Failed Attempts at Peace

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.