A few days ago I arrived in New York, coming direct from Alexandria. On a
former trip I traveled to Europe, visiting Paris and London. Paris is most
beautiful in outward appearance. The evidences of material civilization
there are very great, but the spiritual civilization is far behind. I
found the people of that city submerged and drowning in a sea of
materialism. Their conversations and discussions were limited to natural
and physical phenomena, without mention of God. I was greatly astonished.
Most of the scholars, professors and learned men proved to be
materialists. I said to them, "I am surprised and astonished that men of
such perceptive caliber and evident knowledge should still be captives of
nature, not recognizing the self-evident Reality."
The phenomenal world is entirely subject to the rule and control of
natural law. These myriad suns, satellites and heavenly bodies throughout
endless space are all captives of nature. They cannot transgress in a
single point or particular the fixed laws which govern the physical
universe. The sun in its immensity, the ocean in its vastness are
incapable of violating these universal laws. All phenomenal beings--the
plants in their kingdom, even the animals with their intelligence--are
nature's subjects and captives. All live within the bounds of natural law,
and nature is the ruler of all except man. Man is not the captive of
nature, for although according to natural law he is a being of the earth,
yet he guides ships over the ocean, flies through the air in airplanes,
descends in submarines; therefore, he has overcome natural law and made it
subservient to his wishes. For instance, he imprisons in an incandescent
lamp the illimitable natural energy called electricity--a material force
which can cleave mountains--and bids it give him light. He takes the human
voice and confines it in the phonograph for his benefit and amusement.
According to his natural power man should be able to communicate a limited
distance, but by overcoming the restrictions of nature he can annihilate
space and send telephone messages thousands of miles. All the sciences,
arts and discoveries were mysteries of nature, and according to natural
law these mysteries should remain latent, hidden; but man has proceeded to
break this law, free himself from this rule and bring them forth into the
realm of the visible. Therefore, he is the ruler and commander of nature.
Man has intelligence; nature has not. Man has volition; nature has none.
Man has memory; nature is without it. Man has the reasoning faculty;
nature is deprived. Man has the perceptive faculty; nature cannot
perceive. It is therefore proved and evident that man is nobler than
nature.
If we accept the supposition that man is but a part of nature, we are
confronted by an illogical statement, for this is equivalent to claiming
that a part may be endowed with qualities which are absent in the whole.
For man who is a part of nature has perception, intelligence, memory,
conscious reflection and susceptibility, while nature itself is quite
bereft of them. How is it possible for the part to be possessed of
qualities or faculties which are absent in the whole? The truth is that
God has given to man certain powers which are supernatural. How then can
man be considered a captive of nature? Is he not dominating and
controlling nature to his own uses more and more? Is he not the very
divinity of nature? Shall we say nature is blind, nature is not
perceptive, nature is without volition and not alive, and then relegate
man to nature and its limitations? How can we answer this question? How
will the materialists and scholastic atheists prove and support such a
supposition? As a matter of fact, they themselves make natural laws
subservient to their own wish and purpose. The proof is complete that in
man there is a power beyond the limitations of nature, and that power is
the bestowal of God.
In New York I find the people more endowed with spiritual
susceptibilities. They are not mere captives of nature's control; they are
rising out of the bonds and burden of captivity. For this reason I am very
happy and hopeful that, God willing, in this populous country, in this
vast continent of the West, the virtues of the world of humanity shall
become resplendent; that the oneness of human world-power, the love of
God, may enkindle the hearts, and that international peace may hoist its
standards, influencing all other regions and countries from here. This is
my hope.
16 April 1912
Talk at Hotel Ansonia to Baha'i Friends of New Jersey
Broadway and Seventy-third Street, New York