The baha’i world
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- Pour Valleys, p. 53. Gleanings from the Writings of Bahâ’u’lláh.
- —PHILIP AMALFI MARANGELLA
- —BEATRICE IRWIN
- THE VALLEY OF KNOWLEDGE
- THE VALLEY OF LOVE
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938 THE BAHA’I WORLD
and social sections were the things that attracted me specially. No one can view unmoved the gathering together in one Assembly of the representatives of fifty-two nations meeting in cooperation. And although one is told that their efforts will not succeed, yet the very attempt is surely a foreshadowing of that assembly of people who, in the course of time, through their spiritual unity of purpose will achieve their aims. Indeed at the conclusion of the Session when we gathered to listen to a concert of orchestral music, which all nationalities apparently appreciated, it was easy to believe, in spite of the black days ahead, in the ultimate establishment of international life. With this background I went to the microphone to talk to Australia. But that was not the end of my broadcasting adventures. Indeed it was just the beginning. With introductions from the International Radio Union I visited a number of radio stations in other countries. First Vienna, a fascinating place at that time for a folk-lore enthusiast, where they made for me records of actual folk festivals which had been recorded by their travelling microphone in distant provinces. In Budapest records of folk-songs and gypsy music were given me. These, with the knowledge gained at the London, Paris and Cairo stations, have proved most valuable in the compiling of talks in Australia. But I must leave the story of radio experiences and tell you of happenings in Paris, London and Haifa. In Paris, in company of my hostess Madame Dreyfus-Barney, we visited the places where ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had been and I would listen entranced as Madame said, “Here He stopped and spoke to us.” “This is the view He loved.” The spell of the Master is still upon those who knew Him, something of His spirit has fallen upon them. The really wonderful Exposition of 1937 was then in progress and it was interesting to see that the section given to the Pavillons des Etrangers was that part of the Trocadero Gardens where ‘Abdu’l-Baha used to walk each day. There, where He used to sit, was erected the long Column of the Golden Star of Peace that dominated the Exposition. On
the final night of the Exposition Madame and I went to see the playing fountains of colored water. We entered where ‘Abdu’lBahá had so often entered and where now stood the Pavilion of Palestine. Here where the Master loved to walk, strangers from the ends of the earth were gathered together and we felt that these things were a parable. From Paris to London. There to hear from Lady Blomfield of the Master’s visit to London. To listen to these stories told by one whose words vibrate with His power was an unforgettable experience and a fitting introduction for the visit to Haifa. How can I tell you of the meeting with Shoghi Effendi? How describe to you the power which radiates through him—the boundless love which envelops all humanity. His compassion yet his Justice; the dynamic energy which demands—all. With a quivering breath one realizes the greatness of this Day, the value of this time; and with radiant joy knows that every breath of one’s life is too little to give in this Cause. “There is no sacrifice if we are conscious of the privileges.” Here the glorious certainty of God’s illimitable power and immutable purpose for mankind pulsates through one’s heart in ever deepening waves of strength and joy. Truly the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh is the heart of the world; the source of all peace from which the revivifying waves of His love permeate all things. “He is verily nearby, even though you may think Him far away.” In humble tribute to the memory of that inestimable one Munirih Khánum, wife of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, I want to give you her message which seemed to be for us all. Holding me in her loving arms she said: “Read the Words of Bahá’u’lláh, dear. Read the Words of Bahá’u’lláh. Everything is in them. Oh, they are wonderful, wonderful! Blessed are the hours spent with the Words of God.” She quoted many words of Bahã’u’lláh which Ziyáiyyih Khánum, Shoghi Effendi’s mother, translated. The presence of Rul iyyih Khánum at that hallowed spot was an inspiration words fail to describe. The Guardian wished to send to the Bahá’is of Australasia a most precious relic for their national archives, a lock of the ‘Four Valleys, p.55.
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hair of Bahá’u’lláh, every strand of which had been arranged by the Greatest Holy Leaf. This precious relic was entrusted to this overwhelmed servant to carry to Australia. Oh that the glory of the moment of its uncovering could be transmitted too. The profound reverence of the Guardian. The intensity of the power that enveloped all. The dynamic force of love flowing out in ever widening circles. Shoghi Effendi said that he wished this most precious relic, which he was sending to us because we were so distant, to be presented at our next Convention but that he would like Mother and Father Dunn, our much loved pioneers, to see it soon. He would like them to feel the strands of the hair of Bahá’u’lláh. “Their work,” he said, “was beyond recounting.” One leaves Haif a with new found strength. Life has begun afresh. “There is no power and no strength save in God, the Protector, the Self Subsistent.”2 A subsequent visit to the Egyptian Bahá’is
revealed the happiness of the spiritual unity of the East and the West. But to complete this record of radio work I should add that upon returning to Australia I undertook new types of work. Experiments were made with a series of radio talks by young people from the study group which took the form of discussions between themselves on a number of subjects under the heading of If We Had Our Way. Then over the national network undergraduates talked of religion. Women also have been given the opportunity to discuss together, at intervals, over the national network such subjects as the status of women and similar points which interest us so deeply. But these are small things. Our joy is in knowing that “Through the power of the Words He has uttered the whole of the human race can be illusuined with the light of unity.”3 a
Gleanings from the Writings of Bahâ’u’lláh.
2 6. LE MARTYRE PAR DR. A.
MESBAH
A VEZ-VOUS remarque, a la fin de l’hiver, les nombreux bourgeons qui, coiff ant les branches d’arbres, attendent impatiemment l’arrivee du printemps pour eclore et devenir d’eclatantes fleurs? A peine cependant les bourgeons sont-ils ouverts, a peine leur naissantes corolles ontcues, a travers l’espace, exhale un parfum subtil, que dejà
leur ravissants pétales se fanent et tombent en poussière. Ce sont là des martys de Ia nature. Mais en realite disparaissent-ils vraiment, ou plutot ne commencent-ils pas une autre vie dans Ic fruit qui les succède? Ainsi ce vieux monde malgre les nouveautes que, continuellement il nous presente n’a jas-nais change son cours regulier. Les jours qui se suivent, les annees qui se succêdent ont entre eux une analogie frappante. De même qu’il existe pour Ia terre une periode saisonniêre d’un an, pendant laquelle elle vit grace a la chaleur bienfaisante du soleil, de même ii existe pour I’humanite une semblable periode aussi reguliere. L’histoire nous montre en effet qu’à peu prês tous les mule ans une êre nouvelle de spirituauite commence, et, par I’apparition d’une divine manifestation, le monde, tombe en decadence, se retrouve regenere. Ainsi donc avant le renouveau spirituel, alors que le genre humain se trouve plonge dans la plus noire obscurite morale et intellectuelle, il se trouve des hommes au coeur pur qui, sentant la proche arrivee du printemps Divin s’impatientent a l’instar des bourgeons. Ces hommes a l’âme transparente de purete ont la méme destinee et subissent le méme sort que ces fleurs printaniêres qui doivent être sacriflees pour faire place aux fruits. Leur coeur est prêt a bruler d’amour divin, et, au premier appel de Ia manifestation de Dieu ils s’enfiamment et se consument pour leur Bien-aime. Tel a ete,
parmi les temps Les plus récoulés, la marche de ce monde. Ces êtres, élus parmi les autres, qui ont
donné par leur sang témoignage de la verite, one existe de toujours et partout. Socrate qui, avec un courage surnaturel, montrant son profond dédain pour le monde physique, donna une sublime leçon de sacrifice. Il but la cigüe tout aussi simplement qu’un breuvage ordinaire, tant il etait sür que son trepas n’était que le commencement d’une nouvelle vie eternelle. “Pourquoi pleurer ainsi, disait-il a ses disciples consternés, quand mon âme affranchie du lourd poids de mon corps va s’envoler vers Dieu, chercher Ia vérité, la connaitre peut-être Le christianisme nous a donne de nombreux exemples de martyrs. Pendant 300 les disciples du Christ, suivant pas a pas les traces de leur Divin Maître (qui donna son sang pour effacer les peches du monde) furent persecutes de tous les points du globe. Ces persecutions furent la cause que le grain d’enseignement seme par Jesus dans les coeurs humains, arrose du sang des martyrs leva si bien. Le genie du christianisme penetra dans tout l’univers, donnant naissance a une civilisation jamais égal’ee jusqu’alors. Aujourd’hui l’humanite, parcourant les premieres etapes de sa vie et arrivant a l’age adulte, a une plus grande intensité d’action. Le nombre des martyrs de la foi Bahá’ie est considerable. L’ardeur et la bravoure des croyants devant les tortures que leur infiigeaient les ennemis de la Cause sont sans precedent dans l’histoire de l’humanite. Le soleil de Ia verite
se leva dans le coin le plus obscur parmi les peuples civilises. Cependant il s’y trouva des étres qui, par leur purete d’âme, sentirent l’arrivee de la plus grande manifestation de Dieu. Ils veillaient, et, des que l’aurore divine apparut, des que les voix du Báb et de Bahá’u’lláh se firent entendre une foule considerable, du plus petit jusqu’au plus grand, embrassèrent leur sainte Cause. Ils savaient naturellement
LE MARTYRE 941
de quel prix us devaient payer la declaration de leur nouvelle foi, mais us étaient prêts, puisqu’ils se trouvaient etre arrives au but essentiel de leur vie. us
étaient, ces martyrs, si complètement détachés du monde physique, que les douleurs des tortures qu’ils enduraient semblai— ent n’avoir aucun effet sur eux. Et queues tortures cependant! . . . Les bourreaux n’avaient rien trouvé de miex que de percer en maints endroits les corps des suppliciés, de placer dans chacun des trous des chandelles allumées, et de les promener ainsi a traver la yule, sous les quolibets de la foule. Malgré le sang qui les aveuglait, la cire fondue qui faisait grésiller leur peau, ces sublimes martyrs trouvaient Ia force de chanter des cantiques. On raconte que Sulaymán Khân, tout en chantant, ramassait les bougies qui tombâient et les replaçait sur son corps. Quelqu’un lui ayant crié “Pourquoi ne danses-tu pas aussi?” ii se mit a danser. Je veux citer ici un passage du livre “Les Apôtres” écrit par Renan, un eminent écrivain francais (un chrétien, un non-Bahâ’i) qui voit dans ces martyrs une révélation religieuse aussi grande que le christianisme. “Notre siècle a vu des mouvements religieux tout aussi extraordinaires que ceux d’autre fois, mouvements qui ont provoqué autant d’enthousiasme, qui ont eu déjà, proportion gardéc, plus de martyrs. . . .
Le Bahá’iisme en Perse a été un phénomène considerable. . . . Des milliers des martyrs sont accourus pour lui avec allégresse au devant de la mort. Un jour sans pareil, peutétre dans l’histoire du monde, fut celui de la grande bouchrie qui se fit des Bâbis a Tihran. On vit ce jour-là dans les rues et les bazars de Tihran, dit un narrateur qui a tout su d’original, un spectacle que la population semble devoir n’oublier jamais. Quand Ia conversation, encore aujourd’hui se met sur cette matière on peut juger de l’admiration melee d’horreur que la foule éprouva et que les années n’ont pas diminuée. On vit s’avan cer entre les bourreaux, les enfants et les femmes, les chairs ouvertes sur tout le corps, avec les mèches allumees, flambantes, flchées dans les blessures. On les trainait par des cordes et on les faisait marcher a coups de fouet. Enfants et femmes
avançaient en chantant un verset qui dit ‘Envérité nous sommes de Dieu et nous retournons a lui!’
“Leurs voix s’élevaient éclatantes audessus du silence profond de Ia foule. Quand un des suppliciés tombait et qu’on le faissait relever a coups de fouet ou de baionnette, pour peu que la perte de son sang qui ruisselait sur tous ses membres, lui laissait encore un peu de force, il se mettait a danser et crier avec un surcroit d’enthousiasme: ‘En verité nous venons de Dieu et nous retournerons a lui!’ “Quelques uns des enf ants expirèrent dans le trajet. Les bourreaux jetèrent leurs corps sous les pieds de leur père et de leurs soeurs qui marchèrent flèrement dessus et ne leur donnèrent pas deux regards. Quand on arriva au lieu d’exécution, on proposa encore aux victimes la vie pour leur abjuration. Un bourreau imagina de dire a un père que s’il ne cédait pas, ii couperait la gorge de ses deux fils sur sa poitrine. C’étaient deux petits garçons dont l’ainé avait quatorze ans et qui, rouges de leur propre sang, les chairs calcinees, écoutaient froidement le dialogue; le père répondit en se couchant par terre qu’il était pret, et l’ainé des enfants réclamant avec emportement son droit d’ainesse, demanda a étre égorgé le premier” Comment pourvoir décrire les souffrances de ces saints, ou trouver des mots pour expliquer leur état d’âme? Notre esprit est incapable de sonder l’abime de ce mystère. La souffrance physique nous est intolerable et nous aimons notre vie par-dessus tous. Comment donc ces hommes qui n’étaient, après tout, que des humains comme nous, ont-ils pu subir avec allegresse ces afireux supplices? Quelle force mysérieuse a pu les transformer de la sorte? Que s’est-il produit en eux pour être ainsi changes? Pour répondre a toutes ces questions il nous reste a croire une seule chose, c’est que ces êtres, bien qu’encore vivants sont cornplètement détachés des biens d’ici bas. us
sont sur terre mais leur âme s’envole vers le ciel pour voir l’aurore du jour eternel. Les forces vitales et spirituelles qui émanent des saintes manifestations divines, au
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commencement de chaque ère, sont tellement fortes qu’elles font apparaitre dans l’homme toutes les capacités qui existent en lui a l’état latent. En réalité ce monde physique est pour l’homme un purgatoire qui doit le purifier et le perfectionner dans un temps plus ou moms long.
Les martyrs, arrives par Ia bonté divine a un tel degre de perfection, et ayant termine leur stage ici-bas, n’one plus besoin d’y séjourner. C’est ainsi q’avec enthousiasme, ils s’évadent de leur prison corporelle pour s’envoler dans les cieux afin d’atteindre avec plus d’intensité Ia perfection sans limite.
II SONG OFFERINGS
pict286.jpg II SONG OFFERINGS
I BAHA’U’LLAH What can we say of Thee, 0 Heart Sublime! Purer in Word or deed no one hath been. Than Whom no parallel in any age or clime Hath ever stepped the mortal worlds between. Almighty God’s Supreme Celestial Throne! Thy Law is pulsing every cosmic sphere; Its wondrous potency but dimly shone To hearts made weak with love, eyes blind with fear. Majestic Mirror of Divinity! Robed with God’s Glory in these latter days, Our feeble mutterings ascribe to Thee Such vain and stunted attributes of praise. Our hearts are stilled, our tongues forever mute, Before the glowing radiance of Thy Door.’ And though we know Thy Branch,2 0 Ancient Root! Thy Beauty must enthrall us, evermore.
II
THE BAB Transcendent Star, past mortal ken The glory of your Life through all the spheres Bathes the unending vista of the years. The radiance of the Light you brought to men Has purified the planet’s heart anew! Your blood was poured upon its dearth like dew, Ichor of God’s decree, let each drop shed Raise up the nations, and the living dead, Revive the vision of the spirit’s youth: Auroral is the fountain of your Truth.
III BAHIYYIH KHANUM O Holy Leaf! adorning God’s own Tree, Our humbler hearts we turn to thee. Help us, we pray, that each new day May draw us nearer to thy silent way, And lay our deeds, a measure of thy price, Upon thine altar of unending sacrifice. Give us the vision and the faith to see Our task fulfilled in Temple Unity— Symbol of God; beacon of hope for man; Divinely ordered pattern of a new world plan— Let thy compassion intercede, That we may heed, that we may heed, Before the only Guardian of our fate May write the woeful words: “too late.” O Daughter of the Glory! Flame of the Supreme! Thy hfe hath told its story, thy love is our dream.
—PHILIP AMALFI MARANGELLA Iv
THE SEVEN VALLEYS EX0RDIU:IvI
He, Who by varied names, in every clime In diverse paths the wayworn wanderers seek; Omnipotent, Who to the end of time Shall bow the prideful and lift up the meek; He, Who the sun in the high heaven lit And gave of rarest fragrance to the rose, Who patient, waiting, shall in judgment sit To listen and forgive, because He knows The fleshly weakness: grant to us this day A single spark from His undying fire To cheer and guide us up the darksome way Lest we turn backward to the earthly mire; Then draw us to His glory from our night— Unveil His beauty to our groping sight. The Báb. 2 ‘Abdu’l-Bahã. 945
Walk here with patience. He Whom here you seek Hides as a bird, within a bush to sleep; And who would find must come with spirit meek And, lest the bird be startled, softly creep. The searcher as he mounts the upward way Must cast aside his burdens, free his soul Of what it gathered in the world of clay If unencumbered, he would reach the goal. For man must leave behind the world of men, New climates must the soul exchange for old, And bravely journey on, for not till then Shall the first bud of the Friend’s vine unfold, Releasing sweetness rarer than the rose To tell the searcher He is near, and Knows.
Illumination in this place shall burn The dross of falsehood, leaving but the gold Of truth; along this road each turn Shall strange new beauty to the eyes unfold. He who here enters, having left behind The world of fancies, dark as moonless night, Wherein he wandered, impotent and blind— Shall know and worship, in the new-found light, Him, Who without beginning, without end, Awaits the traveler, loosed at last of earth, Who naught seeks here but nearness to the Friend, The perfect measure of all-perfect worth. Here time shall cease; here death and life are one As leng as His swift stream of Being run. THE VALLEY OF LOVE This is a land of all consuming fire Lit with a radiance brighter than noon sun Where each must sacrifice upon love’s pyre Forsworn ideals, and seek alone the One. And he who would approach the Friend, must first Find life in death, and glory in defeat; Here must the soul its worldly fetters burst Nor spurn the travail if it here would meet The One, the matchless Friend of Ecstasy. Here, earthly fancies must the seeking heart Upon His altar as an offering lay
If it would learn that which He would impart; And free at last of mortal passions move On to the higher world of endless love. THE VALLEY OF UNITY Like as a stream returning to the sea From whence it left in vapor, here the soul At last, within itself, shall cease to be. Who, seeking here, has set his final goal Near to the sanctuary of the Friend Shall lose himself in timeless unity That no beginning had, and has no end. Here shall man’s life, of every mortal hope Set free, at last from out the earthly night No longer feeble in the darkness grope, But walk in paths of beauty, in the light Of Oneness, through ages still to be, Drawn to the Friend in endless ecstasy. Download 8.87 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: 
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