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WORLD ORDER
OCTOBER, 1946
GREATER THAN ANY NATION — Horace Holley
THE WAY OF FULFILLMENT — Marion Holley Hofman
BREAKERS OF THE DAWN — Sally Sanor
HEROISM, Editorial — Eleanor S. Hutchens
LADY OF TAPADA, LADY OF LIMA — Eve B. Nicklin
THE RANK-AND-FILE BAHÁ’Í — Gertrude Schurgast
MANDALAY — Sydney Sprague
WITH OUR READERS
THE BAHÁ’Í MAGAZINE
World Order was founded March 21, 1910 as Bahá’í News, the first organ of the American Bahá’ís. In March, 1911, its title was changed to Star of the West. Beginning November, 1922 the magazine appeared under the name of The Bahá’í Magazine. The issue of April, 1935 carried the present title of World Order, combining The Bahá’í Magazine and World Unity, which had been founded October, 1927. The present number represents Volume XXXVII of the continuous Bahá’í publication.
WORLD ORDER is published monthly in Wilmette, Ill., by the Publishing
Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United
States and Canada. EDITORS: Eleanor S. Hutchens, William Kenneth Christian,
Gertrude K. Henning, Horace Holley, Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick.
Editorial Office
Mrs. Gertrude K. Henning, Secretary
69 ABBOTSFORD ROAD, WINNETKA, ILL.
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Order Magazine, 110 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois. Entered as second class
matter April 1, 1940, at the post office at Wilmette, Ill., under the Act of March
3, 1879. Content copyrighted 1946 by Bahá’í Publishing Committee. Title
registered at U. S. Patent Office.
ONE MONTH IN ADVANCE
WORLD ORDER
The Bahá’í Magazine
VOLUME XII OCTOBER, 1946 NUMBER 7
Greater Than Any Nation
HORACE HOLLEY
DEAR friends of universal
peace, no American can
come here to the city of Washington
from a residence anywhere
else in the United States
without being impressed very
deeply by this symbol of the
great power which America has
become, a power which is outstanding
among the nations and
peoples of the world, a power
which if it becomes allied with
a great moral purpose and becomes
the servant of universal
justice, can contribute more than
any other people to a reformation
of the tragic conditions which
exist today.
And no one can enter a hall which is dedicated as a Hall of Nations and look upon these panels which depict the variety of the life of the many peoples of East and West without feeling with great poignancy how bitter and anguished is the cry that arises from the hearts of all these other peoples for some kind of assistance and encouragement, that they may reach up their hands and feel that they are part of a sustaining strength before they sink down in the desolation of a hopeless time.
In our yet unsuccessful pursuit of universal peace, we have uncovered certain conditions, certain obstacles and requisites which far exceed the capacity of the resources which so far have been publicly devoted to the cause of peace. There are five of these conditions or requisites which I will briefly summarize so that we may share together a rational basis on which to lay the appeal for consideration of the spirit and program of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.
The first condition is that universal
peace is not an optional
policy nor a deferable ideal. In
1919 when the nations were
given their first supreme opportunity
to lay the basis of universal
peace, a great majority of the
peoples of all lands were not yet
awakened to the dire menace of
the disorder that has overtaken
mankind, and therefore they felt
[Page 194]
justification in maintaining the
attitude that universal peace,
while it might be a most desirable
and worthy ideal, could be
deferred as a practicable policy
until some later and more convenient
time. The result was, in
that prevalent atmosphere, those
who strove for a peace settlement
at Versailles created a League of
Nations which was expected to be
a strong contribution to international
peace but which possessed
a structure leaving to each participating
nation the right to
make its own vital choice at
every crucial time. In other
words, the majority of peoples
considered that world peace was
a deferable ideal and an optional
policy.
Today we realize that it is rather a question of saving a household given over to a consuming flame or finding the ways and means to prevent a flood from overwhelming the city of man’s life. We do not defer action when we realize an emergency of that type. Nor can we defer action in relation to universal peace, when we realize with every faculty of our being that the dislocation of the life of the nations, the races, and the classes has brought about a condition which can lead to even greater destruction than the two World Wars.
The second requisite is that peace cannot be a partial or a limited affair. We cannot establish peace for two or three nations or peoples and leave outside that realm another world of darkness and retain the blessing of peace for the more powerful or privileged nations which believe that by their own unaided efforts they can retain the foundation of human existence.
Peace is universal and peace is organic and, if in the world today, we say that such and such a people or nation cannot be permitted to have association as equals with the other nations and peoples of the world, let us realize that a physician dealing with an ailing body does not consider that his professional work is done if he estimates that seven-eighths of the body is healthy but that one-eighth of the organism is seriously infected and that somehow he can isolate the infection so that it will not seep into the rest of the organism. The condition of health and the basis of association between peoples and nations is that which comes into being when there is a true world order to which all the nations and peoples are invited to join.
Any nation which will accept
that invitation and endeavor sincerely
to live up to the terms of
its association with other nations
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for universal peace, that nation
has been forgiven by God Himself
for any of its historic errors, sins
or crimes; because the determining
point is that if we have a
sense of suspicion and aloofness
which prevents us from cooperating
with others on terms of
equality, we disclose our unfitness
for the association. But if
we are ready to participate and
make our contribution to the one
ideal, then it means that somehow
we have attained a condition
which others may recognize as
one of fitness to work with them.
Therefore, my friends, let us not overlook this requisite that universal peace must embrace the peoples and nations of the entire world, and it cannot be a privilege and a superiority of North America or Europe or any other limited area of mankind.
The third condition or requisite is that universal peace cannot be produced by any international body possessing less authority and sovereignty than any or all of the present national states. That was the fatal weakness of the League of Nations. They used the term “peace” but they did not create a world. They retained the separate and exclusive national units. They retained them because they would not share the sovereignty of their nation and set up a higher sovereignty for mankind as a whole.
Now peace is not a by-product of any national policy. It is not something which we can do inadvertently while pursuing a totally different goal. We cannot strive to realize the full power and wealth of our own people as a separate unit and at the same time render true service to the cause of peace.
The world is greater than any nation and mankind is greater than any nation or people. Therefore, this requisite of peace is of vital consequence because it means that we cannot have in this world any real and valid hope that our ideal of peace has been achieved until the nations and peoples have created a world sovereignty which shall be supreme and from which every nation shall derive a secondary and dependent sovereignty adequate for its domestic affairs. The work done at San Francisco did not produce this fundamental requisite of international peace.
International peace will remain
ineffective if whatever international
body is set up functions
only through the formal political
channels which remain
neutral to the fundamental
claims of economics, social philosophy,
culture and religion. The
time has passed when we can isolate
aspects of reality, and by
giving them separate terminology
and organization consider that
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we have bounded off that realm
of reality and made it immune
to influences from outside. We
cannot have an abiding political
structure which is not fully superior
to the economic order of
the people over which it has
jurisdiction.
We cannot have a world sovereignty until we have in that body not only the authority but the power and the capacity to bring together all competitive classes, all diverse philosophies of living, all unrelated claims, from whatever source they arise, and judge them according to the new world standard, approving those things that are of benefit to all humanity and preventing the further operation of those things that exalt one people or nation or class above the others and so make for a new dislocation in the life of mankind. Universal peace implies one standard of truth and justice to which all human affairs can be referred on the practical basis of that which is most useful to world order, and those things that are useful will be the economics or the social philosophy of our future years.
The last requisite is a new spirit in man himself. Whatever type of international structure is raised up to promote and sustain universal peace, no matter how perfect its constitution may be, no matter how complete its statement of functions and purposes, no matter how many and intricate are its service organizations, it will not have effective life unless there is a regeneration of human beings themselves.
We cannot find a substitute for the qualities and the attributes and the virtues of the human soul. We cannot produce a corporation and endow it with our virtue and become immune, if in the achievement of its corporate purpose that body which we have established contravenes the fundamental moral law. We can’t have universal peace without the conception of a world, a world organism. We cannot have a world organism without world men and women. That is how humanity has evolved from its lower stages and the primitive conditions of the past. From age to age human beings have been given a larger vision and made to feel themselves responsible participants in a larger and larger social unit.
Now the world is full of national men and women, and that is why we have strife and war because national men and women are those who are conditioned to that particular social unit and they obey its needs and behests with the fervor of those who would sacrifice themselves for Almighty God.
We need a world man and a
world woman, who will have the
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sustaining force that can take
even an imperfect instrument and
use it in the name of justice and
humanity and lay an enduring
basis for universal peace.
Now, where is there in the world any force or combination of forces accessible to the nations and peoples that can realize these conditions of universal peace? They can make charters, but can they regenerate the human soul?
This is not the first age in which society has undergone disintegration and the spirit of man has lost what it had raised up in the past. This is not the first time when human beings have divided against themselves and gone down in the great bitterness and sorrow of mutual defeat. That which raised up the world from the depths of the degradation reached by the ancient Roman Empire was the divine and spiritual force that was manifested in Jesus as the prophet of God.
Through Him there came to human beings a truth, which when they accepted it, which when they sacrificed themselves for it, raised them up to the level of the truth itself and made a new people, a people that could live according to standards of fellowship and justice in complete contrast to the dishonor and despair of the world.
It is vitally important to realize the full meaning of that episode of the Roman Empire and the coming of Christ because we have in our own historical experience the Way by which alone the world can save itself, when men lose hope and by their human capacity are unable to arrest themselves from the abyss in which their own blindness and materialism have plunged them.
Bahá’u’lláh came to the world about the middle of the nineteenth century, and He brought a spirit and a truth which identifies itself with the essential purpose of every prophet of the past, but in accordance with the principle of progressive revelation unfolded to this age, in addition to the truths that Christ could reveal to the people of His day, certain organic principles that pertain to the regeneration and reordering of human affairs. The supreme principle which He revealed was that of the oneness of mankind, and that means all the scattered peoples and races, all the languages, all the classes, all the denominations and sects, all the diversities of human beings in East and West have attained the full degree of the principle of variety which was the condition of life in the past.
Now therefore the law has
gone out summoning these sundered
and separated peoples together
to form the body of
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mankind. That is what the spirit
of Revelation means for every
responsible human being today,
that the fruit and the outcome
of every teaching and every devotion
of the past is fulfilled now
as we come together as brothers
in humanity, as co-workers to
produce the structure of world
order and the body of international
peace.
Men of the tribes of the past could not attain a higher and farther outlook until the spirit had gathered them up and identified them with the principle of human progress under the guidance of God; nor can we reform ourselves and eliminate those prejudices of nation, of class and creed which tear our hearts to ribbons until we meet with our fellow human beings in worship before the throne of the one God, who is the Father of mankind.
This is the promise; this is the assurance which every prophet of the past gave to his people. This is the day toward which the spiritual soul of the great ones always turn, and we need not feel that in a new name, Bahá’u’lláh, there is anything that is alien to the pure truth of our own prior revelation, when we realize that Bahá’u’lláh for the capstone, the arch of His teaching, has made it clear to the mind and heart of modern man that in purpose, in aim, in spirit, in consecration, in mission, all the prophets that have come from God are one being and have given the world one revelation in successive stages of human evolution.
So it is that our prophet cries to us through the lips of Bahá’u’lláh and in Bahá’u’lláh we find the prophet of the people to whom perhaps we have been alien all our lives, and in this identification of the spiritual core of life, the recurrence of the one wonderful phenomena and agency of truth, we have our relationship not to an exclusive tribal deity, not to a theological conception that has been invented to give some people a certain advantage, but we have a relationship to the Author of our own being and the Creator of all mankind.
Therefore in the final word of
suggestion which I would like to
share with you is this truth: that
peace is in reality a divine creation.
It is an order of virtue and
truth that has descended into this
world from a higher realm and
when we take this step from our
doubt, from our selfishness, from
our fear, from our ignorance;
take the step from the disordered
world which men have created to
the universal world which God
has created for the human spirit,
we have entered the realm of
universal peace and we have
reached out our finger and we
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have touched a power that will
realize its purposes through us
and through all other human beings
and which will bring a
blessing to every Government, to
every organization on the face of
the earth, willing to become a
servant and promote the principles
of universal peace.
Address delivered at Bahá’í meeting
held in Hall of Nations, Washington Hotel,
Washington, D. C., December 5, 1945.
Today the world of humanity is walking in darkness because it is out of touch with the world of God. That is why we do not see the signs of God in the hearts of men. The power of the Holy Spirit has no influence. When a divine spiritual illumination becomes manifest in the world of humanity, when divine instruction and guidance appear, then enlightenment follows, a new spirit is realized within, a new power descends and a new life is given.
It is like the birth from the animal kingdom into the kingdom of man. When man acquires these virtues, the oneness of the world of humanity will be revealed, the banner of international peace will be upraised, equality between all mankind will be realized and the Orient and Occident will become one.
Then will the justice of God become manifest, all humanity will appear as the members of one family and every member of that family will be consecrated to cooperation and mutual assistance. The lights of the love of God will shine; eternal happiness will be unveiled; everlasting joy and spiritual
delight will be attained.
The Way of Fulfillment
MARION HOLLEY HOFMAN
THE central theme of the
Bahá’í Faith, that religion
has been, is and must ever remain
the dynamic power advancing
civilization, is a concept alien
to the twentieth century. As the
French novelist, Rolland, has put
it: “Faith is one of the feelings
which a too civilized society can
least forgive; for it has lost it.”
Indeed, it is almost impossible to
talk about religion at all, for
the very words which are basic to
the discussion—faith, spirit, God
cannot be spoken without being
woefully misunderstood.
Our generation is prone to think by exaggeration and opposites. For some, the whole idea of religion has lost its meaning; it is felt to be supernatural and fantastic. By them, the existence of God is not given serious consideration, while religion itself is understood only in terms of ritual, institutionalism, and dogma which the most advanced minds long ago rejected. Harold Laski has spoken for persons of this persuasion; “The decay of the religious spirit,” he writes, “is the natural outcome of historical causes it is now impossible to reverse upon any serious scale.” For such persons as these, and their number is ample, humanity in its evolution long ago passed the stage where it need give any thought as to the truth or necessity of revealed religion.
There is, on the other hand, the party of tradition. It matters not whether one looks to a Western or Eastern country; it is easy to discover those who are loyal, indeed fierce protectors of literal interpretation. For this group God does in truth exist, anthropomorphically, in the very image and likeness of man. And simultaneously with such a Creator, there is also a complicated and ancient structure of religion, inherited, static, and unchanging which, like a dam, would hold back the flood of men’s progress in science and society.
For a Bahá’í neither one of these positions is acceptable, for neither of them seems to him realistic or in conformity with the facts which surround us.
Here is a universe infinitely
vast, functioning by laws of design,
motion, and rhythm; by
patterns which recur in infinite
order and complexity, sun and
atom, large and small,—existing
without man’s aid and beyond
the scope of his understanding.
To ascribe all this to accident
must indeed stretch the imagination!
[Page 201]
As ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Son of the
Founder of the Bahá’í Faith,
wrote to Dr. Forel, a Swiss scientist;
“The wise and reflecting will
know of a certainty that this infinite
universe with all its grandeur
and (perfect) order could
not have come to exist by itself
. . . Motion without a motive
force, and an effect without a
cause are both impossible . . .
(A) process of causation goes on,
and to maintain that this process
goes on indefinitely is manifestly
absurd . . . (It) must of necessity
lead eventually to Him who
is . . . the All-powerful . . . and
the Ultimate Cause . . .”
For the Bahá’í, as for Emerson, God exists! It is the primary truth of life and creation. But by this we do not mean the God created by man in his own image, a God who changes with the times, reflecting merely the capacity and customs of a people. In the words of Bahá’u’lláh, “God . . . should be realized as the one power which animates and dominates all things, which are but manifestations of its energy.”
Beyond this realization, the awareness that a Creator exists, no man can go. To conceive for God a form or shape, a place, or any absolute qualities, is to build up a product of human fantasy and invention. For the part can never understand the whole, nor the created comprehend its Creator. To a Bahá’í the nature, the reality of God is great and good beyond our comprehension.
In this the Faith agrees with a view expressed by Professor Einstein: “It is enough for me,” he said, “to contemplate the mystery of conscious life perpetuating itself through all eternity, to reflect upon the marvelous structure of the universe which we can dimly perceive, and to try humbly to comprehend even an infinitesimal part of the intelligence manifested in nature . . .”
Yet, must we stop here? Is this the limit of our understanding? Shall man, whose distinctive power is his intellect, be thwarted upon the very threshold of discovery? And what usefulness could there be in a belief which, if it were to stop at this point, would have to be described as vague and nebulous?
It is to this crucial area of human experience, the point at which man makes contact with his Creator, that the Bahá’í Faith brings its most valid contribution, which, if it be generally understood and accepted, will transform the lives of our generation and readjust their world wide relationships.
Bahá’u’lláh, Founder of this
Faith, has said in a cryptic and
challenging sentence: “The root
of all knowledge is the knowledge
of God, but this is impossible
[Page 202]
save through His Manifestation.”
It is in this sentence that
we touch the very heart of Bahá’u’lláh’s
message, for the principle
or creative law which it contains
is the distinctive and wholesome
basis of His teaching. We
Bahá’ís call it the law of progressive
Revelation, the law that,
at significant periods of humanity’s
need and development, the
Prophets of God have always appeared
and will always appear
throughout the evolving course of
history. That there is a periodic
appearance of those who announce
themselves to be God’s
Messengers is, we believe, thoroughly
substantiated by the record.
The fact that Moses, Buddha,
Zoroaster or Muḥammad lived
and taught is verified and undeniable.
Their transforming effect
upon the lives of millions of followers
is equally authenticated.
The primary and unparalleled
influence of Christ, as the exemplar
and the impetus for centuries
of Western culture, must
be vividly appreciated by anyone
who takes the time to consider it.
Here, in the lives of these unique and peerless Figures, some of whom I have named, we may, if we wish, study at first hand the purposes and achievements of those whom Bahá’u’lláh has called Divine Educators. Like mountain peaks they rise above the horizon of history, nor can any individual be found to equal them in all the ranks of mankind’s most distinguished and acknowledged leaders. With whom shall we compare them? Certainly not with military or political leaders, no, not even with artists and philosophers. For in Bahá’u’lláh’s words: “Every one of them is the Way of God that connecteth this world with the realms above, and the Standard of His Truth . . . in the kingdoms of earth and heaven. They are the Manifestations of God amidst men, the evidences of His Truth, and the signs of His Glory.”
Bahá’u’lláh has unfolded a
tremendous vista. He has shown
us the basic law of society’s progression.
Like the eternal recurrence
of spring to our planet, on
which we may rely no matter how
severe or prolonged the winter—
just so, in the life of mankind,
the great cycles are repeated.
Like the spring, summer, the fruition
in harvest, fall, and winter
—the cycles of civilization are
born, flourish, decline, and are
renewed. And just as the purposes
of God are fulfilled in this
physical universe, which derives
its very energy and life from the
central orb of the sun,—in the
same manner humanity is sustained
and revitalized by the central
orb of the spiritual sun of
[Page 203]
God’s creative purpose, through
the eternal reappearance of a
power for which we have no
better names than those which
Christ gave it; the Holy Spirit,
the Word of God.
The basic law which Bahá’u’lláh has revealed is simply this: that from age to age, in periods of about one thousand years, this Divine Power, this Word of God, is renewed among men. And this is accomplished through the person of a human being who becomes the Mouthpiece and the Messenger of God.
While in San Francisco in 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave this explanation in His talk at Temple Emanuel. I quote: “What then is the mission of the divine prophets? Their mission is the education and advancement of the world of humanity. They are the real teachers . . . . the universal instructors of mankind. If we wish to discover whether any of these great souls or messengers was in reality a prophet of God we must investigate the facts surrounding his life and history; and the first point of our investigation will be the education he bestowed upon mankind. If he has been an educator, if he has really trained a nation or people, causing it to rise from the lowest depths of ignorance to the highest station of knowledge, then we are sure that he was a prophet. This is a plain and clear method of procedure, proof that is irrefutable. We do not need to seek after other proofs.”
Today we live at the culmination of an age-long evolution. We stand on the threshold of new and immense development. Surely, this is the hour for a renewed vision, and for a mature application of enduring spiritual principles to the complex and worldwide problems which we face.
Bahá’ís believe that the laws of God do not fail. The hour of need is the hour of fulfillment. Through Bahá’u’lláh, the Glory of God, as through all the Messengers of the past, God has once again revealed His purpose and renewed His power for the guidance of mankind.
In the words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: . . . “The medieval ages of darkness have passed away and this century of radiance has dawned. . . . Shall we remain steeped in our fanaticisms and cling to our prejudices? . . . Is it not preferable to enjoy fellowship and unity; join in . . . praise to the most high God and extol all His prophets in the spirit of acceptance and true vision? Then indeed this world will become a paradise and the promised Day of God will dawn.”
Talk on Radio Station KYA, April 16,
1944.
BREAKERS OF THE DAWN
SALLY SANOR
INTO the history of man, some
times in our lifetime, and sometimes
years removed, but recorded
for our fascinated study, come rare
and heroic moments. And in one of
those moments may be heard a voice
which speaks into the blackness of
a manmade night to describe the
wonders of a day just breaking.
Such a voice was Abraham’s, calling a pagan people to the worship of one God; such a voice was heard when the Christ spoke of brotherly love in the Roman-controlled, hate-dominated country of Palestine; or when Muḥammad called out across the wilderness of Arabia for men to forsake the idols of their fathers, to offer allegiance and devotion to the one true God.
These were magic moments, and they have passed into history now. But the cycle of day and night and dawn continues, and man continues to need someone to point the way, to herald the day. It usually happens that when someone does voice the unuttered hopes of humanity, most of his hearers turn in violent scorn to persecute him, exile him, imprison or kill him.
Throughout our history there are men who stand out as the bringers of light, as the ones who break the dawn of the new day. They work out of chaos and superstition into orderliness and intelligent thinking. They are the men who speak of things almost foreign to us—so far away from a consideration of things spiritual have we grown.
Just at dawn on the 29th day of May in the year 1892, there died at ‘Akká, Palestine, at the foot of Mount Carmel in the Holy Land, an exile of Persia, a political prisoner of Turkey.
Nothing unusual happened that day; no great cataclysmic phenomenon of nature occurred. This prisoner had had a fever for many days, and he knew it would he a matter of a short time before he left his family, his friends, his prison wardens and this earth. It was a quiet time; and the grief of those he left was a deep, endless, quiet grief.
The world was getting ready for the new century, and it did not notice so small a thing as the death of a Persian exile. And that was the way it happened; that was the way Mírzá Ḥusayn ‘Alí, titled Bahá’u’lláh, died. Oh, a number of important people went to the funeral, but no urgent, hysterical word flashed out to the world that a prophet of God had left the world of humanity.
It was simple. A very old man of seventy-five years had lived, had made a momentous declaration, had been put away safely in prison, and, at last, had died.
His life had been one of torture and pain, but He wrote of beauty and love. His concern was for all of humanity, but He was kept isolated from the world. He loved flowers and the fresh green of trees, but his home was a bare prison cell.
He was an exile, but His countrymen set out across the desert wastes to gain no more than a wave of a hand from a window of the prison fortress.
It all began in Persia, just after
[Page 205]
sunset on the 23rd of May in 1844,
when a young man said “I am the
Báb, the Gate to a new day approaching”,
when this youth of twenty-five
said “I am the Primal Point,
the Herald of One Whom God will
make manifest in the fullness of
time.”
The world was listening for a voice at that time, but this youth spoke in a foreign tongue, and the English-speaking peoples could not understand; this youth spoke of love of all men for all men, and the peoples of the world had established too well their institutions of hate.
So the government had Him shot in order to eliminate the trouble He was causing. Trouble? Well, I suppose it was; He spoke of brotherhood and love. Even now that doctrine is in disrepute. So he was shot. But the Gate through which the truth of God must pass had been flung open.
That was in 1850, and the herald of the dawn was gone. His body was thrown out for the animals to eat, but His words rang clearly across the countries of the Near East. “The time is fast approaching for the advent of Him whom God will make manifest.”
In 1863 came the declaration that the time had come, that the Promised One lived. This was the prisoner, Bahá’u’lláh. This was a man born a nobleman, living as an exile, claiming the position of King of Kings. This was a man kept isolated from the world by two great sovereigns, but who so influenced a changing world that the sun shines forever on lands where men find a new name on their lips, the name Bahá’u’lláh.
From this prison He wrote to the kings and rulers of the earth, entreating them to awaken from their sleep, to busy themselves in preparation for the new day. In His prison room He wrote of the establishment of peace in the world, of the necessity for a world court, for an international police force, for the elimination of those prejudices which so haunt our lives.
Inside this prison, three quarters of a century ago, this exile having no contact with the outside world, having no discussions with men of scientific background, living in isolation without the benefit of conferences with men of political vision, this prisoner wrote of an international auxiliary language to promote the understanding and the unity of the peoples of the world. He wrote of a broader citizenship in a world evolving from a nationalistic narrowness into an international unit. He wrote of the vital importance of compulsory education throughout the body of humanity.
Outside this prison, the world was unaware of the prisoner who demanded a devotion such as that which the disciples gave to Christ, such as that which emperors sigh for in vain. Outside this prison, though, the world became slowly aware of a new force in the world. In America a war was fought to establish the germ of a new idea of human freedom; in Russia a system of serfdom was abolished; in South America new republics grew and cast off their role of dependence; in England a literature spoke of economic freedom. The whole of the physical world changed its shape. Ships sailed under the seas, and voices spoke through an ocean. Airplanes filled the skies, and miles became hours.
New words and phrases swept over
the prison walls and found their way
into the speech of men—words and
phrases such as “world citizen”, “one
[Page 206]
race—human”, “interdependence of
nations”, “oneness”, “world peace”.
When the prisoner died, the world was unaware that He had written that men must, by their own volition, evolve into the international pattern as provided in the plan of God. But fifty-three years later, the force of events gathered together the representatives of fifty-one nations to plan a charter which would attempt to establish a world unit—peace in that unit —a peace fortified by a world court and education.
He wrote of many things, this man who called himself Prophet. He wrote always toward the core of unity and peace. He explained many things which had been holding men apart for so long. For instance, He said there was only one religion—the religion of God, which has been revealed in progressive steps during the life of man—and with this, He erased forever any reason for the separation of man on the grounds of religion. He stated that the teachings of these men of religion had varied only in the application of those principles which associate a broader vision to the constantly evolving social consciousness of the body of humanity.
And the men who believe in Him, who call themselves Bahá’ís, hold a greater reverence for these prophets of God—these men who promulgated the same spiritual truths, whether they used a Hebrew, an Arabic, or a Persian language for their medium of communication—a greater reverence than those who profess loyalty to the institutional narrowness of a sect of the larger message.
He was a rare man, this exile of ‘Akká. He explained the mysteries which men had conjured up, and then He said that in the end one must find out for himself whether or not what He had said was true.
He looked upon all men with such great love that He charmed His prison guards and it was necessary to change them frequently.
He was a guest of the world during the years 1817 to 1892. His host was most unwilling and ungracious. His voice spoke the forgotten words of brotherhood and love, but He was called a stirrer up of strife. His song was the song of peace—and He was exiled and imprisoned. He repeated to the weary world of man the spiritual principles of Christ and Muḥammad. So they tried to still His voice in the penal colony of ‘Akká, where they sent the most dangerous of criminals, where conditions were so bad, they say, that birds flying over fell dead. And He planted here a seed of love and flowers—and turned the wastes of ‘Akká into a garden of beauty.
When He died on that May morning, the most of the earth greeted this great day of sorrow unaware that He had lived, unmoved that He had died.
The world of humanity looks now to find the dawn of a new day. It struggles painfully and violently in the blackness of a night of unrest and suspicion and hate. Men die for ideals which are unstable and temporal. Men starve while their brothers feast upon the fruit of the land. Bullets fashioned by fathers speed to rest in the hearts of sons.
In the darkness of this night of fear, the voice of the world calls out for the dawn—for the new day.
And Bahá’ís say, “The daWn is here. The night has given way to a brilliant dawn which heralds the brightest day the world has ever known.”
Editorial
Heroism
THE modern western world
has little taste for the kind
of heroism which produces martyrs.
For nearly eighteen hundred
years there has been no
cause compelling enough to justify
martyrdom. At one time,
Christianity was such a cause.
The vision of love and unselfishness
which Christ gave was
in such contrast to the materialism
and selfishness of the Hebrew
and Roman worlds that His followers
were willing to give their
lives for the Faith He gave them.
Torture and death could not overbalance
the exaltation of spirit
which the Faith of Christ gave to
His followers.
Today the same spirit can be found in the followers of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh. The knowledge that God has once again sent His representatives among men to guide them to more abundant life was sufficient to fire the enthusiasm of those who were able to recognize the signs. The Báb and Bahá’u’lláh gave to Their followers a lofty purpose, the bringing of all the races, nations, and creeds of the world into harmony and the building of a civilization dedicated to obedience to God and service to fellow-man. Such a purpose demands complete loyalty, and Bahá’ís are unhesitating in giving that loyalty.
Western Bahá’ís are conscious
of the spirit of the Báb, who, at
the death of His infant son,
prayed, “O my God, my only
Desire! Grant that the sacrifice
of my son, my only son, may be
acceptable unto Thee. Grant that
it may be a prelude to the sacrifice
of my own, my entire self in
the path of Thy good pleasure.”
And who, after devoting Himself
to giving the teachings revealed
to Him, was martyred in Tabríz.
They hear the words of Bahá’u’lláh
who instructed His followers:
“O Son of Man! Ponder
and reflect. Is it thy wish to die
upon thy bed, or to shed thy lifeblood
on the dust, a martyr in My
path, and so become the manifestation
of My command and the
revealer of My light in the highest
paradise? Judge thou aright,
O servant.” These Bahá’ís think
humbly of the many thousands of
Persian believers who gave their
lives during this last century
rather than denounce their Faith.
The stories of the singleness
of purpose, the heroism, and the
joy with which these martyrs
lived and died must cause those
[Page 208]
of us Bahá’ís who live in safety
to search ourselves. If we were
faced with the choice at this very
moment between life without the
Faith of Bahá’u’lláh and death,
would we betray the message of
God for today? Most of us would
like to think that we, too, would
stand firm.
In declaring that we would be martyrs if necessary, are we not now giving our lives, dedicating ourselves to the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh? From this moment hence, should not all our energy be directed toward obedience to His command, toward worship of God, toward the bringing about of the Kingdom of God for which we have all prayed?
To live so that we never compromise with the irreligion, the hate, the bigotry, or the selfishness of the times requires a new heroism. We must be alert to every opportunity to serve. We must avoid every unworthy thought, every wayward emotion. We must meet every temptation to disobey, to do less than our best, to fail a responsibility with the thought that we would give our lives if necessary, how much easier is this lesser sacrifice, this smaller service. We must never falter nor hold back.
Moreover, we must be filled with such overwhelming love and faith that we become like those described by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “These shall labor ceaselessly by day and by night, shall heed neither trial nor woe, shall suffer no respite in their efforts, shall seek no repose, shall disregard all ease and comfort, and, detached and unsullied, shall consecrate every fleeting moment of their lives to the diffusion of the divine fragrance and the exaltation of God’s holy Word. Their faces will radiate the heavenly gladness, and their hearts be filled with joy. Their souls will be inspired and their foundation stand secure. They shall scatter in the world, and travel throughout all regions. They shall raise their voices in every assembly and adorn and revive every gathering. They shall speak in every tongue and interpret every hidden meaning. They shall reveal the mysteries of the kingdom and manifest unto everyone the signs of God. They shall burn brightly in every assembly, and beam forth as a star on every horizon. The gentle breeze waited from the garden of their hearts shall perfume the souls of men, and the revelations of their minds, even as showers, reinvigorate the peoples and nations of the world.”
Lady of Tapada, Lady of Lima
EVE B. NICKLIN
Balconies and jasmine-scented
patios sound well in poetry and
song, but they spelled boredom
to women of Lima, Peru. Yearning
to be free of narrow confines
within garden walls the first
women of Lima started the custom
of tapada. Today, the Lady
of the Tapada is only a quaint
design for silver teaspoons, a
brooch, a silver bell, yet, tapada
is a symbol, I believe, of the
Limenas’ longing for freedom.
From the sixteenth century to the first part of the nineteenth century the Lady of the Tapada was very real indeed. According to Ricardo Palma, early writer of Peruvian traditions, it is difficult to place the exact date of the beginning of the saya (skirt) and manto (veil) of the tapada. We know that it was the typical dress of the Limenas used in the colonial period, and during the early years of the republic. It never appared in any other part of Europe, springing up spontaneously in Lima as a mushroom in a garden. In January 18, 1535, Lima’s female population did not exceed ten women, all émigrées from Spain. It was from these ten women that the fashion sprung, and no one disputes the primacy of this exclusive vogue among Limenan women. Strangely enough, the style did not spread out from the city, not even to Callao, the port of entrance two miles away.
When Limenas wore this dress no one could recognize them, not even the most protective husbands and fathers. Early poets declared that with the saya and manto one girl looked as like another as two drops of rain or two violets.
The saya was usually of a deep blue or black. The manto was formed of a large square of black silk. One end of the square was placed at the back of the belt and tied in front. The other end was brought up over the back of the head and down to the waist; held there with one neatly gloved hand. Only one eye was visible, the left one.
The word tapada is derived
from the verb, to conceal or to
cover. It was for this reason that
the Mexican women baptised the
Limenas “Las Enfundadas,” the
cover all. The citizens of Lima
nicknamed their women The Tapadas.
Women who would not
[Page 210]
have dared venture out without
chaperone could sally forth for
a paseo safely behind their veils.
There seemed to be one law, however,
that kept the tapada under
control. After vespers at seven-thirty,
police regulations prohibited
any women appearing on the
street dressed in her saya and
manto.
Most foreigners who married Limenas disliked the custom that muffled their wives in veils, and stipulated that they no longer wear them. The ladies agreed readily enough at the time of the engagement, but whether or not it was faithfully carried out we do not know. One can be sure, though, that the women of Lima never willingly renounced the tapada when the wearing of it meant their freedom.
The men of Lima were not without protest, however. The count Nieva (fourth viceroy of Peru) as well as other viceroys, dictated laws against the use of tapada. But who was a mere man, even a viceroy, to legislate against women’s fashions?
At one time, though, it seemed as if the tapada was surely doomed because the church took it in hand. It claimed that many sins were committed because of this “mischievous dress”. Hearing of this, the capricious Limenas began a conspiracy among themselves, including even the beautiful Dona Teresa, favorite of the court. The conspiracy was naive enough, for the women simply neglected their men and their homes. The result was that the church meeting was postponed, the tapada was not abolished, and the Limenas victoriously declared, “Business postponed is business won.” Husbands were again in favor, homes were no longer neglected, and order reigned again over the city of Lima. It is reported that a wise bishop said, “You meddle in their business and you’ll see how far the water reaches you.”
Time and French fashions proved more powerful than viceroy and church, for after 1850 the saya and manto were discarded, and my Lady of Lima came out from behind her veils.
The young women of Lima are
still seeking freedom—a freedom
of the spirit. Bahá’í young
women of Peru number no more
than those first Limenas who
started so strange a custom to
gain a little liberty of action beyond
their patios. These women
of today have a finer motive for
freedom, and their influence will
be farther reaching. They are
[Page 211]
seeking the freedom of all womanhood
and manhood from superstition
and blind imitation, so
that they may discern truth with
their own eyes. They are seeking
equality with men; yet not dominance,
but rather a voice in the
kind of government and education
that will insure stability for
their future families. It is a partnership
they want in the building
of a better world. Bahá’í young
men of Lima, Peru, recognize
these ideals as the only foundation
for home, country and world.
These young men and women with the help of interested friends have formed a Universal Friendship Club—a workshop to put into practice some of their ideas. The administrative functions of the club embody the plan of equality not only of men and women but of all races and nationalities. The cultural chairman is a Bahá’í young woman, and she with the help of the honorary president, is in charge of a course of study in human relationships. The secretary of the club is keeping an attractive album of questions and answers under discussion—such questions concerning preparation for life partners and parent-child education. The secretary is also an artist and is painting a representative cover page of a young man and woman holding the reins of responsibility. On the inside cover page are the words of Bahá’u’lláh: “The liberty that profiteth you is to be found nowhere except in complete servitude unto God, the Eternal Truth. Whoso hath tasted of its sweetness will refuse to barter it for all the dominion of earth and heaven.”
The club also participates in such activities as social service. In December, 1945 they contributed clothing to European children. The young men bought the wool and the young women knitted sweaters, dresses and other warm articles of clothing. A donation was made to help the children of their own city as well.
The chairman of the press committee sponsors a magazine which fosters friendship, and publishes poetry, short stories, articles, songs, cross-word puzzles, and interesting photography—talent of the members and their friends. It is financed by advertisements of leading firms and factories.
No group is complete without
time for recreation. Small dances
are held at the Bahá’í Center, picnics
to the mountains, and swimming
parties at the beach. In a
country where coeducation is not
permitted in schools, these get-togethers
[Page 212]
for young men and
women of high ideals is an opportunity
to plan, work and play
together in a natural, normal
way. On a recent excursion into
the apple country of Peru we
were guests of the owner of an
hacienda. This man who had
spent ten years in the United
States, three of them at Columbia
University, had returned to his
people to help the peons improve
farming methods. After lunch,
seated in the grape arbor, there
was an opportunity to tell of the
Bahá’í way of life. He exclaimed,
“Why, that is the way I think,
and that is the way I do.” With
whole-hearted zest he accepted
our invitation to come to Lima
and attend the Saturday Bahá’í
Charlas which are conducted by
the different members of the
Bahá’í Community, and also to
visit the Wednesday fellowship
meetings of the Universal Friendship
Club.
The chairman of the International Committee, one of the first declared Bahá’í believers, is responsible for getting so many young people together. He corresponds with interested friends in other countries, and also welcomes visitors to Lima, Peru. Because Lima is a stop-over for persons enroute to other countries, the Universal Friendship Club has the privilege of meeting many interesting men and women of other lands. The visitors have brought us messages of goodwill and taken away with them our sincere friendship. It has proved a high adventure in warm understanding.
When you come to Lima, Peru, visit the silver shops and buy a Tapada Lady, most typical of all souvenirs of Lima. Visit, also, the Bahá’í Center—meet the young woman of today, the Lady of Lima. Learn of her courage in standing bravely for her ideals in home and community against ridicule and opposition. Meet the young men who salute her, the Lady of Lima:
“Lady of Tapada, looking out from behind your veil, provocatively, you belong only to the past upon a painted postal card, or on a silver designed brooch to decorate the modern woman’s dress. Lady of Tapada, make way for the free woman of today who holds no veils before her face— Lady of Lima, in equality she walks hand in hand with man, heart with heart, mind with mind planning together a world happiness.”
The Rank-and-File Bahá’í
GERTRUDE SCHURGAST
“The souls who followed Bahá’u’lláh
from every nation have become as
one family living in agreement and
accord, willing to sacrifice life for
each other.” ‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ
THEY are just plain people
like you and me, these
Bahá’ís of the rank-and-file, the
nameless ones whose praise is
never sung. They are the GI Joes
of the Bahá’í Faith, and they too
are indispensable for victory.
God alone knows how much each
one of them contributes to it.
Some there are, of course, who
hide behind the “rank-and-file”
to say: “What in the world can
I do? I am not a great teacher,
not a brilliant speaker, I have no
forceful personality; nor do I
have any special ability or talent.
How can I serve?” So they don’t.
The woman I met the other day was not one of this type. She was a plain woman all right, a humble soul. She had been brought up in a strict church, always had been a staunch adherent to it, up to the moment when she received the call of God.
Her heart told her this was the real thing; but how unhappy she was at first! There were her old church, her lifelong friends. And yet she had to find out; she had to be sure. So she began to read Bahá’í books, she disobeyed those strict church rules for the first time; one of them was never to attend any other church service, not even a lecture. She went to Bahá’í meetings. She convinced herself that this was the call of God. Then she told her family about it, her husband, her children, even her grandchildren. They all became Bahá’ís.
That was when her church ousted her, proclaimed her officially a follower of the Antichrist and her children the innocent victims of the devil. Her former friends, when they met her, looked the other way. One of them died, and she meant to pay a last tribute by going to the funeral; she stepped into a vacuum. She cried and prayed and cried again. And then a great assurance came over her. There was nothing wrong in what she had done. The Christ, not the one in her former church, but the one in her own heart, He Himself nodded approval. And she was no longer lonely. For the friends she had lost, she gained new ones.
Besides there was work to be
done. First of all, teaching work.
“Upon every participator in this
concerted effort,” she read in
[Page 214]
Shoghi Effendi’s book The Advent
of Divine Justice, “unprecedented
in the annals of the
American Bahá’í community
rests the spiritual obligation to
make of the mandate of teaching
so vitally binding upon all, the
all-pervading concern of his life.
In his daily activities and contacts,
in all his journeys, . . . on
his holidays and outings, and on
any mission he may be called
upon to undertake, every bearer
of the Message of Bahá’u’lláh
should consider it not only an
obligation but a privilege to scatter
far and wide the seeds of His
Faith, and to rest content in the
abiding knowledge that whatever
be the immediate response to that
Message, and however inadequate
the vehicle that conveyed
it, the power of its Author will,
as He sees fit, enable those seeds
to germinate . . . .”
There was a public lecture given by a famous Rabbi in town. She went. All through the talk she thought of a certain Bahá’í book she should give the speaker. When he had finished, she saw him standing there on the platform, surrounded by prominent people. “You cannot go up there,” a fearful voice within her whispered, “you with your eighth grade education”. Sadly she turned away, mechanically followed the crowd out of the hall, out of the building. Halfway down the street something suddenly compelled her to turn back. The crowd had thinned out by then. A man came walking down he steps alone. It was the Rabbi.
“Oh,” she told him breathlessly, “I had to tell you how impressed I was by your talk. We Bahá’ís too believe in the brotherhood of man.”
“Bahá’í?” he said, “you say you are a Bahá’í?” He beamed; putting his hand on her shoulder. “I have seen your beautiful Temple in Chicago, you know.”
“May I bring you a Bahá’í book I know you would enjoy?” she asked.
“By all means,” he answered, and so she did.
But there were other ways, too, to express her great overflowing love. More humble ways. There was the cleaning of their Bahá’í Center to be done; she did it. There was some fruit to be canned for her children who were pioneering, some ninety quarts; she did it. A fire broke out in one of the friends’ house. It looked horrible, all black and sooty and dripping with water. There was only one thing to he done; clean it. She did that, too.
And so it goes day after day;
always some work claims her,
some friend needs her help, be it
nursing a sick one or comforting
a grief-stricken one. They all
[Page 215]
turn to her, and she is always
ready for them.
No, I had never heard about her or read about her. I just happened to visit with her the other day when she served a delicious dinner to a Bahá’í Committee that was meeting in her town. The whole community helped; for we were twenty-seven in all. Later on, she housed four of us; she and her husband went to the basement to sleep. I asked her why she went to so much trouble. “It’s purely selfish,” she answered simply. “My house is blessed by the presence of Bahá’ís.”
“Sometimes,” she told me,” I give the Message to some of my patients”. I looked blank. “Oh,” she explained lightly, “Every so often a doctor calls me to his private hospital at night to take care of patients he has operated on. The money,” she added smilingly, “comes in handy for the Cause too.”
“Where do you get all your strength and energy,” I asked her.
“You wouldn’t believe it, would you,” she said gaily, “that I have had ten operations?”
I just shook my head. “Aren’t the other friends a little jealous of you sometimes,” I asked, “because they may not be working quite so hard?”
“Well, they are all swell,” she said. “Sometimes, it’s true, they criticize me a little. But you know,” she added, “it’s all right, because whatever anybody says, I always take the blame. That keeps us all happy.”
So spoke my friend, a rank-and-file Bahá’í, a quiet, dynamic example of complete dedication to God.
In the love of God you must become distinguished from all else. You must become distinguished for loving humanity; for unity and accord; for love and justice. In brief, you must become distinguished in all the virtues of the human world; for faithfulness and sincerity; for justice and fidelity; for firmness and steadfastness; for philanthropic deeds and service to the human world; for love toward every human being; for unity and accord with all people; for removing prejudices and promoting international peace. Finally, you must become distinguished for heavenly illumination and acquiring the bestowals of God. I desire this distinction for you. This must be the point of distinction among you.
Mandalay
SYDNEY SPRAGUE
I ARRIVED in this city, together
with my ever faithful
companion, Mírzá Mahram, the
first week of April. Here I spent
six pleasant weeks. I lived among
the native Burmans, and the simple
and primitive way of living
appealed greatly to me. The
whole life of the people is passed
out-of-doors: men, women, children,
goats, chickens, all together
—the children running about
naked. Of a morning I would
look out of the window of my
little bamboo hut among the
trees, and see the women cooking
dinner, and the men weaving silk
at very primitive looms. Then, in
the evening, they would sit out
under the luminous stars, while
one would play a weird, appealing
air on a rude pipe, and very
happy and contented they all
seemed. How complicated we
make our lives, what slaves we
are compared with these people!
“Not what we are, but what we
shall be thought,” is the question
with us. Everything with us must
be bought for a price, there all is
free as God meant it to be.
The Bahá’ís number several hundreds in Mandalay and are nearly all native Burmans, and a very gentle, kindly race of people they are.
In Rangoon the Bahá’ís are drawn from all classes, and some had had excellent educations. There were doctors, lawyers, and employes in the English government among them. In Mandalay, the larger number of believers are drawn from the silk weavers, and few of them could speak English, though all the children are brought up to do so.
While I was in Mandalay,
plans were being drawn up to
build a Bahá’í school for the
children. The idea is to build a
meeting place and school in one.
At present the meetings are held
in a private house, that of a Burmese
widow where I was staying.
The room is much too small for
the large number who congregate
together twice a week, so those
who cannot find room in the
house hold a meeting out-of-doors.
In these meetings the
women took part; this was not
the case in Bombay and Rangoon
where the conditions are different,
but in Mandalay the Buddhist
women have always been
accustomed to a good deal of
liberty and freedom, and now
that they have become Bahá’ís
they naturally do not abandon
that, and their Muḥammadan sisters
who have also become Bahá’ís
[Page 217]
are only too glad to enjoy
their freedom with them.
There are some impatient reformers who have said to me: “I thought the Bahá’í Movement was going to improve the condition of Oriental women, but I do not see that it has.” Such people must remember that the emancipation of women in the Orient is the most difficult of all reforms to bring about, because of the deep-rooted prejudices that exist. It is a thing that can only be done very gradually. This reform has a prominent place in the Bahá’í program, but were the Oriental Bahá’í women suddenly to throw aside their veils and mingle freely in the world, it would simply stir up enmity and scandal and do more harm than good to their cause.
Bahá’u’lláh has made a law that every girl should be educated as well as every boy. When the Oriental women are sufficiently educated and know what to do with their liberty, then, and only then, should they be emancipated. However, the meeting of Muḥammadan and Buddhist women with the men in Mandalay is an answer and proof to all, that this will be the condition of affairs in the future, and that woman shall finally come into her own.
The children, boys and girls of all ages, also take part in these meetings. They squat on the floor, their hands folded, listening attentively, a good model for some of our restless Western children; the women in their light pink and blue and, green silk robes, their immaculate coiffure, usually crowned with wreaths of white roses, their delicate Japanese type of beauty, made a very pretty picture. The men were dressed in the native silk shirt and white flowing jackets, and silk turbans around their heads. After chanting the Tablets, someone would give a little talk in Burmese. I often addressed them through an interpreter, and it was inspiring to see their radiant spiritual faces turned to me. The meeting ended with tea and cakes being served, and then the pretty custom of children going round with baskets full of flowers and giving handfuls of roses and jasmine to each other. I doubt if any meetings in any other part of the world could be more impressive than these. The meetings of the early Christian Church must have been like this before religion became cold and formal and fashionable.
A remarkable testimony to the
unity and harmony existing
among these Mandalay Bahá’ís
was once given by a Muḥammadan.
There was a convention of
Muḥammadans from different
[Page 218]
cities meeting in Mandalay, and
certain matters were discussed
which ended in angry disputing
among them. Finally a prominent
Muḥammadan got up and
said: “I wonder why it is that
we Muḥammadans can never get
together without coming to blows,
while the Bahá’í company has
lived for years in the greatest
peace and harmony, although
they come from many different
sects.” Of course no one could
answer him, but his question
must have given them much food
for thought.
In spite of this beautiful love, there is much animosity and 0pposition displayed against the Bahá’ís by the other religions in Mandalay. It is a common saying that it is only necessary to go to one Bahá’í meeting to become a Bahá’í, so the greatest effort is made by religious leaders to keep their flocks from attending the meetings at all. Great anger was kindled against my Persian friend, Mírzá Mahram, some five years ago, because of his remarkable success in converting people to the Bahá’í Faith. Finally some of the Muḥammadans and Buddhists decided that they would make him leave the city or threaten his life if he refused. A band of hoodlums gathered together one evening and with sticks and stones proceeded to march to Mírzá Mahram’s house. When they reached it they found him waiting calmly to receive them. He spoke gently to them, but firmly refused to leave Mandalay. How he would have fared at the hands of the infuriated mob it is easy to imagine if a detachment of English soldiers had not arrived in time to keep order. The officer in command advanced towards Mírzá Mahram and addressed him angrily: “What did he mean by creating all this disturbance in Mandalay? Why did he come to preach some heretical schism and so anger the population?” Mírzá Mahram explained to him that he was only doing what the early Christian teachers did when they were accused of the same things that he was now being accused of, and he went on then to explain the true mission of the Bahá’í Faith, which so impressed the officer that his whole manner changed, and he held out his hand genially, saying: “There is nothing to find fault with in these teachings; if you get into any new trouble you have a friend in me, and I will order a special detachment of police to protect your house.”
“I thank you,” replied Mírzá
Mahram, “but I do not wish for
any protection, I have a Higher
Protector than even the English
government.” However the officer
insisted on placing his men
[Page 219]
around the house to preserve
order, and they remained there
several days. No more open
attacks were made by the populace
hostile to the Bahá’í Faith,
but often some malicious hand
would hurl a stone at some passing
Bahá’í. During my stay in
Mandalay I was never allowed
to go out without some Bahá’í
with me, for they feared some
injury might befall me.
There is a statement which nearly all western writers on Oriental affairs make—it is this, that the Oriental has no idea of truth or honesty as we conceive of them in the Occident. I have not seen enough of Orientals in general to either accept or refute this statement, but among the Oriental Bahá’ís whom I did know well I found a sense of integrity and honor often higher than I have found in America or in Europe, as the following incident will show.
One very hot afternoon a young Bahá’í walked to the post office, a distance of over two miles, to get some stamps for me. On his return he gave me the stamps and then said: “Now I must go back again.”
“But why?” I said, “Surely on so hot a day you don’t want to take that long walk again?” “The man at the post office has given me four annas too much,” he replied, “I must return it at once.”
Towards the end of my stay in
Mandalay, I received a letter
from my old friend and brother
Bahá’í, M. D———, of Paris,
stating that he had arrived in
Bombay and would soon join me
in Mandalay. It was pleasant
meeting him again and receiving
news from the home circle of
Bahá’ís. I say home circle, for it
was in Paris that I first became
attracted to the Bahá’í Cause. I
found D———, as enthusiastic
as I had been over the splendid
reception given in Bombay and
Rangoon. We stayed nearly a
week in Mandalay, he also being
a guest of the Widow Mong Taw.
I remember how amused D———,
was that he could never get a
glimpse of her. With all that
sense of politeness which the
Frenchmen possess, he insisted
that he must see his hostess to
thank her for her hospitality. But
the widow could never be found.
The most attractive and well-cooked
meals were sent to us
from somewhere, and everything
was kept in perfect order, but
the widow remained invisible.
D———, began to think she was
some mysterious being who had
no earthly existence; when, the
day before our departure, some
friends brought her to see us
she seemed much embarrassed,
and on D———, thanking her
profusely she said: “But I have
done nothing at all; you would
[Page 220]
do the same for me if I came to
see you.”
We had interesting talks with Buddhists and members of the Arya-Samaj, who invited us to speak at one of their meetings. The Arya-Samaj is a society recently started among the Hindus, and attempts to draw them altogether away from idolatry and give them a Unitarian form of faith.
D———, Mírzá Mahram, and myself, with perhaps a Buddhist and a Muḥammadan Bahá’í, used to take walks through the streets of Mandalay, naturally attracting much attention, for it is not a usual sight in the Orient to see people in Christian, Muḥammadan, and Buddhist dress walking together chatting and laughing in a friendly manner. I remember one day when we were walking with a certain doctor, M. ‘Alí, a devoted Bahá’í, a man of position and much respected, that we passed a group of Muḥammadans standing at a corner; they beckoned to him and asked him who the Sahibs were he was walking with. “The venerable old gentleman is a Persian, born a Shí‘ih Muḥammadan”, he said; “one of the two men in European clothes is a Frenchman, born a Jew; the other, an American, born a Christian; while I, as you know, was born a Sunní Muḥammadan. We have all laid aside the old names,” he went on, “which once divided us, and we have become united and are friends and brothers through the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh.”
This striking and visible example of Bahá’í unity made a great impression on these Muḥammadans, as I am certain it did on many others. It became noised abroad that an unheard of miracle had taken place. A Muḥammadan, a Jew, and a Christian, had joined hands and were all teaching the same thing.
If those who read these lines could only realize what animosity exists between the different sects of Islám, such as the Shí‘ih and Sunní, which corresponds to the feeling between Roman Catholics and Protestant Christians in Western countries, they would realize how difficult it is to weld even these sects into one. Then, indeed, would they marvel at the power of the Bahá’í movement, which has done not only this, but has gathered into one fold people of every creed known on the face of the earth.
Our departure from Mandalay
was the occasion of a scene which
will always remain in my memory.
It was a worthy climax to the
many wonderful experiences I
have been having in India. We,
that is to say, Mírzá Mahram,
D———, and myself, were to
leave by the boat which left at
[Page 221]
the earliest streak of dawn. We
had heard much of the beauties
of the Irrawaddy River, and were
anxious to return to Rangoon that
way. On the eve of our departure,
a farewell meeting was held.
Every room in the house was full,
and the crowd overflowed into the
garden. After D———, and I
had spoken a few words of farewell,
an aged Burman, the oldest
Bahá’í in Mandalay, arose, and
with a voice that shook with emotion,
made a most touching and
beautiful speech. He told us
what our coming had meant to all
of them, how much they appreciated
our visit, and he spoke of
the barrier that had always existed
between East and West,
which was partly their fault as
well as the fault of the English
who governed them. He thanked
God that he had lived to see the
day when, through the manifestation
of Bahá’u’lláh, their hearts
in the Orient, in far away Mandalay,
had been united by so wonderful
a love to the hearts of
their Western brothers in Europe
and America.
By this time, although it was after midnight, the whole assembly, men, women and children, insisted on coming with us to the steamer. Some mistake had been made in ordering the carriages for us, and there were none to be found. “We will all walk,” they cried—the distance was over two miles. We started off, a curious and picturesque procession. The light of a full moon made it almost as clear as day, and the bright silk robes of the Burmans shimmered and waved in the breeze, and it seemed as though some ethereal army of pink and white was being blown gently down the road. The effect was startling in its beauty. Before we had gone half-way some bullock carts caught up with us, and we finished the journey in these.
On reaching the river bank all grouped themselves around us to say goodbye. The solemnity and the beauty of that scene were indescribable. What a picture it was! The red fezzes and the long white robes of the Muḥammadans, the pink and yellow silks of the Burmans, the little children in their bright dresses, the women with their big white combs and wreaths Of jasmine in their hair, standing under the waving palm trees flooded by the glory of the full moon. Again some kind words were uttered, and the tears were streaming down the faces of all as we said goodbye.
This article is the fourth and concluding
one in a series relating to the author’s
early Bahá’í journey to India.
WITH OUR READERS
AS WE line up our contents for
October we find that several of
the contributions were given first as
talks before various audiences, but
we think in these cases this fact does
not detract from their value as printed
articles and that our readers who
could not hear them will be glad to
read them. The leading article,
“Greater Than Any Nation” is an address
given in the Hall of Nations in
Washington, D. C. at one of the public
meetings planned by the Bahá’í
Public Meetings Committee. Horace
Holley is well known as the secretary
of the Bahá’í National Spiritual Assembly
and as a frequent speaker on
the Bahá’í platform.
“The Way of Fulfillment” by
Marion Holley Hofman was first presented
as a radio talk April 16, 1944.
Mrs. Hofman now lives in Northampton,
England and is well known to
Bahá’ís in this country as one who
spoke frequently for the Faith and
as a contributor to this magazine.
Her former home was in California.
Sally Sanor’s contribution from
California was first given as a talk in
San Francisco. Miss Sanor returned
about a year ago from Boise, Idaho,
where she had spent three years helping
to establish the first Bahá’í assembly
in that state, thus assisting
in the first seven year plan. This is
her first contribution to World Order.
The editorial, “Heroism”, is by
Eleanor Sweney Hutchens who has
recently been appointed on the editorial
committee of World Order.
Mrs. Hutchens’ home is in Palos Heights, Illinois.
From Lima, Peru, Eve Nicklin
sends us her contribution, “Lady of
Tapada”. Several years ago Miss
Nicklin went as a Bahá’í pioneer to
Peru. What Peru has given to Miss
Nicklin and what she has given to
Peru unfolds as we read her stories
and descriptions of life in this sister
republic of ours. Before going to
Peru, Miss Nicklin did Bahá’í work
with Leonora Holsapple Armstrong
in Brazil. In Lima Miss Nicklin has
had a kindergarten and done some
teaching of English, and we are told
that she is much loved by those with
whom she is working and is busy
from morning till night. Those who
keep their World Order magazines
will like to refer to another article by
Miss Nicklin published in the May,
1943, issue. Miss Nicklin is grateful
to the young people of Lima, whose
research provided the historical material
used in her article.
In her “The Rank-and-File Bahá’í”
Gertrude Schurgast reminds us of the
great variety of ways in which a
Bahá’í may serve the Bahá’í Faith
and the people. Previous articles by
Mrs. Schurgast appeared in 1940 and
1941. Her home is in Cincinnati.
“Mandalay” by Sydney Sprague
is the concluding number in the
series telling of his experiences some
forty years ago in traveling in India
and Burma and giving the Bahá’í
message to the people there. Mr.
[Page 223]
Sprague is no longer living. His home
was in California.
* * *
Commenting upon the savagery of men and the suffering it entails a friend from Nicaragua writes these suggestions: “Has it ever occurred to us that we have lived in a world that has told us we should ‘fight for our rights’, to ‘fight for democracy’? Could this have been the cause for all the wars, this false philosophy of praising war, upholding the doctrine that ‘might makes right’? This vicious doctrine has inoculated our schoolbooks; it has deluded the minds of our historians and confounded their sense of historical justice; it has played up prejudice against our saner spirit.
“Has it ever occurred to us to try giving our rights, and to give our democracy. The great prophets of the world such as Zoroaster, Moses, Buddha, Jesus, Muḥammad and Bahá’u’lláh have taught us clearly to give our rights. The great command of Christ was ‘Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel’, spread the good news of love to all mankind in a world at that time steeped in Roman pride, imperialism, and moral degradation. Similarly, Bahá’u’lláh in our day has pleaded for a unity of the human race by giving our rights in contrast to the false philosophy of fighting for our rights, which has only brought us suffering, misery and death; on the other hand the doctrine of giving our rights offers us peace, progress, prosperity, and prepares the world for unity which can only be achieved by a willingness on the part of each individual to do his share.
“It is only by giving our rights that we shall realize that this world is but one country, and then and only then shall we comprehend the words of the famous statesman prophet of Israel when he said: ‘The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them’.”
* * *
One of our readers has sent us parts of letters in which a young man tells of his experience with prayer. He has accepted the Bahá’í teachings after being a thorough intellectual skeptic. This was written after he had succeeded in obtaining a job:
“I am positive that a Divine Spirit was working for me all the time, and that what I deemed so important and elusive (a job) was to Him a pittance to be freely given to all who ask. I had never asked before. I had always conceived of prayer as something foolish. I ask you, who was foolish? But prayer had now to me a deeper significance than just asking for material things. Last night I found that prayer is the true world. I sincerely believe now in an after life, where this life will be as death to it, with its all-encompassing radiance. . . .”
Eight years later after some trying experiences he wrote: “I have become joyous. I am happy, not because of anything which has happened but because I have found my way along a thousand dark paths into the eternal light of life.”
* * *
Many of our readers know Dr.
Alaine Locke as a friend of the
Bahá’í Faith and will be interested
in the following taken from the Minneapolis
Star-Journal sent to us by
[Page 224]
one of our readers. All will be glad
to read these steps toward racial
equality.
“The recent appointment of Alaine Locke to a professorship in the department of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin marks a trend which began on a small scale but which is growing in importance. Dr. Locke is a Negro scholar, teacher and author who has for a number of years been head of the department of philosophy at Howard University, the federally financed university for Negros in Washington, D. C. His career has been an unusual one. Born in Philadelphia and educated in Philadelphia schools, he went on to Harvard, where he was graduated in 1907 with a record which won for him a Rhodes scholarship at Oxford. From England he went to Germany, then a center for the study of philosophy, and in 1911 returned to teach at Howard. He obtained the doctorate in philoaophy at Harvard in 1917.
“Dr. Locke is not going to Wisconsin to teach problems of race relations, but to teach philosophy. . . Student response to his coming was indicated by an immediate overflow registration for his courses.”
Other Negro scholars are named who are teaching in colleges in which the student body is predominantly white. Then these comments are added:
“All these men and women have been appointed to the position they now hold because of special competence in their chosen fields. Their students are at the same time learning democracy in what is probably the only way it can be learned, as a part of their environment. Such students will not readily accept dogmatic pronouncement on the inferiority of this or that racial group, for they will have learned from direct experience that each man is an individual, limited only by his own capacity for achievement and by the extent to which there is opportunity for its development.”
* * *
One of our readers has sent us a bulletin of the men’s class of Riverside church, New York City. This announces that Mr. F. D. Rich would give a review of two of Archdeacon Townshend’s books, The Promise of All Ages and The Heart of the Gospel. Our correspondent also tells of a talk given by Etta Mae Lawrence, Bahá’í pioneer recently returned from Buenos Aires, before this same men’s club on ladies’ night. Both of these events came about because Mr. Rich had caught the Bahá’í spirit from his cousins in California, and had visited the Temple as well as studied these books.
* * *
Educators are now waking up to the fact that twentieth century moral progress has not kept pace with scientific progress. Dr. Ralph Perry of Harvard University is reported to have said recently that tremendous advances have been made in physical science and lesser advances in psychological technology, but the world has yet to assure itself of proper and moral uses of its knowledge.
Speaking to an American audience in 1912 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá went to the root of the difficulty when He said: “Until the heavenly civilization is founded, no result will be forthcoming from material civilization, even as you observe. See what catastrophes overwhelm mankind.”
Bahá’í World Faith
This book contains a representative selection of the Writings of
Bahá’u’lláh and of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and is the largest collection of Bahá’í
literature in English translation now available in one volume.
A detailed Table of Contents and an Index make the Bahá’í teachings readily accessible for study as well as reading and meditation.
The plan of the book arranges the contents in nine chapters, as follows:—
- Part One—Writings of Bahá’u’lláh
- Chapter One—The Great Announcement
- Chapter Two—The Promised One
- Chapter Three—The Life of the Soul
- Chapter Four—Laws of the New Age
- Chapter Five—The Mystery of God
- Part Two—Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
- Chapter Six—The Faith of Bahá’u’lláh
- Chapter Seven—Soul, Mind and Spirit
- Chapter Eight—The Loom of Reality
- Chapter Nine—The Divine Plan
Each of these chapters has been treated as a unit of significance, and the sequence of the nine chapters conveys a sense of the unfoldment of the Bahá’í Dispensation in the Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, His Will and Testament, the Tablets and Addresses of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and in His Testament and Plan for the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh.
The passages selected have been taken from fifteen different publications as well as from the National Archives.
Printed on thin light paper and bound in green fabrikoid. 465 pages. Per copy, $1.50.
BAHÁ’Í PUBLISHING COMMITTEE
110 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois
Words of Bahá’u’lláh
Inscribed Over the Nine Entrances of the
House of Worship, Wilmette, Illinois
- The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.
- The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me.
- My love is My stronghold; he that entereth therein is safe and secure.
- Breathe not the sins of others so long as thou art thyself a sinner.
- Thy heart is My home; sanctify it for My descent.
- I have made death a messenger of joy to thee; wherefore dost thou grieve?
- Make mention of Me on My earth that in My heaven I may remember thee.
- O rich ones on earth! The poor in your midst are My trust; guard ye My trust.
- The source of all learnings is the knowledge of God, exalted be His glory.