Baha'i Perspectives

Baha'i Perspectives November 5th, 2008

Adjective: epoch-making ‘epuk ‘meyking

1. Highly significant or important especially bringing about or marking the beginning of a new development or era.

Amidst all the fanfare surrounding the end of a unique journey to presidency in the United States, it seems apt to make mention of a historic American journey of a different kind, which occurred some one hundred years ago. A landmark event that, to this date, not many people know about.

It was in the course of these epoch-making journeys and before large and representative audiences, at times exceeding a thousand people, that ‘Abdu’l-Baha expounded, with brilliant simplicity, with persuasiveness and force, and for the first time in His ministry, those basic and distinguishing principles of His Father’s Faith…

The independent search after truth, unfettered by superstition or tradition;
the oneness of the entire human race, the pivotal principle and fundamental doctrine of the Faith;
the basic unity of all religions;
the condemnation of all forms of prejudice, whether religious, racial, class or national;
the harmony which must exist between religion and science;
the equality of men and women, the two wings on which the bird of human kind is able to soar;
the introduction of compulsory education;
the adoption of a universal auxiliary language;
the abolition of the extremes of wealth and poverty;
the institution of a world tribunal for the adjudication of disputes between nations;
the exaltation of work, performed in the spirit of service, to the rank of worship;
the glorification of justice as the ruling principle in human society, and of religion as a bulwark for the protection of all peoples and nations;
and the establishment of a permanent and universal peace as the supreme goal of all mankind

– these stand out as the essential elements of that Divine polity which He proclaimed to leaders of public thought as well as to the masses at large in the course of these missionary journeys.

(Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By)

Fast forward a hundred years. Switch on the TV or tune into the radio, and many of these society-transforming ideals are now widely acknowledged by politicians and leaders of thought alike.

Those that aren’t accepted yet, eventually will be.

What remains is an acceptance of their Source.

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nooshin November 4th, 2008

I am on holiday in the United States, and being here right now, during their presidential elections has been fascinating.  It is, after all, one of the world’s oldest democracies, and should have it all worked out by now.  Right?

If their political advertising is anything to go by, not really.  There seems to be mainly two tactics: Chicken Little politics (“the sky is falling down, the sky is falling down”) and the politics of fear (“Mr. X voted 125 times to ban alligator hunting.  If you vote for Mr. X, he will destroy you, your family and the whole American way of life”).  Four out of five adverts I have seen are negative ones, focusing on what is wrong with the opponent, rather than what is positive about the candidates themselves.

Shoghi Effendi, explaining that Baha’is are expressly forbidden to take part in partisan politics, said the following:

It remains for the individuals to so use their right to vote as to keep aloof from party politics, and always bear in mind that they are voting on the merits of the individual, rather than because he belongs to one party or another.

The merits of the individual, as far as I can see, should be what kind of a servant s/he would be.  In the present world order, to be a servant is to have a low social standing, a low salary and little respect.  In Baha’u'llah’s new world order, this definition will be turned on its head, with the rendering of service a duty and an aspiration.

So, what makes a good civil servant? `Abdu’l-Bahá clearly outlines what is expected of those entrusted with service to civil society;

Should any one of you enter into the service (or employment) of the government, he must live and act with the utmost truthfulness, righteousness, chastity, uprightness, purity, sanctity, justice and equity. But if—I seek refuge in God—any one betray the least of trusts or neglect and be remiss in the performance of duties which are intrusted to him, or by oppression takes one penny of extortion from the subjects, or seeks after his own personal, selfish aims and ends in the attainment of his own interests, he shall undoubtedly remain deprived of the outpourings of His Highness the Almighty.

Bahá’u'lláh, the Founder of the Baha’i Faith, addressed a series of letters to the kings and rulers of the time, which included the following exhortation:

Take heed, O concourse of the rulers of the world! There is no force on earth that can equal in its conquering power the force of justice and wisdom… Blessed is the king who marcheth with the ensign of wisdom unfurled before him, and the battalions of justice massed in his rear. He verily is the ornament that adorneth the brow of peace and the countenance of security. There can be no doubt whatever that if the day star of justice, which the clouds of tyranny have obscured, were to shed its light upon men, the face of the earth would be completely transformed.

These are tough standards to meet, even for those with the best of intentions.  I believe becoming a good servant is a life-long pursuit, one based on the suppression of the ego and increasing selflessness.  For instance, a good civil servant should be a master at consultation.  Consultation is only effective when its participants learn to be detached from their ideas, and work towards the greater good. The more our egos get involved, the more they get bruised, and need to be protected, and the more we lose sight of the goal:

…is there any deed in the world that would be nobler than service to the common good? Is there any greater blessing conceivable for a man, than that he should become the cause of the education, the development, the prosperity and honor of his fellow-creatures? No, by the Lord God! The highest righteousness of all is for blessed souls to take hold of the hands of the helpless and deliver them out of their ignorance and abasement and poverty, and with pure motives, and only for the sake of God, to arise and energetically devote themselves to the service of the masses, forgetting their own worldly advantage and working only to serve the general good.

`Abdu’l-Bahá

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