But for these
teachings, this darkness shall never vanish, these chronic diseases shall never
be healed; nay, they shall grow fiercer from day to day.
(Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha:
249)
Now
for Baha’is there is a Plan of God to bring these two forms of peace to
fruition. But here, again, the Plan of
God is actually two interacting forms, one spiritual, one material, of one
Plan, the whole character of mankind being revolutionized by a Revelation that shall manifest itself both outwardly and
inwardly, that shall affect both its inner life and external conditions.
Following
Shoghi Effendi’s lead, Baha’is call the two-fold Plan of God, the Major Plan
and the Minor Plan. The House of Justice
summarizes them as follows: “We are told by Shoghi Effendi that two great
processes are at work in the world: the great Plan of God, tumultuous in its
progress, working through mankind as a whole, tearing down barriers to world
unity and forging humankind into a unified body in the fires of suffering and
experience. This process will produce, in God's due time, the Lesser Peace, the
political unification of the world. Mankind at that time can be likened to a
body that is unified but without life. The second process, the task of
breathing life into this unified body—of creating true unity and spirituality
culminating in the Most Great Peace—is that of the Bahá'ís, who are laboring
consciously, with detailed instructions and continuing Divine guidance, to
erect the fabric of the Kingdom of God on earth, into which they call their
fellowmen, thus conferring upon them eternal life.
The
working out of God's Major Plan proceeds mysteriously in ways directed by Him
alone, but the Minor Plan that He has given us to execute, as our part in His
grand design for the redemption of mankind, is clearly delineated.” (The
Universal House of Justice, Wellspring of
Guidance, Messages 1963-1968: 133)
But
this division is actually, it seems to me, God’s Plan option C for bringing
peace to a wayward and contentious humanity.
During the life of Baha’u’llah He tried twice to bring about the Most
Great Peace, but the leaders of humankind to whom He appealed, failed miserably
to respond to him, so drunk were they with pride, arrogance and self-importance,
with catastrophic consequences for them and their peoples.
His
first attempt was blocked by the religious leaders of His homeland. He wrote: “If
these obstructing veils (meaning the obstructions to faith thrown up by the
divines of Persia) had not intervened Persia would, in some two years, have
been subdued through the power of utterance, the position of both the
government and the people would have been raised and the Supreme Goal, unveiled
and unconcealed, would have appeared in the plenitude of glory. In short,
sometimes in explicit language, at other times by allusion, We said whatever
had to be said. Thus, once Persia had been rehabilitated, the sweet savours of
the Word of God would have wafted over all countries, inasmuch as that which
hath streamed forth from the Most Exalted Pen is conducive to the glory, the
advancement and education of all the peoples and kindreds of the earth. Indeed
it is the sovereign remedy for every disease, could they but comprehend and
perceive it.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah:
73)
What
does He mean by the phrase “Supreme Goal.”
He literally means both Himself, the Vice-Regent of God on earth, the
“word made flesh”, and His Message, the written Word of God. He wrote: “Were all created things, visible
and invisible, to direct themselves towards Him, thou wouldst find them winging
their flight unto the Supreme Goal, the Spot wherein the divine Lote-Tree
exclaimeth: Verily, no God is there but Me, the Almighty, the All-Bountiful.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 195) And: “The glory with which this Day is
invested hath been explicitly mentioned and clearly set forth in most heavenly
Books and Scriptures. However, the divines of the age have debarred men from
this transcendent station, and have kept them back from this Pinnacle of Glory,
this Supreme Goal.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah:
259) And yet again: “It is now incumbent
upon them who are endowed with a hearing ear and a seeing eye to ponder these
sublime words, in each of which the oceans of inner meaning and explanation are
hidden, that haply the words uttered by Him Who is the Lord of Revelation may
enable His servants to attain, with the utmost joy and radiance, unto the
Supreme Goal and Most Sublime Summit—the dawning-place of this Voice.” (Baha'u'llah,
Epistle to the Son of the Wolf: 147)
But
when the “divines of the age” interposed themselves between God and His
creatures on matters of faith and recognition, He turned to the kings and
rulers of the earth, dispatching to each one a letter or epistle, calling on
him or her to turn to Him and listen to and follow His counsels. He promised
that if they did, they would find themselves enthroned upon the true pinnacle
of power and peace. But each one outright
rejected Him and His Message, with the sole exception of Queen Victoria of
England who at least did not dismiss His claim out of hand.
He
wrote, then, sternly rebuking all of them, but also pointing out a lesser goal
they could still achieve: “O kings of the earth! We see you increasing every
year your expenditures, and laying the burden thereof on your subjects. This,
verily, is wholly and grossly unjust. Fear the sighs and tears of this wronged
One, and lay not excessive burdens on your peoples. Do not rob them to rear
palaces for yourselves; nay rather choose for them that which ye choose for
yourselves. Thus We unfold to your eyes that which profiteth you, if ye but
perceive. Your people are your treasures. Beware lest your rule violate the
commandments of God, and ye deliver your wards to the hands of the robber. By
them ye rule, by their means ye subsist, by their aid ye conquer. Yet, how
disdainfully ye look upon them! How strange, how very strange!
Now
that ye have refused the Most Great Peace, hold ye fast unto this, the Lesser
Peace, that haply ye may in some degree better your own condition and that of
your dependents.” (Gleanings from the
Writings of Baha'u'llah: 253-254)
Wearied
by these repeated failures, persecutions, denunciations and ignored by those
who would benefit most from heeding His counsels and warnings, He, the Most
Glorious Manifestation of God, took an amazing, unprecedented and authoritative
action against the reigning secular and ecclesiastical leadership on earth. Let
Shoghi Effendi tell it: “Small wonder, then, that the Author of the Bahá’í
Faith, and to a lesser degree its Herald, should have directed at the world’s
supreme rulers and religious leaders the full force of Their Messages, and made
them the recipients of some of Their most sublime Tablets, and invited them, in
a language at once clear and insistent, to heed Their call. Small wonder that
They should have taken the pains to unroll before their eyes the truths of
Their respective Revelations, and should have expatiated on Their woes and
sufferings. Small wonder that They should have stressed the preciousness of the
opportunities which it was in the power of these rulers and leaders to seize,
and should have warned them in ominous tones of the grave responsibilities
which the rejection of God’s Message would entail, and should have predicted,
when rebuffed and refused, the dire consequences which such a rejection
involved. Small wonder that He Who is the King of kings and Vicegerent of God
Himself should, when abandoned, contemned and persecuted, have uttered this
epigrammatic and momentous prophecy: “From two ranks amongst men power hath
been seized: kings and ecclesiastics.” (Shoghi Effendi, The Promised Day is Come: 19) (See William Sears book The Prisoner and the Kings for a
dramatic account of these letters, of their falling upon deaf ears and the
resulting collapse of the order that these leaders upheld.)
It
is noteworthy that the House of Justice addressed their The Promise of World Peace to “The Peoples of the World”, ordinary
people being the last, best hope for humanity.
Hence peace will come not by the disinterested efforts of the religious
or secular leaders of the world, but via the efforts of the rank and file of
humanity undergoing a transformation of character through encountering the Word
of God. They will arise and with great
toil and trouble slowly build the promised Kingdom of God on earth. The way on the inner plane is through
spiritual principles that bring faculties into play that give a new
perspective.
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