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WORLD ORDER
THE BAHÁ’Í MAGAZINE
OCTOBER, 1948
Religious Education for a
Peaceful Society
Horace Holley
The Individual in Society
T. Lane Skelton
Unifying Forces and Moral Standards,
Editorial
Mabel Hyde Paine
Human Destiny,
Book Review
Olga Finke
Letter to a New Bahá’í
Marzieh Gail
Breaking Ground for Unity,
Book Review
Charles F. Hottes
Green Acre,
Poem
What Modern Man Must Know About Religion,
A Compilation
With Our Readers
[Page 216]
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. Editor: Garreta Busey. Managing
Editor: Eleanor S. Hutchens. Associate Editors: Victor de Araujo,
Elsa Blakely, Robert Durr, Pearl Easterbrook, Gertrude Henning,
Flora Emily Hottes, Mabel H. Paine.
Publication Office
110 LINDEN AVENUE, WILMETTE, ILL.
C. R. Wood, Business Manager
Printed in U.S.A.
Editorial Office
Mrs. Eleanor S. Hutchens,
307 SOUTH PRAIRIE, CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS
OCTOBER, 1948, VOLUME XIV, NUMBER 7
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 payable to World 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 1948 by Bahá’í Publishing Committee. Title Registered at U. S. Patent Office.
CHANGE OF ADDRESS SHOULD BE REPORTED ONE MONTH IN ADVANCE
WORLD ORDER is the organ of the Bahá’ís of the United States. It prints each month articles of interest to all who are looking for a new and better world.
The Bahá’í Faith is a world religion. It originated in Persia in 1844. Its Founder is Bahá’u’lláh; its Forerunner the Báb; its Interpreter and Exemplar ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the son of Bahá’u’lláh; its present Guardian is Shoghi Effendi.
Its world headquarters are in Haifa, Palestine. It has now spread to ninety-one countries of the world. Its fundamental principles are the oneness of all revealed religions and the unity of mankind. Its goal is world peace and a new and divine civilization.
WORLD ORDER
The Bahá’í Magazine
VOLUME XIV
OCTOBER, 1948
NUMBER 7
Religious Education for a Peaceful Society
HORACE HOLLEY
THE UNIVERSE OF PALOMAR
The largest telescope yet designed has been raised by scientists on a mountain under the clear California sky. Its lens, measuring sixteen feet eight inches in diameter, gathers light with so much more intensity than the human eye that its reflected image discloses an endless heaven hung with brilliant orbs. Its power is so encompassing that it extends human vision to bodies whose distance from the earth, measured by the time required for the travel of a ray of light, is not less than one billion years.
Since the speed of light is 186,000 miles a second, no terrestrial system of measurement can contain this utter remoteness or translate it into ordinary human meaning.
The universe of Palomar engulfs the small and familiar worlds sustained by the imagination of the poet, the shepherd and the mariner of ancient times. Its infinity of space and time can never be subjective to hope or fear. It is a motion we cannot stay, a direction we cannot divert, a peace we cannot impair, a power we cannot control. Here existence realizes the fullness of its purpose. The design and the material, the means and the end, the law and the subject, seem wholly one.
At Palomar the mind of man, standing on tiptoe, can behold the cosmic spectacle and grow by the eternal majesty it feeds on, but searching east or west or north or south one finds here no candle lighted to welcome the errant human heart.
“This Nature,” the Bahá’í
teachings observe, “is subjected
to an absolute organization, to
determined laws, to a complete
order and a finished design, from
which it will never depart; to
such a degree, indeed, that if you
look carefully and with keen
sight, from the smallest invisible
atom up to such large bodies of
[Page 220]
the world of existence as the
globe of the sun or the other
great stars and luminous spheres,
whether you regard their arrangement,
their composition,
their form or their movement,
you will find that all are in the
highest degree of organization,
and are under one law from
which they will never depart.
“But when you look at Nature itself, you see that it has no intelligence, no will . . . Thus it is clear that the natural movements of all things are compelled; there are no voluntary movements except those of animals, and above all, those of man. Man is able to deviate from and to oppose Nature, because he discovers the constitution of things, and through this he commands the forces of Nature; all the inventions he has made are due to his discovery of the constitution of things. . . .
“Now, when you behold in existence such organizations, arrangements, and laws, can you say that all these are the effects of Nature, though Nature has neither intelligence nor perception? If not, it becomes evident that this Nature, which has neither perception nor intelligence, is in the grasp of Almighty God Who is the Ruler of the world of Nature; whatever He wishes He causes Nature to manifest.”
Another passage states: “Know that every created thing is a sign of the revelation of God. Each, according to its capacity, is, and will ever remain, a token of the Almighty . . . So pervasive and general is this revelation that nothing whatsoever in the whole universe can be discovered that does not reflect His splendor . . . Were the Hand of divine power to divest of this high endowment all created things, the entire universe would become desolate and void.”
The Bahá’í teachings also declare: “Earth and heaven cannot contain Me; what can alone contain Me is the heart of him that believes in Me, and is faithful to My Cause.”
MAN’S INNER WORLD
From man’s inner world of
hope and fear the cry for help
has never been raised so desperately
nor so generally across the
whole earth. Civilization is in
conflict with the man of nature.
Civilization betrays the man of
understanding and feeling. The
individual has become engulfed
in struggles of competitive
groups employing different weapons
to attain irreconcilable
ends. The beginning and the end
of his actions lie concealed in the
fiery smoke of furious, interminable
debate. His personal world
has been transformed into an invaded
[Page 221]
area he knows not how to
defend.
Sickness of soul, like physical ailment, manifests itself in many forms. It need not be a localized pain nor an acute sense of shock and disability. An ailment can produce numbness as well as torment, or it can spare the victim’s general health but deprive him of sight, hearing, or the use of a limb.
Soul sickness that goes deep into the psychic organism seldom finds relief in hysteria or other visible adjustments to ill-being. It expresses itself in successive re-orientations to self and to society, each of which results in a conviction representing a definite choice or selection between several possibilities. When the conviction hardens, all possibilities but one are denied and dismissed. If individuals come to realize that effort to express certain qualities through their daily lives is continuously unsuccessful, they will, in the majority of cases, abandon the exercise of that quality and concentrate on others. If individuals find that their civilization makes demands on them for the exercise of qualities they personally condemn, in most cases the necessary adjustment is made.
The modern individual is in the same position as the mountain climber bound to other climbers by a rope. At all times he is compelled to choose between freedom and protection— to balance his rights and his loyalties, and compromise between his duty to protect others and his duty to develop something unique and important in himself. As long as the route and the goal are equally vital to all the climbers, the necessary adjustments can be made without undue strain. But modern life binds together in economic, political and other arrangements groups of people who never entered into a pact of mutual agreement, who inwardly desire and need diverse things. The rope that binds them is a tradition, a convention, an inherited obligation no longer having power to fulfill.
Here, in essence, is the tragic sickness of modern man. What he sows he cannot reap. What he reaps he cannot store until a new harvest ripens. He feeds on another’s desire, he wills to accomplish an alien task, he works to destroy the substance of his dearest hope. Moral standards stop at the frontier of the organized group. Partisan pressures darken the heavens of understanding.
Humanity is undergoing a complete
transformation of values.
The individual is being transplanted
from his customary, sheltered
[Page 222]
traditional way of life to
the vast and disruptive confusions
of a world in torment. The
institutions which have afforded
him social or psychic well-being
are themselves subject to the
same universal dislocation. The
label no longer identifies the
quality or purpose of the organization.
One cannot retreat into
the isolation of primitive simplicity;
one cannot advance without
becoming part of a movement of
destiny which no one can control
nor define.
Where can a new and creative way of life be found? How can men attain knowledge of the means to justify their legitimate hope, fulfill their normal emotions, satisfy their intelligence, unify their aims and civilize their activities? The astronomer has his polished lens of Palomar to reveal the mysteries of the physical universe. Where can mankind turn to behold the will and purpose of God?
CONSCIENCE: THE MIRROR HUNG IN A DARKENED ROOM
Many persons feel that in man there is a power of conscience that will unfailingly, like the compass needle, point to the right goal. If in any individual case, this conception believes, the power of conscience fails to operate, it is because the human being himself has betrayed his own divine endowment. He has heard the voice but refused to heed. He has seen the right course of action but preferred to take the evil path.
If we examine this contention as applied to ourselves and others familiar to us over a considerable period of time, we find that conscience, as a faculty, cannot be understood by reference to any such naive and conventional view.
The individual has no private wire to God. The dictates or impulses we call conscience indicate different courses of action at different times. The truth, the law, the appropriate principle or the perfect expression of love is not when wanted conveyed to our minds like a photograph printed from a negative developed in the subconscious self. No individual can afford to rely for guidance in all vital affairs on the testimony offered from within.
Individual conscience appears to be compounded of many ingredients at this stage of mass development: childhood training, personal aptitude, social convention, religious tradition, economic pressure, public opinion and group policy.
It is when we examine individual
conscience in the area of
social action and public responsibility
that its limitations become
[Page 223]
clear. Public policy is the graveyard
in which the claim to perfect
personal guidance lies interred.
In every competitive situation
involving social groups,
conscientious persons are found
on both sides of the struggle. The
conscience of one leads to a definition
of value or a course of action
which stultifies the other.
Conscientious persons in the
same group seldom agree on
matters affecting the whole
group. Individual conscience retreats
to the realm of the private
person when it cannot share
or alter the conscience and conviction
of others.
The result is that, while theoretical exaltation of conscience is seldom abandoned, the operation of conscience, outside the small area controlled by personal will, is continuously suppressed. Policy is the conscience of the group, and dominant groups sanction collective actions frequently abhorrent to the individual. Our dominant groups are the successors to the primitive tribes in which the individual was once completely submerged. Like the primitive tribe, their basic policy is to survive.
So helpless has the individual become under pressure of world shaking events that leaders of revolution dismiss his moral worth entirely from their considerations. The individual ceases to be a person. He is made subject to mass regulation under penalty of punishment for disobedience and, if obedient, under hope of his share of a mass award. Societies have arisen composed of this unmoral mass of human beings, the nature of which resembles the physical monsters terrorizing the earth aeons ago.
Between the naive spiritual conception of conscience as divine spark, and the naive rational view that conscience is automatic response to external stimuli, the actual truth undoubtedly lies.
Human conscience is a quality existing in different stages of development. In the child it makes for obedience to the power by which the child is protected. It can manifest as an expression of the instinct of self-survival or self-development. It can inspire loyalty to the group. It can subject the individual to complete sacrifice for the sake of his group or for the truth he most reveres.
Moral attitudes become established
through social education
and discipline conducted over
long periods of time. The moral
worth of the individual consists
in his capacity to share in a process
of endless evolution. Though
at times he seems bogged down
[Page 224]
in the swamp of evil, the ladder
of development stands close to
his hand and he can ascend it
rung by rung. His moral responsibility
can never be disclaimed
by him nor voided by others on
his behalf, since the principle of
cause and effect operates
throughout all life. No man and
no society exists in a universe
shaped to the pattern of human
desire.
Conscience is not a form of wisdom nor knowledge. It cannot be dissociated {rem the development of the individual nor from the condition of his society. But one may say that conscience is a mirror hung in a room. If the room is darkened the mirror reflects but dimly. Light is needed —the light of truth and love. Then will the mirror of spiritual awareness disclose to the individual the essential nature of his own problem of choice, and open for him the door that leads from the private person to mankind. The helplessness of the individual today is due to the absence of light.
“When man allows the spirit, through his soul, to enlighten his understanding, then does he contain all creation; because man, being the culmination of all that went before and thus superior to all previous evolutions, contains all the lower world within himself. Illumined by the spirit through the instrumentality of the soul, man’s radiant intelligence makes him the crowning- point of creation.
“But on the other hand when man does not open his mind and heart to the blessing of the spirit, but turns his soul towards the material side, towards the bodily part of his nature; then is he fallen from his high place and he becomes inferior to the inhabitants of the lower animal kingdom. In this case the man is in a sorry plight! For if the spiritual qualities of the soul, open to the breath of the Divine Spirit, are never used, they become atrophied, enfeebled, and at last incapacitated; while the soul’s material qualities alone being exercised, they become terribly powerful, and the unhappy, misguided man becomes more savage, more unjust, more vile, more cruel, more malevolent than the lower animals themselves.
“If, on the contrary, the spiritual
nature of the soul has been
so strengthened that it holds the
material side in subjection, then
does the man approach the divine;
his humanity becomes so
glorified that the virtues of the
celestial assembly are manifest
in him; he radiates the mercy of
God, he stimulates the spiritual
progress of mankind, for he becomes
[Page 225]
a lamp to show light on
their path.”
In such words the Bahá’í teachings describe the two paths which open before each human being, choice of which he himself is free to make.
SECTARIANISM—FROM CREATION TO CHAOS
If individual conscience cannot illumine from man’s inner world the nature of basic social problems, what of religion? Have the traditional faiths such command of spiritual truth that they can serve as the guide and conscience of mankind? Do these sects and denominations constitute the moral Palomar bestowing vision upon a divided, a desperate humanity? Has God spoken to our age from these minarets, these temples, mosques, chapels, and churches which represent the meaning and purpose of religion to the masses in East and West?
The world of sectarian religion is not a universe, ordered by one central, creative will, but the fragments of a world which no human authority has power to restore. There are the main bodies of ancient, revealed religion: Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Muhammadanism and Christianity, standing apart like continents separated by the salt, unplumbed sea. There are in each of these bodies a large number of independent, mutually exclusive subdivisions. Their diverse claims to organic sovereignty maintain in the realm of faith the same condition which exists among nations, principalities, kingdoms and empires. They deal with one another by treaty and truce; there are conquests and seizures, colonies and alliances, plans and strategies, wars and revolutions, all without control of the greater and vital movements of society nor even foreknowledge of what was and is to come.
That is why mankind has suffered two world wars, social dislocation and a plague of immorality, faithlessness, materialism, and discontent. No universal religious body has existed to stay the swift descent of our age into the gloom of savage strife. Events do not wait upon doctrinal readjustments. When peace does not exist in the world of the soul it cannot exist in any other realm of human intercourse and experience. The masses have been given no moral unity, no common purpose which, stamped with divine authority, could raise them above the fatal disunities and conflicts distilled by their economic and political institutions.
Yet each of these faiths was
divinely revealed, imbued with
a universal spirit, charged with
a high creative mission, and established
[Page 226]
itself through the sacrifice
and heroism of those early
believers who beheld the Word
of God. Each faith has reconsecrated
human life and by its lifeblood
nourished great progress
in civilization. What has happened
to the first, true vision?
What has extinguished the flame
upon the altar of worship?
The superhuman character of revelation has gradually undergone dilution and admixture. The human explanation of a truth has been substituted for the truth itself. The performance of ceremonial rites has come to occupy the place held by the mystery of spiritual rebirth. Obligation to a professionalized institution has weakened the duty laid upon individuals to serve society and mankind. The aim of a regenerated, righteous, peaceful civilization inspired by the founders of religion has become diverted into hope for the victory of the church. Sectarianisim in essence is not freedom of religion. It is an opportunity to abandon the way of life revealed from on high and substitute belief for sacrifice, ritual for virtue, creed for understanding, and a group interest for the basic rights of mankind.
All things exist in a process of life and death, growth and development, extinction and renewal. The fact that what men devise as a counterfeit for truth is eventually destroyed, does not confirm the rejection of religion by the cynic or the materialist. On the contrary, the succession of faiths throughout the period of known history points to a complete vindication of faith in God, since He divides truth from error, the spirit from the letter. He punishes and He rewards. For every death He sends a new life.
“O army of life!” the Bahá’í teachings warn, “East and West have joined to worship stars of faded splendor and have turned in prayer unto darkened horizons. Both have utterly neglected the broad foundation of God’s sacred laws, and have grown unmindful of the merits and virtues of His religion. They have regarded certain customs and conventions as the immutable basis of the Divine Faith, and have firmly established themselves therein. They have imagined themselves as having attained the glorious pinnacle of achievement and prosperity when, in reality, they have touched the innermost depths of heedlessness and deprived themselves wholly of God’s bountiful gifts.
“The cornerstone of the Religion
of God is the acquisition
of the Divine perfections and the
sharing in His manifold bestowals.
The essential purpose of
[Page 227]
faith and belief is to ennoble the
inner being of man with the outpourings
of grace from on high.
If this be not attained, it is indeed
deprivation itself. It is the
torment of infernal fire.”
And even more definitely: “Superstitions have obscured the fundamental reality, the world is darkened and the light of religion is not apparent. This darkness is conducive to differences and dissensions; rites and dogmas are many and various; therefore discord has arisen among the religious systems whereas religion is for the unification of mankind. True religion is the source of love and agreement amongst men, the cause of the development of praiseworthy qualities; but the people are holding to the counterfeit and imitation, negligent of the reality which unifies, so they are bereft and deprived of the radiance of religion.”
“When the lights of religion become darkened the materialists appear. They are the bats of night. The decline of religion is their time of activity; they seek the shadows when the world is darkened and clouds have spread over it.”
“If the edifice of religion shakes and totters, commotion and chaos will ensue and the order of things will be utterly upset.”
“Religious fanaticism,” the Bahá’í teachings affirm, “and hatred are a world-devouring fire, whose violence none can quench. The Hand of divine power can alone deliver mankind from this desolating affliction.”
(To be continued)
The Individual in Society
T. LANE SKELTON
A FEW years after the close of World War I a well- known Englishman wrote, “They are building vast architectural schemes in Europe, but they have run out of bricks.”
Time has served only to increase the grimness of that observation and the urgency of the need of bricks. In the business of millions of people living together on a planet from which as yet they cannot physically depart, confidence and hope continue to be placed in minds and not in men. Outstandingly capable minds devise treaties, trade agreements, military balances, and administrative policies. These are then regarded as rules by which society will run itself, as formulas by which problems will adjust themselves.
Several basic errors exist in this. Society may not abide by those rules when points of conflict are reached. The planning itself may not have been adequate or wise. And fundamentally, the notion that formulas can be set up to run society is false and is based on a naive concept of society as static, as the pieces and board of a game, or the pips and suits of a card deck. On the contrary, the dimension of time constantly changes the affairs of men. Movements of population, change of birth rates, new inventions of production, new weapons, faster travel, exhaustion of raw material sources, new diseases, and the increase in existent per capita world horsepower constantly create new stresses, and change all social factors.
This does not mean that the
rules are useless. They are essential.
They are points of agreement
constituting guides by
which to move. But the focus of
energies and hopes must be removed
from formulas and be
directed to the motivation and
the orientation of the individual.
The organized society can reflect
only the qualities of its parts. It
is the sum of all its individuals.
And the effort toward peaceful
living in the world fails by whatever
extent any individual holds
in contempt another person of
different color, religion, or language;
regards himself as either
above or below another because
of difference of occupation or
wealth; admires dexterity in legal
and financial dealings more
than the giving of full value to
the job or product; considers any
office he holds in terms of privilege
[Page 229]
and not in terms of responsibility;
or regards education in
terms of money and not in terms
of clear thinking and rich living.
The real need, then, is for drives in the hearts and motivations of all individuals toward brotherhood, mutual endeavor, and an understanding of interdependence. There must he an application to society as a whole of the relationships which exist within a family. There the conflicts of interests and desires and the widely differing personalities are adjusted within a framework of a sense of unity, of responsibility one for the other, of loyalty transcending the ego of the individual.
This is extremely difficult to achieve. The maze of the modern economic and social structure is so vast that the individual cannot see his place in a chain of cause and effect. At his desk or assembly line he cannot see that the quality of his work affects the economy of the world. As he mingles with his fellows he cannot see that his attitudes affect international and racial relations. The ends that the peoples of the world are seeking can come, however, only as one individual after another does realize the fact that his work and his attitudes are the units which add up to the things the world does, and as he personally seeks unity and personally directs himself not to tolerance, but to appreciation.
This change in direction cannot come only from the mind— for the mind creates the great schemes which fail for want of men able to run them. The recasting must he in the emotional approach to life. And great force is needed for this. One individual will find such force in a personal code. And another will find it in a system of ethics. But a third will seek this force directly. He will seek the common fundamentals of the great religious faiths which have moved the world.
Unifying Forces and Moral Standards
Editorial
There seem to be two widely different tendencies in today’s world: a deterioration as to moral standards and a growing perception of the unity of mankind and of the value of this unity. Reflection shows us that all creation is based on the principle of unity. The existence of each being, in each of the kingdoms, mineral, vegetable, animal, and human, depends on the combination of elements; and the falling apart of these elements means the end of the particular organism to which they belonged. In the world of human society there has been a steady enlargement of the field in which the principle of unity has operated, from the limited unities of family, tribe, and city to the unity of the nation, which now seems to be inevitably progressing to world unity. Along with this growth of political unity comes an increasing sense of social unity, and we find more and more people protesting against racial and religious prejudice and discrimination. Books are written to combat such prejudices and discriminations. College faculties argue such matters and students crusade against such discriminations. Though prejudice is still rife and rampant, there is a rising tide against it. There can be little doubt that the unifying forces of life will eventually win out.
On the other hand, are we not witnessing the deterioration of moral standards in such matters as rectitude of conduct, including truthfulness and honesty, apparently too often subordinated in politics and business to personal advantage; chastity, with such accompanying qualities as temperance and decency, and moderation in language, amusements, and dress?
As we witness and deplore these signs of decadence we naturally ask, “What is the origin of moral standards?”
The Ten Commandments have
been a guide for 3500 years to
the Western nations, those which
have been molded by Judaeo-
Christian ideals. But are the Ten
Commandments taught seriously
to most of the children and youth
of today? Christ forbade divorce
and taught chastity, even in
thought, but the increase of divorce
and the lowering of standards
[Page 231]
of chastity are outstanding
conditions in our modern society.
Muḥammad forbade the use of
alcohol, and as long as his followers
continued to recognize
His authority drunkenness was
unknown in the Moslem world.
Must we not conclude that moral
standards originate with the great
spiritual Lawgivers, the mouthpieces
of God, and that, as their
influence weakens through the
passage of time and man’s inherent
heedlessness, a new Lawgiver
must come to reinforce the ancient
basic sanctions and to
change the less basic in accordance
with the requirements of the
new age?
Bahá’ís believe not only in the unifying forces of life, which may bring in, even in this generation, a politically united world. They believe, too, in Bahá’u’lláh as the great protagonist of these unifying forces. Nearly one hundred years ago, in a part of the world desperately afflicted with the reactionary forces of extreme prejudice, He showed a superhuman power to unite people of different and contending backgrounds and ideals. This power, like the power of Christ, was divine in origin and not dependent on personality. It is still active and will bring about a world united in faith as well as in government.
And, as mankind comes to recognize not only His power as a unifier but His authority as a lawgiver, we shall experience a revival of personal righteousness.
For the Manifestations of God are not only lawgivers, but also life-givers. They and their Words are channels, through which flow the spiritual power to carry out their laws. Christ said, “I am come that ye might have life and that ye might have it more abundantly.” Bahá’u’lláh has said, “Think not that We have revealed unto you a mere code of laws. Nay, rather, We have unsealed the choice Wine with the fingers of might and power.”
Human Destiny
Book Review
OLGA FINKE
THE scientist today is calling man back to God. The author of the remarkable book Human Destiny,[1] Dr. Pierre du Noüy, tells us that unless man rises to a higher moral and spiritual plane, his evolution has come to an end. Science is becoming religious and religions must acknowledge scientific truths, if man is to reach this higher spiritual plane and continue to evolve.
Dr. du Noüy devotes several chapters in his book to show that science is not almighty. The scientist gains much of his knowledge of the external world through his sense organs, which are not always reliable. The conclusions drawn from scientific observations depend upon the scale of observation. Chance is at the same time the foundation of our scientific laws and the origin of their exceptions. Dr. du Noüy speaks of this “chance” as being similar to that used by insurance companies which only function if the number of the insured is considerable. He also states that the future of science is always at the mercy of new discoveries and new theories. He confesses that there is a gap between living and non-living matter which we have not been able to bridge. We know less about our material world than is usually believed and our knowledge is subjective and conditioned by the structure of our brain. In short, there is no scientific truth in the absolute sense.
The author also gives much thought and many proofs to show that the materialists, the agnostics, and the atheists who deny God are wrong. He says, moreover, that the immense and tragic horror of cataclysms such as world wars are the inevitable consequence of the subordination of moral ideas to an evil intelligence, to false gods, and to passions. If we read the signs of the times correctly, says Dr. du Noüy, the only salvation for mankind will be found in religion. However, it must he a sound religion, aware of the progress of science. He very frankly discusses the shortcomings of most present day religions. He says that religionists for the most part have ignored science, and have continued to use the old approaches. In the past hundred years the world has been going through a period of transition and Dr. du Noüy says that it is very painful for some people to adapt themselves to new conditions.
We are told that a large number of our greatest modern scientists have faith. It was, however, science which deprived man of his faith and the author believes that only science can restore this faith to him.
There is not a single fact or a
single hypothesis today, which gives
an explanation of the birth of life
or of natural evolution. We are
therefore obliged to admit the idea
of a transcendent intervention,
which the scientist may as well call
God, says Dr. du Noüy. This is not
[Page 233]
an act of faith but an undisputed
scientific statement. The dissociation
of the body and the spirit is no
longer considered an act of faith,
but a scientific fact, since, even
though the body can still adapt itself,
it is no longer it but the spirit
which evolves. The destiny of Man
is not limited to his existence on
earth, and he must never forget that
fact. He may think that death is the
end of his reality in this world. It
may be the beginning of a greater
and more significant reality.
The author states further that the earth has existed two billion years and that all living beings sprang from the same organism but that nobody believes any longer that man descends from the ape. On the contrary, he thinks that the animals are really by-products, that the main trunk of evolution resulted in man, its ultimate purpose being the creation of spiritual man. Although in the main the evolutionary process of man’s development was very slow, at certain times man made great leaps in his progress. Many important steps in the history of evolution started out as mutations affecting only a smaller number of individuals, perhaps one. For example, in the time of Adam, man became conscious of good and evil. The human flock must move upward and onward spiritually, if it is not to destroy itself altogether. This cannot be done without a leader. Rare, privileged men oriented the march of humanity and although the doctrines they taught demanded sacrifice, it is they who gained the higher prestige in history and their teachings outlasted and outshone all the others. Christ was the perfect man, the leader who for many generations led men upward and onward to greater heights of spirituality.
We are at the dawn of a new phase of evolution and the violent eddies due to the change in the order of things still conceal that fact from the eyes of the majority. Today, when humanity is threatened with complete destruction by the liberation of atomic forces, people begin to realize that the only efficient protection lies in a greater and higher moral development.
Dr. du Noüy writes of the contraction of the earth during the last one hundred years, comparing it to the opening of prison doors. The entire earth, now, through the appearance of the radio and the airplane, has shrunk to the size of one small country.
The Bahá’í explanation of this opening of mankind’s prison doors is that it was a part of God’s plan for the unification of mankind. The time having come for the unifying forces of life to have full play, God has furnished the physical means for unification as well as the spiritual outpouring to prepare for the drawing together of men’s hearts in new ties of universal brotherhood. Just as the influence of Christ wrought great changes in the human heart and thus caused the development of Western civilization so Bahá’ís believe Bahá’u’lláh’s influence is to bring about a new world civilization.
What is even more astounding is
that Dr. du Noüy expresses a wish
which Bahá’ís believe has been fulfilled
before he expressed it. He
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asked if it could not be possible to
have an international plan of moral
development that would spread over
several generations, instead of economic
plans of five years. He said
that it would he a magnificent task,
if such a plan could be originated,
perhaps too magnificent for our
poor ambitions. God knew this and
that is why He sent a Universal
Manifestation at this time with plans
of moral development spreading not
only over several generations but
thousands of years.
In the matter of religious unity du Noüy’s thought closely parallels the Bahá’í teachings. He recognizes all religions as supernatural in their origin and always adapted in forms and external conditions to the people and to their traditions. This agrees with what Bahá’u’lláh said almost a hundred years ago, that the foundations of all religions are one and that we are to accept all the Prophets, the Founders of all the great religions.
Dr. du Noüy devotes another chapter of his book to a Bahá’í principle, namely, universal education. He says what is needed is a universal outlook and universal education freed from narrow national, political, and social ambitions, but dedicated to the future advancement of the whole human race. This change in the mass of mankind says du Noüy, must come about through the influence of rare, even unique individuals. The rest of mankind, less well endowed, is raw material which will eventually furnish other rare or unique individuals or will transmit by tradition the advanced thought and inspiration which originated in the minds of the few highly endowed individuals. Such exceptional individuals he calls “centers of radiation” sending out wider and wider influence.
The intellectual means for the accomplishment of this task, are effective only on a small number of men, who are difficult to persuade. The sentimental means reach a greater number, but they are indirect. The spiritual means, the only direct ones, succeed only with an elite, unless a series of great physical, moral and sentimental ordeals has prepared the ground. Comfort, welfare, and an easy life are not propitious, it seems, to spiritual development and the author believes that suffering is. All three means are indispensable.
In the chapter on the education of children the author states significantly that the young child in its limited universe must of necessity react instinctively and, to some extent, like the animal. Such -reactions, he says, are regressive and mothers must oppose them.
Universal peace must be established says this great scientist, by transforming man from within, and not by erecting external structures. He says further that the source of all wars and all evil lies in us. Nothing permanent is built which is not the consequence of deep previous transformation in the individual soul.
Human destiny Dr. du Noüy concludes, consists in the development of man’s God-given spirit, so that mankind may rise to a spiritual plane. It represents the supreme goal of humanity.
- ↑ New York: Longmans, Green and Co. 1947
Letter to a New Bahá’í
MARZIEH GAIL
Dear Bill,
Last week you went to the Local Assembly and declared yourself a Bahá’í. It wasn’t hard, was it? They didn’t quiz you. You simply acknowledged your belief in four basic points—the chairman stated them for you—and then you were welcomed as a fellow believer. Perhaps different members added something to what the chairman said, and they all shook hands with you. Everybody was happy, partly on account of having a new Bahá’í in the community and partly because you made an agreeable break in a hard evening of Assembly work.
Well, from the moment when they voted to accept you, you have held the same administrative rights and privileges as the oldest Bahá’í. Your vote is equal to anyone else’s, your opinion must receive the same attention as the next person’s, and you are eligible for any elective office. What will you do about it?
Right now, of course, you are pretty much under Joe’s influence, because he taught you the Faith. Probably you will always belong to his general type, because there is a family resemblance between a teacher and the person he attracts. It is natural that people should gravitate to those who speak their language and share their tastes. You liked him and enjoyed being with him and that is why you were eventually willing to listen when he taught you. (I remember that in the beginning you thought his Bahá’í beliefs were the only thing wrong with him. You thought religion was something to put in the museum and you couldn’t see how an up-to-date chap like Joe could go for it.)
One of your hardest jobs, now, will be to win your independence from Joe. I don’t mean to drop him, but simply to develop your own individuality as a Bahá’í. Unless this happens you never will be able to serve the Faith according to its requirements. Because this faith is for mature individuals, not for symbiotic personalities, not for people who are a mere appendage of somebody else.
In the old days, a king might come into a new religion and bring all his subjects with him. Later, in Arabia, a whole tribe was converted to Islám in one day.
But today you are on your
[Page 236]
own. You became a Bahá’í after
considerable thought, and you
converted yourself. All Joe did
was to help you think.
You will find that whenever the individual has failed to break the ties of dependency that bind him to other persons, whether these are friends, relatives, or dominant members of the community, he remains ineffective, a blank in the group, which becomes the loser by that much.
For instance you may find a husband and wife, Mr. and Mrs. X, who always think as one—not because they have independently added up the factors in a case and arrived at the same conclusion, or because there is only one brain between them, but because the husband automatically sides with his wife. This not only lessens the effectiveness of the group but blocks its progress. Suppose that these two are members of a local committee; the membership of this body of, say, eight, is thereby cut down to seven, for all practical purposes. But what is worse, if anyone on the committee is obliged to disagree with Mrs. X, he at once has Mr. X to contend with as well. It is like being confronted with a bear cub in the woods; one soon learns that it has a family.
Now and then, at a given stage of group development, you will discover a whole community standing in this as it were marital relationship to one or two of its dominant members. When a new question comes up for discussion, they all turn to X and Y to find out what to believe. Will it be thumbs up, or thumbs down? X and Y decide for the group, whose thinking process subsides at this point, suffusing each member with the righteous feeling of a problem well settled.
I mean marital in the old sense, where two persons lived together in a sort of imbalance of power. In true Bahá’í marriage the partners are equal and maintain their individuality.
Perhaps I’m not being clear. I don’t mean that you shouldn’t inform yourself of the views of outstanding community members. All I mean is that you should be equally solicitous in discovering the views of the least conspicuous ones. More so, perhaps, since the outstanding person will lose no time in telling you what he thinks, whereas the other has to he encouraged. You will notice that mature groups do this as a matter of course— they spontaneously call forth the opinion of all the membership.
[Page 237]
The main thing is, Bill, free
yourself from Joe. When you
conscientiously have to take
sides against him, don’t worry
about it. If he is really your
friend he doesn’t want you to be
his disciple. There are no “disciples”
and “followings” where
individual Bahá’ís are concerned.
Each one of us is on his
own.
Bahá’u’lláh tells us this is the only way to establish justice in the world: “By its aid (justice) thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of Thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. Ponder this in thy heart. . . Verily justice is My gift to thee. . .”
You know, Bill, that from the beginning of time, some vague “They” has been responsible for all our ills. “They” ran everything and the common man paid for it. “They” had a depression and he starved, or “They” had a war and he died. He had no say in the matter at all—“They” planned everything and he just paid the bill.
Now, for the first time, a system exists which gives the common man a say. He is therefore honor bound to say it; he cannot leave things up to “Them” any more. In the remotest village, the most backward member of this Faith may cause his opinion to be heard on a national scale, where the affairs of the Faith are concerned. Through him, a priceless benefit may be conferred, but only on condition that he speak his mind as a free man, and not as an adjunct of somebody else.
So don’t let stage fright or lethargy, disguised as modesty, keep you from getting up and talking at the Nineteen Day Feast. And don’t get the idea that only the “important” ones should have a voice. Everyone is important. You wouldn’t be there if you weren’t needed, and you wouldn’t be there if you were only meant to say yes, or to back up Joe.
Your first Nineteen Day Feast may not be easy for you. This is the Cause of God. It is a serious Cause. Its basic law is character development—a painful law. You may find the Nineteen Day Feast a difficult occasion because the members, still immature, have not yet learned how to disagree with one another. In trained communities the differing opinions are voiced friendlily and without passion, and they culminate in an agreement. In less skilled groups the blood pressure is revised upward.
By trained communities I
[Page 238]
mean those whose members
know how to love one another.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá shows that the'
love principle expresses itself
everywhere in varying degrees.
Even in the stone, love is expressed,
in a low degree; unless
its atoms were bound together,
the stone could not exist. When
you become a Bahá’í, you will
find it easy to manifest love on
the lower levels of consciousness;
it is on the higher levels,
where the dissonant minds of humanity
are only now learning to
fuse, that the difficulties are so
great. For example, you will
love all humanity on the street
or across the dinner table; but
the goal is to love people when
you are consulting with them;
when you and they have a job to
do together. True love is defined
by the Master as the “breath of
the Holy Spirit in the heart of
man.”
Although you have been taught that “The shining spark of truth cometh forth only after the clash of difiering opinions”, you will find that as soon as anyone disagrees with you, or worse, with Joe, the back of your neck bristles. At best you will go home comparing yourself with the disagreeing party to the latter’s detriment, and saying that you must “consider the source,” “be tolerant,” “make allowances,” and so on. At worst you will proclaim: “If that’s what the Feasts are like, I’ll never attend another. I’ll stay home and have harmony.” The harmonious behavior of a Bahá’í who would stay at home because he cannot adjust to community life is like the physical innocence of the child, and of no more importance. To be pure means something only when we have a choice of being otherwise, and harmony means something only with relation to the group.
The world is poisoned with hate and it is dying; its life-pattern is breaking up; its atoms are drifting away, like guests when the party is over. Bahá’í life is the opposite; it is just forming; our communities are just building. We come into them, still half in the world; we bring some of the old tyrannies, the old techniques of hate. Through the process of Bahá’í living, these are gradually replaced with the techniques of love. But it isn’t easy. This Faith would be of no use to the world, if it were easy.
When you first attend the
Feasts, you will prefer the opening
phase—the spiritual readings
—and the closing, when refreshments
are served and the
meeting becomes social. However,
as you grow in the Faith,
[Page 239]
the central feature of these evenings,
the consultation period,
will probably satisfy you the
most, because it is at this time
that every member of the community
is given a voice in national
and local affairs. In fact,
offering your opinion as to the
conduct of affairs both national
and local, at the Feast, isn’t just
a right—it is a duty. You can
check this by looking it up in
Bahá’í Procedure, p. 11: “Shoghi
Effendi firmly believes that
consultation must be maintained
between the N.S.A. [National
Spiritual Assembly] and the
entire body of the believers. . .
The main purpose of the Nineteen
Day Feasts is to enable individual
believers to offer any
suggestion to the local Assembly
which in its turn will pass it to
the N.S.A.” You will find that
the National Assembly eagerly
awaits this cooperation from its
local bodies; because the National,
in the Guardian’s words,
“is directly and morally responsible
if it allows any body or institution
within its jurisdiction
. . . to decline in the exercise of
its rights and privileges.” (Procedure,
p. 63)
I think a good rule for successful consultation is: weigh carefully the opinion that is contrary to your own. (As a rule, people listen only to corroboration.)
The worst attitude you can possibly take is: “They know what they’re doing. Why should I interfere?” That isn’t cooperative; it’s comatose. You have been given a voice. Use it.
By the way, when you address the Feast, be pleasant; shyness often makes a member discordant and he thus defeats his own motion. Bahá’u’lláh says, “A kindly tongue. . . clotheth the words with meaning. . . .”
Of course, you don’t have to obtrude. Among countless tributes paid ‘Abdu’l-Bahá after His passing, Shoghi Effendi selected this one for inclusion in God Passes By: “So gentle was He, and so simple, that in His presence one almost forgot that He was also a great teacher, and that His writings and His conversations have been a solace and an inspiration to hundreds and thousands of people in the East and in the West.”
(Years ago in Haifa, when I saw the Most Exalted Leaf, I had to keep reminding myself that it was she, as you have to keep reminding yourself of a light or a fragrance, she was so shy in her greatness.)
There is something else, Bill.
It is this. The world doesn’t believe
that love exists anywhere
[Page 240]
anymore. We have to show them.
Here is what one of the cultivated
minds of our time says
about it: “Considering the essential
elements in human nature,
the ideal of universal brotherhood
is a spectacular vision . . .
The libeled society of wolves
may possibly reach the degree of
savagery and brutality of men.
But wolves don’t pretend to be a
brotherhood. To love all mankind
may become an excellent
excuse for those who are unable
to love a single soul.”[1]
Do you know who is responsible for the unity of the group? You are, Bill. The techniques of unity are a subject by themselves, but here are four suggestions which may help:
I’ll put the first one in the negative, to make it more noticeable: The quickest way to promote inharmony between two people is to tell one of them a disagreeable thing that the other has said about him. I don’t know why, but we are extraordinarily curious as to what goes on, relative to ourselves, behind our backs. Don’t let anyone repeat to you a remark of this kind; it was not meant for you to hear. And don’t be fooled by that “as your friend I feel it my duty to tell you” line: if the teller loved you he couldn’t bear to relay a comment that would hurt you; and if the criticism was really of value, he could leave off the quotation marks. (In the rare cases where a serious charge is made, it should of course be referred to the Local Assembly.)
I need hardly mention the second point—that group harmony is destroyed by backbiting. Fortunately gossips are no longer popular. Their amusement value has been superseded by movies, the radio and books. Besides, we are afraid of them; each of us thinks he will be next.
However, Bill, and this is the
third point—if disparagement is
bad, praise isn’t so good either.
I mean when it is used as a weapon.
(My Muhammadan aunt
knew all about this type of
praise. Once she said of a departed
guest that the woman had
insulted her daughter-in-law.
“But she didn’t mention your
daughter—in-law,” I said. “No,”
replied my aunt, “but she
praised her own, all afternoon.”)
It sometimes happens
that a community will pit two of
its members against each other,
just for the fun of a contest, perhaps
—going to one with lavish
praise of the other. This hardly
brings the two victims any closer.
When you praise a third person,
[Page 241]
choose a subject who is unlike
your addressee; never, for instance
praise an old lady to an
old lady, or a tenor to a tenor.
And fourth—one kind of praise, I think, is especially fruitful: if someone in the community has done a good job; tell him so, and thank him. People improve when they are appreciated.
This is a long letter and I won’t blame you if you don’t read it; but I had to write it.
You are a Bahá’í now. That means you want to serve Bahá’u’lláh. There is only one way to serve Him: that is to love people. It is not necessary for your community or your friends to be loving. It is only necessary for you to be loving.
As to what love is, and how you can love people, that is another story. You will have to study the Teachings to find out about it. Bahá’u’lláh has come to bring love back to the world. You will discover the secret in His Writings.
- ↑ Theodor Reik, A Psychologist Looks at Love. Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., N. Y. 1944.
BREAKING GROUND FOR UNITY
CHARLES F. HOTTES.
Hermann Grossmann: Umbruch zur einheit: Gott, Mensch und Welt an der Schwelle einer neuen Ordnung. Stuttgart, 1947.
Under the title, “Breaking ground for unity: God, man and the world at the threshold of a new Order,” Hermann Grossman presents what appears to me to be a very concise but exceedingly clear exposition of the Bahá’í Faith. His subject matter is logically arranged and unfolds progressively, through the thirty-seven short sections of the text, the bases upon which the new order will be, and must be, built.
In the opening section, “The Necessity for a New Order,” he recognizes the fact that the world strives for a new and better order, and thereby gives conscious expression to the existing changes that require adjustments within the sphere of human activities. This universal need can be satisfied through change in the spiritual outlook, and through the practical federation of the world’s peoples.
In the sections that follow, a few of which are here named, he treats of Religion and Science, The World as a Physical Unit, Spirit, Soul and Body, Unity in Diversity. Between the above and the concluding series of sections beginning with Society as a Unit, Religion and Society, Poverty and Wealth, Concerning the Duties and the Form of Government, etc., and ending with The Unfoldment of the New World Order, he treats of man in relation to the physical world which he has mastered through intellect, and the world of spirit through which he approaches God.
To Green Acre
LOUIS G. GREGORY
- Hail we this bright and favored green
- Hallowed by many a glorious scene;
- Where eager hearts desire to know
- What their Creator doth bestow.
- Here Nature, prodigal of gifts,
- Shows beauty which the soul uplifts,
- Aurora lights and sunset’s glow
- Shed signs of Heaven to earth below.
- Here red men smoked their pipe of peace;
- In council found their souls’ release;
- To the Great Spirit chanted praise
- For sustenance through countless days.
- The Christian, Muslim and the Jew
- Unite on basis of the true.
- Each finds in Prophet of the other
- The selfsame power to make a brother.
- Here Sarah Farmer saw the day
- When faith in God alone would sway,
- As one religion served the earth
- To blend mankind with glad new birth.
- The East and West now meet to greet
- Each other at the Master’s feet;
- While North and South their treasures share
- To gain new wealth of bounties rare.
- Science and faith, well nurtured here,
- Like two great trees their fruitage bear.
- The mysteries of Heaven and earth
- Unveil themselves with priceless worth.
- Concentered purpose must here be
- The study of Reality.
- For thus spoke Voice by Guidance led
- To shield the living from the dead.
- The superstition that enslaves,
- The prejudice that throngs the graves,
- The fear that puts sweet hope to flight,
- Are vanquished here by God and Light.
- Know we the Master once here trod
- To fire the hearts with love of God;
- Embodying with perfect grace
- The ideals of the cosmic race.
- Let faith divine e’er shine like star;
- Nor ever blight such beauty mar.
- May flame of life that lights this place
- All nations of the world embrace.
What Modern Man Must Know About Religion
A Compilation
FOREWORD
AS A focal-point of general public interest no theme can claim more importance than that of religious education for a peaceful society. The Bahá’í teachings which develop this new understanding of religion and of education may correctly he described as the irreducible minimum of what modern man must know in order to survive.
What the Bahá’í teachings mean by religious education is the spiritual reconstruction of the human personality as it has become morally degraded and mentally crippled in subjection to the war-centered purposes of the nations, races, classes and sects of mankind. Violence and destruction are the outcome and product of modern civilization, but this is the indirect and obscure way of saying that human beings as individuals are unable to save themselves from the evil results of their own activities as ordered societies.
Such fatality is not a misfortune or mischance. It eventuates as the final result of a long process, the successive steps of which leave their plain traces along the highway of history. The first step is abandonment of the spirit of faith, the sundering of the tie between man and God which existed in the prophetic revelation. For the spirit of faith which inspired the martyrs and saints, rational and emotional forms of belief are gradually substituted. Instead of religion in terms of daily life and fellowship we find religion conducted by rites and practices of the church. The universal mediation offered by the prophet is overshadowed by the professional offices evolved by a clergy for a subservient lay congregation.
The second step is schism in the church, bringing religion itself under the dominion of the instinct of competition. Later stages are marked by the rise of struggle between classes, the supremacy of the civil authority over a divided church, and the acceptance of economic and political formulas, utterly devoid of spiritual value, as the pillars of civilization. When the stage of “social imperatives” is reached, the divine gift of freedom of the will has been sold for the market price, and the power of true understanding is exchanged for the worldly mind.
This is the condition which
[Page 245]
makes war inevitable—the inner
decadence of men themselves—
and not the immediate political
or economic causes with which
historians are unduly concerned.
This condition of unfaith, of separation from the divine will, of darkened understanding and prejudiced feeling, is what exists today.
The path toward illumination is also a process and a development. It begins in the bounty of a new revelation. The prophet returns. With Him the power of spirit quickens the human will, restoring its lost freedom to make independent investigation and fulfilling its creative purpose in obedience to the will of God.
Recognition of the prophet as Manifestation of God brings access to a realm of truth conveying light to human understanding and giving to intelligence a foundation in reality. In the condition of faith human beings acquire immunity to false philosophies and negative doctrine. Since faith opens a new field of moral action, human emotion undergoes a period of purification and discipline, until the individual is finally uprooted from his dependence on custom, tradition, and public opinion and transplanted in the garden of divine unity.
The field of moral action which the Bahá’í teachings create is the establishment of world unity. To this end all cultures, all philosophies, and all political and economic concepts must conform. For the first time in history human beings have been given a definite goal calling for every resource and faculty. In the condition of unfaith world unity can not be achieved. Peace is a mansion built in a new and higher realm of human consciousness. To have peace people must travel to that realm—a place which no one can reach until he has left prejudice, selfish ambition, and superstition behind.
This, in part, is what the Bahá’í teachings signify by religious education for a peaceful society. In these teachings the seeker and student learns that knowledge is from God; that knowledge is revealed to men in increasing measure from age to age; and that by consecration to divine truth men fulfill the purpose of their creation. The Bahá’í teachings identify religion with understanding, and understanding with the order of the universe.
This selection of Bahá’í teachings
has been made to provide
source material for study of the
theme: religious education for
[Page 246]
a peaceful society. Its arrangement
in a sequence of six stages
adapts the compilation for use
by a class or discussion group,
and the six headings offer references
as well as titles for a continuing
program of conferences
or public lectures on the subject
of the theme.
All of the selections given in this installment of the compilation are from Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. The books from which the quotations are made are listed at the end.
THE SOURCE OF ALL LEARNING
1. Man is the supreme Talisman. Lack of a proper education hath, however, deprived him of that which he doth inherently possess.
2. Knowledge is as wings to man’s life, and a ladder for his ascent. Its acquisition is incumbent upon everyone. The knowledge of such sciences, however, should be acquired as can profit the peoples of the earth, and not those which begin with words and end with words.
3. We have decreed, O people, that the highest and last end of all learning he the recognition of Him Who is the Object of all knowledge; and yet behold how ye have allowed your learning to shut you out, as by a veil, from Him Who is the Dayspring of this Light, through Whom every hidden thing hath been revealed.
4. 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 God —exalted 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. . . .
. . . That which is pre-eminent
above all other gifts, is incorruptible
in nature, and pertaineth
to God Himself, is the gift
of Divine Revelation. Every
bounty conferred by the Creator
upon man, be it material or
spiritual, is subservient unto this.
It is, in its essence, and will
ever so remain, the Bread which
cometh down from Heaven. It
is God’s supreme testimony, the
clearest evidence of His truth,
the sign of His consummate
bounty, the token of His all-encompassing
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mercy, the proof of
His most loving providence, the
symbol of His most perfect
grace. He hath, indeed, partaken
of this highest gift of God who
hath recognized His Manifestation
in this Day.
5. The source of all good is trust in God, submission unto His command, and contentment in His holy will and pleasure.
The essence of religion is to testify unto that which the Lord has revealed, and follow that which He has ordained in His mighy Book.
The essence of love is for man to turn his heart to the Beloved One, and sever himself from all else but God, and desire naught save that which is the desire of his Lord.
The source of all learning is the knowledge of God, exalted be His glory, and this cannot be attained save through the knowledge of His Divine Manifestation.
6. Although a person of good deeds is acceptable at the Threshold of the Almighty, yet it is first “to know” and then “to do.” Although a blind man produceth a most wonderful and exquisite art, yet he is deprived of seeing it. Consider how most animals labor for man, draw loads and facilitate travel; yet, as they are ignorant, they receive no reward for this toil and labor. The cloud raineth, roses and hyacinths grow; the plain and meadow, the garden and trees become green and blossom; yet they do not realize the results and outcome of all these. The lamp is lighted, but as it hath not a conscious knowledge of itself, no one hath become glad because of it. Moreover, a soul of excellent deeds and good manners will undoubtedly advance from whatever horizon he beholdeth the lights radiating. Herein lies the difference; By faith is meant, first conscious knowledge, and second, the practice of good deeds.
7. The republic of wise men
believes that the difference in
minds and opinions is due to
the difference of education and
the acquisition of ethics. That is,
that minds are equal in origin,
but education and the acquisition
of ethics cause minds to differ
and comprehensions to be at
variance; that this difference is
not in entity but in education and
teaching; that there is no individual
distinction for any soul.
Hence, the members of the
human race all possess the capacity
of attaining to the highest
station, and the proof they adduce
therefore is this: “The inhabitants
of a country like Africa
are all as wandering savages
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and wild animals; they lack intelligence
and knowledge; all
are uncivilized; not one civilized
and wise man is to be found
among them. On the contrary,
consider the civilized countries,
the inhabitants of which are living
in the highest state of culture
and ethics, solidarity and interdependence;
possessing, with
few exceptions, acute power of
comprehension and sound mind.
Therefore, it is made clear and
evident that the superiority and
inferiority of minds and comprehension
arises from education
and cultivation, or from their
lack and absence. A bent branch
is straightened by training and
the wild fruit of the jungle is
made the product of the orchard.
An ignorant man by learning becomes
knowing, and the world
of savagery, through the bounty
of a wise educator, is changed
into a civilized kingdom. The
sick is healed by medication, and
the poor man, by learning the
arts of commerce, is made rich;
The follower, by attaining the
virtues of the leader, becomes
great, and the lowly man, by the
education of the teacher, arises
from the nadir of oblivion to the
zenith of celebrity.” These are
the proofs of the wise man.
The prophets also acknowledge this opinion, to wit: That education hath a great effect upon the human race, but they declare that minds and comprehensions are originally different. And this matter is self-evident; it cannot be refuted. We see that certain children of the same age, nativity, and race, nay, from the same household, under the tutorship of one teacher, differ in their minds and comprehensions. One advanceth rapidly, another is slow in catching the rays of culture, still another remaineth in the lowest degree of stupidity.
No matter how much the shell is educated, it can never become the radiant pearl. The black stone will not become the world- illuming gem. The calocynth and the thorny cactus can never by training and development become the blessed tree. That is to say, training doth not change the human gem, but it produceth a marvelous effect. By this effective power all that is registered latent of virtues and capacities in the human reality will be revealed.
Cultivation by the farmer
maketh of the grain the harvest,
and the effort of the gardener
maketh of the seed a noble tree.
The gentle teacher promoteth the
children of the school to the lofty
altitude and the bestowal of
the trainer placeth the little child
upon the throne of ether. Therefore,
it is demonstrated and
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proven that minds are different
in the original entity or nature,
and that education commandeth
a decided and great influence.
Were there no educator, all souls
would remain savage, and were
it not for the teacher, the children
would be ignorant creatures.
It is for this reason that, in this New Cycle, education and training are recorded in the Book of God as obligatory and not voluntary. That is, it is enjoined upon the father and mother, as a duty, to strive with all effort to train the daughter and the son, to nurse them from the breast of knowledge and to rear them in the bosom of sciences and arts. Should they neglect this matter, they shall be held responsible and worthy of reproach in the presence of the stern Lord.
8.-Education is of three kinds: material, human, and spiritual. Material education is concerned with the progress and development of the body, through gaining its sustenance, its material comfort and ease. This education is common to animals and man.
Human education signifies civilization and progress: that is to say, government, administration, charitable works, arts and handicrafts, sciences, great inventions and discoveries of physical laws, which are the activities essential to man as distinguished from the animal.
Divine education is that of the Kingdom of God; it consists of acquiring divine perfections, and this is true education; for in this state man becomes the center of divine appearance, the manifestation of the words: “Let us make man in Our image and after Our likeness.” This is the supreme goal of the world of humanity.
Now we need an Educator who will be at the same time a material, human, and spiritual educator, and whose authority will be effective in all conditions.
9. The holy Manifestations of God, the divine prophets, are the first teachers of the human race. They are universal educators and the fundamental principles they have laid down are the causes and factors of the advancement of nations. Forms and imitations which creep in afterward are not conducive to that progress. On the contrary these are destroyers of the human foundations laid by the heavenly educators.
Therefore there is need of
turning back to the original
foundations. The fundamental
principles of the prophets are
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correct and true. The imitations
and superstitions which have
crept in are at variance with the
original precepts and commands.
His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh has revoiced
and re-established the
quintessence of the teachings of
all the prophets, setting aside
the accessories and purifying religion
from human interpretation.
We must not look for truth in the deeds and actions of nations; we must investigate truth at its divine source and summon all mankind to unity in the reality itself.
10. Education is essential and all standards of training and teaching throughout the world of mankind should he brought into conformity and agreement; a universal curriculum should be established and the basis of ethics be the same.
References :
1. Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 259.
2. Bahá’u’lláh, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 25.
3. Ibid., p. 129.
4. Bahá’u’lláh, from Bahá’í World Faith, p. 121.
5. Ibid., p. 140.
6. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, from Bahá’í World Faith, p. 382.
7. Ibid., p. 396.
8. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, p. 9.
9. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, from Bahá’í World Faith, p. 250.
10. Ibid., p. 241.
WITH OUR READERS
This month World Order presents two features prepared for the year’s campaign centered about the theme “Religious Education for a Peaceful Society.” The leading article, by Horace Holley, which will run in two issues will appear later in pamphlet form. The second feature, the compilation referred to below, has been issued in mimeograph form by the Public Relations Committee.
• • •
Reviewing briefly the contributions of Marzieh Gail in the last year and a half, we find a variety of themes that reflect many aspects of the birth of a new world and its slow growth. “The Coming of the Beloved” (March, 1947) explained the significance of the Bahá’í New Year, the meaning of Easter and Spring. “The Poet Laureate” (May, 1947) was a page in the early history of this reborn world. “The Rise of Women,” a religio-sociological study (September, 1947) showed woman, through a process of historical evolution, attaining finally to the position of a human being with full rights in the Bahá’í society. “In the High Sierras” (October, 1947) was a poetic-meditative piece, in which Mrs. Gail complained that many people do not see the rise of a new world idea coming out of the East, from Shíráz and Baghdád. They are like the librarian, about whom Mrs. Gail reports humorously in her March narrative “Conversation in Whispers.” He positively was not interested in religion—but spent his whole lunch hour talking about it. He feared perhaps a radical change, the kind of rebirth that requires new adjustments.
This month Mrs. Gail comes to the help of those who have suffered this radical change and become part of a new world reborn through the Bahá’í message. Her article, “Letter to a New Bahá’í” is designed to help the individual work in unity with his fellow men within the administrative framework that is the foundation of this new and vital society.
• • •
T. Lane Skelton, author of “The Individual and Society,” settled temporarily in New York, after the war, to study economics at Columbia University. It was in Portland, Oregon, in 1929, that he first heard of the Bahá’í Faith. He later moved down to New Orleans where he was a member of the first Bahá’í Assembly formed in that city. For many years Mr. Skelton has been active in Bahá’í teaching and administrative work.
• • •
Olga Finke author of the review of Human Destiny, has been a frequent writer for World Order. Her latest contribution was the poem, “Spiritual Pioneers,” which appeared in July when this column carried a rather full account of her.
• • •
Hermann Grossmann’s book, Umbruch
zur Einheit, was sent to us by
the author. It is reviewed this month
by Charles F. Hottes Professor of
Plant Physiology, Emeritus, of the
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University of Illinois. We are very
grateful to Professor Hottes for this
review. He is related to the Bahá’í
Community through his wife, who is
an Urbana Bahá’í, and his daughter,
who is one of the editors of World
Order. He has performed many
friendly acts for the Urbana Community.
• • •
Those who went to Green Acre this summer will have enjoyed meeting Louis Gregory there and will be especially interested in his poem in praise of the school.
• • •
Instead of the section on “Meditations,” we present this month “The Source of All Learning,” the first part of a compilation of the Bahá’í Writings entitled “What Modern Man Must Know About Religion.” The selections are preceded by a short preface explaining their purpose. The five remaining parts of this compilation, which has been prepared by the National Public Relations Committee, will appear in our subsequent issues. They deal with “The Purpose of Education,” “The Unity of the Prophets,” “Spiritual Civilization,” “The Nobility of Man,” and “A New World Order.”
• • •
Our editorial this month is by Mabel Hyde Paine, one of our editors and a regular contributor of articles and book reviews. Her piece, “The Real Challenge of Today,” came out in our July issue, and in May she reviewed Rabbi Liebman’s “Peace of Mind.”
• • •
It is a fine acknowledgment of the oneness of religion when a Christian minister will preach a series of sermons on a Bahá’í book. Dr. John Wilfred Greenwood, pastor of the Calvary Methodist church, in Detroit, Michigan, a church of over 1300 members, gave seven sermons, this summer, on “The Seven Valleys” of Bahá’u’lláh. Dr. Greenwood, who has been a pastor of this church for more than six years, is very familiar with the Bahá’í writings. He comments, in a letter to us, how spiritually indebted he feels to a Bahá’í who shared with him the “Prayers and Meditations” by Bahá’u’lláh, and “The Seven Valleys.”
• • •
Alice Josephine Wyatt, who recently contributed two poems (“Vision” and “Where Nature Builds”) in our May and July issues, writes us the following lines: “I must express gratitude for the article ‘The Motive Power,’ in which the poetic quotations from Bahá’u’lláh greatly uplifted me and brought me all the closer to Christ’s teachings . . . . I was also inspired by remarks of book reviewer, Mabel Hyde Paine. It was a pleasure to appear in this magazine.”
(The article “The Motive Power” was written by Gladys Kline and appeared in our May issue. Mrs. Paine reviewed “Peace of Mind” in the same issue.)
Bahá’í Literature
Writings of Shoghi Effendi
Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith
Distributed by Bahá’í Publishing Committee
110 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois
BAHÁ’Í ADMINISTRATION
This work deals with the development of Bahá’í local and national institutions in North America during the years following the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. It is an exposition of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in terms of the experience of the American Bahá’ís and the source of guidance and inspiration to believers entering a new stage in the evolution of the Faith.
THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH
Here the Bahá’ís learned, between 1929 and 1936, of the role to be played by the Bahá’í world community and its institutions during the collapse of the old order and the rise of a new civilization. Here also they found for the first time the pattern of future society and an insight into the whole meaning bf the Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh.
THE ADVENT OF DIVINE JUSTICE
Shoghi Effendi in December, 1938, set in motion the first stages of the world mission conferred by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá upon the North American Bahá’í community—the Bahá’í answer to the destruction which had overtaken society.
THE PROMISED DAY IS COME
The history of the modern world set forth in terms of the Revelation proclaimed by the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh and its rejection by the civil, religious and educational leaders of the day. War and revolution understood as evidences of a process of Divine chastisement inflicted upon the entire human race to purify it for the blessings of the Kingdom.
GOD PASSES BY
A summary of the first hundred years of Bahá’í history, presenting the expectancy of the Promised One, the mission of the Báb, the mission of Bahá’u’lláh, their work and action, the ministry of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the spread of the Faith to sixty-eight countries and the rise of the administrative order. Spiritual history of the World Religion, made possible by unique capacity of its first Guardian, presenting a union of Person with revealed Truth and of Truth with Event.
Words of Bahá’u’lláh
Inscribed Over the Nine Entrances of the House of Worship, Wilmette, Illinois
1. The earth is but one country; and mankind its citizens.
2. The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me.
3. My love is My stronghold; he that entereth therein is safe and secure.
4. Breathe not the sins of others so long as thou art thyself a sinner.
5. Thy heart is My home; sanctify it for My descent.
6. I have made death a messenger of joy to thee; wherefore dost thou grieve?
7. Make mention of Me on My earth that in My heaven I may remember thee.
8. O rich ones on earth! The poor in your midst are My trust; guard ye My trust.
9. The source of all learning is the knowledge of God, exalted be His glory.
