Ridwan 2020
An open letter to all the Baha’i world
Directed through the friends of India
Dear friends,
Allah'u'Abha!
May the blessings and glory of God be upon you all and all your loved ones in this clear Day of the visible birth of the Great Peace of our times. "Man schemes and God schemes and God is the best of schemers" (al-Anfal Q 8:20).
AS WE come into the fullness of this first Century of the Covenant (1921-2021), and this penultimate year of 2020, BEHOLD: an Act of God--The current COVID-19 Crisis, and the universal global lock-down and shut-in protocols of the Quarantine for all the people of the world--as 'Abdu'l-Baha spoke in 1912: "All nations will be forced into it."
The Quarantine has effectively stopped all the major wars in temporary cease fire. Palestinians and Israelis have gone home; Yemen signed a temporary truce to get aid and medical supplies, etc. This may be the first time that the world has experienced the closest thing to peace on earth! At least for the last 40 days. According to the New York Times, the majority of Americans say "No!" to returning back to the former "Beast" materialistic economy of the American driven so-called "Forever War." The people are tired of living the way they have been, out of balance, working endless jobs without breaks, living hand to mouth, pay check to pay check, and participating--through no other options--in destructive behaviors and destructive lifestyles dictated by the circumstances of an endless war economy based on greed, personal aggrandizement, a throw-away culture of instant gratifications, and planned obsolescence of inferior products, goods, and services.
This Act of God has in effect said: "STOP!" "Go home...cooperate with one another...clean up your act....change your ways....emerge to work together for a better world..." Together We can make this world not merely a better place, but a real garden paradise on earth for ourselves, our children, all creatures, and for all future generations. Obviously if we will work together, cooperate, as the Baha'is are able to do through our Covenant and Administration--as one soul in one body--this alone can remedy the situation--all of us real people--human beings--taking care of the real business at hand of life, and life abundantly! Through meeting, gathering, assembling, speaking out, and participating together under the Covenant, God guides us along the way every moment of every day, and all obstacles are overcome.
For the first time in many years the Holy Mountains of the Himalayas can be seen again from the low lands of India because the air pollution has cleared up in just over one month of God halting man's destructive activities, and in Beijing as well as in other places. The rivers have cleared up in the canals of Venice for the first time anyone can remember in their lives, and in other parts many animals are reported to be re-occupying areas now abandoned by the people. Traffic is down, crime is down, gas prices in America are abnormally low. The streets of Rome and New York City are vacated and empty (Rev. ch. 16-19). The threats of a coming oil war (Rev. 6:6) with the US and Russia are brewing at this very time with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Israel, Turkey, Syria, the Palestinians, and other Arab peoples in the midst.
This current universal Covid-19 crisis has opened a door of opportunity for universal human cooperation to NOW take place to make the earth a better place and better home for us all. We sent out a video message for Naw Ruz that can be found at the links to be given in our follow-up letter. That Naw Ruz 2020 message gets into the prophetical aspect of these things from the perspective of the Book of Revelation and HOPI Prophecy. Also to be sent out in follow-up to this guidance letter we have 3 documents of importance we recently received from the Hopi. These will be uploaded to the Internet and can be found in the link section in our follow-up letter. Also to uploaded the Council of the IBC/UHJ has re-issued The Indictment sent out during the April 29, 1980 worldwide media projection of Dr. Leland Jensen. The IBC/UHJ has reissued The Indictment in time for the 40th year anniversary: April 29, 1980-April 29, 2020 (Ez. 4:6 KJV).
As for other guidance:
The IBC/UHJ is at the present time establishing a solid communication network with all the friends throughout the world. A more efficient system of communication for the business affairs of the faith. On the one hand while we strengthen our gnostic connections with one another through Baha'u'llah's Covenant of friendship, we are able to use the proper channels of the Covenant and Administration to communicate, resolve, and implement both spiritual and practical affairs more quickly and smoothly.
In establishing the protocol of proper channels the IBC/UHJ will be contacting the different friends and believers in the coming weeks through our new contact e-mail address of the Secretary General's office: secgen2020@yahoo.com
The secretary generals of the local, national, and international councils (as well as the isolated centers) are the communication hub of the Baha'i world. Baha'u'llah has stated that Our "mere act of...gathering together" (GL. xliii) is enough to "scatter the forces" of darkness.
Through the regular communication, assembly, and fellowship of all the friends everywhere--and including the office of the Secretariat--as well as holding 19 day feasts, online zoom meetings, and other regular assemblies of the Baha'is, our community generates a self-sustaining positive spiritual vortex that has a lasting effect on the world and our immediate spiritual and physical environment for the better (see World Order of Baha'u'llah, pp. 9 and 19 for more). If you wish to be in direct touch with us please contact us anytime at: secgen2020@yahoo.com
This current crisis that began this Equinox 2020 parallels the Exodus of Moses event almost 4000 years ago. It begins on the Vernal Equinox with "the angel of death" (Ex. chps. 11, 12) passing over the entire world in the form of this crisis, only on a scale of "one day is equal to one year" (Num. 14:34; Ez. 4:6). The outer virus threat is also symbolic of the other invisible "virus" of a new covenant-breaking strain of poison that has been circulating through the population at this same time.
Passing the test is as easy as falling off a log, Dr. Jensen has said. Opposition only engenders loyalty in all the rest, states 'Abdu'l-Baha. Like the physical virus survival only boosts the immune system and strengthens the body as these tests come upon us. The people need to have ample time to make their adjustments to the new reality. The work to be done now is the inner temple work. As we turn toward the God of our own understanding, make our adjustments, and deepen in God, the spirit, and practical matters such as the need to plant Victory Gardens at this time, and prepare for what is to come next. If the Baha'is work together and cooperate, the prophecy states, these times of trouble shall be like passing though warm-milk for the believers. As we consolidate our own affairs, and perform our own inner temple work of the spirit for ourselves and our community this will set a tone and influence those around us to be able to trust more in God and turn to the Divine protection and Bounty in this day.
"Trustworthiness is the greatest portal leading unto the tranquility and security of the people. In truth the stability of every affair hath depended and doth depend upon it. All the domains of power, of grandeur and of wealth are illumined by its light." (Baha'u'llah, Tarazat)
"Truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues. Without truthfulness progress and success, in all the worlds of God, are impossible for any soul. When this holy attribute is established in man, all the divine qualities will also be acquired." ('Abdu'l-Baha, cf. Advent of Divine Justice)
'Abdu'l-Baha states that "the day of judgment is not the time for God to exercise His wrath but to exercise His mercy." This is because the signs for the reality of God are so obvious on the Day of Judgment (20/20 vision), that it is a Mercy for us all to be guided to see the truth of God with our own eyes and to directly and immediately experience the personal reality of God's Promise fulfilled in our very own beings: independent of all save God.
At the last August Gathering in 2019 we announced that as the "7 seals" of the Hopi Fireclan Tablet were now opened we have entered the time period of the Hopi Purification that shall last for 7 years, 7 months, 7 weeks, and seven days. This corresponds with the prophetic events that parallel the exodus of Moses on the scale of each day for a year, the next seven years.
This lock down shows us that we will not be able to move from our locations in the time of a great disaster. The India community should look into purchasing a national center property in a rural area of India (Shoghi Effendi calls this a "goal city") where the School & Cultural Center would be safe from both a nuclear war and the earth's shifting crust. This is to preserve the faith, the culture of India and the people of India, that includes the Baha'i peoples of India there. A teaching, healing, and refugee center with enough Baha'i households in that town or village to have a Baha'i community with people there to accept, orient, and care for students, guests, visitors, and in the case of disasters, refugees.
The American Baha'i Community is in the process of consolidating its national center and business offices in the rural areas of the State of Colorado at this time; and with the assistance of the IBC/UHJ has located a suitable "goal city." This is in accordance with the instructions of both the Guardians 'Abdu'l-Baha's son, Mason Remey Aghsan and Shoghi Effendi. Shoghi Effendi stated:
"Baha'is must have a new way of life. They need to be different from other people. They must be distinguished. The more distinguished, the more they will attract people. The greater the distinction, the greater the attraction. They must read the Tablets of the Covenant of 'Abdu'l-Baha (Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha) and study the Text of the Teaching (the Book of the Covenant of Baha'u'llah, the Kitab-i-Ahd). It is not enough to be good and kind and to lead a religious life today; it does not count for much unless one accepts the Manifestation of God and His Covenant, and the successors named therein..."
"The young people must disperse far away, the old ones to outlying places; they must settle goal cities. Sell your property and pioneer! The young people of America should go out into the country on farms and work with their hands and produce food for their families."
"Americans are exposed to great dangers. Today the power of America is in the hands of the masses. There is a terrific power in the press, and the people are swayed by it. The United States, on a national scale, sets the pattern for an international pattern. There will be a World Civil War, followed by the establishment of a world state; all the nations will be a part of it and will have to conform to it. This war has already started...."
"Mankind cannot be purified and cleansed without suffering. It is positively dangerous to live in cities. The cities are doomed. They will go up in smoke. They will evaporate. The Baha'is must disperse from the cities...why do they not disperse? If they do not respond and disperse, they will suffer spiritually, materially, and physically. In America the destruction will be great! They must disperse for their own protection. The cities are doomed: New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles... America will become the storm center of the future."
"Those with independent means must pack up and go. Those with spirit must pack up and go. There must be a mass response. I can warn them, but I cannot make them go. The Cause will triumph in spite of the actions and inactivity of the believers. If one country falls down, another will make up for it. The Baha'is have been given the method. Now they must have the spirit. It is hopeless for capable teachers in the cities (the people will not listen)...
"People are flocking to churches through fear. Americans must have a totally new way of life, become a race of wholly devoted souls, devoted to God and His ways. They must get to a simpler way of life. The standards of America must be lowered, have fewer luxuries. Americans do not have enough belief in God, not enough detachment. They must be more spiritual, disencumber themselves from things, have Baha'i standards, not American standards. Americans are too materialistic, too mechanized, too attached to family, health, and death. There must be less materialism, less intellectualism, and more spirit. America is the most disturbed nation, politically, on earth. There is too much organization in America and too little spirit." (Shoghi Effendi, http://www.uhj.net/end-time-prophecy.html)
"Reflections such as these should steel the resolve of the entire Baha'i community, should dissipate their forebodings, and arouse them TO REDEDICATE THEMSELVES TO EVERY SINGLE PROVISION OF THAT DIVINE CHARTER-the sacred Will and Testament-whose outline has been delineated for them by the pen of 'Abdu'l-Baha." (Shoghi Effendi, Advent of Divine Justice, p. 73)
Today the American Baha'i Community has overcome all of the challenges and obstacles leveled against those of the past by Shoghi Effendi. The Baha'is under the Covenant today in America are not like the people in the 1940s and 50s. They have located many goal cities and pioneered them back in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. The mainstay of the entire Baha'i Community in America lives outside of these large mega-cities that Shoghi Effendi has warned against. Those few in or near these nuclear target cities are there for spiritual and not material reasons. All today are filled with the Spirit. All today have attained the deep level of devotion, loyalty, severance, and detachment needed in these times of Test. How else could the American National Council consolidate its resources, combine its energies, and focus upon one single goal city at this time, to make the people's national center in the USA? By the power of Spirit!
Therefore have we all--in both India and America and our community of loved ones all throughout the world--most certainly attained the individual and group capacity to take up this task, and reap that great benefits and spiritual rewards in both this world and the next for working together on this plane of existence for a common important goal of great significance and impact: The Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, the pure spiritual democracy of unity in diversity, that is, divine civilization for all! God graduates us from the former cycle and condition, and has opened up this new Baha'i era: and if we look very closely and subtly, and if we take pause and meditate into deep spiritual intuition and interior percepts: we may behold the birth and blossoming of the first green shoots of the Lesser Peace! Has not Baha'u'llah Himself prophetically declared in the Ridvan Season: "Behold! The Divine Springtime has Come!"
Now in this crisis we have already lost friends, loved ones, and dear family members. It is my firm belief that those of us who are physically taken in these things are called by God into the light to be the protectors, coworkers, and guardian angels over our loved ones still on earth on this side of the veil. Nothing can ever separate us from each other, or us from God, because love is simply the POWER of ATTRACTION; and we are attracted to God, and know each other with God, through God, and in God. As long as God shall last, Baha'u'llah declares in His holy writings, we shall last (GL, lxxiii). Death itself is a lie, for we are surrounded by our loved ones, ancestors, and holy angels, and advanced beings protecting and looking out for us as helpers unto God in both this life and the next.
"It is clear and evident that when the veils that conceal the realities of the manifestations of the Names and Attributes of God, nay of all created things visible or invisible, have been rent asunder, nothing except the Sign of God will remain--a sign which He, Himself, hath placed within these realities. This sign will endure as long as is the wish of the Lord thy God, the Lord of the heavens and of the earth. If such be the blessings conferred on all created things, how superior must be the destiny of the true believer, whose existence and life are to be regarded as the originating purpose of all creation. Just as the conception of faith hath existed from the beginning that hath no beginning, and will endure till the end that hath no end, in like manner will the true believer eternally live and endure. His spirit will everlastingly circle round the Will of God. He will last as long as God, Himself, will last. He is revealed through the Revelation of God, and is hidden at His bidding. It is evident that the loftiest mansions in the Realm of Immortality have been ordained as the habitation of them that have truly believed in God and in His signs. Death can never invade that holy seat. Thus have We entrusted thee with the signs of thy Lord, that thou mayest persevere in thy love for Him, and be of them that comprehend this truth." (Baha’u’llah, GL, lxxiii)
This Covid Crisis and the social distancing pattern must be overcome. We are going to do this by gathering together on a more conscious regular basis and communicating with one another through both proper channels and through individual social and fellowship efforts.
Now is the appointed time--our world wide global wake-up call appointed hour--to come together and meet with one another. By activating the office of the Secretary General we mean to open up all proper channels so that everyone can participate!
The guidance from the IBC/UHJ is to participate. Through participating in the Covenant and current administration we are promised through Baha'i consultation to have all of our needs met and solutions given and prayers answered: when we work together and share fully and frankly.
We look forward to speaking with all the friends and networking with one another in person or via internet in the coming weeks.
Now is the time for everyone to participate!
On behalf of the Council,
I remain yours,your servant,
Neal.Guardian/President
IBC/UHJ
