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[Page 359]

WORLD ORDER

JANUARY 1940

PEACE A DIVINE CREATION

‘Abdu’l-Bahá

THE VALLEY OF SELFLESSNESS

Hussein Rabbani

NABIL’S HISTORY OF THE BÁB

George Townshend

HOW ARE RELIGIONS BORN?

Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick

TEACHING FOR PEACE

P. Seshradri

[Page 360]

CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE

JANUARY 1940 VOLUME 5 NUMBER 10

THE WAY TO HAPPINESS • Editorial ...................... 361

PEACE A DIVINE CREATION, II • WORDS OF ‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ ... 363

TRUTH AND RELIGION • HORACE HOLLEY .................... 371

NABIL’S HISTORY OF THE BÁB, I • GEORGE TOWNSHEND ...... 375

HOW ARE RELIGIONS BORN? • BERTHA HYDE KIRKPATRICK ..... 379

THE VALLEY OF SELFLESSNESS • HUSSEIN RABBANI .......... 381

TEACHING FOR PEACE • P. SESHRADRI ..................... 388

SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVE • MARIE M. KERSHAW .............. 391

THE ART OF SCULPTURE • FRAGMENT FROM THE CHINESE ...... 394

THE GREAT CONTRASTS • DALE S. COLE .................... 395

A JOURNEY TO THE ARCTICS • NELLIE S. FRENCH ........... 398

VIEWING THE WORLD AS AN ORGANISM

Change of address should be reported one month in advance.

WORLD ORDER is published monthly in New York, N. Y., by the Publishing Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. EDITORS: Stanwood Cobb, Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick and Horace Holley. CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Alice Simmons Cox, Genevieve L. Coy, G. A. Shook, Dale S. Cole, Marcia Atwater, Annamarie Honnold, Marzieh Carpenter, Hasan M. Balyusi, Shirin Fozdar, Inez Greeven. BUSINESS MANAGER: C. R. Wood. PUBLICATION OFFICE: 135 East 50th Street, New York, N. Y. EDITORIAL OFFICE: 536 Sheridan Road, Wilmette, Ill.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: $2.00 per year, $1.75 to Public Libraries. Rate to addresses outside the United States, $2.25, foreign Library rate, $2.00, Single copies, 20 cents. Checks and money orders should be made payable to World Order Magazine, 135 East 50th Street, New York, N. Y. Entered as second class matter, May 1, 1935, at the post office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Contents copyrighted 1940 by BAHA’I PUBLISHING COMMITTEE. Title Registered at U. S. Patent Office.

January 1940, Volume 5, Number 10

[Page 361]

WORLD ORDER

January 1940 Volume 5 No. 10

THE WAY TO HAPPINESS

THE chronic, all-possessing desire of human nature is to be happy. And this is as it should be. For happiness is a normal condition of the life-process, whether in animal or man. Unhappiness indicates abnormal conditions. Perhaps that is why ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s first question to those granted an interview was, “Are you happy?” And without waiting for an answer—intuitively conscious of the visitor’s unhappiness He would add, “Be happy!”

At such accostation I have seen many weep, and then become radiant-faced.

Perhaps ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was conveying, in this penetrative, dynamic confession of the soul, a form of spiritual psycho-analysis somewhat as follows: Are you habitually happy? If not, why not? For happiness is the normal condition of humanity. What obstructs in you this cosmic flow of happiness? Do you not wish to remove these obstructions and find that permanent happiness of the Kingdom which is called eternal life—a life eternally dynamic?

It was the realization in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s visitors of the needless and foolish obstructions in them to the flow of the spirit that caused the tears. And the vision of what life could be without these obstructions that caused the subsequent radiancy.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá did not mind in the least these tears. They seemed to cause Him joy. He saw in them a purging of the soul. With loving fingers He would sometimes wipe the tears away, repeating in His voice of compassion, “Be happy!” And it strangely and immediately became so.

Would that this vision of abiding happiness could become effective and continuously constructive in our daily life! It is for this purpose that World Saviors appear—to reveal to man the path to joy, the road to glory. They come that we might have life, and have it more abundantly.

“The masters did not come that man should adore them, or worship, or acknowledge their prophethood. No! Rather the masters of all time have suffered for no other purpose than this—that fleshly veils might be rent asunder and Reality become manifest.”

We cannot find true happiness until we know and express our true self in its true and destined relation to the Greater Whole in which that self inheres. This does not mean merely that we must know and love God. [Page 362] It means also that our relations to the Cosmos of which we are a part must be normal—i. e., based upon and expressive of the true nature of Man and the true nature of the Cosmos, both of which are essentially spiritual.

Most of the causes of our unhappiness flow from a fundamental falseness in our cosmic adjustment. We seek first after material things, with the expectation perhaps of giving some secondary attention and effort to spiritual things as time and circumstance may prompt. Whereas we ought to do the opposite—seek first after spiritual things, and let the material things be secondary. When sought for their own selves as part only of phenomenal existence material things either elude us altogether —or if eventually captured fail to give satisfaction. (Some of the least happy men and women in the world are persons who have attained to a high degree the material prizes of life.) But if we seek first the Kingdom of Heaven, these things of the world will be added unto us in due measure and will not then prove to be the bearers of a false and fugacious happiness.

Material things should not be first in life because they are not first or causal in the real nature of existence! Material things are not prior, but secondary. They are but the phenomenal expression of a hidden spiritual Causation. Let a man think, feel, and act wisely and well on this spiritual plane of Causation, and the outer events of his life will flow to him in terms of calm happiness and abiding peace.

The trouble with us is that we are too habitually active and expressive only upon the outer periphery of life which is phenomenal, neglecting to function adequately upon the inner focal plane of life which is Spiritual and Causal.

To put it in more concrete terms, we do not avail ourselves sufficiently of that mysterious, all-pervading, and all-directing Cosmic Force—the Holy Spirit. Whatever causations become effective upon the material plane— these may be traced by spiritually illumined souls to the energizing and directive radiations of the Holy Spirit, which in its activation in the heart of man the Quakers knew as the Inner Light.

Of this Cosmic Power, Bahá’u’lláh says: “The Holy Spirit heralds comfort to thee. Why doest thou grieve?” . . . “With the joyful tidings of Light I hail thee; rejoice! To the court of holiness I summon thee; abide therein that thou mayest live in peace for evermore.”

Let us dwell apart no longer, then. Come! Let us enter the Palace Gates, with happy hearts and shining faces.

S. C.

[Page 363]

PEACE A DIVINE CREATION

II.

WORDS OF ‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ

THE gift of God to this enlightened age is the knowledge of the oneness of mankind and the fundamental oneness of religion. War shall cease between nations, and by the will of God the Most Great Peace shall come; the world will be seen as a new world, and all men will live as brothers.

In the days of old an instinct for warfare was developed in the struggle with wild animals; this is no longer necessary; nay, rather, cooperation and mutual understanding are seen to produce the greatest welfare of mankind. Enmity is now the result of prejudice only.

TODAY there is no greater glory for man than that of service in the cause of the Most Great Peace. . . . Peace is the foundation of God; war is satanic institution. . . . When we consider outcomes in the world of existence we find that peace and fellowship are factors of upbuilding and betterment whereas war and strife are the causes of destruction and disintegration. All created things are expressions of the affinity and cohesion of elementary substances, and non-existence is the absence of their attraction and agreement. Various elements unite harmoniously in composition but when these elements become discordant, repelling each other, decomposition and non-existence result. Everything partakes of this nature and is subject to this principle, for the creative foundation in all its degrees and kingdoms is an expression or outcome of love. Consider the restlessness and agitation of the human world today because of war. Peace is health and construction; war is disease and dissolution. When the banner of truth is raised, peace becomes the cause of the welfare and advancement of the human world. In all cycles and ages war has been a factor of derangement and discomfort whereas peace and brotherhood have brought security and consideration of human interests. This distinction is especially pronounced in the present world conditions, for warfare in former centuries had not attained the degree of savagery and destructiveness which now characterizes it. If two nations were at war in olden times, ten or twenty thousand would be sacrificed but in this century the destruction of one hundred thousand lives in a day is quite possible. So perfected has the science of killing become and so efficient the means and instruments of its accomplishment that a whole nation can be obliterated in a short [Page 364] time. Therefore comparison with the methods and results of ancient warfare is out of the question.

According to an intrinsic law, all phenomena of being attain to a summit and degree of consummation, after which a new order and condition is established. As the instruments and science of war have reached the degree of thoroughness and proficiency, it is hoped that the transformation of the human world is at hand and that in the coming centuries all the energies and inventions of man will be utilized in promoting the interests of peace and brotherhood. . . .

The powers of earth cannot withstand the privileges and bestowals which God has ordained for this great and glorious century. It is a need and exigency of the time. Man can withstand anything except that which is divinely intended and indicated for the age and its requirements. Now, Praise be to God! in all countries of the world, lovers of peace are to be found and these principles are being spread among mankind, especially in this country. . . .

There is no doubt that this wonderful democracy will be able to realize it and the banner of international agreement will be unfurled here to spread onward and outward among all the nations of the world.

MERE knowledge of principles is not sufficient. We all know and admit that justice is good, but there is need of volition and action to carry out and manifest it. . . . The ways and means must be provided. . . . All of us know that international peace is good, that it is conducive to human welfare and the glory of man but volition and action are necessary before it can be established. Action is the essential. Inasmuch as this century is a century of light, capacity of action is assured to mankind. Necessarily the divine principles will be spread among men until the time of action arrives. Surely this has been so and truly the time and conditions are ripe for action now.

THERE is not one soul whose conscience does not testify that in this day there is no more important matter in the world than that of Universal Peace. . . . But the wise souls who are aware of the essential relationships emanating from the realities of things consider that one single matter cannot, by itself, influence the human reality as it ought and should, for until the minds of men become united, no important matter can be accomplished. At present universal peace is a matter of great importance, but unity of conscience is essential, so that the foundation of this matter may become secure, its establishment firm and its edifice strong.

Therefore His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh, fifty years ago, expounded this question of universal peace at a time when He was confined in the fortress of Akka and was wronged and imprisoned. He wrote about this important matter of Universal Peace to all the sovereigns of the world, and established it among His friends in the Orient. The horizon of the East was in utter darkness, nations displayed the utmost hatred and enmity towards each other, religions thirsted for each other’s blood, and it was [Page 365] darkness upon darkness. At such a time His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh shone forth like the sun from the horizon of the East and illumined Persia with the lights of His teachings.

Among His teachings was the declaration of Universal Peace. People of different nations, religions and sects who followed Him came together to such an extent that remarkable gatherings were instituted consisting of the various nations and religions of the East. Every soul who entered these gatherings saw but one nation, one teaching, one pathway, one order, for the teachings of His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh were not limited to the establishment of Universal Peace. They embraced many teachings which supplemented and supported that of Universal Peace.

Among these teachings was the independent investigation of reality so that the world of humanity may be saved from the darkness of imitation and attain to the truth; may tear off and cast away this tagged and outworn garment of 1000 years ago and may put on the robe woven in the utmost purity and holiness in the loom of reality. As reality is one and cannot admit of multiplicity, therefore different opinions must ultimately be fused into one.

And among the teachings of His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh is the oneness of the world of humanity; that all human beings are the sheep of God and He is the kind Shepherd. This Shepherd is kind to all the sheep and should there be among these sheep ignorant ones, they must be educated; if there be children, they must be trained until they reach maturity; if there be sick ones they must be cured. There must be no hatred and enmity, for as by a kind physician these ignorant, sick ones should be treated.

And among the teachings of His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh is, that religion must be the cause of fellowship and love. If it becomes the cause of estrangement then it is not needed, for religion is like a remedy; if it aggravates the disease then it becomes unnecessary.

And among the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh is, that religion must be in conformity with science and reason, so that it may influence the hearts of men. The foundation must be solid and must not consist of imitations.

And among the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh is, that religious, racial, political, economic and patriotic prejudices destroy the edifice of humanity. As long as these prejudices prevail, the world of humanity will not have rest. For a period of 6000 years history informs us about the world of humanity. During these 6000 years the world of humanity has not been free from war, strife, murder and bloodthirstiness. In every period war has been waged in one country or another and that war was due to either religious prejudice, racial prejudice, political prejudice or patriotic prejudice. . . . As long as these prejudices persist, the struggle for existence must remain dominant, and bloodthirstiness and rapacity continue. Therefore the world of humanity cannot be saved from the darkness of nature and cannot attain illumination except through the abandonment of prejudices and the acquisitions of the morals of the Kingdom.

[Page 366] If this prejudice and enmity are on account of religion (consider that) religion should be the cause of fellowship, otherwise it is fruitless. And if this prejudice be the prejudice of nationality (consider that) all mankind are of one nation; all have sprung from the tree of Adam, and Adam is the root of the tree. That tree is one and all these nations are like branches, while the individuals of humanity are like the leaves, blossoms and fruits thereof. Then the establishment of various nations and the consequent shedding of blood and destruction of the edifice of humanity result from human ignorance and selfish motives.

As to the patriotic prejudice, this is also due to absolute ignorance, for the surface of the earth is one native land. Every one can live in any spot on the terrestrial globe. Therefore all the world is man’s birthplace. These boundaries and outlets have been devised by man. In the creation, such boundaries and outlets were not assigned. Europe is one continent, Asia is one continent, Africa is one continent, Australia is one continent, but some of the souls, from personal motives and selfish interests, have divided each one of these continents and considered a certain part as their own country. God has set up no frontier between France and Germany; they are continuous. Yea, in the first centuries, selfish souls, for the promotion of their own interests, have assigned boundaries and outlets, and have, day by day, attached more importance to these, until this led to intense enmity, bloodshed and rapacity in subsequent centuries. In the same way this will continue indefinitely, and if this conception of patriotism remains limited within a certain circle, it will be the primary cause of the world’s destruction. No wise and just person will imagine these imaginary distinctions. Every limited area which we call our native country we regard as our mother-land, whereas the terrestrial globe is the mother-land of all, and not any restricted area. In short, for a few days we live on this earth and eventually we are buried in it, it is our eternal tomb. Is it worth while that we should engage in bloodshed and tear one another to pieces for this eternal tomb? Nay, far from it, neither is God pleased with such conduct nor would any sane man approve of it. . . .

Regarding the economic prejudice, it is apparent that whenever the ties between nations become strengthened and the exchange of commodities accelerated, and any economic principle is established in one country, it will ultimately affect the other countries and universal benefits will result. Then why this prejudice?

As to the political prejudice, the policy of God must be followed and it is indisputable that the policy of God is greater than human policy. We must follow the Divine policy and that applies alike to all individuals. He treats all individuals alike: no distinction is made, and that is the foundation of the Divine Religions.

And among the teachings of His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh is the origination of one language that may be spread universally among the people. This teaching was revealed from the Pen of His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh in order that this universal language may eliminate misunderstandings [Page 367] from among mankind.

And among the teachings of His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh is the equality of men and women. The world of humanity has two wings—one is women and the other men. Not until both wings are equally developed can the bird fly. Should one wing remain weak, flight is impossible. Not until the world of women becomes equal to the world of men in the acquisition of virtues and perfections, can success and prosperity be attained as they ought to be.

And among the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh is voluntary sharing of one’s property with others among mankind. This voluntary sharing is greater than equality, and consists in this, that man should not prefer himself to others, but rather should sacrifice his life and property for others. But this should not be introduced by coercion so that it becomes a law and man is compelled to follow it. Nay, rather, man should voluntarily and of his own choice sacrifice his property and life for others, and spend willingly for the poor, just as is done in Persia among the Bahá’ís.

And among the teachings of His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh is man’s freedom, that through the ideal Power he should be free and emancipated from the captivity of the world of nature. This matter of the struggle for existence is the fountain-head of all calamities and is the supreme affliction.

And among the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh is that religion is a mighty bulwark. If the edifice of religion shakes and totters, commotion and chaos will ensue and the order of things will be utterly upset, for in the world of mankind there are two safeguards that protect man from wrong-doing. One is the law which punishes the criminal; but the law prevents only the manifest crime and not the concealed sin; whereas the ideal safeguard, namely, the religion of God, prevents borh the manifest and the concealed crime, trains man, educates morals, compels the adoption of virtues and is the all-inclusive power which guarantees the felicity of the world of mankind. But by religion is meant that which is ascertained by investigation and not that which is based on mere imitation, the foundation of Divine Religions and not human imitations.

And among the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh is that although material civilization is one of the means of progress of the world of mankind, yet until it becomes combined with Divine civilization, the desired result, which is the felicity of mankind, will not be attained. Consider! These battleships that reduce a city to ruins within the space of an hour are the result of material civilization; likewise the Krupp guns, the Mauser rifles, dynamite, submarines, torpedo boats, armed aircraft and bombing aeroplanes—all these weapons of war are the malignant fruits of material civilization. Had material civilization been combined with Divine civilization, these fiery weapons would never have been invented. Nay, rather, human energy would have been wholly devoted to useful inventions and would have been concentrated on praiseworthy discoveries. . . . Material civilization is like the body. No matter how infinitely graceful, elegant and [Page 368] beautiful it may be, it is dead. Divine civilization is like the spirit, and the body gets its life from the spirit, otherwise it becomes a corpse. It has thus been made clear that the world of mankind is in need of the breaths of the Holy Spirit. Without the spirit the world of mankind is lifeless, and without this light the world of mankind is in utter darkness. For the world of nature is an animal world. Until man is born again from the world of nature, that is to say, becomes detached from the world of nature, he is essentially an animal, and it is the teachings of God which convert this animal into a human soul.

And among the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh is the promotion of education. Every child must be instructed in sciences as much as is necessary. If the parents are able to provide the expenses of this education, it is all right, otherwise the community must provide the means for the teaching of that child.

And among the teachings of His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh is justice and right. Until these are realized on the plane of existence, all things shall be in disorder and remain imperfect. The world of mankind is a world of oppression and cruelty, and a world of aggression and error.

In fine such teachings are numerous. These manifold principles, which constitute the greatest basis for the felicity of mankind and are of the bounties of the merciful, must be added to the matter of Universal Peace and combined with it so that results may accrue. . . . If the question is restricted to Universal Peace alone, the remarkable results which are expected and desired will not be attained. The scope of Universal Peace must be such that all the communities and religions may find their highest wish realized in it. . . .

For example, the people of religions find, in the teachings of His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh, the establishment of Universal Religion—a religion that perfectly conforms with present conditions. . . . For if we wish to arrange and organize the world of mankind in accordance with the present religious imitations and thereby to establish the felicity of the world of mankind, it is impossible and impracticable. . . . But the essential basis of all Divine Religions which pertains to the virtues of the world of mankind and is the foundation of the welfare of the world of man, is found in the teachings of His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh in the most perfect presentation. . .

For example, the question of Universal Peace, about which His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh says that the Supreme Tribunal must be established: although the League of Nations has been brought into existence, yet it is incapable of establishing Universal Peace. But the Supreme Tribunal which His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh has described will fulfill this sacred task with the utmost might and power. And His plan is this: that the national assemblies of each country and nation —that is to say, parliaments— should elect two or three persons who are the choicest men of that nation, and are well informed concerning international laws and the relations between governments and are aware of the essential needs of humanity in this day. The number of these representatives [Page 369] should be in proportion to the number of inhabitants of that country. The election of these souls who are chosen by the national assembly —that is, the parliament— must be confirmed by the upper house, the congress and the cabinet and also by the president or monarch so that these persons may be the elected ones of all the nation and the government. From among these people the members of the Supreme Tribunal will be elected, and all mankind will thus have a share therein, for every one of these delegates is fully representative of his nation. When the Supreme Tribunal gives a ruling on any international question, either unanimously or by majority rule, there will no longer be any pretext for the plaintiff or ground of objection for the defendant. In case any of the governments or nations, in the execution of the irrefutable decision of the Supreme Tribunal, be negligent or dilatory, the rest of the nations will rise up against it, because all the governments and nations of the world are the supporters of this Supreme Tribunal. Consider what a firm foundation this is! But by a limited and restricted League the purpose will not be realized as it ought and should. This is the truth about the situation which has been stated.

TRUE civilization will unfurl its banner in the midmost heart of the world whenever a certain number of its distinguished and high-minded sovereigns—the shining exemplars of devotion and determination—shall, for the good and happiness of all mankind, arise, with firm resolve and clear vision, to establish the Cause of Universal Peace. They must make the Cause of Peace the object of general consultation, and seek by every means in their power to establish a Union of the nations of the world. They must conclude a binding treaty and establish a covenant, the provisions of which shall be sound, inviolable and definite. They must proclaim it to all the world and obtain for it the sanction of all the human race. This supreme and noble undertaking—the real source of the peace and wellbeing of all the world—should be regarded as sacred by all that dwell on earth. All the forces of humanity must be mobilized to insure the stability and permanence of this Most Great Covenant. In this all-embracing pact the limits and frontiers of each and every nation should be clearly fixed, the principles underlying the relations of governments towards one another definitely laid down, and all international agreements and obligations ascertained. In like manner, the size of the armaments of every government should be strictly limited, for if the preparations for war and the military forces of any nation should be allowed to increase, they will arouse the suspicion of others. The fundamental principle underlying this solemn pact should be so fixed that if any government later violate any one of its provisions, all the governments on earth should arise to reduce it to utter submission, nay, the human race as a whole should resolve, with every power at its disposal, to destroy that government. Should this greatest of all remedies be applied to the sick body of the world, [Page 370] it will assuredly recover from its ills and will remain eternally safe and secure.

A few, unaware of the power latent in human endeavor, consider this matter as highly impracticable, nay, even beyond the scope of man’s utmost efforts. Such is not the case, however. On the contrary, thanks to the unfailing grace of God, the loving-kindness of His favored ones, the unrivalled endeavors of wise and capable souls, and the thoughts and ideas of the peerless leaders of this age, nothing whatever can be regarded as unattainable. Endeavor, ceaseless endeavor is required. Nothing short of an indomitable determination can possibly achieve it. . . .

IN cycles gone by, though harmony was established, yet owing to the absence of means, the unity of all mankind could not have been achieved. Continents remained widely divided, nay even among the peoples of one and the same continent association and interchange of thought were well nigh impossible. Consequently intercourse, understanding and unity amongst all the peoples and kindreds of the earth were unattainable. In this day, however, means of communication have multiplied, and the five continents of the earth have virtually merged into one. . . . In like manner all the members of the human family, whether peoples or governments, cities or villages, have become increasingly interdependent. For none is self-sufficiency any longer possible, inasmuch as political ties unite all peoples and nations, and the bonds of trade and industry, of agriculture and education, are being strengthened every day. Hence the unity of all mankind can in this day be achieved. Verily this is none other but one of the wonders of this wondrous age, this glorious century. Of this past ages have been deprived, for this century— the century of light—has been endowed with unique and unprecedented glory, power and illumination. Hence the miraculous unfolding of a fresh marvel every day. Eventually it will be seen how bright its candles will burn in the assemblage of man.

Behold how its light is now dawning upon the world’s darkened horizon. The first candle is unity in the political realm, the early glimmerings of which can now be discerned. The second candle is unity of thought in world undertakings, the consummation of which will erelong be witnessed. The third candle is unity in freedom which will surely come to pass. The fourth candle is unity in religion which is the corner-stone of the foundation itself, and which, by the power of God, will be revealed in all its splendor. The fifth candle is unity of the nations—a unity which in this century will be securely established, causing all the peoples of the world to regard themselves as citizens of one common fatherland. The sixth candle is unity of races, making of all that dwell on earth peoples and kindreds of one race. The seventh candle is unity of language, i.e., the choice of a universal tongue in which all peoples will be instructed and converse. Each and every one of these will inevitably come to pass inasmuch as the power of the Kingdom of God will aid and assist in their realization.

[Page 371]

TRUTH AND RELIGION

HORACE HOLLEY

THE real mile-stones on the highway of human history have been set up to mark the great discoveries of truth. The date when the orbit of the earth around the sun was demonstrated, or when the principle of the steam engine was first successfully applied, is far more important than the memorials which perpetuate the coming and going of conquerors and kings.

The most important discovery of this age is the fact that spiritual truth controls the movements of society just as irresistibly as scientific truth controls the processes of matter. A universe imbued with the force of supreme law does not contain a humanity either compelled or permitted to exist in a condition of anarchy and chaos. The first step into the realm of wisdom is recognition of this truth. There is, however, a vast distinction to be made between our relation to scientific truth and our relation to the spiritual truth applying to humanity and not to the lower orders of life. Let us examine this distinction carefully, for understanding here is essential if we are to have any enduring basis on which to build a secure civilization.

It is obvious that the earth traversed its orbit around the sun all through the ancient times when people believed that the earth was fixed and the sun moved around it. The discovery of the true facts did not create the facts, but merely enabled mankind to conform to the facts. In the same way, the law of gravitation operated before it was discovered and formulated. Whether any one knew the law or not, the force of gravitation acted, and its action was favorable or unfavorable, depending on whether men acted with it or against it. Knowledge of scientific truth simply means that we need not act against the law, and therefore knowledge saves us the penalties and disasters caused by disobedience.

But knowledge of the truths which underlie the forces of nature, once those truths have been discovered, does not involve any personal or social problem. That kind of knowledge consists of mere passive information. It applies to elements and forces which lie outside our human personality. Nothing about mathematics, physics, chemistry or astronomy, for example, penetrates into the secret realm of motive hidden within the depths of the human soul. That kind of knowledge is completely impersonal, nor does it within itself contain causes of agitation and disturbance for the nations, races, classes and creeds of mankind.

[Page 372] To a certain degree, there is resemblance between natural and spiritual law. In both cases, knowledge of the truth brings power of added accomplishment, and protection against disobedience to a higher power. In both cases, the truth existed before we became aware of it, and the laws of spiritual truth ignore our unconsciousness of them just as do the laws of nature.

But here the resemblance ends. The character of spiritual truth is such that it can never consist of mere mental knowledge or passive information. For example, honesty is a spiritual truth laid upon every human being. It is a law applying directly to the inmost center of our being. We can not merely “know” honestly—we must be honest. The very quality of human life tests every man to determine whether he is honest and truthful, and the test comes to each man in the most difficult and subtle manner. Life is not a school where we obtain full credit for knowing that truth and honesty are spiritual laws—life is a school which determines whether we are truthful and honest to the very core of our spirit. The test is not what we know but what we are.

For ages, however, humanity has believed that while spiritual truth existed for the individual man, it did not exist for the nation. Admitting that each man should be honest, truthful, sincere, and even forbearing, refraining from murder as an offense against God as well as against his fellow man, public opinion, nevertheless, has failed to extend the application of spiritual law to states and civilizations. This failure has not been a deliberate, conscious refusal to obey social truth, it has been nothing else than a complete ignorance of the fact that truth is universal, and that spiritual laws permeate the largest movements and issues of society as natural laws control the most majestic bodies in the physical cosmos. Vast empires and mighty civilizations have fallen to dust because their rulers and their peoples substituted an arbitrary human will for the power of social truth. Their ignorance of the law did not protect them from the consequences of their collective actions.

Knowledge of cosmic law arose only when men began to observe nature as a whole. The wider the vision, the more perceptible it became that law and not chance or caprice controlled the affairs of earth and the heavens. In the same way, knowledge of social truth requires a view or perspective over long periods of time. In order to witness the presence of truth in human affairs, we must be able to trace the working of cause and effect in the life of nations. The effects of honesty and dishonesty in human beings can be discerned in a few years or decades, no matter how carefully the inner motive has been concealed. But to determine whether spiritual truth controls the development of a civilization, we require a cycle of time.

The distinctive quality of the Bahá’í writings is that they establish the point of view by which we can grasp the meaning of truth as applied to the movements of society. They give us a clear interpretation of the meaning of history—and history constitutes the universe for the mind of man in [Page 373] relation to spiritual truth. The human body lives in the physical world, but the motives of the heart, and the mainsprings of civilization, inhabit the world which is bounded by time. History alone reflects the working of spiritual law in the fullness of its divine majesty.

The Bahá’í view is that there are four stages in the development of every civilization, and that these four stages together constitute a cycle or “social year” in human development. As we behold this view perfectly demonstrated by the facts of history, we can draw nearer the creative spirit molding the nature of human destiny.

FOUR STAGES OF CIVILIZATION

The first stage marks the formation or birth of a civilization. Consider how modern Europe arose from the ruin of the force of ancient Rome. Its energy drew entirely from the renewal of faith by Jesus in His mission as revealer of spiritual truth. From that truth came an inspiration under which an increasing community of believers sought to live a new and higher life. They felt that divine law required their fullest conscious obedience. They rose above the dead social conventions of the time, and practised a vital unity one with another. To realize the new possibilities of their spiritual unity, they developed the principles of a higher order of human association; and out of these principles the civilization of Europe gradually emerged. As the Bahá’í teaching explains: “When the Holy Manifestation of God, who is the sun of the world of His creation, shines upon the worlds of spirits, of thoughts and of hearts, then a spiritual spring and new life appear, the power of the wonderful springtime become visible, and marvelous benefits are apparent.”

The second stage marks that period in which the new release of faith expresses itself in the task of applying the vision of unity and cooperation to the whole range of daily human affairs. The early believers realize that they can only retain the spirit of faith by conveying it freely to others, and by establishing a society which reflects their inner vision of truth, justice and love.

The third stage is that of a civilization possessing culture and the powerful social institutions necessary to sustain a great body of people. This third stage represents the utmost fruitfulness of the spirit of faith on earth.

Little by little, however, the original faith in God becomes transformed into worship of the new instruments of power which men themselves have created. Individuals begin to strive for personal power, the underlying bond of unity becomes impaired, and the civilization enters that fourth stage which the Bahá’í terms the “winter” of the social cycle. The instruments of justice become the means of injustice. Protesting classes, stirred by oppression and poverty, organize for rebellion. The inStinct of self-preservation grows more assertive than the virtue of mutual loyalty. The civilization divides into struggling parties and interests, and the original spirit creating the unity cannot be restored. This process of life and death applied to the realm of human society is destiny’s crucial challenge to the world today. If we fail to recognize [Page 374] this law of cycles, this recurrent heartbeat and pulsation of a creative power that comes to man from a higher realm, we are as blind as those ancient peoples whose only trace is the fragment of a ruin standing in the midst of a desert waste.

In a way, these epochs correspond to the definite stages existing in the life of the individual man. Childhood is a stage which has its own particular characteristics and significance. Youth is a stage likewise bounded by certain aspects of experience. Maturity, again, is a stage of life set off clearly from childhood and youth. Each of those succeeding stages mark an advance in power, capacity and possibility, and the latter stage increases the degree of responsibility which lies upon the individual for his thoughts and actions.

The social epochs, likewise, are not mere repetitions of collective experience, but developing and evolving measures of human attainment. Throughout all the world’s sacred Scriptures there runs, like a golden thread, the firm assurance that faith and obedience to spiritual truth will be fulfilled in a civilization uniting all the peoples and races in one order and one faith and one universal law.

The Bahá’í message is a world message because it rests upon that certitude of spiritual fulfilment. It is a world message because it enlarges the area of truth from the individual to the nation, and from the nation to the entire world. It proclaims this present period as the time of supreme struggle between ignorance and knowledge, between faith and unbelief, between the partisan spirit and mankind. It renews the ancient and deathless vision of eternal love behind eternal law. It connects human destiny with an assured human capacity to achieve unity, when that capacity seeks inspiration from the true Source of all human existence.

“And now” the Interpreter has said, “In this divine age, see what development has been attained in the world of mind and thoughts, and it is now only the beginning of its dawn. Before long you will see that new bounties and divine teachings will illuminate this dark world, and will transform these sad regions into the Paradise of Eden.”

Or these words, uttered more than forty years ago: “We desire but the good of the world and the happiness of the nations. . . . That all nations should become one in faith and all men as brothers; that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity of religion should cease, and differences of race he annulled. . . . Yet so it shall be: these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the Most Great Peace shall come.”

“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 those 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.”

[Page 375]

NABIL’S HISTORY OF THE BÁB

GEORGE TOWNSHEND

I.

HERE once again in human history is the Light shining in a darkness that comprehendeth it not! Here once again is Faith re-arisen upon the world, bringing a New Day, shedding a new glory, calling men from sleep to a new life.

Here once again is Religion that men had thought sunk for ever in impotence—religion in its freshness, its purity and its power, religion reborn with all the magic of that ancient sweetness and beauty with which it was clothed in Holy Writ of old—religion warming men’s hearts with a new compassion and loving-kindness, melting all estrangements, uniting many wills in a common devotion, a common sympathy, giving to life a new completeness, transcending sorrow and pain and death!

WE of the western world may be unable to trace in human affairs about us the providence of God, may not see His path opening before our feet, may not be aware of His activity and presence in our midst, we may be divided one against another, may be full of fears, devoid of love, laden with deepening doubt.

But here are men and women, boys and girls who through faith reborn became possessed of a knowledge to which we are strangers, entered into an experience which we hardly believe to exist, whose eyes were opened to the Light from heaven, who had ears to hear the voice of God, and being changed from their old selves, transformed into new creatures, translated to a new degree of life, were by divine grace endowed with a courage, an energy, a blissfulness which has no likeness on the earth and which no earthly privation can impair.

They had none of these things through which we of the West give expression to our religion: they had no systems of theology and ethics, no traditions, dogmas, creeds, institutions. Love and obedience and joy (love for God and His prophet, the joy of obeying the divine summons, even to the extent of sacrificing for love’s sake all they had and all they were)—these and these only were the marks of their religion.

All we have heard or read of the birth of a World Religion among men—of the Advent of a Divine Teacher, of the simple beginnings of His work, of the charm of His personality, of the love that He awakens in His followers, of His courage and authority, and His ability to overcome the whole world by the lonely power of His word—all this is here again; [Page 376] and the facts and the details and the circumstances of His coming are transcribed into the pages of this chronicle. He calls on men to leave the idols and the torpors of the past, to awake and to greet the Dayspring from on High; to join the legions of light and partake with Him in the approaching world-triumph of God. Thousands upon thousands flocked to His banner, young and old, high and low, learned and unlearned, men and women, boys and girls. Thrilled with a new-born faith, animated with a magical love they acclaimed His prophethood and without reserve offered themselves as criers of the New Advent, torch-bearers of the New Revelation. When the envy of the mosque and the court stirred up far and wide against them, the latent fire of Muslim fanaticism, they found in the strain that was put upon them a means of showing forth before men what power of soul God gives in their extremity to those who love Him utterly before all else.

With eager courage they challenged every form of persecution— ostracism, impoverishment, privation, beating, torture. Transported with a divine hope, sustained by an unshakeable resolution they counted suffering for God’s sake a supreme blessing, and measured the greatness of their spiritual privilege by the anguish of their bodily pain. They welcomed martyrdom and endured its cruellest pangs with a serenity that moved their executioners to wonder and that bore immortal witness to the truth of the Faith for which they died. They knew no fear, no doubt; weariness could not relax their resolution, nor cloud their confidence.

Throughout the entire length of the action of this narrative, in the darkest hour of tragedy and of defeat, there sounds the call of assured victory of triumph and of celestial joy. No human circumstance, however desperate, can chill or depress the ardor of the faithful. No physical privation, no hunger, no pain, no bereavement, no sorrow nor the violent hand of death can blot from their vision the sweetness of the Beloved’s face or weaken the heart-beats of their impassioned adoration.

Here is no disquisition on the nature of Faith, no analysis of its elements. Here rather is Faith itself, Faith put to the proof, Faith in action, Faith naked, unarmed, alone, standing at bay against a thousand foes and remaining ever serene, unwavering, indomitable. Here is trust in God which impels not only the old but the young, to cast away their pleasures, their hopes, their careers, the joys of friendships and of home since thereby they can the better serve the will of Him Whom they love better than all mortal things. Eager, earnest, ardent they find in the sacrifice they offer to their Beloved a sweeter, dearer happiness than otherwise is within the reach of created man.

Here once more is the Messenger of God, God’s image mirrored in an all-perfect Love, God’s power poured forth among men stirring them to a new spirituality, opening to them new reaches of consciousness. Here in very deed and in a form and fashion that none can gainsay or disown, is the vindication of the reality of religion, the proof of its present power [Page 377] in this modern world. Here is the reaffirmation of the dignity of human nature and of the infinite greatness of the purpose of human life.

Not in the dream of a saint, or the vision of a seer or the imagination of a poet is this given, but in the prose of a chronicler who sets forth in detail the course of actual historical events in a contemporary record that bears its own mark of truthfulness and is corroborated by extraneous evidence from a hundred sources.

The author, known to history as Nabil, was himself a believer, a Persian, a follower of the Báb and afterwards of Him for Whose advent the Báb made ready the way. From the summer of 1849, at the time of the siege of Fort Tabarsi, he shared as an avowed believer in the dangers and adventures of his companions, and escaping with his life, he accumulated memories and made friendships which were to serve him well later in the compilation of material for this work. In the course of his narrative, he tells how as a boy, while he tended his master’s sheep upon the Persian hills, he would dream of a religion more real than that in which he had been brought up and of a spirituality more pure than that of the ecclesiastics who were his appointed teachers.

When in the summer of 1847, at the age of fifteen, he heard of the Revelation of the Báb, he felt intuitively, at once, that here his dreams had come true and he had of a surety found the religion for which in the lonely thoughts of his heart he had so eagerly longed.

He made inquiries, he pursued his investigations, he pondered over what he learned, he felt that contagion of felicity which marked the Bábís; and after two years, convinced of the truth of the Báb’s Prophethood, he openly espoused the Faith and spent the rest of his life in the hazards and vicissitudes of its service.

He was possessed of a vigorous and ready pen; and his ardor and constancy as a believer brought him the best of opportunities for composing such a recital of the deeds of the Bábí pioneers as this. No detached observer or scholar, however inquisitive or industrious, could be in so favorable a position as this trusted Bábí for collecting detailed and intimate information concerning the early believers and their doings. He stood close to the heart and center of the Movement; he presented it with sympathy and understanding, and he gave his work a vividly dramatic quality by reflecting so clearly the spiritual experience of his heroes and by reproducing with power their feelings, their motives and their aspirations. He shared their enthusiasm and their high purpose in full measure; and his narration is sustained throughout by that profound impassioned love which gave to the crusade in those days its rushing irresistible force.

How wonderful the intuition that could reveal to him a truth utterly hidden from the learning and the culture of the great world in his day! How wonderful the steadfastness that could preserve him in his faith through a thousand adversities and sustain him through the long toils of preparing this invaluable compilation. He has his reward. This love-inspired tribute to the heroes he honored before [Page 378] all on earth stands an immortal monument to his own illustrious memory and in after ages, will draw to him an unfailing stream of grateful thoughts from the believers of many generations.

The volume of Nabil’s work now published in an English rendering recites the activities of the Báb during His ministry and pursues the fortunes of his followers for two years after His martyrdom. It covers a period of some eight years, and closes with the final expulsion of the Faith from the land of its origin. The narrative is intensely human, vivid, realistic. It presents a panorama of the entire movement in a series of pictures, incidents, episodes, some sketched in brief, some expanded in much detail, but all set forth in a style clear, graphic, powerful, glowing with the radiant fire of the author’s unfailing enthusiasm.

The date chosen by the Báb for making known His status as a World Prophet and for inaugurating His Ministry was May 23, 1844. The declaration was made in His house in Shiraz to Mulla Husayn, who became the first of His Apostles, or His “Letters of the Living Word,” with the particular designation of the “Bábu’l-Báb,” or the Gate of the Gate.

The full account which Mulla Husayn gave of this momentous interview to Mirza Ahmad-i-Qazvini, the martyr, has been preserved by Nabil, and it contains the following description of the immediate impression made by the Báb upon the first believer:

“This Revelation so suddenly and impetuously thrust upon me came as a thunderbolt which for a time seemed to have benumbed my faculties. I was blinded by its dazzling splendor and overwhelmed by its crushing force. Excitement, joy, awe and wonder stirred the depths of my soul. Predominant among these emotions was a sense of gladness and strength which seemed to have transfigured me. How feeble and impotent, how dejected and timid I had felt previously! Then I could neither write nor walk, so tremulous were my hands and feet. Now, however, the knowledge of His Revelation had galvanized my being. I felt possessed of such courage and power that were the world, all its people and its potentates to rise against me, I would alone and undaunted withstand their onslaught. The universe seemed but a handful of dust in my grasp. I seemed to be the voice of Gabriel personified, calling unto all mankind:

‘Awake, for lo! the morning Light has broken. Arise, for His Cause is made manifest. The portal of His grace is open wide; enter therein, O ye people of the world! For He, who is your promised One, is come!’”

The call of Mulla Husayn was the opening of the Báb’s campaign.

(To be continued)

[Page 379]

HOW ARE RELIGIONS BORN?

Answers to Questions

BERTHA HYDE KIRKPATRICK

RELIGIONS are not man made. Like other things with life they pass through a cycle of birth, growth, maturity, decay and death. Man is closely connected with these processes but just as he cannot create life so he cannot create religion. He can and does do a great deal to hasten or retard its growth and also to hasten its decay and death.

We are speaking of the great religions of the world which must not be confused with cults and sects which are man-made. These spring up rather quickly, feed often upon some superstition or upon some perverted or real truth of an established religion, affect a comparatively small number of people and pass away without having deeply affeCted culture and civilization.

The great religions of the world, such as Christianity or Buddhism, on the other hand, teach spiritual living, high morality and nobility of character and have a tremendous influence upon large masses of people. So great is this influence that as the religion spreads and comes into maturity, a high civilization develops. The Islamic civilization, closely connected with the rise and spread of Muhammadanism, is an example of this, or the glory and learning of the Jewish nation in the reign of Solomon.

When we say these great religions such as Christianity, Judaism and Muhammadanism, are not man-made we mean that, although God used human vehicles—the Christ, the Revealer of spiritual truth, Moses the Law-Giver, Muhammad, Prophet of God, Teacher of Divine Unity—yet these Beings were not as other men, but were God-inspired in a unique way. Both their words and their lives have testified to this. The testimony is that God spoke to Moses: “We know that God spake unto Moses;” that Christ and the Father were one: “The word which you hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.” Muhammad declared: “By the star when it setteth, your comrade Muhammad erreth not, nor is He deluded! Neither doth He speak of His own will. It is no other than a revelation inspired!”

From all we can glean from the records of the words of these Holy Beings and from the results which, according to both sacred and secular history, came from their teachings, They were, though in human form, specially inspired Revealers of the will and plan of God, Mouth-Pieces of God. Man chose neither the time nor the place nor the message nor the Messenger. Indeed the majority of [Page 380] mankind has at fir5t neither liked nor accepted the message and has hated the Messenger and has used every means at its command to suppress and extinguish the message and to destroy the Messenger. But always a few have accepted and loved the Messenger and lived according to His teachings. Sooner or later the message has spread and raised whole nations to a higher plane.

But after centuries people forget the Message although they remember the Messenger and call themselves by His Name. They no longer obey His teachings. They interpret His Message in many ways and make many sects and denominations. Worship becomes formalistic. The radiance of the Spirit is lost, religion wanes and with its waning moral standards become low. Has not this point been reached in all the great religions of the world today, although in most of them we may find bright spots? If we are just and honest can we exempt Christianity from this decline?

A popular writer speaks for many when he places the blame for our social and economic troubles here in America on the weakening of our moral fiber and this, in turn, upon the decline of religion. “The weakening of religion,” he writes, “slowly unravels the complex web of social control. Authority and discipline decline in the family and school. . . . Disorder grows in marriage and outside it. . . . Politics becomes a little more corrupt than usual. The rich become richer and lose their strength in luxury; the poor remain poor and brood over hopes of revenge and power. Industrial relations take on a new bitterness, and end, as in third-century Rome, in unmitigated class war.”

He speaks, too, for many when he longs to see Christianity restored in “its essentials and its simplicity.”

But might it not be that it is time now for the birth of a new religion rather than the restoration of an old one? Must we think that the birth of a new religion belongs only to past history? Have we forgotten that every Messenger has promised that another would come and reveal more truth? Have we forgotten that when Christ came His way of purifying the decadent Jewish religion, of fulfilling the law of Moses, was by revealing additional truth. The new religion took a new name, yet He did not deny the old. Are we in less or greater need today of purified religion and divine guidance? Can we believe that this bounty of God of a new revelation ever ceases? Rather can we believe that “God’s graces and bounties are without limit, and the coming of the Manifestations (Messengers) of God are not circumscribed by time.”

Today we are asked to look once more to the East where all great religions are born. We may learn for ourselves in modern recorded history how a great universal religion is born. It is in Persia, religiously decadent, politically corrupt, morally and socially degraded and ignorant that the Messenger of God has appeared, Bahá’u’lláh, the Glory of God. He has renewed Christ’s Message and added new truth to it making it the remedy for the sick world today. It fills the needs not only of Persia and the rest of Asia, but of Europe and America, in fact of the whole world.

[Page 381]

THE VALLEY OF SELFLESSNESS AND POVERTY

HUSSEIN RABBANI

THIS valley represents the last and final stage in the long and arduous journey upon which the holy wayfarer has embarked in his quest for truth and spiritual upliftment. Having successively traversed the valleys of search, of love, of knowledge, of unity, of contentment and of wonderment, he now enters the realm of absolute self-effacement and of “living in God,” the sole object of his desire.

All the previous stages in this long and painful search were but stepping-stones leading him, slowly though surely, nearer and nearer the supreme goal of his quest. Now that he has eagerly sought, loved, found and adored his Well-Beloved it behooves him to seek through close and continued communion, to live and abide in Him.

For neither search, no matter how assiduous and persistent, nor love, however profound and detached, are sufficient in themselves since they are but means to the supreme end of recognizing and living in the world of God, and becoming a true citizen of His Kingdom.

“This state,” Bahá’u’lláh writes, “is that of dying from self and living in God, and being poor in self and becoming rich in the Desired One. . . . One who has attained to this state is sanctified above all worldly things. Wherefore, if he who has attained the sea of union possess none of the limited things of this passing world —be they material effects or personal opinions—it matters not. For whatever men possess is bound by their own limitations, while that which is of God is sanctified thereof.”

This lofty goal which Bahá’u’lláh has set before the wayfarer in the path to God thus requires, as essential prerequisite for its attainment, the renunciation by the individual of the “things of this world,” and above all of his self which, though a necessary and vital part in the early development of his personality, becomes later an obstruction to his spiritual progress and an impediment to harmonious and constructive social living.

This has been, indeed, the keynote of the message of all the Divine Prophets and Messengers. Christ said: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” And Bahá’u’lláh emphasizing this very same truth says: [Page 382] “O Son of Man! If thou lovest Me, turn away from thyself; and if thou seekest My pleasure, regard not thine own; that thou mayest die in Me, and I may eternally live in thee.” And again: “O Son of Earth! Wouldst thou have Me, seek none other than Me; and wouldst thou gaze upon My beauty, close thine eyes to the world and all that is therein; for My will and the will of another than Me, even as fire and water, cannot dwell together in one heart.” “O My servant! Free thyself from the fetters of this world, and loose thy soul from the prison of self. Seize thy chance, for it will come to thee no more.”

For human personality, we should readily recognize, no less than the world of nature, is imperfect, and as such is in need of a higher law to direct and guide its development. This imperfection in human nature is due to its lack of any natural unity, harmony or consistency. It is like a ship caught in a stormy sea, without the leadership of a captain to guide its course. It is tossed by the very waves on which it was built to sail, and so long as these are not held under control they will cause its eventual and complete wreckage. Man’s nature, likewise, is a prey to conflicting forces and tendencies which, unless effectively controlled and adequately harmonized, will result in his spiritual and moral downfall, and consequently will lead to social conflict and unrest.

Man’s will is under a dual allegiance, subject to two divergent forces: the natural forces of his material self which lead him towards mundane goals, and the spiritual aspirations of his soul which guide him heavenward, urging him to seek those spiritual realities, the acquisition of which enable him to become the true “image of God.” The former, while legitimate, inasmuch as they fulfill a definite biological function in his life on earth, cannot however be placed on an equal footing with the higher callings of his spiritual self, since in the latter qualities alone lies his essential distinction from the animal kingdom. Since man lives in a world of matter it is his right as well as duty to discover and utilize the material forces within and around him. But equally, nay even more legitimate than such claims on his body, are those that devolve on his soul, and it is precisely because these are not given the supreme dominating influence which they should exercise over his life that modern man is in such a state of inner conflict with himself and of outer strife with his fellow-men. The human will being thus divided in its allegiance is in itself evidently incapable of attaining perfection, and hence is in need of a higher Force to enable it reach that condition.

Human nature as we see, therefore, is but a jungle of conflicting tendencies, in which higher and baser motives, selfish as well as altruistic feelings, are mixed together, nay are in a state of perpetual conflict. It is in order to separate the good from the evil, the angelic from the satanic, the spiritual from the carnal that every man, who wishes to live up to his true self, should strive.

“O Son of My Servant!” proclaims Bahá’u’lláh, “Thou art even as a finely tempered sword concealed in the darkness of its sheath and its value [Page 383] hidden from the artificer’s knowledge. Wherefore come forth from the sheath of self and desire that thy worth may be made resplendent and manifest unto all the world”

This process of spiritualization implies the sifting of the human heart from the dregs of self, its purification, rather than the annihilation of man’s will. It is the outward shell of the ego, the crust of carnality that has thus to be broken so that the gem-like beauty of the reality of the human spirit may be disclosed.

What Bahá’u’lláh indeed means by “dying from self” is not the complete destruction of human personality, but its spiritual perfection and ennoblement. It is nothing less than the subordination of man’s ego to the spiritual law of selflessness and sacrifice; selflessness in his inner attitude towards God reflected in his conduct towards His creatures.

What can all this imply except the assertion of the primacy of the spiritual over the material; the steady transference of our allegiance from mortal things to the higher realities of the spirit? Such a process of subordination is evidently slow and gradual, calling for no less than a continual and supreme effort to subjugate our lower instincts. It is a spiritual transformation requiring the careful training, discipline and mustering of man’s best forces against the temptations of his lower self. Not that his senses should be stifled, or his material cravings suppressed, but the forces of passion struggling within him assuaged and tempered. For in the hierarchy of human values ample room is to be found for the satisfaction of every human instinct and desire, but these should be kept under control, and their functioning regulated and subordinated to the laws of God.

Thus unlike the ascetic conceptions and practices developed by the mystic philosophers, all of which were based on the assumption that human nature is wholly and irretrievably vicious, the Bahá’í teaching emphasizes on the one hand the value and sacredness of human personality, and on the other recognizes its imperfection, its weakness, its utter misery when abandoned to itself, and bereft of that Divine guidance which alone can bestow upon it abiding peace and happiness, and lead it safely to its true goal.

“How lofty,” Bahá’u’lláh proclaims, “is the station which man, if he but chooseth to fulfill his high destiny, can attain! To what depths of degradation he can sink, depths which the meanest of creatures have never reached!”

Man by virtue of his dual nature has to partake of the things of this world. What Bahá’u’lláh warns him against, however, is not to allow these to become the cause of his enslavement, and of his consequent remoteness from God. For we should readily admit that wealth has often been a bar between man and his Creator, more of a deterrent than a stimulant to higher planes of spiritual living.

“O Son of Being! Busy not thyself with this world, for with fire We test the gold, and with gold We test Our servants.”

“O ye that pride yourselves on mortal riches! Know ye in truth that wealth is a mighty barrier between the [Page 384] seeker and his desire, the lover and his beloved. The rich, but for a few, shall in no wise attain the court of His presence nor enter the city of content and resignation. Well is it then with him, who, being rich, is not hindered by his riches from the eternal kingdom, nor deprived by them of imperishable dominion. By the Most Great Name! The splendor of such a wealthy man shall illuminate the dwellers of heaven, even as the sun enlightens the people of the earth!”

The lawful and moderate use of worldly riches has thus not only been made permissible by Bahá’u’lláh, but considered as fulfilling a definite and indispensable function in man’s life on this earthly plane. The Bahá’í, therefore, should not shun the world, and lead a life of seclusion and retirement. Rather, he should step into the arena of life, convinced that only through service to humanity, and by striving to become an “all-round” man can he attain that plenitude of life destined for him by God. He should enjoy the pleasures of this world, considering them, however, as means destined by Providence for his higher spiritual existence. For though born in the “world of dust and clay” he is first and foremost a citizen of the Kingdom of God.

“Should a man,” reveals Bahá’u’lláh, “wish to adorn himself with the ornaments of the earth, to wear its apparels, or partake of the benefits it can bestow, no harm can befall him, if he alloweth nothing whatever to intervene between him and God, for God hath ordained every good thing, whether created in the heavens or in the earth, for such of His servants as truly believe in Him.”

It becomes evident, therefore, that the Bahá’í conception of selflessness and severance is basically irreconcilable with that upheld by various mystic philosophies, which by preaching complete segregation from the world lead to passivity and inaction, and thus produce in the mind of those who accept them an anti-social attitude which is obviously the very negation of that spirit of social service and solidarity inculcated in the Bahá’í Teachings.

Not only in its effects, whether on the individual or society, but also in its conception of unity with God, the Bahá’í doctrine of self-renunciation fundamentally differs from the teachings of orthodox mysticism. Whereas to the mystic the goal of spiritual progress lies in the merging of the human, will into the Divine Will, and its reunion with the Divine Essence, according to Bahá’u’lláh such a belief implying complete identification between God and man, besides being sacrilegious is contrary to all logic. The mystic believes that through such union the individual soul loses its identity, gets wholly stripped of every desire, and becomes an expression of the Universal Cosmos. According to Bahá’u’lláh, on the other hand, man no matter how far he may progress spiritually, whether in his mortal existence or in the worlds of the spirit beyond, can never hope to comprehend God, much less to become His associate or partner.

“The birds of men’s hearts,” He states, “however high they soar can never hope to attain the heights of His unknowable Essence. It is He Who [Page 385] hath called into being the whole of creation, Who hath caused every created thing to spring forth at His behest. Shall, then, the thing that was born by virtue of the word Which His Pen hath revealed, and which the finger of His will hath directed, be regarded as partner with Him, or an embodiment of His Self? Far be it from His glory that human pen or tongue should hint at His mystery, or that human heart conceive His Essence.”

Unlike the pantheistic conceptions of the mystics, the Bahá’í Faith establishes as the chief cornerstone of its doctrine the essential distinction between God and His creation. To the immanent, impersonal Deity of the mystic philosophers it opposes God, the Transcendental, the Rational, the ever Inaccessible Being, Who “hath ever been veiled in the ancient eternity of His Essence, and will remain in His Reality everlastingly hidden from the sight of men.”

“By self-surrender and perpetual union with God,” Bahá’u’lláh reveals, “is meant that men should merge their will wholly in the Will of God, and regard their desires as utter nothingness beside His purpose. Whatsoever the Creator commandeth His creatures to observe, the same must they diligently, and with the utmost joy and eagerness, arise and fulfill. They should in no wise allow their fancy to obscure their own imaginings as the voice of the Eternal.”

Though using the terminology of the mystic writers, Bahá’u’lláh attaches to their words a fundamentally different meaning. “Living in God” according to Him does not imply a unity of essence or any identification between man and God, but his conformity to the Divine Will.

But since God, the Unknowable, the Inaccessible, is above human comprehension, and consequently no direct intercourse between Him and man is possible, the only way to discover His Will would be through the intermediary of His Prophets and Messengers, Whom He has appointed as the one true revealers of His Light, and the only source of His guidance for all men.

“The door of the knowledge of the Ancient of Days being thus closed in the face of all beings, the Source of infinite grace, according to His saying, ‘His grace hath transcended all things; My grace hath encompassed them all,’ hath caused those Luminous Gems of Holiness to appear out of the realm of the spirit, in the noble form of the human temple, and be made manifest unto all men, that they may impart unto the world the mysteries of the unchangeable Being, and tell of the subtleties of His imperishable Essence.”

The Prophet is thus God’s representative and His mouthpiece on earth. To recognize and accept Him is to recognize and accept God Himself. To deny and disbelieve in Him is to deny and disbelieve in God. He is the archetypal man, the perfect exemplar, the measure of truth for all mankind. He is the infallible balance in which men’s thoughts and actions should be weighed. From him man acquires his highest ethical values, and through him he becomes initiated into the mysteries of life. Obedience to the ordinances and laws he reveals [Page 386] constitutes the only path of salvation for the individual and of regeneration and progress for humanity at large. To walk in the way of His commandments is to attain certitude, peace and everlasting blissfulness.

By virtue of the authority vested in them by God the Prophets claim to be the true founders of civilization, and to this end they reveal a set of principles, laws and institutions which taken together constitute the Divine pattern for the reconstruction of human society. To live in the spiritual and social realm created by these Divine laws and institutions is to become God’s own child and a citizen of His Kingdom. What else, then, the expression “living in God” can mean except the acquisition of such Divine Citizenship? The spiritual path of selfless obedience to the Divine Will, as revealed through God’s Messengers and Chosen Ones, by leading to the glorious heights of human perfection thus culminates in the establishment of God’s heavenly Realm here on earth.

Implicit, whole-hearted and continued obedience to the laws revealed by the Prophets, as we see therefore, is the one true form of union with God which Bahá’u’lláh has defined as the supreme goal of man’s quest for spiritual knowledge and advancement in this world. Conformity with the Divine Will is possible only through the knowledge and acceptance of God’s Manifestations. This is what attainment into the Divine Presence really means. All else conceived by the mystics is but an illusion and a product of their own imagination, and has no foundation in truth.

The recognition of God’s Manifestations is what is commonly described by the term conversion. It is both an intellectual process, requiring the exercise of our highest mental faculties, and also an emotional reaction whereby the inner forces of the human heart are galvanized and set into motion. This is an achievement in which both the heart and mind of man have to concur. It is not merely a sentimental or subjective state of consciousness, but a positive attitude involving strict and conscious adhesion to the laws and commandments of God. Inner guidance has thus to be completely subordinated, if not substituted altogether, to the one true positive guidance revealed in the Divine teachings.

Whereas the mystic endeavors through the interplay of his feelings and emotions to achieve union with his Beloved, distrusting and discarding any intellectual method of contacting with the truth, Bahá’u’lláh requires both a spiritual and rational adhesion to the Divine laws. Not alone through the effusions of our heart, but by means of dispassionate and assiduous mental investigation and search can the Bahá’í seeker experience a real and lasting conversion. The mystic attitude by its anti-intellectualism and its extreme subjectivism inevitably leads to spiritual, and moral anarchy, and cannot but result eventually in social disunity and strife. And it is precisely against such anarchistic tendencies inherent in all mystic conceptions of unity with the Divine that Bahá’u’lláh warns us in one of the concluding passages of the “Seven Valleys.”

“During all these journeys,” He reveals, [Page 387] “the wayfarer must not deviate a hair’s breadth from the ‘Law,’ which is indeed the essence of the ‘Path’ and the very fruit of the tree of ‘Truth,’ and in all stages he must show implicit obedience to the Commandments, and firmly eschew all forbidden things, in order that he may be favored with the cup of the Law and be grounded in the mysteries of the Truth.”

Thus to the subjective spiritualism of the mystics, who consider themselves above any law, Bahá’u’lláh opposes the positive spiritualism of the Religion of God. While the former breeds the seed of anarchy by making the individual a law unto himself, subject to no restriction except that which his own mind or conscience may choose to impose, the latter generates order and peace, not only within the innermost recesses of the individual’s heart, but in the whole of human society.

By bringing their own individual aspirations into conformity with the spirit and teachings of the Prophets the followers of Bahá’u’lláh can succeed in achieving in their own hearts as well as in the social relationships binding them with their fellow-men such degree of peace and unity as alone can insure happiness for themselves and continued progress and prosperity to society.

The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh claims to be the latest revelation of God’s Law and Purpose for this age. It is that Divine Instrument through which His grace has once more been sent down, that mankind’s unity and tranquillity, so badly shattered, may be restored. It represents the noblest fruit which the tree of religion has so far yielded, ushering in that stage of maturity in the religious evolution of mankind at which religion is definitely raised above the plane of the individual’s concern and made to include the totality of human life.

To enter this New World Order is to help usher in that Divine Civilization, that Kingdom of God on earth, the advent of which by-gone Prophets have repeatedly heralded, and which Bahá’u’lláh has assured us is destined to be established in the fullness of time in His own age and dispensation.

The seventh in a series on the Seven Valleys by Bahá’u’lláh.

[Page 388]

TEACHING FOR PEACE

P. SESHADRI

THE teaching of internationalism and peace can enter into many subjects of educational work. Anything which promotes the knowledge of other races and countries in the young mind, emphasizes the achievements of peace by the great benefactors of humanity, or the inter-relationship of the peoples of the world —in short, everything calculated to draw attention to the good in other nations and the advantages of cooperative effort among them is calculated to strengthen this cause.

The effective teaching of geography in its humanistic aspects, which has pressed itself forward more and more in recent years, should be an invaluable aid for this purpose. When the ancient Greeks called all foreigners “barbarians,” they were illustrating the fact that ignorance is often the cause of national prejudice. The English word, “uncouth” which only means by derivation, “unknown,” indicates the same failing in humanity. If children are not brought up in proper appreciation of the virtues of other people and the wonderful physical features of other parts of the world, it must, therefore, be largely the fault of the geography teacher.

It is unfortunate that the subject of history should have often lent itself to the fostering of ill-will among nations, instead of cementing them into an appreciation of all that is great and noble in human nature. One of the earliest recommendations of the Educational Experts Committee of the League of Nations . . . was that the textbooks of history used in schools and colleges should be revised, so as to eliminate all traces of racial bitterness. It is of course not intended that they should be so diluted as to be deprived of all national enthusiasm and patriotic fervor, but everything has to be gained by scrupulously avoiding the misrepresentation of heroes with whom our nation might have been at war in the past and emphasizing the praiseworthy qualities in other peoples, with the satisfaction with which we applaud our own national favorites. Several governments have already reported the action taken by them on these lines and it is interesting to note that there was a resolution in the Punjab Legislative Assembly, the other day, that textbooks should undergo similar revision in India.

A mistake of which the elder generation of historians and history teachers were undoubtedly guilty was to glorify only battles and military conquests, as if they alone mattered in the march of the human race and not the achievements of peace which have contributed to the welfare and happiness [Page 389] of mankind. As I complained at a meeting of the Educational Experts Committee of the League of Nations in Geneva in 1931, it was, for instance, depressing in the extreme to walk through the Hall of Battles at the Palace of Versailles, as it was a terrible reminder of what man has made of man by indulging in mutual orgies of crime and bloodshed. May the veil of oblivion be drawn, as much as possible, on these aspects of man’s life on earth and if they are to be mentioned at all, may they be mentioned not in triumph, but in a spirit of the deepest regret and humiliation! Let children be trained to look upon history, not as a series of dreadful battles accompanied by terrible carnage of one nation on another and more often of both the parties involved in a conflict, but as a vast stage on which illustrious heroes have appeared from time to time and contributed to man’s progress. Prophets of religion, men of letters, eminent thinkers and great artists and scientists must be held up to admiration before the young, as in no sense inferior to the seekers of military glory who have only a long list of conquests to their credit, generally achieved in a spirit of lust for power and dominion.

The following passage from H. G. Wells’ Outlines of the History of Mankind, draws attention to an aspect of historical teaching which must be constantly advocated in the interests of the ideals of internationalism and peace:—

“There can be little question that the attainment of a federation of all humanity, together with a sufficient measure of social justice, to insure health, education and a rough equality of opportunity to most of the children born into the world, would mean such a release and increase of human energy as to open a new phase in human history. The enormous waste caused by military preparation and the mutual annoyance of competing great powers, and the still more enormous waste due to the underprotectiveness of great masses of people, either because they are too wealthy for stimulus or too poor for efficiency, would cease. There would be a vast increase in the supply of human necessities, a rise in the standard of life and in what is considered a necessity, a development of transport and every kind of convenience; and a multitude of people would be transferred from low-grade production to such higher work as art of all kinds, teaching, scientific research, and the like. All over the world there would be a setting free of human capacity, such as has occurred hitherto only in small places and through precious limited phases of prosperity and security. Unless we are to suppose that spontaneous outbreaks of supermen have occurred in the past, it is reasonable to conclude that the Athens of Pericles, the Florence of the Medici, Elizabethan England, the great deeds of Asoka, the Tang and Ming Periods in Art, are but samples of what a whole world of sustained security would yield continuously and cumulatively. Without supposing any change in human quality, but merely its release from the present system of inordinate waste, history justifies this expectation.”

Do we realize sufficiently even ourselves, that art and literature represent [Page 390] two world dominions to which all civilized nations have made valuable contributions and both of them would be very much poorer indeed than what they are today without such cooperative effort? It is difficult to make young people understand that the great manifestations of beauty in art and literature are not confined to any land, however favored by God the people may wrongly imagine themselves to be, but are really representative of many ages, climes and peoples? Introduction to the great masterpieces of foreign nations, if not in the original at least in translations, and their immortal monuments of art, if not with the vivid facilities of foreign travel, but at least with the help of pictures and descriptive literature, must be another plank in this program. It must be the teacher’s duty to emphasize the oneness of humanity on all possible occasions. Why should we dislike a person merely because he has a yellow complexion, high cheek-bones and small eyes? Why should people devoid of color and looking pale rouse any animosity in us? After all, the mere fact that a person lives beyond the boundaries of our country, often an imaginary one without even a stream or a mountain to mark it, is no reason why we should feel a reduced sense of human affection towards him. There is, on the other hand, a good deal of wisdom in the saying of Terence: ‘Nothing which concerns man can be a matter of unconcern to me.’

If there is one impression which sinks deeply into our minds as the result of travel all over the world, it is the oneness of humanity, a fundamental unity of mankind, though expressing itself with different backgrounds. The same spirit looks at you with all its human affinities, whether through black or brown, or white, or yellow eyes. The fundamental qualities are the same, in their attractive or disagreeable features. We are all actuated by common hopes and ambitions, tempted by similar weaknesses and capable of either lapsing into vices or rising to heights of moral grandeur. The great virtues are the same, there is no such thing as English charity, or French truth, or Persian kindness, or Indian friendship, nor can any of the failings of humanity be identified absolutely with people of one country or race.

Reprinted from Indian Journal of Education.

[Page 391]

SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVE

PSYCHOLOGY APPLIED TO RELIGIOUS TEACHING

MARIE M. KERSHAW

IT has been said time and again that individual growth is attained by giving away spiritual truth, in this manner making room, as it were, for the absorption of further knowledge.

William James, the famous psychologist, states that education is the filling of a person with information which will meet every need in facing all conditions. This would enable him to extricate himself from any new set of circumstances which he might meet. An untrained person, presented with an unusual condition, would be nonplussed while an educated one would usually have some means at hand, or some experience from which to draw, that would cause him to behave intelligently or successfully to meet the situation.

Each new person we meet is a potential believer in divine truth. His field of consciousness is limited to his past experiences, his reading, his associations. A voluntary attention to the Bahá’í Faith, set in motion by even so childish a thing as curiosity, has possibility since curiosity is one of the basic emorions, like fear, love, hate, etc. It is well to arrange the conversation so that your friend asks you about the Cause. This definitely gives you the advantage.

Such an advance in the divine art of all the human relationships as is given by Bahá’u’lláh cannot be poured forth for an astonished listener until you have found a link in his past religious trend of consciousness with which to carefully build a train of connecting ideas. This constitutes an actual “thought bridge” over which the easy flow of continued word images can safely proceed.

The ordinary person thinks first of the advantages to self. He asks first of all, “In what way can this benefit me?” How best to show mankind the necessity for increased spiritual knowledge, just as light is necessary to oppose darkness, and to teach the successful way of life, and the real happiness of the Eternal Verities, is a problem for each personality to work on and to elaborate.

To live the spiritual life is, par-excellence, the best means of promoting the Cause. To talk of the Bahá’í Faith enthusiastically is the best means of infusing enthusiasm into the inquirer. The Faith is full of vitality, vigor, strength, help and precious gems of truth. All these qualities can be made to shine through any conversation, imbuing the hearer with willingness to take them in.

To reinforce old ideas that have [Page 392] been implanted in people from childhood is a very positive help. A thought trend long engendered may not be torn down instantly and the replacement therapy of new ideas be instituted. Nay, rather, let the natural, gradual expansion of the old take place and when they have become flexible enough, then they can be made to include and enclose the new teachings. The fact that truth is one and the same thing, can here be applied with good result. The more varied the application of the Bahá’í Faith and the more it can be made to reach into the individual’s own life, the more interesting the subject can be made for him. Here we apply the old psychological law, “variety in unity.” The association of ideas along many trains of thought but seem to strengthen the human to receive them and retain them.

Our idea is to so present the truth that to his dying day, the person told of it will carry with him the Bahá’í Concept of Universality if nothing more.

One of our beloved teachers intrigued his audience greatly by the different aspects and modes of presenting the Bahá’í Cause and its principles. These he would take one by one and relate to human happiness and expiate on the benefits to be derived therefrom. Again the principles were used to explain the proper condition obtaining within a single family, and showed that just as they were needed in a family so, with a city, a nation, and then the world. In another talk the principles were related to the question of world peace and each principle was shown to be necessary to that state of being. And so with education, each Bahá’í principle is the living explanation of how education can be made manifest.

If on giving the Message no questions ensue then you have crushed the listener’s powers of comprehension and probably given him mental indigestion with a diet of too rich and prolific truth, or again, no proper connecting links or association of ideas has been effected in order to arouse a keen personal interest and thus hold the person’s attention. So it is well to anticipate and actually instigate the listeners to ask questions and so evince what is going on in his mind in order to carry him along and not lose him on the way.

To appeal to a person’s ability to native reaction is the art of appealing to his innate capacity to feel. Feeling is quite instinctive and if it is possible to attain this end-result, then your listener is really focused on what you have to tell him. This does not mean to arouse sloppy emotions, but it does mean to point his interest directly on what you have to say and so shut out all the fleeting things of his marginal consciousness. Each person has a focal point of interest and also a marginal consciousness. These two areas of thought are often interchangeable. (By “marginal” I mean that right now you may be aware of the content of this sentence but at the same time you “marginally” may also have a number of extraneous things entering your mind, like cars passing by, a sneeze from the next room, a bird chirruping, etc. It is quite a compliment to humanity that it has grown up enough to be able to concentrate as [Page 393] well as it has. Children would never have been able to follow and maintain an attitude of attention to all this purely abstract ideation.)

By “focal consciousness” I mean the center of the attention. Some people have the gift of deeply meditating and “losing themselves” altogether 1n focussed attentiveness. In others this must be acquired. By practise a dimming of the marginal consciousness may be obtained and a more complete fixation of the mind on the subject at hand may be had.

So, in talking to spiritual students it is well to focus the teachings in the center of the individual’s consciousness and go about shutting out those things which are constantly encroaching from the marginal areas of awareness.

To inculcate a desire to know—to appeal to a person’s innate love of surpassing himself, to plant seeds of truth, are all means of getting him to investigate for himself. If your talk has not made him want to know more about the subject, then you have failed temporarily and you must needs make another approach in another and more skillful manner.

The Bahá’í Faith is fundamentally based on reason, and man’s reasoning power, combined with the help of the senses, and with tradition or the aid of his own past experience or the experience of the race to draw from, makes a substantial base on which inspiration from divine sources might be poured to some purpose. The Bahá’í Faith appeals to man’s better nature, his hope in a higher future, his desire for more truth and Light. Man needs what Bahá’u’lláh has to give. He needs more love and means for putting into practise the ideal relationships between individuals, races and nations. Man is war-weary, economically unsound, with his civilization in an unstable flux. Bahá’u’lláh has given the answer to all these problems and given such strong Light to the world for its use unto better things that the earth is yet blinking and is not yet awake to the glory of the incoming Golden Age.

The privilege of serving the Master is of untold greatness and those living in this transitory period have not the knowledge of how far-reaching their words, deeds, and thoughts can be, and how greatly needed is every ounce of their energy, their prayer, and their concentration.

The time is short and the necessity for teaching is great. We are in the position of disciples and could we but realize it, the Heavenly Hosts are ready and able to aid us in the heavenly work to be done. True confirmation awaits the sincere believer who not only tries to give the message but who expects to achieve the desired result. Who is greater than God? Who can stand against the Creative Word? Who can defeat the Light that is being sent out by the Supreme Concourse on high? The Creative Word has gone forth for this new Day, and we know that when the Lord speaks, His will is done.

The time for the things of the personal is done, now is the time for the things of the Spirit. Thus we must put away lukewarmness and put on the fire of the love of God, enter into His Work wholeheartedly and with our whole souls.

[Page 394] It is said that if we do not accomplish the work that is here to be done, others will be raised up who will do it. So it is up to us to give those whom we contact the true spiritual perspective.

In summing up, we have a new psychology for teaching the Cause:

1. Link the teachings with the past experience of the individual.

2. Appeal to the native will to learn.

3. Use association of ideas and do not shock your listener.

4. Dwell on the advantages of the Faith to the individual, the nation, the world.

5. Live the Bahá’í life.

6. Show enthusiasm for your own beliefs.

7. Reinforce and replace by substitution therapy rather than kill childhood beliefs.

8. Application of “variety in unity.”

9. Encourage questioning.

10. Appeal to a person’s better emotions.

11. Appeal to a person’s reason.

12. Focus your listener’s attention on the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh.

---

THE ART OF SCULPTURE

Fragment from the Chinese

K’ING, the sculptor, carved a belfry for a peal of bells. The harmony and beauty of it astonished everybody. The Marquis of Lar, having come on purpose to admire it, asked K’ing how he went to work.

“When I had received the commission to execute this belfry I began to coil up all my vital powers, to gather myself into my own source. After three days of this exercise I had forgotten the praise and payment which would accrue to me for my work. After five days I no longer hoped for success; also I no longer feared for failure.

“After seven days, having lost thought of everything, even to the motion of my body and limbs, having forgotten even your highness and the court, every faculty being swallowed up by my object, I felt the moment for action had arrived.

“I went into the forest and set myself to contemplate the natural forms of trees and the bearing of the most perfect among them. When I felt thoroughly penetrated with this inspiration, then at last I set my hand to work. It was that which directed my labor. It was from this fusion into one of my nature with that of trees that the belfry acquired the qualities which make it so much admired.”

[Page 395]

THE GREAT CONTRASTS

DALE S. COLE

THERE is an old and persistent saying that “life is what we make it.” In this there may be an accumulated sophistication of philosophical experience and experiment, but today many feel that perhaps the reverse is true and that we are, or are becoming, what life makes us or of us. The impacts of living impinge on the consciousness and we either recoil in dismay or rebound in assurance depending upon our attitude toward life and living.

Apparently this is a day of enigmas and dilemmas, a time when old precedents are inadequate or inapplicable if they exist at all. We may be sentimentally attached to some traditional attitude, but if it is not sufficiently pragmatic to offer an effective solution of our own personal problems, we really place little reliance upon it and cast about for some modern legerdemain whereby debits may be turned into credits. We also realize that if this is true as regards the individual, it is even more true as regards groups of individuals, nations and races. Precedent and tradition, as such, seem to have little to offer towards furnishing either patterns or techniques for effective and happy living under present circumstances.

So acute has the situation become that life is being scrutinized as never before for its meaning, its purpose and its goal. It is viewed by some as a hill up which we struggle, reach some peak and then descend, willy-nilly. Others consider the world-trend line as definitely downward—and to what end? Only those with a dynamic and sustaining faith see life as progress depicted by an ever upward sloping line, in which, quite naturally, there may be plateaus where progress is for a time arrested; a line in which there may even be short retrogressions, but above all an unbroken line the general slope of which is ever upward. Such a line presupposes a purpose in life. It assigns to life orientation, direction and aim.

The mere affirmation that life has purpose, if assimilated sincerely into the consciousness, should bring strength to wavering endeavorers. That life has a very definite purpose is a basic teaching of Bahá’u’lláh. It is progress toward the knowledge of God, His Divine Plan and living in accordance with His good pleasure. This is an ever upwardly sloping line —the life-line for the individual and the race.

Life has been considered variously as a vicarious adventure, as a heavy burden, as a joyous expedition, as a supreme test—according to the lens of background and experience [Page 396] through which it is viewed. In fact, life is given man in the form existent on this planet for the refining of his character and the acquiring of virtues, those which will be useful as the line slopes upward away from the physical realms and into those spheres which can only be termed “spiritual.”

Just as in the prenatal life we were endowed with those organs and organisms which we require in this life without volition on our part, so can we elect to acquire the equipment which we will need in the future. In this sense are we not in the lower grades of a school, from which we will pass into high school and even college when the sands of our three score years and ten have run out?

LIFE INHERENTLY GOOD

That life is inherently good is evidenced by the tenacity with which human beings seek to cling to it under any and all circumstances. But considering the perplexities of the age in which we live, it is not surprising that the reasons for the appearance of trials, teSts and tribulations are insistent puzzles.

Why, if life is good and has a benevolent purpose, must there be such great contrasts?

Why must evil be? Why is there poverty, ignorance and sickness? You have asked these questions and so have I and many asked them daily as the hands of the clock traverse the circle ticking off the intervals which are gloomy with despair, neutral with indifference or bright with hope.

The answers to these enigmatic contrasts of life and living, like the answers to other problems, lie in knowledge of the subject matter of the inquiries. In this case the subject matter is extra-physical and lies beyond the bourne of materialism in the realms of spiritual consciousness and understanding.

Consider light and darkness as we experience it in the physical world. What is darkness? Obviously there is only one correct answer. It is the absence of light. That is scientifically true and evidenced also by experience. We have no scientific instruments to measure darkness, no units to designate its degrees. We measure only light. We can tell how little there is quantitively, or how much, but we do not attempt to measure darkness. Since darkness is simply the absence of light, is it not negative, while light is positive?

Likewise, what is ignorance? Just as clearly it is the want of knowledge. Various tests have been devised to attempt to tell how intelligent a person is. We can tell how smart some individual is but we do not try to define how dumb he is in any kind of units—dumbness is simply the lack of smartness. Ignorance is a state of being without knowledge in varying degrees. Again, has not knowledge a “real” existence while ignorance has not—it being the absence of something which is measured? Were it not for ignorance it would be difficult to have any conception of knowledge. The negative helps in understanding the positive. The relatively bad state of ignorance proves and enhances the relatively good state of knowing. If all were equally uninformed none would appreciate that there was such a blessing as knowledge.

[Page 397] Similarly, what is poverty? Obviously the answer is the lack of wealth. Again the negative and positive aspects. We can evaluate the amount of wealth a man possesses by the use of arbitrary standards, for we have means and units of measurement, but we can only hint at the amount of poverty possessed by some by stating that “he is as poor as a church mouse.” The fact that poverty can and is being experienced proves the availability of wealth. The hardships of poverty emphasize the luxury of wealth.

In general, what is sickness? Medical terminology notwithstanding, is it not simply the lack of health? Do not the kind of statements previously recited apply also to these two conceptions, one negative and one positive? One “real” and the other “unreal?”

Passing over many other possible illustrations of contrasts, touching life and living, let us propound one of tremendous magnitude and significance. What is evil? Is it not the absence of good? Can we not apply the same steps of reasoning applied to the other great contrasts in human experience, and do we not come to the same kind of conclusion? A negative is an absence of a positive, proving the existence of the positive and enhancing its value as a conception and as an experience?

And so we live in a series of great contrasts—each one a wondering place where it is well to stop, listen, and meditate. All of these contrasting considerations have two phases, one good and one relatively bad; one negative and one positive; one “real” and the other “unreal,” in so far as physical experience is concerned.

If it were not for poverty, wealth would have no meaning. The negative aspects enhance the value of the positives and give them meaning. This is one reason for the appearance of tests, trials and tribulations.

There are, of course, others. The overcoming of obstacles seems necessary to the development of character. It is well known that in the climates where weather conditions change and are stimulating, even though they increase the trouble of existing, human minds are more active and achievement is greater. Where life is too easy there have been no master-pieces of accomplishment.

Were all people equally “good,” the great advantages of being “better” could not and would not be appreciated. Consider how iron has to be melted, and remelted, rolled and hammered, cut and refined before it is worthy of the name “steel.” Its purification is a series of violent physical and chemical changes.

Since God created everything which exists and all that He created is good in its own sphere and station—those aspects which are bad have no “real” existence. Fire can either warm and comfort, or burn and torture according as it is used. Such considerations apply to physical substances and relationships.

But Bahá’u’lláh has said—“Wert thou to attain to but a dewdrop of the crystal waters of divine knowledge, thou wouldst readily realize that true life is not the life of the flesh but the life of the spirit. . . . This life knoweth no death and its existence is crowned by immortality.”

[Page 398]

A JOURNEY TO THE ARCTICS

NELLIE S. FRENCH

ABOUT midway between the northernmost point on the continent of Europe (the North Cape pertaining to Norway) and the North Pole their lies a group of islands, five in number, with various smaller ones near by, which has excited the discoverer, the sportsman, the scientist, the trapper, the whaler, the miner, the explorer and finally of recent years the ubiquitous tourist, though few have braved the rigors of the north sufficiently to remain there. This group of islands known to us as Spitsbergen or by the Norwegian name of Svalborg, has been the goal of much scientific research and has proven itself rich in those wonderful provisions of nature which the wisdom of the Almighty placed there before man set foot upon that land. Fur animals abound, edible moss and birds supply food, and coal mines have been worked for many years which yield an ample supply of fuel for the islands with vast shipments also to the main land of Norway.

The largest of the group of islands known as West Spitsbergen, although only about 650 miles from the Pole, is so situated as to be modified in temperature by the warm ocean currents which provide an ice-free passage for boats during the summer months of June, July and August, although the eastern and northern shores are always ice-locked and have been explored only in the face of the most extreme hardships.

It was this group of islands to which our cruise ship was bound, it was to this far-away haven that the precious books which lay in our cabin were to find their way! But these were gray days at sea, days and days when there was no ray of sunshine— no cessation of the heavy blanket of fog which enveloped the ship! No signs of life, no birds, no swimming things, no relief to the tragic monotony of fog-like gray wool which choked the lungs and chilled one to the bone. The water temperature showed the presence of ice which could not be seen and yet cautiously the boat felt her way, a spectre in the gray mist. New York lay ten days behind us, Iceland had been left behind four days before. It was lonely— no friendly sail drifted into sight, no sea gull’s sharp note broke the awful stillness, the sky and sea were one, merged together as in infinite space. And then—on the port side, little by little, the heavy curtain of fog lifted and disclosed a sea of floating ice. Strange weird shapes rose from the water, disintegrating icebergs doomed to lose their identity in the warmer atmosphere of the Gulf Stream already [Page 399] dissipated and yielding to the frozen north.

For hours the boat cruised along amid the broken ice, the distance between the floating cakes becoming narrower and narrower until it became evident that we had reached the great ice barrier, that greedy monster that holds within his breast the secrets of the Poles, and as if alarmed lest we penetrate his domain, had come a hundred miles farther south than ever known to block the passage. Disappointment shrouded the faces of the travelers as word came from the Captain that our course would have to be retraced if indeed we were to find a break in the barrier which would permit our progress to Magdalena Bay, and thus to the land of Spitsbergen. After a night of tense nerves and ears strained for the crunching of the ice floe the morning broke clear and bright, and in a few hours the glory of Magdalena Bay broke upon the sight like a vision so wonderful and so breath-taking that it seemed as if one had been translated from earth to heaven—a heaven of brilliant, glistening ethereal beauty. Around this bay the sharp, jagged mountains rose in their ice mantles from a sea as blue as that of Italy and overhead there blazed a sun so bright that it might have been the tropics.

At last the steamer came to anchor and put off a launch laden with sailors who went to set up an emergency landing stage on the shore of Magdalena Bay. No life breathed there, only a few gulls and an occasional awk shrieked their resentment at this invasion of their domain, while near the water were the crumbling ruins of a stone structure which had served many years ago as a research station.

Wandering over the loose rocks and approaching the foot of the gigantic glaciers which moved in their majestic and imperceptible rhythm casting off their iceberg progeny to fare for themselves and form a bulwark against the invasion of mankind, suddenly there appeared among the rocks a pile of human bones. Tradition says these once were sailors and that they slew each other. What the tragedy may have been, whether starvation or cold, whether they marked the fateful end of some long cherished grudge fought to the finish here is not known, but the bones seemed to bear witness to this age when every man’s hand is raised against his brother! . . . How tragic the thought and how the heart swelled with gratitude for the blessing of a Message in this day which is to dispel the darkness of human greed and competition and warm and melt the ice of human prejudice and hate! For was it not our intention to deliver this Message somewhere here in this frozen north? Was not the hand of the “Holy Mariner” unveiling His glorious sunshine and spreading His heavenly calm upon the sea that this very thing might be accomplished?

Leaving Magdalena Bay the boat cruised along revealing at every turn a new glory of ice and sea until finally the little habitat of Spitsbergen came into view, the harbor of King’s Bay, bidding us land and share the news of the great world with its isolated inhabitants. This then was our goal! This the land upon which was to be deposited for the first time in history, [Page 400] the Message of the Coming of “Him Whom God had made manifest,” the Glory of the Lord, through the humble efforts of these wayfarers in the path of service, souls were to be awakened, a new life was to pulsate and these regions were to be summoned to the glory of the New Day! It all seemed too wonderful to be true and the beauty of it all struck awe to the very soul. Here we would land—here we would surely find, even in the brief hour allotted to us, the one prepared of God to receive His Message and to herald the glad tidings of a New World Order.

Our landing was effected by climbing on an old, unused trestle which had served for the hauling and dumping of coal some years before. A long, uneven roadbed led to what would have been the center of town, had there been a town, but which now proved to be a settlement of about thirty houses, the most conspicuous of which was the “Boutik” or store. Although groups of men had stood at the landing, no face gave evidence of being the one upon which the Light was first to shine. Stolid faces they were, weathered by wind and sea, furrowed by lines of hardship, grim with the struggle of life, still unready and unaware—we must look further for the object of our search to whom was to be given a copy of “Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era,” in its Norwegian translation.

On entering the store where there seemed to be nothing negotiable save a few postal cards and a pile of raw pelts, one young man at once attracted our attention. He was a bright-eyed Norwegian who was serving as postmaster, though his duties must have been ordinarily very light, and to him we felt drawn at once. His knowledge of English was sufficient for him to understand that he was being presented with some very wonderful books which he was to share with his associates. On discovering that the books were in Norwegian his face beamed with gratitude and he seized the package in eager anticipation!

After a brief interview in which we sought to convey the mighty significance of the contents of the books, our mission accomplished, we gave way to the curious, jostling crowd of our fellow passengers and leaving the store we started in a tour of investigation of the island.

It is possible to conceive of this place in its winter atmosphere, in the darkness of its six months’ night, in its blinding, storm-swept isolation, the angry Arctic ocean pounding on its shores its manifold privations; but to us on that memorable day it showed only its softer side, its golden carpet of moss, its glistening, icy mountains, its low-growing, orchid-colored flowers, its myriads of birds sweeping down upon their nests, or rising in their winged freedom leaving their eggs a plentiful harvest to supply the needs of the islanders. To us it lay like a jewel in the hand of God, His to have and to hold, to warm and to quicken, to love and to preserve in His great wisdom for the completion of His design for mankind!