The flame of every fire hath been extinguished except the Flame which the hands of Thine omnipotence have kindled, and whose radiance Thou hast, by the power of Thy Name, shed abroad before all that are in Thy heaven and all that are on Thy earth. As the tribulations deepen, it waxeth hotter and hotter. Baha’u’llah
Dear friends,
Allah’u’Abha!
The promises of God for the unification of the entire human race, functioning cooperatively as a loving and caring family, kind to all, compassionate to all, and having the well-being of all first and foremost in the intentionality all our endeavors has finally come upon us all due to the current global crisis that effects us all. “As the tribulations deepen” the fires of the love of God and for the Oneness of Humanity are only more strongly fueled and set ablaze by the breaths of the Holy Spirit which Baha’u’llah states can be heard in the sighs and prayers of all the people for the Victory of His Cause, the Triumph of His will, and the growth and fast acting solutions enshrined in His everlasting Kingdom.
“Will this misery-laden world ever attain happiness?” a visitor asked one day. The Master replied: “It is nearly two thousand years since His holiness the Lord Christ taught this prayer to His people: ‘Thy Kingdom come, It will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven.’ Thinkest thou that He would have commanded thee to pray for that which would never come? That prayer is also a prophecy.”
“‘Abdu’l-Baha, when will the Kingdom come? How soon will His Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven?”
“It depends on how intensely you, each and every one of you, serve day and night. Ye are all torches that I have lighted with mine own hands. Go forth, light others till all the separate waiting servants are linked together in a Great Unity.
“Those who are working alone are like ants, but when they are united they will become as eagles.
“Those who work singly are as drops, but, when united, they will become a vast river carrying the cleansing water of life into the barren desert places of the world. Before the power of its rushing flood, neither misery, nor sorrow, nor any grief will be able to stand. Be united! It is rather dangerous to be an isolated drop. It might be spilled or blown away.”
On November 28, 1921 ‘Abdu’l-Baha ascended into the Abha realm, and the sacred Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha (W&T), the CHARTER of the Kingdom (see World Order of Baha’u’llah, p. 144 for more) became activated and went into effect. The passing of ‘Abdu’l-Baha marks the close of the Heroic Age of the Faith and the opening of the Age of fulfillment in the world where everyone and their neighbor is able to have direct and immediate access to the Kingdom of God, understand their personal role in the Covenant and Administration, and receive their personal inheritance of their rays of the Holy Spirit, activating their true genius, winning their spiritual station--the perfection of their own selves--and congregating in the Assembly of their fellow believers in the Presence of God and the Holy Angels in both this life and the next, in this world and in the world to come.
If we consider nature, and the creation of the entire universe, we find a dynamic flowing and growing system of diversity and plurality that is self perpetuating, self-organizing, and self-sustaining according to the inscrutable will of God. Yet when we gaze upon the world of humanity we see the suffering of the people, manmade wars, manmade pollution, unkindness, callousness toward other human beings, disease and starvation, profits above people and the ignorance and lack of a proper education that undergirds these many diverse problems. Since the first telegraph message was sent in 1844 stating “Look what God has wrought!” the communications ability of human beings has reached such a high degree of development, that now a message can be sent instantaneously through the internet and mass media all around the world in not only lightning speeds of rapidity, but actually reaching almost all the members of human family in that same single instant individually. Through this great power, many things that have been occurring and have occurred before are now transparent for all the world to see immediately. Not only that, but this capability gives the human beings the power to respond and take action--and mobilize immediately in groups--to aid and assist the people who may be effected by the consequences of the dire stages in changing world events and local happenings as we move as a unified people through this transitional period from nationalism to internationalism; as the Oneness of Humanity blossoms, blooming-full and abundant, and souls and societies are spiritually transfigured both from within and from without.
Today’s Century--marked on the prophetical calendars of all the peoples of the world--is the Epoch of the Divine Evolution of all human beings upon planet earth. Nothing can stop the cosmic clock of transforming all and every species into the essential features of its true being, when instinct, and God given natural selection, cause that peculiar mutation and maturation, to forever change and evolve that species into something new. Such is the caterpillar and the butterfly--and such are all of us now on planet earth: such that God consciousness has flowed forth over the entire world even as the waters cover the face of the sea.
The elimination of prejudice today--all prejudiced--including of the utmost import religious prejudiced needs to be removed and eliminated from all human society, thought, conduct, behavior, and appearance. The cocoon of the old must be discarded to make way for the new. Only in this way we will all be able to give our fullest and strongest attention to this most important and overlooked fact: the Role of the Divine Manifestations of God in Human Evolution.
No one can stop the spiritual transformation of the hearts, minds, and souls of the people: as the spirits of their ancestors rise, like prayers of the martyrs and saints from beneath the altar, and the prophecies of the religions of the past are all fulfilled now in this day today. As stated in the sacred scriptures when it appears darkest in the world, that is where the Cause of God will be made to shine the brightest! For the Manifestations of God are the First Teachers leading up to the Revelation of the Oneness of Humanity in this very day and Age!
Thus along with the problem comes the solution. But we have to choose to implement the solution, and we have to want that solution and be motivated for it. And we are not alone. God has a Plan, and never changes His method of sending us that solution that we need, by sending us guidance from God in the form of the great educators and first primordial teachers of human kind, the manifestations of God and His prophets and promised ones. These great personages all have revealed the same basic principle of cooperation at the foundations of their various religious systems. If we take a historical view here, we will see that God has been building greater and greater unities amongst the peoples of the world through the appearance of the Holy Manifestations of God as the divine revelators of an ever advancing civilization of which “religion” and “spirituality” are an essential component part that serve the function to stabilize the humanistic and spiritual foundation of God in the hearts, minds, and souls of the people, so that religious prejudiced should be removed; individual differences appreciated, honored and encouraged, not despised nor rejected; and that the diversity of life and life abundantly in both our interior and exterior lives may grow better and better and wax greater and greater in health, well-being and personal and communal satisfaction every day, each day even better and more radiant than the next.
In the past, the teachers gave great revelations, and the appearance of the greater and lesser lights (their loyal followers) and civilization building reached the heights of many golden ages. Egypt at the time of Adam and Enoch and the building of the great pyramid of Giza; Greece, Jerusalem, and Babylon at the time of Moses, David, and Solomon; India in the time of Krishna and later in China in the time after the Buddha in the days of King Asoka; Persia, after the appearance of Zoroaster; Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East after the appearance of Christ whose message of “love thy enemy” was sent out all along the silk road route of the ancient world; and the rise of the Islamic Dynasties after the appearance of the prophet Muhammad. But none of this was televised or seen on the internet by all the people of the world all at once. Thus these unities that God formed through these teachers were limited in their time and scope, and specifically tuned to the peculiar needs of their day and age, and when these great cultures and civilizations fell, we were left with the husks of the original revelations, now devoid of the fiery civilization building spirit that they once enshrined, and this is what the people mean when they think about “religions” this day today.
They are ancient forms of ritual, dogma, doctrine and creeds, that once upheld a beautiful and flourishing loving human civilization in some region of the world, and then later fell into oblivion, in which the surviving devotees merely carry our ritual acts, ceremonies, and commemoration of historical past days once performed by that active society. The result--if studied closely by thinking people with religious prejudice removed--is manifold.
In the eyes of man clergy classes were established to preserve the ancient forms of ritual and tradition. These have benefitted the people of the world by preserving a large variety of spiritual traditions and religious experiences that individuals are able to have access to, that the people utilize in their own personal and group and community practices: the essence being prayer and fasting, and the personal development of the mystic experience in God as they understand it.
These “unities” of the past: due to their lack of potency, the limited restrictions of geography and communications, and the limitations of the growth and development of the spiritual capacity of the peoples in those past days, while able to unite many people for many years, and give rise to other golden ages of the past, were and are still unable to bring about the greater unity of all the people of the world needed now at this time. In fact now, due to “the job security” mentality of the various clergy classes, these former “unities” and their current devotees and populations, now find one another in competition, at odds with each other, and at variance with one another. With no international and universal agreement upon religion, the truth of God, the sanctity of personal spiritual experience, and in the current climate of religious prejudice and warring and competing religious ideas and factions, is it no wonder there is also warfare in the material world of our human material civilization?
The foundation of true religion is universal agreement and universal cooperation. Therefore in God’s Plan, all these sacred traditions, practices, and unities that have their origin in God, also contain the infallible prophecy of God for the golden age of the future. This golden age is one of mass communication, where everyone has an influence, even as each drop adds to the sea. It is hallmarked by the Oneness of Humanity being is major and first theme. A deep and powerful and greatest potency of a revelation that appears within the very heart and mind and soul of everyone, and is reflected by us all into the formation of the institutions of our outer material and inner burgeoning spiritual civilization.
“In every Dispensation, the light of Divine Guidance has been focused upon one central theme…In this wondrous Revelation, this glorious century, the foundation of the Faith of God, and the distinguishing feature of His Law, is the consciousness of the oneness of mankind.” (‘Abdu’l-Baha)
Through the science of many cooperating minds material civilization has progressed until today: we are now in the communication age. Now with the apparatus and means for worldwide communication begun with the first telegraph sent in 1844 we come to the centenary--the 100 years anniversary of the culmination of the Heroic Age in the appearance of the first century of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha. Through the religion and spirituality of many co-operating minds--deepened and loyal to every single provision of the CHARTER of the Kingdom (W&T)--the religions and revelations of the past are RE-VISIONED in the minds of the people of spirit as one divine progressive plan--called the covenant--leading up to our working together as one for the betterment of the world now today as we most need it! The global pandemic, the universal march for justice and fairness for all, the reformation of the world economic system, a need for universal education for all, a high tech environmentally conscious work for global agriculture, the need for a world federal system of government preserving the diversity of our world both within and amongst the peoples and nations of our global village is now not only possible in human capability, but is more than probable, due to the rising costs of and emotional tolls of the spiritual, emotional, mental and material traumas experienced in these manifold crises: it is inevitable. And the educated Baha’i peoples know that the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha--now seen in the first century of its workings and operation (1921-2021)--is the God given instrument for alleviating the sufferings and ills of all mankind: the Charter of the Kingdom, the Charter of Cooperation that God gave: the Covenant of Friendship and Universal Agreement that every eye shall see, once religious prejudice is removed.
Shoghi Effendi writes:
“The contents of the Will of the Master is far too much for the present generation to comprehend. It needs at least a century of actual working before the treasures of wisdom hidden in it can be revealed. How can we at this stage and with our limited understanding denounce its spirit and purport.”
“Now of the utmost importance is for the believers, each and all, to cling firmly to the provisions of our beloved Master’s Will and Testament, as by this means alone the unity of the Cause, and its safe and speedy growth can be maintained, safeguarded and insured. Such an absolute and unwavering fidelity to ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s Will, and firm adherence to the principles of the Administrative Order is indeed incumbent upon every one of the friends, without any distinction whatever. Upon this basis alone the Faith can be safeguarded and flourish.”
From the Master:
“It is indubitably clear, that the pivot of the Oneness of Mankind is nothing else but the power of the Covenant…. The power of the Covenant is as the heat of the sun which quickeneth and promoteth the development of all created things on earth. The light of the Covenant, in like manner, is the educator of the minds, the spirits, the hearts and souls of men.”
Thus the “unities” of the past were given by God to form even greater and greater “unities” until this time today when the people have the capacity for reading, spirituality, and universal understanding: when the rise of science in harmony with religion is understood by the majority, a time when religious prejudiced and ethnic and cultural intolerance are now removed, when justice and fairness for all is the universal cry of the people, when all shall wish to eliminate absolute poverty, and global starvation, when all will rise up for universal education for all, healthcare through whole-person approaches for all, environmental consciousness and clean air and clean water for all. These material gifts and bounties of God are dependent upon the people recognizing God and turning to God and His Plan so that universal cooperation in God may be promulgated, and with our spiritual diversity understood, and the mystery of our unity in God made know, any and every problem that faces and confronts the people of the world, in every day and age, can be resolved by the cooperating people of God, in the greatest unity and golden age that this world has ever seen: the Unity of God, known as the Kingdom of God now established upon the earth as it is in heaven.
Now this Kingdom is both a spiritual and everlasting Kingdom that the souls throughout all time enjoy the presence of God, and it is an outward material and spiritual civilization for the planet earth, that empowers the people through the principles of world spiritual democracy to resolve all the difficult affairs of the world.
“The foundation of this Cause is pure spiritual democracy, and not theocracy” (‘Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i Scriptures, p. 449). “Just as in the world of politics there is need for free thought, likewise in the world of religion there should be the right of unrestricted individual belief. Consider what a vast difference exists between modern democracy and the old forms of despotism. Under an autocratic government the opinions of men are not free, and development is stifled, whereas in democracy, because thought and speech are not restricted, the greatest progress is witnessed. It is likewise true in the world of religion. When freedom of conscience, liberty of thought and right of speech prevail--that is to say, when every man according to his own idealization may give expression to his beliefs--development and growth are inevitable.” (‘Abdu’l-Baha, Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 197)
In order for its non-violent life-giving spirit to be made know, and the life-giving potency of the indestructible power of this revelation to unify all the peoples of the world through the fulfillment of the prophecies of all previous faiths, religions, seers, traditions, visions, hopes and dreams and promises: God has chosen in the 6000 years cycle of Adam (4000 BC - 2001 AD) and within this first century of the Covenant (1921 AD - 2021 AD) to demonstrate that God is the essence of humility. He does this by allowing the people to do whatsoever they want to His servants the prophets, manifestations of God, promised ones, guides and teachers, and greater and lesser lights. The personal lives of the Central figures in the Faith, the Bab, Baha’u’llah, and ‘Abdu’l-Baha demonstrate this truth, as does the unfolding destiny of the dual successorship fulfilled in the living Davidic Kings (the guardians) and of the Alim, the people of Baha’u’llah who are the loyal adherents and fellow joint heirs to the Covenant of Baha’u’llah and the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha. Consider this Tablet of Baha’u’llah:
“Praise be to Thee, O Lord My God, for the wondrous revelations of Thy inscrutable decree and the manifold woes and trials Thou hast destined for Myself. At one time Thou didst deliver Me into the hands of Nimrod; at another Thou hast allowed Pharaoh’s rod to persecute Me. Thou, alone, canst estimate, through Thine all-encompassing knowledge and the operation of Thy Will, the incalculable afflictions I have suffered at their hands. Again Thou didst cast Me into the prison-cell of the ungodly, for no reason except that I was moved to whisper into the ears of the well-favored denizens of Thy Kingdom an intimation of the vision with which Thou hadst, through Thy knowledge, inspired Me, and revealed to Me its meaning through the potency of Thy might. And again Thou didst decree that I be beheaded by the sword of the infidel. Again I was crucified for having unveiled to men’s eyes the hidden gems of Thy glorious unity, for having revealed to them the wondrous signs of Thy sovereign and everlasting power. How bitter the humiliations heaped upon Me, in a subsequent age, on the plain of Karbilá! How lonely did I feel amidst Thy people! To what a state of helplessness I was reduced in that land! Unsatisfied with such indignities, My persecutors decapitated Me, and, carrying aloft My head from land to land paraded it before the gaze of the unbelieving multitude, and deposited it on the seats of the perverse and faithless. In a later age, I was suspended, and My breast was made a target to the darts of the malicious cruelty of My foes. My limbs were riddled with bullets, and My body was torn asunder. Finally, behold how, in this Day, My treacherous enemies have leagued themselves against Me, and are continually plotting to instill the venom of hate and malice into the souls of Thy servants. With all their might they are scheming to accomplish their purpose…. Grievous as is My plight, O God, My Well-Beloved, I render thanks unto Thee, and My Spirit is grateful for whatsoever hath befallen me in the path of Thy good-pleasure. I am well pleased with that which Thou didst ordain for Me, and welcome, however calamitous, the pains and sorrows I am made to suffer.”
This is also along the lines of what Jesus has said as applied to ourselves the heirs of the Kingdom in our joint inheritance:
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my Name, for they do not know the One [Baha’u’llah: the Father--Baha’u’llah literally means the “the glory of the father” (see Mark 8:38)] who sent me. (John 15:18-21 NIV)
“In the conduct of this twofold crusade,” writes Shoghi Effendi, “the valiant warriors struggling in the name and for the Cause of Baha’u’llah must, of necessity, encounter stiff resistance, and suffer many a setback. Their own instincts, no less than the fury of conservative forces, the opposition of vested interests, and the objections of a corrupt and pleasure-seeking generation, must be reckoned with, resolutely resisted, and completely overcome. As their defensive measures for the impending struggle are organized and extended, storms of abuse and ridicule, and campaigns of condemnation and misrepresentation, may be unloosed against them. Their Faith, they may soon find, has been assaulted, their motives misconstrued, their aims defamed, their aspirations derided, their institutions scorned, their influence belittled, their authority undermined, and their Cause, at times, deserted by a few who will either be incapable of appreciating the nature of their ideals, or unwilling to bear the brunt of the mounting criticisms which such a contest is sure to involve. ‘Because of ‘Abdu’l-Baha,’ the beloved Master has prophesied [concerning the faithful and loyal souls adhering to every single provision of His Will and Testament] “many a test will be visited upon you. Troubles will befall you, and suffering afflict you.’
The Kingdom of God of this current burgeoning Golden Age of civilization is at once the fulfillment and transcendental culmination of all the previous golden ages on this planet of the past. Its great instrument of unity in the Covenant of God provides a means for a one-world value system that holds the Oneness of Humanity as the axis of true spiritual activity and perspective and the touchstone of all right deeds. It is world inclusive of all peoples and all faiths, all arts and all sciences, all cultures and all languages. It is inclusive of God in the consciousness of all the peoples as they understand it. It is not a secular humanism, that we are now seeing the rampant collapse of the Godless society--not godless in the hearts, minds and souls of the people of the world, but absent from the doctrines, dogmas and creeds of the outworn political, religious, social and educational institutions of the past, and absent from the nonsensical stranglehold of immature and false belief systems that relegate or dismiss the presence of God to a mere dogma or creed, instead of experienced dynamically, personally and socially as the real active power and motive operating force that breaths, moves, and flows forth from God as the operating reality behind the scenes.
Once Varqa asked Baha’u’llah: “How will the Cause of God be universally adopted by mankind?” Baha’u’llah prophesied:
“First the nations of the world will arm themselves with infernal engines of war, and when fully armed they will attack each other [without mercy] like bloodthirsty beasts. As a result, there will be enormous bloodshed throughout the world. Then the wise from all nations will gather together to investigate the cause of such bloodshed. They will come to the conclusion that prejudices are the cause, a major form being religious prejudice. They will therefore try to eliminate religion so as to eliminate prejudice. Later [NOW] they will realize than man cannot live without religion. Then they will study the teachings of all religions to see which of the religions conforms to the prevailing conditions of the time. It is then that the Cause of God will become universal.”
This universal global crises of the pandemic, seen by all in the media and on the internet, giving rise for the spiritual cry of justice, equality, and fairness for all in establishing a global economy for our global village that cares for all, protects all, includes all, and accepts all has already overwhelmed the peoples and nations of the world. The depth of the tragedy, the terrible loss of loved ones, the failure to have agreement on the real medical science behind the problem, its origin and its treatment and cure, the failure to act in harmony throughout all the regions of the world as one in response to contain such a threat in the first place--has given rise to the questioning of the deeper meaning of our human purpose in life, our personal unique missions in this world, the direction of our journey as a group and individually. Wisdom from the Baha’i center of the EU, under the provisions of the Covenant, written by MP:
As promised here are some of my thoughts on the significance of the cholera outbreak in Shiraz and the connection with the corona crisis (and any other health crisis I guess), which I shared during yesterdays...meeting....Please share any thoughts you have with me ��:
In the Dawnbreakers chapter 9 a cholera outbreak happens in Shiraz.
In a footnote we are referred to a reference in the DALÁ’IL-I-SAB’IH, the book of 7 proofs, written by the Bab. :
“Recall the first days of the Manifestation — how many men were dead at that time of cholera! That was one of the marvels of the Manifestation, and nobody understood it. During four years the plague reigned among the Shi’i Muslims without anyone grasping the significance thereof....”
The Bab who is meant to be brought to the governor and to be captured, ends up being released because the governor has fled the city due to the cholera outbreak. And He heals the son of his capturer in his own home who then pleads with the governor to release the Bab. Surely this is a great marvel by itself: but to me the book of 7 proofs seems to have a deeper meaning.
The book continues on the subject like this:
“...See this verse in the Quran: ‘The infidels have thought that they could take as patrons those who are only our servants? We have prepared for them jahannam (hell) as a dwelling place.’
This verse was descended for them who took the Christian priests as guides against the Prophet of God, and this very chastisement was their hell during their lives, for there has not been and there is no greater recompense for him who does pious deeds in this world than the approbation of God, and there is no fire more violent than to be far from God in this lower world. Know that this menace of hell is made for those who adore others save God: to adore means here to obey. One does not obey God in this lower world except in obeying that One in Whom one can see God in each Manifestation. Understand well this so as not to obey others besides God. The day in which Him Whom God shall manifest will appear, you will have acted against Him and consequently against God if you continue to obey one of the doctors of the Bayán”....and it continues and I’m not sure where the subject continues or flows into the next, so I will stop here.
In another footnote Nicolas writes: “Once more an outbreak of cholera, and no awakening of the population of Shiraz from its heedlessness and unbelief.”
What is the significance of a plague amongst the Shi’i Muslims for 4 years that no one can grasp? Why is the outbreak one of the marvels of the manifestation which nobody understands?
Of course it made me think of our own ‘plague’ in these years. Are the significance’s spiritual, social, scientific, economic, biological...?
When I googled ‘Cholera and Covid 19’ I found a few articles. One from Zimbabwe, where, following unwise, corrupt and greedy economic reform structures, there was a terrible cholera outbreak in 2008, The author tells us how the disease can have a 50% death rate, even though with simple things like clean water, hygiene, hydration and electrolytes it can be reduced to 1%. Finally NGO’s stepped in and saved many people’s lives but..only for a little time. Just to save the people and the situation for a moment. The program is reactive and not preventative, not to fix the real problems, to look at why it happened in the first place...
From my understanding clean water and cleanliness for everyone would go a long way...Water is mentioned a total of 722 times in the Bible, more often than faith, hope, prayer, and worship. “We made from water every living thing,” the Koran tells us, it’s the foundation of life material and spiritual. With water still being such an unsolved mysterious thing, being able to hold memory, being used in our ablutions, 70% of the planet is water so are our bodies made up of 70% water, and many other components and ideas which helps me understand water is very special and sacred... we are perhaps more literally ‘drops of one ocean’ than we think, when we read this at first ... and then cleanliness; being next to godliness, I’ve heard people in here say before...so.. I believe that ensuring these 2 things for all the people will solve so many things. Health wise, spiritually, economically, socially, scientifically...
Going back to the Dawnbreakers chapter 9 for a moment...While people were told not to drink unboiled water to avoid the plague, The Báb told the son of the governors man, who was dying of cholera, to drink the water He had used for His ablutions, that this would save his life. Which it did. Such great potency in the water!
The article from Zimbabwe ends with: “Epidemics are tests of social and political systems. Will the coronavirus do the same 12 years later?” (it was written about a year ago by the way.)
With this corona virus, our current day systems all over the planet are tested, pushed and reformed. In all different areas, socially, technologically, scientifically, and so on...
While politicians and media have us believe that locking people down, masking healthy children in school, testing healthy people to prove their unsickness, and focusing fully on the one and only solution for humanity, the big bandage on the open seeping wound...a vaccine....
Meanwhile scientists and doctors and lawyers with a more advanced and holistic approach are being pushed harder to come with solutions and to speak out. For our health, for our happiness, economics etc. Pushing humanity forward.
Zach Bush MD tells almost a love story about viruses, giving us an update in our evolutionary process and helping us deal with an ever increasing toxic environment. I remember Neal also saying that viruses give us an update, a spiritual one I guess?
Other scientists claim viruses don’t exist in the way we think at all. We still know so little about all this ever getting smaller stuff...the science is definitely not settled, nor will it ever be I’m guessing.
Could this be one answer to understanding one of the marvels of the Manifestation, which nobody understood...
Just as we now don’t understand why and how a system can be so corrupt, to offer retarded, short sighted and inept ways to solve a health crisis and not just to provide access to clean water when they do have the understanding and the power to do so, perhaps later on in the future we won’t understand why we used retarded, short sighted and inept ways to put a bandage, on a big, seeping, open wound... instead of looking at the root of the problem. Now, we might have less feces in the water in most countries to cause cholera, but now we have a more complex situation at hand, we have pharmaceuticals in the water, toxins in the water, glyphosate, and other harmful things...and not only in our water but also in our air, our ground, our food...even so our minds, are full of toxic thoughts...
We must live in harmony with nature and God, is that part of the significance of these ‘pandemics’?
In the Bab’s book of 7 proofs he writes: “During four years the plague reigned among the Shi’i Muslims without anyone grasping the significance thereof.” Why does the Bab specifically mention the Shi’i Muslims, surely it affected all citizens? Will it much later ‘in a 1000 years’ be written that a corona virus reigned among the Baha’is without anyone grasping its significance?
*****
Dear Friends! Along with the instrument of cooperation, the Revelation of Baha’u’llah founded upon the Oneness of Humanity provides an infallible source of guidance for the remediation of all the ills that perplex the peoples of the world:
“The American nation, of which the community of the Most Great Name forms as yet a negligible and infinitesimal part, stands, indeed, from whichever angle one observes its immediate fortunes, in grave peril. The woes and tribulations which threaten it are partly avoidable, but mostly inevitable and God-sent, for by reason of them a government and people clinging tenaciously to the obsolescent doctrine of absolute sovereignty and upholding a political system, manifestly at variance with the needs of a world already contracted into a neighborhood and crying out for unity, will find itself purged of its anachronistic conceptions, and prepared to play a preponderating role, as foretold by ‘Abdu’l-Baha, in the hoisting of the standard of the Lesser Peace, in the unification of mankind, and in the establishment of a world federal government on this planet. These same fiery tribulations will not only firmly weld the American nation to its sister nations [such as India, Iran, Israel and Russia] in both hemispheres, but will through their cleansing effect, purge it thoroughly of the accumulated dross which ingrained racial prejudice, rampant materialism, widespread ungodliness and moral laxity have combined, in the course of successive generations, to produce, and which have prevented her thus far from assuming the role of world spiritual leadership forecast by ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s unerring pen--a role which she is bound to fulfill through travail and sorrow.” (Shoghi Effendi)
And moreover:
“Difference of capacity in human individuals is fundamental. It is impossible for all to be alike, all to be equal, all to be wise. Baha’u’llah has revealed principles and laws which will accomplish the adjustment of varying human capacities. He has said that whatsoever is possible of accomplishment in human government will be effected through these principles. When the laws he has instituted are carried out there will be no millionaires possible in the community and likewise no extremely poor. This will be effected and regulated by adjusting the different degrees of human capacity. The fundamental basis of the community is agriculture, tillage of the soil. All must be producers. Each person in the community whose income is equal to his individual producing capacity shall be exempt from taxation. But if his income is greater than his needs he must pay a tax until an adjustment is effected. That is to say, a man’s capacity for production and his needs will be equalized and reconciled through taxation. If his production exceeds he will pay no tax; if his necessities exceed his production he shall receive an amount sufficient to equalize or adjust. Therefore taxation will be proportionate to capacity and production and there will be no poor in the community.” (‘Abdu’l-Baha)
As we all transition through the next six years of the Hopi Purification, the influence, and protecting guidance vouchsafed to our community of the Most Great Name through the joint heirship bequeathed from God through the Covenant of Baha’u’llah (Kitab-i-Ahd) as delineated in the sacred Will and Testament of ‘Abdul-Baha shall continue to be the touchstone to see us through:
“Far from yielding in their resolve, far from growing oblivious of their task, they should, at no time, however much buffeted by circumstances, forget that the synchronization of such world-shaking crises with the progressive unfoldment and fruition of their divinely appointed task is itself the work of Providence, the design of an inscrutable Wisdom, and the purpose of an all-compelling Will, a Will that directs and controls, in its own mysterious way, both the fortunes of the Faith and the destinies of men. Such simultaneous processes of rise and of fall, of integration and of disintegration, of order and chaos, with their continuous and reciprocal reactions on each other, are but aspects of a greater Plan, one and indivisible, whose Source is God, whose author is Baha’u’llah, the theater of whose operations is the entire planet, and whose ultimate objectives are the unity of the human race and the peace of all mankind.
“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 of ‘Abdu’l-Baha] whose outline has been delineated for them by the pen of ‘Abdu’l-Baha.” (Shoghi Effendi)
Dear Friends!
Our prayers for all the fellow believers and citizens of India during the time of this terrible calamity and crisis that has encircled the entire globe, touched the lives of all--and contains the seeds of uniting us all. May God guide all the people of the world to the waters of life that are free of price. That all should see the truth with their own eyes and not through the eyes of their neighbor--where this everlasting Covenant of friendship will result in the appearance of the Most Great Justice the everlasting foundation for the Most Great Peace of Our Time!
The purpose of the descendant of King David being the president of Baha’u’llah’s Universal House of Justice is so that we can recognize Baha’u’llah’s true Universal House of Justice from fakes, frauds, and imitations.
Please find Baha’u’llah’s Tablet of the Howdah attached. It is the companion tablet to the Tablet of the Holy Mariner in which, ‘Abdu’l-Baha states that “the Blessed Beauty has indeed foretold future events”!
I remain yours, your servant,
Neal.
Suffer me not, O God, my God, to be kept back from the heaven of Thy bounties and the daystar of Thy favors. I beseech Thee by that Word through which Thou hast subdued all things visible and invisible to assist me and to assist Thy chosen ones to accomplish that which shall exalt Thy Cause amidst Thy servants and throughout Thy regions. Do Thou ordain for me, then, every good thing which Thou hast sent down in Thy Book.
Verily Thou art the Almighty, the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Generous.
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