In the books of the prophets certain glad-tidings are recorded which are
absolutely true and free from doubt. The East has ever been the
dawning-point of the Sun of Reality. All the prophets of God have appeared
there. The religions of God have been promulgated, the teachings of God
have been spread and the law of God founded in the East. The Orient has
always been the center of lights. The West has acquired illumination from
the East but in some respects the reflection of the light has been greater
in the Occident. This is especially true of Christianity. His Holiness
Christ appeared in Palestine and his teachings were founded there.
Although the doors of the Kingdom were opened in that country and the
bestowals of divinity were spread broadcast from its center, the people of
the West have embraced and promulgated Christianity more fully than those
in the East. The Sun of Reality shone forth from the horizon of the East
but its heat and ray are most resplendent in the West where the radiant
standard of His Holiness Christ has been upraised. I have great hopes that
the lights of Baha'u'llah's appearance may also find the fullest
manifestation and reflection in these western regions; for the teachings
of Baha'u'llah are especially applicable to the conditions of the people
here. The western nations are endowed with the capability of understanding
the rational and peerless words of Baha'u'llah and realizing that the
essence of the teachings of all the former prophets can be found in his
utterance.
The teachings of His Holiness Christ have been promulgated by His Holiness
Baha'u'llah who has also revealed new teachings applicable to present
conditions in the world of humanity. He has trained the people of the East
through the power and protection of the Holy Spirit, cemented the souls of
humanity together and established the foundations of international unity.
Through the power of his words the hearts of the people of all religions
have been attuned in harmony. For instance, among the Baha'is in Persia
there are Christians, Mohammedans, Zoroastrians, Jews and many others of
varying denominations and beliefs who have been brought together in unity
and love in the cause of Baha'u'llah. Although these people were formerly
hostile and antagonistic, filled with hatred and bitterness toward each
other, blood-thirsty and pillaging, considering that animosity and attack
were the means of attaining the good-pleasure of God, they have now become
loving and filled with the radiant zeal of fellowship and brotherhood, the
purpose of them all being service to the world of humanity, promotion of
international peace, the unification of the divine religions and deeds of
universal philanthropy. By their words and actions they are proving the
verity of His Holiness Baha'u'llah.
Consider the animosity and hatred existing today between the various
nations of the world. What disagreements and hostilities arise, what
warfare and contention, how much bloodshed, what injustice and tyranny!
Just now there is war in eastern Turkey, also war between Turkey and
Italy. Nations are devoted to conquest and bloodshed, filled with the
animus of religious hatred, seeking the good-pleasure of God by killing
and destroying those whom they consider enemies in their blindness. How
ignorant they are! That which is forbidden by God they consider acceptable
to Him. God is love; God seeketh fellowship, purity, sanctity and
long-suffering; these are the attributes of divinity. Therefore these
warring, raging nations have arisen against divinity, imagining they are
serving God. What gross ignorance this is! What injustice, blindness and
lack of realization! Briefly; we must strive with heart and soul in order
that this darkness of the contingent world may be dispelled, that the
lights of the Kingdom shall shine upon all the horizons, the world of
humanity become illumined, the image of God become apparent in human
mirrors, the law of God be well established and that all regions of the
world shall enjoy peace, comfort and composure beneath the equitable
protection of God. My admonition and exhortation to you is this: Be kind
to all people, love humanity, consider all mankind as your relations and
servants of the most high God. Strive day and night that animosity and
contention may pass away from the hearts of men, that all religions shall
become reconciled and the nations love each other, so that no racial,
religious or political prejudice may remain and the world of humanity
behold God as the beginning and end of all existence. God has created all
and all return to God. Therefore love humanity with all your heart and
soul. If you meet a poor man, assist him; if you see the sick, heal him;
reassure the affrighted one, render the cowardly noble and courageous,
educate the ignorant, associate with the stranger. Emulate God. Consider
how kindly, how lovingly He deals with all and follow His example. You
must treat people in accordance with the divine precepts; in other words,
treat them as kindly as God treats them, for this is the greatest
attainment possible for the world of humanity.
Furthermore, know ye that God has created in man the power of reason
whereby man is enabled to investigate reality. God has not intended man to
blindly imitate his fathers and ancestors. He has endowed him with mind or
the faculty of reasoning by the exercise of which he is to investigate and
discover the truth; and that which he finds real and true, he must accept.
He must not be an imitator or blind follower of any soul. He must not rely
implicitly upon the opinion of any man without investigation; nay, each
soul must seek intelligently and independently, arriving at a real
conclusion and bound only by that reality. The greatest cause of
bereavement and disheartening in the world of humanity is ignorance based
upon blind imitation. It is due to this that wars and battles prevail;
from this cause hatred and animosity arise continually among mankind.
Through failure to investigate reality the Jews rejected His Holiness
Jesus Christ. They were expecting his coming; by day and night they
mourned and lamented, saying, "O God! hasten thou the day of the advent of
Christ," expressing most intense longing for the Messiah but when His
Holiness Christ appeared they denied and rejected him, treated him with
arrogant contempt, sentenced him to death and finally crucified him. Why
did this happen? Because they were blindly following imitations, believing
that which had descended to them as a heritage from their fathers and
ancestors; tenaciously holding to it and refusing to investigate the
reality of Christ. Therefore they were deprived of the bounties of His
Holiness whereas if they had forsaken imitations and investigated the
reality of the Messiah they would have surely been guided to believing in
him. Instead of this, they said, "We have heard from our fathers and have
read in the old testament that His Holiness Christ must come from an
unknown place; now we find that this one has come from Nazareth." Steeped
in the literal interpretation and imitating the beliefs of fathers and
ancestors they failed to understand the fact that although the body of
Jesus came from Nazareth, the reality of the Christ came from the unknown
place of the divine Kingdom. They also said that the sceptre of His
Holiness Christ would be of iron, that is to say he should wield a sword.
When His Holiness Christ appeared, he did possess a sword but it was the
sword of his tongue with which he separated the false from the true; but
the Jews were blind to the spiritual significance and symbolism of the
prophetic words. They also expected that the Messiah would sit upon the
throne of David whereas His Holiness the Christ had neither throne nor
semblance of sovereignty; nay, rather, he was a poor man, apparently
abject and vanquished; therefore how could he be the veritable Christ?
This was one of their most insistent objections based upon ancestral
interpretation and teaching. In reality His Holiness Christ was glorified
with an eternal sovereignty and everlasting dominion, spiritual and not
temporal. His throne and kingdom were established in human hearts where he
reigns with power and authority without end. Notwithstanding the
fulfillment of all the prophetic signs in His Holiness, the Jews denied
him and entered the period of their deprivation because of their
allegiance to imitations and ancestral forms.
Among other objections, they said, "We are promised through the tongue of
the prophets that His Holiness Christ at the time of his coming would
proclaim the law of the torah whereas now we see this person abrogating
the commands of the pentateuch, disturbing our blessed sabbath and
abolishing the law of divorce. He has left nothing of the ancient law of
Moses, therefore he is the enemy of Moses." In reality His Holiness Christ
proclaimed and completed the law of Moses. He was the very helper and
assister of Moses. He spread the book of Moses throughout the world and
established anew the fundamentals of the law revealed by him. He abolished
certain unimportant laws and forms which were no longer compatible with
the exigencies of the time, such as divorce and plurality of wives. The
Jews did not comprehend this, and the cause of their ignorance was blind
and tenacious adherence to imitations of ancient forms and teachings;
therefore they finally sentenced His Holiness to death.
They likewise said, "Through the tongues of the prophets it was announced
that during the time of Christ's appearance the justice of God would
prevail throughout the world, tyranny and oppression would be unknown,
justice would even extend to the animal kingdom, ferocious beasts would
associate in gentleness and peace, the wolf and the lamb would drink from
the same spring, the lion and the deer meet in the same meadow, the eagle
and quail dwell together in the same nest; but instead of this, we see
that during the time of this supposed Christ the Romans have conquered
Palestine and are ruling it with extreme tyranny, justice is nowhere
apparent and signs of peace in the kingdom are conspicuously absent."
These statements and attitudes of the Jews were inherited from their
fathers; blind allegiance to literal expectations which did not come to
pass during the time of Jesus Christ. The real purport of these prophetic
statements was that various peoples symbolized by the wolf and lamb
between whom love and fellowship were impossible would come together
during Messiah's reign, drink from the same fountain of life in his
teachings and become his devoted followers. This was realized when peoples
of all religions, nationalities and dispositions became united in their
beliefs and followed Christ in humility, associating in love and
brotherhood under the shadow of his divine protection. The Jews, being
blind to this and holding to their bigoted imitations, were insolent and
arrogant toward His Holiness and crucified him. Had they investigated the
reality of Christ they would have beheld his beauty and truth.
God has given man the eye of investigation by which he may see and
recognize truth. He has endowed man with ears that he may hear the message
of reality and conferred upon him the gift of reason by which he may
discover things for himself. This is his endowment and equipment for the
investigation of reality. Man is not intended to see through the eyes of
another, hear through another's ears nor comprehend with another's brain.
Each human creature has individual endowment, power and responsibility in
the creative plan of God. Therefore depend upon your own reason and
judgment and adhere to the outcome of your own investigation; otherwise
you will be utterly submerged in the sea of ignorance and deprived of all
the bounties of God. Turn to God, supplicate humbly at His threshold,
seeking assistance and confirmation, that God may rend asunder the veils
that obscure your vision. Then will your eyes be filled with illumination,
face to face you will behold the reality of God and your heart become
completely purified from the dross of ignorance, reflecting the glories
and bounties of the Kingdom.
Holy souls are like soil which has been plowed and tilled with much
earnest labor; the thorns and thistles cast aside and all weeds uprooted.
Such soil is most fruitful and the harvest from it will prove full and
plenteous. In this same way man must free himself from the weeds of
ignorance, thorns of superstitions and thistles of imitations, that he may
discover reality in the harvests of true knowledge. Otherwise the
discovery of reality is impossible, contention and divergence of religious
belief will always remain and mankind, like ferocious wolves will rage and
attack each other in hatred and antagonism. We supplicate God that He may
destroy the veils which limit our vision and that these becloudings which
darken the way of the manifestation of the shining lights may be dispelled
in order that the effulgent Sun of Reality may shine forth. We implore and
invoke God, seeking His assistance and confirmation. Man is a child of
God; most noble, lofty and beloved by God his creator. Therefore he must
ever strive that the divine bounties and virtues bestowed upon him may
prevail and control him. Just now the soil of human hearts seems like
black earth, but in the innermost substance of this dark soil there are
thousands of fragrant flowers latent. We must endeavor to cultivate and
awaken these potentialities, discover the secret treasure in this very
mine and depository of God, bring forth these resplendent powers long
hidden in human hearts. Then will the glories of both worlds be blended
and increased and the quintessence of human existence be made manifest.
We must not be content with simply following a certain course because we
find our fathers pursued that course. It is the duty of everyone to
investigate reality, and investigation of reality by another will not do
for us. If all in the world were rich and one man poor, of what use are
these riches to that man? If all the world be virtuous and a man steeped
in vice, what good results are forthcoming from him? If all the world be
resplendent and a man blind, where are his benefits? If all the world be
in plenty and a man hungry, what sustenance does he derive? Therefore
every man must be an investigator for himself. Ideas and beliefs left by
his fathers and ancestors as a heritage will not suffice, for adherence to
these are but imitations and imitations have ever been a cause of
disappointment and misguidance. Be investigators of reality, that you may
attain the verity of truth and life.
You have asked why it was necessary for the soul that was from God to make
this journey back to God. Would you like to understand the reality of this
question just as I teach it or do you wish to hear it as the world teaches
it?--for if I should answer you according to the latter way, this would be
but imitation and would not make the subject clear.
The reality underlying this question is that the evil spirit, Satan or
whatever is interpreted as evil, refers to the lower nature in man. This
baser nature is symbolized in various ways. In man there are two
expressions, one is the expression of nature, the other the expression of
the spiritual realm. The world of nature is defective. Look at it clearly,
casting aside all superstition and imagination. If you should leave a man
uneducated and barbarous in the wilds of Africa, would there be any doubt
about his remaining ignorant? God has never created an evil spirit; all
such ideas and nomenclature are symbols expressing the mere human or
earthly nature of man. It is an essential condition of the soil of earth
that thorns, weeds and fruitless trees may grow from it. Relatively
speaking, this is evil; it is simply the lower state and baser product of
nature.
It is evident therefore that man is in need of divine education and
inspiration; that the spirit and bounties of God are essential to his
development. That is to say, the teachings of Christ and the prophets are
necessary for his education and guidance. Why? Because they are the divine
gardeners who till the earth of human hearts and minds. They educate man,
uproot the weeds, burn the thorns and remodel the waste places into
gardens and orchards where fruitful trees grow. The wisdom and purpose of
their training is that man must pass from degree to degree of progressive
unfoldment until perfection is attained. For instance, if a man should
live his entire life in one city, he cannot gain a knowledge of the whole
world. To become perfectly informed he must visit other cities, see the
mountains and valleys, cross the rivers and traverse the plains. In other
words, without progressive and universal education, perfection will not be
attained.
Man must walk in many paths and be subjected to various processes in his
evolution upward. Physically he is not born in full stature but passes
through consecutive stages of foetus, infant, childhood, youth, maturity
and old age. Suppose he had the power to remain young throughout his life.
He then would not understand the meaning of old age and could not believe
it existed. If he could not realize the condition of old age he would not
know that he was young. He would not know the difference between young and
old without experiencing the old. Unless you have passed through the state
of infancy how would you know this was an infant beside you? If there was
no wrong how would you recognize the right? If it were not for sin how
would you appreciate virtue? If evil deeds were unknown how could you
commend good actions? If sickness did not exist how would you understand
health? Evil is non-existent; it is the absence of good; sickness is the
loss of health; poverty the lack of riches. When wealth disappears you are
poor; you look within the treasure box but find nothing there. Without
knowledge there is ignorance; therefore ignorance is simply the lack of
knowledge. Death is the absence of life. Therefore on the one hand we have
existence; on the other, nonexistence, negation or absence of existence.
Briefly; the journey of the soul is necessary. The pathway of life is the
road which leads to divine knowledge and attainment. Without training and
guidance the soul could never progress beyond the conditions of its lower
nature which is ignorant and defective.