its flame far and wide. To extinguish the flame itself proved impossible, though the annals of the world’s religions contain no records of deliberate persecution more cruelly imposed, nor suffered voluntarily by so many believers. The figure most generally accepted of Bábí and Bahá’í martyrs is in excess of twenty thousand souls. Such was the price paid for faith in the promise of the Báb—such the spiritual heritage the Báb in passing handed on to Him whom He had heralded, Bahá’u’lláh!
To take up this spiritual heritage—to arouse this vivid expectation in thousands of faithful hearts and to inspire them with permanent principles—to establish a mould of doctrine and new custom for this fluid fire—was, for Bahá’u’lláh, the descent from a position of highest material comfort and authority to the lowest degree of poverty, imprisonment, suffering and exile. All that worldly men cherish and long for, Bahá’u’lláh freely sacrificed in order that His vision of God might be fulfilled and perpetuated in the conscious unity of men.
The teachings which Bahá’u’lláh gave His followers were, in large measure, written teachings — letters or “tablets” sent to individuals and groups in response to questions they were unable to address to Him in person by reason of His exile; messages sent by Bahá’u’lláh from prison to the European and Oriental rulers; or works of devotion, meditation and spiritual interpretation, as well as of scientific and sociological character, dictated to secretaries among those who shared His prison life.
The essential distinction between religion and philosophy is perfectly illustrated by the effects which the words of Bahá’u’lláh had upon His followers. Not as mere images to be admired by the mind’s eye, but as seeds to be planted in the earth of the heart—seeds to be watered with sacrifice and adoration until they produced the flower and the fruit of a new life—such were and are the utterances of Bahá’u’lláh to those who follow Him. From all ranks and stations they came, all types and temperaments, all degrees of training and experience, bringing with them the innate differences of a whole humanity, but moved by a common recognition of one organic, central faith. To produce and maintain unity among these thousands of followers, without offering them hope of material gain or earthly honor and well-being, was in itself a superhuman accomplishment.
Bahá’u’lláh’s teaching reflected no acquired learning — it was an immediate experience in the soul of one who turned wholly and directly to God. “Oneness, in its true significance,” He has said, “means that God alone should be realized as the one power which animates and dominates all things, which are but manifestations of its energy.”
From this fundamental concept — or rather realization—the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh flow forth with single, harmonious essence, like waters from the same spring.
To Bahá’u’lláh, those various standards of truth which sway human society; one standard in religion, another standard in science, a third standard in politics, a fourth standard in industry—this conflict of standards is the source of all the world’s ills, the spiritual ignorance which all the Prophets came to remove. To Bahá’u’lláh, religion is not one of life’s several aspects, but the predominant spirit which expresses itself through all aspects, producing, in its purity, harmony among the diverse elements of will, imagination, feeling and thought. First in order of experience, the realization of God; then the realization of self; last of all, the realization of one’s relation to his fellowmen and the world.
The true meaning of all history, to Bahá’u’lláh, reveals the nearness of men to the realization of God or their remoteness therefrom; He teaches that all the Founders of religion are successive, corelated expressions of the will of God—identical as to purpose and function, separate and diverse only in that each Founder adapted the one divine teaching to the particular needs of His time. The
