, I suddenly thought of a little story. I'll tell you, because it's a good thing to know how this is to do with this. Because somebody was mentioning to me during the break that gave me to - I felt that people think that to serve the faith, it means that you have to do something very, very big. All the big noises joined the big noise people like myself, for instance, which is not really serving the Faith at all in relation to what other people can do. I can tell you that. Talking is nothing to do with the Faith, with serving the Faith. It could do something. But I feel that we must not think that to serve the Faith, you have to be responsible for certain function or you must be a person who is a member of the Assembly or National Assembly or a board member or anything like that. This has nothing to do with service to the Faith. And another thing that I want to mention is that how much in the next life we will be amazed to find out that so many unknown people in this life, unknown in the way of public, not being in the public attention and public eye, who will have such an exalted station in the spiritual worlds of God and how many people like me who will be completely lost. Now you know this is true. This is really true. We must not ever attach importance to this people having a position because nobody as I said has a station in this Faith, really. We were all having a function. Yes, we have sacred functions, but this function is given. And God help the person who has been given a function. If he doesn't always function well, it's much better if he was not given this function, you know, because service to the Cause is when you make a cup of tea in your home with the love in your heart, that you want the people to come into your home so that they could hear about the Faith, that service.

[00:31:06]If it is done with the purity of motive, which is, you do it for the love of Guardian, for the love of Bahá’u’lláh, and for the love of the people, that's much more meritorious than anything else because God does not want from us more than we can do. But he wants us to do our best. It doesn't matter what we do. And in fact, the simpler one is, the better it is - the simple heart, the simple person. We have lost, I think, our simplicity in this modern civilization. If a soul is simple, God loves that simple soul. Always the simple soul, he is the one who is going to benefit and he'll receive all the rewards because there's nothing worse than becoming sophisticated with modern way of life. And this modern way of life has really destroyed-- most peoples of the world have been destroyed as a result of this modern civilization, which is eventually going to be destroyed and perished, this civilization that we have. It's a tottering civilization that Shoghi Effendi refers to it so that, you know, we must not pay attention to these outward appearances of people's and what they do. What God, what is important to God is the heart of person and how you feel and what little you think, what little you do, which is the best you can do, is much more meritorious in His sight than all the big things other people do and the big projects other people have and all the things they do, if it is not done to the best of their knowledge and ability.

[00:32:59]Now, the story which came to me is the stories, and I'll tell you what, two similar stories, really. One is for our during this time, during this period of Shoghi Effendi. I knew a young - I knew a man was called Charles Dunning. I don't think any of you had met him. He was an Englishman. He was a man from Yorkshire. Some of you could read his account of his life in the Baháʼí World, one of the volumes of the Baháʼí world in the memorial. He was illiterate. He's hardly could write his name. He was, if you looked at him, I don't want to describe what he was like physically. This man had such a pure heart and so frank and none of these conventions that we are familiar with, none of these conventions he ever understood or carried it out. And yet he was the beloved of Shoghi Effendi, you know. Shoghi Effendi loved him so much and showered so much love upon him. He went, someone arranged for him to go. He was one of the Knights of Bahá’u’lláh. He went to the islands, the Orkney Islands, in the north of Scotland and he taught the Faith. He left behind him so much memories, but he was very frank and the language wasn't what you would expect from a Baháʼí sometimes. But this didn't mean anything because the language which came out of him was purely from a very pure heart. You know, when he went to see Shoghi Effendi, when he went on pilgrimage - I'll just give an example of the language - Shoghi Effendi so much loved this person he always made him to sit at his right hand side at the table. He used to call Shoghi Effendi. He said, "Guardian, this is not right, is it?" This is how he would talk to the Guardian, "What you said is not right." [laughter] He just had this. And once Shoghi Effendi said to him, "I have given some more plans to the British Baháʼís. They are not going to like it." He said, "You're talking rubbish." [laughter] Now you know, this is the man. He didn't say "rubbish". There was a slang in the, which means rubbish. He says "bunkum". "Bunkum, Guardian." And he didn't understand what bunkum means and it meant rubbish. "You're talking rubbish." But now the love that Shoghi Effendi had for him had no bounds, really. And he was so such a simple man that he used to sign his name, he could only write his name, Charles Dunning. He would write down there KB after his name. It means Knight of Bahá’u’lláh. You know, the British people who are knighted, they are usually called KB. You know, they write on after name. These are the titles. And he always used to write his name, Charles Dunning KB. [laughter]

[00:36:34]Well, it was always the same thing. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had so many disciples who were like this and He loved them. There was a believer. Now this is a believer. I never found his name. And we were told the story many times, but I failed to get the name from my father when he was telling us the story. But this person remains unnamed. But he was telling us the story that you know when people went to see Bahá’u’lláh, usually you wrote you said you're coming, got permission. You then would arrive in 'Akká. Then the Master, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá would arrange for you to stay in the pilgrim house for a few days to rest, to settle down, to look at your clothes, to see if you have sufficient means. And then they would arrange for you to come into the presence of Bahá’u’lláh. But this man didn't know any of these things. He was such a simple soul. He started to travel from [?]. He began the journey and he walked all the way. He had nothing but a little bag on his shoulder. He was an elderly man and he was going to see Bahá’u’lláh. He wanted to see his Lord. And he came to 'Akká eventually. Somehow he found his way and he began to ask peoples where he can see the house of Bahá’u’lláh is and they showed him the house. So he comes in and he finds there are some stairs. He goes up the stairs. There was nobody around at the time, but then he hears a lot of people in the room, you know. Bahá’u’lláh was in this room. He goes, he just goes near the door. He puts his head through the door, looks around and he says, "Which one of you are Bahá’u’lláh? Who is Bahá’u’lláh?" [laughter] And Bahá’u’lláh embraces him, showers so much love upon him. And then he says, "Bring tea for him." He says, "No, no that's trouble. Don't get into trouble." And after a few minutes, after an hour sitting there, he says, "Well, I think I better go and not to cause any more difficult troubles. I'll go." You know, this is how nobody would ever leave the presence of Bahá’u’lláh unless he would dismiss them, you know. This is how it was, but this man was a simple soul. And this is what matters, really. Simplicity in are soul and in our heart. And that cup of tea that you make with love and with simple heart and with devotion, that is much more fruitful than all the things some others may do in the Faith.

[00:39:43]Well, now, there are some questions here. Somebody says, is this person who is - your wife is not with you, right? Juan? [audience member answers] She'll be here? Oh, you're taping it! All right. This is a question. He says, "Could you speak on the process of the Lesser Peace, the emergence of the Faith from obscurity, and the completion of the Arc in Mount Carmel? How these are related?"

[00:40:14]This is quite a vast things. She wants to know everything. [laughter] And he wants to know everything. Well, this is-- I chose this question because it's a good question and it will probably give us a little picture of the Faith in the future. This is more or less the subject that we were discussing at the Dublin Conference, International Conference that you know from the writings and I have heard - this is pilgrim's notes, but I have compared this pilgrim notes with the writings of Shoghi Effendi. And I found out that almost everything that is in this pilgrim's notes, they are recorded in various parts of Shoghi Effendi's writings, and if you put them together, it'll tally with what Shoghi Effendi had said to this believer. There's only one of two things that I could not identify in the writings. And that is that, first of all, the Lesser Peace, as you know, the Lesser Peace - and this is not part of the pilgrim notes. I'll come back to it later. As you know the Lesser Peace is a political peace. Bahá’u’lláh has said to Queen Victoria that if you, now that you have rejected the Most Great Peace, which is a spiritual establishment of His World Order in the world, now that you have rejected it, at least you should adhere and bring about a Lesser Peace so that wars could be abolished. Now, you see, we were talking yesterday about the creativity of the word because Bahá’u’lláh said this: we shall have a Lesser Peace. And if you don't want to have a Lesser Peace, we will be forced to have a Lesser Peace. You see now how the word of God is effective? We will be forced because man will come eventually to a point of recognizing that if he takes one more step, the whole world is going to be destroyed. And that's he says that's enough. So the Lesser Peace will come. It will come at the point that mankind has really exhausted itself. Then he has no choice but to accept what Bahá’u’lláh has said.

[00:42:36]Now, those of you who were here, I was talking the story of the egg. You remember? The egg and the opening of the egg. The Cause of God is now, the institutions of the Faith now are in obscurity. I'm talking of the institutions of the Faith. People do not know what our institutions are for. No matter how much you try to explain what is a Local Spiritual Assembly doing, the generality of mankind does not appreciate it. In fact, we ourselves, as we were talking yesterday, may not appreciate it fully what the significance and the importance of these institutions are, that these are going to be one day the basis of the government for mankind. I'm not saying it's going to be necessarily the government, but they are going to have a great share. Who knows how they will develop and what they will do, these Houses of Justice. No one can say how these Houses of Justice will fit in to the running of the world, the management of the affairs of the world, how our national assemblies will fit into it, how the governments will fit into it. We cannot say these things. Nobody can ever foresee how these things will emerge. And the only way that Shoghi Effendi has described it to us when they asked him, "Tell us what the unfurlment of the Administrative Order is going to be like. How will it shape up?" He says two things will enable us to understand the unfurlment of the administrative order of Bahá’u’lláh and the emergence of His World Order. Two things, one, he said, is the passage of time. You have to wait, in other words. And the other is the guidance of the House of Justice.

[00:44:28]Now, this is exactly the same in nature. As I said, everything we have in the Faith, you can trace it to nature. Now in nature, you will find that anything which has an organic growth, say, for instance, a tree, example of a tree. The tree, once you plant the seed, you cannot ever say what the street is going to be like until you give it time. Passage of time will tell you what this tree is going to look like, how big it's going to be, how many branches will it have. And the other thing - this is one element, the passage of time. The other one is the laws of nature which must be allowed to run through this whole process, to run this process of growth and the will of it. The laws of nature must be allowed to work through this tree. And through these two elements, we can know what the street is going to be like. Exactly the same thing here is with the development of the administrative order. Two things, the passage of time and the guidance of the Universal House of Justice for centuries, maybe, to come. Then we know what the world order Bahá’u’lláh is like, how it will manage the affairs of the world, how it will run the affairs of the world, how all these institutions will come together to form a complete, a coherent system which will govern mankind. But at the moment, the Faith is, the institutions of the Faith, local and national and international, they are in obscurity. And mankind does not know what they are for. Now, the time appears from the writings, it appears from the writings that when Bahá’u’lláh says that when the limbs of mankind have quaked, when it has really trembled, when the old order has been crumbled down, he says then and only then - you see, these are His own words - then and only then will the Divine Standard be unfurled.

[00:46:44]In other words, then and only then people will recognize what we are saying and what we are having, what we are building. They are going to see, just like When the egg breaks up and opens up, you're going to see the new life emerging. And then people can see a new life. But that new life is just born. The institutions just have emerged. Nobody can say that once a child is born, he can immediately manage. He can immediately act as a grown up person. You have to wait time for it to grow, centuries has to wait, maybe. When the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, when the institutions of the Faith emerge, in the words of Shoghi Effendi, the evolvement, he says. The evolvement, you see, in one of his letters. The evolvement of local and national institutions, when that take place, and he mentions when it will take place, I will talk to you about it now in a minute, the evolvement of Baháʼí local and national institutions of the Faith. It's just an emergency. Just people will see it. They can see what potentialities there are in it, but it cannot immediately take over now the affairs of the world and begin to rule it. Rule the world, the institutions of the Faith cannot do that. We have to have an interim form of government in the world, which would then, from the Lesser Peace onwards, could then manage the affairs of the world until such time that the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh can then come in and take over gradually as time goes on.

[00:48:27]Now, Shoghi Effendi has given us a timing for this. In one of his letters, he mentions that when the buildings on Mount Carmel, the building of the Arc are completed and the World Center of the Faith begins to function, and which is quite a long way to go yet by the look of things. We have to build up more buildings, three more buildings as you know. There are two buildings already built on the Arc, the archives building and the building of the House of Justice around the Arc. But there should be three other buildings. One is for the study of the writings, which I understand will be built between the archives and the House of Justice. And then the other two buildings, the International Teaching Center and the General Library, International Library. These five buildings then completed, and then the beautification of the gardens, the terraces to be made, the functioning of the World Center of the Faith and when they all begin to function, Shoghi Effendi says it will coincide with two things. One is the emergence of the Lesser Peace and one is, as he puts it, the evolvement of both local and national institutions of the Faith. Now it is then that peoples of the world are able to at least appreciate to some extent what these institutions can do for the future of mankind. But as I said, it will take a long time for the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh to come into being.

[00:50:08]Now, from here on, I'm going to describe this story of this pilgrim's note. And you must take [audio cuts off] But most of these points that I'm mentioning are you can find it in the writings of Shoghi Effendi. Here and there, put them together. You know that now, I'm not yet talking about that pilgrim's note. Let me give you a little bit more background to it. You know that the teachings of God, the social teachings of Bahá’u’lláh in this age are such that the generality of mankind, mankind without being Baháʼís can and will put them into operation without knowing where they come from. This is the spirit of the age. And that when this Lesser Peace is coming, Shoghi Effendi has said in this pilgrim's note again, which I haven't been able to identify - maybe our friend Ted can tell us if they found anything - which he says that the Lesser Peace and the maturity of mankind are one and the same thing. The coming of age - sorry, the coming age of humanity, which Bahá’u’lláh refers to in His writings, and the Lesser Peace are one and the same thing. Now, I don't know, I haven't been able to find it in the writings, but this is the pilgrim's note. But from the signs, if you look at the signs of the coming of age of humanity which Bahá’u’lláh has given us signs for it, you can believe this. You can accept this because Bahá’u’lláh have said in some of His tablets about the coming of age of humanity, a time that humanity will come of age, like a man who becomes 21. And he has given us three signs for it, Bahá’u’lláh.

[00:52:16]Now this is in the writings. One is the establishment of a universal language. So you see, this is not very far away. It's not something which you can say it's going to be hundreds of years, but it is something which is around the corner, you can say, because man is needing it more and more. The other sign is that kingship, the institution of kingship, will be such a discredited institution. It will be so discredited that people do not want to take on the burden of kingship if you offer it to them even. Well this has happened already, the discrediting of the institution of kingship, kingship. Now it does not mean that we Baháʼís believe that there should be no kingship in the Faith in the future. In fact, this is one of the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. He says God would prefer, God likes to see a system of kingship coming into being rather than a system by which you have presidents because he says kingship is a sign. It projects the majesty of God. If it wasn't for kingship, you wouldn't have the word "majesty" and you would not know what majesty is. And you would not know what the majesty of God is. And Bahá’u’lláh says we do not want people to be deprived of this. But this will be a democratic or - well not democratic - constitutional kingship. Something which is very different from the kings which existed at the time of Bahá’u’lláh, constitutional kingship. Who knows? I have again heard this. I don't like to repeat the pilgrim's notes, but we have heard, so Shoghi Effendi has said every country in the world will have a king, including the United States of America. So watch for yourselves here. [laughter] Now this king, the institution of kingship, whatever happens will become part of the, eventually part of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh because you cannot have anything in the future, but the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh which will have a system, which will be a system by which the whole world will combine all its resources and its institutions together. And how they will merge, we do not know. So now, the second sign, as I said that Bahá’u’lláh gives for the coming of age of humanity is that the institution of kingship will be discredited so much that people do not want to take the burden on. This has happened.

[00:55:14]And the third sign - which is also has happened and has taken place already on a smaller scale but anyhow, it has taken place - is that the alchemy, he says, will become an achieved, alchemy will be achieved. That is, the transmusion of copper into gold of any metal, the transmission, the changing of elements. Now this has already taken place in the atomic laboratories and you can do this through the processes of the atomic physics, but it is so expensive that if you change them, it's going to be very expensive. I read some time ago in the newspapers years ago that one of the nations, Russians have said they can produce gold or they will produce gold which would be cheaper than what is in the market. Now again, this is an indication, this alchemy. By the way, when alchemy has been one of those things that all the early men of knowledge and science of those days from the time early days of Islam they have been working on it, many, many people. Actually the word "alchemy", the word "chemist" is an Arabic word "kimya'". It's from "kimya'", which is an Arabic word. But during Bahá’u’lláh's lifetime also, many of His disciples, many of His disciples during His lifetime were involving themselves in this act of producing, of testing and experimenting. And Bahá’u’lláh stopped them. He said this is not the time for it. He told them to stop this. And He said when the time comes, it will be discovered. And He said when it will be discovered, we have a tablet of Bahá’u’lláh, which is very striking. He says when it is discovered, mankind will discover a force which can destroy the whole world. And He prays that God will not-- and this is as I said, associated with the discovery of the atomic energy. So now you see, these are the signs of the coming of age of humanity. And in this pilgrim's note, we heard Shoghi Effendi said that the Lesser Peace and the coming of age of humanity is the same thing which, from the signs that I mentioned to you, it's very likely.

[00:58:03]Now all the other things that he has spoken about it is very beautiful and you can find it in the writings. He says you can divide-- He says you can, in order to study the progress of the world in the future, you can first divorce the Faith from it and let us examine the non-Baháʼí world after the Lesser Peace to see what processes and what stages that go through the non-Baháʼí world. First of all, all the social teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, now forget about the Baháʼí Faith and the influence of the Baháʼí Faith. Forget about that, but look at the non-Baháʼí world. Let us have the branch of humanity which is nonBaháʼí branch. The non-Baháʼí branch will go through so many stages of development and progress using all the social teachings of Bahá’u’lláh such as equality of men and women, establishment of a universal language, establishment of a world government, the making of one weight currency and measures, the Federation of Nations. All of these things will take place the social teachings of Bahá’u’lláh: education for all, the tapping of the resources of the world equitably. And these things will happen without necessarily knowing that these are from Bahá’u’lláh, but these are the social teachings which will be carried out. And as a result of it, He says agreat blessing will come upon mankind. Wars are abolished and the blessing which will bring with it is that of social and economic and scientific developments that mankind will make. In such a way that the planet will become like one country, literally like a federation of nations, like here in the United States you have federations of nations, of states but really they are one country. And this will become the world and that we become so used to mixing together and rubbing shoulders with all kinds of peoples, of all nationalities and peoples that it's just like being living in one country from the point of view of social and economic and other developments.

[01:00:35]Now when he says that looking in this branch of humanity which is now devoid of the Faith and the Faith has nothing to do with it at the moment directly. He says that religions lose their influence more and more and they cannot influence humanity. The soul of people will be starving for spiritual food, although they are progressing socially, economically, politically, but not spiritually. They will be in starvation, a spiritual starvation. Therefore, there would be a great deal of delinquency maybe. People have a lot of, plenty of things to, plenty pleasures and plenty of food, plenty of comfort. security. And this will bring about-- and the starvation of spiritual food, it's a terrible effect on the soul of man. The soul of man will be in a very depressed position in this particular branch of humanity. And then, he says now let us look at the Faith and what the Faith does, the other branch. The other branch will go through stages. These are all written down by Shoghi Effendi now, you know, these things that I'm saying is not really pilgrims notes. As I said, these are all can be verified in the writings. The Faith will go through different stages. The first is the stage of obscurity. And we are in obscurity in some parts of the world. But in some countries, of course, we are not in obscurity. It doesn't come together at the same time all over the world. One country, for instance, Persia came out of obscurity in the first year of the coming of the Báb. The Faith is not in obscurity. Everyone knows what the Faith is. They all know it's part of their language. It's part of their vocabulary. And then after that stage of obscurity, it will become emancipated from the religious orthodoxy. And then it will become known as a world religion. It will emerge as a world religion. And then it'll grow through these stages which we don't want to go into all in details, but eventually it come to a point where in a country, the majority of the people in the country become Baháʼí. And that is the stage of sovereignty for the Faith.

[01:03:18]And this lady, who was the pilgrim asks, "What is majority?" And Shoghi Effendi said, 51%. When a majority of the people of a country become Baháʼí, then the Baháʼí government comes into being in that country and the laws of Bahá’u’lláh can function. The laws of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas then can function. And Shoghi Effendi had said in this particular note that it is expected of the minority then to obey the government of the majority, in the same way that we now obey the governments we live in, under. But of course, the Baháʼí government will honor the religious aspirations of the people and will give them every freedom to exercise their religious laws and teachings. And then, if you go further in this particular branch of the Baháʼí branch, you will find that more governments will become Baháʼí governments, one after the other. I mentioned yesterday that really and truly you people should aim at making this country the first Baháʼí government. And really we must not think at it and in unbelieving way, but rather believing that they will come, that we will have Baháʼí governments. Now then you will have the second Baháʼí government, and the third Baháʼí governemnt and so on and so on. But then you see, humanity is one. You can't divide it into two branches. You know, although we said for the sake of studying we are having one branch we call it non-Baháʼí and one branch we call it Baháʼí, but humanity is one. And so more and more of these two processes will merge together. As time goes on, merging together, people become Baháʼí. Baháʼí states come into being until such time that the majority of the nations in the world become Baháʼí.

[01:05:26]It is then that these two processes that we have been analyzing in this way, these two processes completely merged together and meet together at the top. And he says, as a result of this merging together, a child will be born and that is the child of Baháʼí civilization. And say is that is synonymous, that is synonymous with the establishment of the Most Great Peace and it is synonymous with the birth of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, and it is synonymous with the establishment of the kingdom of God on Earth. And mankind will celebrate that day in the name of Bahá’u’lláh, the Father who has brought this kingdom. And then that child of Baháʼí civilization which is born, will take millions-- it takes ages and centuries and thousands and thousands of years, 500,000 years for the manifestations of God to come and enable the child of Baháʼí civilization to grow into perfection, just like a child grows into an adult. And how then the emphasis will be on nobility of man, that man will become noble. Now this is the vision of, this is the vision of the future as Baháʼís. Now we are in the darkest period of the history of man. The darkest period and it's closing in on us, closing in on us day by day and coming to the point of completely sundering everything which belongs to the old days, the old order. We talked about it yesterday how much we Baháʼís should be confident, absolutely confident that we are going to be here to bring the message of Bahá’u’lláh to masses of peoples after the destruction of the world, and all that is therein. This is our function. This is why He has created us. We are created for this purpose. The world, the peoples of the world do not know.

[audience member question]

[01:08:28]Okay, we cannot now, all right--. We cannot now ever doubt the power of Bahá’u’lláh which is invested in His institutions, power which he has got in it. Just as much as yesterday we were talking about the new life which comes out of the egg. The chicken coming out of the egg is the only thing which has got the power to stand on his own feet and to become the living organ of a new world. We must have faith in this and we must prepare ourselves for the day that we are going to be there to bring great numbers into the Faith. Shoghi Effendi says these institutions we are building becomes beacons of light to guide humanity at the time of its greatest peril. We are not worried about ourselves as to try to- we must never think of ourselves, "Oh, I want to protect myself." Well, all right, we'll be protected. I can assure you will be protected Well, if you want to take any actions, do. Nobody will stop you. But you know a time will come that we will be guided when the guidance is needed. We will be guided as what to do. We will be guided by the House of Justice and if they are not in contact with us because communications will be cut off, time will come that we will not be able to communicate with them. Our institutions today, which are very weak and we were talking about them yesterday, these very weak and insignificant institutions which we think they are insignificant outwardly, these institutions will be so inspired. Our national assemblies will be so inspired as to tell the friends what to do, where to go to to protect themselves. It will come. This is already happening in some countries where there is a great deal of wars and dangers facing people. These institutions will be guided by Bahá’u’lláh because there is the spirit of life in them. The spirit of the Cause is within them. It's pulsating within them, although they may be weak.

[01:10:52]Yesterday you remember we talked of the Ministry of Bahá’u’lláh during that years that He lived in that mansion. Almost half of His ministry in 'Akká was spent in this building. It's really the climax of His revelation when God really ascended upon His throne. This is a throne in some of His writings, referred to. It's the throne of the - this building, the throne of God. And in the traditions, it's very clear that when God sits on His throne, all the messengers and Concourse on high circumambulate it. You can see it the writings, too. Well, these two people wanted to circumambulate now this throne of their Lord and when they went close to near the mansion, to near the walls of the mansion, they found that four sides of the mansion is packed with people. Now, they were not imagining things. They were not psychic people, very clearheaded. And they, of course, knew there's nobody from 'Akká. There's not, not one soul has left 'Akká at the time. There's nobody. It was none of these people. Four sides, and they were filled with such awe. You can imagine the awe of that particular occasion must have been tremendous, that they couldn't go forward. They couldn't go close, and they realized that to them this is really what their outer eyes could see. There's nothing but the souls of the manifestations of God and the Concourse on high circumambulating the throne of the Lord. And so they went back. And then they circumambulated from long distance away in great awe and wonder, you know, of having seen this. And they says that our shoes were filled with mud and the whole area was wet and all the mud that they went through. And then they quickly left for 'Akká, and they arrived just in time that they were closing the doors, the gates of the city but they managed to get in.

[01:13:43]Now there is a custom amongst the people of the east that when something very, very important happens, they won't sleep that night. For instance, when you look at the passing of Bahá’u’lláh, when Bahá’u’lláh passed away, the friends don't sleep that night. They stay up in His memory and they say prayers. The same thing happens to the time of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá passing. Now, Nabil said, my father, he said, "Tonight we must not sleep. We must stay awake." Nabil was a man who used to drink a lot of tea. And he said, my father, he said, "You make tea and I will write poems about this whole episode." And so that night, Nabil wrote the whole story of this in poetry. You know, many of Nabil's notes, Nabil, the historian of the Faith, many of his notes are in poetry. You must not think that the first section of The Dawn Breakers, which Shoghi Effendi has edited for us, is exactly what Nabil has written it in this form. This is edited by Shoghi Effendi. Some of these notes are in different forms. You had put to them together and produced it. And the rest of his memoirs and notes which deal with the history of Bahá’u’lláh which are not published yet, they're also, some of them, in this form. So that night, he wrote this, the whole story of what had happened. And in the morning the two of them sent to Bahá’u’lláh these poems of Nabil. And they also sent him, tou know, in those days it was customary for the believers to send gift to Bahá’u’lláh, just like you give a box of chocolates now. In those days, the very popular thing was a sugar cone. You may not have seen what a sugar cone is like. In those days, sugar were made in the form of a cone, big cones. And then you break them into for your tea and other uses. So they sent two of these as a gift to Bahá’u’lláh. And Bahá’u’lláh wrote a tablet. We don't have this tablet because maybe this was the Nabil's things. We haven't found it yet. And in this tablet, Bahá’u’lláh accepts the pilgrimage at the time that all the Concourse on high were circumambulating the throne of their Lord. And He gives a new name to each one of them.

[01:16:31]Now, as I said, don't go along and tell these stories because it's bound to become - it'll change [and it's scary??]. I've heard people saying this because Shoghi Effendi used to tell the story to some of the pilgrims and the pilgrims would come and say this story to an audience like this. And then I have heard myself that some other people have been saying this story. And then you say, how did he hear if he heard it two or three steps away, which meant that it was so changed that it had a bare, just the bare resemblance to what I was telling you now. So here we are. You asked me to tell you the story. Now, I feel that we better deal with some of these questions which are in here. Or what would like me to do? Anybody has a question now? Yes?

[01:17:42][audience member question] I don't know. Maybe they do. [audience member continues] Well, that's - you know all these things. I suppose we are free to think in these terms. If you want to do that, I don't know some of the concepts, really. Well, let me - yes? [audience member question] Oh, fear of God. Gosh, you're all going to be frightened, huh? No, I think it's a good point. Actually somebody has asked this question. You know Bahá’u’lláh has mentioned in many of His writings that the fear of God is what we have to, all of us, feel and that He says not until you have that fear of God in your hearts will you be able to progress. Now you can read in the Gleanings. I don't have it in here. In fact, if you had the Gleanings here, we could find it for you and read it, those passages. But anyhow, we can read it later on, maybe. You can read it later on at some stage. He says this is the way in which man can progress spiritually. Now we must remember here that fear of God - God is loving. God is just. God is full of bounties. Now why can we fear Him? How should we fear Him? You know, first of all, let me mention this because I said God has bounties and has justice. Do you know that it is through the bounty of God that we have come into being, not through His justice. It's very important point to remember. It's not through the justice of God that man is created. And it is not also through the justice of God that divine revelations are sent. It's through the bounty of God.

[01:20:25]Now Bahá’u’lláh has mentioned that if ever the justice of God comes into being, the whole creation will cease to exist. You see now? I'll explain to you. You know, if you have got some money in your pocket and if you go to a shop, it is only just that the shopkeeper should give you something equal to your money. It's justice. You give him the money, he gives you the goods. This is justice. But what would you do if you went to a shop and you had no money at all and the man gave you a lot of things? This is not justice. This is bounty. Now Bahá’u’lláh says, "Look at yourself and see what you are." He says you are a handful of dust. You are made from the dust and the dust is the worthless, is the most worthless things you can find in this creation, the lowest kingdom. You're made of dust. And He says, "Look at. You have nothing." And He says, "Look what I gave you. I gave you the most precious entity in creation, and that is the soul. But you had nothing." So you see, creation comes into being purely through the bounty of God. If it was through His justice, we did not deserve anything because we were dust. You see? This is a very significant point that He mentions. So the bounties of God eyes is the cause of progress and development spiritually. If ever the justice comes into being as He says, the creation will not exist, cannot exist, disintegrates immediately, finishes. Now God, therefore, through His creation, He has brought about His bounties for us. And I mentioned yesterday how the forgiveness of God, that how much the forgiveness of God plays a role in life, not in this life but also in the next life. That is to say that through His forgiveness, all people will progress. Every person will progress in the spiritual worlds of God. We do not believe in eternal damnation. Every soul will grow, even those who have had a terrible life here. Who knows how God will deal with them? We don't know. We cannot here judge and say, "Oh no, this man is going to be treated this way or that way." Who knows? Bahá’u’lláh mentions one of His greatest enemies who was the ambassador, Turkish Ambassador, the Persian ambassador in Turkey who was a great enemy of Bahá’u’lláh who did so much to hurt Him, Bahá’u’lláh says God may forgive him because one of his relatives is a believer. You see? Who knows how God acts so that there is no limit to God's love and mercy and forgiveness.

[01:23:48]But now let us examine fear, fear of God. Fear comes to us when we are not able to cope with the situation. Now isn't that right? Now, I'll give you an example of this. Say you are working in your office or you're a student in a school. If you're a student, if you have not done your work in school, when the day of examination comes, you will be filled with fear. Not that a teacher frightens you, but that you're fearful because of your inadequacy, that you haven't done what you are supposed to do. If your boss, if you're superior or whoever you work for asks you to do something and you don't do it, you are filled with fear. This is how fear comes to us. It's because we are inadequate. We haven't done our job. Now let us see. Let us put ourselves in position of coming face to face in the next life with God or whatever it is, I'm sure we won't see the essence of God, but shall we say, with the manifestation of God, with Bahá’u’lláh, face to face with Him. Now I can have two conditions. Either I'm satisfied that everything he has asked me to do, I have done it absolute perfection so I have no fear, right? [laughter] Now, that's the answer to it. Or if I haven't done anything at all, I would be very fearful. There is another alternative. If I'm not fearful, maybe I'm not fearful because I don't think these things will happen in the next life. Maybe Bahá’u’lláh will never come face to face to me. Maybe He'll never ask me, "Why did you do this or that?" But this is not true. We know that we will be give-- we will have to give account of everything. You see, Bahá’u’lláh mentions that. He says keep your account every day before you are asked to give your account before God. So fear comes not because God is a fearful figure, that you're frightened of Him, but fear comes to us because we are inadequate. We look at all our shortcomings and then when you are going to really face Him, when you really realize, "Now this is the time. Now I'm going to face Him." The fear of God is engendered in one's heart. This is really what it is, the fear of God. It's because we are conscious of our shortcomings. And then when you realize that what you had to do.

[01:26:57]Now, I tell you had once an experience and I'll share it with you. It's a personal experience, but I'll share it with you. You know how it is. Every time we have a problem in life, personal problem or any problem, we immediately go to God and pray to Him. Soon as you have a problem, you just take the prayer book and oh, you sit down and you pray and you pray the removal of difficulties and all the others that we are familiar with. Well, one day I was doing the same thing. And suddenly now I can tell you, there really and truly suddenly, I saw Bahá’u’lláh as if I saw Him in front of my eyes saying to me something. And you know what he said to me? Quite frankly, I got it very clear. He said, "Shame on you." This is what He said. "Shame on you. Every time you have a problem, you come to me." [laughter] Really. "But did you ever come once to me and say, 'Oh, please help me to teach your faith. Help me to serve your faith. I am longing to do something for you. No. You only come to me when you have a problem. Shame." Now I really stopped praying. I just stopped it. Didn't really say anything. And it came to me like a thunderbolt. Now you know it's like this. And it became very clear that it was like this, that you have a very good friend. Say you have a very, very good friend, one of your best friends, a very influential friend, very best friend that you have that you give your life for him. And he lives, say, in another country. And he writes to you and he says, "Look, I want you to do something for me in here. I can't be in your country, but I want you to go to this shop and by this and this and that for me." What would you do as soon as he writes to you? You immediately go and get it for him. He says, "You are the only one who can do it. Go and get it for me." But what happens if I don't do it? I won't do it today. I won't do it tomorrow. I won't do it the next month and the next month and the next month and the next year. I will never go to get this thing that my friend wants me to get for him. But then every time I need something, I'll go to him. And I expect them immediately to answer it. Now, you see, this is exactly the situation, so that really when we think and we find that we have so much to do and this life is so short. So much to do for Bahá’u’lláh. He has asked us to teach His faith.

[01:29:44]Now that's what I said. Shame on me. That was the answer. I don't do it. And instead, I go to him for all my problems. And then when the real time comes really if Bahá’u’lláh would come and say to you, "What have you done now in your life? Let us examine it. What have you got? What is the result of your whole life? What have you done?" Well, this is where the fear comes because one is not adequate. But, you know, there is one thing we must remember. Again, remember the forgiveness of God. Once you fear Him best, then actually one would fear Him. One fear that one hasn't done what he is supposed to do. But also remember the bounties, the love of your Lord. You know, our life is like this glass. You see this glass of water here? Every service that we render is like a drop of water that you put in this. And at the end of a lifetime, all that you have is the result of your life here. You present it. This is what you have. That's what you take with us. That's what we take with us into the next life. We talked about it the first day. Remember, we said we can only take good things into the next life? And all our deeds is like this perfect water. But you're taking this drop by drop. We serve today. We serve tomorrow and this adds together, accumulates together. But a little bit of impurities then it will make the whole glass to become adulterated. A little bit of self, a little bit of ambition, these other things will really destroy our services to the Faith. There may be a man who has served an awful lot in this life. There have been some people like this, served enormously, very on a great high scale. But at the end, they did something which destroyed it all together. And so the cup of water instead of being pure, it is adulterated.

[01:32:06]But there is one remedy which we can still have and this is again a marvelous thing that we have, this remedy. You know, have you seen in chemistry, there are some, if you have something, for instance, colorful, dirty, you just drop one little chemical into it, it'll purifies it, cleanse it immediately. And this is the same thing here. In our deeds, in our life, we can cleanse our deeds and our actions with servitude, becoming a servant, really, becoming selfless. That is like this chemical which will purify all the wrong things that one has done. And God will come to you then in great measures. This is why, Bahá’u’lláh says, how many a person who has lived the life of service and at the end, just at the end, when he's going to go, he does something which will ruin his whole life. All his services are gone. And how many a person who has lived a terrible life and just at the time of his passing through one deed through the carrying out of one action, just like this chemical that I say drop into this water, he will become completely absolved all the wrong things he had done. And that's why he says, no one knows what his end shall be, and that we should pray for ourselves that we may end up with pure deeds and pure thoughts, with pure actions. The most important thing is not to serve the Faith. The most important thing is to serve the Faith with pure motive. You know, if I serve the Faith with wrong motive, and there may be some people, I mean I don't know. When one looks upon oneself, one comes across this, that one may be serving for, sometimes or to some extent, for wrong motives. If you serve the Faith because "Oh well, I serve the Faith so that I become responsible for this work or that work, and people will pay attention to me or I'll become an important person." Well, this is really dangerous. This is dangerous.

[01:34:38]I mentioned there's nothing in this life except the station of servitude for us. And servitude is what ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says become like a dust in the pathway of their loved ones. I remember when I was young, and I was going-- my father was in prison at the time.

[audio cuts off] (about the audio problems) Is it the speaker or not? Yes, it's okay.

[01:35:16]I remember that we used to go once a year to a very, very remote village, very remote village hidden behind so many mountains, loft in very high mountains higher than these mountains here or almost like these mountains. We have to go maybe three days riding on a donkey to get to this little village. And in that village there were about, the whole village was Baháʼí, but it was very small. Maybe about 20 people in it. It was the same village that in 1955 and there was a wave of persecution against the Baháʼís of Iran is called [?]. Seven people were martyred. Well, we used to go once a year, or at least my father used to go. And towards the-- when I was a young man, I used to go with him just to meet with these believers who were so cut off. And most of these believers were illiterate. They couldn't read or write. They were very beautiful people, very humble, very beautiful, full of the love of Bahá’u’lláh, but they had no education. In that year, my father was in prison because of the Faith, and He sent me a message. He said, "Now you go on your own." Now, at that time I was just a student in the university, had just come the first year of university and we know how it is. When you go into the university, you become very important. You feel very important and all the rest of it as young persons. And he said, "Now there is one condition. When you go there, you must never feel yourself superior to these people because you can read and write. You must never sit with them in a disrespectful manner." You know, just with an air of superiority. He gave me a lot of information about that, that we must consider ourselves as dust in the pathway of these loved ones of God. He said, "If you can go like this, then go on."

[01:37:36]And I can tell you it's a marvelous experience for us to become humble before each other because I mentioned yesterday, each one carries with him a sign of Bahá’u’lláh. And it is when you look into that Faith, you must see a sign of Bahá’u’lláh because all I can say in my life is that I am related to Bahá’u’lláh by name. I can't say more than that. I can't say really, "I am a Baháʼí." This is where the fear comes in also. How can I say I'm a Baháʼí really and truly? But I am related by name to him and that's enough. That's enough to look into the faces of the believers, and then you loved them because of Bahá’u’lláh. And the friends, when they have this devotion to the Faith and they serve the Faith just because with the right motive, then the great powers will come upon us. But if we serve the Faith with the wrong motive, I don't know. It's not really--. It's not acceptable, really. Bahá’u’lláh mentions that two things are very dear to God. One is the blood of the martyr. Now, the blood of the martyr. Now why is it that the blood of the martyr is dear to God. It's because, you know that the purpose of life in here is that we may become detached from this world and draw nearer to God. This is the purpose of life. But God has given us barriers. There are barriers. There are several barriers that we have to overcome. Barrier between man and God is His attachment. Bahá’u’lláh says there are three types of attachment. One of them is attachment to this world. We talked about it yesterday a little bit, attachment to the things of this world. This is one barrier. If we can remove that barrier, then we have two other barriers to overcome. The other barrier, he says is attachment to the next life and the reward of the next life. And that's a very, very deep subject when you think of it. We don't serve Bahá’u’lláh, the motive should not be, "Let me serve Bahá’u’lláh so that in the next life I have a good position there." You know?

[01:40:27]What time is it? You want a cup of tea? Since I've left my job, I've forgotten everything. [laughter] We serve God not because we are going to be rewarded, but do you know why we serve God? Bahá’u’lláh mentions it in our daily prayers. You read it every day, the noon prayer. I don't know it in English, in Arabic. When he translated, it become, "I bear witness to God that though has created me to know thee and to worship thee." That is the purpose of creation. God has not created us for anything else but just that we know Him and to worship Him. Do you remember when we were talking about the soul, I was mentioning that the purpose of life is for us, for our soul to bring forth a fruit, a child, and that the only way it can do it is to turn to another force, to another agency. And that the purpose of life is that we turn to Bahá’u’lláh, that we love Him and worship Him. And as a result of this, the spirit of faith is born in us. So you see, we do not carry out all the teachings of God so that in the next life we can become a very exalted person, great station. Although this will happen, there's no doubt about it. This will come by itself, but to be attached to it. It's the wrong reason for serving the Faith. You see how delicate these parts are. And the other barrier which Bahá’u’lláh says, which John in here pointed out to us is the kingdom of names, attachment to the kingdom of names which is really, it boils down being attachment to our own perfections and accomplishments. You become attached to your knowledge. You like yourself because you're a knowledgeable man. You like to be praised because you're a knowledgeable man. This is attachment of the kingdom of names. You love to be praised for other actions that you do. This is another form of barrier.

[01:42:57]Now these barriers removed, you have a martyr because a martyr is a person who becomes detached 100%. When he says "I give my life" what has he done? He has become 100% detached. There's no, but none of us can reach to that point unless you come to that very point of testing, when you're tested at that hour, that moment. If you say so, if you come to that point and then you decide and say "I'll give my life" you become 100% detached. And that is what God loves more than anything else because it's 100% it's a complete detachment. And this is why Bahá’u’lláh says the blood of the martyr is the most precious thing in the sight of God because you have given up your all in the part of God. And the other thing which is beloved of God, the tears which are shed in fear of God, the tears which are shed in fear of God. And then Bahá’u’lláh in this tablet, He says we do not want people to give their lives. We do not want people to give their lives. The world should be such that people don't have to give their lives. And so we said, we have replaced it in this dispensation. We had replaced the blood of the martyr with teaching, with the efforts and the work of a teacher. Teaching the Cause of God has the most meritorious of all things in the sight of God. It's the most meritorious. It's not one of the most meritorious, but the most meritorious. Because we talked a great deal about teaching yesterday, remember I was saying the purpose of teaching is not just to increase our numbers. Main purpose is not that, but it is to bring a soul to its God. And we talked about it. Do you remember the force of attraction and all the rest of it we spoke about.

[01:45:08]You people are in the habit of drinking. I mean, drinking coffee and things, huh? [laughter] Yes! No, no. Go on. Yes. Otherwise- [audience member question] Yes, well, it is not the Kitáb-i-Íqán but it is in one of His tablets which He quotes in the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf. He quotes it. Yes, He says that, He's talking again about the fear of God, really, and the importance of religion. That religion, you see, when you, He says that when you have to carry out a teaching of God, not everybody has - it's very difficult to translate that word - shame, as you put it, the word shame from the original language. It means that there are some human beings, but Bahá’u’lláh says there are not many who have the sense of shame. If they do something wrong, they feel ashamed of it right away. You know, they feel immediately. They know they have done something wrong and they'll stop doing it. But he says, there are not many people like that and therefore he says the laws of God are given to us that we may obey them and that we should bring in here, you see, obedience to the laws of God and to have the fear. It's like saying-- and I'll give you an example of it in daily life. It's like saying that there are some citizens who can live without having a policeman among them. But there are very few such people who can live in peace and tranquility in a town without any policemen but you need a policeman. That's what Bahá’u’lláh is trying to tell us. He says we have to have a police. We have to have an agency by which men can discipline themselves. This is the purpose of that particularly. It's the meaning of that particular thing that you mentioned in the writings.

[01:47:25]Well, now I am going to, maybe we can stop some time, but I'm going to look at some of these questions which one of the things I love to do is to not answer questions. Leave it, leave it, leave it off. So you must push me to do it for you. Let us see. Where are we now? I'll look at it. You know, really, I feel that we are-- in this life we are having so much to do. Time is so short and every community, as I was saying yesterday, every community in the world now, the time is short and these opportunities that we have now for deepening and for teaching - because deepening on its own should really bring forth the fruit of teaching - the time will come that we will have not these opportunities. But now the challenge has just come and if we don't do it, if you don't arise to really respond to the call of teaching. All these questions are good and we must learn it. But I mean, the most important thing in our life is to think every day, am I teaching? And again I wanted to make it clear, teaching doesn't mean that every day you must go and definitely talk to somebody, although it's a very good thing to do. But it means every day you must be doing something about teaching it. Maybe you're doing something about one person. You may be doing something about two people in your lives, but that you're doing something all the time to teach the Cause of God because the opportunities will not come again. And God may give this to someone else to do it instead of us. The conditions of the world are very moving very swiftly towards an end of all this comfort and all the peace that we still have in the world. The conditions will dramatically change and then we may find that the opportunities are lost. But really God has chosen us. And this is a marvelous thing to think that God has chosen us from among six thousand million peoples of the world and have told us like Bahá’u’lláh, like that friend of ours in that remote country, telling us to go and do certain things for Him. He says, "I can't do it. You are in there. You must do it for me." And this, I think, this feeling will urge us to go ahead. But we are chosen really by God to carry out His work and it is a great, great privilege.

[01:50:16]I just wanted to tell. There came to me a story. I'll tell you it is a Persian story which will indicate how much we must thank God that we are chosen today to become, to carry this great responsibility with us. The story is a story of a mother who have three children, three sons. Do you know that story? [laughs] Mother who had three sons. And she wanted to know which one of them is worthy to become her, to inherit her estates and become the heir in the family. And so he wanted to test his sons. And so he invited-- the sons were living in a different homes, each one of them having their own lives, and the mother was living alone. And so the mother invited one of the sons to come and stay with her for the night. And she chose a very, very cold night, snow coming like maybe in Alaska, snow all over the place. And that night, she cooked a meal for herself and she put a lot of salt in it. Very much salty, full of salt. And she drained all the water from the taps and from everything. So there was no water in the house. And so they ate their food and they went to bed and they slept. In the middle of night, when the son was fast asleep in this little cozy room, warm, she woke her son up and she said, "I am very thirsty. Would you go and get me some water, please?" Oh, the son got up and he said, "Are you really thirsty?" He went to this tap water to get some water, and there was no water. So he came back and he said, "Well, there's no water and probably you can carry on until tomorrow morning." Okay. The mother said that, "Fine, Fine. That's okay."

[01:52:32]Then the second son did the same thing exactly to her. And the second son came and the mother got up and she said, "Look, I am very thirsty tonight. Would you give me some water?" The boy got up again and she said, "Are you really that thirsty?" She went there and she took a look at the water and found there was no water. She came back and she slept. She said, "There's nothing there." But then soon afterwards, he himself got thirsty. So he got up and he went out. He found there was no water here. He had to go in this cold weather out into the well to drag some water out of the well. So he went outside and he took some water for himself, drank some board and he said, "Well, it's not a bad thing. My mother was thirsty. I'll bring a cup for her as well." So he brought a cup, woke up her mother and said, "There is some water for you." That's the second son. He brought the water, but he brought it with the wrong motive. You know what I mean? The first time that the mother was thirsty, he didn't go out. But when he himself became thirsty, he goes into all the trouble in the cold outside, gets the water, brings it along, he drinks it himself because he was thirsty. And then he gives it to his mother. You see how wrong motive is? And then, of course you know the third son what he did. You can imagine as soon as the mother said on thirsty, he went out. He found there was no water. He said, "Okay, I'll go outside and I'll get some water for you." And when he came back, he gave the water to his mother. So now that was chosen. That person was chosen to become the heir because he did serve him with the right motive. And this is exactly like us. Now we have been chosen, really, and when we do things with the right motive. But then the time will come, I can assure you. The time will come that we will be longing to do service to the Cause, to bring great numbers into the Faith and we may not be able to do it. This is what happened in Persia. The believers in Persia are now longing to do something, but they can't. They can't. The doors will be closed.

[01:55:13]Now I'll tell you another story, and then we'll go for a little drink. You know that there say, there was a man in Persia. Often farmers have to go because there is, this will come only when the Faith grows enough to attract opposition from the religious leaders. The religious leaders, Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has told us, Shoghi Effendi has told us, will rise up against against the Faith in the future with such vehemence that Shoghi Effendi in one of his letters says it will eclipse. It will become much more than what has already happened in the Faith on a worldwide scale, the opposition which would come to the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. If you use your imagination, really, you can come to see that. Shoghi Effendi mentions that when the faith grows and has attract enough attention to itself, the leaders of churches in the West will rise up against us. Now, this is not what he says. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has said this. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has said that how the world will rise up against the Faith. He says they will come, that the Africans, the Americans, the Europeans Turks, the Chinese, they all will rise up against the Faith with such vehemence that it's very difficult to explain, he says, at the time. And then he says the believers will arise to defend the Faith with such forcefulness, with such faith, with such powers coming to them, such confirmations that they will certainly establish the ascendancy of the Cause and overwhelm those who have a reason to oppose them. Shoghi Effendi says when the Faith will reach a point that people will take notice of it. He has written this letter, a very special letter to the Persian friends. And he says that the time will come that once this happens, the churches in the Western world will rise up against us, and he says, especially the Anglican Church. And then he says it will be followed by the Catholic Church. And he says the pope himself will stand up and oppose the Faith with all his power and authority.

[01:57:29]Can you imagine what will happen then? All these things. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says He's longing for the day that from the pulpit, the clergy denounced the Faith. It is the time that great numbers will come into the Faith. The more they oppose it, the more the Faith will be proclaimed and more people coming to it. Look at what has happened just we had received some persecutions in Persia and how much the Faith has been proclaimed all over the world. And people have come to at least hear its name and know of its existence and become familiar with its great standards and qualities and teaching. How much more would it be when these great leaders of the world rise up against us? And He as they rise up against us, the Faith will grow much more. And as the faith grows more, their opposition will get fiercer. And, as the opposition get fiercer, the Faith will grow more. And then He says the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh will really be established by the action of its enemies throughout the world. And he says that the opposition, which the clergy will have in the Western world, will have its reverberations and it'll respond, it will create again the same sort of persecutions in all the continents of the world. And then He says it will affect the Hindus and the Buddhists, and they will rise up against us, He says. The Hindu leaders of religion and the Buddhists will rise up against the Faith with such vehemence that He says it will bring to mind, reminiscent of the opposition which the clergy showed to the Faith in the earlier days and denounced the faith from the pulpits in Persia. And then He says when the Faith reaches the greater and greater ascendancy, the political leaders will rise up against the Faith because they see the bankruptcy of their institutions.

[01:59:11]So you see, they don't do anything until they see that there is a threat and the threat is when the Faith grows. Not until it grows will people oppose it. Who knows when that will be? It depends on our work and the progress of the Faith. [audience member question] I don't know. As I said, it all depends. If in a country now you ignite a fire of-- if you, for instance, in Ireland that you are teaching, great numbers come into the Faith, they will come right away and oppose us with tremendous power and authority. Already, this has happened when the Ten Year Crusade started and some pioneers went to South Pacific. Some of the friends may remember. The pioneer, the great numbers came into the Faith in some of these islands and some of these churches rose up against us with such forcefulness. They threw away some of the pioneers out of the country. They deprived all the members of the Faith from all their social benefits. And all these things have happened already, but on a very small scale. Already in Scotland, we have had several times the clergy have denounced the Faith from the pulpit and in the newspapers with great vehemence. But these are nothing comparing with the time that they become desperate and then we will see how they will oppose us. Well, friends, this is, we better, it seems to me that time is telling we must go. And I've managed to put one or two questions still unanswered so we'll see how it will go in the afternoon. [applause] Thank you. So you'll all go for lunch.

[02:01:01]Well, friends in this session I promise to talk about these, some of the questions. Now there is a question here. It's quite a long one, a lot of aspects about the obligatory prayers, about the long obligatory prayers. And there are some questions asked, seven or eight of them. I think some of these questions are things that I could maybe discuss with the person because we cannot really talk about it here. This is all actions and movements and all the rest of it, but I will go to some of the gist of some of the basic points that you have raised here about the long obligatory prayer. As you know, Bahá’u’lláh in this obligatory prayer mentions that we should say this prayer when we are feeling spiritually uplifted and in every 24 hours. And He says that when you stand there, before you start it, you should gaze as if awaiting the mercy of your Lord coming to you. In other words, you just, He says, look to the right and look to the left as if you're waiting for the mercy of God to come to you. And now the question is this. How do you gaze? Now, the answer to this is up to you. Really, it's nothing that we can describe this. This is, you see, the obligatory prayers as you can see has some symbolic, symbolism in there. There are some symbolisms in this. There are symbolic actions that you do, which is, as I mentioned in the original in the first day, the actions are symbolic of our attitude that when you raise your hands in supplication, this is reinforcing what you're saying by your actions. And these actions, for instance, of supplicating which is to raise your hands upwards towards God is only a symbolic action. The same thing is with the action of prostrating yourself down on the ground before your God is when you are feeling, you're expressing your humility and utter nothingness to God. And that is why probably Bahá’u’lláh has said that this prayer should be said alone in the privacy of your own chamber. You cannot say this prayer when there are others around. And that we've talked about it, of course, in the first day.

[02:04:24]Now, here again, it's also symbolic of waiting for the mercy of God to come to you, just as you're beginning that you're standing to say your prayer. I think Bahá’u’lláh trying to enable us to concentrate here. It is really a message to now that you're just going to say your prayers, you are in the presence of your Lord. You are going to be in the presence of your Lord. You must await and expect His mercy, and His bounty is upon us. And this is what's in our hearts. And this movement, looking to the right and to the left, is just symbolic of our inner attitude. It's no use just to look up to the right and to the left when our inner attitude is not with us, and the inner attitude should be that now I am standing before my God and I am going to say these passages. And when you read the obligatory prayers, you will see most of the passages are expressing one's impotence, one's ignorance, one's utter nothingness, really, in relation to the greatness and the loftiness of His creator. And then there are occasions that you praise Him, you glorify Him. You see? These are all the most important aspect of this prayer. It's the attitude that we have to develop during this period, and to concentrate and to know that we are in front of our God. Some of the friends were not here. We described a little bit about, we talked a little bit about the obligatory prayers and the importance of it. And we said that Bahá’u’lláh has mentioned, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, that if we do not say them, that we can never get close to Them. We can never kept close to Bahá’u’lláh. And also how important it was, we discussed this in great detail. So maybe those of you who are not here maybe one day somebody can tell you about it.

[02:06:32]Yes, there is another question here which is worthy of discussion. And it says, "Can you explain the meaning of the following words that appears in the obligatory prayers?" It says, Bahá’u’lláh says, "Make my prayer, O my Lord" - or the person says when you're praying, "Make my prayer, O my Lord, a fountain of living waters whereby I may live as long as Thy sovereignty endureth, and may make mention of Thee in every world of Thy worlds." Now you can have beautiful, what a beautiful vision Bahá’u’lláh is giving to us in here. I mentioned again the first day about the soul of man. You remember about the soul, how it comes into being and how the soul has a beginning but it has no end. And that the soul will last in all the worlds of God, as long as God exists. Now, here we are praying that that soul, and also we talked about the soul of men in the next life being graded. There will be different grades, how we talked about this. Now here really one is asking that this prayer may become a means by which we may progress in the spiritual worlds of God as long as God exists and "make mention of Thee in every world of Thy worlds". First of all again, I think we mentioned that the worlds of God is not one, that the spiritual worlds of God are infinite. And there is nothing greater in this life also, for a Baháʼí, and also in the spiritual worlds of God than mentioning Him, mentioning the word of God. You see, the word of God is the source of our existence. Everything has been created through the influence of the word of God. It's like the rays of the sun to this life. What this rays of the sun does to all this creation, the word of God does to man. And in here, Bahá’u’lláh explains to us and in fact, there is an indication that in all the worlds of God, the most potent force which exists which will enable man to grow is the influence of the word of God, in the same way that in this physical life, the most potent force which exists which enables us to grow, is the rays of the sun. And that these words of God in the next life are similar to the rays of the sun, which enable our souls to grow as a result of it.

[02:09:19]To mention, to make mention is a very important thing. When you read the writings, you're make mentioning of your Lord. When you read, when you say prayers, you're make mentioning of your Lord. When Bahá’u’lláh says in the Hidden Words that you must make mention of Him, He says that the - I'm paraphrasing His words in English. He says that, "The remedy of all your ills is remembrance of Me. Forget it not." Now that remembrance and the mention of God are the same words, really in Arabic. You remember God by reading the words, by reading the prayers. This is remembering, mentioning Him. All of this thing really relates to our attitude again of devotion to God. But again, look, there is one thing we must also say here that every individual believer should read the writings for himself and you can meditate upon it yourself. The writings of Bahá’u’lláh are such that every human being can talk about it, can think about it, can meditate upon it, think of it, see what you feel, what you understand of it. At the same time, there are passages which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has explained to us the authoritative meaning of it. Now His explanation, His interpretation is authentic and is authoritative. But it doesn't stop the believers themselves to read the writing and understand the way you want it, but you must make sure it is not authoritative and that it is good for yourself. And that we must not try to convert other people to our understanding of a certain passage. You can certainly talk about it, but as long as it is clear that it is your understanding of it. But we are all free to do that, and this is how we develop and how we grow. It's not forbidden that we must not interpret our own understanding of a thing as long as our interpretation is not: (a) against the interpretation of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá if such an interpretation exists, and (b) as long as we don't go and propagate it in the community in such a way as to try to bring about an argument amongst the believers so that somebody says "no, it means this" and you say "no, it means this" and then there is an argument. In this case, Bahá’u’lláh says both of them are wrong. It's a marvelous teaching. It's one of the best teachings of Bahá’u’lláh.

[02:11:44]Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl, the great Baháʼí scholar, he has mentioned some of the outstanding teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. And the first on his list is this, that he says that Bahá’u’lláh in this day has forbidden people to interpret His writings in an authoritative way. And then he says that He also has told that if people begin to argue amongst themselves about the subject, both parties are wrong. Now he think this is a marvelous teaching, and this is true, so that we can also read these words yourself and meditate upon it. Now, meditation, somebody asked, we must not confuse this meditation with all these techniques which people have developed in this day and age. There is no technique for meditation in the Baháʼí Faith. It is entirely up to the individual to read the writings and then to think about it and to try to understand it. There is no such a thing as turning within yourself to find out what you think, but it is something of turning to your God to find out how He might affect your heart. Those of you who were here, we were talking about the knowledge of God which comes to the heart of men. You remember that? The first day we talked about it, how knowledge comes through the heart of man, the knowledge of God and not through your mind. The mind will pick it up afterwards and understand it. But it first comes into your heart. It dawns in your heart, within your heart. And that, I think I mentioned this story the other day about the man who came along and asked me and he said, "I didn't understand this. I don't accept this word of Bahá’u’lláh." Yes, I think I mentioned that so I better not to go through these things. I hope that you don't. Those who haven't been here, I hope you won't mind me not saying these things again.

[02:13:39]So you see friends, here we find that we have ample room for reading the writings, every individual, and meditating yourself and understanding it. And if you keep on reading the writings, now this is what will happen. If you keep on reading the writings, if you keep on studying the writings, which is also different from reciting the writings in the morning and in the evening, to study the writings and to recite in the morning and in the evening are two different acts. One is designed for having a spiritual food as we do it. Bahá’u’lláh jas ordained for us, has told us we should read His words, recite His words in the morning and in the evening. This is for the spiritual food, although you learn from it as well. But the study of the writings is different. We have to study it in our own time. We can ask questions. We can discuss it amongst ourselves, just as we are doing now. We are discussing this subject now, but it is not by any means exhaustive. It is only one man's opinion of one's understanding and that we should read it ourselves. And if you keep on reading and reading, and today you understand something about these words, but I can assure you after a year's time, if you keep on reading the writings, your understanding of that particular passage will so much mature and you can understand much more than today, provided we turn our hearts to Bahá’u’lláh and let His light or His knowledge shine within our hearts. So we see meditation in the Faith, there is no system. There is no ways. There is no techniques. We have to turn, read the writings, think about it, but turn always to Bahá’u’lláh for assistance. When peoples of the world, the people who do not have access to the word of God in this age, well, you can't blame them. They want to know something, and they constantly turn within themselves. And you know, when you turn within yourself, you can find an awful lot of things which is not right. And so we come out with all kinds of ideas, but when we turn to the writings and we pray and we meditate. Now, if you read something of the writings and you don't understand it, don't rebel against it. We must accept and we must submit. And then eventually the meaning of that thing becomes clear to you. But as long as you submit the minute you rebel and say "I won't accept that", then the doors are closed and we never will understand the meaning of something.

[02:16:14]Now I think that, yes, there are--. Bahá’u’lláh here in the long obligatory prayer, He says, "I know the following refer to Bahá’u’lláh, but why all these particular words and titles used?" I don't think anybody can answer that question. It's only Bahá’u’lláh who knows why He has used these particular titles, and the word is this. You know there is a passage again in, I don't know the English of the obligatory prayer to recite for you here, but when he refers to Bahá’u’lláh and he says that He is the Hidden Mystery, that's Bahá’u’lláh being the Hidden Mystery, the Treasured Symbol through whom the letters B and E have been joined and knit together. And do we say the words "be" in the parentheses? No, we won't say the word "be" in the parentheses. We just say the letters B and E because in the original language, it's the same thing. Now I'm sure. maybe I better say something about the meaning of these letters B and E and the Treasured Symbol and the Hidden Mystery. You see, Bahá’u’lláh here refers to Himself as the Hidden Mystery, as the Treasured Symbol, through whom the letters B and E have been joined and knit together. When you join the letters B and E, what will you get? Be. Now, this is a symbol. This is a call for the creation of all that is on earth and heaven. When God wanted to create - in Islamic they say that when God wanted to create this creation, He uttered one word and that word "be thou" and then it was. That is how creation came through the utterance of one word. And in here we say that it is Bahá’u’lláh. Now Bahá’u’lláh does not mean Mírzá Ḥusayn-ʻAlí, the person who appeared in 18- say -50 and he passed away in 1892. Not the person but the spirit which animated Him. The Most Great Spirit, Bahá’u’lláh says, animated Him. If there is in the writings you will find there is a difference in here between - Bahá’u’lláh differentiates between the Holy Spirit of God which animated all the prophets of the past and the Most Great Spirit which animated Him.

[02:18:46]You will find that in His writings, Bahá’u’lláh always refers to the Most Great Spirit in this age. And this an indication of the greatness of this revelation. We cannot again measure these things and say, "Well, how great it is." But all we can say it is the closest you can get to God is this Most Great Spirit. And it is that Most Great Spirit which has been responsible for the creation of Earth and heaven. The letters B and E have been joined together through the instrumentality of that Most Great Spirit. But that Most Great Spirit appeared in the form of a human temple some hundred years ago, for a short period of time. You see now? That Most Great Spirit of God appeared in the form of a human temple. It's animated the soul of Bahá’u’lláh and it is that which He therefore speaks, with the voice of God, and He says, "I am God." Bahá’u’lláh in many, many of His writings has said this, "I am God." It does not refer to His person. It is that voice with says, it is that spirit which says, "I am God." And we must remember that in the previous dispensations, the manifestations of the past did not say that. They always gave the glad tidings that one day, a day will come, that it will be the day of God, that God will walk upon this earth with His, with His servants. In the Old Testament, you can read. There are many passages in the New Testament. In the Quran, particularly, there are many passages about the coming of a day when God Himself, when man will meet and will come into the presence of God.

[02:20:36]Now we said yesterday again or day before about the fact that the essence of God is beyond us, the essence of God can have no connection, no relationship with man. You can have no relationship even with the manifestations of God. You see? No manifestation of God has ever understood the essence of God. Because if they do understand, if they have any connection with it, then they will become partners with Him. And this is impossible. Bahá’u’lláh mentioned this. He mentions and Shoghi Effendi has translated this. He says 10,000 prophets as great as Jesus stand dismayed. I'm paraphrasing His word. Stand dismayed at the threshold of Thy gate, dismayed when they hear that My essence, thou shalt never understand. Something to this effect. Bahá’u’lláh mentions in some of His Tablets. So you see, the essence of God is hidden from all of us. It cannot have any relationship with anything. If you attribute anything to the essence of God, that will cease to be the God, in His essence. You cannot say to Him, you cannot attribute to the essence of God that He's all-loving, that He is the all-knowing, that He's the all-wise. You cannot do that because as soon as you do that you limit Him right away. Bahá’u’lláh says that in His essence, there are no attributes. You can't attribute any attribute to Him. There are not divisions that you can say, "This is His attributes. This is His essence." And this is something that no man, no person, no human being, no manifestation of God can ever, ever comprehend the essence of God.

[02:22:16]This is why in the same obligatory prayer, if you remember, you say, there is a passage. And also in many other tablets, there is a passage when you say to God, you're praying to God, and you say, "Exalted art thou." I'm paraphrasing it, really. "You're so great that my prayer can never ascend to You. You're much more exalted than my prayer reaching You." Of course, the prayer of man can never reach to the essence of God. Bahá’u’lláh, this is why Bahá’u’lláh always, when He refers to Himself, He is the revealed word of God. This is the thing we can understand and appreciate. And what revealed it was the Most Great Spirit in this age. And this Most Great Spirit, Bahá’u’lláh, one of His tablets, says that the Holy Spirit of God which animated all the prophets was created by one word of this Most Great Spirit. You know, one of the titles of Bahá’u’lláh is this, that He is the one who has sent all the messengers. You read this in the Tablet of Visitation also. In the Tablet of Visitation of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. You read it, through Him all creation came into being and all revelations were sent down. And in here, you say it was through Him that the letters B and E where joined together, which means that the whole creation came into being. But it is not the person of Bahá’u’lláh. We must, of course, we are aware of that far. It is that Most Great Spirit which in this day manifested itself.

[02:23:50]And as I was saying yesterday or day before, Bahá’u’lláh in one of His tablets mentioned that the purpose, that the reason that God has created us is only so that this revelation may come into being. And Bahá’u’lláh may reveal Himself to mankind. Now here, we come to see therefore that Bahá’u’lláh refers to Himself as the Hidden Mystery. Now how can I say "What does it mean?" If it's a mystery, nobody will understand what it is. The Treasured Symbol, who can understand what it is? But one thing we understand is that it is the spirit of God which creates. Again, we should read it and meditate on it, and then it comes a point that you believe it. And then when you believe it, you will understand much more of it. And not until you believe it can you understand much more of it. And when you believe it and understand much more of it, your belief becomes much stronger. And when your belief becomes much stronger. Your understanding becomes much stronger. And you understand some things that the previous year you couldn't understand. So everything we acquire is through our belief, through our faith. And this is when the heart opens up. It's just like opening the valve of the heart step-by-step. And the more you open it, the more truth comes in, the more realities we can understand.

[02:25:16][audience member speaking] Yes, I would agree with it. Yes? [man continues speaking] No, we won't say that. [man speaking] No, we won't say that. We won't say that. This is what I was saying yesterday that we have to have wisdom in teaching. We would never say to a person who has never heard of the Faith before of this. You know, you learn things as time goes on. You can never learn everything at one go. And if you do that, you harm everybody. First of all, I can assure you that there is - Let me explain this point that we say the manifestations of God are one and the same. And at the same time we say this is much more exalted. Although I will not explain that now to a person who just wants to hear about the Faith. I will say to him that they are all the same. And they are all the same. But when you get deeper in the Faith, you will understand. You know, when you come across - divine revelation, we know, is progressive. And also life in here, if you look at nature, anything which has an organic growth, it grows from a child into an infant, into a child, into a boy, into a man. This sort of development you go through. Revelation is the same thing. There was a time that Revelation came in the form of, as if it was like a child, a child. And it revealed all the qualities in it of a child within that Revelation. Now, if you look at the child, this child is now one year of age. The next year it becomes two years and then eventually becomes, say, five years of age. When he becomes five years of age, if you go and see that five-year-old child, where is that one-year-old gone? The one-year-old doesn't exist anymore. The one-year-old is in that five-year-old. And then that five-year becomes 10-year-old. And that 10-year-old-- the five-year doesn't exist and the one-year doesn't exist. Now they all appear in the form of a 10-year. It's the same identity. So you are, for example, a person now 20 years of age but 20 years before you were a baby. You are the same as the baby 20 years ago, but you are very different from a 20 year ago, so that although your identity is the same, but your powers and qualities are far, far greater. And this is to say the same thing is with the manifestations of God. Christ, Moses, and Bahá’u’lláh are in these stages. We go through these stages. It's the same reality. But because it manifest itself at different ages, the identity is the same, but the capacities and the possibilities and the powers are far, far greater. You cannot ever compare a man of 21 years of age with the child of one. Although it's the same identity, it's the same person, so that this is one way, one way I say that you can look at this equality of the manifestations of God, and yet their diversity and their differences. We say the manifestations of God are one and the same, in one sense. And at the same time, we say, and the Quran mentions it, Bahá’u’lláh mentions in the Kitáb-i-Íqán, He stays, we have exalted some above the others. And this is because of this, this exaltation is because a child has developed into this growth and become a boy and become a man.

[02:29:09]Today, humanity - today, divine revelation with the coming of Bahá’u’lláh has reached the age, you might say, of maturity, just like a boy or a little infant has gone through stages until it has come to become 21 years of age. And when you become 21 years of age, for instance, what happens is that you can manifest all your powers within you, whereas these powers were latent within you when you were a little baby. These powers all existed there. You had legs, you had hands, you had organs, you had brain, but you couldn't use them. They were potential. But now that the idea of coming the age of maturity is that you can use those powers to the fullness. Now when you explain it in this way, then, gradually you must read the writing yourself. When you grow as a Baháʼí and then your understanding will widen. Of course, we cannot say these things to a person who is not a Baháʼí or who wants to investigate the Faith. You have to gradually bring him up. It's like trying to say to some person who begins to learn a science or anything at all, you suddenly throw him down the deep end. It's not going to be helpful. You have to gradually bring them up and up and up, step-by-step so that this is how the Faith grows. Again, I would say that we must read the writings. Read the writings so that through this, every individual has to understand for himself these things. And that's why I suggested that this - I think I did suggest, if I'm not wrong - I suggested that the friends should study the dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh and they should study The Advent of Divine Justice, those passages at the end of the book and read it for themselves. And if you didn't understand it, do not rebel against it. This is a very important point that I mentioned the first day. Do not rebel against it. Submit yourself to it and then pray about it and then read again other things. And someday your heart will begin to understand the meaning of all these things that you once were rebelling or you wanted to rebel against or you did not understand it. So, that is what I can say about this subject.

[02:31:29]Yes? [audience member question] Well, these are all very interesting. Very interesting contributions, Really. One thing now that you said it reminded me to mention and that is about the Supreme Manifestation of God that you said this. I think I must mention here that Shoghi Effendi in one of his letters, in some of his letters mentions to us, though, that we cannot put Bahá’u’lláh on the same level, on the same category as other manifestations of God because he is a Universal Manifestation of God. Now this is something that we have to explain to the people when they come close to the Faith, when their understanding of the Faith grows, we can talk to them about what a Universal Manifestation of God is. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says every 500,000 years, every half, approximately every half a million years, one such manifestation appears who is a Universal Manifestation of God. And He initiates an era, a cycle. He initiates a cycle, during which time all the manifestations who come will be under His shadow. Now, in order to understand this, I'm going to take you to nature again and give you an example of this in nature. In nature, you will find that a tree, if you have a tree there, the tree is growing. And why does it regrow? It's because the forces are released to it at the springtime. The springtime comes, releases forces of nature and forces of life and the tree begins to grow. And then this, the growth stops. And then another spring time comes. It gives it another impulse and the tree gets a little bit bigger and so on. It goes on and on. Every spring time, this process repeats itself so that the tree will continue to grow. But one spring time is a very special springtime in the life of the tree. There is one springtime which is a very special time. And that is the springtime when the tree for the first time give its fruit. This is a very critical and a very special springtime. We say the tree has now matured, has reached the stage of maturity. It has given its fruit. Now, whatever fruit the tree gives-- see how vital this year is? How vital the springtime is? Because whatever this, whatever fruit this tree gives, all the other future springtimes which will come cannot change it and will not change the nature of the fruit. Springtime after springtime will come, but it will never change the nature of the fruit although it makes the quality better.

[02:36:35]Now this is exactly the same thing as the revelations of God. When the first time the manifestations of God appear, like Moses and Christ and Mohammed, their job was to give an impulse, a spiritual impulse to the body of mankind. The humanity grew as a result of the appearance of these manifestations of God. Every time they came, it grew more. At the time of the coming of Bahá’u’lláh, the coming of Bahá’u’lláh is responsible for bringing forth the fruit of humanity. And you know what the fruit of humanity is going to be? The oneness of mankind. This is the fruit that we are going to give on this planet. And this has come about because this particular springtime of Bahá’u’lláh had been destined to bring forth the fruits. Now, whatever fruit this revelation brings forth, which is the oneness of mankind, all the prophets of the future are limited in a sense to promote it. They can't bring anything new than that, newer than that. In fact, this is true. On this earth, you cannot have anything more than the oneness of mankind. So that in one sense, this is the meaning, in one sense that all the prophets who come in the future are under the shadow of Bahá’u’lláh, means their teachings must revolve around the basic principle which Bahá’u’lláh has produced, the oneness of mankind. And I was mentioning this afternoon, this morning about the Baháʼí civilization that Shoghi Effendi talks about, the birth of Baháʼí civilization. And he say's that humanity will become so noble in the future. The emphasis will be on nobility, that this child of Baháʼí civilization will have to grow as a result of the coming of successive manifestations of God in this cycle of half a million years. So in that sense, we can say that Bahá’u’lláh is a Universal Manifestation of God. Or sometimes, you say, He's a Supreme Manifestation of God. But of course we must gradually explain these things to people. And this is where the wisdom in teaching is, you see?

[02:38:52]I was in a meeting the other day in Ireland and we were talking with some very staunch Roman Catholics about their faith. And after I spoke a little bit about Bahá’u’lláh's teachings or revelation, the man said, well, he thinks it is very good, but Christ was definitely much more exalted. I said I agreed with him. It's all right because as far as he's concerned, this is true at this stage. And we are not going to disagree with him, we are not going to, in here, go on and fight over all these things. If I would have told him no, this is wrong. They're equal. He wouldn't have accepted. He couldn't have gone a stage further. You have to help people, not everything they say to disagree with them. You just hear it, you just make a remark about it, another remark. Gradually, if you can bring them closer, they come to a time that they will say yes, He's equal. And then when they read more and more, they find that He is not, in a sense, that this is a Universal Manifestation of God. This is the difference. Now, well, I suppose we can go on now on these things. I don't know whether what I have explained is any good or sufficient for your questions. Now that I've talked about nobility of man, that Bahá’u’lláh says humanity will become noble in the future. I reminded me to tell you something when He describes a little picture, He gives us a little picture of the future, a little glimpse of what the future world will be like under His revelation and because of His revelation. Something we cannot visualize even. And I'm not going to go into, all details of all the things he has said, but just will give you one example of it. You know, there was a time that Bahá’u’lláh was in Baghdad, and Nabil has recounted this story, which is not published yet fully, or at least the Nabil's narratives are not published yet, that part of his narratives. But we have this section of it in which he describes that how one day he was seated and some, as you know Bahá’u’lláh- (audio cuts off)

[02:41:04]-and he asked some questions. He asked certain questions and the question was basically this: How can I believe that the Báb is a manifestation of God? The Báb. Bahá’u’lláh, I'm sure if it was me I would immediately go and say, "Oh, this is the proof. This is the proof. This is the proof." Or I would immediately begin to talk about the Báb. But Bahá’u’lláh knows that this person has not understood the reality of His prophet. The reality, I said, of His Prophet Mohammed. He has not recognized it. Because if He had recognized it, he wouldn't ask this question. He would immediately recognize the Báb. You see, there is a great deal of difference between knowledge and recognition. We're going further and further from the subject but I'll bring you back again. Don't be worried. You know that there is a great deal of difference between having a knowledge of something and being able to recognize something. I'll give you an example of this. You see, I have in my hand you can see here on my finger, there is a ring. This ring is made of gold. I know it. I have no doubt about it that this ring is made of gold. No doubt whatsoever in my mind. I've had it for all these years. I have a knowledge that this is gold. But can I recognize gold from brass? No, that's something different. It's the same thing with people who believe in religions today. They know that Christ is a manifestation of God. Can they recognize Him if it comes? No. That's our job as Baháʼís. And this is the secret of teaching. Our job as Baháʼís is to enable them to recognize the truth of Christ, the reality of Christ. I'm not talking of His teachings. Forget about His teachings. Everybody knows about His teachings. But the reality of Christ, how would you recognize Him if He walked in this room? What qualities he should have? How would you look at him? And would you say now, "This is because of this and this and this and this, I can see He is a manifestation of God." We Baháʼís should be able to do this. This is our job. This is the basis of our teaching.

[02:43:12]Now this is what exactly-- and so instead of me going straight away to talk to somebody about the Baháʼí Faith when I want to teach him the Faith, I must know--. And today this is the truth. The great, great, great majority, if not all the peoples of the world who have a religion, they have a knowledge of that religion. They cannot recognize. They have not been able to recognize the truth, the reality of their prophet. If they were able to recognize the truth of Christ, for example, a Christian, he would immediately become a Baháʼí. He would immediately recognize Bahá’u’lláh. So that when you come across a Christian, the first thing we have to do is to teach him how to recognize Christ as a manifestation of God, all based on facts. Not based on beliefs, but based on facts because there is a great deal of difference between facts and beliefs. You may believe in something. The Christians believe that Christ went up to heaven. But is this a fact or not? Fact is something that nobody can deny it. For instance, the existence of China is a fact. Why is it a fact? I haven't been to China. You haven't been to China, but the reason that we say it's a fact that China exists is because nobody has denied its existence. It becomes a fact. But what would you do with something which some people denied? It's not. It's not a fact. It could be a true. It could a fact, but it is a belief. So that we must be able to explain the reality of Christ, not with what people believe, but with facts, so that nobody could deny those facts. Here, 2000 years later, you can prove the Truth of Christ mission 2000 years later in such a way, in many ways, when you read the writings, in many, many ways that nobody can deny them because they're all facts. And it becomes very clear. That's how you recognize Christ. And when that person accepts that, then you talk to him a little bit about Bahá’u’lláh and can show him the similarities.

[02:45:26]This is what Bahá’u’lláh did when this man asked him about the Báb. He said, "How can I believe in the truth of the Báb?" Bahá’u’lláh knew this man does not know, has not recognized the truth of his religion, the truth of his prophet. And so what did He do in the Kitáb-i-Íqán when He wrote the answer? He begins, He never says anything about the Báb. He begins to talk about Noah, talk about Moses, talk about Jesus, talk about Mohammed, talk about all the old religions and history of old religions and a lot of spiritual facts. He brings out from all the base and he builds the foundation. What is He doing? He's building the foundation, building the foundation all the time. It's like somebody who comes along and asked you as I said yesterday, he says, "Tell me about electricity." And what would you do? You teach him all about mathematics. You keep on teaching about mathematics. Come Sunday, teach him about mathematics until such time that you can tell him, "Now, this is electricity." Now this is what Bahá’u’lláh does in the Kitáb-i-Íqán. He talks a great deep about the about the past, making him to recognize the truth of some of the things of the past. And then, at the end of the book, a little portion at the end of the book, maybe 10 pages, 20 pages at the end of the book, He applies everything to the Báb. How clear it becomes, of course! And this man, when he received it, he recognized. He became a believer. Now you see now?

[02:47:05]This is one of the things we must remember in our teaching work. We must not, when you are teaching a person who is a Christian, for instance, I must teach him first to recognize the truth of his religion. And this is really the thing we must learn: not to talk about the teachings of Christianity. Oh no, the teachings of Christianity is clear. The history of Christianity is clear, but how to recognize Christ as a manifestation of God. Now these other things that in seminars, you'll have to have seminars in which you can discuss these things so that we can be able to do that. And therefore, when we are teaching the people the Faith, we don't begin with suddenly indulging in all these subjects which we Baháʼís often are in the habit of doing, of bringing the teachings, bringing the history of the Faith. But first, talk to him, confirm his faith, confirm his religions. And it is at least my custom is that whenever we have a meeting with the people who want to know about the Faith and we are teaching him the Faith, first of all, you must know what they believe, as they were saying yesterday. And once you believe what they say, if they are a religious person, maybe, oh, maybe ten sessions - ten sessions - you talk to him about Christ, nothing about Bahá’u’lláh, continuously until he really recognizes Christ. And then it's very easy to apply these things. And then this person who was staunching his religion become more and more inclined towards the Faith until such a time that he becomes a very staunch Baháʼí. He has the full background, and the foundation is perfect for it, a strong foundation.

[02:48:47]Oh, I don't know why we went into that. Oh, yes! I was going to tell you about the story of Bahá’u’lláh in Baghdad when He was sitting there and He was talking to some of His disciples. And then some of these princes arrived, two or three princes. And Bahá’u’lláh changed the subject immediately. And when He changed the ubject, one of these princes objected and he said to Bahá’u’lláh, "How is it that when we come in, you change the subject?" He says, "You are speaking about spiritual things to these people. But when we come, you talk to us about worldly things. What is the news of the market, what is the news of Persia, and all these things." And then Bahá’u’lláh had to tell them. He said, "You know, I tell you who is worthy to hear My call and My words." And He began to expound this and He gave them an example. Now I hope that when I give you this example, it wouldn't confuse you now because it's possibly that so many people will come out with questions. After this, I'll be in trouble. But I will tell you. And you know, I have written that thing in one of these volumes. He says should there be should a man standing on a vast plain, say a man, a human being is brought out and he's standing on a vast plain. And if on his right hand side is accumulated all the wealth and all the powers and all the treasures and all the kingdoms of the world. And on his left side is accumulated all the poverty's and the persecutions and the sufferings. And the voice of God, should the voice of God reach this man on this plain and tell him, "Take any of them you like. It's up to you. You're free to choose any side. You can take what is in the right, all become yours. The sovereignties, the minions, the treasures of this earth or all this suffering and the poverty and the persecutions. And if the voice of God tells him that if you take this treasures and all the wealth and all the beautiful things, not one little thing will be taken of your spiritual station. This will be promised to you that your spiritual station will remain the same. It wouldn't affect to take it. Take all the money. Take all the wealth and all that powers of this world in your hands. Your spiritual status will remain the same. And should you decide to take all the poverty and the sufferings on the left hand side, not one little thing will be added to your spiritual station. And then Bahá’u’lláh says should this man - now you're free here, you know? You can take any of them without losing your status. Which one would you choose? Bahá’u’lláh says should this man incline himself towards the left where he is, towards the poverty and the sufferings, such a person is worthy to hear My work.

[02:52:00]And then He goes on to tell them, He says, "I have come to create a new race of men." And He says the new race of men that He has come to establish, He gives five examples of the new race of men. I'll give you one of them. This is enough because of time. This is it, He says, "I have come to create such a race of men that in the future-". He says in the future. In this Revelation, now remember, as a result of the coming of Bahá’u’lláh, should there be a very beautiful woman, young woman, very beautiful, and should she have all the jewels, most expensive jewels with her, and should this woman travel from the east of the world to the west of the world, single and alone, no man will be found who would cast a lustful eye on that woman or would want to go for her jewels. He says, "I've come to create such a race of men." He says these are His own words that Nabil has recounted. He said not one man will be found. Now it doesn't mean that men will be different in the feelings of sexual relationship, sexual urge. It's not something that you say, "Oh well, they will be different types of men." No, they'll be the same, but that they will be able to control, so much spiritually-inclined that they can control. They will control. And He says, "I have come to create such a race of men." So this is where we are talking about this child of Baháʼí civilization has to grow and become mature and become full of perfections. Now we are in the very darkest period, remember, of the history of man. Now you can't even go - I don't know how it is in here, but in our country a woman cannot go at night alone from here to there, you see? See the vast, the difference?

[02:54:13]So there is another question about the Hidden Words. And again I would advise you to read it yourself and find out. "I entreat Thee by Thy footsteps in this wilderness, and by the words 'Here am I. Here am I,' which Thy chosen Ones have uttered in this immensity, and by the breaths of Thy Revelation, and the gentle winds of the Dawn of Thy Manifestation, to ordain that I may gaze on Thy beauty and observe whatsoever is in Thy Book." Well, I suppose the things which are probably needs a little explanation here: "I entreat thee by thy footsteps in this wilderness." This "thy footsteps in the wilderness" is what I said before. It is the fact that God, the Most Great Spirit of God, the Most Great Spirit appeared in the form of a human temple. The human temple walked on this earth. This wilderness is this earth. You know, in one of His Tablets, Bahá’u’lláh says all the spiritual worlds of God are crying out and saying, "Blessed art thou, O earth, for thou hast been made the footstool of thy God." I'm paraphrasing His word. So that really when you say that "thy footsteps in this wilderness", it means God manifesting Himself in the form of a human temple. And by the words, "Here am I, here am I", now the word "Here am I", this is an Islamic reference to an Islamic saying that when in the day of judgment, God manifest Himself, the peoples of the world will turn to Him, will run to Him, will go to Him, those who are spiritual, those who are recognize Him. And this call of "Here am I, here am I" means "I am your servant. I believe. I am your-" This is what the believers said. This is the call of the believers. This is the call of the early disciples, of the dawn breakers who come and say "here am I, here am I" which thy chosen ones have uttered, means those people who had been the disciples, they call out. When the Lord appears, they run to Him and they recognize Him. And they say "here am I, here am I".

[02:57:03]And then "by the breaths of Thy Revelation". Well, this is obvious. "The breaths of Thy Revelation" means the forces which this Revelation has been released in the world. And "the gentle winds of the Dawn of Thy Manifestation", these are all expressions of the-- you see, again, you can see here that this is a very interesting word, "the gentle winds of the Dawn of Thy Manifestations". Always God, when he manifests Himself, the same way as the sun - go to nature again. The nature will teach us a lesson. When the sun comes out in the morning, it doesn't suddenly blaze upon you with all its energy. It's first very gentle. The rays of the sun if you stand in the very, very early in the morning, in the vast plain and you see how the sun rises, the rays of the sun is very gentle at first. It's the dawn. It's the beginning. It's the early days. And as the sun rises, the energies become more and more evident. And this is exactly the same thing as Revelations of God. When Bahá’u’lláh appeared, the gentle winds of the Dawn of His Revelation were really obvious. They were gentle. This was a time that Bahá’u’lláh was in, for instance, the mountains of Kurdistan. Those beautiful, some of the beautiful writings He has left behind, although I mentioned the other day that most of His words were not recorded, some of those beautiful words. You know that prayer you have, which is translated into English "Create in me a pure heart, O my God". This is, for instance, revealed in the Mountains of Sulaymaniyah in the mountains of Kurdistan. Or the other one that I don't know the English of it was revealed there as well. That's a good way of saying it, isn't it? [laughter] There are several of them. "Create in me a pure heart", isn't it? What I said? Yes, this is one of them. And there is another one, which is a very favorite prayer of mine. But I don't know which it is in English. "From the sweet-scented streams of Thine eternity". You know, these are the gentle breezes of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh. And when you come further and further into the Revelations later on, as the sun rises, you come across those passages when Bahá’u’lláh identifies Himself with God here. "I am God." You know? The Revelation takes its shape of power and authority. This is the face of your Lord, you see, so that here began to probably when you look - not look. Now when you read it maybe it will be of some help. And I think this would be sufficient, really. Then I'll see you.

[03:00:09]Friends, what is the program? What you're going to do? Do you want to go on like - you can't go on like this 'til four o'clock. You'll be absolutely, you know. Wouldn't you like to have a little break of 10 minutes? I think so.

[10-minute break]

[03:00:42]My friends, always when it comes to the last session, I feel very sad. This is the session we have to say farewell. Oh, you can't. Can you hear it now? Yes. I was saying that the last session was always a sad occasion, especially for a visitor and especially when one sees such a marvelous community, really, as I have seen here in these two or three days, really. But this is the way the Faith is growing now all over the world is through the influence and the work of, the power of Bahá’u’lláh. Everywhere that you go, you come across such beautiful faces all over, everywhere you go. Everywhere, the friends have become luminous in their work, in their faces, in their spirit, in their work, and this is what gives us encouragement and hope for the future. I don't know what to say because there are questions, and the time is very short, but there's only one or two questions that probably I will deal with it. Now, someone asked me a question, and I'm not sure whether that person is here or not, but maybe he's not or she's not. I will nevertheless say it. And that was the question of punishment. He wanted to know what punishment, whether it's good or bad, when you do something wrong. Should we punish a person who does something wrong? Or should he be dealt with in a lenient way and compassionately and try to not to give him the punishment? Well, I feel that this is very clear in the writings. As you know, in the society, in the outside world, their tendency is to become compassionate, dealing with criminals, dealing with people who do the wrong things to do some crime is to be compassionate to them. And there are some theories, even, lately, which say that it is much better to educate people than to punish them. And so as more and more people become humanitarian, as well as people become really less and less religious, they'll become more and more humanitarian. You see, the humanitarian movements, which tend to want to brush aside some aspects of such things as punishment and so forth if you do something wrong, these have been, during the last 30 or 40 years, have been coming up much more to the surface because religion have become, in these days, have become less and less effective.

[03:04:20]Whereas the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh teaches the opposite. And I can tell you what He says, which is very harsh, maybe, in some cases. He says if somebody does something which deserves a punishment, give him the punishment and do not become compassionate. For this is justice, He says. I think we can understand that because He has explained that in some other writings, the wisdom of punishment. Punishment is really a mercy of God, if you look at it in the right way, punishment for what you do in this life. The reason that the people want to get away from punishment is because they can only see this world, this life here on this earth. That's all they can see. People can see this life on this earth as being the beginning and the end of all things. You're coming into this world and the intention here, as long as you're here, you must try to make the best of it and get as much as you can get out of it. Isn't that right? This is how people are working. They want to get as much as they can get out of it, at any cost, really. And that if you are to be punished, no, if you can get away with it, it's a marvelous thing because your end, your purpose is to have as much as you can get out of this world. Why should you be punished? Now Bahá’u’lláh does not share this view at all because He sees further than this world. You remember in the first day we were saying that this world is not a place to live in. This is only a temporary period for acquiring qualities and perfections that in the next life, that is where the life of man begins, in the same way that the life for a child in the womb of the mother is not to be in the womb of the mother, but to be born and to live in this world.

[03:06:15]Now Bahá’u’lláh explain this principle of punishment in this way. He gives an example. He says if you were to steal from somebody in the summertime a seed of a tree, say you steal a seed of a tree from somebody in the summer, in the springtime. If you give him back in the springtime the thing that you have stolen, you don't owe him anything because you steal it from him, you gave him back. You don't owe him anything. But if you don't give him back in the springtime, what do you owe him in the summer? You owe him a tree, not a little seed but a tree and the fruits and all the rest of it. You see now the very great wisdom in here? In other words, if I do something wrong in here, if I pay for it here in this life, my burden in the next world is not much. I don't owe anything to anybody. But if I don't pay it here, how much do I have to pay it in the next life for what I have done? And I have not paid for it here. You see now? Can you see the wisdom here of punishment? Of how it is the mercy of God in fact that in this life, if you pay for it, it is light. But who knows how much you have to pay for it in the next life? You, for instance, kill somebody here. Well, this is a horrific crime. Taken someone's life. How much is it worth in the next life, do you think? How much do I have to pay for it in the next life? Cannot be estimated. So that this is why Bahá’u’lláh says that all His commandments are a mercy to him, mercy to man. All the commandments of God, if you look at it, there is a wisdom, there is an understanding. And how much the world is unaware of these spiritual realities, spiritual truths.

[03:08:25]Well now, there is one question which has come in here, and it's the last one. And then I will want to really save a little. And after that, you must have been tired and exhausted of hearing me all the time. [audience member speaking] No. No, no, no. Oh, no. We are talking of institutions, institutions of humankind. And this, of course, as far as the Baháʼís are concerned, the law of Bahá’u’lláh, the laws that He has brought, these laws are the future of mankind, not for the present society. The present society cannot implement the laws of Bahá’u’lláh in fullness at all. Until the Baháʼí government comes into being, you cannot implement the laws of Bahá’u’lláh. And it is then the institutions which must, the institutions of government, which must then apply the law. There's a question here about the equality of men and women. And that's how it is that women are not members of the House of Justice. Well, now this is - I'll briefly deal with it. You know, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has answered this. He says in the future you will know the answer, the reason for it. Now, the future, when the future is, I don't know. Some people think they can know it now. Now it's up to you to think about it. Some people think, no, they have to wait. I tell you someone who told me he knew it now and that was a woman. She said, "You know, the members of the House of Justice. Do you know what the functions are?" First of all, let me put one point in here, which is very important point. You know, in this life we have equality of men and women according to the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, equality of men and women in rights and privileges. The fact that men and women are equals is because their souls are equal. The souls of men and women, there's no difference between the soul of a man and a woman. And that is what's important in the sight of God. What is the use of a body? It will be perishing, but the soul is very important.

[03:10:43]And so when we say that men and women are equal, in the first instance, we say that the soul are the same in the sight of God. The second thing we say is that they are equal in rights and privileges. The third thing we can say is that we are not equal necessarily in our functions. And this is true. The functions of men and women, so many functions we are sharing together and there we are equal in our functions. We can do similar things. Man can do something and woman can equally do the same thing. But there are some things which men can do better than women, and some things that women can do better than men. And then there is a third category. There are some things that is exclusive to men and exclusive to women, which means men cannot, for instance, bear a child. This is exclusive to a woman. You see now how different we are at the same time? So when once we understand what we mean by equality of men and women, and the soul, rights and privileges, and in some of our functions, but not necessarily in all. And there is- I want to mention another principle, which is a very important principle. We are constantly talking about equality. There is no such a thing as equality, by the way, amongst the human race.

[03:12:02]In fact, there is no equality in this existence. If you look at nature, there are not two things the same. Have you ever - you cannot find two blades of grass to be the same. Two blades of grass are not the same. Everything is unique, that God has created, everything is unique. You're fingerprints are unique. Our selves are unique. Even I'm told by some doctors the cells in the body are unique. In the bloodstream, they say these red globules, one of the doctors was telling me, they can see that each globule is different from another one. They're unique. Millions and billions of them in the body and your globules in your blood is very different from those of another person. Everything in this creation is unique. And you know why it is? Bahá’u’lláh has given us the reason for it, why there is always one of everything. He says that this creation manifest the attributes of God. And one of the attributes of God is oneness. That attributes of oneness manifests itself in this creation, and you have one of everything. It's very beautiful explanation. One of the attributes of God is incomparable, incomparable means nothing is like it. And that attributes of incomparable has brought about the uniqueness of its creation. Everything is unique.

[03:13:46]So let us understand it in this level. Also, in the world of humanity, there is not equality. People are different in their level of understanding, in their capacities, in their way of life. Everybody is different. Now, why people are not members of the House of Justice, which is a function. Remember, it's a function. Membership of these institutions involve a certain functions. Now, as I said, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says in the future we will understand the wisdom of it. And you see how wise ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was when he said this? Because in those days, nobody had any conception of what the House of Justice was like, what it's going to do, what its functions were. And even now we are not able to probably know what the functions of the House of Justice are going to be in the future, fully. But as I said, one woman told me this. She said, "I understand it. I know why women cannot be members of the House of Justice." Because, you know, membership of the House of Justice as far as we can gather now, at this present time, 20 some years passed now that we have had the House of Justice. We find these people who become members of it have to give up their personal life to the Faith. They have to 24-hours dedicate their lives, 24 hour. It's a 24 hour job. It's not the job that you go from 9-5. Although you go from 9-5, maybe, but it is a 24 hour commitment. And although the Baháʼí world is very small, what will happen when the whole world comes under the direction of six thousand million people? It is full and total giving up of yourself, your personal life, entirely. And this woman was said, "If I was a member of the House of Justice, if my child becomes sick today, I can't think. If I become pregnant, where is my loyalty now? Where my loyalty lies. Shall I finish with my child or shall I be a member of the House of Justice?" Because you cannot be a member of an office. It's not just being like a member of an assembly or a national assembly. You are there or not, it doesn't matter. It's a complete, complete giving yourself to the institutions. Well, this was this woman's view, which I just wanted to tell you what she said to me.

[03:16:17]But as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says, in the future, we will understand. You know, the functions of the House of Justice is very - for us, it's very important to understand and appreciate the position of the House of Justice today. We are tending to think of it as another, a grand national assembly or a grand international assembly whose members we happen to know. You know, this is the fact that we know these members, they were our friends. They used to work with us, and now they sit in this international body. It gives us the view, well fair enough, it's just one of those - it is, of course, higher, we say, than the national assemblies and it's got a lot of responsibilities. But really and truly, I wonder. Well, I have had the honor and the privilege to be in the presence of the House of Justice. I can tell you what it is like, the very room in which they consult and when they meet as a Universal House of Justice. You know, you meet the members outside the room. You meet their members there and there. They are your friends. You talk to them. They are very humble people. But that is not the point. They have no rights and privileges, as you know. There's no station for them. There's no station for them, really. They have no station in that sense of being anything other than an individual Baháʼí. You see? They're an individual Baháʼí. The Hands of the Cause of God have a status in that sense that Shoghi Effendi mentions in this faith we have various forms of governments incorporated in the faith, various forms of government. He enumerates such things as democracy, autocracy and the - no, theocracy, democracy, and aristocracy. And he says the good points of each one of these have been incorporated in the institutions of the Faith. Well, the Hands of the Cause, you might say, is like the aristocracy we have. But they have no authority, remember. This is one of the things we must remember. There are no - they have no authority. The authority lies with the national assemblies and the local assemblies and the House of Justice. But what I was saying to you is that really we are inclined to think that the House of Justice is just an international body of nine people we meet.

[03:18:47]But do you know when you go and you sit in that meeting of the House of Justice which meets at the House of Justice, it is a tremendous, tremendous power you can feel. And it's up to you. It's all up to the individual who goes there. It's the same way that it was entirely up to the individual who saw Bahá’u’lláh, how he felt was entirely up to him, how much you receive it. But all I can say my impression was very clearly there is the presence of Bahá’u’lláh. Definitely there is a presence of Bahá’u’lláh. You cannot and you do not look upon the members and they are all right there sitting there. But the presence of Bahá’u’lláh is in that gathering. And it is that gathering and it is that institution which is assisted today by all the powers of earth and heaven to rule over mankind, to rule over mankind. And it shall rule over mankind. And a time will come that the kings and rulers of the world will go there and pay homage to the House of Justice. Already we are told by Shoghi Effendi that this thing will come in its own time. He describes the story of the Pilgrim Kings in his Persian writings in such eloquent manner that how these kings and rulers of the world will discard their kingdoms, some of them. Or they will bring their crowns to the thresholds of Bahá’u’lláh, how they will surrender themselves to Him, how they will pray with the utmost devotion, and how at the end of their pilgrimage, they will go to the House of Justice to receive their instructions of what to do. And this is why when you go into the building of the House of Justice today there is a magnificent hall, a banquet hall for the reception of the kings and rulers of the future.

[03:21:01]And mankind is absolutely sleep about this, doesn't know what is happening at all. But this is a body that Bahá’u’lláh has said in His writings will establish upon this earth the sovereignty of Bahá’u’lláh, the sovereignty of Bahá’u’lláh will come into being through the instrumentality of this great institution which has to guide us because Bahá’u’lláh is guiding it step-by-step. Every step that they take, every step that they take is guided by Bahá’u’lláh and we can see it in daily life. We can see it as Baháʼís. Every decision they take, you can see it was providentially designed and decreed that this is the way to carry out our work. And they're protected. One of the things which is promised to them is that the institutions of the Faith at the World Center are protected. And by institutions I mean, I don't necessarily mean buildings, but I mean the institutions that we have. The House of Justice, the World Center institutions are protected. And their guidance will bring to mankind in the future such glories that we cannot estimate at the present time. So what are we going to do as Baháʼís today? Really, we had always a Center to turn to. And you see one of the basic teachings of this faith, if you want to understand what is the basic teaching of the Faith, the basic teaching apart from recognizing Bahá’u’lláh. When you recognize Bahá’u’lláh, you can say that the gist of Bahá’u’lláh's Will and Testament. If you want to summarize the Will and Testament of Bahá’u’lláh into one word of what He told us we should do after Him, there is one word that you can use. And that word is turn to, turn to. Bahá’u’lláh said, after Him, He said, turn to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. And that's finished, full stop. He is the center of the Cause. If you want to know what is the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in one word, it was turn to. Turn to Shoghi Effendi and the House of Justice.

[03:23:19]Now, today we have to turn to them and how do we turn to that body. We turn to that body with devotion and with love and with a feeling of humility that it is Bahá’u’lláh's sovereignty. Do not look upon people there, but look upon the institution. Of course, the people are also honored and respected by us. We venerate them. We respect them because they are sitting on that supreme institutions of the Faith. Whoever it is, Bahá’u’lláh says I will guide them whoever it is. You elect nine people and whoever they are, Bahá’u’lláh says I will guide them. Now, this guidance which comes to the House of Justice is not a guidance which comes in a form, now here it is, it just comes down and sits on the table for them. But whatever happens, they discuss matters, they investigate matters, and the guidance comes when the decision is made. Once they decide they know it is the right decision. Who is in the world today which one of the councils of the world, whether it be religious or political, which councils in the world can claim that their members go into consultation together and they come out and they say we have made the right decisions and be sure that they have made the right decision? Who is there who can say that? But the members of the House of Justice can do that. They go into this chamber, they discuss things, they come out and they know they have made the right decisions. The decision is right. And we have seen miracles. If you really look at what they have done, you can see miracles. Every direction that they have given to the Baháʼí world has been instrumental in promoting the Faith in miraculous ways. There are many, many stories that we can talk about it, which really astonish some of the believers to see how the House of Justice invisible terms is guided by Bahá’u’lláh so that we Baháʼís of this generation, who have not got one center of the Cause like Shoghi Effendi or like ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, although we must read the writing - now, I'm not saying that. We must turn to their writings. We must all turn to the writings of Shoghi Effendi and Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. But we have a visible center to which we turn to.

[03:25:59]And if we carry out the guidance of the House of Justice, which is the guidance of Bahá’u’lláh, if Bahá’u’lláh was living today amongst us, He would have said the same things that the House of Justice are telling us today. If we carry out these guidances as coming from Bahá’u’lláh, then all kinds of things will happen not only in our personal lives but also in our institutions. And the Faith will grow and great numbers will come into the Faith. This is I feel a very important thing and I wanted to mention that we should in fact, at the end of this meeting, we should perhaps say a prayer and turn our thoughts to that body so that we may become guided by their love and their prayers. And often, often Baháʼís who gather together - I don't know what's the custom in here, but whenever Baháʼís get together in Europe, some of them who really are spiritually minded communities which are very much working on spiritual levels, every time they get together, they pray for the House. and they send messages to the House from that gathering and beg for prayers for themselves. And I think this begging of prayers from the House is a marvelous idea. This is something that-- [audio cuts off]

[03:27:33]-feel that our communication must be a communication not only to pray for them, but to beg for prayers, every great undertaking that you do. And I hope that this gathering in here that we have had for the last three days will not be a gathering which we begin with words and end with words. I hope that what we have been saying and will become some use to the friends. And I hope that the suggestion that I made to forget all the things that I have said and to remember those points by which time maybe you've forgotten all those points by now, huh? We should really try to think about it and to give one or two hours a day, every person matter who we are, to Bahá’u’lláh for teaching the Faith personally, on a personal level. If we do that on a universal scale and religiously given one or two hours a day in a form and discipline ourselves. And also read the writings in the morning and in the evening in the same way that I told you the story of this Irish girl in Paris. of how she would do it. This way, we can then bring great victories to the Cause of God. And then really, we must thank Bahá’u’lláh. I think they can't do anything else but to thank Him all the time that He has brought us together in a unity and love. And this love and this unity that we feel in our hearts is not because of ourselves. It's not because of us that we love each other. We are very insignificant otherwise if we divorced the Faith from ourselves, very insignificant. All that is there and this beautiful spirit that is generated when we meet together is because of the love of Bahá’u’lláh, because of His spirit which comes through us.

[03:29:27]I hope that - I am, in a way, looking forward to meeting the friends again in other parts of this country, a beautiful country. And I'm hoping more and more to meet more of the indigenous people. I feel we have a duty, a responsibility ourselves to attract them to ourselves, to bring them together, to become as one people. And not until this is a challenge, I think, to the Baháʼí community here. Not until the believers here, the Baháʼís who are here can, in their hearts of hearts, unite themselves with the indigenous people of the Baháʼís and really bringi them together, be together and work together can the faith grow. I remember some years ago we had - I'm not saying that these things happen in here because I don't know anything about it really. But I know that some years ago, we had what they call it a breakthrough in Scotland, bringing a good number of people there. Again, I mentioned there is a class distinction, very, very clear class distinction in England. In here you have race distinction, race class, races. Over there it is the prejudice of class. And I remember one particular group of people came into the Faith who were belonging to the working class. And then we had the middle age Baháʼís-- middle class, middle class people who were Baháʼís previous to that. They never were united. It was a lip service unity which both sides felt or at least the others felt. And then the whole thing was disintegrated. The whole thing collapsed. The Faith did not go forward.

[03:31:14]And I think not until this unity is real, that we love to embrace them and involve them in our works in all the spheres of our activities can a multiracial community such as this grow. And maybe I shouldn't say this because I'm not familiar at all with what you do. And I know how much your NSA and your institutions are really devoted to the Cause and how much they're working. And we must also pray for our institutions. We must pray for the National Assembly. We must rally around that institution. We must rally around that institution and with our hearts, pray for them. I mentioned yesterday how the institutions are weak today. They are going through the stages of infancy. We must not look upon what decisions they make. They could make all kinds of decisions. They could make a lot of wrong decisions. We are not concerned with that. But this is an institution of Bahá’u’lláh. It is now in the state of infancy. It has the life, it has the spirit. And it has the promise of the future that in the future the institutions will become so capable of not making mistakes. We must not look into these things, but rather to rally around the institutions of the Faith and cherish them and love them. And then the things will grow.

[03:32:32]I have to say farewell to you now, people who are in this part. And really I cannot describe the joy and the spiritual upliftment which had been with me during these three days that I have visited you. And I shall never forget, never forget these beautiful faces and beautiful spiritual atmosphere which has been created here. And I thank Bahá’u’lláh for having given us straight privilege of being together today in this way. My love really has no bounds for all of you. And I want to say a prayer in Persian for the friends and for this country. I'll say a prayer. And this prayer I'll say for the pioneers and the workers of the Faith, prayer of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. It's one of the prayers of the Tablets of the Divine Plan.

[Prayer]