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WCIDL'RED
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MAY, 1948
Beauty and Art in the Bahá’í World Stanwood Cobb
Freedom from Fear Gertrude Schurgast
The Work of Bahá’ís in the Promotion of Human Rights
Bahá’í International Community
“The Great Rehearsal,” Editorial
Eleanor Sweney Hutchens
Mystic Ode of Héfiz, Poem
Translated by Sir William Jones
The Motive Power Gladys Kline
Glimpsing Oneness, Poem Maye Harvey Gift
Peace of Mind, Book Review Mabel Hyde Paine
Vision, Poem Alice Josephine Wyatt
With Our Readers
WORLD ORDER is published monthly in Wilmette, 111., by the Publishing Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. Garreta Busey, Editor; Eleanor S. Hutchens, Mabel H. Paine, Flora Hottes,
Associate Editors.
Publication. Office 110 LINDEN AVENUE, WILME'I'I’E, ILL. C. R. Wood, Business Manager . Printed in U.‘S.A.
Editorial Office Miss Garreta Busey, Editor 503 WEST ELM 5mm, URBANA, ILL.
MAY, 1948, VOLUME XIV, NUMBER 2
SUBSCRIPTIONS: $2.00 per year, for United States, its territories and possessions; for Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Central and South America. Single copies, 20c. Foreign subscriptions, $2.25. Make checks and money orders payablemo World Order Magazine, 110 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois. Entered as second class matter April 1, 1940, at the post office at Wilmette, 111., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Content copyrighted 1948 by Bahá’í Publishing Committee. Title registered at U. S. Patent
Office.
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WORLD ORDER
B AHA’U’LLAH declares that just as lesser living things have times of sudden emergence into new and fuller life, so for mankind also a “critical stage,’-’ a time of re-biIth, is at hand. Then modes of life which have persisted from the dawn of history up till now will be quickly, irrevocably, altered, and humanity enter on a new phase of life as different from the old as the butterfly is different from the caterpillar, or the bird from the egg. Mankind as a whole, in the light of new Revelation, will attain to a new vision of truth; as a whole country is illumined when the sun rises,‘so that all men see clearly, where but an hour before everything was dark and dim. “This is a new cycle of human power,” says ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. “All the horizons of the world are luminous, and the world will become indeed as a rose garden and a paradise.” The analogies of nature are all in favor of such view; the prophets of old have with one accord foretold the advent of such a glorious day; the signs of the times show clearly that profound and revolutionary changes in human ideas and institutions are even now in progress. What could be more futile-and baseless therefore, than the pessimistic argument that, although all things else change, human nature cannot change?
Excerpt from Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era ‘ By J. E. ESSLEMONT
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WOBLID 0BDEB
The Bahá’í Magazine
VOLUME XIV
MAY, 1948
NUMBER 2
Beauty and Art in the Bahá’í World
STANWOOD COBB
JUDAISM AND ISLAM
S RELIGION antagonistic to art? From the observation of
certain phases in religious history it might seem to be. On the other hand, religion has been the cause and the inspiration of the greatest art, in every field of esthetic expression.
Religion is not fundamentally opposed to the expression of beauty in the form of art. It is, however, fundamentally opposed to the expression of sensualism in the form of art. And it is from this innate and necessary opposition of religion to any form of art which is sensual in its motivation and expression that there have arisen whatever historic hostilities there may be of religion to art.
Judaism set itself in violent opposition to paganism and all of its expressions. This necessary attitude, together with something of an ultra-serious quality in the Jewish temperament, led to the traditional severity of the Hebrews toward most forms of art.
Sculpture in all its forms was necessarily taboo. “Thou shall make no graven image . . . This taboo was necessary because of the prevalence of idolatry around them. The orthodox Hebrews abominated the luxuries, efieminacies and sensualities of the urban cultures surrounding them. Theirs was a simple pastoral-agricultural society. Its spiritual purity and fidelity necessitated complete severance from the prevailing pagan cultures, which owed their worst vices to urbanization.
The same taboo carried over into Islém, so that in the development of Moslem art we find the depiction of the human figure forbidden. Instead, the art impulse of the Moslems ran to those abstract and geometrical expressions known to us as “arabesques.”
EARLY CHRISTIANITY AND THE MIDDLE AGES
A similar antagonism arose between early Christianity and
40 WORLD ORDER
the pagan cultures of Greece and Rome, which by the time of the Christian Era were beginning to express a depraved sensualism. Pagan art in these first centuries of Christianity was subjected to a current of degeneracy which moralists were unable to stem. There was no possibility of reforming this pagan culture! Therefore, the injunction of the apostles to their little flocks was to withdraw from the life of the world. The Christian communicants had to begin to lead new lives fully distinct from the life of the past and present.
Christian antagonism to pagan art arose also from the fact that this art stemmed from polytheism and idolatry, and most of its creations had that motivation.
This antagonism of Christian zeal was responsible for a whole millenium of art-stultification and iconoclasm. The Christians not only avoided all forms of pagan art, but even tore down pagan temples for the construction of their own churches, and burned pagan statuary to get lime for their own constructions. Thus it has happened that the finest examples of classical statuary extant have been those buried through some cataclysm and thus preserved from early Christian iconoclasm until the latitudina rian and beauty-loving rulers of later Italy excavated them.
This period of cultural depression has been called the Dark Ages. The fault cannot be laid wholly to Christianity. The brutal overwhelming of all existing culture by successive invasions of Goths and Huns was a contributing factor.
Around the twelfth century, however, we see Christianity he . ginning to express itself in art
forms, a movement which rapidly increased to a glorious crescendo at the height of the Middle Ages.
During the three centuries from the twelfth to the fifteenth a glorious blossoming of art took place, art in all its marvelous forms. The painting, music, statuary, architecture of this period -——-marvelous in its sincerity and glowing beauty as techniques progressed —— has anything equaled this since? Art critics look back with longing eyes to the beauties and perfections of medieval art. The music of Palestrina; the paintings of Giotto, Fra Angelico, the Bellinis; the anonymous statuary of this period (anonymous because of the deep humility of the artists concerned); and the marvelous Gothic cathedrals which climaxed this art expression,~——all of these
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ART 41
are a proof that religion, far from being antagonistic to true and noble art, is its chief source of inspiration.
Similarly, Buddhism exerted a tremendous influence upon oriental art in all countries that came under its inspiration. The exquisite quality of Chinese art —the power of the artist to lose himself in the object which he is depicting so as to render in painting or in carving the very essence and soul of the themethis power all art critics have recognized as derived primarily from a mysticism that flowed from Buddhist teachings plus the teachings of the Tao.
RELIGION THE SOURCE or ART FORMS
Religion will tend always to take a censorious position toward all forms of sensuality in art. It must by its very nature do so. For religion acts as a spiritual and ethical restraint upon human action and expression. Religion cannot afl'ord to let art go about like a robber, stealing the virtue of her people; or as a pander, corrupting all morality.
On the other hand, art, for the very reason that it is sensuous and vivid, can exert a powerful influence for good.
Art cannot be harnessed to morality and religion; for art is
a Pegasus and not a work-horse. But art can be, and should be, inspired from high rather than from low regions of the soul; from noble rather than ignoble sentiments and emotions.
And since art is essentially the exprwsion of emotion, in the form of beauty, art which expresses the deepest and noblest emotions will tend to be greater art than that which flows from egocentric or trivial inspirations. That is why religion has historically been the source of the greatest art-forms produced upon this planet. The noblest architecture, the most exquisite sculpture, the greatest paintings, and the most grandly inspiring music of the world’s culture have been the expression of the exalted emotions of religion.
Can we not therefore expect the Bahá’í World Faith to blossom out into an art-expression at least equivalent to, and perhaps surpassing, those of past religious cultures?
BEAUTY AN ASPECT 0F Dam
There are many adequate grounds for the conviction that the Bahá’í World Faith will create more glorious forms of art in sculpture, painting, music and architecture than the world has yet realized.
Far from being antagonistic to art, the Bahá’í Faith, in its
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mystic and deeply spiritual teachings, emphasizes beauty as an aspect of Deity.
Bahá’u’lláh frequently speaks of Divinity as being an expression of Beauty. “Make my goal the ardent quest of Thy resplendent, adorable and everlasting Beauty.”—“The portals of Thy grace have throughout eternity been open, and the means of ac. cess unto Thy Presence made available unto all created things, and the revelations of Thy matchless Beauty have at all times been imprinted upon the realities of all beings, visible and invisible.”
‘Abdu’l-Bahá also has emphasized beauty as an attribute of God which we should not fail to recognize in the world about us. “. . . Do not seek the honors and loves of this world, seek rather God and His love, and then the honors and loves which belong to Him will be yours. All the glory of the heavens is His, all the beauty of the flowers, the scent of the roses and the colors of the sunset. But more than this the beauty of the soul is His, so that when you look long upon His beauty, it takes many forms and re-appears in your consciousness in many figures.”
The Bahá’í habit of associating, through the very words of their Prophet, divinity with
beauty, and beauty with divinity will inevitably produce a sensitivity to earthly beauty in all its forms as a reflection of that Supernal Beauty worshipped by them. In fact we may expect Bahá’ísin future generations to have an esthetic sense far more refined and exquisite than that which prevails today.
The majority of people, in our contemporaneous culture, can appreciate beauty only at rare intervals. Witness the slapstick comedy which prevails in radio and the movies, interrupting any beauty in the program by the frequent interjection of bufiooncry and clowning. To give their souls to the sustained appreciation of beauty is not possible to the majority of people in this day and generation.
Yet the capacity for the appreciation of beauty exists in every individual, being, as it were, an innate quality of the soul. The Bahá’ís of the future—trained to respect art and beauty, sensitized by spiritual devotion, and under the constant influence of the beauty of the living Word of Cod—will furnish audiences of a receptivity and innate taste such as the world has not heretofore known.
The stimulus of such sympathetic and understanding audiences upon Bahá’í creators in
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ART 43
every field of art, enhanced by their own inspiration as derived from spiritually creative powers, will produce an art of pure beauty and grandeur surpassing all performance of the past. A Bahá’í writer has said, “When we have become ‘blind to all save His beauty’, the rapture and mystery of His sojourn amongst us will quicken its own exalted response.—It has ever been the challenge of a changed consciousness, the glorious sense of freedom and hopefulness, that has given to the world its great artistic periods.”
Not only has Bahá’u’lláh opened the consciousness of humanity to the realization of Divinity as beauty, but ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi have consistently evaluated and praised all forms of art as conducive to human happiness, culture, and progress. “We have made music as a ladder whereby the spirit of man may ascend to
the
Supreme Horizon,” says Bahá’u’lláh. And ‘Abdu’l - Bahá m a k e s
mention on different occasions of the influence of music on the spirit of man: “Music is one of the important arts. It has a great effect upon the human spirit . . . In sooth, although music is a material affair, yet its tremendous effect is spiritual and its
greatest attachment is to the
realm of spirit.”
“In this Cause the art of music is of paramount importance,” He also says. Bahá’u’lláh, when He first came to the barracks (‘Akká), repeated this statement: ‘If among the immediate followers there had been those who could have played some musical instrument, that is, flute or harp, or could have sung, it would have charmed every one.” In short, musical melody performs an important role in the associations, or outward and inward characteristics, or qualities of man, for it is the inspirer or motive power of both the material and spiritual susceptibilities.”
In another place ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says that children must be taught the art of music, for “it will be the cause of the expression of latent talents . . . in their hearts.”
Shoghi Effendi speaks in the highest of terms of the value of art in its many forms of expression as an influence in human society:
“We have to wait only a few years to see how the spirit breathed hy Bahá’u’lláh will find expression in the work of the artists,” writes his secretary to a Bahá’í dramatist. “What you and some other Bahá’ís are attempting, are only faint rays that
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44 WORLD ORDER
precede the efiulgent light of a glorious morn. We cannot yet es. timate the part the Cause is destined to play in the life of socie; ty. We have to give it time. The material this spirit has to mould is too crude and unworthy, but it will at last give way, and the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh will reveal itself in its full splendor.”
An American Bahá’í, Grace Oher, who had the privilege of daily association with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá over a period of many months, presented at Green Acre to a conference on pageantry the following statement, as her impression of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s great expectations for art as an element in the coming Bahá’í civilization:
“That a great art will be the outcome of the Bahá’í civilization is inevitable. Every civilization created by a great religion in the past has flowered into forms of beauty. Sculpture, painting, architecture, music, drama and poetry have been the natural expression of greatly inspired epochs.
“Religion should not be conceived of as a mere insistence upon duty, a heightened ethics. If true religion is a revelation of goodness to the world, it brings with it also a revelation of beauty. The heart that sings in and with the love of Good, must
of necessity create. The inspiration is powerful! The result is great art.
“The revealed truth of Bahá’u’lláh will not only inaugurate a more perfect civilization upon this globe; it will also give rise to art forms surpassing in beauty the utmost that the world has known. In music especially there will be a heightened power of creation, a vibrating power that will reveal to the soul of man inefiahle beauties of the spiritual kingdom. The magic carrying power of the radio and its immense distributing power, will ultimately act as a powerful stimulus to the beauty both of composition and of performance. Instrumental music, which is now but in its infancy, will pass through an undreamed of revolution. Harmonious sound, said to be the language of the angels, will become a desired part of the daily life of man, and will freshen his inner and outer be ing.”
RELIGION AND LITERARY STYLE
We might give ourselves to some conjecture as to how the various arts may take on forms of higher beauty than the soul of man has yet expressed. There is always a tendency to assume that humanity has reached the acme of progress and that there is nothing that can be added. Yet
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ART 45
we find science and invention continuously expanding the horizons of human thought and knowledge and adding important creations to the arts of living. Why then should we not expect art also to make continuous progress, reflecting the progress of the human race in refinement of tastes and enhancement of creative powers.
In literature it would be hard to conceive new forms coming into creation; but we can certainly conceive that the present forms may gain greatly in beauty, exquisiteness and grandeur.
It is a historic fact that the Word of God, as revealed to and cherished by its devotees, has exerted an enormous influence upon literary style. Strangely enough, this influence seems to be able to pass over from the original into translations, giving these translations something of the creative beauty of the Word itself and rendering them models for styles in their respective languages. Thus the King James version of the Bible stands unquestionably as the most beautiful English ever penned, and has been the model and inspiration of countless subsequent writers. Similarly, Calvin’s translation of the Bible into French became a model for F rench style; and Luther’s translation into German
exerted a preponderant influence on German style. The Koran, considered by the Moslems to be the most beautiful Arabic in existence, has greatly influenced the style of Arabic and Persian writers.
If such he the case, we may expect a tremendous influence to flow out from the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, affecting all literary effort in the Bahá’í World, now and for centuries to come.
This influence will not only take the form of absorption from the Word of Bahá’u’lláh into the language of Bahá’í writers; but there will also be a new grace and beauty permeating Bahá’í writings, through the power of a new spiritual inspiration. An enhanced choice of language, a new sonority will characterize the planetary Bahá’í literature of the future. For let us not suppose that the English language, or any language for that matter, has yet reached the utmost beauty of expression of which it is capable. Not until inspired writers produce words that sing as sang the seraphs at the dawn of Creation, can language upon this planet be said to have reached its ultimate perfection.
MUSIC
In the art of music, especially, there may be expected great de
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velopments. Modern composers with their daring dissonances have discovered new and subtler beauties of orchestral and choral forms—beauties that evoke new esthetic reactions and responses from the hearer. Debussy with his whole-tone scale and his juxtaposition of chords produced effects of color in music. Debussy himself had intended to take up painting as a career, but his love of color expressed itself ultimately in music rather than on the canvas. He claimed that his music could produce “various experiences and special effects of light.” The cool, lovely pastel shades of Debussy’s music have made history and expanded into a whole school of musical impressionists.
New instruments have been invented and new scales experimented with. A certain Bahá’í composer has worked out a new scale of twenty-four notes, for which he is endeavoring to create a musical instrument.
Particularly in the field of choral music may we expect the achievement of new and unexpected beauties. Bahá’í composers of the future will undoubtedly be influenced by the spiritual glories of the Gregorian modes and their expression in liturgical music, as indeed one Bahá’í composer has already
proved with a chant setting of a prayer of Bahá’u’lláh’s—a musical composition which equals in a brief compass some of the best of Gregorian music.
To one who has had the privilege of listening to such Gregorian music at its best, it verily seems that the heavens have been opened and the chants of angel choruses are descending upon earth. The writer has heard the Russian Church music mag‘ nificently rendered in some leading churches of Russia, in the Russian Embassy Church at Con. stantinople, and in the Russian Church of Paris. What is the secret of the unearthly beauty of these successions of sonorities as sung by Russian choirs? Nothing on this earth can equal it for sheer beauty and for spiritual upliftment. Whatever the techniques may be by which such ethereal music is created, one thing is certain——that this beauty flows from deep spiritual motivation on the part of its creators.
Pope Gregory, the founder of the Gregorian chant, stated that this great art of music (which he called praying in terms of beauty) “by charming the ear should win the heart to a love of heavenly things.” And the Council of Aix la Chapelle in 816
AD. stated: “The singer should be trained so that not only the
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ART 47
words he utters but the sweetness of his singing may raise the souls of his hearers to thoughts of love of heavenly things.”*
We may expect significant developments in the field of the chant and of choral music in general by Bahá’í composers of the future, who will know how to draw the best from the liturgical music of the Catholic and Russian Churches and how to carry on into a new world of spiritual dynamics at music the technique of which undoubtedly is very ancient—tracing back to the chants of the early Christians, which Were derived from the more ethereal of the Creek modes on the one hand and from the Jewish chant on the other, the latter undoubtedly stemming from an even more ancient source, that of Egypt, where the barbaric shepherds of Israel first acquired their musical culture.
ARCHITECTURE
In religious architecture the impact of Bahá’í inspiration is already being perceived. The Bahá’í Temple of Light on the
"Records are available of renderings oi both Catholic and Russian liturgical music based on the Gregorian modes. There is now available an album of such Gregorian music of the Catholic Church, as rendered by a choir of monks of the Abbey of St. Pierre de Solesmes (Victor album, 12538 to 12543.) Russian Church music rendered by Don Cossack Choms—Columbia Masterworks 7355M, 4276M, 7272M—and Victor, 4574A & B. Columbia m.
shores of Lake Michigan in a suburb of Chicago stands as a living demonstration of new potencies in architectural inspiration. This temple is generally considered to be “the greatest architectural achievement of modern times.” When the model for this temple was first exhibited in New York City in 1921 the New York American said: “Many persons who have seen the model of this building say that it will be the most beautiful structure ever erected.” Architecture, a leading architectural magazine, in a full page article published this appreciation of H. Van Buren Magonigle. President of the Architectural League: “It is the first new idea in architecture since the thirteenth century.” Art and Architecture gave it an extended mention with a beautiful reproduction—saying, among other things: “So beautiful is this model and so diflerent from anything man has ever before designed, either as an abode, or as a place of worship, that it has caused much discussion among architects and sculptors and in the newspapers.”
Professor Luigi Quaglino, exprofessor of Architecture at Turin, Italy, after admiring the model for fully three hours declared: “This is a new creation
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which will revolutionize architecture in the world, and it is the most beautiful I have ever seen. Without doubt it will have a lasting page in history. It is a revelation from another world.” And George Grey Barnard, widely known American sculptor, pronounced this temple “the greatest creation since the Gothic period and the most beautiful I have ever seen.”
Whence came the inspiration for this unique architectural design? Its creator, Louis Jean Bourgeois, declared, “It is Bahá’u’lláh’s Temple, I am only the channel through which it came.” And he stated to the writer that this inspiration came to him during a period of prayer and fasting in the mountains of
California.
The delicacy of detail in Bourgeois’s design, both exterior and interior, was such that at the time of its modeling no existing methods of construction could have been practicable. To carve it in marble would have run into many millions of dollars, and the designs were too delicate to cast in concrete. But by the time funds were ready to start its erection a marvelous new process had been invented by a Washington builder, John J. Earley—a method of moulding a mixture of crushed quartz and
cement in monolithic castings from plaster moulds made from models carved in clay. This plastic material was capable of taking on the utmost delicacy of form which characterized Bourgeois’s exquisite model. And so the Bahá’í Temple stands majestically today on the shore of Lake Michigan—the major piece of ecclesiastical construction of this generation, visited yearly by thousands of sight-seers and included in all official sight-seeing tours of Chicago. Its influence will undoubtedly be felt in all Bahá’í religious architecture of the future.
A MORE IMPELLING BEAUTY
It is clear from the foregoing discussion that the Bahá’í Faith, far from opposing or frustrating the art impulse, will tremendously enhance this impulse among its followers and will ultimately give birth to glorious art creations surpassing anything of bygone ages.
Since art is the expression, through established techniques, of emotion and inspiration, there is every reason to expect that the Bahá’í Faith—with its great universal principles, its warmth of love to God and man, its conscious and assured expectation of a new world-order flowering into a universal civilization ——will produce great and new art
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ART 49
in every field of esthetic cre- censorship to prevent immoralation. ity in art. The power of beauty,
The trivialities and ohscen- goodness, and truth joined in ities which characterize so much one esthetic expression will preof modern art will be swept vail in a more spiritualized away by the insurgence of a world over all trends of sensualdeeper and more impelling ism, triviality and evil. When beauty issuing from the inspir- the sun has arisen the smoky ations of Bahá’í creativeness. lanterns of wandering are exWe shall not in the future need tinguished.
. . . But the Cro-Magnon was above all a great artist. The paintings which adorn his caverns are often admirable. His sculptures, his engravings on bone and ivory are wonderfully realistic, his tools and his weapons are superbly decorated, his jewels and ornaments are remarkably ingenious and graceful. The height of the Cro-Magnon culture was probably reached 12,000 years ago.
These useless manifestations—this word is taken in the sense of “not absolutely necessary to maintain or defend life”—mark the most important date in all the history of mankind. They are the proof of the progress of the human spirit in the direction of evolution, that is, in the direction leading away from the animal . . .
. . . The new being, Man, changes his master. He escapes from the grasp of the physico-chemical and biological laws. Esthetic desires and ideas are born in him and can be materialized by his hands. . . . The sense of beauty is revealed to him. He adorns himself, he seeks and combines colors. His weapons and his tools must be something more than utilitarian intruments. They must be beautiful. . . . The appearance of the esthetic sense, which very quickly reaches an extraordinarily high level, is the first tangible evidence of the new orientation' of evolution, the real origin of pure thought. The esthetic sense is the primitive source of intelligence, of symbolism, of writing, of all the means which will condition future development.
-—Lecomte du Noiiy
Reprinted by {emission from Human Destiny (Longmans, Green & Co., Inc., New York, copyright 947) pp. 125-127.
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Freedom from Fear GERTRUDE SCHURGAST
0 ONE is completely happy
unless he is free from fear. Even if We possess all worldly treasures, like youth and beauty, health and wealth, We may be all the more unhappy, for we may be filled with fear, the fear of losing them.
From the cradle to the grave we are beset by fear. The child feels safe and happy in his mother’s loving arms, but at some time or other he too may have experienced the dread feeling of fear. In his story books appears again and again the sinister figure of the wolf as the symbol of fear, and I think the rather unpleasant story of the three little pigs enjoys such popularity among the children, only because here the wolf is finally outsmarted, fear is conquered.
We as adults, however, are not always successful in outsmarting, conquering fear. As We grow older, our fears grow with us. We may try to suppress them, run away from them, drown them in alcohol and drugs, but they still are With us.
Whole countries may be swayed by fear. Like young boys picking up sticks for their protection, nations keep on spending money for armaments in or der to be “prepared”, and threaten each other with atomic bombs. Let us remember the words of our late President Roosevelt, who in his inaugural address said, “Our country has nothing to fear but fear itself.”
If we as individuals succeed in conquering our fears and become free and happy, the big nation-wide problems will be solved more easily.
One expression of fear is all those innumerable daily little worries that spoil our peace of mind and are such a waste of time. Things like: “How will I be able to fix my hair when it gets thin?” or, “How will I ever get up this hill twenty years from now?” We cross ever so many bridges “before we come to the river,” and the chances are that those particular rivers we are afraid of never come. Usually we find ourselves dead and buried before we ever get into that predicament we dreaded so.
To be afraid is like standing by the window in a warm, cozy room and looking out onto a cold and dreary street, with the wind shaking the trees and the rain beating against the glass, and you feel warm and secure and bless your stars that you don’t
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FEAR 51
have to go out into this dreadful weather. But suppose you should put on your hat and raincoat and your overshoes and go out. It would not seem half as bad as it looked from the inside. Perhaps the wind and the rain on your forehead would feel good, and you might return home refreshed and braced. Spiritually speaking, we sometimes do have to go through storms of trials and tribulations, but our protection there is the knowledge that God sends us those as tests, and we come out of them ever so much happier and freer.
One of my friends I have known since school had, as a rich man’s daughter, led a very sheltered life during her youth and was afraid of insecurity and poverty to a point that she felt inferior to any working girl. She was ill-poised and awkward, and her hands began to tremble whenever she felt “watched.” Later on she lost her money and that proved to be her salvation. How proud she was when she brought home her first pay check, and how surprised, that she had actually earned it. From that moment on she lost her fear and carried her share of the hardships and vicissitudes of life with an undaunted, cheerful courage that became an inspiration to her friends.
Another friend once told me, “I have always been afraid of two things, divorce and rattlesnakes. Well, I had to find myself another husband and now I thank God for letting me be so happy. But then we had to live in a country infested with rattlesnakes, and there I discovered that they were more afraid of me than I was of them. So we get along fine.”
“Better for you is what He possesseth than the things ye yourselves possess,” says Bahá’u’lláh. But it may take us a lifetime to recognize that truth. A woman may love her children or her husband with such abundant, such possessive love that it blots out all other love, even the love of God, although Bahá’u’lláh admonishes us over and over again to “rid ourselves of all attachments to any one except Him.”
Such a woman is bound to suffer disappointment and heartbreak. Her happiness is like a beautiful apple ripening on a tree in her yard. Anxiously she watches it from her window day after day, sees it grow bigger and rosier, not knowing that inside a worm is boring, the worm of fear, till suddenly, one day she finds it gone, smashed on the ground, a rotten mass.
Our sorrows are blessings in
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disguise. With every one that comes to us God takes us by the hand and leads us a step forward and upward. If we would only trust Him. In the Seven Valleys by Bahá’u’lláh we find the stirring story of the lover who is desperately looking for his beloved but cannot find her anywhere. He suddenly discovers that he is followed by guards who take him for a criminal and surround him on all sides, till finally he is driven against a blank wall from where there seems no escape. In a desperate effort he attempts to climb over the wall and finally succeeds in scaling it and dropping down to safety on the other side. And there, 10 and behold, is his beloved whom he has been looking for so long in vain.
This story has a deep symbolic significance. As this young man later blessed the cruel guards who had led him to the object of his quest, we too may bless events that bring us hitter disappointments and trials, hut in reality lead us on to greater happiness and nearer to God.
Freed from another fear! One by one they fall off us until finally we recognize it is one fear that drives away all other fears. This one fear is the fear of God. It is the one fear that makes us happy, free, secure. “Gottes furcht” the Germans call it. In this word, perhaps more than in the English is the meaning of respectful devotion, humility. “And whoever has learned to fear God,” as George Townshend says, “becomes thereby immune to all other fears.” To ohey His divine Laws is to be safe.
Last summer I attended a session at the International Bahá’í School in Colorado Springs. I wanted to meet believers who had courage enough to volunteer to go alone to foreign countries to spread the Glad Tidings of Bahá’u’lláh. If I were free and called upon to do it, would I be able to do this? I was “scared to death.” In that wonderful spirit of love and companionship which permeated the very atmosphere of Temerity Ranch, I lost even that fear. I woke up one night—I slept on the glass enclosed porch of the lovely house —and touched the brick wall near my bed. I felt so safe, so happy and secure, as the little pig must have felt in his brick house. Only here there was not even a chimney through which the wolf could come down.
Here, perhaps, for the first time, I understood what the LOVe of God is. It surrounds us, protects us, carries us. “My Love is thy stronghold. He that entereth therein is safe and secure.”
[Page 53]
The Work of Bahá’ís
in Promotion of Human Rights
HE Bahá’í international com . munity believes that all human beings have the right to live in a society whose laws and institutions conform to the truths of a progressive and universal religion.
This belief is sustained by faith in a divine order. It awakens moral responsibility to work for the fulfillment of human rights in a unified world. It recognizes the fact that before rights can be established in truth or in statute there must be among the people a condition of spiritual worthiness.
Bahá’ís work to promote human rights in a number of ways.
F irst, the individual in his personal life seeks to divest his heart of prejudices handed dowu from his forefathers or prevalent in his civilization. His faith makes it incumbent on him to evaluate persons as human beings without respect to race, class, nationality or creed. He strives to attain by prayer, by meditation and by spiritual education 3 firm understanding of the central Bahá’í teaching, the oneness of mankind. Short of world order and peace the Bahá’í
sees no human authority or power able to establish new and higher human rights or even to safeguard ancient rights long re garded as minimum decencies of communal existence.
Second, all Bahá’ís are members of an international religious community which applies in its internal relationships the attitudes of a world society. What is virtue in the individual upholds the principle and practice of justice in the group. Each Bahá’í shares equally in the fellowship of a supra-racial, supranational and supra-sectarian order. He worships and breaks bread together with his fellows in a unity now spread to eightyeight countries, representing more than thirty races and all the great revealed faiths. The emotion of unity rests on the Bahá’í administrative principle which creates authority by election through secret ballot of all adult members without nomination or partisan machinery. Nor has this community any division into ecclesiastical and lay bodies. In the Bahá’í faith a professional clergy is forbidden.
Third, the very existence of so
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widespread and varied a community can serve the cause of human rights by demonstrating that under certain conditions the spirit of equality and cooperation can prevail. In this far-flung fellowship embracing the white and the dark peoples, the oriental and the occidental, the poor and the rich, the Bahá’ís have developed a small but significant area of spiritual peace. Their aim is to generate by union the moral force needed to create institutions imbued with a world outlook, independent of the selfcentered cultures and philosophies evolved in the past.
Fourth, the Bahá’í community, acting through its various local and national organs, conducts more and more vigorously
a work of public education on behalf of human rights. This work includes: publication of
books and pamphlets in nearly fifty languages; publication of magazines; operation of summer schools in six countries public conferences and lectures maintained in hundreds of cities. A statement entitled “A Bahá’í Declaration of Human Obligations and Rights” was presented to United Nations Human Rights
Commission in February, 1947. BAHA’I INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
This statement was prepared by request of the United Nations Committee organizing the Human Rights Conference at Geneva, Switzerland, on May 19 and 20, 1948, which Bahá’í representatives have been invited to attend. It will be used in the working papers furnished to all the participants. Last year the United Nations accredited the American National Spiritual Assembly as a non-governmental organization. Recently the eight Bahá’í National Assemblies, acting jointly as the Bahá’í International Community, have been accredited as an international nongovernmental organization. The other National Assemblies have authorized the
American NSA to represent them in relation to the United Nations.
[Page 55]
The Great Rehearsal
galiforia/
THE story is told on an Ameri can government official who consulted ‘Abdu’l-Bahá about his future. That great Exile, Who had spent forty years of His, life in prison, advised him: “You can best serve your country if you strive in your capacity as a citizen of the world, to assist in the eventual application of the principle of federalism underlying the government of your own country to the relationships now existing between the peoples and nations of the
world.”
It is therefore of particular interest to Bahá’ís to read of the step by step development of the Constitution of the United States which made a federation of the loosely-leagued thirteen original states. Carl Van Doren in his significantly entitled book, The Great Rehearsal*, emphasizes the wide divergence of viewpoint which made the formation of the federal government of this country a difficult, almost insurmountable task.
In 1787, all of the states had militia which were like inde
‘ New York: The Viking Press, 1948.
pendent armies. Nine of them had navies of their own. Some of them levied customs duties on the products entering from other states. A few were negotiating
separate treaties With foreign powers as if they were independent nations. Several issued their own paper money. When the delegates met at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia that year they were similar in their fears and their attitudes to the diplomats who met in San Francisco to form the Charter of the United Nations.
Many were the men in 1787 who declared they would be sacrificing their liberty if they consented to give up any of their state sovereignty to a national superstate. They argued that the Northern states would dominate Congress and legislate to the disadvantage of the Southern states. The large states, ,some feared, would ride roughshod over the interests of the small states until the latter would be reduced to mere satellites without independent voice. The men from the cities of the Atlantic seaboard had visions of the day when the
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frontiersmen would outnumber them and considered limiting the number of states that could enter the union. At the same time, delegates from the rural areas were fearful that they would be overtaxed and tyrannized by a majority of city aristocrats. Many feared a dictatorship or a monarchy.
Mr. Van Doren traces the day by day sessions of that Constitutional Convention, quoting from the opposition and quoting from the speeches of James Wilson, Gouverneur Morris, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and men like them, who were convinced that the peace and prosperity of the nation depend. ed upon the formation of a strong national government. One after another objections were overcome and compromises were reached balancing the pOWers given to the executive, legislative, and judiciary branches of government. Differences were reconciled, fears dispelled.
The world has yet to see the day when the delegates from the United Nations will meet together to cement their union in a federation of the whole world, but public opinion is gradually coming to favor such a tremendous and far-reaching step. In
1931, Shoghi Effendi, in The Goal of A New World Order, sent to the American Bahá’ís these hopeful words: “How confident were the assertions made in the days preceeding the unification of the states of the North American continent regarding the insuperable barriers that stood in the way of their ultimate federation! Was it not declared that the conflicting interests, the mutual mistrusts, the differences of government and habit that divided the states were such as no force, whether spiritual or temporal, could ever hope to harmonize and control? And yet how different were the conditions prevailing a hundred and fifty years ago from those that characterize present day society! It would indeed he no exaggeration to say that the absence of those facilities which modern scientific progress has placed at the service of humanity in our time made the problem of welding the American states into a single federation, similar though they were in certain traditions, a task infinitely more complex than that which confronts a divided humanity in its efforts to achieve the unification of all mankind.”
-—-E. S. H.
[Page 57]
Mystic Ode of Héfiz
Translated by SIR WILLIAM JONES
In wide eternity’s vast space, Where no beginning was, wert Thou:
The rays of all-pervading grace
Beneath Thy veil flamed on Thy brow. Then love and nature sprang to birth,
And life and beauty filled the earth.
Awake, my soul! pour forth thy praise, To that great Being anthems raise That wondrous Architect who said,
“Be formed,” and this great orb was made.
Since first I heard the blissful sound—“To man My Spirit’s breath is given”; I knew, with thankfulness profound, His sons we are—our home is heaven. Oh give me tidings that shall tell When I may hope with Thee to dwell, That I may quit this world of pain, Nor seek to be its guest again.
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A bird of holiness am I,
That from the vain world’s net would fly: Shed, bounteous Lord, one cheering shower From Thy pure cloud of guiding power, Before, even yet, the hour is come,
When my dust rises toward its home.
What are our deeds ?—all worthless, alloh, bring devotion’s wine,
That strength upon my soul may fall
F rom drops Thou mad’st divine.
The world’s possessions fade and flee,
The only good is——loving Thee!
0 happy hour! when I shall rise
From earth’s delusions to the skies, Shall find my soul at rest, and greet
The traces of my loved one’s feet: Dancing with joy, whirled on with speed, Like motes that gorgeous sunbeams feed, Until I reach the fountain bright
Whence yonder sun derives his light.
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The Motive Power
GLADYS KLINE
THE Bahá’í Teachings reveal
clearly that events of human history, as they are enacted on the stage of life, make manifest the Grand Design as conceived by God and bring into the realm of reality that which was
decreed by the Will of the Almighty.
Bahá’u’lláh teaches that the succession of happenings in world history, with all its mighty surgings, is the unfoldment of a master-scheme born in the mind of the Creator “in the beginning that hath no beginning.” It is evident that every nation, every race, in fact every individual, has a designated place in the allinclusive plan of the Eternal. A11 existence revolves, however remotely it may seem, about a central theme. All its parts are coordinated and are set in their due place as predetermined by the intelligent will of a pre-existing Lord.
Bahá’u’lláh bears witness to this fact, when He says, “The one true God hath everlastingly existed, and will everlastingly continue to exist. His creation, likewise, hath had no beginning, and will have no end. All that is created, hOWever, is preceded by a Cause. This fact, in itself, es 59
tablisheth, beyond the shadow of a doubt the unity of the Creator.”
Jesus’ statements likewiSe prove that an eternal pattern had existed in the mind of God from the beginning, for, when speaking to His disciples of the Last Judgment, He said, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you frorn the foundation of the world.”
It is because of the love of God towards the Self or Identity of God, that He willed a creation to reflect His attributes,—knowledge and power, sovereignty and dominion, mercy and wisdom, glory, bounty and grace. In H idden Words, this is made clear when Bahá’u’lláh says, “O Son of Man! Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee; therefore I created thee, have engraved on thee Mine image and revealed to thee My beauty.” Further, from the words of Bahá’u’lláh we learn that “the purpose of God in creating man hath been, and ever will be, to enable him to know his Creator and to attain His presence.”
However, there must be a divine Intermediary between God and His creatures for them to
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know and to love Him, as the infinite does not descend to the plane of the finite. At no points do these two worlds have contact, as “no tie of direct intercourse can possibly bind” God to His creatures. According to the teachings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, a lower degree of creation cannot understand or gain knowledge of a higher degree, inasmuch as “difiereHCe of degree is an obstacle or hindrance to comprehension.” Bahá’u’lláh opens wide the door to this knowledge and reveals the mission of the Prophets to mankind by declaring these mighty words, “The door of the knowledge of the Ancient Being hath ever been, and will continue forever to be, closed in the face of men. N0 man’s understanding shall ever gain access unto His holy court. As a token of His mercy, however, and as a proof of His 10ving kindness, He hath manifested unto men the Day Stars of His divine guidance, the Symbols of His divine unity, and bath ordained the knowledge of these sanctified Beings to be identical with the knowledge of His own Self. Whose recognizeth them hath recognized God. Whoso hearkeneth to their call, hath hearkened to the Voice of God, and whoso testifieth to the truth of their Revelation, hath testi fied to the truth of God Himself. Whoso turneth away from them, hath turned away from God, and whoso disbelieveth in them, hath disbelieved in God. Every one of them is the Way of God that connecteth this world with the realms above, and the Standard of His Truth unto to every one 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.”
The Divine Plan of creation decreed by the Almighty Will of the Lord of All Worlds is indeed beyond the comprehension of the finite mind in its minute detail of perfection, its magnitude and its illimitable power. The impelling force which lies behind creation is the love of God. Foreseeing that man would need help in acquiring knowledge of Himself, the unknowable Essence, Cod provided mankind with His Manifestations to serve “as vehicles for the transmission of the Grace of Divinity itself,” and endowed him with powers whereby this knowledge can be acquired.
F rom the distant past, we hear David, the Psalmist, raising his voice in interrogation, “When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained;
ll'
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what is man that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?” We listen,—~and we hear these words which have lived through the ages. They reveal David’s high opinion of the dignity and power of man and that his creation and endowments were pre-designed by the Will of God. “Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou has put all things under his feet.”
Yet, what are these capacities that have crowned man “with glory and honor” that he may attain the divine perfections and acquire the heavenly virtues fore-ordained for him in the magnificent scheme of God? Bahá’u’lláh gives a significant answer to the seeker’s inquiry in Cleanings, when He says, “Having created the world and all that liveth and moveth therein, He, through the direct operation of His unconstrained and sovereign Will, chose to confer upon man the unique distinction and capacity to know Him and to love Him,———a capacity that must needs be regarded as the generating impulse and the primary purpose underlying the whole of creation . . . . Upon the inmost
reality of each and every created thing He hath shed the light of one of His names, and made it the recipient of the glory of one of His attributes. Upon the reality of man, however, He hath focused the radiance of all of His names and attributes, and made it a mirror of His own Self. Alone of all created things man hath been singled out for so great a favor, so enduring a bounty.”
Man is further assured of gifts bestowed upon him, by these words of Bahá’u’lláh, “Know thou that, according to what thy Lord, the Lord of all men, hath decreed in His Book, the favors vouchsafed by Him unto mankind have been, and will ever remain, limitless in their range. First and foremost among these favors, which the Almighty hath conferred upon man, is the gift of understanding. His purpose in conferring such a gift is none other except to enable His creature to know and recognize the one true Godexalted be His glory. This gift giveth man the power to discern the truth in all things, leadeth him to that which is right, and helpeth him to discover the secrets of creation. Next in rank, is the power of vision, the chief instrument whereby his understanding can function. The
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senses of hearing, of the heart, and the like, are similarly to be reckoned among the gifts with which the human body is endowed.” Among the many gifts bestowed upon man, another one which should be emphasized and “is preeminent above all other gifts, is incorruptible in nature, and pertaineth to God Himself is the gift of Divine Revelation.” All other gifts are “subservient unto this” and he “who hath recognized God’s Manifestation in this day has “partaken of this highest gift of God.”
‘Abdu’l-Bahá says that “God has created man lofty and noble; made him a dominant factor in creation. He has specialized man with supreme bestowals, conferred upon him mind, perception, memory, abstraction and the powers of the senses. These gifts of God to man were intended to make him the manifestation of divine virtues, a radiant light in the world of creation, a source of life and the agency of constructiveness in the infinite fields of existence.”
Too, meditation, which is the life of the soul, is a faculty conferred upon man through which he may attain “to eternal life” and “receive the breath of the Holy Spirit.” It is not spotty, hasty reading but rather reflection and meditation upon the
Word of God that proves to be of worth to the soul, for the “faculty of meditation frees man from the animal nature, discerns the reality of things, puts man in touch with God.” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá exhorts us: “Investigate and study the Scriptures word by word so that you may attain knowledge of the mysteries hidden therein. Be not satisfied with words, but seek to understand the spiritual meanings hidden in the heart of the words.”
To what conclusion do we arrive when we reflect and meditate upon this majestic Design as conceived and brought into existence by the Will of God? It is this—Love is the motivating force that lies behind this moving, unfolding, evolving plan as decreed by the will of the All-Powerful from the beginning that hath no beginning to the end which hath no end. Love also motivates this Revelation. By the three Light Bearers, the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, love is revealed as the “originative and supporting principle of all existence.” This is proved by Bahá’u’lláh’s declaration in H idden Words, “I loved thy creation, hence I created thee. Wherefore, do thou love Me, that I may name thy name, and fill thy soul with the spirit of life.” That God extends an invitation to
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MOTIVE POWER 63
His creatures to enter into His paradise of love is shown by these beautiful, inspiring words which flow from the pen of Bahá’u’lláh, “Thy Paradise is My love; thy heavenly home reunion with Me. Enter therein and tarry not. This is that which has been destined for thee in Our kingdom above and Our exalted dominion.”
However, it is imperative for man to purify his heart of self, to sever himself from all save God and to desire naught save what God desires if he is to acquire God’s love in his heart. This abnegation of self-will and of self-desires is absolutely necessary if man is to attain eternal life. It is essential that he habitually submit his will with “radiant acquiescence” to the will of God, for “there is no peace for thee save through renouncing thyself and turning unto Me; for it behooveth thee to glory in My name, not in thine own; to put thy trust in Me and not in thyself, since I desire to be loved alone and above all that is.”
This admonition is given by Bahá’u’lláh to all who desire eternal life, “O Son of Dust! Blind thine eyes, that thou mayest behold My beauty; stop thine ears, that thou mayest hearken unto the sweet melody of My voice; empty thyself of all learn ing that thou mayest partake of My knowledge; and sanctify thyself from riches, that thou mayest obtain a lasting share from the ocean of My eternal wealth. Blind thine eyes, that is, to all save My beauty; stop thine ears to all save My word; empty thyself of all learning save the knowledge of Me; that with a clear vision, a pure heart and an attentive ear thou mayest enter the court of My holiness.”
With high resolve and purpose, let us, as lovers of God, arise to fill our place designated by the will of God and declare with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that “love is the principle of God’s holy Dispensation, the Manifestation of the All-Merciful, the fountain of spiritual outpourings. Love is heaven’s kindly light, the Holy Spirit’s eternal breath that vivifies the human soul. Love is the cause of God’s Revelation unto man, the vital bond inherent according to divine creation in the essence of things. Love is the one means that ensures true felicity both in this world and in the next. Love is the light that guides in darkness, the living link that unites God with man, that assures the progress of every illumined soul. Love is the supreme law that rules this mighty and heavenly cycle, the sole power
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that binds together the divine elements of this material world, the supreme magnetic force that directs the movements of the spheres in the celestial realms. Love reveals with unfailing and limitless power the mysteries 1a tent in the universe. Love is the spirit of life within the beautified body of mankind; it establishes true civilization in this mortal world, and sheds imperishable glory upon every aspiring race and nation. . . .”
GLIMPSING ONENESS
MAYE HARVEY GIFT
My spirit reaches, as with eager arms,
In longing to enfold the universe
Within its catholic embrace.
“The universe,” it cries, “not this mere Earth. For there is newly born Within my depths
A knowledge of my kinship with all life.
“Have not the atoms of my outer robe
Had timeless coursings through the distant stars? Were they not locked in silent majesty
Within the purple mountain’s gold-veined heart?
Did they not blossom into loveliness
Within the fragrant petals of the rose?
Have they not roamed throughout far-stretching plains, Partaking of the sentient attributes
Of bird, of bison, of gazelle?
“Search through all space, O thou my brother man, And tell me of one moon, one swelling sea,
One trackless forest’s tangled maze,
That through the centuries, nay, eons past
Hath not been busied secretly,
Preparing for thy sojourn here, and mine,
Rare robes of mingled beauty and of light!”
[Page 65]
Peace of Mimi“
Book Review MABEL HYDE PAINE
OMEONE has said that the fact that a book with this title, “Peace of Mind,” is ranked among the best sellers is significant of our times. If people had peace of mind the title would not attract them as it does. And, indeed, the author of the book, Joshua L. Liehman, speaking from a wide experience in trying to help people to find peace of mind, says there is no doubt that ours is a sick age.
The purpose of his book is to show how psychoanalysis can help the individual to attain inner stability and serenity. Rabbi Liebman, a well-known preacher and speaker on the radio, discusses the human shortcomings which cause modem soul~sickness. These might be summarized as inability to accept the “pummelings of fate and fortune” and to get rid of weak or evil emotions. Partial remedies are listening to music or contemplating other works of art, but the peace this brings is temporary. False remedies, too often used, are alcohol and barbiturates. Attempting to repress weak or evil emotion is also, according to our author, a false remedy. The man or woman, he says, who attempts by his own will power to repress evil emotion, such as hate or sensual desires, not only is unsuccessful, but often these attempts actually bring in their wake disease. Some better remedies sug " Peace of Mind, by Joshua Loth Liebman. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1946.
gested are arousing desire to emulate heroes, emphasizing our innate tendency to love and making use of oral confession of the destructive emotions.
Attempting to repress such emotions is shown to be like trying to blow out an electric light. The right way is to find the switch that turns on the light, then turn it ofi. In oral confession to a wise psychoanalyst the patient, to quote Dr. Liehman, “as he expresses his angers, resentments, passion, lusts and envies begins to see them in perspective. He realizes how absurd and out of place these long repressed impulses are in the total emotional economy of his adult life. He comes to understand their origin in the turmoil of his childhood and their meaninglessneSS in the larger framework of his present values and thus freely rejects them in the creative light of his newly won understanding.” That is, we might say, the psychoanalyst helps the patient to a better understanding of himself.
The book deals with the whole range of weak 'or evil emotions which many people try in vain to conquer. Fear is the most common of these emotions and assumes many forms. It is a God-given emotion, given us for self-protection, but it often develops into morbidity. It takes the form of worry about our health, our personalities, our lack of self-confidence, our general sense of inferiority. Sometimes fear clothes
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itself in the garment of physical pain. Thomas Mann, the distinguished German novelist, in his book, “The Magic Mountain,” shows how some over-sensitive, fearful persons found refuge in tuberculosis rather than face the actual battle of life.
This fear of life in general sometimes comes to people when they fail in business or their profession. It may result in nervous invalidism, but if the patient finds a wise counselor to whom he can open his heart, and if he learns how common is failure, especially in first attempts, he soon recovers and takes up the burden of life again.
Feelings of inferiority or inadequacy, which are a form of fear, frequently have their origin, says Dr. Liebman, in some childhood experiences when the individual really was inadequate. Such feelings have no place in adult life; and when the person who is troubled with feelings of inadequacy or inferiority sees them as relics of childhood he sloughs them off. Everyone, Mr. Liebman says, has an innate desire not to be childish—to grow up. Thus, through a sympathetic understanding, brought about by the patient’s self-revelation, the good psychoanalyst helps the patient to a better balance in his emotional life.
Besides tracing our shortcomings to childhood experience, the psychoanalyst makes use of a more tolerant conscience pattern. Mr. Liehman thinks that the traditional religious ideals of love, perfection, chastity are too lofty for human nature and that people torture themselves in trying to attain the unattainable. He advises people to recognize their
animal instincts, “basic drives,” as he calls them. Instead of trying unJ successfully to repress them the patient should talk them out to a good psychoanalyst, who shows him that they are :1 Hart of his pluralistic nature and shows him how to occupy his mind and life with worthwhile thought, feelings and activities
Two chapters on love are titled “Love Thyself Properly” and “Love or Perish.” He shOWS in the first that in order to obey the great commandment “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” we must first learn to love ourselves properly. Many people hate themselves. The so-called inferiority complex is a form of self-hate. One cause of this is an exaggerated idea of the perfection of others. If we truly knew them we should find that they are not the finished product we imagine, but they too have their struggles. We must learn to know and respect ourselves, to stop struggling for what others are or have and to find and develop our own talents. We must learn, too, to accept failure as one of the valuable experiences of life.
In the chapter called “Love or Perish” our author tells us that love of others is the most essential element in human living. At some time in his development the individual must love or become warped in character. Love is an innate emotion and necessitates giving of one’s self. He calls tolerance a form of love and defines tolerance as a sincere desire to understand others. Here again, in this matter of love, he says, we must not demand perfection of ourselves. Such a demand implies excessive self love. Genuine
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PEACE OF MIND 67
adult love implies treasuring the best of our own traits for what they can do for others, giving and receiving love, but avoiding possessive love, love that seeks to make love a tool for gaining mastery over others or yielding oneself as slave to others.
Towards the end of the book are chapters on God, immortality and the problem of evil. Inability to believe in God is one of the great weaknesses of our time. Many are unable to believe in God or have such a washed-out conception of God that it does not support them in crisis. Mr. Liebman thinks this lack of belief in God comes generally from some experience in childhood or adolescence which destroyed their confidence in life. Adolescent disagreement with parents sometimes leads to throwing over parents’ religious ideas. Then there are agnostics, often people who don’t know whether to believe in God or not. Some solve the problem by keeping in the church and trying to lead blameless lives. There are weak believers, some who believe in God as long as life is good to them and some who have an anthropomorphic
idea of God.
Dr. Liebman’s treatment of the existence of evil is helpful, bringing out the need of the individual’s having a free will and also the benefits that may come from suffering. He adds the suggestive thought that unexplained suffering often comes
from society and that society may
yet prove— to be our supreme benediction.
His last chapter is on religion and psychology, which he describes as
twin angels. Each has its function and each is necessary. Religion seeks to help both normal and abnormal people, but psychology seeks to help only the abnormal. It can dispel only abnormal fears, but cannot give the hope and trust which come only from a belief in God.
When one applies the glass of perspective to the theories given in this book, one may well be encouraged. For many years now, the best minds in the world have recognized that the world is sick and have been trying to diagnose the sickness and prescribe the remedy. Our economic, social and personal institutions and ideals have been searched. There was a time when an attempt was made to trace all our modern evils to our economic system. Attention of many then veered to our social system and this led us to the personal angle. The minds and actions of individuals were scrutinized. When people give way to animal-like traits, which are really the cause of most ill doing, why is it? Behaviorism came forward and showed that these traits can be traced to our animal heritage, and the logical conclusion seemed to be that the individual is not responsible when he runs amuck. This idea resulted in condoning crime and doubtleSS had the effect of increasing it. Now we have psychiatry, which seeks, in the human mind and emotions, upward as well as downward trends. Its main motto seems to he “know thyself, respect thyself, love thyself.”
How do these ideals compare with the Bahá’í ideals? “Know thyself” is
certainly brought out in the Bahá’í teachings. Bahá’u’lláh expresses it
in these words: “Man should know
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his own self and know those things which lead to loftiness or to baseness, to shame or to honor, to affluence or to poverty. After man has realized his own being and become mature, then for him wealth is needed.” He adds that this wealth should be acquired through a craft or profession. Psychiatry at its best seems to have this same aim, to help people to become mature through distinguishing between good and evil and learning what leads to
each.
Mr. Liehman has a good deal to say about the exaggerated demands of conscience. He feels that the current religions hold impossibly high ideals. Another contemporary writer brings out something of the same idea. Are not, he asks, the ideals of Christianity far beyond the attainment of a creature such as man, who has taken ages to make such moral advance as he has attained?
It is true that all revealed religions hold up very high ideals. Christ said, “Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfec .” He enjoined love of enemies, chastity in thought as well as in act, and, in general, made the ideal one of heart and mind, not merely of act.
The Jewish Scriptures counsel us to love God with all our heart, soul and mind and our neighbor as ourself. The ideals taught by other great prophets such as Buddha and Muhammad are also very lofty. Why does the modern individual recoil from such ideals and seek what Mr. Liehman calls a more tolerant conscience pattern? Is not the trouble with us modems that we have lost
the ability to get Divine help in our strivings for better lives and also
have lost the realization of the meaning of Divine forgiveness?
The central truth of all revealed religion is that supernatural power to develop our higher self is available to all and that it comes to us through great characters divinely inspired to reveal God’s will for the coming age and to communicate to receptive souls the power to carry out God’s commands. The channel
through which this power flows is
this Revealer of God’s will, or Manifestation, as the Bahá’í Faith calls Him. He has unlimited power to influence the human heart, to guide it along paths of ever expanding love and peace. But the human heart of its own free will must turn to the Manifestation. We cannot experience the love of God and the love of man that comes with it until we turn our innate capacity to love, towards God through His Manifestation.
Bahá’u’lláh says that this power may be imparted through the person of the Manifestation, through His Revelation or through the words He utters or writes.
Instances are given of people who associated with Bahá’u’lláh whose lives were completely changed, even though they did not recognize Him as a Manifestation of God. A story is told from the time when Bahá’u’lláh was living in Baghdad. There was a colonel in the Turkish army who received $2,000 a month from the Turkish government and was expected to give 32 to each soldier With the stipulation that when war broke out he would bring 1,000 strong soldiers into the army.
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PEACE OF MIND 69
But he gave each soldier $1 and pocketed the rest. He had 10 colored men in his personal service whom he treated shamefully. One day this man came to see Bahá’u’lláh, and soon he came frequently. He gave ear to Bahá’u’lláh’s advice- Little by little a magic change came over him. One day he called his regiment together and told them that he had been depriving them of half their pay, but now he asked their pardon. From now on they were to receive their full pay of $2 a month. Then he went home and called his servants together, told them he was sorry for his past conduct to them, that he would try to make amends by being kind to them from now on, and would treat them as if they were his real sons. He carried out these promises. His Negro sons came to love him. In his will he left them one fourth of his property. This was one of the miracles of Bahá’u’lláh. This man did not know Bahá’u’lláh as a Manifestation of God. To those who recognized Him as a Manifestation of God came an even greater and more universal love and a faith and enthusiasm that made them ready to face suffering and death calmly and even radiantly, for they gained
through Bahá’u’lláh complete trust in God.
And we know that the history of every great Faith shows what power the immediate followers of the Manifestation, those who had personal contact with their great Leader, had —power to undergo all hardships joyfully, to lay down their lives in triumphant martyrdom. Witness the lives of the twelve apostles, the heroism of those closely associated with Muhammad, the complete courage
and devotion of the early followers of the 3:31) and Bahá’u’lláh.
This power is transmitted, too, to those who do not come in contact with the person of the Manifestation, but who believe in His Revelation. Most of the noble army of Christian martyrs had never seen their Lord. Personal contact with a Manifestation of God can come to only a few. But many lives have been lifted into the heroic through belief in a Manifestation of God and His Message or Revelation; and there are many others whose characters have been strengthened and beautified through such a belief.
But these two ways of gaining faith in God and the power that goes with it are not the only ones. Many who perhaps would fail to recognize a Manifestation of God if they should meet. him and who do not respond when they hear His Message, yet become gradually, through reading His writings, convinced of His truth and thus receive a new power in their lives. For the words of a Manifestation of God have an especial power. This is why they are sometimes called the Creative Word.
This does not mean, of course, that a casual reading of the words of Bahá’u’lláh will make a person over. But it does mean that the sincere seeker, who approaches these words with open mind and heart, who ponders them and reads them with what has been called “peeled eyes,” will sooner or later receive some effects from this creative power of the Word of God as brought by His Manifestation, and will become a changed person.
Here is that something which psychiatry does not pretend to deal
with. This power which flows from God through His Manifestation is creative and not, like psychiatry, mostly analytical.
When I was in Haifa in 1920 and had the great privilege of meeting ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Exemplar and Interpreter of the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, He spoke to us one day about the two natures in man. Man has animal tendencies, he said, but the Divine power in him is also great. Man must strive to have the spiritual side of his nature overcome the animal tendencies, to become nearer the Divine and follow the Divine Teachings. Then he will be radiant, like a lighted candle. But if he gives way to natural passion he becomes like an animal.
This talk of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s ex. presses the Bahá’í way of attaining peace of mind. The Bahá’í Teachings admit that struggle is necessary for overcoming had and weak emo WORLD ORDER
tions, but the struggle will not be hopeless and will not result in soulsickness.
The Bahá’í way of dealing with our weaknesses seems to be to acknowledge them and to seek Divine help through the Creative Word and through prayer; never to be dis‘ couraged, though we fail many times, for if we repent sincerely, God’s forgiveness is ever awaiting us, and forgiveness includes Divine help to keep up the struggle against our lower nature.
Perhaps the most powerful recommendation for psychoanalysis is that it does help some souls to gain a degree of mental and spiritual health. But is it not true that the r e a1 thoroughgoing fundamental remedy for most modern soul-sickness is a great Divine flow of power which will keep souls from becoming sick? This is what the Bahá’í Faith
offers.
VISION ALICE JOSEPHINE WYATT
There are creatures who walk through darkness With steps sure-footed and strong, There are others who need the starlight To guide them safely along.
Many must have the sunshine
Bright on their earthly way,
But a few there are who are heedless Of both the night-light and day:
They walk in the radiant Cod-light, Uherring, serene, and tall,
And those with this brighter vision
Are the leaders over all.
WITH OUR READERS
IT wasn’t until we read the jacket
of his latest book, Symbols of America, that we discovered that Stanwood Cobb, author of this month’s leading article, was born in Newton, Massachusetts, was valedictorian of the class of 1903 at Da‘rtmouth, and had studied philosophy
and comparative religions at the
Harvard Divinity School before he went to Robert College in Constantinople to teach. A dozen articles have appeared in W orld Order from Stanwood Cobb in these last ten years. He has been an editor of the magazine and has written the excellent book introducing the Bahá’í Faith, Security for a Failing World. His other works include The Real .Turk, Character, Discovering the Genius within You, New Horizons for the Child, and the editing of the verses of his Chinese friend, Wu Ming Fu. For many years he has been principal of Chevy; Chase School near Washington, D. C., and active in the Progressive School Association.
The author of “The Motive Power”, Gladys Kline,‘ is a social service worker living in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Her thoughtful and wellexpressed “Meditations” was printed in the May, 1946, magazine.
Mrs. Mabel Hyde Paine, one of
the editors, gives us the book review of Joshua Liebman’s Peace of
Mind. Our Cincinnati, Ohio, friend, Mrs. Gertrude Schurgast, has written
71
“Freedom from Fear”. Mrs. Schurgast, who came to this country from Germany shortly after the first World War, was an agnostic before she heard of the Bahá’í Faith. She has been active on the committee for Service to the Blind and has contributed to W orld Order several times, most recently, in June of 1947, with “For the Advancement of Her Race”.
The editorial this month was written by Mrs. Eleanor Hutchens. The poem, “Vision”, is by Alice Josephine Wyatt, a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles, living in Los Angeles.
l i i
This month we print an ode by the great Persian poet, Héfiz-Bahá’u’lláh often quoted from the poet who has become a part of Persian culture. Born in Shíráz in about 1300 A.D., Shams-ud-din Muhammad devoted himself to the study ‘of poetry and theology, becoming a “professor of Koranic exegesis” in a college founded especially for him by the vizier. He took the name HéfiZ, which means “one who remembers.” He was a mystic who saw God reflected in all things and who wrote lyric poetry of unsurpassed joyousness.
4} ‘l
Maye Harvey Gift, author of “Glimpsing Oneness,” is a; Bahá’í of long standing. Her “Security thatEndures” appeared in December.
‘I’
UNUSUAL OPPORTUNITY
The Department of Public Information, United Nations, Lake Suc-, cess, New York, is requesting articles up to 1200 words on the role of the individual in the United Nations. Contributors must be between the ages of 20 and 30 years. Only those persons may submit essays who belong to an accredited organization. Since the American Bahá’í Community is accredited, this offers an unusual opportunity to its young members. Any member of one of the eight Bahá’í Communities having a National Spiritual Assembly is qualified. It would be advisable for the individual participant to have his essay approved by his local Assembly or by the National Reviewing Committee. The final date for, the submission of manuscripts is June 26th. We have no further details of the contest, but assume that manuscripts should be typed, double space, and accompanied by a covering letter stating that the contributor is a member of the “accredited Bahá’í non-governmental international organization.”
WORLD ORDER
Those of you who have been interested in the newspaper accounts of the Oklahoma dispute over the admittance of a Negro woman to the state university to study law may be interested in a bulletin issued by the University of Minnesota Law Review called “The Negro in the Supreme Court” by Edward Waite, which analyses Supreme Court decisions as they affect the Negro up until 1946. Bahá’ís have been reminded repeatedly that the greatest social problem that confronts America is that of race prejudice.
‘I I II
On the envelope of the letter sent ,,,
by a Bahal in Peru were these Words printed in the upper left hand corner: “EL MUNDO’ ES UN SOL PAIS Y LA HUMANIDAD SUS CIUDADANOS —- BAHA’U’ILAH”. It was_ somehow especially thrilling to see the Spanishof our familiar, “The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.”‘
Yea, there exists a sign‘ in the being of man which guards and protects him from. that which is unworthy and unbecoming. That sign is called modesty. But this Virtue is assigned to a few; for all are not'endowed with
that station.
Bahá’u’lláh
[Page 73]
Bahá’í Sacred Writings
Works of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
. Distributed by Bahá’í Publishing Committee 110 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois
A TRAVELERS NARRATIVE
The late Prof. Edward G. Browne received this work in manuscript from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at ‘Akká. while investigaling the developments in the F ailh since the Martyrdom of the Báb. Its authorship was not known by Prof. Browne. Translated and edited by him, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s explanation of the meaning of the Báb’s Revelation and the Declaration of Bahá’u’lláh was first published by Cambridge University but the‘rights have been acquired by the Publishing Committee. This text was written by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at some date prior to 1892.
SOME ANSWERED QUESTIONS '
This text is based on ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s oral replies to questions addreeeed to Him by Laura Clifford Barney at Haifa in 1907. Her notes were later approved by Him. The work is divided into sections, dealing with the Pro hets, the nature of man, interpretation of prophecy and ‘ religious sym 01, and some social questions.
THE PROMULGATION OF UNIVERSAL PEACE
Prepared from stenographic records of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s public addresses in the United States and Canada from April to December, 1912, and His intimate talks delivered to Bahá’í groups during that period. Here is ‘Abdu’l-Bahá confronting the West on the eve of the collapse of its civil, cultural and religious civilization signalized by the outbreak of the first World War, warning the leaders and masses of their peril, summoning them to heed the Advent of the Promised One of all nations, and establishing in America the principles and ideals which have since become the program of the liberal and progressive spirit. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at the same time clearly explained the nature of the new spiritual community which alone can apply this program to society and .produce a new world order.
TABLETS 0F ‘ABDU’L-BAHA
For many years ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, His outer life restricted by the conditions of exile and imprisonment inflicted upon Him by the Turkish church-state under Islém, shared His spirit and His beneficent wisdom with Bahá’ís of many countries who addressed communications to Him, some as individuals, others as members of Bahá’í bodies. Three volumes were compiled in America based on Tablets dated prior to 1916. These pages invited one to enter an inner place, as it were, glowing with the fire
of a love sustained by God. (Some other Tablets are found in Chapters VIII and IX of Bahá’í W orld Faith.)
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TRUTHS FOR A NEW DAY
promulgated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá throughout North America in 1912
These teachings were given by Bahá’u’lláh over seventy years ago and are to be
found in His published writings of that time. The oneness of mankind. Independent investigation of truth. The foundation of all religions is one. Religion must be the cause of unity.
Religion must he in accord with science and reason.
Equality between men and women. Prejudice of all kinds must be forgotten. Universal peace.
Universal education.
Spiritual solution of the economic problem. Universal language.
An international tribunal.
