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Baha'i:
The Spirit of the Age
by Horace Holley
1921Available below as (1) a collection of PDFs and (2) an unproofed text document from archive.org.
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2. Unproofed, unformatted document from archive.org. Not proofread! To help proof this document, contact us.
BAHAI
THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE
APPROVED BY
BAHAI COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATIONS 1921
ABDUL BAHA
The Servant of God
B A H A I
The Spirit of the Age
BY
HORACE HOLLEY
LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & Co., LTD. HROADWAY HOUSE, 68-74 CARTER LANE, E-C.
CONTENTS
FRONTISPIECE ABDUL BAHA
INTRODUCTION vii
PART 1 ..:..* 1
THE COSMIC TRINITY 3
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO CHRISTIANITY 74
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO JUDAISM 88
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO SCIENCE Ill
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO POLITICS AND ECONOMICS. . . . 125
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND NEW THOUGHT 139
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO THEOSOPHY 146
PART 2 153
THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE 155
ILLUSTRATION THE BAHAI TEMPLE
THE BAHAI TEMPLE 176
PART 3 189
Two BAHAI DOCUMENTS 191
CONSTRUCTIVE READING LIST 202
"Say, the fecundation of Bounty has been wafted over all things in this day and everything has generated and brought forth its own kind, but verily the majority of the people have turned away from it the trees bring forth the beautiful fruit; the seas, the brilliant jewels; man f knowledge and science; the universe, the Transfiguration of the Merciful; and the earth, that which no one comprehendcth save the True One, the knower of secrets and unseen things."
BAHA'O'LLAH.
INTRODUCTION
The new translation of an ancient classic con- tains one very significant change. A prophetic pas- sage formerly interpreted "the end of the world" reads now "the end of the age."
In this sense, the world has indeed come to an end in our day the foundations of a new age, a new civilization, a new science and a new faith have visibly been laid. The inspiration of this new age, for many people in all parts of the world, has one source, one password, one mystery: the name Bahai.
The word Bahai is like a jewel with many facets, a fountain with many pitchers, a mansion with many rooms.
For some, it means a set of principles necessary for the peace of the world, for economic stability, for the true progress of the sciences and the arts.
For others, Bahai means the privilege of belong- ing to an active movement already spread through- out the United States, Canada, Europe and large portions of the East; a movement spreading the ideals of fellowship and service irrespective of race, creed, nationality and class.
Still others feel in the word Bahai the reality, the consummation of the Sermon on the Mount, the return of the Divine Love for the purpose of rais-
vii
viii INTRODUCTION
ing mankind from its animal condition to the level of conscious spirituality.
Behind this word for many there stands also a glorious Presence, a Divine Being whose title this word is : The Glory of God. These persons feel this Presence as the controlling force behind every event of this time. Thus is Bahai the cause of a new spirit of reverence and devotion, written as it is upon a Bible, a World Bible, revealed in cosmic utterances which gather together those who seem to be a nucleus of the future, spiritual race.
Still others, having heard Abdul Baha during his travels through Europe and America immedi- ately preceding the War, see the word Bahai in terms of his wisdom, his graciousness, his untiring efforts to awaken the slumbering soul to realize the opportunities and responsibilities of life in this age.
Behind this word Bahai, finally, there is one of the most astonishing chapters History has ever had occasion to record. From its beginnings in the glorious Babi martyrdoms which occurred in Persia only about eighty years ago; to that forty-year exile and imprisonment suffered by Baha'o'llah and Abdul Baha, with seventy faithful followers; wit- nessing then the renaissance of the Holy Land as the "Mount of Revelation," and arriving at the present hour with Abdul Baha's unique mission made fruitful by the commencement of work on the Bahai Temple at Chicago, by the deeper com- prehension of the meaning of this Cause awakened
INTRODUCTION ix
by the nationwide journey of the "Great Teacher," Jenabe Fazel Mazandarani, and the rapid spread of the Bahai Message throughout the East the historic importance of these events can only be judged at some later date, when from this seed the fruitfn 1 tree shall have grown to its maturity.
It is to serve as a gateway opening to some of these meanings of the word Bahai that this book has been prepared.
The first part, The Cosmic Trinity, deals with the source of Bahaism in its three founders; en- deavoring to present them in the light of their own interpretations. The brief chapters concluding this first part have special references to the rela- tion of Bahaism to some established body of opinion, such as Christianity, Judaism, Christian Science, Theosophy, and to current problems under the head of Science, Politics and Economics.
Part two is a compilation from the utterances of BahaVllah and Abdul Baha, selected from every possible source, many unpublished manuscripts being quoted, the intention being to bring together in one convenient compass a sequence of their au- thentic words which would permit the reader to judge of this Bahai Teaching, or Principles, for himself.
A chapter on the significance of the Bahai Tem- ple now being constructed at Chicago as the true visible representation of the Bahai Movement its spirit of unity, and its equal insistence upon
x INTRODUCTION
Science and Religion was added to this part in- asmuch as the Temple has been partially described in the public press of Europe as well as America, and much interest in this feature of Bahaism thereby aroused.
Part three contains two important Bahai docu- ments: Abdul Baha's address on the power of Meditation before the Society of the Friends, St. Martin's Lane, London; and his Commune to be read by the Bahais of Persia during the War. This latter, penetrating to the very depths of the world's state of mind in these days, sounds a note of solemn power and agony which is the very crucifixion of the cosmic consciousness under the animal impulses.
In conclusion, a Reading List is added which includes all books known to the author as being strictly Bahai in origin or theme. Every effort has been made to render the present work useful for the reader desiring to understand Bahaism. Baha'o'llah and Abdul Baha are quoted as fre- quently as possible throughout, and these quota- tions were selected in order to present the Bahai answer to as many as possible of the world's major problems and interests.
This book, however, is presented merely as a gateway to the Bahai Teaching or Message. In no sense should it be considered an "authoritative interpretation" of Bahaism, since Abdul Baha's own life and words are solely and entirely that. To tell something of the new, creative Word; to
INTRODUCTION ad
mention the Speaker of the Word; to present merely that preliminary statement by which the reader shall be enabled to investigate the reality for himself this is my only purpose and aim.
"1 declare by the Ocean of the Godly Knowledge that a moment in these days is more excellent than past centuries and ages; to this beareth "witness your Lord, the Chooser, in the Station of Generosity. Be kindled by this fire which is burning in the world, that through thee whosoever is in this earth shall be enkindled. Think not that it is a fire, rather it is a Light, and its traces shall surround whosoever is in all countries and regions. Of what use is a life that is ruled by death, or a duration -which vanisheth, or a grace that changeth? To-day let every soul desire to attain the highest station. He must not regard what is in himself but what is in God. It if not for him to regard what shall advantage himself, but that whereby the Word of God, which must be obeyed, shall be upraised." BAHA'O'LLAH.
Thus, in no uncertain tones, does Bahaism ad- dress the modern mind and heart. Already has this Cause made History enough to assure us that men shall be whole heartedly for it as for the whole meaning of life; or whole heartedly against it as against that which strikes at the roots of senseless inertia as well as conscious reaction in all their subtlest forms.
HORACE HOTJ/RY. New York City,
January 22, 1921.
PART 1
THE COSMIC TRINITY I
"With the name of this Day Thou hast adorned Thy Tablet, which is known only to Thee. Thou hast called it The Day of God. Nothing is to be seen therein but Thy Supreme Self, and naught is to be remembered save Thy sweetest Name." BAHA'O'LLAH.
It has become only too evident that the past eighty years or so have not only effected a complete change in the physical life of man, but likewise have pro- duced a mighty transformation in the world of consciousness.
Each of our material inventions can be paralleled by a corresponding change in our way of thinking each of our scientific discoveries can be shown to cor- respond to some discovery bringing renewal upon the plane of mind. If astronomy has emerged into the clear light of truth, so also has the true astrology reappeared in view. If medicine and surgery have been enlarged tremendously, so have been enlarged tremendously the claims of alchemy and occultism. If history has opened out so as to include in one point of view the entire biological and geological record of life, so has Theosophy restored the knowl- edge of even greater spiritual cycles. If the theory
4 BAHAI
has been established that mankind in all parts of the world derives from a common monkey ancestor, so has the fact been established that in every portion of the race there have arisen mystics who derived the likeness of man from God. Where on the one hand we have a new instinct to restudy the words of Christ, or Mohamet or Buddha, there on the other hand we have an equal degree of interest in the teachings of Pythagoras, Hermes, Paracelsus. Side by side with the miracles of submarine, automobile and aeroplane, stand the miracles of Spiritualism, Psychic Research, New Thought.
Daylight has dawned upon the consciousness of man.
But if to each one of us some new and absorbing interest has been revealed by that sudden daybreak some new conception of the further possibilities inherent in the nature of machinery, finance, trade, political organization, art, science, philosophy, re- ligion or occultism no less obviously has that unex- pected mental and social expansion blinded us to the nature of that new conscious universe as a whole in which our own mental citizenship forms so infinites- imal a part. Thus we have lost what appears the very greatest significance of the day in which we live the fact that, as matters at least temporarily seem to be, absolutely everything in this amazing modern world cancels out. That is, if what we con- sider a "good" has been immensely reinforced, its contrary or "evil" has been reinforced to the same
THE COSMIC TRINITY 5
extent. Positive and negative remain exactly where they were. Doubt and faith remain exactly where they were. The fact, or issue, or tendency that confirms you today will probably deny you to- morrow.
In very truth, no form of thought, belief, practise or feeling has ever existed anywhere or any time in the world but its equivalent stands among us now all the gods, and all the worshippers of the gods, return to this strange time!
So it is impressed upon every sincere person more and more that the essence of life at the present hour is just this simple but overwhelming fact: we all must make a decision.
The masquerade of events grows too serious for either thoughtless indifference or blind acceptance. Just as our national and economic and hygienic boundaries no longer shut out the forces of oppo- sition, so are our mental and moral boundaries con- stantly being overrun. The easy way all along through History has been to stand inside some ac- customed frontier and fight for it to the bitter end. But today, the frontiers cross and recross, before us and behind.
We must make a decision. And it is no longer possible to decide merely, as between nations or economic classes or formal doctrines the decision toward which the whole force of the world impetu- ously tends is a decision about the nature of life about the nature of the very universe through which
6 BAHAI
we pass, from which we came, and to which we all return.
Thus, here and there people are beginning to look up from the narrow traditional path with which they have been satisfied, and to wonder whether or not all these separate, narrow paths have a common meet- ing place. We are discovering at last that the nature of the universe will never be revealed simply by adding together more new facts. Already we have too many facts facts which are irreconcilable one with another, facts crying out for an interpreta- tion depending upon what we decide about the nature of the Whole. Mankind, in the same way, will never be understood through more study of men, but all men are baffled and thwarted for lack of some mutual realization about man.
Whence is this common realization to appear? My idea cannot satisfy you, even if I could impose it upon you. Nor could your idea justify my existence, even if I were compelled to accept it.
Our personal will, knowledge and love are proven inadequate. Yet clearly, if there were a cosmic Will, it would will one thing through all of us and not many conflicting things. If there were a cosmic Knowledge, it would explain all forms of human belief. If there were a cosmic Love, it would reconcile all our discordance. And how can that inevitable decision, which we are rapidly being forced to make, be aught but the choice between personal wills, personal truths or
THE COSMIC TRINITY 7
personal emotions unless it is a decision in the light of cosmic Will, cosmic Knowledge, cosmic Love?
That decision, at any rate, must be on the plane of consciousness rather than upon the plane of material form.
Now what blinds us on the plane of conscious- ness will correspond to what blinds us on the physi- cal plane. The thing that blinds us on the physical plane is clearly enough the human body the separation of man from man in isolated, self- attached bodily organisms. For as the body of the mystic, say, is quite distinct from the body of a scientist, and as the body of a German, say, is quite foreign to that of an Englishman, their souls appear also to have, in consequence, quite separate destinies.
But what corresponds to the human body on the plane of mind? Clearly, it is language. Language is the vehicle of thought just as the body is the vehicle of the conscious thinker. Therefore it may easily be that the Christian stands apart from the Buddhist, and the mystic from the scientist, largely because each of them employs a different form of expression, a different vehicle or body of thought. We look into the mirror and expect to behold our own image. But if the mirror is ever so slightly warped, the image we behold is far from our image, and we instantly recoil.
Is not language exactly like that? Does not a new, or alien form of expression reflect back to us
8 BAHAI
a thought image apparently not our own? Do we not behold constantly, as strange bodies of thought, expressions which may possibly be our own would undeniably be our own if the mirror of lan- guage were a true mirror?
The scientist looks into the physical mirror ex- pecting to behold a scientist. He meets an artist or a mystic expecting to find a person quite differ- ent from a scientist. But why does he expect to meet a person quite different from himself? Is it not because our spiritual realities that of which thought and language are but the body reflect back and forth to each other in a warped mirror?
While art and science, for example, differ so much in the outward form they assume one creating a picture, the other creating a formula do they actually differ so much as modes of con- sciousness? Who can tell? Only he can con- clusively tell who in himself is both artist and scientist. Such a person, looking into the mirror of thought, would behold as one body that which we others behold as two separate bodies. Such a per- son would surely realize and accept as a matter of course this fact that the picture is itself a true formula, the formula is itself a true picture! Thus could he serve as interpreter between all artists and scientists as a spiritual banker, so to speak, able to give to each type of person credit which that type could spend in the other's spiritual city.
Today it bears repeating today the differ-
THE COSMIC TRINITY 9
ence in our various terminologies has raised up upon the plane of consciousness those same fron- tiers which physically divide people off into war- ring nations and bitterly hostile classes. We have projected the physical law of isolated, bodily self upon the country of the mind, with the result that one scarcely ever meets a person with whom one can exchange spiritual experience freely and frankly, and thereby become consciously enriched. Instinctively shutting ourselves off from all groups who employ a strange, unaccustomed terminology, we close ourselves to whatever spiritual experience they possess as though the experience were neces- sarily as foreign as its expression.
The man of today, on account of this one simple fact, is spiritually speaking no better than a cave man defending his few miserable possessions from other cave men just as miserable as he.
For let us no longer be deceived by the apparent community existing between people who accept the same terminology, who are members of the same organized group Socialism, Christian Science, Catholicism, etc. The direct result of repudiating all other terminologies than our own is that we are absolutely blinded to the real significance of our own terminology. Accepting terminology as the one important distinction, we cease thinking just as soon as that matter of terminology has been settled. Thus merely because a group is using the terms of Socialism, the members of that group
10 BAHAI
accept each other as equals. Catholics accept each other as equals. Yet the plain fact is that in any of these large organized groups there is as much spiritual difference between the members as there is physical difference between the serpent and the dove, the lion and the lamb. The prophecy that the "lion and the lamb will lie down together" has certainly been fulfilled! The lion and the lamb are lying peaceably together for the lamb thinks the lion is a lamb, and the lion thinks the lamb is a lion! Conversely, the "dove" among the Socialists is unable to recognize the "dove" among the Chris- tian Scientists or the Catholics; and the "serpent" among the Catholics is unable to recognize the "serpent" among any other group.
This astonishing fact exists simply because, on the plane of consciousness, we apparently have to use "subjective" words. And a subjective word mirrors back its own image of concept or feeling to the speaker, but to the hearer only the back of the mirror, as it were, is shown.
Now let us return for a moment to the idea of the man who is both artist and scientist. Such a man, as remarked, could well serve as interpreter between all artists and scientists. He could ex- plain to the scientists that their formulas are ac- curate subjective pictures of the universe. He could explain to the artists that their pictures are accurate objective formulas of the universe. He could make it clear that art, as intuition, enters
THE COSMIC TRINITY n
into all true science; and that science, as clear logic, enters into all true art.
But such a twofold man could accomplish his object of serving these other onefold men only if he succeeded in finding a terminology, a body of thought, which each would recognize and accept as his own thought body. For if he merely talked "art" to the scientists, they would reject him as too imaginative; and if he merely talked "science" to the artists, they would re.ieot him as too unfeel- ing and too impersonal.
Now it has already been remarked that "day- light has dawned upon the consciousness of man."
But what happens when physical daylight dawns? We instantly grow aware of all the things that the light reveals. We begin dealing with these things the last thing we think of is the light itself the revealer of the things. And so it has been with this spiritual sunrising. We have become aware of innumerable interesting and significant things in the mental world so aware of these that we have not paused a single moment to consider what the source of this spiritual light may be, nor the real nature of the light itself.
One of the more obvious matters we seem to have overlooked is this: that today, for the first time in recorded History, people all over the world pos- sess one and the same cosmic symbolism. For the first time we have a fit vehicle to convey ideas from one to another mind. For the first time we have
12 BAHAI
access to one and the same series of universal facts.
The fact that we know the earth turns around the sun that light is an etheric vibration, while sound is atmospheric vibration the fact that mathematics, astronomy, chemistry and the other objective sciences are very generally distributed gives us an indescribable advantage over any previ- ous generation. Let us realize this. Let us real- ize that the fight for these objective sciences has been every single bit as difficult, as dangerous and as loyally supported as the struggle for religious truth. Let us stop for a moment and appreciate why and how it is that "cosmic consciousness" did not come to the race until the race had created cosmic symbols until the race had created a body of truth fit for the spirit of truth to occupy, ani- mate and inspire!
Go back in your thought to the founder of any of the world's great religions. What symbolism was Christ, for example, absolutely compelled to employ? Compelled to employ on account of the ignorance of the time? He was compelled to employ the symbolism of personal or group experi- ence. Pie spoke of God as the "Father," of him- self as the "Son." Now in those days the word Father meant much more than it does now. The patriarchal Father was much more than the family father of today. The patriarchal Father was a King, a Commander, a Priest, a Teacher. There- fore when Christ spoke of God as the "Father," he
THE COSMIC TRINITY 18
used the symbol which to his hearers conveyed the very maximum effect of power, authority and re- sponsibility which they were capable of imagining. But the word Father conveys nothing of this power, authority and responsibility to us at the present time. Nor do we appreciate what Christ meant by the "Son." The Son of the patriarchal Father was the heir of all that authority and only one Son, the eldest Son, could be heir.
Therefore the terminology Christ was compelled to employ is a terminology which limits our modern idea of God on all sides. That terminology to take only one example seems to preclude the pos- sibility of there being more than one Christ, or Messiah, or Saviour. Moreover, with our new and cosmic understanding of the universe, the idea of its Creator is simply impossible to accept under the personal aspect of the " Father."
The very slightest comprehension of History shows us that the Christ type, manifesting the same effect, the same method, the same influence, the same authority and consequently the same purpose and reality, has existed in other races at other times. Only reflect that modern European civilization de- rived most of its sciences and refinements from the Moslems who themselves were raised by Mohamet from the worst pessible savagery to the utmost de- gree of cultivation, and you will begin to appreciate how decisive right along this matter of terminology has been. The physical body of Mohamet was dif-
14 BAHAI
ferent from the physical body of Christ his ter- minology, or body of mental expression, was also different therefore we have spoken of Christian- ity and Mohammedanism as two separate " relig- ions" two values which it would be utterly im- possible for the same person to accept at the same time. Two bodies, says geometry, cannot occupy the same space at the same time. If religion is simply a body, then that same law holds true on the plane of consciousness. But suppose that re- ligion is a spirit cannot that Spirit descend upon two or many different beings, to use them all as suc- cessive instruments in the accomplishment of one inclusive Cosmic Purpose? Cannot Moses, Christ and Mohamet be regarded as successive steps, as it were, which enable the race to ascerd to the same Temple?
Just as there cannot be one mathematics for the East, and another mathematics for the West so the cosmic consciousness of this age cannot accept the fact of there being two different kinds of re- ligion. The apparent differences between the world's great religions are due, according to the cosmic consciousness, to the same law that obtains in Art. For Art is one everywhere and at all times with respect to its creative power, but Art differs everywhere and always with respect to its form of expression. The oneness of Art is in fact proved by the very diversity of its expression. The modern cosmic consciousness recognizes this
THE COSMIC TRINITY 15
law and also applies it to the expression of religion. And this modern cosmic consciousness recognizes with increasing clearness that the man, or group, which does not feel the Christ in Mohamet or Buddha does not really feel the Christ in Christ! By their fruits ye know them.
Have we not, as a race, been repeating here on a larger scale the same mistake incurred by the artists who misunderstand scientists, by the scient- ists who misunderstand artists? Have we not gazed into the mirror of consciousness and beheld as two bodies that which, in a more perfect mirror, would appear as one body? But what is that "more per- fect mirror?" Is it not merely a terminology wherein objective truth will correspond directly to subjective experience? A terminology whiely will be at once impersonal, universally valid and ac- ceptable, permanently applicable? A cosmic terminology?
In such a mirror we could all gaze and see re- flected back one and the same spiritual body. While that spiritual body would be more signifi- cant for the highly developed person than for the lowly developed person while it would inspire one emotion in the man of pure heart and another in the man of pure reason yet in that body of cosmic truth we should all recognize our own re- flection, and gradually become able to appreciate that aspect which was reflected back to others un- like ourselves.
16 BAHAI
And thus we approach the most significant fact in the intellectual character of the present age: that in the objective sciences we possess a termi- nology doing away forever with the limited, per- sonal, local terminologies of the past the termi- nologies representing God as the "Father," exclud- ing from God all members of other patriarchal families who look to another "Father" and for- ever doing away with that selfish and physical con- ception of Christ as the "only begotten Son," the only recipient of cosmic authority, the only agent for cosmic purpose !
II
"All things of the world arise through man and are manifest in him, through whom they find life and development: and man is dependent for his spiritual existence upon the Sun of the Word of God" BAHA'O'LLAH.
But our possession of a true cosmic terminology means far more than the mere capacity to discuss spiritual experience impartially with any and every kind of person, serenely independent of the artificial barriers raised by churches and creeds. If you reflect upon the matter, you will realize that this cosmic terminology actually creates, or at least registers, a profound, a revolutionary increase in our capacity to receive truth.
THE COSMIC TRINITY 17
For tremendous as the idea of "Father" might formerly have been in the days of patriarchal so- cieties, its effect upon the modern mind is nothing as compared with the cosmic idea suggested by "Gravitation," "Electricity," even "Atom." These words open up endless vistas of wonder and inquiry, vistas which far outrun our present knowledge. For we perceive even from the slight beginnings already made, that any cosmic force, such as Electricity, is limited only by our own capacity to create the machinery fitted to receive and transmit its illimitable energy. We appreciate at last, beyond doubt or cavil, that the universe has vibra- tion upon vibration, force behind force, meaning beyond meaning, the finer forces only awaiting our capacity to reveal them, control them, employ them.
In exactly the same way, we appreciate at last, beyond doubt or cavil, that man himself is a con- scious mechanism susceptible of infinite develop- ment. For these finer vibrations have always been penetrating the universe if their effects are manifest now for the first time, it is only because now for the first time are we able to register them. And just as each improvement in electric dynamos, for example, enlarges our ideas of the cosmic reality, so does each refinement in human conscious- ness justify the conviction that constant further refinements can be made. We realize how inca- pable was our first crude dynamo to receive the full
18 BAHAI
power of Niagara surely, we begin to realize that crude states of consciousness likewise shut us off from the world's invisible Niagaras of spiritual power.
More clearly than even half a century ago can we now appreciate how Christ, or Mohamet, or Buddha, was as it were a spiritual dynamo revealing those invisible Niagaras but revealing them under the same difficulty and limitation we ourselves would experience if we tried to explain Electricity to an African savage. The African savage would think that the dynamo created the Electricity he would feel the awe for the material dynamo that we feel for the cosmic Electricity. His attitude would perfectly parallel the attitude of the Western world toward Christ, and the Eastern world toward Moses, Mohamet or Buddha.
Until we had the analogy of invisible physical forces working through material instruments, we could have no true understanding of how invisible spiritual forces manifest through consciousness. And this brings us to another significant fact: the difference between the dynamo constructed, let us say, with only the knowledge of how previous dyna- mos were constructed, and the dynamo constructed, if that were possible, from the point of view of the Electricity itself. The first sort of dynamo uses only the smallest fraction of the cosmic energy but the second sort would not only use all that energy, up to the capacity of its size it would
THE COSMIC TRINITY 19
tend to be Electricity on the material plane. It is not difficult to realize that the perfect dynamo would have to be perfectly responsive to the action of Electricity.
Since this is clear, in the same way we can appre- ciate the difference between a consciousness which blindly gropes upward toward the contact with cosmic reality, and the consciousness which that reality itself has established as its perfect expres- sion on this human plane. Inasmuch as every per- son who registers cosmic consciousness at all, feels drawn upward, as it were, out of himself, such per- sons can readily admit the possibility that this cosmic reality can work downward, into the human world from above. Thus there can logically be an order of consciousness which is to the ordi- nary human consciousness as the ordinary human consciousness is to the animal or even to the tree.
Does not this analogy make clearer the world-old tendency to identify each racial Christ with God? Does it not avoid anthropomorphism on the one hand, while at the same time establishing, on the other hand, a true understanding of God? Does it not reveal the racial Christ as the function of God on this plane the working of the Divine Will to be known yet not in any manner degrade God from the point of view of our modern cosmic and scientific knowledge? A little reflection on this idea will, I am sure, create a logical and sympa-
20 BAHAJ
thetic approach to a problem which hitherto has been equally obscured by the limitations of the orthodox mind and the no less vital limitations of the scoffer's heart.
For there is this further consideration which can- not be avoided that whereas, as already stated, the idea of Electricity is more tremendous and im- pressive and inspiring than the idea of Father, yet the idea of Electricity, for all its cosmic significance, remains absolutely negative as regards our supreme human problem: the necessity to arrive at a final decision respecting the nature of the universe and the nature of man, the meaning of existence. That is, Electricity certainly suggests infinite force but in a form which justifies almost any interpre- tation we care to put upon the basic significance of life. You can use Electricity to reinforce your belief that life is blind chance, or your faith that life is one marvelous purpose and perfect design. And while the idea of Electricity will confirm you in either belief, you cannot possibly employ that idea in such a way as to transfer your belief to a person holding the opposite belief.
In other words the nature of the cosmos can- not be realized through Power alone. Power must be referred to two other values on the same plane the cosmic plane. Through Power, or Will, we must perceive Knowledge, and in Knowledge, or from Knowledge, we must perceive Love. And this Will and this Love must be inseparable from
THE COSMIC TRINITY 21
this Knowledge. Though they are three, yet they must be realizable as one.
Thus we return, but on an infinitely higher plane, to the basic religious conception of the Trinity/ We recall the law of geometry, that three points determine a plane. For the plane of consciousness also requires three "points" in order to be realized: the point of Will, the point of Knowledge, and the point of Love. Just begin to apply these three points to the consciousness of the people around you, and see how impossible it is to understand any human being with respect to Will alone, or Knowl- edge alone, or Love alone, or even with respect to any two of these points alone. Until you have measured a man with respect to all three, Will, Knowledge and Love, you have not the man's real measure.
Therefore we now call the Cosmic Trinity by the understandable terms Will, Knowledge and Love; realizing them, at least in their possibility, as cosmic values no less authoritative thanoany of the already known values, Electricity, Mathematics, Music. And we perceive the further possibility that the Cosmic Reality can manifest these three aspects of itself through, or by means of, perfected human consciousness.
That is, without shock to our modern scientific understanding, we can at least admit as an hypothe- sis that one consciousness might register that cosmic Will, another consciousness might register or mani-
22 JBAHA1
f est that cosmic Knowledge, still another conscious- ness might manifest that cosmic Love. If we prefer to believe, on the contrary, that these cosmic values would manifest as a diffusion, as it were, among the entire race, this belief is apparently as justifiable as the other belief, but it conies in conflict with two clear facts.
The first fact is that in other fields, the field of science, art and statesmanship progress is not made by diffusion until after each step has been manifested through some one mind. For example, the discovery of the true planetary motions came through one mind first, and was then diffused through other min^ls. Each advance in art is like- wise registered by one personality first and then re- flected by other artists. And no political progress has ever been made merely through the vote of an electorate it does not even come to a vote until some leader has made it a vital issue. Moreover, even if this analogy is not acceptable, we should consider another fact, namely, that just as Elec- tricity is not understandable from the dynamo, but the dynamo is rather only understandable from Electricity so, surely, in dealing with cosmic spiritual forces we must observe the same law: that is, we should not define the force in terms of our own imperfect manifestation of the force, but, on the contrary, attempt to make our manifestation of the force correspond as closely as possible to the real nature of the force, the force-in-itself.
THE COSMIC TRINITY 23
Or to put the matter more clearly it seems evident that we shall make a grievous mistake if we attempt to define the nature or purpose of God from the more or less crude spiritual dynamos we ourselves are. The true method, surely, is to define ourselves from a definition of God apart from our own limitations.
Unless, then, a person considers himself a perfect manifestation of spiritual reality unless one con- siders oneself a supreme and final manifestation of God one will be willing at least to consider what another person, a more perfect manifestation of God, might have to say.
The difficulty here is exactly the same difficulty that obtains all along the plane of consciousness. See how biology, for example, has transformed its basic conceptions every decade during the past half century. At first we were compelled to generalize in terms of the particulars at our disposal gradu- ally we have become able to particularize, as it were, in terms of greater and greater universals. How- ever you approach the cosmos, this principle seems to hold true: that the universal is limited by any and every particular, but any and every particular requires interpretation in the light of the universal.
Therefore, while the reader may not feel willing to take each step in the sequence of thought already developed, he will surely be willing to await for further development of the thought await for the universal, in other words, which shall make these
24 BAHAI
particulars clear. We must construct a preliminary dynamo in order to be able to observe the nature of Electricity, and the moment we have gained a better understanding of its nature, then we can go back and construct a better dynamo. What has been said so far is only the building of that prelimi- nary thought-dynamo to enable us to observe the nature of God. It has been made clear, at any rate, that the only true source for knowledge about God is the human soul and the purer the soul, the more perfect the knowledge.
Ill
"The source of all these utterances is Justice. It is the freedom of man from superstition and limitation that he may discern the Manifestations of God with the eye of one- ness, and consider all affairs with keen vision"
BAHA'O'LLAH.
Few people today would be surprised at learning that a new and revolutionary engine had been in- invented. Few would be surprised to hear that atomic energy had at last been reduced to practical service by means of some novel machine. But most people would smile with supreme incredulity if told that a Christ type of man were now alive upon this earth. It is easier to believe in that which con- sciousness can produce than to believe in that which
THE COSMIC TRINITY 25
consciousness can be. People still feel that the greatest cosmic forces are physical and blind, like Electricity, rather than spiritual and expressive of purpose, like Truth or Love.
The person who cannot find it possible to believe that any other person may possess a spiritual mechanism as far superior to his own as the electric dynamo is superior to the first laborious hand wheel that person, I sincerely believe, will not have read even this far in my book. For while I address the rational type of being, I address the reason which desires ever new and stronger inspira- tions, ever new and more valid evidences that the universe is a divine creation and not a helpless machine. I address the reason which having come thus far along the road of eternity, does not con- sider that he stands upon its ultimate summit, but discerns greater heights still ahead.
Therefore I feel it quite simple to mention the three cosmic types who have manifested divinely spiritual powers in this day. And I mention these three Manifestations of God only in the sincere en- deavor to arrive at a way of thinking or feeling which the reader himself will acknowledge is a valid proof of the claims of these Manifestations themselves. Once this quality of proof has been advanced, the reader is quite at liberty to use this very proof, or any other proof he may find avail- able, for denying that these Manifestations are in any wise different from himself. This book is a
26 BAHAI
search for Truth, a search for the very source of Truth, and not a polemic dogmatically insisting that this or the other is Truth,
The historical facts 1 at our disposal are as follows:
In 1844 a Persian named Mohammed Ali, then twenty-fou years old, announced publicly that he was the forerunner of a Manifestation who after a certain interval would declare himself to be that "Ancient," that "Lord," that "Alpha and Omega" foretold by all the prophets, and that from him would emanate a new cycle of Spiritual Civilization encircling and uniting the world. The character, actions and powers of Mohammed Ali are matters of accurate record, and since they are available else- where, need not enter the present bock.
Nineteen years later, in 1863, Hosein Ali, a Persian Prince of purest Aryan lineage, announced himself as that Manifestation declared by Moham- med Ali. The title by which Hosein Ali has since been known is that of BahaVllah, or The Glory of God. The title of Mohammed Ali is that of El Bab, meaning The Door, or Gate.
BahaVllah passed from the flesh in 1892, at the Turkish prison city of Acca, Palestine, leaving as the last of his works a Covenant or Testament, designating his eldest son, Abbas Effendi, as his spiritual successor among men, the person responsi-
*See chapter "Constructive Reading List"
THE COSMIC TRINITY 27
ble for, and able to carry on his function and pur- pose in the world. Since that date, Abbas Effendi has been known by the title of Abdul Baha, or Servant of the Glory.
From 1892 up to the present moment, Abdul Baha has remained at Acca or Haifa, Palestine, residing at the foot of Mount Carmel, except for the space of two years, 1911-1913, when he traversed Europe, Canada and the United States, delivering in daily public talks and innumerable private inter- views what is usually known as "The Bahai Mes- sage," but which Abdul Baha himself preferred to call the spirit of the age. 2 The substance of these public talks was a summons for Universal Peace, a summons to investigate the reality of the prin- ciples and claims of Baha'o'llah, a summons to pro- mote the oneness of mankind.
At the present moment reinforced daily by the realization that Abdul Baha is, if nothing more, yet at least the world's greatest statesman, its greatest economist, and its greatest spiritual teacher those words are being studied with new insight and appreciation throughout all parts of America and Canada by followers of this Revelation.
These followers are ordinarily designated as a de- tached interest under the name The Bahai Move- ment. The slightest appreciation of this Revelation, however, leads one to realize that the spirit of the
Sec chapter "The Spirit of the Age."
28 BAHAI
age cannot be thus conveniently confined. The slight Bahai organization 3 which exists is, in com- parison with the Revelation itself, only as body in comparison to soul. Obviously, the cosmically con- scious person of to-day cannot accept any arbitrary, limiting classification. The basic principle of Abdul Baha's teaching is: This is the Century of Spiritual Illumination. Its basic application is: Investigate Truth, Promote Peace, Proclaim the Oneness of Mankind.
In the remainder of this essay the attempt will be made to realize the cosmic significance of these three extraordinary beings.
IV
"Wherefore, 'when He appeared, the foundations of nations trembled, the learned were bewildered and the wise men were confounded, save those who came near unto Thee, took from the hand of Favor the pure wine of Thy inspiration, and drank in Thy name, saying: Praise be unto Thee, Desire of the nations! Praise be unto Thee, Beloved of the hearts of the yearning!" BAHA'O'LLAH.
As the will of a man cannot be accurately re- vealed by any one of his actions, but only by study- ing the curve of actions described by his life as a
'"The Bahai Movement is not an organization. You cannot organize the Bahai Movement. . . . The Bahai Movement is the spirit of this age." ABDUL BAHA.
THE COSMIC TRINITY 29
whole, so the Will of God, or if you prefer, cosmic Will, cannot be interpreted from any single event, nor from any series of events affecting one single area or portion of humanity; but that Will is re- vealed in its singleness, in its authority, in its grandeur and in its irresistible purpose, only in and through the entire historic sequence and develop- ment of mankind.
In passing, therefore, let us note well this other most significant condition arrived at by mankind now for the first time the condition of possessing at least an outline of human History, History valid for several thousand years and including something of the life which has been lived on all the continents and islands of the seven seas. For insofar as we can scrutinize that human History as a whole, to that extent, and only to that extent, do we have the right to claim that we at least hold in our grasp the only instrument really permitting us to begin investigating the divine or cosmic Will. He who would claim the right to define that Will from the History of one single race, or one single period, is as one who claims that he knows you and me per- fectly from knowing one hour of our lives, or that he knows the ocean because he has passed by one sheltered bay. Forgive them for they know not what they do! Surely, not cosmic Will, but merely tribal or personal wilfulness, is that self-glorifying and illogically exclusive 'purpose' we have hitherto made History yield. And, indeed, while our age
80 BAHAI
has opened up the book of human History for the first time, our readings so far only warn us that the most important item of our knowledge is the ad- mission of the far off cycles which we do not know! For while the mysterious thread of human record leads at last to the ape, it leads to an ape found playing in the ruins of a Temple more impressive than the glories which were Greece, or the grandeur which is Rome.
Therefore, as a source of knowledge about God, our fragments of History are worse than useless. From those fragments you may prove what you most care to prove. You may prove that every aspiration of the heart, every vision of the soul, has turned to dust and vanity; or you may prove that spiritual vision, right along, has guided, has strengthened, has rewarded the weary flesh of man.
Once more yea, once more, as you will find a thousand times repeated if you seek in ordinary human nature, in ordinary human knowledge, or in the physical universe, for some valid proof of God once more, consulting History itself, we meet only our own reflection in the glass of life, hear only our own echo flung back from the solitary mountain, once more find affirmation and denial locked in each other's arms as wrestlers perfectly matched.
But perhaps in this very fact lies the answer to the mystery. For there is in the movement of the earth about the sun a very similar moment of sus- pension a moment when, to some solitary watcher
THE COSMIC TRINITY 31
of the skies, it might well seem doubtful whether the earth's orbit was to straighten out in a line lead- ing it forever away from the sun, or once more turn the terrible elliptic curve bringing the earth back to warmth, to light, to life.
So, even though we do not possess the entire orbit of human History, we can at least hold it possible that a time like the present, when good and evil are so mysteriously matched, is a time corresponding to that moment in the movement of the earth. For mankind, clearly, so far as we can tell from the collective social will, is now perceptibly poised in that suspense which may mean regeneration, or may as readily mean eclipse.
Of itself, at that farthest point from the sun, the earth's momentum would impel it forever away into annihilating space. It is the sun's power, the sun's will, if we may call it so, which alone can overcome that momentum and restore the circle of the orbit of existence. Even so, by the authority of cosmic Will, has the evil momentum of the earth of con- sciousness, a momentum gathering greater and greater force through the ages, been overcome and turned back into the orbit of the Sun of Truth.
Conceive of that tremendous being, El Bab, as the Herald of cosmic Will. His appearance in the world at this time is to be interpreted as meaning that human consciousness had reached the farthest point from God; and by his Manifestation a force was established, working upon the souls of men,
32 BAHAI
summoning them back upon the path of light and defining for humanity its true orbit toward spiritual enlightenment. No other hypothesis worthily in- terprets the character and influence of El Bab even objectively the most impressive human being, in intuitive knowledge, in radiant love, in selfless sacrifice, in spiritual authority, who up to that mo- ment had trod this earth in all the moments of re- corded time. No other hypothesis, on the other hand, worthily interprets the character of events taking place throughout the world, renewing the life of the nations, since that hour of destiny, in 1844.
Far down beneath all our modern skepticism, our unmoral "enlightenment," our intelligent ma- terialism, that cosmic Love penetrated, laying the foundations of the New Age. In the sacrifice that Love consciously accepted, the long waiting of all the saints and martyrs was fulfilled. The Day of God for which they were constant witnesses, drew to its dawn.
Of El Bab, Baha'o'llah has said: "His station is greater than all the Prophets, and his mission loftier than the knowledge and comprehension of all the Holy Ones."
El Bab, like Abdul Baha, manifested from the Will which we call Baha'o'llah. For the sun does not draw near to the earth, but the earth draws near to the sun; and the Sun of Truth could not estab- lish effects upon the collective human conscious-
THE COSMIC TRINITY 33
ness until that consciousness had been prepared. The function of El Bab was to gather together and focus into one point the world's capacity to receive the cosmic Will. By his Manifestation the earth of consciousness was carried into the direct influ- ence of the Sun of Truth.
Like a flash of divine lightning the brief existence of El Bab came and went, a mystery and an amaze- ment to all people soever who looked upon that Love. Upon that Love the animal man directed its hate; but by his sacrifice the cosmic Purpose en- tered irrevocably into the life of the world. The effect of his Manifestation is concentrated into a single point, the first of the three cosmic Points which determine the plane of reality.
To that Point converged the History of all peo- ples, the progress of all nations. For this Point, Paul became a witness. For this Point, Plato be- came a witness. For this Point, the pyramids were measured, the Zodiac hung to girdle Time. Unto this Point, Daniel laid off the measure of the days. Unto this Point, Ezekial laid off the measure of the Temple. Luther testified unto this Point. Of this Point Buddha meditated under the tree of spiritual wisdom.
Before the emanation of this Point, History was naught but unintelligible chaos, without beginning, without ending, without purpose, without process, without form, without soul, save only as a secret to the few. After its emanation, History stands
34 BAHAI
clearly revealed, an orbit of the spiritual earth around the divine Sun. Ask of John, in the Apoc- alypse. Ask of Pythagoras, in the Tetrad. These and their peers from China to Yucatan arise to certify to him in whom the cosmic Will revealed the meaning of these days as the meeting of Science and Religion, henceforth forever inseparable, the stable and valid evidence of God in the creation of the world.
V
"The Sun of Truth is the Word of God, upon which depends the training of the people of the country of thought. It is the Spirit of Reality and the Water of Life. All things owe their existence to It. Its manifestation is ever according to the capacity and coloring of the mirror in which It may be reflected. For example: Its Light, when cast on the mirrors of the wise, gives expression to wisdom; when reflected from the minds of artists It produces manifestations of new and beautiful arts; when It shines through the thoughts of stu- dents, It reveals knowledge and unfolds mysteries"
BAHA'O'LLAH.
By this time, surely, we can pause a moment and appreciate the power of this modern terminology, this cosmic terminology and symbolism which serves to-day as the supreme, perfect vehicle of
THE COSMIC TRINITY 35
Truth. How much more impressive, how much more clear, how much more acceptable, is the in- terpretation of the mission of a spiritual being as the manifestation of the cosmic Love, turning back the earth of consciousness upon the true orbit, than the interpretation we had of John the Baptist as the inexplicable "forerunner" of Christ, when this same character and quality of events was enacted on a local scale!
Now we need not "accept" any being, in the sense of personal superstitious adoration and blind obedience rather is it our privilege to draw ever nearer and nearer the spiritual significance of the times in which we live. The "obedience," the "acceptance" required by cosmic Revelation is en- tirely a matter of response to the inspiration of new and perfected knowledge of God.
Thus, thanks to our cosmic terminology, we can realize in something of its fulness the meaning of the next act in the tremendous spiritual drama our age witnesses.
For, just as the phenomenal sun is, as compared to the phenomenal earth, ever poised in the same place, ever emanating the same degree of heat and light but the amount of that heat and light re- ceived by the earth is determined by the earth's own
* "Everything in the spiritual world corresponds to something in the world of nature. For example, electrical magnetism is the natural force which corresponds to the spiritual power, love."
ABDUL BAHA.
86 BAHAI
location with respect to the sun so the spiritual sun, the Sun of Truth, has ever been equally power- ful, equally valid, equally perceptible, equally cre- ative with respect to Its own capacity, but as re- gards the earth of consciousness Its Light has been received with varying fullness at various times. Our orbit has at times drawn near, and at other times turned away. God has been at one time a clear fact to human consciousness, but at another time been merely an empty term.
Therefore, when the cosmic Love had served to turn the earth of consciousness back into the orbit of approach from the orbit of recession, the cosmic Reality, 8 the cosmic Purpose, stood clearly revealed. In BahaVllah the Sun of Truth manifested the Glory of God, the supreme Divine Manifestation for this plane, sent forth its creative rays upon the earth of consciousness in their direct fullness, since now that earth has drawn again into the sphere of their cosmic influence. The winter of doubt has become the summer of assurance. The night of ignorance has become the dawn of wisdom around the entire world in the soul of man.
To understand somewhat of that Sun of Truth let us measure its power by the spiritual rays re- ceived by the earth of consciousness since 1863,
BahaVllah's Station is the station of: Be, and it is! Thus he laid down the creative principles, not as Knowledge, though in the form of knowledge, but as Will
THE COSMIC TRINITY 37
confirming the "great awakening" dated by the Manifestation of El Bab, in 1844.
Innumerable are the "rays" which even material- istic History must acknowledge have revealed their light and warmth in these past seventy or eighty years.
The uniformity of cosmic law has been estab- lished by rational science and philosophy. 6 Human slavery has been abolished. The long racial hope of the Jews approaches its magnificent realization. 7 Christian Science has grown to powerful propor- tions. 8 H. P. Blavatsky has transmitted from their secret hiding places the lost Esoteric Sciences. 9 The movement for World Peace is irrevocably be- gun an essential aspect of the rise of modern Industry. 10 Kings and emperors have lost their ancient and supreme thrones. The Pope has lost his temporal authority. Women have rapidly arisen to the station of perfect equality with men. Psychic Research has become an authoritative science. Submerged economic groups press determinedly on for their right to education, responsibility and recreation. As many more "rays" might be men- tioned. Enough, surely, have been mentioned to
See Appendix, under Science.
T See Appendix, Judaism.
'See Appendix, under Christian Science and New Thought.
Sec Appendix, under Theosophy.
"See Appendix, under Politics and Economics.
38 BAHAI
show clearly enough that the earth of consciousness has been bathed in the Light of some spiritual Sun.
Now comparatively few people, probably, regis- tered in full consciousness the First Point, the manifestation of Love. Probably few people have consciously registered the manifestation of divine Will, the Second Point, the "rising of the Sun of Truth" even though the evidences of that Sun are everywhere clear as day. So it might appear that nothing of all this Revelation has actually hap- pened: it might be merely the result of a general race evolution, a diffusion of new and superior knowledge from the operation of human will and human understanding alone.
Or so it might appear, at least, if we studied this miraculous situation from the point of view of any one "ray." The perfection of the objective sciences can be explained in terms of the intelligent efforts of certain men. Likewise the development of the woman's suffrage movement can be shown to derive from certain definite individual leaders. In exactly the same way, taking the rest of these extraordinary new manifestations of cosmic con- sciousness one by one, we can easily eliminate the divine element and base them upon the human element alone. But who would gain any slightest appreciation of the power of the physical sun if he shut himself within a darkened room and let that sun shine in upon him through the narrowest aper- ture, one ray at a time?
THE COSMIC TEINITY 39
It is because we have considered these modern .movements in that limited way, each separated from the others* all separated from the whole, that we have failed to recognize them as emanations from one Source, rays, as it were, cast by one and the same Sun of Truth. The darkness of our conscious- ness has limited the effects of that Divine Sun. But only let them pour in upon the soul collectively only emerge from that darkness of mind and heart only realize how in BahaVllah the Glory of their combined force and energy was manifested then their power will dazzle the mind. For these mighty and revolutionary social movements of the last and present generation are each but a single ray eman- ating from the Sun behind all the suns, the Sun of Righteousness, the Sun we call reverently The Glory of God.
Moreover, as our cosmic terminology makes so clear, the sun is not only limited by the relative position of the earth as a whole, it is also limited by the keenness of the individual person's eyes. If the eyes be blind, the brightest summer sun can pour down its mightiest light, yet to that sightless person no sun will nor ever can exist. The dead- ening of a single sensitive nerve center has the effect of shutting out the solar illumination on which an entire planetary system depends. How much more is the light of Truth made darkness and rejection by the deadening of the sensitive centers of the soul !
For those who have within them the eye of spirit-
40 BAHAI
ual vision, the cosmic power manifested in Baha'o'- Hah is perceptible enough. They carry in their own conscious souls the valid proof of God. They re- quire neither theology nor metaphysics, neither priest nor professor, to inform them that God is. They are themselves one with God, in the sense that the eye is one with the light that enters it.
Of such was that wonderful woman who arose in the night from her bed, moved by a force she could not explain, and wrote as from dictation that line which has become the freedom song of millions of people that line which then seemed metaphor, but now is fact: Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord! Aye, to the eye that is open comes its own beam of the revealing Sun. The Glory of God was known in its coming to every soul possessing the faculty of vision.
Of such was that other American, that Plato, eloquent in the eternal porticos of truth, Emer- son. In the very twilight of this Spiritual Day he discerned the imminent dawn. "But when a faith- ful thinker, resolute to detach every object from personal relations and see it in the light of thought, shall, at the same time, kindle science with the fire of the holiest affections, then will God go forth anew into the creation."
Discoverer in the West of the Oversoul, that state of supreme being which the East had known for ages under the misinterpreted name of Nirvana, Emerson seems now to have been the first man in
THE COSMIC TRINITY 41
whom ordinary people could see science and re- ligion met, blended and become one ; a faithful dis- ciple of cosmic Truth while yet that Truth was a sun unrisen to the sluggard consciousness of man. 11 Emerson, in fact, gives us the key with which science can unlock the mysteries of the cosmos, the key whose use is proof that the analogy employed in this book for the purpose of explaining the Cos- mic Trinity rests upon a foundation far more sub- stantial than metaphor or figure of speech: "Yet when this spiritual light shall have revealed the law of more earthly natures when he has learned to worship the soul, and to see that the natural philosophy that now is, is only the first gropings of its gigantic hand, he shall look forward to an ever expanding knowledge as to a becoming creator. He shall see that nature is the opposite of the soul, answering to it part for part. One is seal and one is print. Its beauty is the beauty of his own mind. Its laws are the laws of his own mind. Nature then becomes to him the measure of his attainments. ... In fine, the ancient precept Know thyself, and the modern precept Study nature, become at
last one maxim."
Of such, too, were many, many others in all parts of the world, each testifying in his own words
"Recall Walt Whitman's magnificent "1 am the acme of things accomplished, I the container of things to be!" For an impressive record of human progress during this time, read The Century of Hope, by F. S. Marvin, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
42 BAHAI
and from his own experience to the daylight that was beginning to flood the earth of consciousness.
There is no time nor need here to list them all. Baha'o'llah has said, "I have filled all the countries with My proofs, were ye of those who are just!'* Turn back yourself to the History of the Protestant Church, and realize how universal was the convic- tion that this was the "time of the end." No such trouble has fallen upon men's souls in our hemi- sphere since that "Gothic fear" descended upon Europe centuries ago, that fear of Judgment which thus negatively testified to the divine authority of Mohamet, whose shadows fell across these heedless lands. For that spiritual Sun, at each of its risings, is invisible to the physical eye. Its proofs are not manifest to those who look only with the animal mind.
Now as my purpose is only to suggest how per- fectly we may apply the new cosmic terminology to the understanding of this new cosmic Truth, I cannot pause here to mention any of the human and historical facts concerning Baha'o'llah, confirmative though they are of His Manifestation in the Orb of the Sun of Truth. To the objective conscious- ness Baha'ojlah was but a forty year's prisoner in a vile Turkish dungeon. Yet even this apparently impossible degradation of divine, or cosmic power, serves as a significant guide post in our inquiry after spiritual truth. For the physical destiny and circumstances of each of the world's Manifestations
THE COSMIC TRINITY 43
of God, each Christ, each Buddha, each Moses, is a perfect symbol of the spiritual condition of the world at the time and place He manifests. Christ was crucified because the soul's consciousness of love was then crucified in the majority of mankind. BahaVllah underwent this confinement to show us how vile is the confinement we ourselves have im- posed upon the Glory in our own souls. The utmost universality of power and truth and love is proved by the very outward physical humility which leads so many people to reject any and every Manifesta- tion of God.
For even from that prison, BahaVllah sent forth the Creative Word to all lands, an ocean of utter- ance containing what the cosmic Will has estab- lished as the reality of all things during the next universal cycle : the new Bible for the new, spiritu- ally conscious and united race.
VI
"The Word is the Fire of God which, glowing in the hearts of people, burns away all things that are not of God. The minds of the lovers are ever aflame with this fire. It is the essence of water, which has manifested itself in the form of fire. Outwardly it is the burning fire, while inwardly it is calm light. This is the Water that giveth Life to all things." BAHA'O'LLAH.
The heart of the race has carried up from very ancient times a most unusual association of ideas
44 BAHAI
with the rainbow. The rainbow, for apparently no good reason, has been considered a symbol of divine promise, a cosmic record of the Covenant of God with man.
This, with many other so-called "superstitions," has been rigorously explained away by modern physical science. The rainbow, declares the physi- cist, is nothing but the refraction of the sun's rays through myriad drops of water held in suspense by the earth's atmosphere. And so declaring, finding the rainbow nothing but a phenomenon which he himself can reproduce in his own laboratory, the physicist turns away to discuss more useful things.
But let us approach this apparently simple fact with the more sensitive apparatus provided by our cosmic terminology.
The sun, we know, shines upon the moon as brightly as upon the earth. But the moon is a dead planet, while the earth teems with every variety of life. What is the difference? Obviously, the one difference is that the earth has an atmosphere, while the moon has none. The earth's atmosphere trans- mutes the sun's rays its invisible heat rays into a quite different element from fire and air the new element water. Hence the rain which, act- ing in connection with the sun's light, germinates the seed which links together the mysterious chain of existence.
How does this apply to the Sun of Truth? How is this a proof of God?
THE COSMIC TRINITY 45
Let us realize how few people, comparatively speaking, can perceive Love directly as a light in the inmost heart. Few of us are as Emerson, able to discern the Sun about to arise in the twilight of morning stars. Cosmic Will and cosmic Love, so far, remain the bounty only of the chosen few. But let us now extend the influence of that cosmic Sun upon existence, just as we have already extended the action of the physical sun in its function of producing rain.
In Abdul Baha, according to our cosmic science, we have the Third Point, Knowledge, which to- gether with the Point of Love, and the Point of Will, determines the plane of consciousness.
Abdul Baha manifested to surround the earth of consciousness with a spiritual atmosphere. This atmosphere translates the Light of Truth into the Water of Life. 12 This atmosphere is the "Most Great Bounty," the "Mystery of God" making our modern Revelation entirely universal, a divine Cause raised above names and forms, destined to become the very foundation of human existence in all lands.
For here we return to that instinctive spiritual faith which has never entirely left the race, even under the scourge of famine, the catastrophe of
11 The Water of Life is that spiritual understanding by which man is able to grow conscious of cosmic Will, to live therefore according to his own cosmic Reality.
46 BAHAJ
flood, the abomination of war and the oppression of poverty. Like a seed buried deep in the earth of consciousness this faith that somehow, sometime, man was and once more will be divine this spirit- ual seed has persisted from generation to genera- tion, as potent in the heart of a savage as in the heart of a king, but a dry seed, an unfertilized seed, a seed hungering and thirsting for that Water of Life which should burst the seed open and disclose at last the flower of love and the fruit of perfection it always and forever contained. Thus is the rever- ence for the rainbow justified by this new cosmic science, since in the rainbow is the assurance of the rain, and in the rain is the assurance of the seed.
Think now of Abdul Baha not merely as the wisest being who ever walked among men not merely as the supreme visible exemplar of the power of unity so inexhaustible that it unites both East and West, both rich and poor, both black and white, both ignorant and learned in one outpouring devotion and inspiration think now of Abdul Baha as the manifestation of cosmic Knowledge, bringing to the earth of consciousness that surround- ing atmosphere able to transform the sterile moon of thought into a fertile world of joy, of peace, of true prosperity, of constant progress, of firmly knit co-operation and service which shall truly reveal God as the Lord of all.
In the words of Abdul Baha himself, "The con-
THE COSMIC TRINITY 47
firmations of the Spirit are pouring like spring rains upon all parts of the world."
And thus it is, since 1892, when Abdul Baha manifested this station of universal Knowledge, the Most Great Bounty, the human heart has re- vived, become more aware of its own divine possi- bilities, made terrific efforts to emerge from the prison of the seed into the freedom and beauty and fruitfulness of the tree. Religious prejudices have grown weaker. Class prejudices have grown weaker. That which was alien and unfriendly has more and more come to seem familiar and accept- able. Proposals like woman's political rights, a universal language, an international health bureau, have become vital problems instead of in com- parison with the past's five thousand years utterly unbelievable hopes. The entire political and eco- nomic structure of the world reels and staggers, conscious that some irresistible power is working to transform it from within. Proposals are made every day, proposals which imply knowledge of the laws of co-operation unimaginable even fifty years ago. Once again, new wine cannot be poured into the old containers.
On the other hand, we have just emerged from the World War. We have entered a period of deep-rooted economic disturbance. It is easier than ever before in modern times, perhaps, to banish hope and anticipate the reign of evil.
Does our cosmic terminology, our scientific anal-
48 BAHAI
ogy, answer this difficult objection? Indeed, it answers this objection as clearly as it answered the objection of the person who could not realize the Sun because of his own blinded vision.
For the bounty of the rain, likewise, is condi- tional upon a human factor: the cultivation of the soil. There are stony places, desert places, where the rain falls but these places bloom not. But if the Divine Seed was deposited in every human heart at the beginning of the world, it was laid there with this warning: Cursed is the soil for thy sake; in toil shall thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; in the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread.
Idlest of child legends to those who refer these words to material earth, to material bread, to men of insight who know instinctively that earth of con- sciousness, and bread of spiritual understanding was designated by this cosmic symbolism, the words are significant now above all ancient Words. For how and why do some deny spiritual truth, unless they have failed to " toil" faithfully upon the earth of consciousness in time or times past, have failed to keep out the thorns and thistles, that the divine seed might grow? And how and why do others, though so few, turn faithfully to every Manifesta- tion of God as he appears, unless these few have toiled, have cultivated, have eaten of the bread that nourishes and strengthens the soul?
THE COSMIC TRINITY 49
On the whole, has that warning been heeded? Yet how can the water of Life penetrate and burst open the divine seed where the soil has not been cultivated, where the thistles are, the thistles and the stones?
So, clearly, God is to the man of insight. God is to the man of conscious aspiration, though that man be the poor fisherman or the untutored shep- herd. Can' God be to him who has neither insight nor aspiration? The Light of Truth shines upon him in vain. The Water of Life descends upon him in vain. Thus will religion continue to be the reality of the few, the supersition of the many, as religion hitherto has always been?
If we accept the cosmic significance of the divine Will, the Will drawing the earth of consciousness back into the orbit of Reality, we can admit no obstacle in human will strong enough to negate God's purpose with His own creation. So we may look further and realize another cosmic mystery at work the mystery of pain.
Abdul Baha has declared that every man must accept his life with radiant acquiescence. How can this be, if life is so much pain: pain of sickness, pain of misfortune, pain of loneliness, pain of mis- understanding, pain of frustration, pain of old age, pain of death?
But let us not regard pain any longer from the personal point of view, the point of "new of animal self-preservation. Cosmically, pain is the plow
60 BAHAI
that cultivates the neglected earth of consciousness. Pain accomplishes for a man that which he himself has neglected. Pain opens the earth of conscious- ness that the Divine Seed may be fertilized by the Water of Life. Pain clears away ruthlessly the thorns and thistles that choke the life of the grain whose fruit is the bread of knowledge. Pain is the last and supreme manifestation of cosmic mystery in the world of man that mystery that even the animal man, even the perverted man, even the in- tellectualist, hard and unyielding as granite, can and shall eventually acknowledge in himself, by himself, for himself that verily there is no God save He!
So it is we cannot, we who grow aware of this cosmic Trinity, cannot join with those who declare that pain and poverty are mere errors of "mind." Knowing that pain and poverty are unrealities for him who has truly attained the fulness of spiritual rebirth and maturity, we yet for ourselves still accept pain in humility as a sign that the earth of consciousness still requires cultivation. Not by the measure of our own will, but by the measure of the cosmic Will, do we desire our lives to be ordered. How can we tell how much we have failed to hus- band the Divine Seed? How can we tell how much the earth of consciousness requires cultivation? Is not any and all self-satisfaction the evidence of spiritual death? Therefore is pain in each and every form a cosmic index, referring each and every
THE COSMIC TRINITY 51
man to the full measure of the possibility of his further progress.
And this plow of pain drives deep furrows across the world to-day. The War was such a plowing. The economic crisis is such a plowing. Those who in good times and easy circumstances would make no slightest effort to investigate cosmic Reality, but would be content with animal reality they are being driven, step by step, to a point where they perforce needs make a new and positive inquiry of themselves and the cosmos in which they live. 18 For the all-dominant Will has been established: "I will that My Light be perfected." The innate virtues of man are now to appear man's true station is to become manifest.
VII
"The greatest attainment of man is universal love, for this love is the magnet which renders existence eternal, attracts the powers of reality, and suffuses life with infinite joy. If this love penetrates the heart of man, all the forces of the universe will be realised in him, for it is a divine power which endows him with a divine station; and man will make no real
11 "All the people of the world are in the sleep of negligence. They have forgotten God altogether. They are all busy in war and strife. They are, undergoing misery and destruction. Like unto loathsome worms, they are trying to lodge in the depths of the ground, while a single flood of rain sweeps all their nest and lodging away. Never- theless they do not come to their senses." ABDUL BAHA.
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progress until he is illumined with this love . . . Alas, alas! the world has not yet discovered the reality of religion hidden beneath the symbolic forms. 1 " ABDUL BAHA.
We all recognize the physical law that a limb or faculty develops through exercise, but atrophies through neglect or non-exertion or indifference. This simple principle may now be restated as fol- lows: that a limb or faculty must give out all the energy it receives, or else the supply of energy will be cut off. So stated, it is easy to perceive that this law is the very foundation of that new instinct now arising throughout the world, that new instinct or attitude we call " service."
The instinct to heed the call to service is thus an unconscious recognition that only "service" gives out spiritual energy (conscious love) in a manner which keeps open the sources of that energy. For every service implies at least a small degree of self-forgetfulness, or severance from the physical personality, and unbars the door to cosmic force.
Looking at this fact from a more general point of view, another condition also appears: namely, that service tends to realize on the visible material plane a condition perfectly reflecting the cosmic force the service derives from. And when such conditions are realized, then proofs of the advantage of so doing are established which not only reinforce the doer's own efforts, but bring to his efforts the services of others who have been stirred and at-
THE COSMIC TRINITY 53
tracted by those proofs. It is the old story over again, of building a dynamo to study the Elec- tricity, and then from the new facts about Elec- tricity thus acquired, of building a new and superior dynamo.
The dynamo as it were which both draws upon and, at the same time, permits more understanding of cosmic Reality, is the spiritualized human con- sciousness. But one consciousness by itself, in its effects upon the world, is a small and weak dynamo, while unity is the most tremendous dynamo that can be imagined.
Therefore Abdul Baha defines the great cosmic law of spiritual growth in a twofold form. He says that cosmic Reality unfolds in a life to the degree that a life functions service; 14 and he says that the greatest possible service any life can render is to assist in the promotion of human unity and solidarity to break down the present barriers of creed, race, class and language: which is to promote the Divine. Civilization.
The declaration that a Divine Civilization can and will be established by the collective efforts of the leaders of mankind at its present cycle is the all-
14 "There is no such thing as self-development; the power of the Spirit only comes through serving others. . . . To-day if you teach a person, it is as though you had resurrected a dead soul into life. It is as though you had changed stone into a diamond. It is as though you had transmuted metals into gold, devils into angels, or animals into men.'* ABDUL BAHA.
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inclusive principle, the most abundant inspiration, derived from a study of the works of BahaVllah and Abdul Baha. Not that they deem the earth- life the real existence of man, but that they lay down the basic axiom, "all progress of the Spirit is made on this plane/' 15
This Divine Civilization a social order per- fectly reflecting cosmic Reality instead of the animal reality is the gift or service, however, of our advanced, cosmic souls to those souls still im- mersed in physical self. It is not the triumph of human will for human will has already proved itself the destroyer and not the creator of Civiliza- tion. It is the healing which the enlightened souls are to provide for those still bewildered by pain. It is the responsibility of enlightened souls their cosmic payment, as it were, for the bounty they themselves have received through the continual sacrifice undertaken by the divine Manifestations.
""In the beginning of his life man was in the matrix of the world. There he obtained capacity and preparation for this world. ... In this world he needs eyes: he received them potentially in the other world. He needs ears therefore he obtained them in the world of the matrix. . . . When man came to this world he found all the necessary forces ready, all his needs for material sustenance provided. Likewise in this world also he must prepare himself and become ready for the life hereafter. That which he needs in the world of the Kingdom he must obtain here. . . . In that world there is need of radiance, therefore radiance must be acquired in this world. In that world spirituality, faith, assurance, the knowledge and love of God are essential These he must acquire here." ABDUL BAHA.
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For it is only reasonable to suppose that what we have called "The Cosmic Trinity" corresponds to a threefold spiritual reality in man, in ourselves.
Now man has usually been described as a trinity of soul, mind and body. This "triangle" is known and accepted as the reality of man throughout the world. But in the statements of Abdul Baha the statements defining what has been established as human reality for the present new cycle the trinity mind, soul and body is changed to a higher trinity soul, mind and spirit.
The physical body, in other words, is no longer to be accepted as establishing any aspect or portion of the reality of man. It now becomes for man merely the vehicle, the dry husk, in which the essen- tial spiritual fruit ripens. Therefore Abdul Baha has said: "Live in the body as if you had no body."
Let us determine the positive meaning in these words. From now on, 16 the physical life of emotion, and that low thought which is the slave of emotion, has been relegated to a lower world, the world of the non-cosmic perishable man. To-day the cosmic world is the only world habitable by that order of being worthy the title man.
"During a cycle, so far as the whole race is concerned, of be- tween four and five hundred thousand years: the interval, according to Abdul Baha, between two Universal Manifestations. Approxi- mately four hundred thousand years, then, is the difference between the truly cosmic man and the animal man who is the average to-day. "Time is the distance between two states of consciousness."
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But it is impossible to imagine existence in any of the worlds of God without something correspond- ing to the physical body in the animal world. What, then, is to be termed the "body" fit for existence in cosmic reality, when this flesh body dies? From other statements of Baha'o'llah and Abdul Baha, I take it to be individualized cosmic consciousness a body or vehicle composed of abstract, impersonal, spiritualized thought, the kind of thought which constitutes the true meditative faculty.
For it is by meditation 17 that the mind turns from physical desire and the thoughts emanating from physical desire, and gradually creates a new thought-body from the conscious substance (the "radiance") of which the cosmic world is composed.
The condition is clearly stated by Abdul Baha, and can be summarized as follows: a mineral ele- ment cannot rise above the mineral plane unless assimulated by a vegetable organism. A vegetable element cannot rise above the vegetable plane un- less assimulated by an animal organism. An animal element cannot rise above the animal plane unless assimulated by a human being. The human being is composed of the three lower planes or kingdoms, with their attributes, plus a new attribute, in- tellect or reason. Even as such, the human being is entirely mortal until assimulated into the next
XT "You cannot apply the name man to any being devoid of this faculty of meditation." ABDUL BAHA. (See Chapter, Two Bahai Document*.)
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higher plane, or cosmic plane, or plane of Reality. But man cannot ascend into this plane of his own effort any more than a mineral element can become vegetable of its own effort, or an animal element can become human of its own effort. Abdul Baha says: "All phenomena can be divided into two classes, that which eats and that which is eaten." Now the Body, as it were, into which the human being must be assimulated in order to become spiritual and immortal, is Divine Love. But Divine Love is only brought to man by the Mani- festations of God. It is through faith in the Mani- festations of God that man becomes immortal, at- tains Reality and through these alone 18 . Imagine a world without animals : in that world a vegetable element could never ascend. In the same way, a world without the Manifestation of God is a world in which man could never ascend. Man would be no more than a "thinking animal," inconstant, un- real, perishable. The sacrifice by which the Higher takes on the flesh of the lower, bringing to man the opportunity of being assimulated into that Higher, is the "Way," the "Truth" and the "Life." To reject that Manifestation is to reject Life. Hence
M "Certain people believe that the virtues of humanity are obtain- able through personal capacity alone, but it is evident that unless the Divine Grace descends, no fruit will be produced/' ABDUL BAHA. But on the cosmic plane, faith is not a form of obligation it is the supreme privilege. Faith is to the soul as sunlight to the flower, as ocean to the fish. True faith is that consciousness which accompanies love.
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do the Manifestations come in each cycle, and come again and again, that all men may have the oppor- tunity of choice, of exercising free will. He who desires immortality may have it ; and he who desires it not will never have it thrust upon him ! In Abdul Baha's words: "All is subject to generation, cor- ruption, disintegration and change, except the spirit of faith, which hath both restitution and re- turn." In other words, the physical act of eating, whereby animal becomes man, merely reflects the Manifestation's devotion to man, or the desire to elevate man; and on the part of man himself, faith in the Manifestation is equivalent to the "being eaten" which elevates man.
The parable of the new wine that cannot be poured into old bottles has two meanings, an outer meaning and an inner meaning. The outer mean- ing is that each successive Revelation brings into the world a spiritual power whose expression re- quires new social institutions; whence the disinte- gration of society, and its consequent integration on a higher plane, with every divine Prophet.
But facts apply outwardly merely because they first apply to the spiritual constitution of man him- self. Thus the real meaning of the above parable is that the Creative Word cannot be contained in the human being as the human being is in his phys- ical state. The "old bottle" is man himself, until man has transferred his consciousness from the physical plane of emotional brain-consciousness to
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the real human plane of intuitional mind-con- sciousness.
Now while the purpose of this book is strictly limited to the one intention of indicating where the Truth may be found, for those who desire to find the Truth, something may perhaps be added here concerning the real, essential nature of man and the true relation between man and what we call the Prophet, Manifestation or Master.
In the same way as the parable of the new wine has two meanings, so there are two meanings in the idea of the "seven days of creation." The outer meaning here is that of seven cycles but time, on the spiritual plane, always indicates states of consciousness or being. Thus the inner significance of the seven creational days is that man is composed of seven aspects or principles, one aspect or prin- ciple predominating in each cycle.
As man appears to-day, he is manifesting the fourth aspect or principle the aspect which is midway between the two extremes.
That is, below man there are three planes or kingdoms mineral, vegetable and animal and above man there are likewise three planes or king- doms. 19 Man has passed upward in his physical consciousness and identity through the three lower kingdoms, and is a synthesis of the qualities of
l Abdul Baha calls them The Supreme Concoiufce, the Abha King- dom, and Christ's House of Many Mansions,
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mineral, vegetable and animal. Man's intelligence is the "meeting place" of four "realities:" mineral, vegetable, animal and rational human. But man has potentially another consciousness, the "heart consciousness," which is the "meeting place" of four very different "realities:" the spiritual human, the lowest of the four, and three others to which the spiritual human state leads.
Functioning as he is midway between the two extremes of spirit and matter, with consciousness habitually turned downward to the three lower king- doms, man of himself cannot ascend into his own divine Reality save through what Abdul Baha calls the "spirit of faith."
The manner in which the spirit of faith faith in the Manifestation of God causes man to ascend from the natural to the spiritual conscious- ness, will appear from Abdul Baha's analogy: "Compared to the vegetable kingdom, the mineral kingdom is dead, but a mineral element ascends to the vegetable condition when consumed by a vege- table organism. Compared to the animal kingdom, the vegetable kingdom is dead, but a vegetable ele- ment ascends to the animal condition when con- sumed by an animal organism. Compared to the human kingdom, the animal kingdom is dead, but an animal element ascends to the human condition when consumed by a human organism. In the same way, the human kingdom is dead compared to the spiritual kingdom, but a human being ascends to
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that spiritual kingdom when consumed by the fire of the love of God." This being "consumed" is, for man, dependent on his own volition, for alone of the visible creation, man has free will.
But the Manifestation of God, who comes to this plane in order to awaken in man this spirit of faith, this fire of the love of God, does. not represent an arbitrary external force or principle, but on the contrary, what the Manifestation makes manifest is man's own spiritual Reality. BahaVllah says: "Whosoever knows himself, knows his Lord." When one becomes obedient to the Prophet, one becomes obedient to one's own higher Self. 20
In man to-day, therefore, as always, there is potentially a thought-body suitable to embody the perfections which the Manifestation discloses. This thought-body is the "new bottle" and these perfec- tions are the "new wine." This spiritual body is not given to man merely as the consequence of physical death, but man acquires it only as the re- sult of his own voluntary dying in the physical self and rebirth in the spiritual Self.
Consequently the physical personality which is not "consumed by the fire of the love of God' 9 has no immortality, for man is as the animal plus reason, and reason in itself has no immortal essence.
* "Until man knows God he is deprived of knowing himself, for man must first comprehend the Light of the Sun, and through the Light witness himself. Without light, nothing is seen."
ABDUL BAHJL
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Reason is but the instrument by which the will can select that which it prefers to obey nature or God.
Evolution, to be understood, must be traced in two separate lines: the evolution of spirit down- ward, and the evolution of matter upward. 21 These two lines meet in man when man by the spirit of faith raises himself from the animal condition to the true human condition. Spirit evolves downward in order to acquire identity. Matter evolves up- ward in order to establish this identity for spirit. Thus the man who undergoes "rebirth" has carried identity to the plane of Reality, whereby he becomes immortal in that identity. The life not accomplish- ing this essential purpose of existence is not lost as to Reality, but is lost as to its own personality for personality is the negative pole of identity. The non-spiritualized personality disintegrates, where- upon the Reality continues its evolution through a new physical vehicle. The popular idea of "Reincarnation" is untrue, because it glorifies the physical personality. On the other hand, a con- tinuity does exist from personality to personality, but it exists entirely from and in the spiritual Self.
a "There is reincai nation of matter, and there is reincarnation of spirit Reincarnation of matter is the process whereby matter is developed or evolved through its service as the substance of series of developing material forms. Reincarnation of spirit is the pro- cess whereby spirit develops or evolves through its association with these forms. . . . The evolution of spirit proceeds co-ordinately with the evolution of matter." ABDUL BAHA.
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It is this continuity absolutely unknowable to our physical, personal consciousness which de- termines every man's character and experience in accordance with his own (spiritual) Will. Thus there is no injustice in the world, since each of us suffers or enjoys that which each one requires in ac- cordance with his own volitional destiny. But this aspect of existence, in the Bahai Teaching, is con- stantly merged into another aspect: the oneness of humanity.
This question of immortality before as well as after physical existence on this planet is significantly handled by Abdul Baha in the following brief ex- planation. "These spirits (vegetable, animal and human) are not reckoned as Spirit in the termi- nology of the Scriptures and the usage of the people of Truth, inasmuch as the laws governing them are the same as the laws which govern all other phenom- enal being with respect to generation and corruption and change and reversion, as is clearly indicated in the Gospel where it says 'Let the dead bury their dead/ 'That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit/
"In brief, for these three spirits there is no restitu- tion or return, but they are subject to reversion and generation and corruption.
"But the Spirit of Faith, which is of the kingdom of God, consists of the all-comprehending grace and the perfect attainment, the power of sanctity and the divine effulgence from the Sun of Truth on
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luminous, light-seeking essences, from the presence of Divine Unity. And by this Spirit is the life of the spirit of man, when it is fortified thereby, as Christ (to whom be Glory!) saith: 'That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit/ And this Spirit hath both restitution and return, inasmuch as it consists of the light of God and the unconditioned grace. So, having regard to this state and station, Christ announced that John the Baptist was Elias 'who was for to come' before Christ. And the likeness of this station is as of lamps lighted one from an- other: for these, in respect to their glasses and oil- holders, are different, but in respect to their light, One, and in respect to their illumination, One nay, each is identical with the other, without impu- tation of plurality, or diversity, or multiplicity, or separateness.
"This is the truth, and beyond the truth there is only error/'
Baha'o'llah says: "In this valley (plane of spiritual development) through absolute vision, a traveler does not see in God's creation any differ- ence or contradiction. . . . He will see justice in injustice, and witness grace in justice; he will find many a knowledge concealed in ignorance and realize a hundred thousand wisdoms, manifest and evident, in knowledges. He will break the cage of body and desire, and be attached to the spirit of the people of immortality. ... If he experi- ences any oppression he will endure it with patience,
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and if he sees any wrath he will show forth affec- tion. . . . As the travelers in the Garden of Knowledge see the end from the beginning, they therefore find peace in war and reconciliation in estrangement! . . .
"He sees no commendation, name or dignity of himself; he sees his own commendation in the com- mendation of the True One, and beholds the Name of the True One in his own name. . . .
"All the differences which the traveler sees in the world of Being, during the various stages of his journey, are due to the vision of the traveler himself.
"Consider the phenomenal sun which shines forth on all existent and contingent beings with the same effulgence, and pours light upon all things by the command of the King of Manifestation. But its appearance in every place, and the light it sheds thereon, is in accord with the degree of the capacity of that place. For instance in a mirror it reflects as forms and disks, and this is due to the clearness of the mirror itself. It creates fire in the crystal, while on other things only the effect of its reflection is manifest and not its disk ; and through that effect, it develops everything according to the capacity of that thing, by the command of the Causer of effects, even as you see. . . . And if the place is confronted by an obstacle, such as walls or ceiling, that place is entirely bereft of the splendor of the sun, and the sun does not shine thereon.
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"Thus, some of the weak souls, having enclosed the earth of Knowledge within the wall of self and desire, and within the veil of heedlessness and blind- ness, are therefore screened from the effulgence of the Sun of Significances and the mysteries of the Eternal, Beloved One. . . . This is the state of the people of the age!
"It is due to such a view of things that conflict is stirred up among mankind, and a gloomy dust arising from men of limitation, has enveloped the world. . . . Mysteries are many, and strangers are countless. Knowledge is but one point, but the ignorant have multiplied it."
Thus we perceive the final meeting of Science and Religion in the Universal Manifestation of Baha'o'llah, perfected in the devotion of Abdul Baha the final meeting of those two streams of aspiration and consciousness, the two streams that came down through the Saviors on one side, and through the so-called "Mysteries" on the other. Up to this very day, The Day of God, the two streams have flowed in separate channels as separate experiences, separate purposes, separate obliga- tions, separate organizations, except for the very, very few. Paul of Tarsus is an example of a man who bridged the chasm between Occult Science and Divine Revelation. Bruno is another example. Paracelsus is another. And now the two streams are met and flow together in perfect solution for those who know! throughout all time.
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To-day, therefore, we may presuppose a kind of being who functions on the plane of Reality, while still inhabiting the flesh. Such a person will move among men possessed of a power they can neither comprehend, control nor oppose. As imagination and reason transcend bodily arms and legs, encom- passing the world and affecting nations, so are the limbs of the thought-body in their influence upon mankind. 22
It is by such men and women that the Divine Civilization will be established in the human world. It is to awaken those who are even now such men
""The highest expression of the life of man on this planet in this age and many ages to come is Celestial: that is, to live and act in accord with the teachings of Baha'o'llah and be steadfast in the love of Abdul Baha. The principles of the Religion of the Blessed Perfection adorn the spirit with the highest attributes of the Kingdom of Abha, illumine the heart with the Sun of the love of God, make him a servant of the world of humanity, a standard bearer of Universal Peace, and an orb shining from the heaven of righteousness.
"He forgets himself and lives in the flow of the love of the True One. He embraces all mankind with an ineffable tenderness, and strives night and day to serve his fellowman. He becomes a herald of the Supreme Concourse and wins the good pleasure of the Lord of Hosts. He will be attracted with the love of the Beloved, and immerse his whole being in the ocean of humility and meekness. He will enlist himself in the army of human progress and limitless advancement of the race. Through his zeal, he will sacrifice every- thing in the path of God, and quaff from the chalice of eternal life.
"This is fche most glorious Bounty of this age. This is the bestowal of the Bahai Circle (round of spiritual evolution). This is the light that illumines every heart. This is the water that allays every thirsty one, the Divine Elixir that changes man into the image and likness of Almighty God." ABDUL BAHA.
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and women in latency that the Manifestation of God has appeared at the present time, establishing the Spiritual World in this world, and summoning the Spiritual Race to raise up a Divine Civilization.
Not for themselves will the Divine Civilization be established, not for their own comfort, nor ease, nor well being, nor glory, nor reward but it will be established by them in full consciousness that they are serving the Will, the Knowledge and the Love already since the eternity of eternities so abundantly serving them.
Yes, the final proof of God, the proof which not even the sensualist or the sceptic can deny, is the evidence furnished by Divine Civilization. Here at last, in a visible world order where Light brings more material well being than Darkness, where Love succeeds in every task at which Hate has failed here at last we have a proof valid even at the bottom of the arc of descent; 28 a proof accept- able to those who still derive their reality from the natural, or material world. These are they who still gaze downward into the world of animal and mineral wealth. God or the cosmic Reality we have learned to recognize through His Manifesta- tion God cannot penetrate to their dense material world. Therefore those men and women who have, while still physically members of that world, at-
* "Mankind has reached the bottom of the arc of descent and has begun to rise upon the arc of ascent" ABDUL BAUA.
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tained to the use of cosmic powers, are alone able to establish spiritual causes whose effects are per- ceptible in the cloudy mirror, self.
To such people, life is no longer as a toy for the idle, a prize for the ambitious, an experiment for the speculative, an affliction to the weak, or an opiate for the fool. In every atom, even to the reach of the farthest stars, the universe has been trans- figurated where there was space, there is Will; where there was time, there is Attainment. Theirs is an intelligible Mystery, the unity of all things in the creative plan of God. Theirs is a Redemp- tion acceptable to reason, in that all things are intervals upon the one sublime Path. In man and without, they read the eternal symbols understand- ingly, in the Light of the rays of the Sun of Truth.
For them, the pyramid of society built up of stone and steel by the animal man has dissolved like a mirage or a dream. Quietly, calmly, without vio- lence, they prepare to overcome violence by the un- tried weapon of faith. From country to country, from race to race, from class to class like the reflec- tion of swift light, their mutual recognition bands them into an army which shall conquer the world. This is the Day of God. This is the day when that which is physical yields to that which is cosmic. This is the day when self-centered interests lose their age-long control. Religions shall be united in this day. Nations shall find harmony in this day. By the realization that work is a form of prayer,
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an aspect of devotion as well as service, shall the chains of economic servitude and helplessness in this day at last be broken. By the realization that prayer brings the true wealth the enrichment of the spirit, the consciousness of the mind shall brotherhood at last be brought to reign.
Around the life and teachings of Abdul Baha the world's spiritual forces gather perceptibly day by day. Here at last the world has one collective center which is truly neutral to all personal or group interests, truly responsive to all interests awake to the welfare of all. By word and by deed his miracles are daily performed: the healing of the soul's blind- ness, and the raising of those spiritually dead. He alone is able to reconcile divergent theories, as con- flicting wills; able to unify separate traditions, as separate aims; able to interpret different truths, as different garments which the one Truth has as- sumed.
Time, that heals the wounds of war, though it brings a new and more grevious hurt, has never healed the inner pain of doubt by which man is tormented, a Daniel flung in the den of his own reckless will. Even this source of all hurt the cleavage between thought and will, dream and deed Abdul Baha removes. He is that mirror wherein every man may see reflected his own perfection, but reflected for the first time in the image of all man- kind. He is that mirror wherein science and re- ligion, economics and government, action and phil-
THE COSMIC TRINITY 71
osophy shine radiantly forth, in one augmented likeness and form. He is that mirror that turns equally to the East and the West; equally to man and woman; equally to here and hereafter.
Few of those whose lives have touched this life for a single hour have remained unchanged. By his Manifestation it is possible to realize through logic as through faith, that a heart of man can be the temple in which the unknowable God can dwell and be known. For of that Cosmic Trinity this Point is the point of fulfilment, the meeting of universal Purpose with the upturned mind of man. Love, Will and Knowledge: these that were Three are One.
"Abdul Baha, the Servant of Baha, has clad Himself in the mantle of Servitude and Devotion, for the beloved of El-Baha; truly, this is a Great Victory!"
This is the Message which is "pervading the universe" where the soul lives. This is the awaken- ing of those who still slumber on the "couch of negligence." This is the meaning of that spirit of the age at whose touch thrones topple, armies move, sciences change, nations struggle, past cycles are revealed and future cycles unfolded. This is the Command breathed into the organized social world, whereby old ties dissolve, old superstitions weaken, old fears vanish, old customs pass forever away. This is the Summons heard by all of pure heart and visioning mind, whereby they depart from that old
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attachment which is physical, and being physical is dead, and enter into this new Cause, sons and daughters of the One God, brothers and sisters in the One Humanity spiritualized mankind.
For these pure hearts and visioning minds know that in the Seed of Faith lies latent the Tree of Knowledge, in the Eye of Wisdom falls the Light of Love. Like the sun in the skies of March, they recognize and hail the renewing power of the Sun of Truth in this universal spiritual springtime. They behold everywhere the cultivation of the earth of consciousness. Everywhere they feel the soft, descending rain of Confirmation by which the soul's long winter is at last destroyed from the entire sur- face of the world.
"We beg of God that we may partake of this life-giving Water of Heaven and quaff from the Spiritual Chalice of repose, and thus be free from all that tends to withhold us from approaching His Love. Glory be upon the people of Glory!"
BAHA'O'LLAH.
"If God had not filled His Servant with His Love, Love would never have been realized in the creation. All is therefore from Him, and is His man in himself possesses nothing. But the rays of Love having shone from the True One to the crea- tion, the great signs thereof are imprinted upon clear and luminous hearts; and as these mirror- hearts meet, reflecting this sublime light, Love, it becomes manifest from creature to creature. For God hath put harmony in their hearts"
ABDUL BAHA.
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO CHRISTIANITY
Nowhere in the world to-day is such reverence paid to Christ, such devotion felt for the spirit of Christ, such fidelity of thought and action rendered the teachings of Christ, as among those who have earned the right to call themselves Bahais followers of Abdul Baha.
The question which so naturally arises among people born and reared in the Christian tradition: what is the relation between the Bahai Movement and Christianity? has its answer, both logical and satisfactory to the loyal Christian.
Abdul Baha makes us realize the universality of truth, of power and of love which manifested in Jesus as the Christ, the logos or the Word of God. Universal in itself, eternal and unchanging on the plane of spirit, that Revelation was nevertheless necessarily limited in its outer expression and influ- ence by the conditions of the environment and age. We must accordingly perceive Christianity in a dual aspect: one aspect, the spiritual, being eternal; the other aspect, the action of the first upon the world, being subject to change. The one represents Reality, the other represents human belief, human activity, human emotion.
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THE BAHAJ MESSAGE TO CHRISTIANITY 75
Therefore, if we could rise to the plane of abso- lute universality, we should transcend the limited effects of that Revelation, and understand its time- less and placeless cause. We should learn to dis- tinguish more and more clearly between loyalty to and knowledge of the Christ, and loyalty to and knowledge of the humanized institutions called Christianity. The soul cannot accept the Christ the spirit of love and a man-made doctrine and ritual which Jesus never dreamed of at the same time. While the name "Christianity" apparently includes and reconciles both these extremes, as a matter of fact it does not. In moments of vital decision, one consciously or otherwise accepts the one and rejects the other, for they are irreconcilable; even as are claims of body and soul.
What Abdul Baha has accomplished for his Christian followers is to make real once more the divine outpouring of love which the Christ mani- fested but the world has obscured. It is as though we stood once more among those who heard the Sermon on the Mount, and were penetrated by that innate, creative Word all the dreary conflicts of the creeds and churches forgotten, the accumulated philosophies and doctrines swept away, the sacra- ments unwanted in the presence of that which is Sanctity itself.
But this time, happily, the renewal of the Word finds mankind better prepared to understand its eternal validity and its universal application. We
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can accept to-day a re-statement of Love which in- cludes all humanity. We can accept a message about God which demands not blind obedience, irre- spective of reason, but conscious co-operation, in- spiring the mind to its very limits of capacity. We can understand a teaching which brings the spirit of democracy into religion, making all men and women equal in privilege even as they are equal in responsibility/
As 'a matter of fact, Hie inmost purpose of the New Testament is to establish a standard of truth by which men might guide their lives and discrim- inate between spiritual and material influences. The New Testament developing the theme of the Old Testament is a preparation for the Day of God. What is Resurrection, if not resurrection from the grave of the flesh into the heaven of con- scious spiritual knowledge? What is Judgment, if not that daily sorting out of the materially minded from the pure hearted people which results from the conscious and unconscious preferences of each? The Bahai Movement comes at the end of a long historic cycle, fulfilling the inner aspirations of the pure, and in doing so, denying the claims of the worldly. In the words of Abdul Baha: "This Cause is the same as the Cause of Christ, but re- vealed in accordance with the maturity of the world."
The existence of humanity at this hour is in great langer. The universal authority of love a&
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO CHRISTIANITY 77
the basis of human life political, economic and scientific as well as moral has been denied through ages and cycles. We perceive the effects of this denial throughout the world to-day. Some point of collective unity and harmony there must be. Some standard of Reality there must be. Some nucleus of sacrifice and service there must be.
It is the utmost hope of every Bahai that the message of love may be spread throughout the world, reconciling the nations, the classes and the creeds; and that the Covenant of God be remem- bered, the promises of God recalled, the principles of God comprehended, the knowledge of God sought as the treasure of life and the purpose of existence. "For there shall come a famine upon the land ; a famine not of bread nor of water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord."
Baha'o'lloh wrote a separate Tablet to each of the world's great religions. From the Tablet ad- dressed to the Christians I quote these passages:
"Say: O Concourse of the Son! Are ye hidden from Myself because of My Name? What maketh ye to doubt? Ye have called for your Lord, the Self-Dependent, night and day and when He hath come from the Heaven of Pre-Existence, in His Greatest Glory, ye have not approached Him, and were of the heedless. Then consider those who turned away from the Spirit (Christ) when He came to them with manifest power. How many of the Pharisees were abiding in the Temples in
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His Name, and were entreating because of His separation! But when the Gate of Union was opened and the Light shone forth from the Day- Spring of Beauty, they disbelieved in God, the Ex- alted, the Great, and did not attain to His visitation, after having been promised thereto in the Book of Isaiah, as well as in the Books of the Prophets and the Apostles. No one of them approached the Day- Spring of Favor except those who were of no ac- count among the people, but in whose names all the lords of evident honor boast at the present day. Remember, the most learned doctors of His country in His age condemned Him to be killed, whilst one who was a catcher of fishes believed in Him. Be astonished thereat and be of those who remember!
"Likewise look at this time. How many monks were abiding in churches and were calling for the Spirit, and when He came in truth they approached Him not and were of those who are afar! Blessed is whosoever abandoned them and approached the Aim of all that is in the heavens and earth. They read the Gospel and confess not in the Glorious Lord, after coming in His Holy, Mighty and Beautiful Kingdom.
"Say: Verily, We have come unto you and have endured the abominations of the world because of your salvation. Do ye flee from Him who hath re- deemed His Soul for your lives? . . .
"Verily, He hath come from Heaven as He came from it the first time; beware lest ye contradict that
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO CHRISTIANITY 79
which He saith, as the nations before you contra- dicted that which He said. Thus do I make known to you the Truth, if you are of those who know. . . . Surely, the Father hath come and hath fulfilled that whereunto you were promised in the Kingdom of God. This is the Word the Son veiled when He said to those around Him that at that time they could not bear it; but when the stated time was ended and the hour arrived, the Word shone forth from the Horizon of the Will. . . . Verily, the Spirit of Truth hath come to guide you into all Truth. . . .
"Blessed is he who cut himself from all other than Me, soared in the ether of My Love, entered My Kingdom, perceived the Dominions of My Might, drank the Kawther of My Favor and the Salsabil of My Grace, and was informed of My Command and of whatsoever was hidden in the Treasuries of My Words, and shone forth from the Horizon of Inner Significances in My Commemora- tion and My Praise! Verily, he is of Mine. May My Mercy, Grace, Favor and Glory be unto Him!"
The following letter, written to Bahais in Amer- ica who w r ere Christians by birth, and composed by a Persian Bahai who was born a Mohammedan, not only most clearly and exquisitely presents what may be called the Bahai "message" to Christianity it is also a document impressively revealing the new spirit of international, interracial and interreligious
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fellowship made possible by what has already been termed the spirit of the age.
The letter is dated Isfahan, Persia, April 25th, 1902.
"Praise and glory, homage and thanksgiving unto the Creator of the world, unto the Lord of nations, Whose Bounty forever descended and flows unceasingly down upon His faithful ones !
"His Perfect Power, His Blessing and Grace has He manifested in the human temple. In every age has He made Himself known by a definite Name and distinct Attribute.
"In every cycle, He, with loving mercy, has re- moved from before His Glorious Face some portion of the veil of concealment, such portion as the capacity of the people and their station of under- standing and development could bear; until, in this sacred century, the Greatest Day of God, He has revealed Himself in the Name of the Heavenly Father and with the Father's Glorious Kingdom, even as referred to by the prophet Isaiah and by St. John in the Revelation.
"Many are the passages in the Scriptures refer- ring to the fact that God is to manifest Himself in the Name of the Father.
ISAIAH 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting 'Father, The Prince of Peace.
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO CHRISTIANITY 81
REVELATION 19:16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
"He raised on high the Heaven of His Mighty Cause; He tilled the ground of the minds of His chosen ones; He adorned the garden of the hearts of His elect with roses of knowledge and hyacinths of wisdom. Peter, the Apostle, refers to this in his second Epistle, and also St. John in the Revelation.
2 PETER, 3:13 Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
REVELATION 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven (Divine Revelation) and the first earth (state of consciousness) were passed away; and there was no more sea (separation between the world's great religions).
"He re-established and enlightened the true Jerusalem and Zion; fulfilled the prophecies and promises of the Holy Scriptures; deposed the ty- rants and oppressors by the weapon of the Words (Cosmic Truth) which proceedeth from His Holy Mouth,
REVELATION 21 :23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it (had no need of the imperfect enlightenment of laws based on human politics and economics) : for the Glory of God did lighten it (BahaVllah's manifestation of Cosmic Knowledge), and the Lamb is the light thereof (man's capacity to receive Cosmic Knowledge, established by the manifesta- tion of Abdul Baha in the station of Servitude).
DANIEL 8:14 And he said unto me, Unto two thou- sand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
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ISAIAH 35:1-2 The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose . . . They shall see the Glory of the Lord (shall become aware of Cosmic Reality), and the excellency of our God.
ISAIAH 11:4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth (co-operation has displaced exploitation as the industrial motive).
"And by the Spirit of His Utterances which de- scended from His Holy Lips; revived His beloved and chosen ones by the eternal Spirit of agreement, union and the true civilization of the human race; gathered together people differing in opinions drinkers from diverse springs of theory united them in the pavilion of love and bound their hearts with the bonds of Love of the Father, which affec- tion shall endure through the eternity of eternities.
ROMANS 6:22 But now being made free from sin (ignorance of Cosmic Reality), and become servants to God (become able to function in the light of that Reality), ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
DANIEL 12:2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth (live entirely in physical personality) shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and contempt (some will find themselves prepared to function Cosmic Reality, some will be closed to it).
"Boundless gratitude be unto Him who elevated His servants from the state of ignorance, old habits and harmful ways which caused degradation and prevented development, and made them to arrive at that station wherein they become imbued with lofty attributes.
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO CHRISTIANITY 83
"He tore asunder the veils of superstition and imagination and taught them the realities and inner significances of the true life, and through His Dear- est Son, His Most Sincere Servant, the Priceless Pearl of the Sea of His Oneness, Abdul Baha, the Greatest Branch (may our lives be sacrificed for him!), perfected His bounty and fulfilled the glad- tidings declared in the ancient Books, as by Isaiah and Zechariah.
ISAIAH 11:1 And there shall come forth a rod out the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
ISAIAH 4 :2 In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth (the awakened cosmic consciousness of a man is liken to a fruit ripened on the Branch that is, cosmic con- sciousness is dependent on entrance into the influence of the spiritual Abdul Baha) shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel (escaped from the limitations of legalistic morality).
"In Zechariah 3:7 it was promised that the Branch will be extended from the Tree of Life, and will sit on the Throne of Servitude.
ZECHARIAH 3:7 Thus said the Lord of Hosts: If thou wilt walk in My ways, and If thou wilt keep My charge, then thou shalt also judge My house, and shalt also keep My courts, and I will give thee places to walk among those that stand by (the cosmic or spiritual man is now to rule the earth and becoming cosmic he arises to the station of the angels, or cosmic men who never descended into physical personality? . . . For, behold, I will bring forth My servant, the Branch.
"After offering my greetings and servitude to His Holy Threshold, this servant, Abdul Hussein Isfahan! (author of the letter), writes this letter
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on his own behalf and that of the Bahais of Isfahan (upon them be Baha'o'llah!) to the friends of God, the beloved of EL-ABHA, the firm ones in the Covenant, sincere in His Cause and attracted unto His Beauty, our dearly beloved American brothers, (may the blessings of God abide with them!).
"I herein acknowledge the receipt of the beautiful photograph wherein we met the brilliant faces of our fellow-believers, whose hearts are kindled with the fire of His Love, and who are gathering blos- soms in the Garden of His Knowledge.
"All the eyes were brightened, the hearts glad- dened, and our yearnings to visit you were in- creased. Then all the believers (in Isfahan) glori- fied God, saying: Blessed be God, the Most Excel- lent Creator, Who caused the far distant ones to be united with these, blessed them with new birth, gave them to drink of the Wine of His Eternal Love, and caused them to manifest faces brilliant from the trial as purified gold, and to advance unto His Holy Abode.
EZEKIAL 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
ZECHARIAH 13:8-9 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die ; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire (Cosmic Reality will not be established until the race has passed through a period of intense suffering and confusion which shall compel every man and woman to make a definite decision for or against Cosmic Reality), and will refine
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO CHRISTIANITY 85
them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried ; they shall call on My name, and J will hear them (they will create in themselves the capacity to receive Cosmic Reality) : I will say, It is My people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.
"We have thought of you and remembered you in our spiritual gatherings, and will continue to do so. We hope to hear often from you regarding the progress of the Cause and the spreading of the Fragrances of God. Upon ye be El-Baha and greetings."
Of the unity of religions, Abdul Baha has said:
"His Highness the Merciful One hath caused the appearance of the splendors of love and affinity in the world of humanity, so that the individuals of mankind might be perfectly united and the rays of unity be revealed amongst the children of men. Hence He sent forth the holy Manifestations, in- spired their hearts with the contexts of the heavenly books and instituted divine religions, in order that these sanctified personages, these revealed books, these religions of God might become the means of unity and accord, love and good fellowship in the human world.
"Should we study the divine religions with the perception of truth, we would then conclude that their underlying principle is the One Reality. All the religions of God are the reality. Reality does not admit multiplicity and division. But alas! that the fundamental reality is laid aside and forgotten, and a catalogue of creeds, dogmas and rites have
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taken its place which are the basis of difference, the cause of hatred and prejudice, and the establishment of the religion of God is totally forgotten and neglected.
"When this impenetrable gloom that is, the gloom of the traditions of ancestors surrounded the world, and the pristine, primal light of the divine religions was changed into the darkness of the ideas of men, then the true morn dawned and the Sun of Reality (Baha'o'llah) arose from the horizon of Persia, reflecting in the mirror of the world of humanity the effulgence of the heavenly unity. Thus he destroyed the foundations of the structure of blind dogmas and man-made creeds and rituals which are the result of ignorant prejudices. It is owing to this fact that this light is spreading with the greatest rapidity in all the countries of the world. The influence of these divine teachings in the heart of the world is like the influence of the spirit over the bodies.
"Consequently, through the breaths of this divine spirit, the followers of the different religions in Persia have rent asunder the veil of superstitions, are freed from the effect of unenlightened doctrines, and have attained to the Beloved of Reality. These antagonistic faiths are united with the bond of per- fect love and amity. For this reason great meetings are organized, in which are represented Moham- medans, Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Turks, Arabs, Parsees, Persians, Kurds, English, French
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO CHRISTIANITY 87
and Americans, who associate and mingle with each other as brothers. Like the sheep of God they are grazing in the pastures of truth under the protect- ing staff of the heavenly Shepherd.
"Should you reflect with the insight of reality, you will observe that these antiquated and super- annuated dogmas have ever been the cause of mas- sacre and carnage among the nations and peoples.
"As this is the cycle of sciences, there must needs be new teachings, a new revelation is required and a new life wanted. The minds and hearts refute the veracity of ancient opinions. New ideas are called for and new principles are urgently demanded which may fill the requirements of this age, be as the spirit of this century and as the life of this period.
"Search, labor, investigate, work and show extra- ordinary effort, so that the center of the light of Reality, like unto the witness of love, may become revealed in the assemblages of mankind.
"There is a power in this Cause, a mysterious power, far, far, far away from the ken of men and angels. That invisible power is the source of all these outward activities. It moves the hearts. It rends the mountains. It administers the compli- cated affairs of the Cause. It inspires the friends. It dashes into a thousand pieces all the forces of opposition. It creates new spiritual worlds. This is a mystery of the Kingdom of Abha."
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO JUDAISM
The foregoing words apply to the Jews quite as much as to the Christians. That is the great proof that they really apply to either.
Men and women of the Jewish race are cordially urged to investigate the writings and lives of Baha'o'llah and Abdul Baha, interpreting their significance in terms of the great Hebrew tradition and also in the light of events now taking place among the Jews throughout the world.
The following is a Tablet uttered by BahaVllah to Oriental Jews. Its date is not known to the author of this book, but lies necessarily between 1863 and 1892.
"In the Name of the Wise, the Mighty!
"This is the day in which the Throne is amongst the tribes (of Israel), is calling for the inhabitants of the earth and is summoning to the glorification and the sanctification of the Almighty.
"This is the day in which the angels of heaven are continually descending (refers to men of Cosmic Intelligence) with the Cups of Explanation and Goblets of Knowledge, and after they have been perfumed with the Holy and Sweet Fragrances, they ascend.
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THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO JUDAISM 89
"Proclaim: The Promised Lord saith: O ye concourse of the Jews ! You have belonged to Me, from Me have you appeared and to Me shall you return! What has happened to you that now you recognize not Me, that you are enemies instead of friends, having abandoned the real Friend.
"This is the day in which the New Heaven hath appeared and the old earth is renewed. Should you look with sanctified vision, you shall behold the New Jerusalem! Should you listen with attentive ears, you shall hear the voice of God!
"This is the day in which all things call unto you and invite you to advance toward the Promised Land! But alas, you are so intoxicated with the wine of haughtiness that not for one moment do you become aware! The ear is for the sake of hearing My Voice, and the eye is for the sake of beholding My Beauty! Hearken unto Me and sever yourselves from aught else save Me. The Tabernacle of the Lord is lifted up by the hand of Divine Providence, and the Cause of God hath bcome manifest. The time of the old things is rolled by and the cycle of regeneration hath begun. The Lord hath willed that everything shall be renewed. But onljr the new vision is enabled to behold this transformation, and only the new intelligence is in- formed of this event.
"The Origin and the End were couched in one blessed Word, and that blessed Word hath appeared and entered the arena of Existence. It is the
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Spirit of the Divine Books and Scriptures. It hath been from the beginning before which there was no beginning, and it shall continue unto the end after which there is no end. It is the Key to the Most Great Treasury of the Lord and the Concealed Mystery of God which hath been hidden from eternity behind the Canopies of Divine Infallibility. It is the Alpha and Omega prophesied by John. It is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden.
"Declare: To-day the City of God hath ap- peared and become manifest, in the utmost adorn- ment. Ponder ye over the words of John, who hath prophesied concerning the coming of the holy and glorious City of God, saying: For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof. And the City hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for Baha'o'llah (The Glory of God) doth lighten it.
"In the name of the True One, hold in thy hand the rod of Trust, and with complete severance guide the erring souls to the Great City of God (Cosmic Reality) ; perchance the lost ones may return to their real (spiritual) home and ideal Country, and the blind ones receive new and penetrating sight. Verily, He is powerful to do whatsoever He willeth, and in His Mighty Grasp (universal law) every- thing is captive, and He is the Omnipotent and the Omniscient!"
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ADDRESS BY ABDUL BAHA TO THE JEWS, CONGREGATION EMMANU-EL, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, OCTOBER 12, 1912.
(From stenographic notet, which the author has not taken the liberty of correcting, even for the take of grammatical wage.)
The first bestowal of God in the world of human- ity is religion, because religion consists in Divine teachings to men, and most assuredly Divine teach- ings are preferable to all other sources of instruc* tion.
Religion confers upon man the life everlasting. Religion is a service to the world of morality. Re- ligion guides humanity to the Eternal happiness. Religion is the cause of the everlasting honor in the world of man.
Religion has ever helped humanity towards prog- ress. As a proof thereof, let us first investigate re- ligion from an unbiased standpoint, and let us find out whether religion is the cause of progress and development, or whether it is not; whether or not religion is, after all, the cause of illumination; whether or not religion is the impetus which allows man to advance extraordinarily.
Let us investigate independently, not that we should be bound by blind limitations or dogmas, for were we to be bound by blind limitations, then some will believe that religion is a cause of happiness, and others will disagree, saying that religion has been a cause of degradation. Hence, we must first in-
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vestigate as to this: whether or not religion is the cause of human advancement, and let us give it im- partial and thorough research, so that no doubt shall linger in our minds.
How can we find this out? That is, how can we discover whether or not religion has been the cause of human progress or retrogression?
We will first investigate the founders of religions the prophets. We will review the episodes of their lives, the events prior to their rise, and those subsequent thereto. But we will not present to you certain traditions which are subject to both credence and refutation. Nay, rather we will cite certain historical facts provable to all, certain facts and evidences well known throughout the world, and which are irrefutable. They are these:
Amongst the great prophets was His Holiness Abraham, who, being an iconoclast, and a herald of the oneness of God, was banished by the people from his nativity.
Let us observe right here how religion is an im- petus towards progress.
His Holiness Abraham founded a family, and this family God did bless, and it was t through the religious basis that the Abrahamic house progressed and advanced. Through the Divine benediction, noteworthy and famous prophets have issued from the Abrahamic lineage. There appeared an Ish- mael. There appeared an Isaac. There appeared a Jacob. There appeared a Joseph. There appeared
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO JUDAISM 98
a Moses. There appeared an Aaron. David issued therefrom. There appeared Solomon. The Holy Land was conquered by them and was theirs by right, and the great Solomonic wisdom was estab- lished, and this was due to the RELIGION which they founded.
Hence, we learn that religion is the cause of honor, is the cause of advancement, is the cause of civilization, is the cause of the happiness of man- kind, even as the Abrahamic episode well illustrates this fact, and even as his family clearly points thereto. Even unto the present time his household throughout the world is visible and manifest.
Let us discover, or consider, the greater phase of it.
The children of Israel were in bondage and cap- tivity in the land of Egypt. They were subjected to the tyranny and oppression of the Copts (the Egyptians). They were in the utmost state of degradation. One Copt conquered or subdued, one hundred Septs (Israelites). They could make use of them as working men or laborers.
The children of Israel were then in abject pov- erty, in the .lowest abasement, in the lowest degree of ignorance, in the lowest degree of barbarism, when, suddenly, His Holiness Moses appeared amongst them.
When His Holiness Moses appeared amongst them, outwardly he was no other than a shepherd, but through the power of religion he exhibited such
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majesty and grandeur and efficacy they continue to be seen. His prophethood was well spread through- out the land. His law was the foundation of the law.
His Holiness Moses was single and alone, and this single, unique personage, through the power of RELIGION, rescued all the children of Israel from bondage. He conducted them to the Holy Land, and there he founded the great civilization which has become permanent, a civilization and an education which are most noteworthy. Thereby they attained to the highest pitch of honor and glory. He saved them from their bondage and captivity. He imbued them with qualities which caused them to be progressive.
They proved to be a civilizing people, an edu- cated and a scholarly people. Their philosophy be- came noteworthy. Their industries were well known. In one word, along all the lines of ad- vancement which characterize a progressive people they did achieve progress. They reached such a pitch that at last they were the ones who established this Solomonic sovereignty, and their sciences and arts reached such an extensive state that even the Greek philosophers used to take journeys to Jeru- salem, in order to study with the Jews philosophy and the basis of law. According to Eastern history, this is an established fact.
Even Socrates, the Greek philosopher, came to the Holy Land and consorted with the Jewish doc-
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO JUDAISM 95
tors, studying with them wisdom or philosophy. He studied with them the basis of their belief, and when he returned to Greece there he formulated his basis for Divine unity, and there he advanced his belief regarding the immortality of the spirit after the dissolution of the body. These verities Socrates learned, no doubt, from the Jewish doctors with whom he came in contact.
Likewise Hippocrates and many other philoso- phers used to go to the Holy Land, to Palestine, and there they acquired lessons from the Jewish prophets, studying with them the basis of ethics and morality, returning to their countries with contribu- tions which have made Greece famous.
A cause, or a movement, which renders a weak nation, such as the Jews were before, strong, and changes them into a mighty and powerful nation, which rescues them from captivity and causes them to reach sovereignty, which transforms their ignor- ance into knowledge and science, and which endows them with an impetus to advance along all degrees of attainments (this is not merely a theory or a story which I am telling; it is an historical fact which is provable; it is history well established in the world)* makes it evident that religion is the cause of honor to man, that religion is the cause of the sublimity of man.
When we speak of religion we mean the Founda- tion of religion, not the blind imitations, or dogmas, which have crept in afterwards, and which are ever
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destructive, which are ever the cause of the eff ace- ment of a nation, which are ever the cause of the hindrance to progress of nations. Even as it is recorded in the Torah, and confirmed in all histories, when the Jews were fettered with imitations, then the wrath of God became manifest.
When they had let go of the foundations of the law of God, then God sent Nebuchadnezzar, who came and conquered the Holy Land. He killed all the men; he took in captivity the children and women ; he made waste the countries and the popu- lous centers ; he set afire all the hamlets and all the villages. Seventy thousand Jews did Nebuchad- nezzar captivate, and he took them with him to Iraki Ajam (Persia). He destroyed the Holy of Holies, the great temple there. He burned, in short, the Torah. The Holy Bible was he the cause of its burning.
Thus we learn that the Foundation of the Divine religions is ever the cause of progress, and thus the holy foundation becomes, as it were, destroyed and beclouded, or surrounded by certain blind imita- tions, when it leaves the central axis. Then the reverse takes place; it is a cause of Debasement, the cause of degradation.
Even so was the case with the Greek nation when they were the conquerors, and then the Jews became captives in their turn, and they were followed by the Romans. They proved to be the conquering nation, and they almost did away with the Israelites.
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Under Titus, the Roman emperor, when he was a general of the Roman army, the Holy Land was laid waste and made a wilderness and the Israelites were scattered broadcast in the world, because he also killed their noteworthy men, their possessions were pillaged, and Jerusalem was made a heap of dust. And that was the scattering and dispersion of the Jews, which has continued ever since.
Hence, we learn that the foundation of the re- ligion of God, which was laid by His Holiness Moses, was the cause of eternal honor, was the cause of the advancement of the nation, was the cause of the life of the Hebrew people, was the cause of hom- age to be paid forever to this noteworthy people. The dogmas, or blind imitations, which later crept in, proved to be the destructive causes of the Israel- ites. They caused the Israelites to be scattered throughout the earth, and to be expelled from their land by right the Holy Land.
In short, what is the Mission of prophets?
The mission of the prophets is no other than the advancement or the education of the world of humanity. The prophets are the genuine teachers or educators. The prophets are the universal in- structors.
Should we desire to find out whether or not any of these great souls or prophets has been a prophet, we will investigate the facts of the case, and the line of our investigation will be one of education. If he has been an educator, if he has really educated
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a people, if he has trained a nation, causing it to attain to the highest point of knowledge after it had been in the lowest abyss of ignorance, then we are sure that he is a prophet, and this is a plain and clear mode of procedure and irrefutable.
We do not have to go to other proofs. We do not have to cite miracles, saying that out of rock water gushed forth, because such a miracle may be denied by others they may refute it. We do not need such miracles.
The very deeds of Moses are proofs conclusive concerning his prophethood. We are in need of no further evidences evidences which are usually refutable.
If a man be unbiased, be fair, and investigate reality, he will, without doubt, bear testimony to the fact that the personage of Moses was verily the man of God, w r as a great personage.
Let us not digress. Let us go to the subject. But here I wish to ask you to be very fair in your judgment, setting aside, for the moment, all re- ligious prejudice.
All of us should thoroughly investigate or search for verities, because the purpose of the religions of God has been proved to be no otHer than the education of humanity and the cause of amity and fellowship among men. Therefore I wish to cite this episode, and it is this: that the Foundations of the religions of God I declare are one. They are not multiple, for they are realities.
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Reality does not accept multiplicity, because every one of the Divine religions is divisible into two departments. One is concerned with the world of morality, and that is essential. It is concerned with the ethical sublimity of the human nature. It is concerned with the advancement of the world of humanity in general. It has to do with the knowl- edge of God. It has to do vith the discovery of the verities of life. This is idealism; this is an essential division. This division is not subject to change or transformation at all. This is one; it is the foundation of all the religions of God. As regards that, all the religions are one and the same.
The second department, or division, has to do with the transactions amongst society, or certain conducts of men, which is NOT essential. That is subject to change and transformation according to the exigencies or the requirements of time and place.
To- wit: in the time of Noah, certain requirements demanded that all the sea-foods be allowable, or lawful. During the period of Abrahamic prophet- hood it was considered allowable, because of a certain expedient, that man should marry his aunt, even Sarah was the sister of Abraham's mother. During the time of Adam it was on vogue, or current, that man should marry his own sister, even as the child- ren of Adam Abel, Cain and Seth married their own sisters, because so they thought, it was the expedient of the time, but in the law of the Torah that became abrogated that was forbidden.
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There were certain laws, that were lawful formerly, which, during the time of Moses, were forbidden. For example, camel's flesh, during the time of Abraham, was a food for man, but during the time of Jacob, it was made unlawful.
Such changes and transformations in religious teachings have to do with the trifling things of life. They are not important.
His Holiness Moses lived in the wilderness of Terah, where retribution had to be done in direct action. There were no penitentiaries. There were no forms of punishment. Hence, according to the exigency of the time and place, it was a law of God that an eye was to be for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. If a man's tooth were broken by another, his tooth would be broken. If a man, for instance, caused the deafness of another person, the other person would make him deaf. But you cannot do that now. You would not blind a man because he accidentally blinded you. Is it possible to carry such things out?
In the Torah there are ten commandments con- cerning the murderer. Is it possible to carry these out? Can these ten ordinances, concerning the treatment of murderers, be carried out?
Modern times are such that even the question of capital punishment the one form which some nations have decided to carry out in relation to a murderer is a mooted question. Wise men are discoursing as to its feasibility or otherwise.
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So, everything that is valid is only valid for the present. The exigency of that time demanded that if a man committed theft to the extent of a dollar they would chop off his hand, but now you cannot cut off a man's hand for a thousand dollars. You cannot do it; it is impossible. This is true, for it was useful for that time, but things are useful in accordance with the exigencies of the time. Time changes, and when time changes the laws have to change. But remember, these are not of im- portance ; they are the accidentals of religion. The essentials, which are spiritual in character, which have to do with morality, which have to do with the ethical development of man, which have to do with the faith of man, they are ideal ; they are neces- sary and permanent; they are one foundation, and they are not subject to change or transformation.
Hence, for the fundamental basis of the religion of God there is no change or transformation. That is the basis, the fundamental foundation of religion. That never, never changes.
The basis of the law of Moses His Holiness Christ promulgated. That selfsame formation of religion was promulgated by Mohammed. All the great prophets have served that foundation. They have served this reality. Hence, the purposes and the purports of all the prophets have been one and the same. They were the advancement of the body- politic. They were the cause of the honor of man- kind. They were the Divine civilizations of man,
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the foundations whereof are one, and, as we declared before, the proofs concerning the validity of a per- sonage, the proofs of inspiration, are, after all, the very deeds of valor and greatness emanating from that prophet. If that prophet has proved to be in- strumental in the elevation of mankind, undoubt- edly he has been a valid prophet.
Again, I wish you to be very fair in the judgment of these following remarks.
At a time when the Israelites had again been put in captivity, at a period when the Roman Empire had dispersed and effaced the Hebrew nation, be- cause the law of God had, as it were, passed from amongst them, and the foundations of the religion of God had been destroyed at such a time as this Jesus Christ appeared among them.
When His Holiness Christ appeared from the Jews, the first thing he did was to proclaim the validity of the Mosaic mission. He declared that the Torah, the Old Testament, was the Book of God. He declared that all the prophets of Israel were valid and true. He eulogized Moses, and through his recommendations Moses* name was spread throughout the world. The fame of Moses, throughout the Christian movement, was circulated broadcast.
Before the rise of Christ it is a fact that in Persia the name of Moses had not been heard. Through- out India they had no knowledge of Judaism, and were it not for the Christianizing of Europe it
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would not have had this knowledge of the Old Testament which it has. Throughout Europe there was not a copy of the Old Testament. But listen to this and judge it aright: It was through the instrumentality of Christ, it was through the translation of the New Testament the little volume of the Gospel that the Old Testament, the Torah, was translated into six hundred lan- guages and spread throughout the world at large.
The names of the Israelitish prophets became household names everywhere. All the nations of the world believed on this, that the children of Israel were verily the chosen people of God, and that t hat nation was a holy nation, that the blessings of God attended that nation, and that all the prophets of God which had issued therefrom were the dawning points of Divine inspiration, were the daysprings of revelation, and each one of them glistened like a star.
Hence, His Holiness Christ really promulgated Judaism, for He was a Jew, and He was not against Jews. He did not deny the prophetic validity of Moses. Nay, He rather promoted it. He did not efface the Torah. Nay, rather He promulgated it. At most it fomes to this: that the portion of that dispensation which had to do with transactions, that underwent change, and that is not important, but the essential teachings of Moses that He did promulgate virtually. He did not leave any- thing undone.
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Likewise, with the superlative power and the efficacious Word of God, He gathered together most of the nations of the East and West. This was achieved at a time when these nations were in the utmost of contention and strife. He ushered all of them beneath the overshadowing tent of the oneness of humanity. He educated them in such- wise as to be united and agreed, even as the Roman, the Greek, the Chaldean, the Assyrian and the Egyptian nations were perfectly blended together, and the heavenly civilization was the result. Now, this efficacy of the Word, and heavenly power, which are extraordinary, undoubtedly prove con- clusively the validity of His Holiness Christ. Con- sider how His heavenly sovereignty is yet perma- nent and lasting. Verily, this is conclusive proof and manifest evidence.
Then we see, appearing from another horizon the prophet of Arabia Mohammed.
Perchance you do not know that the first address of Mohammed to his tribe was this statement: "Moses, verily, was a prophet of God, and the Torah is a book of God. Verily, O ye people, ye must believe in the Torah and in Moses and the prophets. Ye must accept all the Isralitish proph- ets as valid."
In the Koran, the Mohammedan Bible, there are seven statements in fact, seven repetitions of the Mosaic episode, and in all his historic sketches he praises Moses.
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He states that His Holiness Moses was the greatest prophet of God; that God guided him in the Sahara, or the wilderness, of Terah; that through the light of guidance Moses harkened to the summons of God; that he proved to be the interlocutor of God; that he was the bearer of the tablet of the ten commandments; that all the con- temporaneous nations of the world arose against him; that eventually Moses conquered all of them, because falsehood is ever defeated by veracity.
There are many instances of this kind by Mo- hammed. I am citing just a few.
Consider that His Holiness Mohammed was born among the savage and barbarian nations of Arabia, lived amongst them, and, outwardly, was illiterate and uninformed of the holy books of God.
The Arabian nations were in the utmost state of ignorance and barbarism, to the extent that they buried their daughters alive. They considered this to be the utmost valor and sublimity of nature. They lived under the Persian and Roman govern- ments in the utmost captivity and bondage. They were scattered throughout the Arabian desert, sub- ject to continuous strife and bloodshed.
When the light of Mohammed dawned, the darkness of ignorance was dispelled from the Arabian desert Those barbarous nations, in a short space of time, reached a superlative degree of civilization, even as their civilization extended to
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Spain, and was established in Bagdad, whence it was translated to Europe.
What proof is there, concerning his prophethood, greater than this, unless a man should close his eyes to justice and appear obstinately unfair?
And now the Christians are believers in Moses. They believe that he was a prophet of God, and they commend him most highly. The Mohammed- ans are believers of Moses, praising him most highly, proving the validity of Moses, and likewise they believe in His Holiness Christ and praise Him highly.
Is it harm which has come to these nations, namely Christians and Mohammedans, because they have admitted the validity of Moses and have ac- cepted him? No, on the contrary, it proves that they have been fair-minded to that extent.
Then what harm is there that the Jewish nation should, in turn, now also praise His Holiness Christ, also praise His Holiness Mohammed, and by this humanitarian acceptance and praiseworthy view of the subject do away forever with this enmity and hatred which have faced mankind so many centuries, so that bloodshed shall cease, that this fanaticism shall pass away forever, so that all mankind shall be unified, and then this cor- ruption shall cease as soon as this acceptance is estab- lished.
They admit that Moses was the interlocutor of God. Why do you not say that Christ was the
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Word of God? Why do you not say just the few words that will do away with all this sort of thing, and there will be no hatred left, no fanaticism left, no warfare in the Land of Promise, no bloodshed whatever. Then there will be peace forever.
Verily, I declare now to you that Moses was no other than that interlocutor of God; that Moses was the most noteworthy prophet of God; that Moses brought the fundamental law of God; that Moses was the founder of the ethical basis which has proved happiness to humanity.
What harm is there in this? Do I lose by saying this to you? And believing it as a Bahai? Not at all. On the contrary, as a Bahai, it benefits, and the founder of the Bahai movement, BahaVllah, is well pleased with me, confirms me therein. He says: "Well done; you have been fair in your judg- ment; you have impartially investigated the truth; you have arrived at the conclusion full well; you have believed in a prophet of God, in Moses; you have accepted the Book of God, the Torah."
Now, inasmuch as it is possible to do away with this prejudice, with such a bit of liberalism in the world, why not do it?
Why not do away with this continuous strife? Why not establish a bond which can easily connect the hearts of men? What harm is there in this re- ligion that everyone should praise the teacher or the founder of another? Even as the other nations praise His Holiness Moses, and admit that Moses
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was the founder of Judaism, why not have the Hebrews also praise the other great men?
What harm comes from it? None at all. It is no loss to you at all. Nay, rather, you are con- tributing to the welfare of mankind. Nay, rather you would be instrumental in establishing happi- ness of the world of humanity. Nay, rather the eternal honor of man depends upon this modern liberalism.
Inasmuch as our God is one, and He has created all of us He provides for all of us, He protects all of us and we acknowledge such a kind and clement Lord, why should we His children, His followers, fight each other? Why should we so easily break the hearts of one another?
God is so merciful and kind, and His aim in religion has ever been the bond of unity and affinity.
Praise be to God, the mediaeval ages of darkness have passed away, and this century of radiance has dawned this century wherein the reality of things is becoming evident, this century wherein science has discovered the very mysteries of nature, this century which is in toto a service to^the world of humanity, this century wherein we have established the foundation of the world of humanity. Is it behooving that we should still linger in our fanatic- ism and tarry in our prejudice? Is it behooving that we should still be bound with the old fables and superstitions, and be handicapped with the
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superannuated beliefs of past and dark ages, again waging wars religious, again fighting one another, still shedding the blood of each other, shunning one another, anathematizing one other? Is it becoming?
Is it not better for us to be most loving to one another? Is it not preferable for us to enjoy fellow- ship together, and unite and sing athems of unity towards God, and praise all the prophets in a good and praiseworthy spirit?
Then you will observe how the world will prove to be a paradise and the promised day shall come. That will be the day when the wolves and the sheep will quaff from the same stream, when, according to the prophecy of Isaiah, the quail and the eagle will enjoy the same nest together, and the gazelle, or the deer, will with the lion enjoy the same pasture.
What does this mean?
It means that contending nations are symbolic of this fact, that religions, which have been formerly as wolves and sheep, divergent creeds, will associate with each other. Notwithstanding their former status they will then, through this liberalism, asso- ciate with each other in perfect fellowship, in the utmost lov.
This is the meaning of the statement of His Holiness Isaiah. Otherwise, you will never come to see a day when this prophecy will come to pass literally, for the wolf will never enjoy the com- panionship of the sheep, and the lion and the deer
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will never be seen together, because the lion and the deer will see each other, but the deer will be within the lion, and the sheep will ever be the prey of the wolf. As you know, the teeth of the lion are carnivorous. It has no molars to enjoy grass. Hence, it must eat flesh.
Therefore, this prophecy is symbolic of this state of affairs: When certain nations and races, symbol- ized or typified by lions and wolves and sheep, amongst whom there is no bond of fellowship or association, in that day of promise will be unified, and they will treat each other most kindly and liberally.
In a word, the age is ours when fellowship is to be established.
The century has come when all the religions are to be unified.
The century has come when all the nations shall enjoy international peace.
The century has come when all the races and the tribes of the world, will do away with racial prejudice and associate perfectly.
The century has arrived when all the nativities of the world will prove to be one home of the human family.
Thus may human kind, in its entirety, rest com- fortably and in peace under the great and broad tabernacle of the one Lord.
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO SCIENCE
To behold all things of the universe as animate with a divine animation, so that a single atom be- comes as wondrous as a sun ; to feel" in all things the essence of a consciousness, so that not even a stone remains insignificant; above all, to realize by what eternities of evolution matter has been trained in order to serve as the temple of man whereby man becomes the perfect microcosm within the per- fect macrocosm this glory that was the crown of ancient seers, returns now universally to become the education of all.
Year by year, since Baha'o'llah flooded the minds of men with light, the past has begun to yield its secrets, and the "book of nature" to unfold its hidden mysteries.
In the measure that the w r orld gives up its phys- ical limitations of hate, of prejudice and of fear in that measure, according to the cosmic law, shall nature's firfer forces become manifest. In the measure that the soul desires Reality rather than authority and power in that same measure shall the veils of self-realization be raised.
As Abdul Baha has said: "This mineral and
these trees have no knowledge of the animal and
111
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human worlds: they cannot imagine them, they deny their very existence. While the human world is helping the animal and developing the vegetable kingdoms, those kingdoms are unconscious of it. Similarly the human world cannot comprehend the world of the Kingdom; it is absolutely ignorant of the Kingdom while the heavenly spirits have influence in the human world.
"Observe how clear this point is, yet the pro- fessors and philosophers ignore this reality! The psychic mediums, however, are speaking of the world of thought and not of the world of reality. But a heavenly soul who is conscious of the Divine World, whose eye of discernment is open, who is detached from the world of nature, and has attained to spiritual power this soul is cognizant of the world of spirits. Reality is pure spirit, it is not physical. That is, it occupies no space."
One of the great utterances of BahaVllah hitherto unpublished, and significant from its refer- ence to cosmogony, the corner stone of all scientific truth, is known as "Tablet to the Zoroastrians." This tablet follows:
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE PEEKLESS
Glory befits that Discerner who, through one shower of the ocean of His Generosity, expanded the firmament of existence, begemmed it with the stars of knowledge and summoned the people to
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the most high court of perception and under- standing.
This shower, which is the first Word of the Al- mighty, is sometimes called the water of life, for it quickens the dead souls in the desert of ignorance with the spring of intelligence. Sometimes it is called the first emanation which appears from the Sun of Wisdom; and when it began to shine the first movement became manifest and known, and then phenomena stepped into the arena of exist- ence, and these appearances were through the generosity of the Incomparable, the Wise One. He is the Knower, the Giver! He is sanctified and holy above every statement and attribute. The seen and the unseen fail to attain the measure of His understanding. The world of being and what- ever has issued from it bears witness to this utterance.
Therefore it has become known that the first bestowal of the Almighty is the Word. The re- ceiver and acceptor of it is the understanding. It is the first instructor in the university of existence and is the primal emanation of God. Whatever is manifested^ is the appearance of Its wisddm. All the names originate in His Name and the begin- nings and endings of all affairs are in His hai^d.
Your letter came to this Captive of the world in this prison. It brought happiness and increased friendship; it renewed the remembrance of the for- mer times. Thanks belong to the Possessor of the
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universe who permitted us to meet in the land of Persia. We met, we conversed and we listened. It is hoped that no forget fulness shall follow that meeting, that the revolving of the wheel of time shall not take away the remembrance from the heart and that the plants of love shall grow out of that which is sown and become green, verdant and imperishable.
You have asked regarding the heavenly books. The pulse of the world is in the hand of the skillful physician. He diagnoses the illness and wisely prescribes the remedy. Every day has its own secret and every tongue a melody. The illness of to-day has one cure and that of to-morrow another. Look ye upon this day and consider and discuss its needs. One sees that existence is afflicted with in- numerable ailments compelling it to lie upon the bed of suffering. Men who are intoxicated with the wine of self-contemplation prevent the Wise Physician from reaching the patient. Thus they have caused themselves and the world to suffer. They know not the ailment, nor recognize the remedy. They take the wrong for the right, the crooked for the straight, the enemy for the friend.
Hearken ye to the melody of this Prisoner! Stand up and proclaim; perchance those who are asleep may waken. Say: O ye dead ones, the gener- ous hand of the Almighty is passing around the water of eternal life. Hasten ye and drink. What-
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soever becomes alive in this Day shall never die. Whatsoever dies in this Day can never find life.
O friend! When the Primal Word appeared in these latter days, a number of the heavenly souls heard the melody of the Beloved and hastened toward it; while others, finding that the deeds of some did not correspond with their words, were prevented from the splendors of the Sun of Knowledge.
Say: O ye sons of earth! The pure God pro- claims that which in this Glorious Day shall purify you from the stains of desire and enable you to attain to tranquility in My Straight Path and My Manifest Road. To be severed from attachment means to be separated from those things which occasion loss and lessen the grandeur of man. If the people of the world should attain to the Heavenly Utterances, they would never be pre- vented from the ocean of divine generosity. The heaven of righteousness has no star and shall never have one brighter than this. The first utterance of the Wise One is: "O ye sons of fcarth! Turn from the darkness of foreignness to the shining of the Sun of Unity. This is that which shall benefit the people of the world more than aught else." O friend ! The Tree of the Word has no better blos- som and the Ocean of Wisdom never shall have a brighter pearl than this.
O ye sons of intelligence! The thin eyelid pre- vents the eye from seeing the world and what is
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contained therein. Then think of the result when the curtain of greed covers the sight of the heart. Say: O people, the darkness of greed and envy obscures the light of the soul, as the cloud prevents the penetration of the Sun's rays. Should one listen with the ear of intelligence to this Utterance, he shall spread the wings of freedom and soar with great joy toward the heaven of understanding.
When the world was environed with darkness, the Sea of Generosity was set in motion and divine illumination appeared so that the deeds were dis- closed. This is the same illumination which is promised in the Heavenly Books. Should the Almighty desire the hearts of the people of the world, He will purify and sanctify them through the power of the Word and will pour forth the light of the Sun of Unity upon the souls to regenerate the world.
O people! The word must be demonstrated by the deed, for the righteous witness of the word is action. The former without the latter shall not allay the thirst of the needy nor open the doors of sight to the blind.
The Heavenly Wise One proclaimeth: A harsh word is like unto a sword, but gentle speech is like unto milk. The children of the world attain knowl- edge and better themselves through this.
The Tongue of Wisdom says: Whosoever pos- sesses me not hath nothing. Pass by whatever exists in this world, and find me. I am the Sun of
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Perception and the Ocean of Science. I revive the withered ones and quicken the dead. I am that light which illumines the path of insight. I am the Falcon of the Hand of the Almighty. I bear heal- ing in my wings and teach the knowledge of soar- ing to the Heaven of Truth.
The Peerless Beloved says: The Way of Free- dom is opened; hasten thereto. The Fountain of Knowledge is gushing; drink ye. Say: O friend, the Tabernacle of Oneness is raised ; look not upon each other with the eye of strangeness. Ye are all the fruits of One Tree and the leaves of one Branch. Truly, I say, whatever lessens ignorance and in- creases knowledge, that has been, is and shall be accepted by the Creator.
Say: O people, walk ye under the shade of the Tree of Righteousness. Enter ye under the pro- tection of the Tent of Unity.
Say: O thou possessor of sight, the past is the mirror of the future; look and perceive. Per- chance, after the acquirement of knowledge, ye may know the Friend and attaiq, to His good pleas- ure. To-day the best fruit of the Tree of Science and Knowledge is that which benefits mankind and improves his condition.
Say: The tongue is the witness of My Truth; do not pollute it with untruthfulness. The spirit is the treasury of My mystery; do not deliver it into the hand of greed. It is hoped that in this Dawn the world shall become illumined with the rays of
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the Sun of understanding and knowledge, so that we may attain to the good-pleasure of the Beloved and drink from the ocean of divine recognition.
O friend! As there were few ears to hear, for some time the Pen has been silent in Its own cham- ber, and to such a degree that silence has had precedence over utterance. Say: O people, words are revealed according to the capacity of the people, so that the beginners may make progress. The milk must be given according to a measure, in order that the babe of the world may enter into the realm of grandeur and be established in the court of unity.
O friend! We have seen the pure ground and cast the seed of knowledge. Now it depends upon the rays of the sun whether it burns up or is caused to grow. Say: To-day, through the greatness of the Peerless Wise One, the Sun of Knowledge has appeared from behind the covering of the spirit and all the birds of the meadow of oneness are in- toxicated with the wine of understanding and are commemorating the Name of the Beloved. Happy is the one who finds this and becomes immortal.
The following remarks were made by Abdul Baha to a group of scientific students.
"When we ponder over the reality of the micro- cosm, we discover that in the microcosm there are deposited three realities. Man is endowed with an
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outer or physical reality. It belongs to the material realm, the animal kingdom, because it has sprung from the material world. This animalistic reality of man he shares in common with the animals.
"The human body is like animals subject to nature's laws. But man is endowed with a second reality, the rational or intellectual reality ; and the intellectual reality of man predominates over nature.
"All these sciences which we enjoy were hidden and recondite secrets of nature, unknowable to nature, but man was enabled to discover these mys- teries, and out of the plane of the unseen he brought them into the plane of the seen. Thus while man's physical reality is captive to nature, man is the governor of nature through this intellectual power.
"Yet there is a third reality in man, the spiritual reality. Through its medium one discovers spiritual revelations, a celestial faculty which is infinite as regards the intellectual as well as physical realms. That power is conferred upon man through the breath of the Holy Spirit. It is an eternal reality, an indestructible reality, a reality belonging to the divine, supernatural kingdom ; a reality whereby the world isillumined, a reality which grants unto man eternal life. This third, spiritual reality it is which discovers past events and looks along the vistas of the future. It is the ray of the Sun of Reality. The spiritual world is enlightened through it, the whole of the Kingdom is being illumined by
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it. It enjoys the world of beatitude, a world which had no beginning and which shall have no end.
"That celestial reality, the third reality of the microcosm, delivers man from the material world. Its power causes man to escape from nature's world. Escaping, he will find an illuminating reality, transcending the limited reality of man and caus- ing him to attain to the infinitude of God, abstract- ing him from the world of superstitions and imaginations, and submerging him in the sea of the rays of the Sun of Reality.
"This fact is proved from scientific as well as spiritual evidence.
"When we ponder over the conditions of phe- nomena, we observe that all phenomena are com- posed of single elements. This singular cell-ele- ment travels and has its coursings through all the grades of existence. I wish you to ponder carefully over this. This cellular element has at some time been in the mineral kingdom. While staying in the mineral kingdom it has had its coursings and trans- formations through myriads of images and forms. Having perfected its journey in the mineral king- dom, it has ascended to the vegetable kingdom; and in the vegetable kingdom it has? again had its journeys and transformations through myriads of conditions. Having accomplished its functions in the vegetable kingdom, the cellular element ascends to the animal kingdom.
"In the animal kingdom again it goes through
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the composition of myriads of images, and then we have it in the human kingdom. In the human kingdom likewise it has its transferences and cours- ings through multitudes of forms. In short, this single primordial atom has had its great journeys through every stage of life, and in every stage it was endowed with a special and particular virtue or characteristic.
"Consequently, the great divine philosophers have had the following epigram: All things are involved in all things. For every single phenome- non has enjoyed the postulates of God, and in every form of these infinite electrons it has had its char- acteristics of perfection.
"Thus this flower once upon a time was of the soil. The animal eats the flower or its fruit, and it thereby ascends to the animal kingdom. Man eats the meat of the animal, and there you have its ascent into the human kingdom, because. all phe- nomena are divided into that which eats and that which is eaten. Therefore, every primordial atom of these atoms, singly and indivisibly, has had its coursings throughout all the sentinent creation, going constantly into the aggregation of the various elements. itence do you have the conservation of energy and the infinity of phenomena, the inde- structibility of phenomena, changeless and im- mutable, because life cannot suffer annihilation but only change.
"The apparent annihilation is this: that the form,
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the outward image, goes through all these changes and transformations. Let us again take the ex- ample of this flower. The flower is indestructible. The only thing that we can see, this outer form, is indeed destroyed, but the elements, the indivisible elements which have gone into the composition of this flower are eternal and changeless. Therefore the realities of all phenomena are immutable. Ex- tinction or mortality is nothing but the transforma- tion of pictures and images, so to speak the real- ity back of these images is eternal. And every reality of the realities is one of the bounties of God.
"Some people believe that the divinity of God had a beginning. They say that before this par- ticular beginning, man had not knowledge of the divinity of God. With this principle they have limited the operations of the influences of God.
"For example, they think there was a time when man did not exist, and that there will be a time in the future when man will not exist. Such a theory circumscribes the power of God, because how can we understand the divinity of God except through scientifically understanding the manifestations of the attributes of God?
"How can we understand the nature of fire ex- cept from its heat, its light? Were not heat and light in this fire, naturally we could not say that the fire existed.
"Thus if there was a time when God did not
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manifest his qualities, then there was no God, be- cause the attributes of God presuppose the creation of phenomena. For example, by present considera- tion we say that God is the creator. Then there must always have been a creation since the qual- ity of creator cannot be limited to the moment when some man or men realize this attribute. The at- tributes that we discover one by one these at- tributes themselves necessarily anticipated our dis- covery of them. Therefore, God has no beginning and no ending; nor is his creation limited ever as to degree. Limitations of time and degree pertain to things created, never to creation as a whole. They pertain to the forms of things, not to their realities. The effulgence of God cannot be suspended. The sovereignty of God cannot be interrupted.
"As long as the sovereignty of God is imme- morial, therefore the creation of our world through- out infinity is presupposed. When we look at the reality of this subject, we see that the bounties of God are infinite, without beginning and without end.
"The greatest bounties of God in this phenomenal world are his Manifestations. This is the greatest postulate. These Manifestations are the Suns of Reality. For it is through the Manifestation that the reality becomes known and established for man. History proves to us that apart from the influence of the Manifestations, man sinks back into his animal condition, using even his intellectual power
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to subserve an animal purpose. Thetefore there is no cessation whatsoever in the future for the ap- pearance of the Manifestations of God, because God is infinite and his purpose cannot be limited in any way. If we ever dare to limit and circum- scribe Go'd's purpose within any bounds, then of necessity we have dared to set limitations to the omnipotence of God. The created has dared to define his Creator!
"Consequently, the perfect man ever beholds the rays of the Sun of Truth. The perfect man ever awaits and expects the coming of the effulgence of God. He ever ponders over the methods and pur- poses of God, knowing that of certainty the realities of the Divine are not finite, the Divine names and attributes are not finite, God's graces and bounties are without limit, and the coming of the Manifesta- tions of God are not circumscribed by time. Were you to enter any Bahai gathering of the East, it would be difficult to tell who is Christian, who is Jew they are like so many flames that have be- come one mighty flame. All these separate chan- nels, thanks to BahaVllah, are converging into one world-stream!"
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO POLITICS AND ECONOMICS
BahaVllah says: "The light of men is Justice: extinguish it not with the contrary winds of oppres- sion and tyranny. The purpose of Justice is the appearance of unity in the world. In this exalted Word, the sea of God's wisdom is moving; all the books of the world are not sufficient to contain its interpretation. If the world understands and ac- cepts this wisdom, the light of the declaration: On that day God will satisfy them all with His abund- ance will arise like the sun from the heavenly horizon. Happy is he who heareth and attaineth."
These words of BahaVllah, in reality, fulfil the teaching of all the prophets, that spiritual law is the permanent basis of human existence in all its aspects. They enable us to have a truer under- standing of what Christ meant by the saying: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Hitherto, the quality of meekness, like all! the qualities has been given a physical interpreta- tion which limited its significance and weakened its influence.
If we consider all the new conditions brought into the world with the manifestation of BahaVllah
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all the new economic and political factors due to science and invention we realize that our era, in its demands upon character, stands apart from all former times.
Hitherto, the economic side of life has been de- veloped from man's contact with nature. It has derived from human character as established by struggle and competition. It has compelled the individual's spiritual vision to make terms with the overwhelming influence of the collective social or- ganism. But to-day, science and invention have brought in an entirely new set of factors which separate man from nature. To-day, the essence of economic stability and progress is no longer com- petition, but cooperation.
All the terrible conditions existing in the world to-day are the result of having carried the physical, the animal law of competition into this new era of cooperation. Struggle and competition now pro- duce poverty instead of wealth. The principle of this new age is that man's economic environment is not nature, but his fellow man.
Therefore, in order to emerge from under the terrific burden of our own social machinery, we must learn to base all material activity upon laws of human association. The significance of these laws must be felt as instinctively, as vitally, as have been felt the physical laws of survival in ages past
The "meek" shall indeed inherit the earth, if by "meek" we mean those men and women who can
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO POLITICS 127
evolve from the individualistic state of mind into a state of mind reflecting the possibilities of coopera- tion. For it is an appreciation of the eternal au- thority of brotherhood, and this alone, which can displace the authority of nature in molding the character of men.
One of the great Bahai teachings is consequently this: th.it beginning with the Manifestation of Baha'o'llah, the world entered upon a new cycle wherein the chasm between "real" and "ideal" shall be done away. All that has existed of aspiration shall for the first time find suitable instruments of expression. As the laws of human association re- place throughout society the laws of animal sur- vival, men will learn how to realize the harmony, the beauty, the abundance, the free fellowship which the myths of every people have attributed to the Golden Age.
But as Baha'o'llah declared, "All construction is preceded by destruction." Therefore are all in- stitutions based upon selfishness undergoing rapid disintegration, in order to change the motives be- hind them and permit a new spirit of organization to remold the world.
Nothing can resist the changes now taking place throughout the world. Entering into every phase of our material life, the new cosmic force is dis- rupting them with incredible rapidity from within. But this is apparent destruction only it is the same force which destroys the seed in order that the
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tree may emerge. From the spiritual point of view, the only question is how long it will take the im- prisoned giant of true progress to break his bonds, how much suffering mankind still requires before we come to realize that human well being, and not money, is the true standard of wealth.
Just as nature works forward in stages from seed planting to harvest, so by stages the cosmic era will establish its own equivalent economic and political expression. The present moment is the stage of the seed planting, the time when all people are separating themselves according to their spirit- ual capacity. It is the time of outer sacrifice yet greatest inward victory.
In reality, there is no "economic problem." What appears as such is merely one of the bitter conse- quences of ignorance of cosmic truth.
But for the guidance of the world during this period when spiritual vision is dim, Abdul Baha has made certain definite interpretations of the laws of Baha'o'llah.
One of these is the statement that the necessary condition to any and all progress is international disarmament and the organization of the means for preserving peace. Under modern conditions, as Abdul Baha has said, war is continuous; the ex- pense of maintaining armaments renders economic stability impossible.
Another Bahai principle is that agriculture is to be regarded as the most important industry. The
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO POLITICS 129
conditions affecting agriculture should receive our closest attention.
Laws of inheritance are laid down which affect a distribution of accumulated property according to just principles.
The status of teachers is declared to be very much higher than it has ever been regarded in previous times.
The principle of personal property is upheld, as opposed to any form of communism. Communism makes it impossible to perform voluntary acts of service, thus destroying one of the greatest means to spiritual development while at the same time denying the inherent differences which exist be- tween characters and capacities.
Another Bahai teaching is that the present wage system is both unjust and pernicious in its effects. The worker is to receive each one a due percentage of the profits.
The over-centralization of governments is de- clared to be wrong in principle, and in practise as making for poverty and international misunder- standing. The local community is given the func- tion of taxation, and taxes are to be administered in such a way as to leave none in unemployment or want. The surplus is to be sent the central govern- ment after the community's own needs have been met. A system of storage is recommended from which members of the community can draw in times of scarcity.
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Education is made compulsory. Every boy and girl is to learn some specific trade, art or profession by which each member of the community can be- come self-supporting. None is exempt from pro- ductive labor. A universal language is to be selected from among the present languages, or a new language devised, which shall be taught in all schools throughout the world in addition to the mother tongue.
People are to be elected to responsible office for their spiritual capacity as well as practical grasp of affairs.
Regarding the status of women, Abdul Baha has said: "It is very clear that in the immediate future, women will play a great role in the progress of civilization. The mothers are the real educators of the human race. While women are acquiring virtues, studying sciences, equipping themselves for artistic careers and entering upon the field of active work, the old foundations are tottering, the old earth is passing away, and a new heaven is appear- ing. The importance of this great fact is not yet fully known. It is the sun of all the questions of this age."
Science is the evidence of spiritual reality upon this plane; from science will humanity derive the power to reorganize social existence. Just as ancient civilizations gave way to Feudalism, and Feudalism disintegrated, so will the present order undergo transformation. The larger principle at work is
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO POLITICS 131
that the separation between political, economic, artistic and religious activity can no longer be ac- cepted as valid or necessary. True civilization im- plies the control of one standard and not many.
The MONTREAL STAB reported an address by Abdul Baha to a meeting of Socialists in 1912 as follows:
"Earth should be a Paradise!
"There are certain species of life that seemingly can live solitary and alone. Certain trees, certain animals and even herds remain far from their kind. But man is necessarily ever in need of cooperation and mutual help,
"In reality, all mankind represents one family. God desires that each individual member of the body politic should live in the utmost well being and comfort.
"If all do not so enjoy life there is a lack of sym- metry in the body politic. 'Let us look after our- selves' the selfish say; 'Let others die, so long as I am comfortable, all is going well!' Such a callous attitude is due to lack of working law.
"Abdul Baha then outlined a scheme formu- lated 25 by BahaVllah for ensuring the economic happiness t)f the world. In this plan farmers are first to be dealt with, for the agricultural industry
"It is a Bahai teaching that each local House of Justice shall have the right to work out the details of its own administrative problems.
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is the most important and the most useful in the national life. It provides that every village com- munity have a general storehouse to which a num- ber of revenues would come. This income from the communal fund would include tithes, a certain per- centage from the number of animals and one-third from mines and minerals.
"Should anyone die without an heir, all his wealth would revert to the general storehouse and any treasure trove discovered would become public property.
"The plan further advocates that tithes be col- lected from the farmers on a graduated scale. If a man's necessary expenses equal his income he would pay nothing. If one had an expenditure of a thou- sand dollars and an income of two thousand, he would pay one-tenth; from one having an income of ten thousand dollars and expense of one thou- sand, two-tenths would be exacted. ... If the in- come were two hundred thousand dollars and the expense ten thousand, then the community would exact one-half.
"From this general store house the less fortunate members of the commonwealth would draw to secure their share of the common welfare.
"There would be no poverty in the community. Orphans, cripples, the poor, the blind, the deaf, the aged, the helpless would be looked after. The peo- ple themselves would elect trustees for the admin- istration of the public trust.
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO POLITICS 133
" Whatever surplus there might be after all were provided for would go to the national exchequer. For the large cities, such a plan would be carried out on a much more extended scale.
"Under this system every member of the com- munity would live in comfort, without fear and without being under obligations to any.
"Degrees or grades would not be abolished. These would be necessary, as in an army it is neces- sary to have marshals, generals, colonels, sergeants and privates. But notwithstanding the grades, all would have the right to share in the general well being.
"The earth can be made a Paradise! Let all the servants of God ever strive that such a great hap- piness may accrue to the world of humanity."
As regards the political problem which to-day stands as the one World Issue the problem of International Peace we have these illuminating words from Abdul Baha. They were written in a Tablet to the Central Organization for a Durable Peace, The Hague, Holland, and dated Haifa, Palestine, December 17th, 1919. It is interesting to note, in passing, that the above date was that of the time when, on account of the strange alignment of the planets, many people thought "the world was coming to an end." Cosmic thought teaches us clearly enough that the only "worlds" which ever "come to an end" are the worlds of consciousness the cycles of civilization measured by subjective be-
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liefs, attitudes, degrees of knowledge, etc. Decem- ber 17th, 1919, therefore, may be taken to mark the end of the world's necessity to believe in War!
To quote from the above Tablet:
"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. Every just one bears witness to this, and adores that esteemed Assembly (the Central Organization for a Durable Peace) because its aim is that this dark- ness may be changed into light, this blood-thirstiness into kindness, this torment into bliss, this hardship into ease, and this hatred and enmity into fellow- ship and love. Therefore, the effort of those esteemed souls is worthy of praise and commenda- tion.
"But the wise souls who are aware of the essential relationship 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 im- portant 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 Baha'o'llah, fifty years ago, expounded this question of Universal Peace at a time when he was confined in the fortress of Acca and was wronged and imprisoned. He wrote
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about this important matter of Universal Peace to all the great sovereigns of the world, and established it among his friends in the East. The horizon of the East was in utter darkness, nations displayed the utmost hatred and enmity toward each other, re- ligions thirsted for each other's blood, and it was darkness upon darkness. At such a time His Holi- ness Baha'o'llah shone forth like the sun from the horizon of the East and illumined Persia with the lights of these teachings. . . .
"The scope of Universal Peace must be such that all the communities and religions may find their highest wish realized in it. At present the teachings of His Holiness Baha'o'llah are such that all the communities of the world, whether religious, politi- cal or ethical, ancient or modern, find in the teach- ings of Baha'o'llah the expression of their highest wish. . . .
"For example, the question of Universal Peace, about which His Holiness Baha'o'llah says that the Supreme Tribunal must be established: although the League of Nations has been brought into exist- ence, yet it is incapable of establishing Universal Peace. But the Supreme Tribunal which His Holiness Bifha'o'llah 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, their parlia- ments should elect two or three persons who are the choicest men of that nation, and are well in-
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formed concerning international laws and the rela- tions between governments and aware of the es- sential needs of the world of humanity in this day. The number of these representatives 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 ques- tion, 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 Su- preme 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. . . . "To-day nothing but the power of the Word of
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God which encompasses the realities of things can bring the thoughts, the minds, the hearts and the spirits under the shade of One Tree. He is the potent in all things, the Vivifier of souls, the Pre- server and the Controller of the world of mankind. Praise be to God, in this day the light of the Word of God has shone forth upon all regions, and from all sects, communities, nations, tribes, peoples, re- ligions and denominations, souls have gathered to- gether under the shadow of the Word of Oneness and have in the most intimate fellowship united and harmonized!"
To quote from another Tablet of Abdul Baha which Abdul Baha himself enclosed with the above Tablet addressed to the Central Organization for a Durable Peace.
"The Blessed Beauty (Baha'o'llah) said: All are the fruits of one tree and the leaves of one branch. . . . Thus the friends of God must mani- fest the mercy of the Compassionate Lord in the world of existence and must show forth the bounty of the visible and invisible King ... O ye dear friends! The darkness of unfaithfulness has en- shrouded the earth and the illumination of faithful- ness has become concealed. . . . The edifice of man is shattered. ... In all regions friendship and up- rightness are denounced, and reconciliation and re- gard for truth are despised. The herald of peace, reformation, love and reconciliation is the Religion of the Blessed Beauty which has pitched its tent on
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the apex of the world (of consciousness) and pro- claimed its summons to the people.
"Then, O ye friends of God! Appreciate the value of this precious Revelation, move and act in accordance with it and walk in the straight path and the right way. Show it to the people. Raise the melody of the Kingdom and spread abroad the teachings and ordinances of the loving Lord so that the world may become another world, the darkened earth may become illumined and the dead body of the people may obtain new life. Every soul may seek everlasting life through the breath of the Merciful. Life in this mortal world will quickly come to an end, and this earthly glory, wealth, com- fort and happiness will soon vanish and be no more. Summon ye the people to God and call the souls to the manners and conduct of the Supreme Con- course. . . . Every soul of the friends of God must concentrate his mind on this, that he may manifest the mercy of God and the bounty of the Forgiving One. He must do good to every soul whom he en- counters, and render benefit to him, becoming the cause of improving the morals and correcting the thoughts so that the light of guidance may shine forth and the bounty of His Holiness the Merciful One may encompass. Love is light in whatsoever house it may shine, and enmity is darkness in what- soever abode it dwell." ABDUL BAHA.
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND NEW THOUGHT
The Christian Science Movement and the various groups generally known as followers of New Thought suffer particularly from the fact already pointed out in this book, namely that term- inology and organization blind us all to each other's spiritual reality. Thus among the Christian Scien- tists and New Thought groups there are many who regard their membership as an opportunity to ac- quire merely a new and superior method to attain material wealth, comfort, health and ease. Such people seriously vitiate the real purpose of the great Source of Reality seriously abuse the cos- mic forces which otherwise, without these people, would undoubtedly be manifested far more near to its real purity than it can be manifested now.
When the Sun of Truth arose, the power of the spirit was forevermore firmly established over the power of th^ flesh. This "earth consciousness" was transformed into "heaven consciousness" by that Divine Decree. The human founders of Christian Science and New Thought therefore are seen clearly to have put into active operation the reality of "heaven consciousness." They are to be regarded
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as among the mightiest proofs of the Cause of God. So, considering the meaning of Spiritual Reality as a whole, we can begin to realize how far certain members of these organizations have attempted to draw them from their divine purpose. For the "heaven consciousness" was established not to per- mit merely a new attainment of physical health and material prosperity, but to render it possible for pure men and women everywhere to attain Reality to live the new life of God. Did Christ manifest " money consciousness" did He use His power to turn away one drop from the cup of suffering? Rather did Christ manifest the correct way for us all to employ our spiritual power. For the Cosmic Law only makes the physical world an unreality to open gates to a world of spiritual reality.
No more tremendous passage exists in any of the world's Scriptures than that message sent by Baha'- o'llah, imprisoned and condemned, to the Shah of Persia, at that time one of the most absolute of monarchs. The contrast between material and spiritual glory, between temporal and eternal power, is etched upon the heart beyond forget:
"I was asleep on my couch. The breaths of my Lord, the Merciful, passed by me and awakened me, and commanded me to proclaim (His Cause) be- tween heaven and earth. This was not of me, but of God, and to this bear witness the denizens of the realms of His power and His kingdom, and the inhabitants of the cities of His glory. I am not im-
BAHAI MESSAGE TO CHRISTIAN SCIENCE HI
patient of calamities in His way, nor of afflictions which are as a morning shower to His green pas- ture, and as a wick for His lamp whereby heaven and earth are illumined.
"Shall that which anyone hath of wealth endure unto him, or prevail tomorrow with him who hold- eth his forelock? If any should look upon those who sleep under monuments and keep company with the dust, can he distinguish the bones of the king's skull from the knuckles of the slave? No, by the King of Kings!. . . Where is the keenness of their glances, the sharpness of their vision, the soundness of their understanding? By God, distinction is removed, save from him who fulfilled righteousness and judged with equity. . . . Alas! All have been laid waste, and the decree of God hath rendered them as scattered dust! Emptied is what they treasured up, and dissipated is what they collected, and dis- persed is what they concealed. They have become such that thou seest naught but their empty places, their gaping roofs, their uprooted beams, their new things waxed old. As for the discerning man, verily wealth will not divert him from regarding the end ; and as for the prudent man, riches will not withhold him from burning toward God, the Rich, the Ex- alted. . . . Where are they at whose bounty treas- ures were consumed, by whose openhandedness and generosity the ocean was outdone? . . . Woe unto them! They have descended to the abyss and be- come companions to the pebbles; to-day no men-
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tion is heard of them nor any sound; nothing is known of them nor any hint. Will the people dis- pute it while they behold it? Will they deny while they know it? I know not in what valley they wander erringly; do they not see that they depart and have no return? How long will they be de- scending and ascending, spiritually rising and fall- ing? Has the time not yet come to those who be- lieve, for their hearts to become humble for the re- membrance of God? . . . Alas! Naught is reaped but what is sown, and naught is taken but what is laid up, save by the grace of God and His com- passion. . . . Have we any good works whereby defects shall be removed or which shall bring us near unto the Lord of causes? We ask God to deal with us according to His grace, not according to His justice, and to make us of those who turn toward Him and are severed from all save Him."
Abdul Baha constantly reminds us of the true Christian Science, the true New Thought:
"All that has been created is for man, who is at the apex of creation and who must be thankful for the divine bestowals. All material things are for us, so that through our gratitude we may learn to understand life as a divine benefit. If* we are dis- gusted with life, we are ingrates, for our material and spiritual existence are the outward evidences of the divine mercy. Therefore we must be happy and pass our time in praises, appreciating all things. But there is something else detachment. We can
BAHAI MESSAGE TO CHRISTIAN SCIENCE US
appreciate, without attaching ourselves to the things of this world.
"It sometimes happens that if a man loses his fortune he is so disheartened that he dies or becomes insane. While enjoying the things of this world, we must remember that perhaps some day we shall have to do without them. Attach not thyself to anything unless in it thou seest the reality of God. This is the first step into the court of eternity. The earth life lasts but a short time, even its benefits are transitory; that which is temporary does not deserve our heart's attachment.
"Material favors sometimes deprive us of spiritual favors, and material rest of spiritual rest. A rich man said to Christ, 'I would fain be thy dis- ciple/ 'Go and put into practise the ten command- ments/ replied the Christ. 'But I know them by heart and have always practised them/ 'Then sell what thou hast and take up thy cross and follow me/ The man returned to his home. But the rich who are attracted through their hearts have the spark and are like unto brilliant torches. Baha'o'llah has spoken of the importance of this station. Certain rich ones have sacrificed their possessions and even their lives for this Cause. Riches were not an ob- stacle for them, and they are like stars in the heavens of both worlds flames of reality.
"Detachment does not consist in setting fire to one's house, or becoming bankrupt, or throwing one's fortune out of the window, or even in giving
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away all one's possessions. Detachment consists in refraining from letting our possessions possess us. A prosperous merchant who is not attached to his business knows detachment. A banker whose occu- pation does not prevent him from serving humanity is detached. A poor man can be attached to a small thing.
"May our spirit be at rest!
"God has given man a heart, and the heart must have some attachment. We have proved that noth- ing is completely worthy of our heart's devotion save reality, for all else is destined to perish. There- fore the heart is never at rest, and never finds real joy and happiness until it attaches itself to the eternal. How foolish the bird that builds its nest in a tree that may perish, when it could build its nest in an ever-verdant garden of paradise.
"Man must attach himself to an infinite reality, so that his glory, his joy, and his progress may be infinite. Only the spirit is real; everything else is as shadow. All bodies disintegrate in the end; only reality subsists. All physical perfections come to an end; but the divine virtues are infinite. . . .
"Therefore let us yearn for the kingdom of God, so that our works may bear eternal frliit. Other- wise the flower will be lost. Attach your hearts to Baha'o'llah. He is the eternal Glory of God. Then, from day to day, you will become more en- lightened; day by day your power will increase; day by day your work will become universal, and
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day by day your horizon will broaden, until in the end they will embrace the universe. "Glory be upon the people of Glory!"
THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO THEOSOPHY
No more penetrating or interesting talks were delivered in Europe and America by Abdul Baha than those uttered as guest of Theosophical So- cieties in various cities.
The Theosophist who brings his wealth of knowl- edge to the investigation of Bahai Principles, will undoubtedly appreciate that the power of the Cause of God is that inspiration on the plane of conscious- ness which animates and revives the thought body created by his own profound study. Here is the "Doctrine of the Heart'* which all teachers have declared to be so much more important than the "Doctrine of the Eye."
When the Sun of Truth arose, it necessarily cast a shadow behind each of our conscious activities. A lesser activity cast a lesser shadow, but a greater activity cast a greater shadow. This is that "nega- tive" against which H. P. B. constantly warned her students.
The study, or development, implied by the true Theosophy is unquestionably the greatest activity on the plane of consciousness at the present time. For Theosophy H. P. B.'s Theosophy rises
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THE BAHAI MESSAGE TO THEOSOPHY 147
like a tremendous mountain from the low levels of Western thought. The positive side of Theosophy is therefore shining the brightest in the light of the Spiritual Sun ; but since this is so, the negative side must likewise stand in the deepest gloom.
The following Tablet by Baha'o'llah is on the subject of Divine Manifestation.
"Know thou verily, the Manifestation is not com- posed of the four elements (earth, air, fire and wa- ter) nay, rather He is the Mystery of Oneness of the Ancient Identity, the Eternal Essence, the Un- knowable Reality, and that verily He can never be comprehended by any other save Himself.
"He is a Sea upon which no one can sail "inas- much as all that thou mayest see in the heaven and earth is created by His Word, He is not a mani- festation in Himself, but rather He is a Manifesta- tion in His Identity; and that is what We have mentioned to thee in the Divine Mystery and the Eternal Essence. As to the bodies, verily they are as thrones for His Manifestations of which no one is informed save Himself.
"These bodies, though they have appeared in the world of creation in the temples in which thou hast them (Moses, Jesus, Mohamet, etc.), yet wert thou to gaze upon them with the eye of Reality and in- nate consciousness thou too wouldst testify that al- though They are created from the elements yet They are sanctified from them to such an extent that there is no similitude between Them and other
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bodies. Consider the diamond: can the stones be compared to it?
"Were they not to be Their temples, the bodies of His servants would not have been created! Wert thou minutely to consider thou wouldst find that verily all in the heaven and earth are created from Their outward temples, and that all the worlds of Thy Lord seek help from the appearance of the Manifestations of God. In every world He ap- pears according to the capacity of that world.
"In the world of Spirit He manifests Himself to them and appears unto them with the signs of Spirit.
"So, likewise, in bodies, in the world of Names and Attributes and in the worlds which are not known to any save God. All of these worlds have their position with relation to the Manifestation. He appears unto them in His form so that He, their Lord, may direct them and draw them nearer to the seat of His Command, and cause them to attain to that which was ordained for them. As His Reality is not known, so all that which is re- lated to Him is not known, except to a certain degree. Consider the goldsmith; verily he makes a ring, and although he is its maker y?t he adorns his finger with it. Likewise through God the Ex- alted appears the clothing of the creatures. Verily these bodies are the Thrones of the Merciful One. They have no like in creation nor any equal in the world of emanation.
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"From their elements all has appeared in such wise that thou wilt find that verily from Their Fire the fire hath appeared in the universe and hath spoken in the lofty Sinai to Moses, and from Their Waters thou findest every soul living and immortal.
"So likewise consider Its other elements, but with manifest certainty. . . . Every power is in This, wert thou to reflect; every grace is in This wert thou of those who perceive. . . .
"I beg of God to manifest His Cause in all coun- tries that the servants may attain such a position that He may explain to them that which He desires without veiling or concealment.
"By My Life, O friend, wert thou to taste such fruits from the verdure of these hyacinths which are planted in the grounds of knowledge, near the manifestation of the lights of the Essence in the mirrors of Names and Attributes, yearning will take the reins of patience and fortitude from thy grasp, thy soul will stir through the flashes of lights, will uplift thee out of the earthly abode unto the original, divine abode in the center of significances ; and will cause thee to ascend unto such a state that thou wilt fly away in the air just as thou wouldst walk on th3 ground, and run on the water even as thou wouldst on the earth.
"Peace be upon those who follow guidance!"
BAHA'O'LLAH.
On April 12th, 1913, Abdul Baha attended a
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meeting of the Star of the East in the headquarters of the Theosophical Society, Budapest, Hungary.
This meeting was opened by five minutes of sil- ence, after which the president read the following prayer for the coming of the Universal Teacher: Master of the Great White Lodge, Lord of the re- ligions of the world ! Come down again to the earth that needs Thee, and help the nations which are longing for Thy presence. Speak the word of Peace, that the people may cease from hostilities. Speak the word of Brotherhood, that the warring classes and castes may know themselves as one. Come in the might of Thy Love. Come in the splendor of Thy Power, and save the world that is longing for Thy coming. Thou art the teacher alike of angels and of men!
To the Theosophists of Budapest, Abdul Baha gave this message: "As to the coming of the Great Master. His appearance is dependent upon the realization of certain conditions. Investigate the reality, and in whomsoever those conditions are ful- filled, know ye of a certainty that He is the Great Master.
"First. The Great Master will be the educator of the world of humanity.
"Second. His teachings must be universal and confer illumination upon mankind.
"Third. His knowledge must be innate and spontaneous, and not acquired knowledge.
"Fourth. He must answer the questions of all
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the sages, solve all the difficult problems of human- ity, and be able to withstand all the persecutions and sufferings heaped upon Him.
"Fifth. He must be a joy-bringer and the herald of the Kingdom of Happiness.
"Sixth. His knowledge must be infinite and His wisdom all-comprehensive.
"Seventh. The penetration of His word and the potency of His influence must be so great as to humble even His worst enemies.
"Eighth. Sorrows and tribulations must not vex Him. His courage and conviction must be godlike. Day by day He must become firmer and more zcr ous.
"Ninth. He must be the establisher of universal civilization, the unifier of religions, the standard- bearer of universal peace and the embodiment of all the highest and noblest virtues of the world of humanity.
"Wherever you find these conditions realized in a human temple, turn to Him for guidance and illumination."
PART TWO
"Praise be to God that the radiant century hath come. Praise be to God, the springtime of eternity hath pitched its tent. Praise be to God f this is the age of the discovery of the realities of things. Verily I say unto you, this age is the age of science. This age is the age of the appearance of truth. This age is the age of the extension of the sphere of thought. This age is the greatest divine age. This age is the age of everlasting life. This age is the age of the breaths of the Holy Spirit. This age is the age of the flowering of all the hidden virtues of the world of humanity.
"May you receive these bounties day by day. Day by day may you draw nearer unto God. May you be submerged in the sea of these irridescent lights. May you be characterised by these praiseworthy virtues.
"This is the ultimate goal of human life! This is the fruit of existence! This is the brilliant pearl of cosmic conscious- ness! This is the shining star of spiritual destiny! "
ABDUL BAHA.
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"By God, who is the only God, and there is no God but He, this servant swears the masters did not come that man should adore them, or worship them, or acknowledge their prophet- hood. 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" ABDUL BAHA.
Few people to-day would agree with the state- ment of Socrates, that to know the truth is to live the truth. For we see on all sides a science that does not explain, and a religion that cannot inspire.
But since Socrates' own life exemplified perfectly his statement about life, we must acknowledge that in him at least, truth was identical with will.
Now this condition glorifies both truth and will, perfecting knowledge through power, perfecting will through wisdom. If we consider this condition carefully, we must acknowledge further that it was possessed by Paul, representative of Christianity, and by Daniel, representing ancient Chaldea. It was possessed also by Emerson, the soul of the American people, and a little investigation will show this condition manifested likewise by men of every religion and race in the world.
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But for the most part we moderns have lost the guidance of this universal human ideal, this true state and dignity of man the meeting and fusing of truth and will which nevertheless remains as the end of all study and the beginning of all desire.
How was the ideal lost ? By confusing the com- mon purpose of those masters of wisdom, those sources of faith, those guiders of will, those lords of love, Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, Moses, Jesus, Mohamet. By blindly calling them GOD instead of recognizing them as Manifestations of God. By prostituting their pure influence to secure material authority. By no less blindly rejecting their instruction in order to create our own god from the nature around ns or from the imagination within.
How can the ideal be restored? Surely, through striving to guide with greater wisdom the action of will that compass of creative power we have polarized by the magnet of selfish desire. Surely, through striving to bring greater concentration of will to our thoughts those revelators of Self which we have allowed only to mirror the changing unreality of the world.
Now the root of will is desire, implanted in the heart as sensation, where left without guidance it springs up as a succession of fruitless weeds. Sen- sation is not real, but a continuous mirage of reality, a whirlpool sucking in and destroying every aspira- tion and every potency of human life. Hence it is
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to the heart that the masters first of all speak, to attract desire from the sensational to the spiritual self. For sensation is the darkness of the heart spirit, or love, is light. And when the masters suc- ceed with a man, this light appears in the heart like a sun. From the illumination of this inner sun the mind is lighted by reflection, for the mind is to the heart as moon to sun. So as the mind has no light of itself, wisdom is concealed until love or light is made to appear from the purification of the heart.- On the other hand, love is not love unti] it is also understanding truth.
There is no hidden wisdom and mystery of the soul and of the universe but it becomes manifest even to uneducated men, once desire is detached from sensation, and will is confirmed in the real self of spirit. Once a man desires life eternal rather than life physical or material, he inherits of his own right a wisdom transcending all the theories of the schools. Realizing that the Manifestation alone has the true science of life, and patiently learning that science, a man experiences the greater self which is the soul, and the greater universe where the soul lives. To him is revealed the eternity of the soul's past existence, and the eternity it may still exist. And he knows why the heart, first of all, must be disciplined before knowledge can be- come truth. He learns also how the heart's further discipline can be changed from pain to joy. Gladly he assumes the purification of the will which he
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finds essential to full and enduring citizenship in that spiritual world.
So the end of knowledge is revealed as the end of love. But it is so revealed only by the masters whose Word conveys a creative power we others have lost or never acquired. Of ourselves, and in ourselves, we cannot will away sensation for of sensation are our very wills composed. Of ourselves, and in ourselves, we cannot think truth for truth is the reflection of love. In our bodies of personal desire and material knowledge, faith perishes, like dry wood in flame.
But as the masters are as the masters teach no distinction can be made between desire, will, knowledge, truth, love, faith. These very distinc- tions record our captivity they do not obtain where the fleshly veil has been rent asunder and reality becomes manifest. So we learn by what bounty it is as we receive from the masters the great Message that "God is not mocked" by the claims of churches which have lost truth, nor by the claims of scientists who have lost love. For the angel whose flaming sword bars the Garden to un- worthy intruders is this immutable law: Ye cannot love until ye know, and ye cannot kn6w until ye love.
Now pure hearts and seeing minds are ever con- scious of this providential decree. Again and again they turn back to one or other of the Manifesta- tions in order to learn how to step across the gulf
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which the world has dug between love and knowl- edge, truth and will. A consuming ardor drives them on to experience within themselves the illumi- nation, the certitude, experienced by many like themselves at times when any of the Manifestations walked among mankind. They feel instinctively that with the Manifestation, and with the Mani- festation alone, lies the secret of immortality yea, even the secrets of true science which is the right and privilege of the awakened soul. Mind and heart they long to enter the serene universal fellowship of those men who, receiving the Message, stand forth through every age in the real nature of God-created mankind.
For you who desire, however dimly and occasion- ally, to find a true purpose for your existence and with that purpose a way of fulfillment the Bahai Message comes as a right you should never relinquish, and a privilege you can never outgrow.
What is the Bahai Message? The Bahai Message is the message of all the masters , for it is delivered to us by the master of all the masters who have gone before. From him even the masters came, and to him they returned. For him they labored pre- paring in mysterious ways all things that all things might be ready to welcome his Day. The utmost that any previous master gave was the love which is his recognition, and the? knowledge which is capacity to be taught by him. Amid the falling of
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kingdoms, he is King. Amid the wars of nations, he is Unity. Amid the confusion of sciences, he is Truth. Amid the darkness of religions, he is the Glory of God.
So the words that follow are to be pondered in the deepest chambers of the heart, until light come, the Light which is Life. Do not hasten through them, for it is personal desire that stumbles, and it is acquired knowledge that blinds. Be certain ever that their purpose is to resurrect the dead soul their authority encircles both East and West their power is bringing in the true civilization throughout the world.
(From the Words of Baka'o'llah.)
Whosoever wisheth, let Mm advance, and who- soever wisheth, let him deny; verily God is inde- pendent of him and of that which he may see and witness.
God, singly and alone, abideth in His Place which is Holy above space and time, mention and utterance, sign, description and definition, height and depth.
God hath been and is everlastingly hidden in His Own Essence and will be eternally concealed from eyes and sight in His Identity. Nay, there hath not ever been nor will be any connection or relation between the created beings and His word. There- fore God caused brilliant Essences of Sanctity to appear from the holy worlds of the Spirit, in human
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bodies, walking among mankind ; in accordance with His abundant mercy. These Mirrors of Sanctity fully express that Sun of Existence and Essence of Desire. Their knowledge expresses His knowl- edge, their power His power, their dominion His dominion, their beauty His beauty, and their mani- festation His Manifestation. Therefore whosoever is favored by these shining and glorious lights and hath attained to these luminous, radiant Suns of Truth during every Manifestation, hath attained the Meeting of God, and entered the city of eternal life. This station is a signed only to His Prophets and Holy Ones, because no greater and mightier than they have appeared in the realm of existence. Consequently, by neeting these Holy Lights, the "Meeting of God" is attained ; through their Knowledge, the Knowledge of God, and by their Countenance the Countenance of God. This Meet- ing can never be realized by any except in the Resurrection Day, which is the Self of God arisen in His Universal Manifestation.
O God! This is a Day the Light of which Thou hast sanctified above the sun and its effulgence. I testify that this Day is illumined by the Light of Thy Countenance and by the effulgence of the dawning Lights of Thy Manifestation.
O Thou, my God, and the Beloved of my heart! With the name of this Day Thou hast adorned Thif Tablet, which is known only to Thee. Thou hast called it "The Day of God/ 9 Nothing is to be seen
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therein but Thy Supreme Self, and naught is to be remembered save Thy sweetest Name.
The Day of the Return to God hath come; arise from your seats, and praise and glorify your Lord, the Omiscient, the Wise. He who findeth Life in this Day shall never die, and he who dieth in this Day, shall never find Life.
This is the meaning of that "resurrection" re- corded in all the Books, and which Day hath been announced to all. Consider, is there any day to be imagined greater, mightier and more excellent than this Day, that man should turn away from it and deprive himself of its bounties, pouring like the spring rain from the presence of the Merciful?
O my brother, understand then the meaning of resurrection, and purify thine ears from the say- ings of rejected people. Shouldst thou step a little way into the worlds of Severance, thou wilt testify that no day greater than this Day, and no resurrec- tion mightier than this Resurrection can be imag- ined, and that one deed in this Day is equivalent to deeds performed during a hundred thousand years.
The Pillar of God is being erected and hath be- come manifest by His providence and command. The time of former things is past and a new time has been produced, and all things are made new by the desire of God. But only a new eye can per- ceive and a new mind can comprehend this Station. The Beginning and the End bore allusion to One
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Blessed Word, and that hath come and is manifest. That Word is the Soul of the Divine Books and Epistles, which hath forever been and will be for- vermore. That Word is the key to the Most Great Divine Treasure and to the Supreme Hidden Mys- tery which hath ever been concealed behind the veil of preservation. That Word is the same Alpha and Omega prophesied of by John. Verily He is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden.
Although the purpose of learning is the attain- ment and knowledge of this station, yet all are occupied with outward learnings and desist from them not even for a moment ; closing their eyes to the essence of Knowledge and the knowable. It seems as if they had not drunk one drop from the ocean of Divine Knowledge nor attained a sprink- ling of the cloud of the Merciful Bounty. But We have consumed the greatest veil, with the saying: "Knowledge is the greatest veil."
But O my brother, when a seeker intends to turn the step of search and journeying into the path of the Knowledge of the King of Pre-existence, he must first cleanse and purify his heart which is the place of the appearance and emanation of the splendor of the hidden mysteries of Divinity, and he must cleanse and refine his breast which is the throne for the accession and establishment of the love of the Eternal Beloved from the gloomy dusts of acquired learning and from the
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allusions of satanic appearances. He must like- wise sanctify his heart from attachment to water and clay in such manner that no trace of love or hatred may remain in the heart, lest that love may cause him to incline toward a direction without guide, or that hatred prevent him from the direc- tion of reality. He should at all times trust in God, and turn away from the creatures; be severed and detached from the world of dust and united with the Lord of Lords.
When the lamp of search, effort, longing, fervor, love, rapture, attraction and devotion is enkindled in the heart, and the breeze of love blows forth from the direction of Unity, the darkness of error, doubt and uncertainty will be dispelled and the lights of Knowledge and Assurance will encompass all the pillars of existence. Then the ideal Herald will dawn as the true morn from the Divine City, with spiritual glad tidings, and awaken the heart, soul and spirit from the sleep of negligence, with the trumpet of Knowledge. Then the favors and con- firmations of the eternal Holy Spirit will impart such a new life that one will find himself the pos- sessor of a new eye, a new ear, a new heart, and a new mind, and will direct his attention to the clear, universal signs and to the hidden individual secrets. With the new eye of God he will see a door open in every atom for attainment to the stations of positive Knowledge, certain Truth, and evident Light; and will perceive in all things the mysteries df the
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splendor of Oneness and the traces of the Mani- festation of Eternity.
What shall we mention of the signs, tokens, ap- pearances and splendors ordained in that Divine City, by the command of the King of Names and Attributes! The mystery of the fire of Moses is revealed in its wonderful tulips, and the breath of the Holy Spirit of Jesus emanates from its frag- rances of holiness. It bestows wealth without gold and grants immortality without death. Those who earnestly endeavor in the way of God, after sever- ance from all else, will become so attached to that City that they will not abandon it for an instant. This City is the Revelation of God, renewed every one thousand years, more or less. For instance, in the age of Moses, it was the Pentatuch ; in the time of Jesus, the Gospel; in the day of Mohamet the Messenger of God, the Koran; and in the Day of Him whom God shall send forth, His Book, which is the return of all the books and their Guardian.
Consider how great is the value and how para- mount the importance of the Revelations in which God hath completed His perfect argument, con- summate proof, dominant power and penetrating will. To tlie people they are everlasting proof, fixed argument and shining light from the pres- ence of that Ideal King. No excellence equals them and nothing precedes them. They are the firm thread, the strong rope, the most secure handle and the inextinguishable light. Through them
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flows the river of the Divine Knowledge, and bursts the fire of the consummate Wisdom of the Eternal. This is a fire from which two effects proceed at the same time: it creates the heat of love within the people of faith, and produces the cold of heedless- ness within the people of hatred. The proof of the sun is its light which shines forth and encom- passes the world; and the argument of the shower is its bounty which renews the world with a fresh mantle. Yea! The blind realize no effect in the sun but heat, and a barren soil knoweth no bounty from the vernal mercy.
Dost thou think thy body a small thing when within it is enclosed the universe?
Cleanse the people with the water of the inner significances which We have deposited in the signs. By My Life, it is indeed the Water of Life which the Merciful One hath sent down from the Heaven of Grace for the life of the people of the world!
I testify that verily there is no God save He ! and He who hath come is verily the Hidden Mystery, the* Concealed Secret, the Most Great Book for the nations, and the Heaven of Beneficence to the world. He is the Mighty Sign among mankind, and the Dawning Place of the Highest Attributes in the world of emanation. Through Him hath ap- peared that which was concealed from all eternity and was hidden from men of discernment. Verily, He is the One whose Manifestation was announced by the Books of God in former and latter times.
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Whosoever acknowledges Him, His signs and His evidences hath verily acknowledged that which the Tongue of Grandeur hath uttered before the crea- tion of heaven and earth, and before the appearance of the Kingdom of Names. Through Him the sea of knowledge hath moved among mankind, and the running water of Wisdom hath flowed from God, the King of Days. Joy unto him who, in this Day, casts away that which is possessed by the people, and holds fast to that which is com- manded on the part of God, the King of Names and the Creator.
This world is a show without reality, and is a non-existence adorned in the form of existence. Do not attach your hearts thereto. Do not sever yourselves from the Creator, and be not of those who are heedless !
Seeking to know your own selves, which is identi- cal with knowing Myself, you will become independ- ent of all save Me, and you will see the Ocean of My Providence and the Deep of My Beneficence in yourselves with the outward and inward eye as manifest and clear as the sun shining from the Name of Abha. All things are a proof of your existence, it ye emerge from the gloomy dust of non-existence. Be not grieved at the hardships of these numbered days; for every destruction is fol- lowed by a construction, and a Paradise of Rest is concealed in every hardship.
Consider the people, their states and conditions!
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They have been anxiously awaiting, days and nights, for the One whom they were promised in the Book of God; but when the exact time had come, and the banner of the Appearance grew manifest, they turned away from God, the Mighty, the Exalted. But we announce to thee the good news of the appearance of God, of His Dominion, Might and Potency, that thou mayest rejoice and be of the thankful. Beware not to let the affairs of men trouble thee, nor the illusions of those who have rejected, as a falsehood to frighten thee, the belief of the Origin and Return. Thou art from God, and unto God shalt thou return !
O Son of Spirit! I have created thee rich. Why dost thou make thyself poor? Noble have I made thee. Why dost thou degrade thyself? Of the essence of Knowledge have I manifested thee. Why searchest for another than Me? From the clay of Love I have kneaded thee. Why seekest tliou another? Turn thy sight unto thyself, that thou mayest find Me standing within thee, Power- ful, Mighty and Supreme.
Oh ye people of the world! The virtue of this Most Great Manifestation is that We have removed from the Book whatever was the cause of differ- ence, corruption and discord, and recorded therein that which leads to unity, harmony and agreement. God manifested Himself to teach the people the truth, sincerity, religion, faith, submission, recon- ciliation, compassion, courtesy, piety; and to teach
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them how to adorn themselves with the garments of good qualities and holy deeds.
Be a lamp in darkness, a comforter in troubles, a sea to the thirsty, a refuge to the afflicted, a helper, an assistant and a succor to the oppressed. In actions and deeds be virtuous and pious. To the stranger be a home; to the sick a remedy; to him who asks for help a stronghold; to the blind be sight; to him who goes astray a pathway; to the face of truth, beauty; to the temple of faithfulness an embroidered garment ; to the house of characters and manners a throne; to the body of the world a spirit; to the hosts of justice a banner; to the horizon of good a light; to the fertile and rich ground, dew; to the sea of science an ark; to the heaven of generosity a star ; to the head of wisdom a diadem; to the forehead of time a white light; and to the tree of humility, fruitfulness.
This is that matter which shall never change. Know that in every age and dispensation all divine ordinances are changed, according to the require- ments of the time, except the law of Love which, like unto a fountain, flows always and is never over- taken by change.
Render God victorious by wisdom. Glory be upon the people of Glory!
(From the Words of Abdul Baha.)
O Lord, Thou hast said in Thy manifest Book: "God does not change that which a people have,
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until they change that which is within themselves. When men forgot God, He made them to forget their own reality/'
All the Teachings which have been given dur- ing past days are to be found in the Revelation of BahaVllah, but in addition to these this Revelation has certain new Teachings which are not to be found in any of the religious books of the past.
The oneness of the world of humanity is a Teach- ing of Baha'o'llah, for Baha'o'llah addresses Him- self to mankind, saying: "Ye are all the leaves of one tree and the drops of one ocean." That is, the world of human existence is no other than one tree, and the nations or peoples are like unto different branches thereof. Thus Baha'o'llah presented the fact of the oneness of the world of humanity, while in all the past religious books humanity has been divided into two parts, one part looked upon as belonging to the faithful, the other part as belong- ing to the irreligious and infidel ; the first part con- signed to the Mercy of their Creator, the second part considered as objects of the Creator's Wrath.
But His Holiness Baha'o'llah proclaimed the Oneness of the world of humanity, and this Teach- ing is unique to the Teachings of BaKa'o'llah, for He submerged all mankind in the sea of Divine Generosity. At most, some of the people are asleep they need to be awakened. Some are ill they need to be healed. Some are children they need to be trained.
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A second Teaching newly revealed by Baha'o 9 - llah is this: the injunction to investigate the Truth that is, men are commanded not to follow blindly the ways of their ancestors. Nay, each must see with his own eyes, hear with his own ears, investigate the Truth for himself that he may at- tain the Truth by himself.
A third Teaching of BahaVllah which is new for this Day; that the foundation of all the religions of God is one and the same foundation, and that Oneness is the Truth, and the Truth is One, and cannot be made subject to division and plurality.
The fourth Teaching of Baha'o'llah special to this Day is that Religion must be the cause of unity, harmony and accord among men. If religion be the cause of inharmony, or leads men to separate them- selves each from the other, creating conflict be- tween them then Baha'o'llah declares that irre- ligion is better than Religion.
A fifth Teaching of Baha'o'llah is new in this Day: that Religion must be in accord with science and reason. If a religion is not in conformity with science and reason then it is superstition.
The sixth new Teaching of Baha'o'llah is the equality between men and women. All past Re- ligions have established men above women.
The seventh new Teaching of Baha'o'llah is that prejudice .and fanaticism be it religious, sec- tarian, sectional, denominational or patriotic is destructive of the foundation of human solidarity;
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wherefore men should release themselves from such bonds in order that the oneness of the world of humanity may become manifest.
The eighth of His Teachings is Universal Peace; that all men and nations should make peace; that there shall be a Universal Peace amongst govern- ments, Universal Peace amongst Religions, Uni- versal Peace amongst races.
The ninth of these special Teachings is that all mankind men and women everywhere should acquire secular and spiritual knowledge, and that this education is one of the necessities of Religion.
The tenth Teaching concerns the solution of the economic question ; for no religious books of the past Prophets speak of the economic question, while this problem has been thoroughly solved in the Teach- ings of Baha'o'llah.
The eleventh is the organization called the House of Justice, which is endowed with a political as well as spiritual function, and embodies both functions, and is protected by the preserving Power of Baha'o'llah Himself. A Universal or World House of Justice shall be established. That which it orders shall be the truth in explaining the com- mands of Baha'o'llah, and that which the House of Justice ordains concerning the commands of Baha'o'llah shall be observed by all.
But as to the most characteristic and specific Teaching which belongs to the Revelation of Baha'o'llah, which is new and not given by any of
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the Prophets of the past: it is the Teaching regard- ing the Center of the Covenant. To guard against all manner of differences, Baha'o'llah entered into a Covenant with all the people of the world, indi- cating the Person of the Interpreter of His Teach- ings. Be ye cognizant of this !
The world had, through rotten, outdated and blind imitations of truth, become like unto a dark night. The foundations of the Teachings of God had been totally forgotten. People had adhered to the shell and neglected the kernel. The nations, like wornout garments, had fallen into pitiful decay.
In this intense darkness the light of the Teach- ings of Baha'o'llah appeared and adorned the body of the world with a new robe. This new robe is the Divine Principles. A new cycle dawned with Baha'o'llah; creation was renewed; the world of humanity received a new spirit; the season of autumn passed away and the life-giving springtime was come. Everything was renewed. Sciences were reborn, thought remodeled, manners and habits changed, industry revolutionized, inventions multiplied.
All these renovations originate in the renewal of the splendid graces of the Lord of the Kingdom through which the universe was inspired. There- fore the essential matter is to release people entirely from traditional thoughts, so that their minds may be entirely concentrated in the new teachings.
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The teachings of BahaVllah constitute the spirit of the age and the light of this century.
Ye should strive with heart and soul so that those who are negligent may become cognizant, those who are asleep may become awakened, those who are ignorant may obtain wisdom, those who are blind may obtain sight, those who are deaf may re- ceive hearing, and those who are dead may be re- vived. Ye should exhibit such strength of stead- fastness as to astonish the world. The heavenly confirmations are with you in service to the Cause of God.
The Teachings of Baha'o'llah, like unto Spirit, shall penetrate the dead body of the world, and like unto an artery shall beat through the heart of the five continents
"O concourse of creation! O people, construct homes or houses, in the most beautiful fashion pos- sible, in every city and every land. In the Name of the Lord of Religion, adorn them with that which beseemeth them, not with pictures or paint- ings. Then commemorate the Lord, the Merciful, the Clement, in spirit and fragrance. Verily, by His mention, by this commemoration, the breasts shall be dilated, the eyes illumined, and hearts gladdened, and thus shall you pray the Orient of Praises in the Mashrekol-Azkar."-^- BAHA'O'LLAH.
THE BAHAI TEMPLE
"When these institutions college, hospital, hospice, estab- lishments for the incurables, the university for the study of the higher sciences and giving post-graduate courses, and other philanthropic buildings are constructed, its doors will be open to all the nations and to all religions. There will be drawn absolutely no line of demarcation. Its charities will be dispensed irrespective of color and race. Its gates will be flung open to mankind, with prejudice toward none, love for all; the central building will be devoted to the purpose of prayer and worship. Thus for the first time religion will become harmonized with science and science will be the handmaid of religion, both showering their material and spiritual gifts on all humanity. In this way the people will be lifted out of the quagmires of slothfulness and bigotries. . . . When the foundation of the Mashrckol-Azkar is laid in America, and that Divine Edifice is completed, a most wonder- ful and thrilling motion will appear in the world of existence. The Mashrekol-Azkar will become the center around which all these universal Bahai activities will be clustered. From that point of light, the spirit of teaching, spreading the Cause of God and promoting the Teachings of God will permeate to all parts of the world." ABDUL BAIIA.
The progress of modern civilization may be de- fined as the gradual drawing away of all our social institutions from their once organic unity with the Church. Thus education and scientific activities have become separate, and thus medicine and hos- pital treatment have become separate. First were separated the functions of Church and State, and
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THE BAHAI TEMPLE
Designed by Louis Bourgeois and Dedicated to the Ideal of World Unity and Peace
THE BAHAI TEMPLE 177
from this fundamental separation all other separa- tions have logically and inevitably followed.
This progress took place because in the State, and in the lesser institutions which make up modern society, a seed of development was latent which the Church could not fructify which the Church rather tended to resist. Science could not advance, for example, until the scientist was able to approach his special field of investigation in absolute mental freedom in freedom to derive laws from the data investigated rather than imposed upon it by a priori assumptions.
Born into a society thus separated as to its differ- ent functions and institutions, we can with difficulty realize a society which contains all these functions and institutions in a state of unity and organic inter-relation.
Yet it is obvious enough that modern society is weakened at the very roots of its existence by this separation of science and religion, education and religion, hygiene and religion. Our religions fail of their purpose because they conflict with facts and principles thoroughly established by scientific proofs; and our science fails in its application to regenerate the world's life because behind it stands no irresistible driving force of faith and love. Thus science creates in- struments of destruction just as willingly as it creates instruments of well being, because the philosophic realization that war is no longer even
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materially effective is a realization we keep in a separate compartment of our minds.
Now the power behind the Bahai Movement is that it restores this organic unity between all the various social functions, activities and institutions. But the Bahai Movement restores it upon an abso- lutely new basis a basis in which religion harmon- izes in every detail with science, and science in turn derives its purpose from the spiritual realization of the oneness of -humanity in the cosmic plan of God.
The re-unification of science and religion in- volving a re-unification of the inherent purposes of state, industry, education, etc. is the unique quality of the present day. And what is called the "Bahai Temple" symbolizes this unique quality or character of the age.
But this Temple is more than an abstract symbol, even though a true and faithful reflection of the spirit of the age. It is a concretion of that spirit an organ by which that spirit is enabled to contact and hence influence social life at all points. It is the body of the Cause of God, the material BahaV- llah and Abdul Baha visibly and invisibly causing the social organization to progress. It is the first nucleus of the Divine Civilization, the foetal point around which that Civilization will grow to its full world-stature.
The spiritually minded person who desires a true index to the progress of Reality in this age, may well adopt the Bahai Temple as that index. For
THE BAHAI TEMPLE 179
this Temple will not and cannot be constructed merely by financial contributions. It will come into being materially step by step according as the new cosmic Reality is felt in the minds and hearts of men. Already the Bahai Temple has this dis- tinction: contributions have been made to it by representatives of a greater number of races, creeds, classes and nationalities than have ever united to further any other plan. Its appeal triumphs over every false distinction and division imposed upon mankind by the limitations of the past.
Inasmuch as the Bahai Temple will inevitably be compared with other Temples or churches, past and present, its unique elements can best be de- scribed by contrasting them with the characteristics shared by other religious edifices.
There are four basic principles of difference which point the necessity for erecting such a Tem- ple at the present time.
First let us consider the powerful movement going on to accomplish religious unity. The main- spring of this movement toward unity is the grow- ing realization that spiritual truth is, and must ever be, universal in its applications. That is, if the spiritual life of mankind is to have a firm founda- tion in this new era of knowledge, it must clearly reflect the one eternal Source rather than the acci- dental, ever-changing and manifold differences in the world's physical existence. To-day, religion can no longer serve to endorse national, racial, class
180 BAHAI
or theological distinctions, since these distinctions have become a positive danger to mankind. The essence of love, which is the only convincing proof of any religion, alone can enable us to rise above momentary political and economic influences and assume the station of obedience to the Divine Prin- ciples. But historical reasons, the power of associa- tion the momentum of social custom and the self- preservative instinct inherent in materialistic or- ganizations as in animal bodies unhappily pre- vents any existing church from serving as the nucleus of unity, the sign of universality and the evidence of the oneness of mankind.
Therefore the Bahai Temple now comes into being, unprejudiced for or against any existing group, free from historical limitations, and from its very foundation consecrated to the ideal of unity. And what is unity but* the very triumph and vindi- cation of spiritual love? When the Bahai Temple is completed, we shall have a holy place where mem- bers of every race, creed and class can gather in worship to the one God. This physical facility of unity is vitally important at the present time, since the only thing that actually prevents the world from attaining unity is the predominant influence of institutions committed to a particular, a local, and a group purpose rather than to a universal pur- pose. The conviction of each Bahai is that this Temple, when completed, will so manifest the power and inspirations arising from unprejudiced
THE BAHAI TEMPLE 181
universal worship, that the world's consciousness will never again be able to return to any form of division in the expression of the soul's life. That which is not for all, to-day can never be of benefit to a single one. Consequently the Bahai Temple now being erected in Chicago will be followed by others throughout this country and Europe.
The second principle exemplified by the Bahai Temple and not a part of other religious edifices is that here the spiritual activity of man is not sepa- rated from his other activities, but, on the contrary, is placed at the center of all as the inspiration and guide of all. According to the Bahai Revela- tion, the principle of unity in the world's collective life can only emanate as the result of unity within consciousness itself. That is, all forms of social activity such as art, science, education, healing, etc., are regarded as having a spiritual significance. Society is weakened at its foundations by the divi- sions existing between art, science, education, gov- ernment, economics as the result of the inner divi- sion of each of these from religion from God. As the soul is the life of the body, communicating the sustaining powers of the universe to mind and limbs, so in this Revelation the Temple manifests once more the lost relationship between religion, science, government, art, economics and other social functions. The view of the Bahai Temple illus- trated in newspapers and magazines shows only the central edifice the place of worship the Holy
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of Holies. But when the Bahai Temple is pleted, each of its nine sides will face a separate structure devoted to some great social function such as the study of sciences and arts, healing, the care of the poor and orphans, etc.
For to-day, after ages of separation, we stand at the threshold of the union of science and religion. To realize the organic nature of that union, we have only to perceive consciousness as a twofold instru- ment adapted for making effective contacts with the great, all-surrounding universe, a receiving station, as it were, for the spiritual vibrations which "pervade the universe" and an instrument, on the other hand, adapted to registering its own will upon the universe and mankind. Obviously, if conscious- ness makes no effort to be receptive to God, the will it registers must be an evil will. On the other hand, a consciousness might experience the reality of love, yet possess very inadequate facilities for expressing this reality for mankind.
By the "equality of men and women in this day" (one of the great principles of Baha'o'llah) we have the perfect symbol in the visible world of the union of science and religion in the invisible world of consciousness. Each sex objectifies oi'*e aspect of mind itself; man representing the positive and women the receptive aspect. Hitherto, religious philosophy has been made obscure by the use of many terms to signify consciousness as, for ex- ample, "mind," "soul," "heart," "spirit." In reality,
THE BAHAI TEMPLE 183
as BahaVllah has written, these are but the several aspects of the one faculty. When consciousness is turned in one direction, it is "mind;' when turned in another direction, it is "heart;' and "soul" and "spirit" are but lower and higher levels of spiritual reality tapped by consciousness in its receptive capacity.
Therefore, until the consciousness of mankind receives, and grows aware of, and is molded by, the purest forces of spirit, it will express in its individ- ual and collective relationships the life not of man, but of animal. By keeping this dual aspect of con- sciousness clearly in mind, we can rid ourselves of all superstition, and discriminate perfectly between that which is merely intellectual (or merely psy- chic) , and that which is spiritual, from God. There can be no order, no progress in the world of human- ity to-day without equality between men and women. And this obvious condition is but the projection into visibility of the universal readjust- ment taking place in the world of consciousness "behind the veils."
As for the third principle making the Bahai Temple different from other religious edifices.
Consider'carefully the evolution of all religions from the time of their Revelation into later ages. No Revelation hitherto has included the establish- ment of a Temple, and all the conditions entering into the use of a Temple ; but throughout the world to-day, all churches uniformly derive from historical
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facts arising later than, and outside of, the Mani- festation's own creative Word. Nowhere in the world can people enter a Temple and say: "This Temple is the Temple of Christ, and its services are of His Revelation;" or, "This Temple is the Temple of Moses (or Buddha, or Mohamet) , and His spirit inspired all things therein." Rather have all churches developed later in point of time and lower in point of spiritual purity than the Revela- tions they proclaim. So much is this the case that in all religions, groups of people from time to time have protested that their Revelation was even mis- interpreted by Temples bearing its name, and have themselves erected a new Temple more in keeping with their conception of the Messiah's purpose and method. Aside from this obvious fact, there is a far more important influence inherent in every church which does not reflect purely and entirely the pur- pose and method of Divine Revelation. This in- fluence derives from the fact that ritual, ceremony and sacrament, while apparently intended to sym- bolize the spiritual Mysteries, have as a matter of fact, come to be substitutes for them. The life of a Messiah is a perfect guide for f he people; but the value of this life is that it should be to-lived, re- experienced in the deepest soul, and not merely beheld as a spectacle outside the soul, which creates certain effects upon the psychic and demoniac nature miscalled "religion.".
But the Bahai Temple is part of the Revelation
THE BAHAI TEMPLE 185
of BahaVllah. It arises from the source of the new, universal principles. It embodies those principles. It serves those principles. It is protected by those principles. The Bahai Temple is raised forever above the danger of innovations on the part of any individual or group, for it is a distinctive and com- pelling feature of the Bahai Revelation that Baha'- o'llah forbids the existence of any official clergy, paid officials, or separate class, groups or organiza- tion of any kind. The Bahai Temple and the Bahai principles alike are committed to the keeping of all mankind in that new state of unity these principles will ere long bring about. The essence of the Bahai Movement is spiritual democracy: authority pro- ceeding from the mass by constitutional election only. Significant are the words of BahaVllah: "The religious doctors of every age have been the means of preventing the people from the shore of the Sea of Oneness, for the reins of the people were in their control. . . . Thus every Prophet hath quaffed the cup of martyrdom and soared to the loftiest horizon of Might, through the sentence and sanction of the divines of the age."
But there is one more aspect of the Bahai Temple making it Anlike other religious edifices. This as- pect is symbolized by its architectural features that astonishingly creative form which in itself is a sign and evidence of a new civilization. Why the nine sides, why the three elevations? are questions frequently asked because our age has lost the re-
186 BAHAI
alization that form expresses force that bodies must, on all planes, possess an organ for each func- tion they are intended to fulfill. Therefore, as the Bahai Temple is to unify people of all religions, it has nine entrances corresponding with the nine human principles, each principle manifested by a type, each type expressing itself through an activity of soul, mind or spirit. "I have caused the signs to descend after nine conditions.'* (BahaVllah). The present division of humanity by vertical parti- tions Christianity, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, etc. is artificial; the real division being along horizontal planes. The Bahai Temple invites each type (or plane) to enter into the fullest possible co-operation with other types. Each is essential to the welfare and destiny of all.
To understand the marvelous symbolism the Bahai Temple contains, both in its form and its decoration, one must conceive of this structure as a projection from the spiritual world of oneness, down through all the planes of matter and time; being a cross section of all, and consequently a pattern or tracing of their combined significance. In brief, this Temple testifies eloquently to this supreme fact: that man dwells not in a universe of inert matter, but inhabits the Holy Spirit; a universe of con- sciousness, of purpose, of progressive evolution. The Bahai Temple is as a mirror wherein the Spirit perfectly reflects. It reveals a mystery of myster- ies the inner reality of tha* Supreme Temple,
THE BAHAI TEMPLE 187
the spiritual body of humanity. In all cycles has a corner of the veil been removed. In all times have the mystics and divine philosophers meditated upon that which physical mind and heart can never know. But now at the bottom of the arc of descent, the Bahai Temple visibly records the spiritual in- volution and evolution of man: a precious chapter in the Book of Revelation. Christ said: "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you." Baha'o'llah says: "Dost thou deem thy body a slight thing, when within thee is enfolded the universe?" In this age, Abdul Baha declares: "Baha'o'llah has breathed the Holy Spirit into the dead body of the world."
An article in the Architectural Record of June, 1920, described the Temple, in part, as follows:
"Above the closed top rise other beams of the dome -itself like hands clasped in prayer, so that the dome gives the feeling of ascension and aspira- tion found previously in the Gothic towers alone.
"In the geometric forms of the ornamentation covering the columns and surrounding the windows and doors of the Temple, one deciphers all the re- ligious symbols of the world. Here are the swastika cross, the cfrcle, the triangle, the double triangle or six pointed star (or Solomon's seal, the magic sym- bol of necromancers of old) ; brt more than this, the noble symbol of the spiritual Orb, or Sun behind the Saviour of Mankind (the Sun refers to Baha'o- *llah) ; the five pointed star, representing the man
18S BAHAI
saviour Christ or Buddha or Mohammed; the Greek Cross, the Roman or Christian Cross; and supreme above all, the wonderful nine pointed star, figured in the structure of the Temple itself, and appearing again and again in its ornamentation, as significant of the Spiritual Glory in the world to- day.
"The numbers 9 and 19 recur again and again in the structure of the Temple, illustrating its basic principle of Unity 9 being the number of per- fection, containing in itself the completion of each number cycle, and 19 representing the Union of God and man, as manifested in life, civilization and all things."
Would that all whose purity of heart, whose clear- ness of vision, makes them share ardently in the struggle for human progress, for unity, for solidar- ity, for education, for peace would that such people might be inspired to join with that few that too, too few now laboring with all their power to raise up a Temple to the glory of God and the brotherhood of Man!
PART THREE
TWO BAHAI DOCUMENTS
"The root of all knowledge is the knowledge of God, and this is impossible of attainment save through His manifesta- tion." BAHA'O'LLAH,
THE ILLUMINATI
AN ADDRESS BY ABDUL BAHA AT THE FRIENDS' MEETING HOUSE, ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON, ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 12TH, 1913.
About one thousand years ago a Society was formed in Persia called the Society of the Friends, who gathered together for silent communion with the Almighty.
They divided Divine Philosophy into two parts: one part the knowledge of which can be acquired through lectures and study in schools, and the sec- ond part that sought by the Illuminati, or followers of the Inner Light. The schools of this Philosophy were held in silence. Meditating, and turning their faces to the Source of Light, the mysteries of the Kingdom were reflected from that central Light into their hearts. All the divine' problems were solved by this power of illumination.
This Society of Friends increased greatly in Persia, and their meetings take place even at the present tim^. Many books and epistles were writ- ten by their leaders. When the Friends assemble in their Meeting House, they sit in silence and con- template. Their leader proposes a certain problem, saying to the assembly "This is the problem on
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which to meditate." Then, freeing their minds from everything else, they sit quietly and reflect, and be- fore long the answer is revealed to them. Many abstruse divine questions are solved by means of this illumination.
Some of the great questions unfolding from the rays of the Sun of Reality upon the mind of man are: the problem of the reality of the spirit of man; of the origin of the spirit; of its birth from this world into the world of God; the question of the inner life of the spirit and its fate after ascension from the body.
They also meditate upon the scientific questions of the day, and these are likewise solved.
These people, who are called "Followers of the Inner Light," attain to a superlative degree of power, and are entirely freed from blind dogmas and imitations. Men rely on the statements of these people: by themselves, within themselves, they solve all mysteries.
If they find a solution through the assistance of the Inner Light, they accept it, and afterwards de- clare it; otherwise they would consider it a matter of blind imitation. They go so far as to reflect upon the essential nature of the Divinity, of the divine Revelation, of the Manifestation of the Deity in this world. All the divine and scientific questions are solved by them through the power of the spirit.
BahaVllah says there is a sign from God in every phenomenon. The sign of the intellect is contem-
TWO BAHAI DOCUMENTS 193
, and the sign of contemplation is silence, because it is impossible for a man to do two things at once he cannot both speak and meditate.
It is an axiomatic fact that while you meditate you are speaking with your own spirit. In that state of mind you put certain questions to your spirit and the spirit answers: the light breaks forth and reality is revealed.
You cannot apply the name "man" to any being devoid of this faculty of meditation ; without it man is a mere animal, lower than the beasts.
Through the faculty of meditation man attains to eternal life; through it he receives the breath of the Holy Spirit the bestowals of the Spirit are given during reflection and meditation.
The spirit of man is itself informed and strength- ened during meditation ; through it affairs of which man knew nothing are unfolded before his view. Through it he receives divine inspiration, and through it he partakes of heavenly food.
Meditation is the key for opening the doors of mysteries. In that state man abstracts himself; in that state man withdraws himself from all outside objects; in that subjective condition he is immersed in the ocean of spiritual life and can unfold the secrets of things-in-themselves. To illustrate this, think of man as endowed with two kinds of sight: when the power of insight is being used the power of outward vision does not function.
This faculty of meditation frees man from the
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animal nature, discerns the reality of things, puts man in touch with God.
This faculty brings forth the sciences and arts from the invisible plane. Through the meditative faculty inventions are made possible, colossal under- takings are carried out. Through it governments can run smoothly. Through this faculty man enters into the very Kingdom of God.
Nevertheless some thoughts are useless to man: they are like waves moving in the sea without re- sult. But if the faculty of meditation is bathed in the Inner Light and characterized with divine at- tributes, the results will be confirmed.
The meditative faculty is akin to the mirror; if you put it before earthly objects, it will reflect the earthly objects. Therefore if the spirit of man is contemplating earthly objects he will become in- formed of these.
But if you turn the mirror of your spirit heaven- wards, the heavenly constellations and the rays of the Sun of Reality will be reflected in your hearts, and the virtues of the Kingdom will be obtained.
Therefore let us keep this faculty rightly directed turning it to the divine Sun and not to earthly objects so that we may comprehend the allegories of the Bibles, the mysteries of the Spirit, and dis- cover the hidden secrets of the Kingdom.
May we indeed become mirrors reflecting the divine realities, and may we become so pure as to reflect the stars of heaven!
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TABLET TO THE PERSIAN BAHAIS. (Revealed during the World War.)
Commune to be read by the friends of God in Persia.
He Is God!
Thou seest me, O my God, on this lofty moun- tain; the sublime and supreme threshold; the shelter of every great one and the refuge of all the glorious and noble.
Verily, the youths whose hearts were burning with the fire of the love of God in the past ages have taken shelter therein the meeting place of the prophets, the refuge of his holiness Elijah, the shelter of Isaiah. The spirit of God, Jesus, the Christ upon Him be greeting and praise! passed over it, and in the Supreme Threshold, pressed by the feet of the Lord of Hosts.
O Lord, this is a mountain to which Thou hast given the name Carmel in the Torah. And Thou has attributed it to Thyself in the innermost heart of the tablets and scriptures.
O Lord, verily, I invoke Thee in this Supreme Threshold, under the wing of the gloomy nights; pray to TJiee with throbbing heart and flowing tears, imploring Thee, supplicating between Thy hands and cry, O my Lord, verily, the fire of battles is raging in the valleys, hills and streams, and the fire of war is burning even under the seas and high in the air, in destruction and devastation. The
196 BAHAI
earth is enveloped by its own fires and the seas are encompassed by its storms, thunderbolts and floods.
O Lord, the souls are stifling, the death rattle is in their throats, the earth quakes and has become so small that even the birds are frightened in their nests and the animals terrified in their lairs and caves.
We hear only the sighs of the maidens and the cries of the orphans, the moaning of the mothers, and the tears of the fathers because of false reports. We see only tears flowing from every bereaved mother and the heart of every father, bereft of sons, burning. Towns are being devastated, people are perishing, the children are made orphans and the women are becoming widows. And this is only because of our heedlessness of Thy commemoration and our deprivation of Thy love. Verily, we have been occupied with ourselves. The intoxication of passion seized us; we have taken the road of heed- lessness and blindness ; have abandoned the path of guidance and have chosen the path of obstinacy and forgotten the commandments of the ancient scrip- tures. We have forsaken the exhortations in the preserved tablets and parchments the great verses.
O my Lord! O my Lord! I confess and ac- knowledge the sins. Verily, every dark calamity and every hard ordeal has surrounded us by our own hands, in this transient world. O Lord, verily, the minds are astounded, the souls are repelled. And
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there remain only darkened faces, deaf ears, speech- less tongues and hearts heedless of thy commemora- tion, filled with human passions and desires.
O Lord, Thou hast said in Thy manifest book and in Thy great glad tidings, with explicit state- ment, "God does not change that which a people have, until they change what is within themselves." "And when they forgot God, He made them for- get themselves."
O my Lord, verily, the nations have gone too deep into the fields of battle and struggle. Nothing will check this sweeping torrent and this grinding war but Thy mercy, which has encompassed that which was and is.
O Lord, do not deal with us according to our offenses, and forgive our sins and trespasses. Im- perfections are the characteristic of everything pos- sible of creation in the arena of Thy world. And to Thy forgiveness and pardon Thou hast accus- tomed every one in existence.
O my Lord, only favor and mercy to every sinner who has fallen into the pit of degradation and wretchedness, is befitting to divinity and only by the imperfections of servitude will the perfections of divinity become manifest. O Lord, verily, the brilliant rays of the Sun of Reality are the remov- ers of the utter darkness and the pure water cleanses the foulness and the sorrow of the world.
O my Lord, verily, the sins are bubbling foam and a full ocean is Thy mercy. Trespasses are bit-
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ter trees and Thy pardon is a fire whose flame is intense.
O my Lord, remove the veil, scatter this dense cloud on the horizon, extinguish these fires, subdue this flood, in order to stanch the bloodshed, as com- passion to the widows and mercy to the orphans, that these hurricanes may cease, the thunderbolts be extinguished, the torrents quelled, the land become visible, the souls find composure, and the breasts be dilated. And we will thank Thee for Thy abundant favor, O Thou dear! O Thou forgiver!
O my Lord, verily, thou hast clearly stated in the tablets and scriptures, that, had the ordinances fallen on solid rock, rivers would have gushed forth and it had crumbled to pieces from fear of the Dear, the Powerful. But the hearts are harder than the rocks. And the souls are in heedlessness and pride. The people of heedlessness do not profit by the verses and exhortations.
O my Lord, verily, Thy exhortations are cele- brated and have been spread broadcast, in the east and the west of the earth. Thou hast called all to love and harmony and to forsake discord in all regions, so that the east of the earth may embrace the west ; the people of the desert may ^rnbrace the people of the city ; their scattered members become reunited and the lost ones be gathered together; that the darkness of the earth may pass away and its light shine forth. But the eyes and the inner sight have become blind, the ears deaf, the hearts
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hardened and the susceptibilities like rocks and stones. The minds and intellects are being con- fused. Souls have forgotten the explicit teachings of the Book, wherein Thou hast warned them of punishment. Thus they have merited severe pun- ishment and deserved the sentence of torment.
O Lord, forgive our sins and stumbling. Make us not an example for the possessors of insight. Guide us to the straight path, so that we may awake from the slumber of passion and be saved from heedlessness and blindness. Deliver us, O Lord of Verses, from the abyss of passions and preserve us from errors.
O my Lord, verily, we have forgotten faithful- ness and are reveling in unfaithfulness. With the people of oppression and vice we are associating. There is no deliverer for us save Thee. There is no answer save Thee. There is no refuge save Thee. Verily, we have trusted in Thee and we lay our affairs in Thy hands. Deal with us according to Thy favor and pardon and punish us not according to Thy justice and wrath. Verily, Thou art the compassionate. Verily, Thou art the pardoner and, verily, Thou art the forgiver.
O my Lord, verily, the people of righteousness and goodness and the communities of freedom in every country are turning to thee, at dusk and dawn supplicating between Thy hands during the wing of the night and in the dew of the morn> la- menting as a bereaved mother laments during the
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grievous nights, burning with the fire of sorrow, yearning and separation. They are longing for Thy meeting even with rending of soul, as they traverse the dunes and the hills and cross the valleys and the heights. But these wars that demolish mountains have interfered so that news has .ceased and the doors are closed.
O Lord, comfort them in their loneliness; deliver them from their terror and guide them in their affairs.
O my Lord, Thou knowest my sighs, my cries and my anguish, the burning pain because of their separation; my great longing for their meeting, my yearning for their love, my desire for their re- membrance and my anxiety to see them. Day and night their remembrance is my treasure and my roses.
O my Lord, O my Lord, open the doors ; prepare for us the means; render the path safe and pave the way so that the sincere ones may be reunited in the lofty meetings; the attracted ones gathered together in Thy commemoration in the great as- semblies, to speak among the people of Thy bestow- als, taste of the honeycomb of Thy meeting. Then the breezes of acceptance will reach thefti and they will be swayed thereby as if intoxicated by wine.
Verily, Thou art the Powerful, the Dear, the Giver and, verily, Thou art the Generous, the Com- passionate, the Chosen One.
( Signed ) ABDUL BAHA, Abbas.
CONSTRUCTIVE READING LIST
"Understanding the Divine Words and comprehension of the utterances of the Ideal Doves has no connection with out- ward learning, but depends upon purity of heart, chastity of soul, and freedom of spirit.. For at the present time there are some servants who have not seen a single letter of the forms of learning, yet they are seated upon the summit of Knowledge, the gardens of their hearts adorned with roses of Wisdom and tulips of Insight, through the cloud of the Divine Bounty. Blessed are the sincere ones through the lights of the Great Day! 99 BAHA'O'LLAH.
CONSTRUCTIVE READING LIST
The following titles are of books containing the utterances of Baha'o'llah and Abdul Baha. They are those Chapters of the new World Bible already available for the man and woman eager to read and know the manifest Word of God.
Inasmuch as Abdul Baha his life, his char- acter, his influence, his thoughts is the first and greatest proof that Baha'o'llah was indeed the risen Sun of Truth, I list certain of his books first. Ab- dul Baha is the one true approach to perfect under- standing of Baha'o'llah. (All the works in this list can be obtained from Bahai Publishing Society, Chicago, Illinois.)
DIVINE PHILOSOPHY. A collection of Abdul Baha's most interesting and significant addresses while in Europe, This volume covers a broad range of topics in a brief and convenient form. It is the ideal introduction to the Bahai Revelation.
ABDUL BAHA'S TALKS IN PABIS, APDUL BAHA'S TALKS IN LONDON. Two additional collections con- taining certain addresses not yet available in any other form.
SOME ANSWERED QUESTIONS. This volume gives Abdul Baha's own answers to questions on religion
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and science and social evolution asked of him from what may be called the "intelligent Christian" point of view. They explain the prophecies and deal somewhat with the great psychological problems, the nature of man, the nature of God, etc.
TABLETS OF ABDUL BAH A, VOLUMES 1, 2, and 3. Abdul Baha's answer to many thousands of inquiries addressed to him during the past thirty years by people throughout the world desiring his solution of divers scientific, philosophic and spiritual problems. An amazingly myriad wisdom, helpful, practical, and profound.
ABDUL BAHA'S AMERICAN ADDRESSES. This ex- tensive and invaluable vork, soon to be published, contains three volumes which include Abdul Baha's message to every possible kind of audience to be gathered together in the United States and Canada. As the audiences represent every variety of view- point, past experience, religious, social and scien- tific affiliation, so the messages may be accepted as the Bahai Message par excellence. It will be no long time before these volumes are known for what they are in reality the Charter of the Divine Civilization: the universal proof of God which is also the universal inspiration of man.
ABDUL BAHA'S MYSTERIOUS FORCES OF CIVILI- ZATION. In this work, addressed to Persians, Ab- dul Baha shows the relation between religion and the economic and political problems of a nation. His examples are necessarily in terms of conditions
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existing in Persia, but the truths are universal for those who can apply them. As ever, the language is exquisite and magnanimous.
BAHA'O'LLAH'S BOOK OF IGHAN, This work (whose subtitle is The Book of Certitude) explains the real significance of all the Divine Manifestations
Moses, Christ, Mohammet whose task, c?r function, was fulfilled by the Manifestation of El Bab. The Book of Ighan reveals the importance of the "first Point" in this Cosmic Trinity.
BAHA'O'LLAH'S SUHAT UL HYKL. In this work, Baha'o M lah reveals the significance of the Mani- festation of Himself. "By God, This is indeed the Beloved of the universe, but ye do not understand! This is the Beauty of God among you, and His Dominion within you, if ye are of those who know! This is the Mystery of God, His Treasure, the Com- mand of God, and His Glory, to those who are in the Kingdom of power and creation were ye of those who reason! This is the One whose meeting will be longed for by all those who dwell in the everlasting spiritual world, and who have taken a station for themselves in the tents of EL-ABHA
while ye yourselves are turned away from His Beauty! . . . And He will send forth Vy His Will certain people who are unknown to anyone but Himself, the Protector, the Self-existent, and pur- ify them from the stain of surmise and passion, and elevate them to the rank of sanctity, and by them He will cause to appear the traces of the
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Glory of His Kingdom on earth: thus was it de- creed on the part of God, the Mighty, the Beloved."
BAHA'O'LLAH'S SEVEN VALLEYS. The essence of the true "mental science" that is, a work which presents the mystical experience of self-develop- ment, the attainment of Reality within the conscious soul. "I, therefore, mention unto thee holy, bril- liant allusions, from the stations of Glory; so that they may attract thee unto the court of holiness, nearness and beauty, and draw thee unto a state wherein thou shalt see naught in existence but the Countenance of His Highness, thy Beloved One, and shalt not behold the creatures (mankind) ex- cept as in the day wherein no one had any mention !"
BAHA'O'ULAH'S HIDDEN WORDS. A series of brief utterances, touching the moral and spiritual problems of every type of person; used by the "friends of God" for daily meditation. "This is that which descended from the Source of Majesty, through the tongue of Power and Strength upon the prophets of the past. We have taken its essences and clothed them with the garment of brevity, as a favor to the beloved, that they may fulfill the Coven- ant of God; that they may perform in themselves that which He has entrusted to them, and attain the victory by virtue of devotion in the land of the Spirit." In this introduction of Baha'o'llah to Hid- den Words we see, first: that the Bahai Teaching is the sum total of all Revelations in the past plus the power to realize it during the present cycle; and
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second, that every soul is obliged to stand alone and fight its own battle for Immortal Life.
BOOK OF PRAYER. (Revealed by BahaVllah arid Abdul Baha.) "This is a Message which We have appointed as Our Meeting for those who ad- vance toward God in this day in which all countries are changed. The one who reads that which is re L vealed in this Tablet from the direction of the Throne, and doubts the reality of Meeting his Lord; verily, he is of those who deny God, Who causeth the mornings to break forth !" . . . "For Thou art Powerful to do whatsoever Thou wishest, and Thou art ever pervading the universe!"
TABLETS OF BAHA'O'LLAH. In this important volume have been gathered together six Tablets in which Baha'o'llah lays down moral, economic and political principles to solve the world's social problems.
THREE TABLETS OF BAHA'O'LLAH. Of purely spiritual significance are these great documents: Tablet of the Branch, Will and Testament of Baha'o'llah, and Message to the Christians.
THE DIVINE PLAN. Under this title has been published Abdul Baha's Tablets to the four sections of the United States, and to Canada, calling upon the friends of God to arise in full spiritual conscious- ness and labor day and night to spread the Cause throughout the American Continents, Africa and the Islands of the sea. The spiritual significance of North America is revealed as that portion of the
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race which alone is able to stem the tide of disin- tegration sweeping across the social world. And even upon North America, Abdul Baha makes the outcome dependent upon the rise of "the hosts of God" people of a saintliness such as the Western world has not witnessed since the time of the Apostles of Christ.
THE BAHAI PROOFS." This book, translated from the Persian of Mirza Abul Fazl, whom Abdul Baha has declared to be the greatest Bahai soul of this age, gives the lives of the three Founders of this Religion, El Bab, BahaVllah and Abdul Baha; after which he develops the four universal proofs enabling one to distinguish between a Divine Re- ligion and all other so-called religions.
LE BEYAN ARABE (The Book of the Bab). A translation into French from the Arabic of El Bab, by A. L. M. Nicolas, of the French Legation at Teheran.
L'EPITRE Au FILS Du LOUP. One of Baha'- o'llah's longer works, in which he quotes from many of his other works translated into French by M. Hippolyte Dreyfus.
THE SPLENDOR OF GOD. A volume included in the "Wisdom of the East" series published by Dent, London. The editor, Mr. Eric Hammond, has
* A forthcoming work on the Bahai Revelation, by Dr. Esslemont, of London, may be looked for as containing a very thorough and accurate presentation. Dr. Esslemont wrote under Abdul Baha's personal supervision, at Haifa, during the year 1919.
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written an introduction regarding the Bahai Re- ligion, and the book is composed of quotations from BahaVllah and Abdul Baha.
ABBAS EFFENDI. His Life and Teachings, by Myron H. Phelps. This work is a biographical study of Abdul Baha, written by a member of the New York Bar. His information was gained first hand in the Master's Household. Mr. Phelp's book parallels the words and the acts of Abdul Baha as no other book has done. It is an invaluable Bahai work.
THE BAHAI REVELATION, by Thornton Chase. A most significant book, a book of great beauty and power, the work of the man who is known as "the first American Bahai." Besides developing a logi- cal approach to the Teaching of BahaVllah and Abdul Baha, this book contains many quotations from their utterances not yet available in print else- where. 27
A TRAVELER'S NARRATIVE. Written to Illustrate the Episode of the Bab. In this volume, published by the University Press, Cambridge, England, Mr. Edward G. Browne, Lecturer in Persian to the University of Cambridge, has presented a detailed, first hand account of his researches into the life and influence of El Bab. This book notes every refer-
"Most highly to be recommended are the series of five booklets, published recently in Seattle, reproducing nineteen lectures on the Bahai principles by Fazel Mazandarani.
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ence the author could find to other books on the Manifestation of the Bab. Professor Browne, it is interesting to record, is the only European who entered the presence of Baha'o'llah. This meeting took place on Wednesday, April 15th, 1890, and is thus described by the author of A Traveler's Nar- rative. "Of the culminating event of this my journey some few words at least must be said. During the morning of the day after my installa- tion at Behje one of BahaVllah's younger sons entered the room where I was sitting and beckoned me to follow him. I did so, and was conducted through passages and rooms at which I scarcely had time to glance to a spacious hall, paved, so far as I could remember (for my mind was occupied with other thoughts) with a mosaic of marble. . . . Though I dimly suspected whither I was going and whom I was to behold (for no distinct intimation had been given to me) , a second or two elapsed ere, with a throb of wonder and awe, I became definitely conscious that the room was not untenanted. In the corner where the divan met the wall sat a wond- rous and venerable figure, crowned with a felt head- dress of the kind called taj by dervishes (but of unusual height and make) , round the base of which was wound a small white turban. The face of him on whom I gazed I can never forget, though I can- not describe it. Those piercing eyes seemed to read one's very jsoul; power and authority sat on that ample brow; while the deep lines on the forehead
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and face implied an age which the jet-black hair and beard flowing down in indistinguishable luxuri- ance almost to the waist seemed to belie. No need to ask in whose presence I stood, as I bowed myself before one who is the object of a devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vain!
"A mild dignified voice bade me be seated, and then continued: Praise be to God that thou hast attained! . . . Thou hast come to see a prisoner and an exile. . . . We desire but the good of the world and the happiness of the nations ; yet they deem us a stirrer up of strife and sedition worthy of bondage and banishment. . . . That all nations should be- come 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 re- ligion should cease, and differences of race be an- nulled what harm is there in this? . . . Yet so it shall be; these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the Most Great Peace shall come. . . . Do not you in Europe need this also? Is not this that which Christ foretold? . . . Yet do we see your kings and rulers lavishing their treas- ures more freely on means for the destruction of the human race than on that which would conduce to the happiness of mankind. . . . These strifes and this bloodshed and discord must cease, and all men be as one kindred and one family. . . . Let not a man glory in this, that he loves his coun-
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try; let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind. . . ."
By far the greater portion of the works of BahaVllah are yet untranslated into English; and much of that which has already been translated is still circulated from friend to friend In type- written or manifolded form. The colleges, universities and other instruments of impartial investigation, have not as yet made effort to collect the documentary and other evidences of the Bahai Movement analyze these in the light of established truth as arrived at by the cooperation of their Historical, Linguistic, Philo- sophical, Scientific, Economic and Ethical departments and pub- lish their unanimous and detailed conclusions as a matter of public concern. The attempts made by a few sectarian missionaries to apprehend this world-wide Cause have, so far, produced only a painful impression of bewildered littleness, tossing on the ocean of universal significance.
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"This Cause lias become worldwide. In a short space of time it has penetrated throughout all re- gions, for it has a magnetic power which attracts 9 all intelligent men and women towards its center. If a person becomes informed of the reality of this Cause he will believe in it, for these teachings are the spirit of this age.
"The Bahai Movement imparts life. It is the cause of love and amity amongst mankind. It establishes communication between various nations and religions. It removes all antagonisms. And when this Cause is fully spread, warfare will be a thing of the past, universal peace will be realized, the oneness of the world of humanity will be mani- fested, and religion and science will work hand in hand. Then this world will become one -family. There will remain no racial distinctions, such as French, English, American, Arab, Turk or Persian. All these races will become one united people."
ABDUL BAHA.
Reprinted in Saxony by the "Obral" process for Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubiier & Co., Ltd., London.
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