Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Glenn A. Shook, Mysticism, Science and Revelation, bahai-library.com.
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MYSTICISM, SCIENCE
AND REVELATION
by

GLENN A. SHOOK
Ph.D., F.R.S.A.

BAHÁT PUBLISHING TRUST
WILMETTE, ILLINOIS
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
GEORGE RONALD
LONDON, ENGLAND

First published in England 1953
Revised edition 1964
First American Edition 1967
This impression 1970

Printed in Great Britain
To my daughter
Betty
Titles referred to in footnotes, as published by
Baháh Publishing Committee, New York, are now
published by Bahá 1' Publishing Trust, Wilmette,
Illinois.
CONTENTS
Chapter Page
INTRODUCTION ix.

I G O D AND HIS CREATION 1
Different kinds of knowledge. Concepts
of God. Man's relation to God.
II GOD AND HIS CREATION {continued)
The three worlds of being. The world of
the Divine Essence. The world of the
Prophets. The world of creation.
Divine life process.
III THE MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE 19
Soul and mind. The knowledge of God
through the heart. Knowledge of God
through vision. Epistemological
approach. Science and spiritual
experience.
IV THE NATURE OF MYSTICISM 33
Mysticism defined. Contributions of
mystics. Philosophical background of
mysticism. The pre-suppositions of
mysticism. Mysticism and the Primitive Church.
V TYPES OF MYSTICISM 46
Radical, absolute or extreme mysticism.
Personal mysticism. Greek mysticism
and the Church. The non-réligious type.
Aesthetic mysticism. Contemporary
religious mysticism.
VI PROPHETIC RELIGION AND MYSTICISM; A
CONTRAST 60
Prophetic religion. Mysticism. The
two paths. The Seven Valleys of
Baha'u'llah. Mysticism and fundamental
concepts.
VII SCIENCE, REVELATION AND MYSTICISM 73
Science and revelation. Revelation and
experience. Science and mysticism.
VIII THE CREATIVE WORD 82
The style of the creative word. Prayer
as an expression of the creative word.
Origin of common prayer. The idea of
common prayer. Common prayer and
the reform movements. The ideal of
common prayer.
IX MEDITATION 94
Supplication, prayer and meditation.
Theories of meditation. The Baha'i
viewpoint.
X OCCULTISM 108
Mysticism and occultism. Science and
occultism. Our philosophical background. Our scientific background.
XI REVEALED PRAYERS 120
Man's offering of prayer and the revealed
word. An appeal to God's mercy. An
appeal to other attributes. God cannot
forsake us.
XII PRAYERS FOR SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT 131
Turning toward God. Divine Bounty.
God's protection. The living waters.
EPILOGUE 142
INTRODUCTION

This book has a number of objectives. First of all I wish
to make it clear that the essential element of true religion
is that mystical feeling which, in some inexplicable manner,
unites man with God. Speaking rather broadly, anyone who
experiences this feeling is a mystic; but we shall be primarily
concerned with the type of mystic who believes that finite
man may attain the presence of the Absolute and become
one with the Absolute, and it will be necessary to show that
his claims are not valid. Some scientific inquiry must,
therefore, be made into the nature of mystical experience;
for without this experience the mystic would have insufficient
ground for his claims. It will also be necessary to investigate
the difference between mysticism and prophetic religion.
Finally I desire to make it clear that revealed truth is not
foreign to experience, if we evaluate it in terms of " total
experience " and not merely experience in the world of science.
The reader who has an analytical mind will probably be
interested in what the physicist has to say about mysticism,
and for this reason I have indicated, in a rather general way,
the viewpoint of the physicist.
Personally, I believe it is important to remember that
religion belongs to the world of value and that science
cannot make value judgments. The reader must also bear
in mind that the modern physicist is no longer completely
dominated by the mechanistic concept. As a scientist I
naturally have great sympathy for the "scientifically-minded"
man who is struggling with fundamental issues like mystical
experience and divine revelation.
In discussions concerning prophetic revelation I assume
that all the great historic religions, like Christianity and Islám,
are divine in origin. I have drawn freely on the Baha'i Faith
for, as a serious student of religion, I realize that it is the
consummation of all the prophetic religions of the past.
Moreover, as we might expect, it is decidedly more explicit
on the subject of mysticism than any of the revelations which
preceded it. For those who are not familiar with the Baha'i
Faith, a few remarks about its origin and its aims have been
included in the Epilogue.
Of all the books that I have consulted, Das Gebet, by
Friedrich Heiler, is the most stimulating and the most instructive. I have consequently used it freely.
I am very happy to express here my appreciation of the
work of the translator, Karl Schiick. Not only has he taken
great care in the translation which, as one may imagine, was
no simple matter, but he has also made valuable suggestions.
I also wish to express my gratitude to Jane Lovely for typing
the manuscript.
G. A. SHOOK.
ELIOT, MAINE.
CHAPTER I

GOD AND HIS CREATION

The mystic, as we shall see, maintains that he can enter the
presence of the infinite God, or that he can experience God
immediately. Now the mystical philosopher, on the other
hand, is caught between two incompatible tendencies. He
would like to be scientific, and to treat mystical experiences
as he would treat the data of sense perception. He says, in
substance, that the mystic has had an extraordinary experience.
The mystic maintains that he has been in the presence of the
Infinite; and, while this does not sound plausible to us, he is
absolutely certain that he has been in the Divine Presence,
and we cannot doubt his sincerity nor his intellectual integrity.
Surely then, we can consider what he reports with an unbiassed mind.
On the other hand, the mystical philosopher knows that
the mystic can only report on a psychic experience, nothing
more. Any metaphysical doctrine the mystic may associate
with this experience is quite another matter.
But again (the mystical philosopher may argue), if the mystic
says he has been in the presence of God—and very many do
make this claim with good faith—can we completely ignore
his report? The mystical philosopher may continue: Is
not the world of value, the world of art, music and poetry,
just as much a part of our consciousness as the world of
sense impression? Is not the spiritual world more real than
the symbolic world of science? May we not assume that
the heart functions in the world of spirit as the mind functions
2 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

in the world of matter? May we not assume, moreover, that
God reveals himself to man through the ecstatic experience?
Every mystic who claims that he can enter the presence
of God also maintains that this ineffable experience transcends
every other experience in the religious life. Therefore he might
claim, and most of the mystics probably do claim, that for
him this ecstatic experience must be identified with the Infinite.
He may also add, and with some justification, that he is really
not concerned about the opinion of those who have never had
such an experience.
To be sure, we may define God as that which we experience
immediately, in contemplation. This would certainly simplify
the issue; but this kind of simplification is far from satisfactory. Take, for example, the pantheistic concept. If we
define God as "the whole'' and consider the world as a part
of "the whole," then we do not have to explain the difference
between God and nature. While such a concept might appeal
to a few poets and a few scientists, it really, as we well know,
raises more questions than it answers.
Perhaps we can learn a lesson from the history of classical
physics. It introduced a simplification into our scientific
thinking that had never existed before. It began by making
man a potential God, capable of explaining almost anything,
natural or supernatural; but it ended by making him a mere
aggregation of particles devoid of free will.
Now the mystic realizes that this immediate knowledge
of the presence of God cannot rest upon experience alone;
nevertheless without this supernormal psychic experience he
would probably never claim that he could enter the presence
of, or become one with, the Infinite.
If, therefore, we are striving for a critical knowledge of
mysticism our first concern must be with epistemology.
Let us then review briefly the various kinds of knowledge
with which we are more or less familiar.
GOD AND HIS CREATION 3

Different Kinds of Knowledge
We do not have to prove that we are happy. Our own
unsupported testimony is quite sufficient. The cause of our
happiness is, however, quite another matter, a matter of
inference; and our inferential knowledge is not infallible.
We are never absolutely sure about the origin of our inner
experiences; but the experiences themselves are known to us
by direct cognition, that is, they are immediately apprehended.
If a man has an aversion to religion no argument will convince him that the feeling of aversion is not real. It is real
and we can do nothing about it. But we might convince
him that the reason for this feeling is false.
The fueling of beauty, compassion, or love is just as real
to us as are external objects. In fact it is decidedly more
real, for the external world is known to us only by inference.
We see an object before us and we call it a stone merely
because it looks like other objects which are known to us as
stones. As a matter of fact this object may be a piece of
wood or plastic and not a stone. Strange as it may seem, the
world about us is not very real. People have thoughts and feelings regarding it, and these are real; but the world is not.
Again, we know that in meditation, when the mental
activity is low, insight or intuition often suggest what is new.
In other words, there is a kind of knowledge that comes
through illumination, insight or intuition; something that
transcends mental activity and sense data. We cannot
ignore facts. Speaking of mystical philosophy, Russell says:
I There is, first, the belief in insight as against discursive
analytic knowledge; the belief in a way of wisdom, sudden,
penetrating, coercive, which is contrasted with the slow and
fallible study of outward appearance by a science relying
wholly upon the sense."1 The first step, Russell suggests,
^ertrand Russell, Mysticism and Logic. London, Allen & Unwin,
1936. p. 8.
4 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

is the feeling that beyond our daily experience there is a great
mystery. Then the belief comes that reality may be found
through illumination. Although he does not agree with the
mystic's conclusions, he does maintain that there is something
to be gained from the mystical experience which could not be
obtained in any other way. But while the modern philosopher
realizes the beneficial result that may accrue from moments
of illumination, he is not misled, like the religious mystic,
by immediate experience. He distinguishes between mystical
experience and the metaphysical basis of experience. • To
quote from Russell again : " Of the reality or unreality of
the mystic's world I know nothing. I have no wish to deny it,
nor even to declare that the insight which reveals it is not
a genuine insight. What I do wish to maintain—and it is
here that the scientific attitude becomes imperative—is that
insight, untested and unsupported, is an insufficient guarantee
of truth, in spite of the fact that much of the most important
truth is first suggested by its means."1
On the other hand, Russell shows that while reason and
intuition have their separate functions they are not antagonistic. "Reason is a harmonizing, controlling force rather
than a creative one. Even in the most purely logical realm it
is insight that first arrives at what is new."2
Intuition may indicate the solution of a certain problem,
but it requires reason to confirm it; for immediate experience
is not knowledge, although it is necessary to it. Conversely,
if one did not use reason constantly to interpret intuition
(immediate experience), one would not be able to use one's
intuition. That is, a meaningless experience such as a feeling
of well-being, mere exaltation, or depression, would probably
not lead to the solution of any problem.

iRussell, ibid, p. 12.
ibid„ p. 13.
GOD AND HIS CREATION 5

The creative force of genius, then, is more akin to mystical
experience than to reason.
Philosophy in its search for transcendent values has passed
beyond the limitations of the mind while at the same time
realizing that there can be no real progress without the mind.
The quest of the philosopher is very like that of the mystic,
except that the philosopher realizes the function of the mind
while the mystic denies its place. Neither expects to reach
its goal through the aid of conventional religion. Perhaps
we should not call intuition knowledge, but since it is essential
to new knowledge we are justified in using the term intuitive
knowledge. We must remember, however, that intuition,
like all other human methods of acquiring knowledge, is
liable to error. Broadly speaking, then, there is a kind of
intuitive knowledge (as opposed to discursive knowledge),
which comes to us through an inexplicable, unselfconscious
process of thought. Science does not deny this kind of knowledge. In fact, no great creative work was ever accomplished
without intuitive knowledge.
We might distinguish between the intuitive knowledge
of the scientists and the kind that comes to the religious
genius, which is ostensibly of the higher order. The mystic
in a state of ecstasy or vision sometimes receives what he
calls revealed knowledge. The mystic believes that the
phenomenal psychic experience produces something that is
superior to any result of mental effort. Moreover, he is
inclined to believe that his intuitive or revealed knowledge is
more valid than the intuitive knowledge of the scientist. But
here again we must remember that the intuition of the mystic,
like the intuition of other artists, is not infallible.
Contrasted with intuitive knowledge there is the kind that
comes through experience, which we call empirical knowledge.
The scientist, as we all know, is concerned with empirical
knowledge, though not exclusively. He is also concerned
6 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

with the kind of knowledge that comes through mental
processes, logic, inductive and deductive reasoning. This
inferential knowledge is indispensable to science. Some of
the most important scientific truths are derived from known
laws and assumptions.

Concepts of God
(1) Immanence: Immanence means indwelling. According to this concept God is intimately related to His creation,
His universe. When we say God is immanent in nature
we mean that there is a close relation between the creator
and the thing created, nature. In transcendence the creator
is separate and distinct from His creation, like the carpenter
and the table. The table is not in any way a part of the
carpenter. In immanence God is a kind of impersonal
order, and the world is an integral part of this order.
(2) Transcendence: God is a definite, individual entity.
He created the world, but He is entirely separate from it
just as the carpenter is separate from the table. God is
distinguished from His creation. He does not dwell in the
world nor in man; man is not a part of God.
(3) Pantheism: God is the totality of creation. God
is the whole ; the world is a phase of the whole. God is
not other than the world, as in transcendence. According
to pantheism, man is a part of God or man contains a part of
God. Now if we admit the first concept we can maintain
that God is in us, while if we admit the third we can claim
that we are identical with God. Both are necessary for
mysticism in its extreme form.
(4) Deism: God created the world; He is the First
Cause. He is not in the world and has no concern for the
world. The God of deism is not a personal God as is the God
of prophetic revelation. When a scientist says he believes in
GOD AND HIS CREATION 7

God, he generally means that he admits the universe is controlled by an intelligent force and that he is willing to identify
this force with the God of religion. It does not mean that
this creator of man and the universe hears and answers prayers.
Usually the scientist is not concerned with a personal God,
a God who is interested in man's daily welfare.
(5) Theism: The popular modern idea of this concept
is that God is other than nature but immanent in nature, in
every activity of nature. God created the world but is still
in the world. He is in the world but at the same time is
other than the world. In a sense He is both immanent and
transcendent.

Man's Relation to God
Every prophetic revelation like Islám, Christianity or the
Baha'i Faith has advanced some doctrine of man's relation
to God, his creator. Now, if we assume that God is in some
way responsible for man's existence, a number of questions
naturally come to mind. Was there ever a time when man
did not exist somewhere in the universe (we are certain that
there was a time when he did not exist on this earth)? Did
he evolve from some lower form? If so, when did the soul
and the mind appear? What is the connection between the
soul and the body? Is the soul immortal? Is God unknowable? If so, how can we obtain any knowledge of Him?
Finally, what is man's relation to God? How did he proceed
or come forth from God?
Now the Baha'i Faith is very explicit on all these questions.
They are discussed thoroughly in the book, Some Answered
Questions1 by 'Abdu'1-Bahá and the conclusions are compatible
l
Some Answered Questions, collected and translated from the Persian
of 'Abdu'1-Bahá by Laura Clifford Barney. New York, Baha'i
Publishing Committee, 1930.
8 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

with our modern scientific outlook* Tbey are vital to our
subject, and we must discuss a few oi rem in detail later;
but for the present it will be sufficient to merely state the
answers given to some of them.
Man has always existed somewhere in the universe. This
earth evolved, and in its early stages man did not exist upon
it, but the species known as man did exist somewhere in the
universe. Man evolved from a lower form, but from the
beginning he was potentially man. He is a distinct species.
In the individual man, soul and mind existed from the beginning. In the infancy of man, soul and mind appear, but
they are imperfect. When man becomes mature the soul and
mind attain some degree of perfection. The connection
between the soul of man and his body is somewhat like the
connection between the sun and a mirror. When we look in
the mirror we see the sun (that is, we see the image of the sun)
but we know the sun does not- exist in the mirror. We speak
of the soul leaving the body, but it is understood that the soul
really does not enter nor leave the body. The body may be
impaired or completely destroyed but the soul is not affected.
The soul is immortal; it has a beginning but no end. Its
existence starts at the time of conception. God the Infinite
is unknowable; that is, the Divine Essence is unknowable.
Man cannot comprehend God, the Divine Essence, through
his intelligence nor through his feelings and inner experiences.
This transcendental nature of the Divine Essence is stressed
in the Baha'i writings. (The God of mysticism, as we shall
see, is not an absolutely transcendental God). Our knowledge
of God comes to us through the Prophets, or Manifestations
of God.
We must now consider man's relation to God in some detail.
'Abdu'1-Bahá tells us there are two kinds of proceeding,
coming forth, or dependence: proceeding through creation,
or emanation, and proceeding through manifestation.
GOD AND HIS CREATION 9

The Proceeding or Appearance Through Emanation or
Creation
This kind of proceeding is like the coming forth of the
writing from the writer. The writing emanates from the
writer. It is a creation of the writer. The writing is not
a part of the writer. It is entirely different from the writer,
not the writer in a different form.1 In a similar manner
the human spirit or soul emanates from God, or the soul
is a creation of God. It does not manifest Him; it is not
the Infinite in another form.

Proceeding Through Manifestation
This kind of proceeding is like the coming forth of the tree
from the seed. The seed is a potential tree. We might say,
the tree proceeds or comes forth from the seed through
manifestation. The flower manifests the seed; the seed
appears in the form of the flower. The flower is not a creation
of the seed. It is, in a sense, not entirely different from the
seed. It is the same reality in a different form.
Now the Prophets manifest the attributes and perfections
of God, and not His Essence. The Prophet is like a perfect
mirror facing the sun.2 Nevertheless, the sun is not identical
with the mirror. Just as a mirror reflects the light of the sun,
so do the Prophets reflect the attributes and perfections of
God, or we may say that the Prophets manifest the attributes
and perfections of God.
The rays of the sun which are reflected from the mirror
are only another form of the light which is emitted from the
sun. As we said above, the soul is not a manifestation of
God, it is not the Infinite in another form. We cannot
think of the Infinite God, the Unknown Essence as being
divided into parts. Some mystics, as we shall see, would
'Abdu , l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, p. 239.
2<
Abdu'l-Bahá, ibid., p. 241.
10 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

like to believe that man contains a part of God or that some
of the Divine Reality resides within him, and this belief is
essential to their theory that man can enter the presence of
the Infinite God or that he can experience God immediately.
CHAPTER II

GOD AND HIS CREATION (continued)
The Three Worlds of Being
For the mystic there are two and only two realms of being,
(worlds or planes of existence); the world of God or the world
of the Divine Essence, and the world of creation which includes
man. The two-world doctrine leads to an essential dualism,
as we shall see later.
The Baha'i Faith upholds the existence of three worlds:
the world of God (the Absolute or the Divine Essence), the
world of the Prophets, and the world of creation. This
doctrine is explicit in the Baha'i Revelation and implicit in
most of the Prophetic Revelations.

The World of the Divine Essence
Finite man cannot experience the Infinite God immediately,
nor can he gain knowledge of God through logical arguments.
We say that God is omnipotent or that He is merciful, but we
cannot comprehend His omnipotence nor His mercy. In
view of the suffering we witness to-day some find it rather
difficult to believe that He is both omnipotent and merciful.
The qualities we attribute to God have their origin in our
own limited understanding.
The transcendental nature of the Divine Essence is emphasized over and over again in the Baha'i writings.
Baha'u'Uah says: "All that the sages and mystics have said
or written have never exceeded, nor can they ever hope to
exceed, the limitations to which man's finite mind hath been
strictly subjected. To whatever heights the mind of the most
exalted of men may soar, however great the depths which the
12 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

detached and understanding heart can penetrate, such mind and
heart can never transcend that which is the creature of their
own conceptions and the product of their own thoughts. The
meditations of the profoundest thinker, the devotions of the
holiest of saints, the highest expressions of praise from either
human pen or tongue, are but a reflection of that which hath
been created within themselves, through the revelation of the
Lord, their God,'91
The only way in which we can comprehend God is through
the Prophets or Manifestations of God. BaháVlláh reminds
us, in the Kitáb-i-Iqán, that: " These Prophets and chosen Ones
of God are the recipients and revealers of all the unchangeable
attributes and names of God, They are the mirrors that truly
and faithfully reflect the light of God. Whatsoever is applicable
to them is in reality applicable to God, Himself, Who is both
the Visible and the Invisible.992
The World of the Prophets
The ultimate aim of the mystic is to attain the presence
of the Infinite God, and to become one with Him. Catherine
of Genoa (c. 1447—1510) declared: " My ' I ' is God, and I
know no other T but this My God ;" and Madame Guyon
(1648—1717) made the same claim. Some mystics do not
go quite so far, that is they do not identify the " I " of man
with the Divine Essence, but they do maintain that they can
attain the presence of the Absolute, the Divine Essence.
Koepp says: " The mystic's soul, turned inwards, experiences
God in itself in its innermost essence and deepest foundation,"
and Elsa of Neustadt: "God is in me and I am in Him;
He is mine and I am His."
Prophetic revelation has never held out such a hope to
man, and the Baha'i Faith makes it quite clear that finite man
cleanings From The Writings Of Bahaulláh, translated by Shoghi
Effendi. New York, Baha'i Publishing Committee, 1939, p. 317.
Kitáb-i-Iqán, The Book of Certitude, revealed by Baha'uTlah, translated
by Shoghi Effendi. New York, Baha'i Publishing Committee, 1931
pp. 142, 143.
GOD AND HIS CREATION 13

can never attain the presence of the Absolute, the Divine
Essence, nor become one with the Absolute. However, God
and man are not completely and eternally separated: the
Prophet is a link between the world of the Divine Essence
and the world of creation, which includes man. The Prophets
have a human and a divine side, they can reveal the divine
will to man and they can manifest the divine perfections to
man. In the words of Baha'u'llah: "And since there can be
no tie of direct intercourse to bind the one true God with His
creation, and no resemblance whatever can exist between the
transient and the Eternal, the contingent and the Absolute, He
hath ordained that in every age and dispensation a pure and
stainless Soul be made manifest in the kingdoms of earth and
heaven. Unto this subtle, this mysterious and ethereal Being
He hath assigned a twofold nature; the physical, pertaining to
the world of matter, and the spiritual, which is born of the substance of God Himself fa
And again He says: " The door of the knowledge of the
Ancient Beauty hath ever been, and will continue forever to
be, closed in the face of men. No man's understanding shall
ever gain access unto His holy court. As a token of His
mercy, however, and as a proof of His loving-kindness, He hath
manifested unto men the Day Stars of His divine guidance, the
Symbols of His divine unity, and hath ordained the knowledge
of these sanctified Beings to be identical with the knowledge
of His own Self. Whoso recognizeth them hath recognized God.
Whoso hearkeneth to their call, hath hearkened to the Voice of
God, and whoso testifieth to the truth of their Revelation, hath
testified to the truth of God Himself fa
They have a unique station, and no matter how far man
may advance he can never reach the station of Prophet.
cleanings, p. 66.
tbid., p. 49.
14 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

'Abdu'1-Bahá makes this clear many times. In one place He
says: " However far the disciples might progress, they could
never become Christ."1
When the Prophet comes to the world He revives the
spiritual life of man and also establishes a new civilization.
The Prophet reflects the Holy Spirit as a mirror reflects the
light of the sun. We sometimes say, in symbolic language,
that the Prophet breathes the Holy Spirit into the world and
thereby creates a new spiritual and social order.
Man has capacities, but they are latent and they must be
released. As BaháVlláh says: "These energies with which
the Day Star of Divine bounty and Source of heavenly guidance
hath endowed the reality of man lie, however, latent within
him, even as the flame is hidden within the candle and the rays
of light are potentially present in the lamp. The radiance
of these energies may be obscured by worldly desires even
as the light of the sun can be concealed beneath the dust
and dross which cover the mirror. Neither the candle nor
the lamp can be lighted through their own unaided efforts, nor
can it ever be possible for the mirror to free itself from its
dross. It is clear and evident that until a fire is kindled the
lamp will never be ignited, and unless the dross is blotted out
from the face of the mirror it can never represent the image
of the sun nor reflect its light and glory."2
There are two points concerning the world of Prophets
that are emphasized repeatedly in the Baha'i writings, namely:
(1) the day of revelation has not ceased and (2) no Prophet
is superior to the others.
Commenting on this first point, BaháVlláh says: " Can
one of sane mind ever seriously imagine that, in view of certain
words the meaning of which he cannot comprehend, the portal
of God's infinite guidance can ever be closed in the face of men!
Some Answered Questions, p. 271.
Gleanings, p. 65.
GOD AND HIS CREATION 15

Can he ever conceive for these Divine Luminaries, these
resplendent Lights either a beginning or an end1. What outpouring flood can compare with the stream of His all-embracing
grace, and what blessing can excel the evidences of so great and
pervasive a mercy1. There can be no doubt whatever that if
for one moment the tide of His mercy and grace were to be
withheld from the world, it would completely perish."1
Concerning the second point, He reminds us that: "These
attributes of God are not, and have never been, vouchsafed
specially unto certain Prophets, and withheld from others.
Nay, all the Prophets of God, His well-favoured, His holy and
chosen Messengers are, without exception, the bearers of His
names, and the embodiments of His attributes. They only
differ in the intensity of their revelation, and the comparative
potency of their light."2
Finally, our concept of a personal God is derived from the
life of the Prophet. Having elements in common with men,
we can appreciate, to some extent, those attributes we associate
with a personal God, such as love, mercy and justice.
The World of Creation
The physical universe, including man, is a creation of the
Divine Reality, God. It is not a manifestation of the Divine
Reality, not the Divine Reality in another form.
The world of creation has always existed. If the existence
of God is eternal, surely this endless universe is eternal;
it had no beginning and will have no end. The earth had a
beginning and will have an end, but the universe has neither
beginning nor end. We must think of creation as a continuous
process; this is difficult for finite man because he cannot
think of creation without thinking of a beginning.
Before an author writes a book, he has the subject matter
in mind. He has some ideas more or less related to his
hbid., p. 68.
ibid., p. 48.
16 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

theme, but usually he does not see the theme as a whole.
Then he may put his thoughts on paper, in a more or less
orderly fashion. Being finite he must necessarily take some
preliminary steps before he actually starts writing the book.
But the Omnipotent Creator is certainly not limited in this
manner. We cannot comprehend this, but neither can we
comprehend the underlying reality in nature. We assume
there is an underlying reality in nature and we try to imitate
it by means of scientific models, but we cannot claim that we
really understand this underlying reality.
As we said before, the soul is a creation of God; it is not a
manifestation of God, not God in another form, but a new
reality, and it therefore has a beginning. If it had no beginning
then, so far as time goes, it would be in the same category as
God and this would compel us to consider two eternal realities,
God and man. To be sure, we may assume, as some mystics
do, that the soul existed in undifferentiated form with, or in,
God; but this also presents insurmountable difficulties, for
we would then have to assume that, in some inexplicable
manner, man shares a particle of the Divine Essence. This
however, would destroy the existent unity of the Infinite,
and modern man would probably hesitate to accept any
theory of man's origin which would destroy this unity. As
we shall see, it is much simpler to assume that man's soul
is a creation of God.
The mystics consider only two worlds, the world of the
Absolute, and the world of creation, which for them includes
man and the prophets; and they imagine moreover that the
world of creation is a manifestation of the Divine Essence.
This, of course, puts the world of creation in the same category
as the world of the Prophets. Whatever sanction this has it
certainly does not have the sanction of experience. Serious
study of a prophetic revelation, like Christianity or Islám,
would convince the student that the Founder of a world-
GOD AND HIS CREATION 17

religion is inherently different from other men. The creative
genius is in a class by himself, and this surely applies to the
Prophet as well as to the artist or musician. There are certainly some religious philosophers, as well as mystics, who
regard man as a potential Prophet, but this is like regarding
every musician as a potential genius of the stature of Beethoven.
In practice it really does not work out that way.
Now the question may arise, why should the soul or spirit
be associated in any way with a material body? 'Abdu'1-Bahá
tells us that the spirit acquires perfections by its associations
with the body, just as a man travelling in a foreign country
gains something from the habits and customs of its people.
And again, just as the spirit of man causes the life of the body
so man causes the life of the world. " If there^ were no man,
the perfections of the spirit would not appear, and the light
of the mind would not be resplendent in this world. This world
would be like a body without a soul."1

Divine Life Process
The majority of mystics believe that the spiritual element
in man, the soul, prior to its association with the body on this
earth, existed in some indescribable form with God. This
is a logical consequence of the belief that God dwells in us or
that we are identical with God. We came from God, we
spend some time on this earth and then we return to God.
The mystic path that one must follow in order to return to,
and become one with God, necessarily constitutes a basic
element in all mystical philosophy. On the other hand
prophetic revelation, and the Baha'i Faith in particular,
maintains that the only path for mortal man to follow is the
path that is laid down for us by the laws and precepts of the
Prophets of God, who create the spiritual life of man.
In the period of decline of a highly developed civilization
l
Some Answered Questions, p. 234.
18 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

when society is dominated by a sensuous culture, spirituallyminded people lose faith and interest in the world and what
it has to offer. The burning desire of the pious man is to
free himself from the outer world, the world of the senses,
and to attain the presence of the Unchangeable, the Immutable,
the Absolute. Not only mu£t he free himself from the external
world but he must also free himself from his ego.
The path is, in reality, a negative process by which the
mystic is able to pass from the normal state of mind into a
supernormal state. In this state he is able to concentrate
upon the Infinite. In the words of Tauler (c. 1300—1361):
" Turn thyself in truth from thyself and from all created
things and centre thy mind wholly upon God."
From the state of concentration, where his chief concern
is to be free from all earthly feelings and desires, and to be
governed wholly by the Infinite, he passes to the state beyond
concentration and asking, to the state of complete passivity
where he contemplates the attributes of God, His love,
His mercy and His beauty. Plotinus (A.D. 209—270)
describes this state as follows: " The spirit remains immovably
sunken in contemplation; it gazes on nothing else but Absolute
Beauty, it turns itself wholly to it and concentrates on it, andat last is, as it were, filled with power."
The various stages of the path such as purgation, illumination and union, need not concern us here. We are concerned with the fundamental basic question, (which we will
discuss more fully in Chapter III)—Is the experience of
ecstasy, the experience of eternal blessedness, deathless joy,
indescribable bliss, proof that the mystic is in the presence
of the Infinite? Does it prove that he is one with the Infinite?
At this point it is sufficient to observe again that according
to the Baha'i viewpoint the soul is a creation, and not an
incarnation nor a manifestation, of the Divine Essence.
CHAPTER III

THE MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE
Soul and Mind
In the Baha'i writings, the spiritual element in man is
designated variously as spirit, human spirit, soul and rational
soul, but most commonly as the soul. Sometimes we think
of this collective reality as having three aspects which we
call soul, mind and spirit; but we must remember that after
all there is but one reality.
We cannot think of the soul of man as something quite
apart and distinct from his mind, something that is in conflict
with the mind. It is true that in the past many have felt
that there is an inherent conflict between the soul and the
mind, or to put it in another way, between the human spirit
and the intellect. There was a strong conviction that in
some mysterious way God is associated with man's soul but
that He sustains no relation whatever to man's mind. The
same idea is more often expressed in another way, namely
that God is connected with the heart or feelings, and when
we think of the heart we probably think of the emotional
side of man.
An important point should be stressed here, and it will be
developed more fully later in this chapter. The heart is not
an infallible guide to spiritual truth. 'Abdu'1-Bahá, in discussing the four methods of acquiring knowledge, shows that
the senses, the mind and tradition are all defective criteria
for arriving* at the truth, and then He says: "The fourth
criterion I have named is inspiration through which it is claimed
the reality of knowledge is attainable. What is inspiration! It
is the influx of the human heart. But what are satanic
20 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

promptings which afflict mankind! They are the influx of the
heart also. How shall we differentiate between them! "*
The heart errs. For example, consider the matter of
prejudice. Experience shows that we cannot eliminate
prejudice with the mind alone, that is by merely investigating
the truth, nor with the heart unaided by the intellect. It is
from the heart that prejudices originate. It is the heart
and not the mind that causes man to love his own race or
nation, to the exclusion of all others. Simple-minded people
who live by their emotions, that is, those who are governed
entirely by the promptings of the heart, are not free from
animosity and hostility. The capacity for personal love,
without understanding or enlightenment, may be the cause of
strife. Conversely, without love and altruism, conflict and
misunderstanding will never cease. Through the intellect
man may discover that a particular religion is not inferior to
his own; but this fact does not, in itself, change indifference
into appreciation. It is highly probable that religion will
always be associated with emotion, for emotion is the drive of
life; but the heart and mind must work together, and when
they do these disintegrating forces will gradually disappear.
On the other hand, God does appeal to the heart. In the
words of Baha'u'llah: "Earth and heaven cannot contain Me;
what can alone contain Me is the heart of him that believeth
in Me, and is faithful to My Cause."2 Again: " Give a hearing
ear, O people, to that which I, in truth, say unto you. The
one true God, exalted be His glory, hath ever regarded, and
will continue to regard, the hearts of men as His own, His
exclusive possession.' ' 3
Mysticism and prophetic revelation are agreed upon one
'Abdu'l-Bahá, Foundations of World Unity. Compiled from Addresses
and Tablets of 'Abdu'1-Bahá. New York, World Unity Publishing Corp.,
1927. 2nd ed., p. 16.
Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings, p. 186.
ibid., p. 206.
THE MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE 21

essential point, namely, that without ardent, intense, and
even rapturous love for God, religion will become a dead
issue. But we must not imagine that man's intellect will prevent
him from loving God; his learning may, but not his intellect.
Let us return to the three aspects of man's collective
reality. In the words of 'Abdu'1-Bahá: " When we speak of
the soul we mean the motive power of this physical body which
lives under its entire control in accordance with its dictates.
If the soul identifies itself with the material world it remains
dark . . . but if it becomes the recipient of the graces of the world
of mind, its darkness will be transformed into light, its tyranny
into justice . . . "
There is, however, a faculty in man which unfolds to his
vision the secrets of existence. It gives him a power whereby
he may investigate the reality of every object. . . . This is the
power of the mind, for the soul is not, of itself, capable of
unrolling the mysteries of phenomena; but the mind can accomplish this and therefore it is a power superior to the soul.
There is still another power which is differentiated from
that of the soul and mind. This third power is the spirit which
is an emanation from the divine Bestower; it is the effulgence
of the sun of reality, the radiation of the celestial world, the
spirit of faith, the spirit His Holiness the Christ refers to when
He says, ''Those that are born of the flesh are flesh, and those
that are born of the spirit are spirit? "*
This quickening spirit, or the spirit of faith which regenerates
man spiritually, is an emanation from the Divine Reality
and not a manifestation. When the human spirit is illumined
by the spirit of faith, or the heavenly spirit, when man is 44 born
of the spirit," his collective reality takes on another aspect,
just as a clear mirror reflecting rays of light is not quite the
same as a clear mirror which is devoid of light.
Abdu'l-Bahá, The Reality of Man. Excerpts from Writings of
'Abdu'1-Bahá, New York, Baha'i Publishing Committee, 1931. 1st
ed., p. 9-10.
22 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

We said in the second chapter that the Prophet or
Manifestation of God is a link between the infinite God,
the Divine Essence, and finite man. Now when the Manifestation of God comes to humanity He brings the power of
the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the mediator between
God, the Unknowable, and mortal man. The Divine Reality
is like the sun and the Holy Spirit like the rays.
" The Holy Spirit it is, which through the mediation of the
Prophets of God, teaches spiritual virtues to man and enables
him to attain eternal life.
" It is evident that the souls receive grace from the bounty
of the Holy Spirit which appears in the Manifestations of God,
and not from the personality of the Manifestation.
" Every time it appears the world is renewed, and a new
cycle is founded. The body of the world of humanity puts on
a new garment. It can be compared to the spring; whenever
it comes the world passes from one condition to another."1
" Likewise the Holy Spirit is the very cause of the life of
man; without the Holy Spirit he would have no intellect, he
would be unable to acquire his scientific knowledge by which
his great influence over the rest of creation is gained. The
illumination of the Holy Spirit gives to man the power of thought,
and enables him to make discoveries by which he bends the
laws of nature to his will."2
The effect of the Holy Spirit is expressed in different ways.
Just as we differentiate between the human spirit and the
animal spirit, so we differentiate between the heavenly spirit
and the human spirit. The heavenly spirit is spoken of as the
spirit of faith or the bounty of God. We say, for example, the
spirit of faith, which comes from the breath of the Holy Spirit,
is the cause of eternal life.3
Abdu'l-Bahá, in The Divine Art of Living, Wilmette, Baha'i Publishing
Committee,
1944, pp. 44, 42.
'Abdu'l-Bahá, The Reality of Man, p. 37.
'Abdu'l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, p. 165.
THE MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE 23
When the human spirit is assisted by the spirit of faith it
can make discoveries in the world of spirit. So far as spiritual
realities go the human spirit without the spirit of faith is some­
what like a perfect mirror in a dark room.
The mind is the power of the human spirit, the perfection
of the human spirit.1 Mental faculties (imagination, thoughts
and understanding) are the inherent properties of the soul.2
The soul may be likened to a lamp and the mind to the
rays of the lamp. Without the rays the lamp could not give
forth its light, and were there no lamp there would be no rays.
So we might say, without the mind there would be no evidence
of the soul's existence and without the soul there would be no
mind, for it is through the soul that the mind comprehends.3
Furthermore, the temple of man (the body) is like a mirror,
his soul like the sun and his mind or mental faculties like the
rays. Now the mirror may be broken so that it cannot reflect
the rays, but surely we can not dissociate the rays from the
sun. In like manner we can not imagine that through some
infirmity of the body the mind is separated from the soul,
or that it is in any way affected by the infirmity.4 An object
may be cut off from the rays of the sun, but the sun still shines.5
The soul is independent of the infirmities of the body.
Baha'u'llah says : " That a sick person showeth signs of weak­
ness is due to the hindrances that interpose themselves between
his soul and his body, for the soul itself remaineth unaffected
by any bodily ailments."6
The soul is free of the body, but consciousness and person­
ality are associated with the body. In this earthly life the
soul of man manifests itself through the body, that is, through
1<
Abdu'l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, p. 244.
The Bahďí Peace Program, from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Baha. New
York,
Baha'i Publishing Committee, 1930.. pp. 32, 44.
ibid., p. 32.
ibid., p. 44.
Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings, p. 155.
ibid., p. 154.
24 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

consciousness and personality. Souls retain their individuality, consciousness and understanding after death.
The body is an instrument for the preparation of the soul
for the next world; we should not regard it as a wretched
prison as many extreme mystics have done.

The Knowledge of God through the Heart
In this most decadent period of the world's history, when
the old-established religions have failed to supply that spiritual
knowledge and certainty demanded by both the generality
of mankind and the intelligentsia, we are surrounded on all
sides by cults and philosophies which attempt to succeed where
religious institutions have apparently failed.
Speculation brings no satisfaction to the masses, and to
the intelligentsia it offers no stable, permanent foundation.
Serious-minded people, desiring some way to a higher life,
turn their thoughts inward, and as a result spirituality is
too often reduced to mere feeling. The will, which functions
in the realm of faith, is useless unless the world is illumined
with the spirit of a Prophet.
Outside the pale of religion, thoughtful people are weary
of philosophy and discouraged with the futility of their own
efforts. Those who manifest in their lives the true spirit of
religion by the alleviation of suffering are often the most
pessimistic. Consequently the majority of the religiously
minded, observing the failure of philosophy and science—
that is the intellect—to discover the way to God, fall back upon
the age-old illusion that through the heart and the heart alone
man may find the spiritual life, life eternal.
Somewhere in the deeper recesses of the heart, so the mystic
believes, the knowledge of God can be discovered. The
mind, he maintains, is of no value, since it functions in the
world of the senses and not in the world of the heart. Now
as we have said before, the heart is not an infallible guide to
THE MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE 25

spiritual truth. Baha'u'llah's words are significant: "How
ojten hath the human heart, which is the recipient oj the light
oj God and the seat oj the revelation oj the All-Merciful, erred
Jrom Him Who is the Source of that light and the Wellspring
of that revelation. It is the waywardness of the heart that
removeth it far from God, and condemneth it to remoteness
from Hirnr1
The reason for this implicit faith in the heart or feelings
is obvious enough when we consider the religious background
of the race and its effect upon religious experience.
To primitive man and to man's primitive nature, the most
potent factor in religion is emotion. The function of all
ritual is to reproduce some kind of emotion which is thought
to be effective. But his real concern is with emotion, for
to him every abnormal psychic experience is a message from
the gods. As he develops he begins to rationalize. Then
the ritual, as a thing in itself, may lose its significance because
it is external to him; but his psychic experiences, which are
an integral part of his real self, still have value for him. He
may lose faith in religious systems, philosophy and even
humanity, but not in what he experiences emotionally. He
needs no profound ratiocination to convince him that he has
experienced rapture and ecstasy, or fear and torment. And
because these things are more real to him than external objects
or logical deductions, he places them above everything in
life.

Knowledge of God through Vision
Vision, that state of illumination in which the spirit functions
without the senses, might seem more reliable; but the mystic
admits that not all mystical experiences are valid. Says
Under hill: " T h e perceptive power and creative genius of
the mystics as of other artists, sometimes goes astray." And
^aháVlláh, Gleanings, p. 186.
26 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

then she suggests that some test be made. But we cannot
claim that through asceticism, detachment, and mortification
we may become one with the Absolute and then apply some
test to determine the validity of our experience. To what
higher court do we turn to test the experience? Is it higher
than our experience? Is it infallible? Concerning visions,
'Abdu'1-Bahá says: "Spiritual discoveries are of two kinds;
one kind is of the imagination and is only the assertion of a few
people; the other kind resembles inspiration, and this is real—
such are the revelations of Isaiah, of Jeremiah, and of St, John,
which are real,
" Reflect that man's power of thought consists of two kinds.
One kind is true, when it agrees with a determined truth. Such
conceptions find realization in the exterior world; such are
accurate opinions, correct theories, scientific discoveries, and
inventions.
" The other kind of conceptions is made up of vain thoughts
and useless ideas which yield neither fruit nor result, and which
have no reality; no, they surge like the waves of the sea of
imaginations, and they pass away like idle dreams.
" In the same way, there are two sorts of spiritual discoveries.
One is the revelations of the Prophets, and the spiritual dis­
coveries of the elect. The visions of the Prophets are not
dreams; no, they are spiritual discoveries and have reality.
They say, for example: ' I saw a person in a certain form,
and I said such a thing, and he gave such an answer.' This
vision is in the world of wakefulness, and not in that of sleep.
Nay, it is a spiritual discovery which is expressed as if it were
the appearance of a vision.
"The other kind of spiritual discoveries is made up of pure
imagination; but these imaginations become embodied in such
a way that many simple-hearted people believe that they have
a reality."
^Abdiťl-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, p. 290.
THE MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE 27

And again He tells us: "Know that the power and the
comprehension of the human spirit are of two kinds; that is
to say, they perceive and act in two different modes. One
way is through instruments and organs; thus with this eye it
sees, with this ear it hears, with this tongue it talks. Such is
the action of the spirit, and the perception of the reality of man,
by means of organs. That is to say, that the spirit is the seer,
through the eyes; the spirit is the hearer, through the ear; the
spirit is the speaker, through the tongue.
" The other manifestation of the powers and actions of the
spirit is without instruments and organs. For example, in the
state of sleep without eyes it sees, without an ear it hears, without
a tongue it speaks, without feet it runs. Briefly, these actions
are beyond the means of instruments and organs.9'1
But as we have observed before, the soul of man is a creation
of God. It is not a part of God, and there is no reason to
believe that it is infallible. When the soul functions through
the senses it makes blunders, and it is highly probable that
it will make blunders when it acts independently of the senses,
as it is certainly not perfect.
To be sure, the spiritual discoveries of a highly developed
soul will naturally be more valid than those of an immature
soul; but as the soul never reaches perfection, man's visions
can never be absolutely valid. We can never clearly distinguish between our personal desires and the revelations of
the spirit.
If we cannot acquire knowledge of God through the heart
or through visions, if we cannot enter the presence of God,
what is the meaning of The promise of all the prophets of
old, that man shall in this earth-life attain the Divine
Presence? This is clearly explained by Baha'uTlah in the
Kitúb-i-Iqán.2 To attain the presence of the Prophet in His
hbid., p. 263.
Bahá'u'lláh, Kitúb-i-Iqán, p. 142.
28 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

day, which is known as the Day of Resurrection, is to attain
the Divine Presence. "The knowledge of Him, Who is the
Origin of all things, and attainment unto Him, are impossible
save through knowledge of, and attainment unto, these
luminous Beings who proceed from the Sun of Truth. By
attaining, therefore, to the presence of these Holy Luminaries,
the 'Presence of God'' Himself is attained. . . . Attainment
unto such presence is possible only in the Day of Resurrection,
which is the Day of the rise,of God Himself through His allembracing Revelation"

The Epistemological Approach
Although we have demonstrated that man cannot gain a
knowledge of God through the heart or through vision,
nevertheless there are those who will insist that the psychic
experience of ecstasy is sufficient proof that the presence of
God has been attained. The logical mystic, of course, will
not be content with experience, overpowering though it may
be; he will insist that to know God, a particle of the Divine
Essence must exist in him.
Let us examine the claims or experience from the epistemological standpoint. Since our inner experiences are more
real to us than the external world, as we said in the beginning,
it is only natural that the mystic should cling to the experience
of ecstasy. If the ecstasy he knows is not associated with
the Highest Good, the God of Religions, what is its origin?
If logic dims this vision does it not, he may ask, rob him of
God? Nevertheless in external matters he continues to use
his mind, and so a dualism is inevitable. The hard facts of
life do not remove the dilemma; for we observe that man
succeeds when he frees his intellect from feelings, as for
example in science and engineering, but fails miserably when
he allows his feelings to govern his reason, as in his social
relations.
THE MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE 29

When, however, he turns his mind inward, when he applies
reason to his emotional life, he begins to discover that what
he had considered naively as fundamental fact may be merely
inference. That is, the heart is about as infallible in dealing
with faith as is the mind in dealing with external objects.
The mystic has claimed always that when you are in the
presence of God you are cognizant of the fact and no one can
shake your conviction. But we cannot escape logic so readily.
What the mystic really knows is that he has had an extraordinary experience, nothing more. Clearly he has not been
in the presence of the Omnipotent God, nor has he become
One with the Divine Essence.
Through the intellect, and not his awareness, he discovers
that he must distinguish between a psychic experience and
the interpretation of the experience. That is, he must
differentiate between sensations, emotions and feelings, and
that which causes them. If we are depressed no one can
convince us that we are not, but the cause to which we assign
the depression may not be valid. For example, if we are
depressed we may assume that God is displeased with us.
This thought in itself depresses us further. Finally we behold
our agitated state and then we are completely convinced of
God's avenging hand. But in reality the depression may have
been caused by a number of things, having nothing to do with
religion.
A few philosophers maintain that the testimony of the
mystic concerning what he sees and feels in his moments of
illumination, should outweigh the arguments of the critics
who have never had such experiences. But Leuba has pointed
out that many of the things which are supposed to be peculiar
to mystical experiences such as rapture, unexpectedness,
sudden break in the train of thought and feelings, illumination
and ineffability are not peculiar to ecstasy with a religious
background. We must distinguish between experience and
30 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

any inference about the experience. We must not confuse
sensations, emotions and thoughts with casual explanations.
If we have experienced ecstasy no one can doubt the validity
of our experience: our testimony is quite sufficient. When,
however, we maintain that we were in the presence of God
and that our ecstasy proves it, this is manifestly only an inference. Naturally many mystics take refuge in ineffability,
but this might lead to absurd conclusions.
We recall the familiar argument which runs like this :
if one has seen light, let us say the light of the sun, no one
could convince him that he has not seen it. True, but the
mystic is not trying to prove that he has had an experience;
we accept his own testimony on this. What he is trying to
tell us is that he has been in the presence of God; but the
only evidence that he can adduce is his experience (ecstasy,
rapture), so that in reality what he is trying to convey to us
is that his experience proves that he was in the presence of
God. The analogy does not hold, however, because the man
who has seen the light is not trying to tell us what caused
the light. If he should maintain: " I have seen the light and
therefore the sun must be shining," then he would be in the
position of the mystic. This is an inference about light
which he has seen.
A little reflection, therefore, will show that the experience
is not " immediate," that is, the mystic does not " experience "
the Infinite, the Absolute or the Divine Essence immediately.
His immediate experience is of rapture, ecstasy, and his
union with the Absolute or Divine Essence is an inference.
The> question then arises: if the revelations of the heart
are not the result of being in the presence of God, what
causes these revelations and how do we account for the fact
that they are so effective? Space does not permit even a
cursory explanation; the reader is referred to works on the
psychology of religious mysticism, especially that of Leuba.
THE MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE . 31

Briefly, most of these psychological experiences which are
interpreted as divine revelations are the results of abnormal
suggestibility. Leuba shows that this plays an important
part in ritualistic, revivalistic, and non-religious types of
experience. Moreover some explanation may be advanced
for the effectiveness of these experiences. Briefly, valuable
ideas may come to one in a partial trance, a state of relaxation.

Science and Spiritual Experience
Let us digress long enough to defend the spiritually-minded
individual who does not make extravagant claims for his
inner experiences.
From what we have said above we must not infer that all
those inner experiences which we associate with spirituality
are illusions, or projections of emotional wishes. Clearly
we cannot say that the love, the trust and the faith which we
experience in our devotion to God are purely subjective.
. When the scientist tells us that the inner experiences which
we associate with our spiritual life have no objective validity,
he apparently forgets that he never worries about the validity
of other inner experiences. Should science question the
validity of aesthetic appreciation as it sometimes questions
the validity of religious experiences, we should have to conclude that the aesthetic feeling we experience when, for
example, we are uplifted by a great symphony, is a pure
illusion. The sight of a certain colour may evoke within us
an emotion which we can neither measure nor describe;
but we do not deny its reality. To be sure, in the analysis
of colour the physicist treats colour as he treats other objects
of sense perception; but while he is considering colour in
this way he is not thinking of aesthetic appreciation. The
beauty that is apprehended is beyond physics. On the
other hand, probably no scientist is so deficient in aesthetic
appreciation as to be entirely oblivious to the feeling of beauty.
32 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELAJION

It is true that there have been many attempts to establish
some kind of aesthetic measure, but it is also true that these
attempts have been severely criticized by creative artists who
have aesthetic appreciation and also scientific knowledge.
The reader probably will agree that values such as beauty,
justice and mercy, are in a category which is beyond the
space-time world of science. When we try to evaluate
spiritual experiences we must remember that they also may
be in a category which is beyond science. There are, to be
sure, many reasons why a sceptic would deny objective
validity to a spiritual experience and not deny it to a feeling
of beauty. One, certainly, is a tendency toward abnormality.
While theorists have grossly exaggerated this factor, often there
is just enough to discourage many healthy-minded individuals
from becoming spiritual. This is particularly true where
evangelistic piety is concerned. The most disturbing factor
is, of course, the conglomeration of superstitious and unwarranted practices which we invariably associate with
religious orthodoxy. This is the obstacle that prevents the
majority of thinking people (as well as the scientists) from
investigating the reality of religion. Many years ago, speaking
of the history of religion, James said: " There is a notion in
the air about us that religion is probably only an anachronism,
a case of ' survival,' an atavistic relapse into a mode of
thought which humanity in its more enlightened examples
has outgrown. . . . "
Even the old nomenclature, which we cannot wholly
discard, is often a barrier to many who are in search of a
rational religion, a religion that is compatible with a scientific
age. The spiritually-minded scientist (and perhaps the
creative genius) could accept the " numinous " of Rudolph
Otto more readily than the Holy Spirit of prophetic religion.
CHAPTER IV

THE NATURE OF MYSTICISM
Mysticism Defined
In very general terms, mysticism is a form of communion
which unites man with God. In a sense every spiritual man
is a mystic. The fundamental element in all religions is that
feeling which unites man to God, and without this " mystic "
feeling, without this awareness of God's Presence, religion
will finally be reduced to a lifeless organization incapable
of spiritual development.
The word " mysticism " has many meanings to-day, but we
shall have to restrict its meaning to man's intercourse with
some higher power. A few illustrations will make our
position clear. The man who longs for the knowledge of God,
the love of God, and who strives to attain His Presence, is
a mystic. The one who sees God in the beauty of nature,
who feels the presence of God in the flower, the bush and
the meadow, is also a mystic. Again the scientist, in the
contemplation of that higher intelligence which is responsible
for this incomprehensible universe, is also a mystic in a very
real sense.
Some writers maintain that mysticism is a philosophy
and not a religion. While this is true of some types it is
hardly true of all. To be sure, this depends somewhat upon
the way in which you define religion as well as mysticism.
However, as the term is generally used it involves, I believe,
communion with some form of superrational, supernatural
being, some higher intelligence. Now it is only natural that
we should associate this form of communion with religion.
The God of religion, however, might be theistic, deistic or
34 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

pantheistic. If, however, a man denies the existence of a
superhuman being, a supreme intelligence, we would not
call him a mystic nor indeed would we say he is religious.
Again, we do use the terms " religious mystic " and " nonreligious mystic." According to the sense in which we have
been using the term mystic, " non-religious mystic " would be
somewhat of a paradox, for if a man were in no sense religious
he would not be a mystic. However, it is sometimes convenient to designate one type of mysticism as " religious "
and another type as " non-religious ;" the meaning will be
clear in each case.
Since, however, we are primarily concerned with the type
of mysticism which makes claims that are not compatible with
modern scientific thinking and the prophetic ideal, it will
be necessary for us to use a rather limited definition of
mysticism. In this restricted sense, mysticism is, in the
words of Heiler, " that form of intercourse with God in which
the world and self are absolutely denied, in which human
personality is dissolved, disappears and is absorbed in the
infinite unity of the Godhead." 1
Nevertheless, we should not forget that the word mystic
may also be applied to anyone who through prayer and
meditation is united with God, which is the sense attached to it
in prophetic religion. This kind of mysticism makes no claims
that are incompatible with prophetic religion or science.
We might simplify our discussion by the use of the term
true " or 44 genuine " mysticism. True or genuine mysticism
then is that form of communion with God in which the
worshipper becomes united with Him, by turning to the
Prophet of God for divine inspiration and illumination.
True mysticism is sharply contrasted with occultism.
The occultist does not turn to the Prophet for guidance, nor
iHeiler, Prayer, p. 136.
THE NATURE OF MYSTICISM 35

is he concerned primarily with the laws and precepts of the
Prophet.

Contributions of Mysticism
While there are many doctrines of mysticism we cannot
accept, we must not overlook the positive contributions that
have been made to humanity by great spiritual geniuses like
St. Francis of Assisi, Catherine of Genoa and Jalál-id Din i
Rúmí. Surely their inspiration came from God and surely
they rendered distinguished services to mankind. They
laboured in a world that was, for the most part, materialistic
if not corrupt. Some of them, like Jalál-id Din i Rúmí, had a
real gift for writing and left for posterity a wealth of literature
that was a source of inspiration for many generations. While
it is true that mysticism is non-social and that some of the
mystics lived in seclusion, it is also true that many were occupied with humanitarian work; and a few took a lively interest
in political affairs.
St. Francis appeared in Italy when Christian Europe had
very nearly reached the lowest point of its decline. War
was in evidence everywhere. What could be more astounding,
and at the same time more uplifting, than the appearance
of a joyous saint who was willing to accept the Sermon on
the Mount literally? St. Francis was completely detached
from all worldly goods, but unlike most mystics he had great
love and appreciation for the beauty of nature and all living
creatures. For him all created things seemed to be endowed
with a supernatural charm, which created in him an ecstatic
joy not unlike the psychic experience of the aesthetic mystic.
He would work for anyone, and without pay; he associated
with all men, and (if we can believe tradition), with all animals
in a spirit of love and fellowship, and wherever he went he
radiated spiritual joy and light. Italy had seen nothing like
this for many a century. The saint's progress was not without
36 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

pain, but joy was always victorious. St. Francis was never
involved in the endless controversies of his day: the only
criticism he knew was self-criticism. Over all humanity he
threw the mantle of his perfect charity. St. Francis made
many missionary journeys, and one carried him as far as the
court of Sultan Melek-el-Kamil in Egypt. As for his prayerlife, one of his biographers said of him: " It was not merely
that he prayed so much," it was rather that he became prayer."
The contrast between his tolerance and clemency, and the outlook of the reformers of a later period, is as sharp as possible.
A century later we find Catherine of Siena, a spiritual
genius of great personal charm and beloved of all classes,
directing the affairs of whole municipalities in Italy. The
fathers of Siena, aware of her holiness and her ability to deal
with situations which they could not meet, did not hesitate
to send her on missions that would have paralysed the heart
of the most courageous. In time she became a veritable
symbol of Unity and Peace, and her influence extended as
far as the confines of Avignon where Gregory XI was living
in exile. The range of her correspondence was astounding—
from the tailor's wife in Florence to the soldier of fortune in
England; and yet in spite of her many activities she found time
to develop inwardly. She did not carry asceticism to extremes
as many mystics did, and moreover she was very tolerant of
other mystics' theories concerning spiritual advancement.
She once said: " We conceive virtues through God and bring
them to birth for our neighbour."
It is true that some of the mystics made arrogant claims to
divinity, but other spiritual geniuses have made extravagant
claims to supernatural gifts. We must estimate the worth of
these mystics in terms of their concepts of truth, their theology
and philosophy. They were not entirely responsible for their
doctrines.
We must now give some thought to their background.
THE NATURE OF MYSTICISM 37

Philosophical Background of Mysticism
Many of the doctrines of the mystics which we have mentioned originated in the ancient world. The asceticism
which we find in Christian mysticism and Sufism, the idea
of a path and the belief that man is a part of the Divine
Essence, are all older than the Christian mysticism. For the
ancient Greek world, philosophy was simply love of wisdom.
Greek wisdom was based on speculation and contemplation.
It was not affected by science as our philosophy is to-day.
Its concern was with practical affairs, such as the conduct of
life, the organization of society, and abstract concepts like
justice, virtue and truth. Medieval philosophy, under
the influence of the church, was concerned primarily with
upholding ecclesiastical authority and theological doctrines.
By the seventeenth century science began to exert some
influence. It freed man from superstition and it taught
him to think clearly, but it threatened to overthrow revealed
truth. One of the greatest scientific contributions of this
period was Newtonian mechanics, which is the basis of
so-called classical physics. It had phenomenal success in
the world of matter, but it developed one idea that was almost
fatal to the world of spirit; namely the mechanistic concept
of life. This reduced man to a mere assemblage of atoms
and society to a lifeless machine incapable of development.
Only in recent years have physicists come to the conclusion
that this concept is no longer valid.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the intelligent
were fully convinced that science had an answer for most of
our questions, but the masses were not completely won over
to science. To-day, however, the masses believe that scientific
knowledge is the only reliable knowledge, while the intelligentsia realize the limitations of science, and that it has
failed to create an ideal world of peace and happiness.
38 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

There are two antiquated notions which have some bearing
on the validity of mystical doctrines. From the beginning
of the medieval period to the seventeenth century philosophy
was not really free from theology. Strong religious feeling
and religious authority often prevented the philosopher from
investigating a new truth with an unfettered mind. The
history of science is replete with illustrations of this. The
philosopher of this period did not hesitate to say that a doctrine
might be true in philosophy and false in theology or true in
theology and false in philosophy. Moreover in the field of
religion there is usually a school of thought which maintains
that there is always an outward and an inward meaning to the
revealed Word of the Prophet. The generality of mankind
will be content with the outward meaning, but the mystic
must, penetrate to the core of the Scriptures and take only
the inward. The Sufi is convinced that when he reads the
Quťán with contemplative absorption the inward meaning
is revealed to him. The doctrine obtained in this manner
does not always agree with theology, but this does not trouble
the mystic; nor is he troubled by the fact that mystics do not
agree among themselves as to the true meaning of the Word.
He argues that since there are different kinds of mystical
experiences, why should there not be different kinds of
mystical truth? Christian mysticism and Sufism flourished
in an environment in which it was possible to establish the
validity of their doctrines on the semblance of a philosophical
basis.
Little wonder then that the mystics of the past formulated
doctrines that are incompatible with the tenets of prophetic
revelation and with modern scientific thinking. If they
erred in some of their beliefs, certainly the fault was not entirely
theirs. For many generations and in many places, the
only spiritual light that radiated was from the lives of the
mystics.
THE NATURE OF MYSTICISM 39

The Pre-Suppositions of Mysticism
In times of great stress and confusion, highly gifted people
turn to mysticism. Life must have meaning. The oldestablished religious systems offer little consolation, philosophy
and science still less; but the seeker for ultimate reality may
always turn inward. Through the emotions, the heart, (so
the mystic believes) the true knowledge of God may be
obtained. Man may experience the Absolute directly.
The mystic believes that through asceticism, detachment and
meditation one may attain the Divine Presence and become
one with the Divine Essence. That is, man may enter the
presence of the infinite God and become absorbed in the
infinite unity of the Godhead. No logical thinker would
admit that finite man could ever become one with the Infinite,
and so it was necessary to assume that man is something
more than finite. As we have said before, the mystic assumes
that a particle of the Divine Essence exists in man. If a spark
of the Divine Essence exists in man, or if you prefer to put it
less crudely, if man's reality is essentially divine, it follows
that he must be absolutely detached from his ephemeral self
and from all interest in the material world. He must also
be freed from the intellect, which comprehends only the
material world.
For the mystic there are two, and only two, realms of
being, the infinite God and the finite man. To explain how
finite man can understand the Infinite, the mystic assumes
that the Infinite is divided into parts .and that mortal man
possesses one of these parts. What is not in man he cannot
know. This is an axiom of the Sufis. He tacitly avoids the
term God in this connection. That the unity of the Infinite
is hereby destroyed did not apparently trouble the mystics
of the past—probably because they were familiar with contradictions of this sort, as we have indicated above.
40 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

The two-world doctrine leads to a dualistic concept of
being. Man is a part-of God, and yet man must strive to
become one with God. The three-world doctrine removes
the dilemma, but leaves no room for the existent unity of the
mystic. The unity it establishes, the kind the modern world
can accept, is moral conformity with the precepts of the
prophets; but that is not the goal of the mystic.
We must not overlook this important point. No mystic
who assumes that a particle of the Divine Essence exists in
him can escape this dualism. He may fall back upon experience, as some moderns do, and maintain that it is through
the heart and not the intellect that man knows God. This
sounds plausible, but the thoroughgoing mystic has always
realized that the immediate knowledge of the presence of God
cannot rest upon experience alone. There must be some
metaphysical reasons for identifying experience with the
Divine Presence.
In the three-world doctrine, implicit in most of the prophetic
religions and explicit in the Baha'i Faith, the world of the
prophets stands between the Infinite God and the finite man.
While we cannot comprehend fully this intermediary world,
we can understand something of the life of the Prophet.'
We can love Him, we can meditate upon the attributes of
God reflected in Him, and we can strive to follow His example.
Moreover we are familiar with the creative genius, who is an
intermediary between us and the unseen world of music and
art. We can expand our vision and comprehend to some
degree the Prophet.
On the other hand, we cannot, as thinking people, imagine
ourselves as one with God and at the same time separate
from God, reaching out to Him. In considering contemporary
mysticism we must remember that, if we assume that a spark
of the Divine exists in us, we must also accept this essential
dualism which is incomprehensible to the scientific mind.
THE NATURE OF MYSTICISM 41

The attitude of certain scholars toward contemporary
mysticism is ostensibly very fair and appears to exhibit
disinterested intellectual curiosity, but when we consider
the attitude of these same scholars toward revealed truth
we are prone to discredit their judgment. For such scholars
the voluminous writings of BaháVlláh, incomparable in
scope and magnitude, unsurpassed by anything in the field
of religion, past or present, are as nothing compared to the
testimony of the average mystic who reveals for us no social
laws, no precepts nor principles for establishing that oneness
which has been the central theme of mystical philosophers
ever since the days of Parmenides. How diligently these
scholars have combed the writings of ancient philosophers
like Parmenides and Heraclitus for a mere handful of phrases
such as " Good and ill are one," " Reality is one and indivisible." Clearly these are they who are " content with that
which is like the vapour on a plain."
There are undoubtedly many reasons why some scholars
ignore revealed truth and uphold mysticism, but its exclusiveness probably accounts for its popularity. The mystical
path is only for the few. Prophetic religion on the other hand
always tends to eliminate class distinctions.
The follower of the Prophet is a realist. For him sin
is a revolt against the God-ordained moral order and not
a mere wandering from the mystic path, or a desire for the
world. For him moral action has intrinsic value, it is
something more than a preliminary stage in the preparation
for ecstatic union with God. Finally, since God reveals
Himself directly to the mystic he is exalted above religious
authority.
There is a certain passive tolerance and flexibility about
mysticism which naturally appeals to .those who have a strong
individualistic bias. Here is an esoteric religion which not
only guarantees peace and serenity but which admits us into
42 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

the very presence of God. Moreover it frees man from some
of the undesirable realities of life.

Mysticism and the Primitive Church
Every reform movement tries to recapture the spirit of the
primitive church. From the viewpoint of mysticism the
outstanding characteristic of the " apostolic age " was the
consciousness of the Divine Presence. Men and women were
filled with the Spirit. While the primitive church was undoubtedly influenced by Hellenistic mysticism, it is highly
probable that the mysticism of the majority was what we have
called the " true mysticism " and not the saviour-mysticism
of the medieval period.
Contrary to popular opinion, this early church was not a
spiritual brotherhood free from any kind of organization
and ritual. The idea that, by an ordination service, a person
could be endowed with rights and prerogatives not enjoyed
by other people was certainly not foreign to this early church.
Moreover, a board of presbyters existed twenty years before
Mark's gospel was written. It is a mistake to imagine that
the church started as a community of mystics and that gradually the inward experience of the consciousness of God
diminished, being finally replaced by faith in an ecclesiastical
organization.
The primitive church soon learned, as later movements like
the " Spiritual Franciscans " learned, that a spiritual brotherhood cannot exist without some kind of organization to
safeguard its ideals and to solve the problems that must
necessarily arise in any group of human beings. The organization that evolved was certainly not perfect, and it failed
in many ways to perpetuate the ideals of the apostolic age;
we snould not, however, conclude that any kind of organization will suppress the " Spirit " to some degree. This would
THE NATURE OF MYSTICISM 43

be the equivalent of saying that, since we have always had
wars, therefore peace is impossible.
In the early days of the primitive church there was probably
no uniformity in organization or doctrine; but this did little
harm, for the first Christians looked upon themselves not
as a new society but as the " remnant of Israel." As the
" Israel of God " they were all united, for they and they alone
had recognized Jesus as the Messiah. The important thing
was membership in the Ecclesia, the " Congregation of
Israel," and when they were baptized in the name of the Lord
they became part of the ancient " People of God."
In time, however, diversities naturally arose, and Streeter
says that " the history of Catholic Christianity during the
first five centuries is the history of a progressive standardization of a diversity which had its origin in the Apostolic age."1
To preserve some kind of unity the leaders of the Apostolic
church were forced to establish an organization. Let us
consider the three essential elements in this organization:
1. In A.D. 96 Clement makes a plea for the regular
ministry, and its derivation of authority from the apostolic
succession, for the preservation of unity in the local church.
2. In A.D. 115 Ignatius stresses the value of the
monarchical episcopate as the real bond holding the church
in unity, but says nothing about the apostles providing for a
regular succession. In the second century both of these
principles were united. That is, henceforth the church
favoured a monarchical bishop whose authority could be
traced to the apoštoláte.
Another important factor in the development of a strong
organization with episcopal authority was heresy. This
called for a final authority to decide the pressing question,
who are the representatives of the genuine apostolic tradition?
To decide some of the perplexing questions raised by heresy
streeter, The Primitive Church, p. 50.
44 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

Irenaeus advanced the idea that the true apostolic tradition
is to be found only in those churches that can claim, for their
bishops, a continuous line of descent from apostolic times.
That is, true church doctrine is to be found in the episcopate
which is a continuation of the apostolic office.
3. In the third century, largely through the influence of
Cyprian, there was added a third factor of church order,
sacerdotalism, which was destined to have a profound, though
baneful effect upon the church. In the time of Irenaeus the
prophetic gift was still encouraged, a universal priesthood
still recognized; but now we pass into the period when the
external church becomes necessary to salvation. The bishop
becomes the essence of the church, Divine Grace comes
through the sacraments, and the sacraments must be dispensed
by the priest. The greatest harm, however, does not come
from a belief in the efficacy of sacraments, but rather from the
belief that the official who administers the sacraments is
different from the rest of mankind and that he possesses
powers and privileges not possessed by other men.
There are two serious objections to this form of absolutist
ecclesiastical system. In the first place, we are not sure of
the divine authority of the apostolic succession. In the
second place, we do not like to believe that an ordination
service, no matter how elaborate and impressive, or how
long it has been in use, can make a man different in kind,
something apart, spiritually superior to his fellows, and
endowed with divine authority.
Episcopal authority recognizes no superior power, and
when it is in a position to exercise its divine prerogative,
it is supreme, sovereign. Moreover history shows, plainly
enough, that episcopal authority may lead to corruption.
An absolute monarch is in reality never absolute. He must
consider public opinion to some extent and if, as is usually
THE NATURE OF MYSTICISM 45

the case, he is associated with a church state, he must consider
the wishes of the church.
It is only natural that individuals longing for the inward
life and desirous of spiritual freedom could not live happily
under the authority of an ecclesiastical order which maintained that the external church is necessary for salvation.
That is to say, the early Christian mystics who were intellectually honest could not subscribe to the complete body of
church doctrine. The inevitable happened. From the time
of the Montanists to the Reformation, groups arose who
rebelled against the authority of the church.
Nevertheless mystics did find refuge within the church,
and they did obey church authority. Great mystics like
St. Teresa, Eckhart, and Madame Guyon, when opposed by
the church authorities, strenuously maintained that they were
loyal to the church. They could do this without feeling
intellectually dishonest by regarding this sacrifice of personal
freedom as one of the burdens the ascetic must be prepared
to take up. In the ecstatic state, when he becomes one with
God, he has perfect freedom from all authority, and this is
his chief concern.
The mystical element in religion is necessary but not
sufficient. The spirit of the Prophet cannot influence mankind to any great extent unless and until it is clothed in a
visible order. Mysticism, without an effective administration,
cannot revive a harassed world; yet, on the other hand, the
world cannot be revived by any movement which lacks the
element of true mysticism.
CHAPTER V

TYPES OF MYSTICISM
Radical, Absolute, or Extreme Mysticism
Only a brief consideration will be given to the various
types of mysticism: a psychological or a phenomenological
analysis is beyond the scope of this book. We are concerned,
however, with the fundamental psychic experience, the
philosophical basis of each type, the way in which each type
interprets the spiritual life and the influence each has had on
religious thinking. There are many schools of mysticism,
and while there is some agreement on fundamentals, it is not
always easy to determine just what each school really believes.
Radical, absolute or extreme mysticism as exemplified
by mystics like Plotinus, the pseudo-Dionysius and Eckhart;
it is cold, unemotional and monotonous in comparison to
Sufism and Augustinián mysticism, which exhibit some
warmth. Through severe discipline the absolute mystic is
able to attain a state of detachment which is conducive to
extreme suggestibility. In this condition, by following
prescribed rules which the mystics have inherited from the
past, it is possible to induce a state of rapture and ecstasy,
which the mystic identifies with the Divine Presence. However, this belief in the doctrine that one can attain the Divine
Presence is not peculiar to absolute mysticism; other types
also uphold this idea.
The first step in this mystical devotion is concentration.
Through concentration one is able not only to exclude all
irrelevant thoughts but to produce some degree of inner
unification. This is the experience of anyone who concentrates for some time. From concentration the mystic passes
TYPES OF MYSTICISM 47

to meditation, where the mental activity is low, and then to
the state of contemplation where there is no mental activity
but almost complete passivity. This is the state of inner
unity, blessed peace. There piay, of course, be further stages
of advancement as one recedes from the normal life. In
general the stage of ecstasy is experienced in contemplation.
For the extreme mystic the condition of blessed peace
may be followed by a kind of " holy indifference." This
cold, unemotional state, this dying from self, is not a surrender
to the highest value. In fact, in this state there is a complete
lack of values. We see this in Buddhistic and quietist
mysticism—absolute resignation without a positive ideal.
While most mystics are not concerned with any kind of
analysis of their own experiences, a few like St. Teresa and
St. John of the Cross have left for us many details of the steps
which they have found useful in attaining the final stage of
ecstasy.
There is one significant element in this connection which
is relevant to our study, namely the idea that the stage of
contemplation where the soul experiences union is beyond
the mind. St. John of the Cross says: " T h e less a soul
understands the further does it enter the night of the spirit,
through which it has to pass in order to be united with God,
in a way that surpasses all understanding." This erroneous
doctrine is based on the belief that what the mystic experiences
in contemplation belongs to the category of love. We can
agree with St. John when he says: " T h a t soul has greater
communion with God, which is more advanced in love . . . "
but we can hardly agree that the method of attaining this
communion with God is not subject to some kind of analytical
study.
If during contemplation, the mystic, in his existent being,
becomes one with God, the Absolute, the Divine Essence,
then naturally in this state the reason plays no part. Our
48 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

love for God is not subject to analysis, that we will admit;
but the God of extreme mysticism is merely the speculative
interpretation of the ecstatic experience. The mystic assures
us that contemplation is an act of love; consequently, analysing
the ecstatic state which we experience in contemplation is
just like analysing the love we have for some individual.
This analogy, however, like other analogies used by the
mystic, does not apply here. Loving an individual is certainly
not like loving a metaphysical abstraction. In prophetic
religion the suppliant turns to the Prophet who reflects the
attributes and perfections of God. The love we feel for
the Prophet has some objective validity; but the same cannot
be said for the feeling of love which the mystic experiences
in the state of contemplation. The Beloved with whom he
feels a spiritual marriage is simply a creation of his own mind
and emotions.
In radical mysticism the idea of God is derived from a
speculative interpretation of the experience of ecstasy. He
is non-personal, beyond all values, changeless, and static.
In prophetic religion the idea of God is derived solely from
the life and teachings of the Prophet. The Prophet is an
historical character. From age to age He comes to the world
with laws and precepts suitable to the changing needs of
mankind. Unlike the God of mysticism, the God of prophetic
religion maintains a vital relation with the world.
One more point will be stressed here, although it applies
to all those types of mysticism which claim that man can
comprehend the Absolute. The scientist, like the philosopher
and the mystic, has always desired to comprehend the underlying reality of his world, the world of nature; and up to the
twentieth century he believed that his quest had been realized.
For many generations he was convinced that the processes of
nature could be " explained " by scientific models, like the
atom and ether. At the turn of the century, however, he
TYPES OF MYSTICISM 49

began to realize that behind every mystery in the physical
world there is still another greater mystery. And then he
discovered that models could not really explain the underlying
reality.
To-day we know that we are dealing only with partial
aspects of scientific truth. We do not apprehend magnetic
force and electric force immediately as we apprehend values
like beauty and justice. In fact we are inclined to regard
scientific quantities like gravitational force, magnetic force,
and electric force as subjective mental products. As such
they are very useful, but we never lose sight of the fact we
are dealing with a world of appearance and not a world of
reality.
We see now that we cannot " explain " one of the simplest
phenomena of nature, namely the force of gravity. Newton's
famous law of gravitation tells how the force depends upon
mass and distance, but gives us no insight into the nature of
the force; and Newton himself was fully aware of this.
Einstein's theory of relativity only postpones the difficulty.
As Jeans suggests," . . . it provides a new description, but not
a satisfying explanation, of the facts." Moreover the
physicists are confident to-day that we will never be able to
discover this underlying reality, this first cause. We see now
that man's finite nature necessarily imposes certain limitations
upon him, limitations which we cannot remove.
If an exact science like physics can tell us nothing about
the underlying reality of the world of matter and energy,
which is manifestly the simplest with which we are concerned,
it seems highly improbable that the mystic could ever discover
the Absolute, the Infinite; for the world of the Absolute
necessarily encompasses all the world of being.
Finally, let us remember that the physicist has completely
given up his quest for the world of reality and is wasting no
time on theories and conjectures which must ultimately lead
50 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

to further confusion and not to a clarification of the physical
world.
The mystic would do well to reconsider his claims in the
light of modern scientific thinking. Indeed we might all
profit by this experience of the physicist in the quest for
ultimate reality. If the greatest minds of our age—and we
may consider outstanding physicists who have some philosophical background for their theories as among the greatest
minds of our age—abandon long-cherished hopes and theories
concerning the ultimate reality of the physical world, we may
rest assured that they are impelled by well-founded convictions.
It is interesting to recall, in this connection, that many
years before the scientist realized the futility of his search
for ultimate reality, Baha'u'llah uttered these significant
words: "Having recognized thy powerlessness to attain to
an adequate understanding of that Reality which abideth within
thee, thou wilt readily admit the futility of such efforts as may
be attempted by thee, or by any of the created things, to fathom
the mystery of the Living God." And then He points out
man's true goal: "This confession of helplessness, which
mature contemplation must eventually impel every mind to make,
is in itself the acme of human understanding, and marketh the
culmination of man's development."1

Personal Mysticism
In contrast to the cold, unemotional mysticism we call
absolute, there is the so-called personal mysticism, or
Christian God-mysticism of men like Bernard of Clairvaux,
Thomas a Kempis and St. Francis, which shows personal
warmth. In Bernard the dread of the consequences of sin,
which, under the influence of Augustine dominated the first
half of the Middle Ages, is replaced by love for Christ. It is
iBaháVlláh, Gleanings, p. 165.
TYPES OF MYSTICISM 51

the spirit of the neo-Platonic Augustine rather than the
theologian-statesman Augustine. This is the mysticism of
Philo and the Sufi mysticism of Islám.
Personal mysticism resulted largely from the fusion of
mysticism and prophetic religion. Augustine succeeded in
reconciling neo-Platonic mysticism with prophetic religion.
The Augustinián ideal exerted great influence on Christian
mystics in the Middle Ages such as Bernard of Clairvaux,
Albertus Magnus, Thomas a Kempis, St. Francis and St.
Thomas Aquinas.
The idea of God in personal mysticism is derived from the
ecstatic experience, but it is interpreted imaginatively. The
God of personal mysticism is not beyond all values. He
is the highest Value but this highest Value is identified with
a personality. As Heiler clearly indicates, in personal
mysticism the Infinite assumes an earthly form, the swnmum
bonum becomes a human Redeemer-God.1 Nevertheless
in personal mysticism God is static, the changeless One, in
the words of a Kempis " the eternal Rest of the Saints."
The devotion to Christ is not, however, such as we see in the
Primitive church: the Saviour-mysticism is not the prophetic
ideal. In fact some writers are inclined to believe that the
true Augustine is the neo-Platonic Augustine.
The mystic values of the life of Christ, His suffering, His
radiant acquiescence, serve primarily as a model for the mystic
life. In the final stages of His ascent, however, he must
advance beyond the historical personality of Jesus. He can
reach the Infinite only by freeing himself of all images. In
prophetic religion there is no communion of man with God
except through the Prophet, the mediator between man and
God. In prophetic religion, the word of the Prophet is
final. There is no passing beyond the Prophet, beyond space
and time into the realm of the Infinite.
Heiler, Prayer, Chapter vi.
52 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

Greek Mysticism and the Church
There is one continuous line of development from Plato
to Plotinus, and another, sometimes called the " Hermaic
Chain," from Plotinus to the close of the Athenian school of
philosophy with Justinian in A.D. 529. The writings of the
so-called pseudo-Dionysius, an anonymous individual, also
exerted considerable influence on all later Christian mystics.
He is called " the father of Christian mystics." He is not to
be confused with Dionysius the Areopagite who, at least
according to tradition, was a convert of Paul. The author
of the writings of the pseudo-Dionysius was probably a pupil
of Proclus, the last leader of the Athenian school, for the
writings are predominantly neo-Platonic in thought. If this
is so, the writings must have appeared about the time Justinian
closed the Athenian school of philosophy. Manifestly he was
not entirely successful in suppressing the Greek philosophy,
for the source of inspiration of the writings was undoubtedly
the neo-Platonic mysticism of the Infinite of Plotinus.
We must remember that for several centuries before Plato,
philosophers had been speculating on the nature of the
physical world and the soul. Heraclitus (540—475 B.C.)
taught that the soul was immortal, but he did not believe that
it was immaterial. Pythagoras held a similar view. There
was much talk about primary substances out of which all
things could evolve. Parmenides adhered to monism; he
believed that there was just one primary substance, the
Parmenidean One, as it is sometimes called. He also denied
the reality of the world of senses, denied motion and change.
Later Anaxagoras and Empedocles abandoned monism for
pluralism, and Empedocles rejects the idea of Parmenides
that the senses are wholly misleading. We have here two
opposing ideas which were reconciled by Leucippus:
1. Our senses tell us that we are living in a world of change.
TYPES OF MYSTICISM 53

2. Our reason seems to tell us that there must be one
permanent substance underlying the world of change.
Now, for Leucippus the unchanging One was an aggregation
of particles (atoms) which were exempt from change. The
grouping and regrouping of the unchangeable atoms would
account for the changes we observe in the world of senses.
The atomic theory then opened, or reopened, the way for a
mechanistic concept of life. Later philosophers like
Democritus advanced the idea that the soul was made of
atoms. This crude idea was denied by thinkers like Socrates
and Plato.
It is not surprising therefore that Plato, for example, is
not always consistent, that he sometimes shifts his position.
The mind is not infallible and the intuition is not perfect;
but the Greek philosopher, as well as the medieval
philosopher, did not fully realize this. It was not until the
advent of the experimental method that science could check
some of the ancient Greek ideas of the physical world, and
it was not until the twentieth century that physicists abandoned'
the hope of comprehending the reality underlying it.
We will indicate very briefly a few ideas of the Greek
mystics.
The mysticism of Plato (428—348 B.C.) naturally goes back
to Socrates—a man of extraordinary insight—who was always
conscious of an inner guide. He believed that the soul had
an inherent capacity for discovering the Divine Reality/
and this idea was expanded by Plato, who stressed the divine
origin of the soul. He believed that the soul could find the
eternal in the temporal, and this faculty he called Love.
By means of this mystic Love the soul gets a glimpse of the
world of reality through an object of beauty. One uses
objects of beauty in this material world as steps to mount
upward to the " Beautiful." The goal is the Good, the
Ultimate Reality. The eternal world, however, is really
54 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

not another world to which we ascend by leaving this world;
it is, rather, a kind of immanent Reality. Later mystics
imply from his teachings that the Ultimate Reality is above
the mind, beyond knowledge; that it is found only in moments
of ecstasy, complete passivity. While we are not sure of all
of his ideas, we feel certain that he believed that the soul has
in itself an eye for Divine Reality and the mind a natural
capacity for direct vision of God.
Although Aristotle (384—322 B.C.) stressed the scientific
method, he did not overlook the essential value of contemplation; in fact he exerted considerable influence on the mysticism
that prevailed from the third to the fifteenth century. He
separated God from the world. The Real transcends all
that is finite; through contemplation, however, man can
gain some knowledge of God. According to Aristotle, the
soul in its ascent must renounce all that is. finite. When it
reaches the summit of its ascent it does not distinguish the
All from Nothing. This must be the case, for it has risen
above names and attributes, which define for us our world
of experience. In a sense Aristotle proposed a kind of
negative mysticism.
The most profound result of the impact of Greek thought on
Christian mysticism was neo-Platonism, and the outstanding
figure of this philosophy was Plotinus (born A.D. 205). In
the Middle Ages Plato came to the Christian world largely
through Plotinus, whose work is a kind of synthesis of that
Greek school of thought which reached its spiritual zenith
in Socrates and Plato. For Plotinus, God is not external to
us: the way to Him is within us. His system amounts roughly
to this:
There is a way down and a way up. There is a centre,
figuratively speaking, and God, the One, the Good is this
centre. The way down is an emanation of God from the
centre, so to speak. God the Absolute, the One, transcends
TYPES OF MYSTICISM 55

all finiteness, all thought. He is Unknowable, the Indescribable. From this One, emanations radiate. The first is the
mind, which radiates from the Absolute as light radiates from
a lamp. From the mind there seems to come a kind of
secondary emanation, the Universal Soul, which encompasses,
as it were, individual souls. Further details need not concern
us here.
The mysticism of Proclus (A.D. 410—485), the last of the
Hermaic chain, is more complicated and that of the pseudo-
Dionysius still more so.
In spite of all the speculations of the mystics we really
do not know any more about the Infinite God than did Plato.
This is not surprising, for we derive our knowledge of God
from the Prophet and not from speculation. Neither through
speculation nor through inward experiences can we make the
doctrine of the mystics valid.

The Non-Religious Type
For the student of science and art there is what might be
called a non-religious mysticism, which is upheld by the
mystical philosopher, the spiritually-minded scientist and
to some degree by the inventor. The first step in the path
of this mystical philosophy is the belief that there is a kind of
wisdom, call it insight or intuition if you wish, which is
superior to empirical knowledge. It comes to the creative
worker through meditation. It is the creative force which
reveals new concepts and new relationships. By means of"
insight and reason man makes discoveries in the world of
value and in the world of science. Both are essential, but
their functions are complementary. Intuition discovers what
is new; reason organizes. This type of mysticism is not new;
it goes back to the days of Heraclitus and Parmenides, but it
is more widespread to-day than in the past. No assumption is
made about a personal God, but the ••non-religious mystic
56 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

believes that through meditation he is able to attain direct
communication with a higher intelligence. For him there is
another world more real than the phenomenal world, and his
first concern is to learn how to live and work in this world.
Although he may not believe in God or any kind of superrational or supernatural being, we cannot assume that what
he receives, in moments of meditation, comes solely from his
ego. The scientist who is primarily interested in creative
work and who believes that the universe is controlled by a
supreme being to whom he may turn in meditation, belongs
to this type. However, at times, he may have a feeling of
adoration and devotion towards this creator of the phenomenal
world which disposes us to classify him as an aesthetic mystic.

Aesthetic Mysticism
This type is somewhat different from all other types. It
is sharply contrasted with radical mysticism, and though it has
the warmth and fervour of personal mysticism, it does not
really resemble the latter in any other way. While it goes
back to ancient times, the best examples of it are to be found
among modern artists and poets. Some of the Persian
Sufis and a few mediaeval mystics like St. Francis of Assisi
lean in this direction. The distinguishing characteristics of
this type are love and appreciation of the best the world can
offer, and unrestrained enthusiasm for the beauty of nature,
the flowers, the trees, the sunset, the animals, and whatever
excites our admiration. For the aesthetic mystic, there is no
difficult path, no harsh asceticism, nor self-criticism. He is
concerned primarily with the joy of living and not with the
problem of evil. This is the mysticism of artists and poets who
have faith in mankind and in God's mercy and love. It is often
a reaction against an intolerant Puritanism which is more
concerned with the depravity of man than with his good
qualities. Just as the philosophers of the seventeenth century
TYPES OF MYSTICISM 57

turned from a militant, bigoted ecclesiastical system to
natural law, in order to find some sanction for their political
and social theories, so creative personalities who long to be
at one with the creator of m a n and the universe, turn from a
narrow evangelical piety t o the God of the " beautiful "
who is immanent in the world. In contemplative absorption
the aesthetic mystic feels at one with the creator of all that is
uplifting and beautiful. T h e experience of ecstasy and rapture
is, for the aesthetic mystic, proof of the existence of this
pantheistic God who reveals Himself in nature. He is not
concerned with any metaphysical basis for his belief, for faith
in God's eternal goodness is as strong in him as it is in the
radical mystic,—perhaps stronger, for the radical mystic
often feels impelled to ignore the beautiful.
While we may distinguish between the mystical experience
of the radical mystic and that of the aesthetic mystic, one
is just about as valid as the other. The ultimate goal of each
type is, of course, quite different. One type is entranced
with the beauty of G o d ' s creation, lives in the world, and
finds supreme satisfaction in creative work. The other
shuns the beautiful, flees from the world, and finds satisfaction
only in what will ultimately lead him to the Absolute. The
radical mystic can gaze at an enchanting landscape, listen
to a sublime symphony o r look at an awe-inspiring work
of art and remain unmoved. He may even take some satisfaction in the fact that he is oblivious to everything that evokes
sensuous pleasure.
The aesthetic mystic, on the other hand, sees God reflected
in everything that enhances life. In general, however, his
prayer is not communion with a personal God, but contemplative absorption centred on a subject of aesthetic value.
Nevertheless some of the prayers of the aesthetic mystics are
inspiring, uplifting and not without that personal inwardness,
that communion with G o d , which characterizes all genuine
58 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

prayers. The feeling of the immediate presence of the Divine
is not wanting in many of these prayers. Consider, for
illustration, this prayerful attitude of Rousseau: " I rose
every morning before the sun and passed through a neighbouring orchard into a pleasant path which led by a vineyard and
along the hills towards Chamoéry. While walking I prayed,
not by a vain motion of the lips, but with a sincere lifting up of
my heart to the Creator of this beautiful Nature whose charms
lay spread out before my eyes. I never like to pray in my
chamber; it is to me as if the walls and all the little works of
man come between God and myself. I like to contemplate
Him in His works, whilst my heart lifts itself up to Him."
While the scientist is not usually regarded as an aesthetic
mystic, nevertheless, as we indicated above, many scientists
in the contemplation of that supernatural wisdom which
governs the universe often glide into aesthetic moods not
unlike those experienced by the aesthetic mystic. Einstein
declares: "The most beautiful and profound emotion we
can experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower
of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger,
who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good
as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really
exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most
radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only
in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling is
at the centre of true religiousness."

Contemporary Religious Mysticism
There is also the religious type of mysticism which we
see in many popular movements of the day. This type is
concerned primarily with experience; nevertheless, experience
is interpreted pretty much as in the past. The contemporary
religious mystic is a pragmatist. If in moments of illumination
he experiences something which raises him above the normal
TYPES OF MYSTICISM 59

level of existence and which helps him in his individual development, he assumes he has been in the presence of God. Now
since he can gain this immediate knowledge of the Divine
he assumes, with the older mystics, there must be a little of the
Divine within him. Naturally, this belief gives him hope and
courage in times of stress.
CHAPTER VI

PROPHETIC RELIGION AND MYSTICISM:
A CONTRAST
Prophetic Religion
Prophetic religion is dominated by the idea that the Divine
Will is revealed to mankind through a great spiritual genius,
or a Prophet like Christ or Muhammad. When the Prophet
appears the world is always revived spiritually. The Prophet
may also reveal new social laws, as in the case of Judaism,
or He may stress individual spiritual development as in the
case of Christianity. In either case the transcendent Divine
manifests Himself to man through the Prophet who is an
intermediary. He is the creator of the world of value. If \ve
follow the precepts of the Prophet, try to understand Him,
try to become like Him, we shall be recreated; and without
this recreation, religion is of very little value.

Mysticism
Mysticism, as we have said before, maintains that through
meditation and contemplation man may enter the presence
of the infinite God, and may be absorbed in the infinite unity
of the Godhead. In a broad sense anyone who is aware of
the indwelling Spirit of God is a mystic, but we must use the
term in a more restricted sense.
The modern mystic has completely discarded asceticism,
but he retains the doctrine that a particle of the Divine
Essence exists in man, and he believes that man may enter
the presence of God. He also believes that divine revelation
can come to humanity through the mystic as well as through
the Prophet; that is, the Divine Will may be revealed to man
PROPHETIC RELIGION AND MYSTICISM: A CONTRAST 61

as well as to the Prophet. For most of these modern mystics,
man differs from the Prophet only in degree and not in kind.
The majority of modern mystics are concerned primarily
with individual spiritual development, and we must allow
that they have succeeded where organized religion has failed.
It is true that by turning inward, men (a very few men) have
been able to improve their individual behaviour; but it is
equally true that mysticism has no solution for our baffling
social problems. A small minority feel that new social laws
can and will be revealed to gifted individuals and that in this
way a new world order will be created. Although mysticism
has exerted considerable influence upon prophetic religion,
history does not indicate that the creative force behind great
religious movements is due primarily to mysticism. The
combined effect of all the great mystics of Christianity is
surely small compared with the effect of the adherents of the
primitive church who were inspired by the Founder of
Christianity. The same may be said of Islám.

The Two Paths
As we said in Chapter II, the Divine Life Process necessarily
leads to a path by means of which man's spirit, which is
essentially divine, may return to God, the Divine Essence.
This, of course, involves some kind of transmutation of the
self whereby it becomes deified. In the language of Eckhart:
" If I ani to know God directly I must become completely
He and He, I: so that this ' He ' and this ' I ' become and are
one ' I.' "
In the Baha'i writings the path of the wayfarer in quest of
God is clearly outlined, but it differs substantially from that of
the mystic. We will, therefore, consider here briefly the
various stages of the mystic's path and compare this path
with that outlined in the Baha'i writings. We must acknowledge the positive contributions of the mystics, past and present,
62 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

and we must appreciate their efforts to attain the higher life
which, after all, is the goal of the prophetic religion; but we
must part company with them on doctrines like incarnation,
and we cannot be in complete agreement with them on the
criterion of the spiritual life.
While mystics differ regarding the number and nature of
the various stages of the path, they are roughly as follows:
conversion, purgation, illumination and union. Some mystics
will also include the " dark night of the soul."

Conversion. Conversion is that sudden or gradual realization of some lofty, extraordinary state, transcending the level
of ordinary experience, or the awakening of some reality that
exists within us, some trend within us of which we are not fully
cognizant. Our awareness of this trend is, however, usually
sudden.
This more or less sudden realization of an overwhelming
force, something other than our normal self, which we call
conversion, may indicate that we are in touch with a divine
power; but this emotional disturbance may also be due to
abnormal suggestibility. Conversion in revivalistic religion
has been the subject of considerable study, and we are forced
to admit that ecstasy and rapture or similar psychic phenomena cannot be taken as proof that the soul has experienced
rebirth. What we have said in Chapter III about the claims
for the psychic experience in mysticism, applies here.
From the standpoint of prophetic religion, of the Baha'i
Faith in particular, spiritual rebirth or conversion takes place
when we realize the Prophet of God as the source of our
spiritual life, the creator of moral and ethical values. This
kind of conversion is not necessarily associated with any sort
of psychic experience. Conversion of this type, moreover,
involves the mind as well as the heart. We demonstrated in
Chapter III that the heart alone is not an infallible guide to
PROPHETIC RELIGION AND MYSTICISM: A CONTRAST 63

spiritual truth. Finally, the mystic's anti-intellectualism and
his subjectivism very often lead to spiritual and even moral
anarchy, and the result may be, in fact it often is, social
disunity.

Purgation. When the wayfarer is awakened to his higher
self he realizes his limitations and the encumbrances that prevent his spiritual progress. He must, therefore, purify the
self by " detachment" or " poverty." The final result, at
least in extreme mysticism, is that man becomes merely an
insignificant part of the whole, devoid of all desires and rights.
The modern mystic, to be sure, does not go as far as this,
but he does realize the value of some kind of purification.
According to the Baha'i Faith, the ultimate aim of our
spiritual progress is not to eradicate all our individual aspirations, but rather to make them conform with the teachings
of the Prophets. All man's faculties, mind as well as heart,
should be utilized in developing the soul. The " dying from
self" is not the complete destruction of human personality
but its spiritual perfection, the subordination of the ego to the
spiritual state of selflessness and sacrifice. It is not necessary
to stifle all the senses or material desires, but surely they should
be controlled and tempered. This kind of subordination and
transformation is necessarily slow. A man may suddenly
realize the significance of the Prophet's message, but character
building is quite another matter.
All these ascetic conceptions and practices are based on
the assumption that human nature is depraved.
Baha'u'llah has established, for us, a fine balance between
the inner and the outer life, and He is very explicit concerning
the things that will advance our spiritual growth and the things
that will retard that growth. In the first place Baha'u'llah
makes it clear that there is no harm in the " world." He says:
" Should a man wish to adorn himself with the ornaments of
64 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

the earth, to wear its apparels, or partake of the benefits it
can bestow, no harm can befall him, if he alloweth nothing
whatever to intervene between him and God, for God hath
ordained every good thing, whether created in the heavens or
in the earth, for such of His servants as truly believe in Him."1
Let us observe, however, what He says about the " world."
"Know ye that by 'the world' is meant your unawareness of
Him Who is your Maker, and your absorption in aught else
but Him"2 We must be thankful for the " world," for this
outer or external life. He says: "Render thanks and praise
unto Him, and be of them that are truly thankful."3 We must
remember, however, that whatever prevents us from loving
God is the world, and we should flee from it. Baha'u'llah
does not say that we should not be wholly absorbed in the
world, on the contrary He says we should be absorbed in God
only. We do not divide our affections between God and the
world. In His own words: "And as the human heart, as
fashioned by God, is one and undivided, it behoveth thee to take
heed that its affections be, also, one and undivided. Cleave thou,
therefore, with the whole affection of thine heart, unto His
love, and withdraw it from the love of any one besides Him,
that He may aid thee to immerse thyself in the ocean of His
unity. . . . " 4 There must be a balance between the inner
and the outer life, but there can be no balance of affections.
Again Baha'u'llah is very explicit in His renunciation of
the world. In unequivocal language He warns us that:
" The world is but a show, vain and empty, a mere nothing,
bearing the semblance of reality. Set not your affections
upon it. . . . Verily I say, the world is like the vapour in a
desert, which the thirsty dreameth to be water and striveth
Bahá'uTláh, Gleanings, p. 276.
ibid., p. 276.
ibid., p. 276.
ibid„ p. 237.
PROPHETIC RELIGION AND MYSTICISM: A CONTRAST 65

after it with all his might, until when he cometh unto it, he
findeth it to be mere illusion."1
Here is a new conception of the world, sharply contrasted
with the old. The world is not inherently evil, but again it
is not what it appears to be; it is an illusion. According
to the old conception it was not only an illusion but an evil,
and man could not even live in it, much less have any appreciation for it.
This process of purification cannot be very successful,
however, without meditation or reflection. Meditation will
be discussed in more detail in Chapter IX; suffice it to say
here, that it is the state beyond concentration where mental
activity is low. It is not an abnormal condition, in fact
meditation is necessary for all creative work. In this subjective state one can get a more comprehensive view of any
subject. 'Abdu'1-Bahá tells us that without this faculty of
meditation man is a'mere animal.
You are a stranger in this new world and you will necessarily
meet with conflicts. The object of purgation is to resolve
these conflicts.

Illumination. Through the process of purgation the
spiritual reality of man becomes freed from the self, and
he is then ready to enter the stage of illumination. In this
stage his intuitive powers are heightened, his power of perception is enhanced and his energy is strangely increased.
He has greater capacity for comprehending, and dealing with,
the accidents of life. However, this increase of power to
understand and cope with the phenomenal world is not
peculiar to mysticism. Creative personalities in prophetic
religion, artists and poets experience the same.
It is only the mystic, however, who claims he can come
in direct contact with the Absolute, while in this stage of
Mbid., p. 328.
66 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

illumination. This rapturous awareness of the Absolute
is sometimes called " the practice of the Presence of God."
Here again this experience is not peculiar to mysticism.
There is a normal religious joy, a majestic calm, which comes
to those who are influenced by the power of the Holy Spirit
and who are guided by the precepts of the Prophets. This
experience is accessible, not to a few gifted individuals, but to
everyone who humbly follows the Prophets, abides by their
laws and strives to reflect their attributes.
Most mystics distinguish between illumination and union.
In illumination the individuality and personality seem to
remain intact, while in union this is not so. In illumination
the wayfarer is still somewhat of a stranger, but in the state
of union, which few ever attain, he is no longer a stranger
but a traveller who has returned to his home.
As we have said before, the mystic does not believe that
the mind is of any value in this path. Some indeed would
go so far as to maintain that it is the mystic and not the
scientist who understands the underlying reality of nature.
At any rate to-day, the scientist, or at least the physicist,
admits that he cannot understand the underlying reality of
nature, and he would probably go farther and say that no
human could understand this reality. Whatever a priori
knowledge the mystic may possess, the fact still remains
that it is the scientist with his intellectual and intuitive powers
who has advanced science, and not the mystic. Finally,
had the mystic made freer use of this greatest of Goďs gifts,
the intellect, he would not have been led to identify himself
with God.
The mystic claims that our awareness of God is more akin
to love than to any kind of intellectualism, and in this we can
readily concur. Prophetic religion makes a similar claim. No
mystic is more emphatic on this point than Baha'u'llah:
" Only when the lamp of search, of earnest striving, of longing
PROPHETIC RELIGION AND MYSTICISM: A CONTRAST 67

desire, of passionate devotion, of fervid love, of rapture, and
ecstasy, is kindled within the seeker's heart, and the breeze oj
His loving-kindness is wafted upon his soul, will the darkness of
error be dispelled, the mists of doubts and misgivings be dissipated,
and the lights of knowledge and certitude envelop his being."1
Man's destiny is clearly shown in the following words
of Baha'u'llah: " Having created the world and all that liveth
and moveth therein, He, through the direct operation of His
unconstrained and sovereign Will, chose to confer upon man
the unique distinction and capacity to know Him and to love
Him—a capacity that must needs be regarded as the generating
impulse and the primary purpose underlying the whole of
creation. . . . Upon the inmost reality of each and every
created thing He hath shed the light of one of His names, and
rnade it a recipient of the glory of one of His attributes. Upon
the reality of man, however, He hath focussed the radiance
of all of His names and attributes, and made it a mirror of
His own Self. Alone of all created things man hath been
singled out for so great a favour, so enduring a bounty."2
We cannot infer from this, however, that our love for God
is possible only when we lay aside the mind.
Moreover, Baha'u'llah makes it very clear that love and
obedience cannot be separated. The man who follows the
Prophet has a twofold obligation. " The first is steadfastness
in His love, such steadfastness that neither the clamour of
the enemy nor the claims of the idle pretender can deter him
from cleaving unto Him Who is the Eternal Truth, a steadfastness that taketh no account of them whatever. The second
is strict observance of the laws He hath prescribed—laws which
He hath always ordained, and will continue to ordain, unto men,
and through which the truth may be distinguished and separated
from falsehood"3
hbid., p. 267.
ibid., p. 65.
ibid., p. 289.
68 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

The meaning of the Divine Presence, which the mystic
believes he has attained in this stage, has been discussed in
Chapter III, so that we need not discuss it further.

Union. As the drop of water from the sea may ultimately
return to the sea, so the wayfarer may return to his original
home. This is union, and it implies some sort of deification
of man. It is clear by now that this doctrine of deification
is unwarrantable.
The teaching of Baha'u'llah on union with God is necessarily
sharply contrasted with the doctrines of the mystics. The
real union with God is complete and continual obedience to
the laws revealed by the Prophet. In his own words: "By
self-surrender and perpetual union with God is meant that men
should merge their will wholly in the Will of God, and regard
their desires as utter nothingness beside His Purpose. Whatsoever the Creator commandeth His creatures to observe, the
same must they diligently, and with the utmost joy and eagerness,
arise and fulfil. They should in no wise allow their fancy to
obscure their judgment, neither should they regard their own
imaginings as the voice of the Eternal."1 It is through the
Prophet that the Divine Will is revealed to man.

The Seven Valleys of Baha'u'llah
This treatise was written by Baha'u'llah some time before
He declared to His followers that He was the One promised
by His Precursor, the Báb. He desired to encourage the
scattered followers of the Báb, who had rallied around Him,
to search diligently for the Promised One. We will consider
here very briefly, just a few points regarding the Seven Cities,
Seven Stages, or Seven Valleys through which the wayfarer
must pass in his journey " . . . from the earthly abode to the
heavenly home." The language, as well as the style, is similar
iBaha'u'llah, Gleanings, p. 337.
PROPHETIC RELIGION AND MYSTICISM*. A CONTRAST 69

to that used by the Sufis, and was therefore familiar to His
followers, who were mystically inclined. Many of the terms,
however, have a different connotation. For example, by the
" Beloved " He meant Himself and not the Divine Essence.
The reader is referred to the complete text1 for details.

THE VALLEY OF SEARCH
" In this Valley, the wayfarer rides the steed ofpatience. . . .
It is requisite for such servants to purge the heart—which is
the wellspring of divine treasure—from every impression, to
forsake blind imitation inherited from their forebears and to
close the door offriendship or enmity to all upon the earth."

THE VALLEY OF LOVE
"In this city the heaven of ecstasy is elevated, the állluminous sun of yearning shines forth and the fire of love is
aglow. . . . "
THE VALLEY OF KNOWLEDGE
" He will perceive the secrets of resurrection in the regions
of creation and in the souls with inner and outer eyes, and,
with a spiritual heart, he will perceive the divine wisdom in the
infinite manifestations of God."
After much suffering and patience the seeker will find his
Beloved and he will discover that all the Manifestations or
Prophets of God are really one.
"After traversing the Valley of Knowledge, which is the last
plane of limitation, the wayfarer attains the first stage of

THE VALLEY OF UNITY
whereupon he quaffs the chalice of abstraction and witnesses the
Manifestations of Oneness." The wayfarer now sees that all
lr
The Seven Valleys and The Four Valleys, revealed by Baha'uilah,
translated by Ali-Kuli Khan. New York. Baha'i Publishing Committee,
1936.
70 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

things reflect the power and beauty of God. The self-cultivating life merges into the unitive life. Baha'u'llah makes it
clear that this Unity is not to be confused with the mystic's
concept of unity. He sets forth three cardinal principles to
which the mystic could never subscribe: (1) man is not an
incarnation of God, (2) man cannot know the Divine Essence,
(3) man's knowledge of God comes through the Prophet.
The remaining three Valleys outline the progressive development of the soul which results from the wayfarer's love for,
knowledge of, and obedience to the Prophet.

THE VALLEY OF CONTENTMENT
" In this Valley, he will Jeel the breezes of divine contentment
wafting from the plane of the spirit; he will burn the veils of
want; and with inward and outward eyes, he will witness, within
and without all things, the meaning of the verse: * In that Day,
God will make all independent out of His abundance' "

THE VALLEY OF WONDERMENT
"He witnesses a wondrous world and a new creation at every
instant, and adds wonderment to wonderment; and he is astonished at the works of the Lord of Oneness."

THE VALLEY OF TRUE POVERTY AND ABSOLUTE NOTHINGNESS
"This state is that of dying from self and living in God,
and being poor in self and becoming rich in the Desired One."
In one of the concluding passages Baha'u'llah makes it
clear that the wayfarer mus* adhere to the laws and precepts
of the Prophets. " During all these journeys, the wayfarer
must not deviate a hair's breadth from the * Law '—which is
indeed the essence of the ' Path ' and the very fruit of the tree
of' Truth'—and in all stages, he must show implicit obedience
to the Commandments, and firmly eschew all forbidden things—
PROPHETIC RELIGION AND MYSTICISM: A CONTRAST 71

in order that he may be favoured with the cup of the Law and
be grounded in the mysteries of the Truth."

Mysticism and Fundamental Concepts
Mysticism is usually a reaction against the superficiality
of a decadent civilization. It often reaches its highest point
when prophetic religion is at its lowest, and consequently
appears superior by comparison. Persons with a strong desire
for things spiritual are naturally, when civilization seems on
the verge of collapse, attracted toward a philosophy of escape,
and are also repelled by the incrustations of institutional
religion.
While mysticism has preserved for us the best in prophetic
piety, the contrasts cannot be overlooked. Heiler points out
the difference in a few significant phrases.1 Prophetic religion
affirms personality, while mysticism denies it. One flees
from the world, denies the natural life and ignores history;
the other believes in life, values history and endeavours to
realize ideals and aims. Of course, pure or absolute mysticism
has always been modified by prophetic religion; consequently
the type most familiar to the western world possesses a warmth
and fervour foreign to that of the East.
The concept of God in either form, however, differs radically
from the prophetic ideal. To the mystic the concept of God
must be based upon his experience of ecstasy. He may be
non-personal, beyond all values, super-good or a loving,
personal God; but He is always static and outside of history.
God in extreme mysticism of the absolute type is merely the
speculative interpretation of the experience of ecstasy. The
difficulty, of course, lies in the interpretation of the ecstatic
experience, an experience in which there is a cessation of
normal consciousness. Parenthetically, this ecstatic experience is not to be confused with the normal experience of
heiler, Prayer, Chapter VI.
72 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

religious values as in prophetic religion. As Heiler shows,
the God of mysticism is not a revelation in history; God
reveals Himself to every man who is prepared to apprehend
Him. The birth of Christ, His suffering, His death, indeed
the whole history of redemption, is valuable to the mystic
only in so far as it prepares him for the mystical experience.
A divinely-appointed mediator, then, becomes merely a symbol
of an infinite Deity. The mystic is, therefore, led to concepts
of God which are not only opposed to prophetic religion
but to history.
Heiler points out the limitations of mysticism in other
fields.1 Since God reveals Himself to the mystic directly,
the mystic is exalted above religious authority. He maintains a similar attitude toward ethics; to the mystic, moral
action is not a thing good in itself. Little consideration is
given to the social order, since mysticism is an esoteric religion
designed for a few gifted persons. Neither is mysticism concerned with world civilization, for pure mysticism is hostile to
all civilization. In the concept of immortality we see the same
non-social, static ideal: immortality is merely the ecstatic
vision of, and union with, God.

Heiler, Prayer, Chapter VI.
CHAPTER VII

SCIENCE, REVELATION AND MYSTICISM
Science and Revelation
When we think of divine revelation we naturally think
of revealed or intuitive knowledge. The knowledge possessed
by the great creative personalities of prophetic religion,
or in the language of religion, the Prophets, like Muhammad,
is innate, immediate. We are fairly certain that they did
not attend schools, nor did they create eclectic systems out
of contemporary or ancient wisdom. There is, however,
this essential difference between the intuitive knowledge
which we associate with divine revelation and the kind which
we associate with science. The intuitive knowledge of the
scientist must be checked constantly by empirical knowledge,
while the intuitive knowledge of the Prophet needs no check.
This is rather difficult for the scientist to concede, but, as we
hope to show, the difference begins to vanish when we think
of revealed knowledge in terms of total experience, not merely
experience in the world of science.
We must admit, however, that the phenomenal success of
science in the physical world, the failure of religion to establish
peace and harmony in the world at large, and finally the
secularization of religion as well as society, all tend to create,
in the mind of the layman, the idea that the revealed knowledge
of the Prophet is not as reliable as the intuitive knowledge
of the scientist. Of course, many laymen feel that scientific
knowledge is the only certain knowledge we possess to-day.
They firmly believe that scientific knowledge is final and absolute; but the modern scientist, or at least the modern physicist,
does not make this claim.
74 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

Ever since the decline of organized religion there have been
many attempts to create eclectic systems out of the salient
features of extant religions. So far as the world outlook
goes, some of these movements are superior to religious
systems, but they lack force to effect any large-scale reform
either in the individual or society.
Within the pale of any particular religious system there are
many who have faith in revealed knowledge, but they feel
constrained to regard the revealed knowledge of their own
religion as final and absolute. For the Christian the Divine
Will was revealed through Christ once and for all time. All
other Prophets are at least inferior, if not false. The follower
of Muhammad makes a similar claim for Islám. It has taken
man a long time to realize that creation is a mode of causation,
and it may take him some time to realize that divine revelation
is continuous.
For the scientist, however, the problem is not progressive
revelation, but simply revelation. How can we reconcile the
innate revealed knowledge of the Prophet with scientific
thinking ? The intuitive knowledge of the mystic presents
some difficulties but, as we shall see, they are insignificant
when compared with the revealed knowledge of the Prophet.
In general, then, we are concerned with two types of revealed knowledge: the kind that comes t o the Prophet, which
is innate, independent of training and reflection, and the
kind that comes to the mystic in his moments of meditation,
particularly in the state of ecstasy or vision.
Let us consider the revealed knowledge of the mystic first,
since it is more akin to the intuitive knowledge of the scientist.
To begin with, as we have shown, Baha'uTlah refutes the claim
that man is a part of the Divine Essence, and that man can
experience immediately the presence of God. This removes
two formidable stumbling blocks of the scientist, for certainly
no scientist would admit that man is a part of God, nor that
SCIENCE, REVELATION AND MYSTICISM 75

man could experience immediately the Infinite, that is, enter
into the presence of God. Baha'u'llah also reminds us that
man's insight or intuition is not infallible. This applies to the
revealed knowledge of the mystic as well as to the intuitive
knowledge of the scientist. The mystic and the mystic philosopher realize this.
Now we must consider the revealed knowledge of the
Prophet, which is of a different order. The knowledge of
the Prophet, being infallible, requires no test. As we have
said, the scientist is sceptical about this kind of knowledge.
For him and for the layman who tries to follow him,
there is simply nothing in our scientific experience that corresponds to the innate revealed knowledge of the Prophet. In a
very real sense perhaps this is true, but there is still another
approach to the problem.
First, however, let us bear in mind that a scientific search
for revealed truth might be about as useless as a scientific
search for beauty. One should experience a feeling of beauty
before beginning to look for it: values are antecedent to discussions about them. For this reason, one should have
some awareness or appreciation of revealed truth before starting on the search for it.
It is sometimes maintained that if the scientist would pursue
his search far enough (whatever that means), he would discover
God. This may be true, but the God he finds will not be the
historic God of prophetic religion, who reveals Himself to
man through a Prophet, like Baha'u'llah. Should he investigate secular and religious history he might fare better, but the
chances are really against him. He might arrive at the conclusion that all religions are equally true and none really
false. By the time he reaches this stage of his quest, however,
the divine element will probably have disappeared. At least
that is what usually happens. He might conceivably conclude
76 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

that all religions are divine in origin, but that is really asking
too much of a scientist, even an hypothetical scientist.
The case is not hopeless, however, for two reasons. In the
first place, revealed knowledge has come to mankind in our
day. In the second place, I believe we can demonstrate that
revealed truth is not foreign to our experience. The historical
fact that Baha'u'llah did bring to our age a divine Faith commensurate with our scientific advancement, enables us to
reconstruct our analysis along easier paths. If the scientist
will investigate the tenets of this Faith, which has now encircled
the globe; if he will study the lives of the founders with an
unbiassed mind, he will discover that divine revelation is not
incompatible with scientific thinking.
Let us now consider the problem of experience. To be
more specific, we might say the problem of total experience or
all experience.

Revelation and Experience
The average intelligent thinker who is influenced by the
method of science finds it difficult if not impossible to believe
that a Manifestation of God or a Prophet could completely
change the consciences, the patterns of thought, or the thinking
habits of the generality of mankind. He also finds it difficult
to believe that laws and principles for a new social order could
ever be revealed to mankind through a religious genius. At
the same time he is, at least dimly, aware that the existing
ideologies can never establish any kind of peace and harmony.
The dilemma may be due to a restricted view of experience. If
we limit ourselves to the scientific approach, in evaluating the
Prophet, we may find nothing in our experience that corresponds to revealed truth. And yet in a very real sense, there
is nothing in our experience that corresponds to scientific
truth. Science has failed to explain the underlying reality of
nature in terms of mechanical models, which is equivalent
SCIENCE, REVELATION AND MYSTICISM 77

to saying that science has failed to explain nature in terms of
experience. Moreover, for the average reader, the symbolism
of mathematics is just as irrelevant, to his experience, as the
concept of revelation.
To be sure, we assume that there is an underlying reality
in the physical world and we draw diagrams and construct
models to represent it, but we cannot prove that these pictorial
representations really correspond to this reality. We may
build, in our imagination, a scientific model to imitate a given
phenomenon but, to,-day at least, we do not claim that the
model really explains the phenomenon. Science is concerned
with a world of appearance, and the best we can do is to
express our knowledge of this world in a sort of symbolic
language which is unfamiliar to most of us. As we have
indicated, the external world is known to us only by inference.
Scientific laws and concepts are not immediately apprehended
as are values like beauty, justice and goodness.
The idea of revealed truth is not wholly incomprehensible
to us if we think in terms of all experience and not merely
experience in the world of science. When we turn to the world
of value, the world of art, music and literature, we see that
creations and standards come to us through inspired individuals and not through any scientific procedure. These creative
personalities reveal aesthetic values to us. The language
of the world of value is not the unfamiliar symbolic language
of science but the more intimate language of colour, form,
rhythm and harmony.
We are all familiar with this sort of revealed knowledge.
It is not really foreign to our experience. We know,
moreover, the futility of applying any kind of scientific
analysis to aesthetic values. To be sure, it has been done,
but the results are certainly not very convincing. We do not
evaluate the art of Leonardo, the music of Beethoven nor the
style of Shakespeare, in terms of our experience in the world
78 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

of science. Can we not evaluate the revealed knowledge of
the Prophet as we evaluate the revealed knowledge of the
artist or musician ? It is true that in the realm of aesthetic
values men do not resort to the sword or the torch, but it is
also true that in the realm of aesthetic values a complete
transformation of society is not effected. To illustrate, in
the realm of art we are now suffering a relapse, but there is
no indication that there will be any bloodshed. Should a
great creative genius appear and establish new art values it is
highly improbable that he would be persecuted. However,
if at the same time, he should attempt a few social reforms
we all know what would happen. A literary genius may not
have an exemplary character, in fact he may have a very bad
character, but we usually accept his contributions for their
intrinsic worth.
The Prophet must necessarily deal with man's grosser, as
well as his finer nature. Everything that is small, contemptible
and ferocious, comes to the surface, but surely that does not
mean that his work is less meritorious than that of the revealer
of art values. Should the Prophet overlook the despicable
characteristics of a declining social order and preach only
individual spiritual development, he would never be persecuted;
but neither would he establish social justice. In eliminating
racial animosity, national hatreds, and class distinctions, the
Baha'i Faith has succeeded where humanitarian movements
and older faiths have failed. Moreover, the Baha'i Faith
has transformed the individual lives of its adherents. However, all this was not accomplished without the sacrifice of
over twenty thousand martyrs.
The proof of a creative artist's message is the artist himself
and his creation; but the same can be said of the Prophet.
Baha'u'llah says: " The first andforemost testimony establishing
His truth is His own Self Next to this testimony is His
SCIENCE, REVELATION AND MYSTICISM 79
Revelation. ' The advent of a Manifestation of God in our
day is an historical event which cannot be overlooked, but
we will not attempt here even a cursory glance at this worldembracing Faith. Our purpose is to show that the concept
of divine revelation is not wholly foreign to our experience
provided we take a comprehensive, inclusive view of experience.
In fact, all new knowledge is a matter of revelation, but
revelation in its completeness is seen only in prophetic religion.

Science and Mysticism
Let us return to mysticism. We have observed that the
experience of the religious mystic is not unique. Rapture
and ecstasy are not invariably associated with a religious
background. Moreover, the mystics themselves agree that
some test is necessary to determine the validity of an immediate
experience. Since it is the mind that determines and applies
this test, the experience cannot be absolutely authoritative
over the individual.
But there are still other considerations that limit the methods
of the mystic. He is unable to transmit to others that which
he experiences. When we go to him, he tells us that we also
must tread the mystical path. However, in practice, this is
only possible for a few gifted individuals. When one goes to
the Prophet or to the Divine Word, he does not come away
empty-handed. The early history of Christianity or Islám
shows very clearly that the Prophet has something to give to
every class of society. Even though the mystic has much to
tell us about individual development, the possibilities of any
kind of religious unity through mysticism are too inconsiderable to be practical. How can mysticism with its personal
authority eradicate national, political, or religious prejudice
when it has no central figure to whom all classes may turn?
If the nations and races of a distracted and deluded world
Bahá,uTláh, Gleanings, p. 105.
80 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

could be united by any such man-made discovery, they would
have been united long ago.
We may now inquire, can science come to the aid of
mysticism? Can science make the revelations of the mystic
any more authoritative or valid? Somewhere in the mystical
state, perhaps, just beyond the point where there is no object
of contemplation, there seems to be a release of new qnergy.
Can some specialized science control this phenomenon
so that mysticism can produce something that transcends
the work of the mind? It seems unlikely, because science as
a whole agrees that the mystical experience is not knowledge.
The experience, while an aid to creation, does not create.
The farther we go from contemplation, that is, the point
where there is no object for reflection, the more we depend
upon mere feeling; and feeling alone cannot lead us to universal
truth. . •
Ostensibly, reason should lead us to universal truth; but
as we know, in reality it does not. The human mind has its
limitations and thinkers are never entirely free from feeling.
Finally we must remember that even science yields universal
truths only in fields where verification is possible. The
speculations of mathematical physics are far from universal.
Science is of inestimable value to religious thinking in that it
frees us from superstition, but when science takes a hand at
fundamental religious concepts, it is in a field of speculation,
a field in which its results cannot be verified. The so-called
proofs for the existence of God are certainly not universally
accepted. The same applies to such attributes as omnipotence
and immanence.
It seems highly improbable therefore that science and
mysticism will produce anything that can replace religion.
However, there is still another path for the foresighted
adventuresome soul who has a little spiritual perception and
intellectual courage. A comprehensive view of history shows
SCIENCE, REVELATION AND MYSTICISM 81

that the higher values come to humanity not by philosophical
speculations nor scientific research nor even through some
inner urge, but rather through great personalities. Art,
music and poetry have been given to the world by creative
geniuses. Harmony and counterpoint do not produce great
music, nor does theology create revelation.
Now if we are free from bias we must admit that we have
no grounds for believing that divine knowledge, prophetic
revelation, has ceased. On the contrary, unparalleled
confusion in the world to-day might signalize the birth of
a new revelation, a revelation suited to the maturity of this age.
To be sure, the methods and aims of such a religion would
not necessarily be in agreement with the limited knowledge
of contemporary thinkers. Indeed, we should be sceptical
of any proposed revival of divine grace which conforms with
our finite understanding. A man is not being superstitious
nor limited in his comprehension when he admits there is an
unfathomable mystery about all revelation.
That which man can conceive by his own powers is, in
the very nature of the case, not equivalent to Divine Revelation.
Our duty and responsibility compel us to investigate.
If a man claims to be the bearer of a divine message the
validity of his claims can be established readily enough.
The real difficulty is not in establishing a proof of his message
or his claim, but lies in freeing our minds and hearts from
prejudice. History proves this. Man rejects revelation
not because he is unable to establish the truth of the Prophet's
message but because he refuses to examine the evidence.
CHAPTER VIII

THE CREATIVE WORD

The Style of the Creative Word
All creative art has its origin in some extraordinary spiritual
experience. The painter, the musician, the poet must use
a medium of expression that is best suited to his particular creation. If the prose writer indulges in verse, his
style may become ornate and involved. There is no virtue
in relating a simple, straightforward fact by the indirect
method of poetic imagery.
As we tramp through the country in quest of unusual
things, our attention may be arrested by a distant mountain;
but if there is nothing worth seeing on top of the mountain,
that is really all we need to know about it. When the native
tells you: " It's just flat country up there," he is using effective
prose. If, however, the view from the mountain top is
enchanting, if it produces a feeling of ecstasy, then our native
cannot express this fact effectively without resorting to verse.
Prose is limited to thoughts about things, and while it can
engender emotion, it cannot adequately describe it.
The poet must use words, and words that help the reader
to visualize. He never uses an abstract term when a concrete
one will express his meaning. The figures and analogies
he uses are familiar to his readers. An analogy that is foreign
to the reader or more incomprehensible than the thing to be
described is necessarily useless—more correctly, worse than
useless. The terms must be concrete and simple, but the
style must be suited to spiritual truths.
It is the poetical style and not " average prose " that is
capable of expressing emotion and beauty.
THE CREATIVE WORD 83

Let us consider a familiar passage in Shakespeare's As
You Like It. The banished duke, finding himself in the
forest of Arden far removed from the superficialities of
court life, desires to express his gratitude. Now in real
life, what would the duke have to say? He might say,
" Isn't it fine?" That is plain prose; there is nothing
flowery about it, but what does it convey to you regarding
the duke's feelings? Well, let us see what Shakespeare has
to say:
" And this our life exempt from public haunt
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones and good in everything."
The meaning is clear to everyone although taken literally
the sentence is meaningless. Moreover, it would be absurd
to suggest that the writer did not convey the duke's emotion
concretely.
Now the position of the spiritual genius is somewhat
similar to that of the poet. The Prophet must use familiar
terms, terms that can be understood by everyone, but his
" style " must transcend that used in unemotional narrative.
Consider this exquisite passage from the Qur'an: " God is the
light of heaven and earth; the similitude of His light is a
niche in the wall, wherein a lamp is placed, and the lamp
enclosed in a case of glass; the glass appears as if it were
a shining star. It is lighted with the oil of a blessed tree,
an olive neither of the East, nor of the West; it wanteth
little but that the oil thereof would give light although.no
fire touched it. This is the light added unto light. God
will direct unto His light whom He pleaseth."
The message of the Prophet is not concerned with simple
things but rather with the most profound problems of human
existence, * moral and spiritual development, faith, hope and
life eternal.
The direct prose style or average prose is adequate for
84 • MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

conveying intellectual ideas and for narrative but useless when
it comes to a great emotion or a spiritual experience. The
emotional state cannot be expressed directly.
Of course we might indulge in a long minute description
of an emotional reaction, but at best that kind of prose
description pales before the poetical method. Those who
are more familiar with prose than verse might find it profitable
to turn to some real master of verse and study the way in
which he portrays complex emotional experiences. Let us
consider the famous speech of Macbetbon the death of Lady
Macbeth.
For the sake of Lady Macbeth he has become hopelessly
involved in intrigue and murder, and now the affairs of state
press heavily upon him, absorbing his whole thought. At
this critical moment comes the tragic news. It is an inopportune time to think about' this irreparable loss and, as if this
were not enough, the panorama of past events begins to
unfold rapidly before him. What would Macbeth say, in
real life? Probably nothing, but Shakespeare must describe
his state and his audience will not tolerate a long description,
so Macbeth says:
" She should have died hereafter:
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more; it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."
THE CREATIVE WORD 85

Sometimes the poetical style seems somewhat involved,
but there are complicated moods of the soul which cannot
be expressed directly but which become recognizable when
they are expressed in poetic imagery. Consider the following
lines from Shakespeare:
" Or as a snail whose tender horns being hit
Shrinks backward in his shelly cave with pain,
And there, all smother'd up, in shade doth sit,
Long after fearing to creep forward again. . . . "
Now Marlowe has a similar passage which is possibly
more philosophical, but less concrete. Marlowe says:
" It lies not in our power to love or hate,
For will in us is over-ruled by fate."
However, let us observe that while Marlowe's description
seems more profound it certainly does not give us a picture
of the emotional state. Unlike Shakespeare, Marlowe uses
too many abstract terms. In this short passage he uses three
abstract terms, power, will and fate, and while the use of such
terms may appeal to our ego they do not convey the emotional
state like the description of the little snail who . . . " all
smother'd up, in shade doth sit."
We must never lose sight of this important fact in dealing
with the revealed Word. The human mind has a peculiar
faculty which, for the lack of a better term, we might call
"selective appreciation." A writer may express himself so
vigorously in verse that he has no poetry in his soul. Again
a musician may become so involved in the beauty of music
that he fails to see any beauty in art or poetry. This may
explain why the erudite sometimes fail to see the beauty
that is hidden and yet not hidden in a new revelation.
When we turn to the writings of Baha'u'llah, we observe
that He expresses great spiritual laws by this indirect method.
The terms He uses are always concrete but the style, in the
very nature of His mission, is not the simple style used in
86 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

ordinary conversation nor the involved style of the philosopher.
The things we love may be harmless in themselves, but
they may have no permanence and moreover they may prevent
us from attaining eternal life. Now this direct statement*
although true, has no force that will overcome our spiritual
inertia; but consider the following very effective lines
from the pen of Baha'u'llah: " Will ye be content with that
which is like the vapour in a plain, and be willing to forego the
Ocean Whose waters refresh, by virtue of the Will of God, the
souls of ment "*
In another passage Baha'u'llah elaborates the same theme
in still more forceful language. " Clothe thyself with the
essence of righteousness, and let thine heart be afraid of none
except God. Obstruct not the luminous spring of thy soul
with the thorns and brambles of vain and inordinate affections,
and impede not the flow of the living waters that stream from
the fountain of thine heart. Set all thy hope in God, and cleave
tenaciously to His unfailing mercy. Who else but Him can
enrich the destitute, and deliver the fallen from his abasementT2
There is no doubt here as to the ultimate outcome of useless
and extravagant affections. The spring is a symbol of life,
a real mystery, for the origin or source is never apparent.
But though we may be ignorant of the source we can readily
obstruct the flow, and this is done most effectively by thorns
and brambles since they are not easily dislodged.
On a higher plane we sometimes discover that we may
impede the " living waters " by undue anxiety, anxiety as
to the outcome of our efforts to promote the Faith of God.
In this condition we receive fresh hope and confidence from
such passages as: " Be unrestrained as the wind, while carrying
the Message of Him Who hath caused the Dawn of Divine
Guidance to break. Consider, how the wind, faithful to that
baha'u'llah, Gleanings, p. 293.
ibid., p. 323.
THE CREATIVE WORD I 8 7

which God hath ordained, bloweth upon all the regions of the
earth, be they inhabited or desolate. Neither the sight of desolation, nor the evidences of prosperity, can either pain or please it.
It bloweth in every direction, as bidden by its Creator. So
should be every one that claimeth to be a lover of the one true
God."1
The East is inherently more poetical and spiritual than the
West; but the language of the spirit is universal, and the
laws of the spirit can be expressed only in the universal
language of the spirit and of the heart. " Would'st thou seek
the grace of the Holy Spirit, enter into fellowship with the
righteous, for he hath drunk the cup of eternal life at the hands
of the immortal Cup-bearer and even as the true morn doth
quicken and illumine the hearts of the dead."2

Prayer as an Expression of the Creative Word
As we said in Chapter IV, mysticism is non-social. The
mystic is primarily concerned with his own relation to God
and not with the common spiritual experience of the group.
The expression of a common longing for God's love, mercy
and forgiveness, as found in public worship, is therefore
quite foreign to mysticism; but prophetic revelation with
its social feeling necessarily encourages the expression of this
common longing. To be sure, the spirit which animates the
prayer in congregational worship has its origin in the private
prayers of great religious personalities. Prophetic revelation
is therefore not only concerned with private prayer but also
with common prayer.
Let us consider, very briefly, the problem of prayer in
general, and then in a little more detail the more complex
problem of common prayer. Prayer is apparently a very
simple matter, but the history of religion shows that, like the
iBaháVlláh, Gleanings, p. 339.
Bahá'u'lláh, The Hidden Words, No. 57, Persian.
88 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

concept of God or the belief in immortality, it has slowly
evolved.
Its development might be divided into three stages.
(1) Primitive prayer is free, spontaneous and vigorous,
but it is always dominated by the idea that man can change
God's will.
(2) Highly civilized man realizes that God's will is more
important than his own, but he still believes that man knows
how to approach God through prayer. In this stage, man
has discovered that formulated prayers of highly gifted
people are more effective for public worship than spontaneous
prayers. Since the Reformation, however, there has been no
uniformity of belief on this critical point.
(3) As we study the revealed prayers in the Baha'i writings
we become cognizant of a much higher stage of devotion.
Man's approach to God in this day is through the revealed
Word. " Intone, O My servant, the verses of God that have
been received by thee . . . "*
There are two elements of our prayer life which are necessary
but not sufficient in themselves. Too often they are confused
with prayer but in reality they have a much wider application.
These elements are adoration and devotion.
Adoration means a surrender to some supreme good,
but this supreme good may be nature, our country, or an
individual. A personal God is not essential to adoration,
which needs only an ideal object.
Devotion, on the other hand, is concerned not with objects
but with values, ethical, intellectual, aesthetic or religious.
It is a mood of the soul, still, exalted, consecrated. We see
it in art, music, and even science. Devotion is subjective
while adoration is objective.
Prayer is something more than adoration or devotion—
it is more than a feeling of exaltation or a hallowed mood.
iBaháVlláh, Gleanings, p. 295.
THE CREATIVE WORD 89

"Prayer," says 'Abdu'1-Bahá, " is conversation with God"
Too often the modern world sees in prayer only the devotional
attitude and contemplation. Prayer involves adoration,
that is, the holding to an ideal object, and also devotion,
the feeling of exaltation, but it is more inclusive than either.
It is the Prophet and the Prophet alone who can restore for
us the true meaning of prayer.
Revelation never destroys but rather fulfils the deepest
aspirations of man, and yet it is never eclectic. The Baha'i
writings are replete with prayers which cover the entire range
of human longing and devotion. As we read and meditate
upon these prayers we are forced to admit that we, creatures
of God, do not know how to supplicate God. In the
obligatory prayers, which are recited daily, we find affirma­
tions like the following: "Too high art Thou for the praise
of those who are nigh unto Thee to ascend unto the heaven of
Thy nearness, or for the birds of the hearts of them who are
devoted to Thee to attain to the door of Thy gate."1
The most effective supplication is manifestly that which
has been revealed for us. " I render Thee thanks, O Thou
Who hast lighted Thy fire within my soul, and cast the beams of
Thy light into my heart, that Thou hast taught Thy servants
how to make mention of Thee, and revealed unto them the ways
whereby they can supplicate Thee, through Thy most holy and
exalted tongue, and Thy most august and precious speech"2
If we are unable to express ourselves adequately in our
private devotions how can we presume to offer a public
prayer?
Origin of Common Prayer
Before the Babylonian exile public worship in Israel was
not unlike that found among the primitive peoples, but
l
Prayers and Meditations by Bahďďlláh, translated by Shoghi Effendi.
New York, Baha'i Publishing Committee, 1938, p. 320.
ibid., p. 283.
90 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

Prophets like Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Jeremiah were constantly demanding reforms. Restricting the offering of
sacrifice to Jerusalem eliminated polytheism, but it did not
do away with the old sacrificial cult; indeed, it emphasized it.
When, however, the Israelites found themselves in a foreign
land, far removed from their beloved city with its central
sanctuary, the offering of sacrifice was out of the question.
But the desire to worship the God of their fathers was no
less great. Out of this apparent calamity emerged a pure
spiritual congregational worship free from ritual. This
simple service consisted of the reading of Scripture and prayer.
To be sure, after the exile there was a return to ritual more
complicated than before, but the idea of a " house of prayer "
in which the common prayer was central was never lost.
For a time then the old sacrificial cult and the new spiritual
worship existed side by side.
The early Christians worshipped in the Synagogue, but
they also had their own eucharistie service in the houses of
the believers. The break with the Palestinian church finally
led to a Christian liturgy. The Scripture reading and prayer
were combined with the eucharistie meal, and out of this
fusion came the Christian mass.
The early Christians were, however, not bound by formulae.

The Idea of Common Prayer
It is interesting to note here that in this common prayer
of the primitive church one member of the congregation prays
and the rest follow with devotion. That is, prayer is recited
by one person.
At first anyone might offer the prayer, and the prayers
were free and spontaneous. However, the personal religious
experience of an individual can never be valid for the group.
Only a very few gifted people ever approach the ideal of
pure and spontaneous prayer, and so in time officials, bishops
THE CREATIVE WORD 91

and presbyters, recited the prayer in the name of the assembled
congregation. Here again, in the beginning the prayer of
the official or liturgist was quite free and spontaneous, but
fixed forms began to appear in the third century and by the
fifth century we find obligatory forms of prayer.
But the spirit lived on for many centuries, for these fixed
forms were really very effective and they awakened in the
devout soul the feeling of fellowship. As mentioned above,
the spontaneity which the individual feels in his private
devotions cannot be carried over to the group. For as
individuals we are not pure channels of divine revelation,
and our enthusiasm, unless it is the result of careful thought
and meditation, is not necessarily valuable for the group.
Under great stress, of course, many members of a group may
be inspired, but we are speaking here of a form of worship.
We have discovered, as the early church discovered, that the
personal experience even of those " possessors of the spirit,"
those endowed with charismatic gifts, cannpt be the raison
ďétre for regular meetings of prayer. The experience gradu­
ally weakens. The liturgical prayer, however, after it has
become a part of the religious life of the community, has great
stability.
We should observe another point about common prayer
in the early church. The reading of Scripture and the sermon
were designed to prepare the congregation for the prayer.
When public worship became a matter of education and in­
struction, prayer became secondary.
Common prayer, like the private prayer, is a communion
with God. It is something more than the combined prayers
of the many. The congregation is in communion with God.
Every member of this spiritual brotherhood is an integral
part of an ideal fellowship, and it is the fellowship that is
calling upon God. And yet, in its effect upon the individual
it is something more than a collective religious experience.
92 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

The main purpose of common prayer was edification or
awakening, and this was accomplished by expressions of
adoration, praise and thanksgiving. The congregation,
however, is not only grateful for the blessings of God; it is
ever mindful of His majesty and power.

Common Prayer and the Reform Movements
Every reform movement has tried to recapture the spontaneity of the early church. The Reformation naturally
rebelled against the prescribed rules for prayer, and the
English Independents went so' far as to maintain that a
formulated prayer was blasphemous. The Evangelical sects
did, of course, liberate public worship from all sensuous
symbols, but the sobriety and austerity of many of these
reformers, unwittingly, perhaps, did about as much to " imprison the spirit " as did the statutory liturgy. After all,
the return was not so much to the primitive church as to the
synagogic worship of Judaism.
The reform sects overlooked two important points:
The average individual needs something objective to uplift
him. Devotion, while not prayer, is necessary to prayer,
and lofty, majestic architecture, the most impersonal of all
the arts, is a great stimulus to devotion. Images must go,
but not temples.
Again, the spirit of man, which they desired to free from
formulated prayer, needs discipline and guidance; and these
must come through the revealed Word.
This brief sketch may help us to realize that for a long,
a very long time, man has been struggling to establish an
ideal of congregational worship. In general there are two
schools. One believes that we should adhere to the liturgy
of the church Fathers, which has been hallowed by tradition,
and the other stands for free, spontaneous prayer.
THE CREATIVE WORD 93

How can we have common prayer that is free both from the
sterility of formulization and from the apathy that invariably
results from unrestrained spontaneity?

The Ideal of Common Prayer
As we observe the unfoldment of the Baha'i Dispensation
we see that it is progressing toward an ideal of public worship.
In the Baha'i Temple the " house of prayer" has been
realized. In this temple only the revealed Word will be
heard. Even now in the Baha'i communities all over the
world the revealed prayers from the Baha'i writings are used
exclusively in the group meetings. One member of the
group reads while the rest follow with devotion.
The creative Word of the Prophet of God is the highest
source of edification and awakening, and naturally it is free
from all those elements that have engendered apathy and
indifference.
" None can befittingly praise Thee except Thine own Self
and such as are like unto Thee"1

Bahá'u,lláhl Prayers and Meditations, p. 297.
CHAPTER DC

MEDITATION
The Baha'i Faith, like all prophetic religions, is fundamentally mystic in character. Without this mystic feeling,
which unites man with God, religion would degenerate into
a mere organization devoid of spiritual life. For it is through
meditation and prayer that man is able to establish and
maintain this spiritual communion.

Supplication, Prayer and Meditation
Supplication. Supplication, prayer and meditation are
often used interchangeably and when this is done they are
regarded as mere variants of the word prayer, but it is
convenient sometimes to distinguish between them. Supplication means earnest entreaty, asking. This is, of course,
implied in the German word for prayer, Gebet. Supplication
is one of the motives of primitive prayer, but primitive man
and man on his primitive side is somewhat of an egotist in
his offering of prayer. As he advances, however, the egotistic
gives way to reverence and humility and sometimes he goes
so far as to consider " asking " quite unworthy of him.
To the medieval mystic, supplicating for material things
is irreligious. Augustine says: " Ask nothing from God
except God Himself." " Ask for the blessed life." The
extreme or radical mystic, like Eckhart, and the quietists
of the seventeenth century go further and reject not only
requests for earthly goods but requests for spiritual blessings.
The philosopher also feels that man should be beyond
supplicating, asking. Epictetus says: "Ask from the gods,
not what you crave, but that you may be free from all
MEDITATION 95

craving;" and Kant tells us that "it is at once an absurd and
presumptuous delusion to try by the insistent importunity
of prayer, whether God might not be deflected from the
plan of His wisdom to provide some momentary advantage
for us." The acquisition of moral values and not worldly
goods is the first concern of the philosopher. Pythagoras
and Socrates would have us supplicate only for what is good,
leaving all personal wishes to God. This Stoic ideal, this
surrender of the human will to the Divine, is expressed by
outstanding philosophers of the Enlightenment. " Not
what I will, but what Thou wilt," is the prayer of Rousseau.
Diderot prayed: " O God, I ask nothing from Thee, for if
Thou art not, the course of nature is an inner necessity,
and if Thou art, it is Thy command." Voltaire prays in a
similar vein.
These prayers ostensibly express a high ideal, but at the
same time they betray considerable ignorance concerning
the nature of God's loving-kindness and mercy as revealed
to us by His Prophets. We should therefore not be misled
by this type of devotion or reverence.
'Abdu'1-Bahá reminds us that : " When one supplicates
to his Lord, turns to Him and seeks bounty from His ocean,
this supplication is by itself a light to his heart, an illumination
to his sight, a life to his soul and an exaltation to his being.'"1
In the sense that supplication means mere asking it is probably
the lowest form of prayer, but it is surely better than no prayer.
In supplicating we acknowledge our dependence upon God and
our faith in His mercy and His concern for our welfare.
This concept of a personal God, so essential to prophetic
religion and mysticism and so foreign to Stoic philosophy, is
always renewed when religion is revived as in the coming of a
Prophet like Christ or Baha'u'llah.
Divine Art of Living, p. 26.
96 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

Prayer. Prayer in the words of 'Abdu'1-Bahá is "conversation with God" and we cannot improve very much
on this definition. There is a "language of the Spirit"
by which the Prophet continues to hold communion with the
faithful after His departure from this world. In all genuine
prayer there is faith in a living personal God and also faith
in His immediate presence. Without these two essential
elements, which the Baha'i Faith has restored for us in this
day, prayer becomes a lifeless abstraction. After all there
is a mystery in prayer, and the mystery lies in the relation
between the finite man and the infinite Spirit.
For the mystic this experience of the Presence of God in
prayer is, of course, fundamental. The supreme goal of
meditation is the realization of the Divine Presence, and
while we cannot allow that the mystic attains this goal, we
must admit that mystical prayer is vital and free from egotism.
There is something very profound and at the same time very
tender in the mystic's serene contemplation of the summum
bonum. Nevertheless, the prayers of the mystic, like the
prayers of other men of religious genius, are not in the same
category as the revealed prayers of the Prophet. The prayers
of the mystic are not divine creations and cannot, therefore,
inspire us as can the revealed prayers of the Prophet. Again,
for complete assurance of eternal verities like immortality we
cannot turn to the writings of the mystics. Finally, the
creativeness we find in the revealed Word of the Prophet
is lacking in mystical philosophy. This is not surprising,
for any attempt to standardize methods of meditation or
ascetic practices naturally results in a uniformity of experience.
In the Baha'i Faith, as we shall see, meditation is strongly
advised, but there are no set forms of meditation; in fact,
the manner of meditating is left entirely to the individual.
The voluminous writings of Baha'u'llah are replete with
examples of this creative force. Consider for illustration
MEDITATION 97

the unique promise tnat is clearly indicated in this remarkable
passage from the pen of Baha'u'llah: "Whoso reciteth, in the
privacy of his chamber, the verses revealed by God, the scattering
angels of the Almighty shall scatter abroad the fragrance of the
words uttered by his mouth, and shall cause the heart of every
righteous man to throb"1
The fact that mysticism cannot make a universal appeal
does not, of course, disturb the mystic, for he admits that
the mystic path is only for a few highly-gifted individuals.
The position of the mystic is very like that of the philosopher.
The philosopher is also able to educate a few people in morals
and ethics, and also to inspire them to live an integrated life
of useful activity. He does not contribute as much to individual spiritual development as does the mystic; but on the
other hand he does not indoctrinate his followers with a
metaphysic that is incompatible with clear thinking, nor does
he underestimate the intrinsic value of moral action.
Just as science has freed empirical religion, or man's
interpretation of divine revelation, from superstition, so
philosophical criticism has purified traditional and cultural
prayer from anthropomorphic concepts. The tendency has
been to create a positive ideal, based upon ethical values,
contrasted with spontaneous as well as ritualistic prayer.
Contrary to popular belief, idealistic philosophy has something
in common with religion in that it believes in an underlying
reality behind the world of appearance and in an ethical and
moral world above the world of everyday experience.
Again, we must admit that some of the prayers of the
Enlightenment exhibit a universal as well as a humanitarian
outlook. Voltaire's penetrating intellect surely anticipates
the baneful effect of prejudice, as.is shown in the following
prayer: " Thou hast not given us a heart that we may hate
one another, nor hands that we may strangle one another,
^aháVUáh, Gleanings, p. 295.
98 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

but that we may help each other to bear the burden of a
wearisome and transitory life; that the small distinctions
in the dress which covers our weak bodies, in our inadequate
languages, in our absurd usages, in all our imperfect laws,
in all our senseless opinions, in all our social grades, which to
our eyes are so different and to Thine so alike, that all the fine
shades which differentiate the atoms called ' men ' may not
be occasions for hate and persecution." While there is no
force in philosophy to advance religion, as history plainly
shows, nevertheless many of the philosophers of this period
did more to foster the spirit of true religion than did the
contemporary religious systems.
Meditation. All creative work requires some kind of
meditation. It is practised by the scientist in discovering
new theories, new concepts and new laws. As a matter of
fact no great scientific discovery was ever made without
reflection. The history of science is replete with illustrations
of this. Newton's concept of the force of gravity came to
him when he was sitting alone in a garden. According to
one of his friends, " . . . he fell in a speculation on the power
of gravity." The inventor also uses meditation. It is used
by the modern mystic to integrate life, to eliminate inharmony,
disunity and fear. Through meditation the mystic is able to
differentiate between the real and the apparent. For the
radical mystic, meditation is just one step along the path
that enables him to enter the presence of the Absolute. The
• aesthetic mystic, with his faith in values and a feeling for
nature, believes that through meditation and contemplative
devotion he can experience the immediate presence of the
Divine as revealed in the beauty of nature. Goethe says:
" Do you not see God? By every quiet spring, under every
blossoming tree, He meets me in the warmth of His love."
In general there are three stages in this process: concentration, in which the mind is active; meditation, in which mental
MEDITATION 99

activity is low; and contemplation, in which there is almost
complete cessation of mental effort.
One begins by thinking in the usual way, or more correctly
in the unusual way. That is, we start by concentrating upon
the problem or concept with which we are concerned. Of
course, all extraneous thoughts must be excluded. We
consider all the facts that may have some bearing upon the
concept, then we may find it advisable to diminish the mental
activity in order to obtain a more comprehensive view of the
concept. That is, we pass from the stage of concentration
to the stage of meditation. It is in this subjective stage,
this stage of abstraction, that new ideas, new relationships
seem to emerge. Naturally there is some oscillating between
the two stages and usually we pass from one to the other
by imperceptible steps. Ordinarily one is hardly conscious
that there is any boundary between the two stages.
The modern mystic and the aesthetic mystic, as well as
the radical mystic, sometimes pass into the third stage
of greater mental simplification, that is, the stage of almost
complete passivity. The scientist, however, is not interested
in complete absorption, passing away, and therefore he never
reaches this stage.
To return to the subject of concentration; it requires severe
mental discipline, but every successful creative person knows
the unifying effect that can result from concentration. One
must hold the attention against all invasion. There is no
short cut; we begin by beginning. Take any familiar concept
like God's mercy, love or justice and concentrate upon it a
few minutes. If the mind wanders, if you find it practically
impossible to hold your attention, then you may be sure
you do not possess complete control over your mind. By
practising concentration, however, you will be able to organize
your thoughts and to get the most out of your thinking.
In the beginning, do not try to concentrate for a long time;
100 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

and remember, the more frequently you concentrate, the easier
it will be for you to hold your attention.
The question is often asked, is there any special technique
one should follow in meditating? Apparently there is no
standard technique. Certainly none is stressed in the Baha'i
writings. Sometimes you may feel like sitting motionless,
or again you may feel like walking. Baha'u'llah revealed the
Hidden Words while He was walking along the banks of the
Tigris. There are no standard forms; the individual is quite
free.
There may be an advantage in assuming some particular
posture during reflection. We should show tolerance in such
matters, refusing to lay down rules for others. Necessarily
we -should avoid everything that looks like superstition.
We should be silent, relaxed and never impatient nor
discouraged. Sometimes it is desirable to drop the problem
and pick it up again. Experience alone can tell us when
this is desirable. If irrelevant ideas intrude, just ignore them.
Others have this experience and it does not indicate that you
are abnormal.
For most people concentration is very difficult, but experience shows that if one has patience and a desire to be master
of his intellect, one can learn to concentrate. For the trained
mind, the philosophy the writer or the scientist, it is just a
question of restricting the attention to a limited field; selfexamination and self-discipline do not enter in. While the
goal of the mystic is not the same as that of the scientist or
the creative artist, nevertheless he belongs to a class of gifted
people. Whatever his vocation, he has a degree of spiritual
awareness and some capacity for intellectual activity, otherwise he would not be so successful in the matter of meditation.
Finally, there are several points about meditation which
we should not overlook.
MEDITATION 101

The thoughts that come to us during reflection are not
necessarily valuable; they may be useless or even destructive.
While there may be little mental activity during meditation,
it is the direction of the mind, prior to this state, that determines
the value of the meditation. The mere act of diminishing
mental activity does not of itself yield anything profitable.
There are pseudo-scientists who believe that the air is
" charged " with wonderful ideas and all you have to do is
to "tune in." The true scientist does some hard thinking before
he meditates, and it is the true scientist and not the pseudoscientist that contributes to society.

Theories of Meditation
Concerning the efficacy of meditation and the force that
makes it efficient, there are three theories, three schools of
thought.
(1) One school maintains that the effectiveness of
meditation is due merely to mental relaxation. After a long
period of mental effort, if one relaxes he will make fewer
" false " guesses and the mind has a better chance to function.
During the period of relaxation when the mental activity
is low, one can obtain a more comprehensive view of any
subject, scientific, moral or ethical, so this school believes.
Some writers tell us that a solution of an intricate problem
often comes to an inventor or scientist after he has dismissed
it from his mind. However, dismissing a problem from our
mind is not quite the same as meditating upon it. Experience
also shows that very often we do not completely dismiss a
problem from our mind. The factor of meditation undoubtedly enters into all creative thinking. Meditation is
something more than concentration. As we said in Chapter I,
the creative force is intuition and not reason. In this subjective state the intuition becomes effective. As a matter of fact
102 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

it is very easy to glide from concentration to meditation and
back again to concentration.
Inventors and scientists probably belong to this class, if
indeed they belong to any class.
The meditation of scientists and creative personalities
who are not mystically inclined is, however, somewhat
different from the meditation of the religious mystic, or the
aesthetic mystic. The scientist—and this applies to other
creative geniuses—is primarily concerned with new ideas,
new relationships. He is not, at least while he is working
on a scientific problem, concerned with the awakening of the
self or self-examination. He is, for the moment, not interested
in becoming one with the Absolute, but rather in solving a
more or less definite problem. This does not mean that he
could not learn something about concentration from the
mystic; he probably could. The mystic could undoubtedly
tell him how to improve his technique of meditation; he could
also tell him how to avoid wasteful tensions.
(2) Another school believes that through meditation one
is able to utilize powers which seem to be supernormal.
This second school is further divided on the origin of the
power evoked. For some, this power is latent within us
and can only be brought out by mental discipline. Many
philosophers and scientists belong to this class. Others hold
that the power is external to us, but that we must follow
prescribed rules for meditating if we wish to utilize this power.
Most modern mystics belong to this class. Since they are
concerned with the regeneration of character, self-knowledge
and self-control, concentration must be followed by selfdiscipline or what the mystics call " poverty." While the
aesthetic fnystic believes in an external power, he does not
take a negative view of life. The ascetic element is entirely
absent from his attitude; he is interested in joy and not in
renunciation. Nevertheless, in his moments of meditation
MEDITATION 103

and contemplation he experiences a feeling of unity with
God, the creator of the " beautiful," that is not unlike the
ecstatic experience of the genius-mystic. The power he
acknowledges is a pantheistic God who reveals Himself in
nature—in all the works of nature, although this is not always
explicit.
The mystic, like the philosopher, is inclined to regard his
outlook as more universal than that of the theologian or
scientist. He speaks of the One, the Infinite or the Absolute
as an entity which he alone can comprehend. True, he often
identifies this Reality with the God of religion, but it is always
understood that it is the mystic and not the philosopher or
theologian who has any real knowledge of this Reality whom
the theologian calls God. Nevertheless, the philosopher and
the theologian might learn something from the modern mystic
in the matter of spiritual unfoldment.
(3) The third school believes that the power which makes
meditation effective is divine. Prophetic personalities, men
of religious genius and many creative artists belong to this
class. We said in the last chapter that every reform movement
tries to recapture the spontaneity of the early church. Unfortunately reformers are not very creative. When they want
some kind of sanction for their novel ideas they usually turn
toward the past. Had the reformers of the past studied
meditation as they studied the free prayer of popular religions
and the prayer of primitive man, they would have contributed
something to the life of prayer more enduring than spontaneity.
While we cannot accept all the presuppositions of mysticism
we can use meditation in our prayer life and in the perusal
of the creative word of the Prophet. We will probably all
agree that our spiritual life would be enhanced by reading the
words of the Prophet with rapt attention and then meditating
upon what we read. The soul of man must be fed with the
nourishment of prayer and meditation.
104 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

As we shall see, from the Baha'i viewpoint meditation is
indispensable, but it has now been freed from those metaphysical doctrines that are incompatible with scientific
thinking. Moreover, in all its forms it is available to anyone
who wishes to make use of it. Even in its highest form, where
it is concerned with divine illumination, it is not the exclusive
possession of a few gifted people. Rather it is available to
all who are willing to turn to the Prophet as the source of
divine inspiration.

The Baha'i Viewpoint
We said in Chapter III that the soul is like the sun and
mental faculties like the rays of the sun, or that the mind
is the power of the soul. Now 'Abdu'1-Bahá reminds us
that the sign or the mark of the intellect is meditation. The
importance of meditation is clearly expressed in His words:
" You cannot apply the name ' man ' to any being devoid of the
faculty of meditation; without it man is a mere animal, lower.
than the beasts.'91 It appears, then, that the thing which really
differentiates man from the animal is this faculty of meditation; but we must remember that in meditation the function
of the mind cannot be ignored. The mystic is inclined to
overlook this important fact.
Let us consider in a little more detail the scope of meditation
from the Baha'i viewpoint. The quotations in the following
paragraphs (1) to (7) are taken from the words of'Abdu'1-Bahá.2
(1) " Through the faculty of meditation man attains to
eternal life; through it he receives the breath of the Holy
Spirit—the bestowals of the Spirit are given during reflection
and meditation.99 It is clear from this and also from other
paragraphs, that meditation is essential to our spiritual
development. The relative value of meditation may be
]
Talk given at Friends' Meeting House, London, Jan. 12th, 1913.
ibid.
MEDITATION 105

judged from words referred to by Baha'u'llah: "One hour's
reflection is preferable to seventy years of pious worship."1
(2) " The spirit of man is itself informed and strengthened
during meditation; through it affairs of which man knew nothing
are unfolded before his view. Through it he receives divine
inspiration, and through it he partakes of heavenly food."
Here we have assurance from the words of 'Abdu'1-Bahá,
the Interpreter of the Prophet of God, that meditation can
bring to man something which is beyond the power of mere
thinking, beyond mental activity.
(3) " Meditation is the key for opening the doors of
mysteries. In that state man abstracts himself; in that state
man withdraws himself from all outside objects; in that subjective mood he is immersed in the ocean of spiritual life and
can unfold the secrets of things in themselves." Just as we
distinguish between meditation and thinking, we may also
distinguish between meditation and prayer. It is clear from
the above that in our prayer life there must be moments in
which we dwell " in that subjective mood."
(4) " This faculty of meditation frees man from the animal
nature, discerns the reality of things, puts man in touch with
God" The mystic, we will concede, has realized the significance of this truth to a remarkable degree. So far all these
statements are probably in conformity with our notion of
spiritual development, but unless we have a rather comprehensive view of meditation the next paragraph may be a bit
of a surprise.
(5) " This faculty brings forth from the invisible plane
the sciences and arts. Through the meditative faculty inventions
are made possible, colossal undertakings are carried out. . . "
A few modern mystics will undoubtedly agree with this broader
concept, but to the older mystics it would probably be incomprehensible. This broader concept of 'Abdu'1-Bahá's helps
iBaháVlláh, Kitáb-i-lqán, p. 238.
106 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

us to realize that revelation is concerned with every aspect of
life and not merely with acts of devotion.
(6) " The meditative faculty is akin to a mirror; if you put
before it earthly objects, it will reflect them. Therefore if the
spirit of man is contemplating earthly objects he will become
informed of them." Let us observe, first of all, that there is
nothing in this statement to indicate that man should not
turn " the mirror of his soul " toward earthly objects. Moreover, it does throw some light on the very significant question,
what is the difference between the meditation of the scientist or
inventor, and the meditation of the seeker for spiritual truth?
The inventor may not turn to God, he may not even believe
in God, but we cannot say that the inspiration he receives is
merely from his own ego. What applies to the inventor
applies also to other creative men. The aesthetic mystic
or the artistic type of creative genius turns the mirror of his
soul to artistic values, such as the beauty of nature.
In moments of meditation, as we said above, an aesthetic
feeling of unity takes possession of his soul and he feels at
one with Nature or the Whole. In his contemplation of
the " beautiful" he experiences ecstasy and rapture as does
the religious mystic. The experience is immediate, and
moreover we cannot deny its value. To be sure, he may
think of God as immanent in nature, but this is irrelevant
to the experience and its value. Whatever cause we may
assign to the experience we cannot deny its validity. Again
in moments of devotional contemplation discords and confusion are often replaced by joy and peace; life becomes
unified, as we have seen.
(7) " But if you turn the mirror of your spirit heavenwards,
the heavenly constellations and the rays of the Sun of Reality
will be reflected in your hearts, and the virtues of the Kingdom
will be obtained." This applies to the religious mystic, or
indeed to anyone interested in individual spiritual develop-
MEDITATION 107

ment. While it is true that a person may make considerable
progress toward unifying his spiritual life by meditating upon
the rather nebulous All, Whole, or One, the most effective
results are obtained however, when the mirror of the soul
is turned toward the Prophet. He is the source of our
spiritual life, and naturally if we meditate upon His creative
words or His attributes our progress will be decidedly more
rapid than if we meditate upon the somewhat elusive Absolute
or Infinite.
There is an underlying unity in all meditation in that he
who meditates, whether religious genius, creative artist
or inventor, turns the mirror of his soul toward the object
of his meditation.
CHAPTER X

OCCULTISM
Occultism has so many meanings that it is very difficult
to define; we will not, therefore, start with a definition.
We are concerned here with the essential difference between
occultism and mysticism, especially personal mysticism.
We are also concerned with the attitude of occultism
toward science.
Mysticism and Occultism
Many people who are casually interested in the mystical
life are not aware of the difference between mysticism and
occultism. A few of these differences will now be considered. We will confine our discussion, however, to personal
mysticism, since the majority of those who are attracted to
the mystical way of life would not be interested in the cold,
unemotional, non-personal mysticism of the Absolute.
First, let us consider the goal of each. The goal of every
mystic is the life of higher piety. He is primarily concerned
with spiritual development. Communion with God is, of
course, vital to this goal. As we have said, the mystic believes
that through the heart, unimpaired by the mind, the true
knowledge of God may be obtained. The occultist is not
interested in spiritual development in quite this sense. He
is concerned with man's development, but he believes that
this development can be brought about through a knowledge
of God and man which must be acquired through metaphysical
speculation rather than through an ecstatic experience, a
knowledge available to the occultist but not to the philosopher
and scientist.
Let us now consider the idea of God in each. As we have
seen, the idea of God in extreme mysticism is a kind of specula-
OCCULTISM 109

tive interpretation of an ecstatic experience. In personal
mysticism the experience is interpreted imaginatively rather
than speculatively. Speaking broadly (and we can only
speak broadly), the God of occultism is derived, partly from
a speculative interpretation of an inner experience and partly
from occult doctrines on the nature of God. The God of
occultism is non-personal, static and outside of history,
somewhat like the God of extreme mysticism. The inner
experience of the occultist, however, can hardly be called
mystical. The occultist knows no loving God. For him
contemplation is not an act of love, as with the mystic. We
might almost say that he believes the true knowledge of God
can be obtained through the mind unimpaired by the heart.
In some ways occultism is similar to radical mysticism, but
it is opposed to personal mysticism.
Love of God and man is the one element, if indeed there
is just one element, that differentiates prophetic religion and
mysticism from occultism. This element is certainly not
stressed in occultism.
It should be obvious to anyone who is, even superficially,
acquainted with the prophetic religions, that no movement,
which lacks the essential elements of true religion, can ever
regenerate the individual or transform society.
There is one doctrine of the occultist which might disarm
the seeker for reality. This is the idea that in everything
that has come down to us concerning the sayings of a great
teacher like Christ, there is a hidden meaning which the layman
cannot grasp. The occultist and the occultist alone, however,
can grasp the hidden meaning. By this procedure a person ..
could prove almost anything he wished to prove and refute
anything to which he did not wish to subscribe. The fact
that he can call to his aid endless propositions from the socalled " ancient wisdom" does not make him any more
intelligible, although it may enhance his prestige with the
CHAPTER X

OCCULTISM
Occultism has so many meanings that it is very difficult
to define; we will not, therefore, start with a definition.
We are concerned here with the essential difference between
occultism and mysticism, especially personal mysticism.
We are also concerned with the attitude of occultism
toward science.
Mysticism and Occultism
Many people who are casually interested in the mystical
life are not aware of the difference between mysticism and
occultism. A few of these differences will now be considered. We will confine our discussion, however, to personal
mysticism, since the majority of those who are attracted to
the mystical way of life would not be interested in the cold,
unemotional, non-personal mysticism of the Absolute.
First, let us consider the goal of each. The goal of every
mystic is the life of higher piety. He is primarily concerned
with spiritual development. Communion with God is, of
course, vital to this goal. As we have said, the mystic believes
that through the heart, unimpaired by the mind, the true
knowledge of God may be obtained. The occultist is not
interested in spiritual development in quite this sense. He
is concerned with man's development, but he believes that
this development can be brought about through a knowledge
of God and man which must be acquired through metaphysical
speculation rather than through an ecstatic experience, a
knowledge available to the occultist but not to the philosopher
and scientist.
Let us now consider the idea of God in each. As we have
seen, the idea of God in extreme mysticism is a kind of specula-
OCCULTISM 109

tive interpretation of an ecstatic experience. In personal
mysticism the experience is interpreted imaginatively rather
than speculatively. Speaking broadly (and we can only
speak broadly), the God of occultism is derived, partly from
a speculative interpretation of an inner experience and partly
from occult doctrines on the nature of God. The God of
occultism is non-personal, static and outside of history,
somewhat like the God of extreme mysticism. The inner
experience of the occultist, however, can hardly be called
mystical. The occultist knows no loving God. For him
contemplation is not an act of love, as with the mystic. We
might almost say that he believes the true knowledge of God
can be obtained through the mind unimpaired by the heart.
In some ways occultism is similar to radical mysticism, but
it is opposed to personal mysticism.
Love of God and man is the one element, if indeed there
is just one element, that differentiates prophetic religion and
mysticism from occultism. This element is certainly not
stressed in occultism.
It should be obvious to anyone who is, even superficially,
acquainted with the prophetic religions, that no movement,
which lacks the essential elements of true religion, can ever
regenerate the individual or transform society.
There is one doctrine of the occultist which might disarm
the seeker for reality. This is the idea that in everything
that has come down to us concerning the sayings of a great
teacher like Christ, there is a hidden meaning which the layman
cannot grasp. The occultist and the occultist alone, however,
can grasp the hidden meaning. By this procedure a person ..
could prove almost anything he wished to prove and refute
anything to which he did not wish to subscribe. The fact
that he can call to his aid endless propositions from the socalled " ancient wisdom" does not make him any more
intelligible, although it may enhance his prestige with the
110 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

superficial thinker. Also, we should not overlook the fact
that scholars usually do not attack ideas like this, not because
they may contain an element of truth but because they are
too fantastic to merit any attention. Should an occultist
tell a scholar, trained in the philosophy of religion, that
Christ's knowledge was not innate, that He was taught by
some Eastern school of occultism, the scholar would probably
not take the trouble to dissuade him. In this critical hour,
however, we should make it clear that nothing less than a
divine power can ever succeed in laying a foundation upon
which a new spiritual and social order can be built.
If man-made theories of the Godhead could resuscitate
a distracted world it would have been resuscitated in the days
of Dionysius, or in the days of Meister Eckhart.
Let no one be deluded by a counter-argument which
might run somewhat as follows: " The love of which the
Prophet speaks is not the love with which you are familiar.
In fact you can get nothing from the Gospels except an
emotional reaction. The occultist alone can elucidate the
Gospels for you."
Ever since the days of Montanism, groups have appeared
which claim supernatural powers, superrational knowledge.
Many of these groups maintained that they were the spiritual
successors of the inspired class in the Primitive Church.
The occultist is in a similar position; he can bring to the world
the " lost wisdom," which he believes is superior to anything
we have now.
Referring once more to the element of love, the writings
of Baha'u'llah are replete with admonitions like the following,
from the Arabic Hidden Words:
(4) OSonofManl
I loved thy creation, hence I created thee. Wherefore, do
thou love Me, that I may name thy name and fill thy soul
with the spirit of life.
OCCULTISM 111

(5) O Son ofBeingl
Love Me, that I may love thee. If thou lovest Me not,
My love can in no wise reach thee. Know this, O servánu
(9) O Son ofBeingl
My love is My stronghold; he that entereth therein is safe
and secure, and he that turneth away shall surely stray and
perish,
(10) O Son of Utterance]
Thou art My stronghold; enter therein that thou mayest
abide in safety. My love is in thee, know it, that thou mayest
find Me nigh unto thee.
We should not, however, overlook the fact that the occultist,
like the mystic, has made some positive contributions to
society. He has reacted against materialism, and many
typical representatives of occultism have stood for the brotherhood of man and human solidarity. Nevertheless, as with
the mystic, we cannot accept some of his doctrines, which are
opposed both to prophetic religion and to science.
Like the radical mystic he is concerned with the nature of
the Divine Essence, and like him he believes he can discover
the Divine Essence, but his approach is different. Some
occultists claim that they can receive supernatural revelations,
while others maintain that their wisdom is merely the result
of speculation.
The philosopher, when he inquires into the nature of God,
usually starts with an analysis of the phenomenal world.
The occultist usually begins with God and, from his presuppositions concerning the Divine Nature, arrives at conclusions regarding observed facts in the phenomenal world.
While the mystic is satisfied with theories of the " Soul
and God," the field of the occultist is much broader. At
various periods in history, such as the Renaissance, natural
philosophers have tried to fuse scientific ideas with speculative
theories which have their origin in scholastic theology. We
112 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

see something like this in some forms of occultism. For
example, one type of occultist does not hesitate to use some
of the concepts of physics to explain spiritual experiences.
When the particle theory of light was replaced by the wave
theory, it was necessary to imagine all space filled with an
elastic medium, called the ether. For the nineteenth century
physicist this ether was very " real," but now it is regarded
only as a fabrication of the mind if indeed it is regarded at all.
To-day, however, we know that light has a particle aspect
as well as a wave aspect. In fact we admit that we do not
possess a very satisfactory theory of light.
Now, many occultists have been intrigued with physical
quantities like waves, the ether, and vibrations; and they
use these to explain inner experiences which lie beyond the
field of physics. For example, you may be aware of disagreeable influences which you cannot explain but for which
the occultist feels he can give you an explanation. Your
uncomfortable feeling, he tells you, is due to disturbing
vibrations. Just what it is that vibrates we are not always
told. Again some occultists will go so far as to maintain
that " spirit" is merely matter of extremely low density.
If air becomes, progressively, more and more attenuated it
will finally, ipso facto, become spirit.
We need hardly add that no serious thinker with any
spiritual or aesthetic feeling could accept such a mechanistic
view of the world of values. The more enlightened occultist
would probably not indulge in such crude speculations, but
he has indulged, at times, in theories that are as far removed
from modern scientific thinking as they are.

Science and Occultism
The occultist believes that the ancient philosopher has
much to contribute to modern civilization. In fact most
of his theories are based on the so-called " ancient wisdom."
OCCULTISM 113

As the Greek philosopher relied almost exclusively on deductive reasoning, so the occultist to-day stresses deductive
thinking. He believes that the true science can be discovered
only by turning back to the ancient wisdom.
With his aversion to sound scholarship and scientific
training, and his fascination for the " occult," he naturally
overlooks facts that might help him to differentiate between
the true and the false.
One illustration will suffice. It is true that Aristotle used
the deductive method almost exclusively, and it is also true
that most of his contributions to physics and astronomy
are of very little value. He did practically no experimental
work in his early life. He wrote on a variety of subjects,
and for many people he is an authority on each.
To understand the positive contributions of Aristotle,
however, we should remember that the first fifty years of his
life were devoted to clarifying his philosophical ideas, while
the last twelve were dedicated to independent investigation.
His work on physics and astronomy belongs to the first
period—hence the logical contradictions.1 It is in the second
period that he carried out his positive researches in biology
which, of course, required considerable experimental work.
In fact, without experimentation he would have accomplished
very little. It is true that, for him, the heavens are a sphere
because the sphere is a perfect figure, and it rotates in a circle
because circular motion is eternal—no end, no beginning.
But let us remember that these ideas developed when he was
dominated by the Socratic outlook.
The occultist's attitude toward science and scholarship in
general is somewhat like the mystic's attitude toward revealed
truth. The occultist believes that he is, in a way, superior
to the scientist. He has behind him the infallible ancient
benjamin Farrington, 'Science in Antiquity, London, Thornton
Butterworth, 1936, p. 142.
114 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

wisdom, which he alone can understand, and also a superior
insight. One sometimes wonders why the occultist, with
his superior equipment, does not make some positive contribution to the world of philosophy and science. Possibly
he feels that the world is too immature for the contributions
he is able to make.
In view of what we have said concerning man's inability
to comprehend the Infinite, we need not dwell on the occultist's
concepts of God.
However, the reader may feel that, after all, the occultist
may discover something in the ancient wisdom that has
value for us to-day. A long view of history should convince
anyone that progress is made by looking backward and forward.
Let us consider, very briefly, our philosophical and our
scientific background.

Our Philosophical Background
Perhaps the first intimation that all was not well with
Aristotelian philosophy was the result of the famous experiment of Galileo, when he demonstrated to sceptical observers
that a light iron ball and a heavy one would fall to the ground
in the same time, contrary to the explicit statement of Aristotle that the heavier ball would reach the ground first. From
our modern scientific position we naturally ask, why did Aristotle not try the experiment himself, or why did not some of
his more curious followers try it in the sixteen centuries that
elapsed between Aristotle and Galileo? But that was not a
pertinent question either with Aristotle or his followers.
From the standpoint of classical philosophy, something might
have happened to the experiment; the world of matter is a
world of accident—nothing is certain. The world of the
mind is free from such limitations, and therefore its deductions
are infallible.
OCCULTISM 115

Herein lies the weak point of the classical traditions of
philosophy. Like the classical physics of the nineteenth
century, it underestimated its limitations.
The Greek thinkers distinguish between knowledge that
comes to us by reasoning about ideas, and the kind that we
obtain by experience. The latter is inferior since there is
always some probability of error. Truth obtained from
observation and experiment—and this kind must include
the exact sciences—can never be universal. The function of
knowledge is to discover what is " real" in the sense of
being unchangeable, immutable. This kind of truth is preexistent, antecedent. The world of practical affairs is a world
of change and therefore an unreal world, unworthy of the
attention of the thinker. This doctrine necessarily leads us to
some theory of escape. For his highest development man should
not try to solve existing problems nor to better his material
condition. Action and doing belong to a lower realm than
thinking; theory is elevated above and separated from practice.
Nevertheless it was philosophy that taught man to look
to reason and not custom as a guide to conduct. Unfortunately, however, the classical tradition was limited in this
direction. Dewey says, " As far as it occupied itself at
all with human conduct, it was to superimpose upon acts
ends said to flow from the nature of reason. It thus diverted
thought from inquiring into the purposes which experience
of actual conditions suggest and from concrete means of their
actualization. It translated into a rational form the doctrine
of escape from the vicissitudes of existence by means of
measures which do not demand an active coping with conditions. For deliverance by means of rites and cults, it substituted deliverance through reason. This deliverance was
an intellectual, a theoretical affair constituted by a knowledge
to be attained apart from practical activity."1
Dewey, The Quest for Certainty, p. 17.
116 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

One is impressed by the similarity between the doctrine of
escape in philosophy and in absolute mysticism, in spite of
the fact that philosophy stresses the mind while mysticism
rejects the mind and relies upon feeling.
The classical tradition assumes that the highest satisfaction
comes from the kind of knowledge which is free from doing
and acting; but in a sense the validity of this doctrine depends
to some extent upon experience. The intellectual satisfaction,
the exaltation that the rational and empirical philosopher
experiences is taken as evidence, if not proof, that he has
become one with the Highest Good, the Divine. His experience we cannot deny, but the interpretation of his experience
is another matter. It is an inference and must be regarded
as such. To be sure, to the classical philosopher no such
criticism could be made, but—in terms of our wider knowledge
to-day, the inconsistency is obvious. Here again the classical
philosopher in his assumption concerning the " real " is not
unlike the mystic who interprets his ecstasy as a proof of his
union with the Absolute.
This is not surprising when we recall that both radical
mysticism and mystical philosophy have much of the same
tradition. Both rest upon the assumption that ultimate
reality is to be found by reflection, and both reject revelation.
The rise of modern science showed that the elevation
of the mind above experience was unwarranted. Modern
philosophy has shown also that the classical tradition cannot
persist in the face of facts, but the popular mind is still influenced by this ancient doctrine.

Our Scientific Background
Science had its inception in a world in which thinking
was elevated above doing, even of the kind that might aid
thinking. In this atmosphere the highest and most perfect
knowledge was free from the world of matter.
OCCULTISM 117

Let us see why the mind, freed from all experience with
external objects might lead us to ultimate reality, universal
truth. A very simple illustration may indicate the origin
of this classical tradition concerning the validity of the mind.
By means of common drawing instruments one might discover
most of the propositions in geometry, but he would never be
absolutely sure of any of them. By measurement we might
show that if a triangle has two equal sides, the angles opposite
the equal sides are equal. One might try it for a number of
cases and assume that it would hold for all others. It looks
reasonable, but we are not absolutely sure; for there is always
an error in every physical measurement. If we prove the
proposition formally by logic rather than by measurement,
then we are reasonably sure that it will hold for all cases.
In the realm of mathematics, which is purely rational
knowledge, the mind needs very few tools. A pointed stick
and some sand will answer. Ostensibly then, its progress
does not depend upon any kind of experimentation: it can
be developed without reference to material objects. In fact,
some philosophers maintain that it would have advanced had
there been no practical use for it. To the ancient philosopher
there were other kinds of knowledge, not purely rational,
that could be acquired without experimental investigation.
If we look about us in nature and observe carefully, we can
make considerable progress, as did the Greeks; nevertheless, as
we all know, without controlled experiments we would require
centuries to obtain as much information as we now obtain in a
single day with apparatus and laboratory technique. But
that is not all. We would probably not make much progress
in higher mathematics, and without higher mathematics we
would have no modern science.
Greek science was limited by two things: its failure to
appreciate the value of experimental work, and its lack of
powerful mathematical tools. The two are interdependent.
118 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

In the long run mathematics has not developed without the
directing hand of experience. The calculus was developed
or invented by Newton and Leibnitz to solve problems that
resulted from observation, that is, experience. In other
words, the progress of pure mathematics depends upon the
progress of experimental science. Not only did the Greek
philosophers fail to make progress where experimentation
was required directly, but they were limited in the very field
which, according to their assumption, was free from any
kind of experimentation—namely, mathematics.
However, we should not conclude that Greek science was
a failure—far from it. Certainly the Greek philosophers have
been misunderstood: sometimes they are underestimated,
but more often they are overestimated. Again, we must not
overlook the unfavourable political and economic conditions
in the latter part of the golden era of Greece.
Speaking broadly, history has shown that science cannot
make much progress unless it is supported by society.
Experimental science demonstrated that its success could
be achieved only by adding to the Greek deductive method
that of induction. True advancement can be made only by
experimenting and theorizing.
Contrary to the view of traditional philosophy, without
sense data the human mind is limited. As a matter of fact,
the two processes of observation or experiment, and theorizing
go hand in hand to a certain extent. Aristotle would not have
assumed that a heavy object would fall to the ground sooner
than a light one had he not observed that light objects like
leaves and feathers do fall more slowly. Greek thinking
was not balanced by practical experience; this is the weak
point of Greek philosophy. The success of modern science
is due to a more perfect balance between mathematical theory
and experiment. Galileo succeeded, not because he was
intellectually superior to the Greek philosophers or his
OCCULTISM 119

contemporaries, but rather because he had utilized a method
that the Aristotelian school ignored. Unconsciously perhaps,
Galileo laid the foundation for a new theory of knowledge.
But the new experimental method had another far-reaching
effect, it put authority in a new light. When we remember
that by the time of Galileo a feeling of discontent with
authority was not unusual in scientific circles, it is not surprising that the traditional view clashed with the new. The
real conflict raged around fundamental methods of thinking
and the place of authority. The occultist has not fully
grasped this new theory of knowledge.
CHAPTER XI

REVEALED PRAYERS

Man's Offering of Prayer and the Creative Word
We pointed out in Chapter V that the mystic, the philosopher
and the scientist have always longed for a knowledge of the
immutable essence which underlies the world of appearance.
Plato once said: "The true lover of knowledge is always
striving after being . . . He will not rest at those multitudinous phenomena whose existence is • appearance only."
However, as we have said repeatedly, finite man cannot
comprehend the infinite God. The only knowledge of God
we can attain comes to us through the Prophet. He reveals to
us the attributes and perfections of God, but not His essence.
Parenthetically we might learn something from the physicist,
as was suggested in Chapter V. He realizes to-day the
futility of the quest for an understanding of the ultimate
reality behind the phenomenal world. Surely then no serious
thinker would go so far as to maintain that he could understand the nature of the creator of the universe.
If we must turn to the Prophet for an understanding of
God, it is reasonable to conclude that we should also turn to
the Prophet for an understanding of prayer. It is true that
man has always prayed to God, even in his primitive state,
but the God of primitive man was never without anthropomorphic characteristics. The more we think of the transcendental nature of God, the less inclined we are to assume
that we know how to pray to Him. But we are not without
knowledge of prayer. Our knowledge of prayer, like our
knowledge of God, comes to us through the Prophet.
REVEALED PRAYERS 121

The revelation of Baha'u'llah, His followers believe, is
the consummation of past prophetic religions, and as such
more complete in the matter of prayer than any revelation
that has gone before it. In the Writings we may find prayers
for every human need, material as well as spiritual. Even
in a very low state the suppliant may pray for divine gifts.
Consider, for illustration, the following prayer, which requires
no comment. " My God, my God\ If none be found to stray
from Thy path, how, then, can the ensign of Thy mercy be
unfurled, or the banner of Thy bountiful favour be hoisted!
And if iniquity be not committed, what is it that can proclaim
Thee to be the Concealer of men's sins, the Ever-Forgiving,
the Omniscient, the All-Wise! May my soul be a sacrifice to
the trespasses of them that trespass against Thee, for upon such
trespasses are wafted the sweet savours of the tender mercies
of Thy Name, the Compassionate, the All-Merciful. May
my life be laid down for the transgressions of such as transgress
against Thee, for through them the breath of Thy grace and
the fragrance of Thy loving-kindness are made known and
diffused amongst mem May my inmost being be offered
up for the sins of them that have sinned against Thee, for it is as
a result of such sins that the Day Star of Thy manifold favours
revealeth itself above the horizon of Thy bounty, and the clouds
of Thy never-failing providence rain down their gifts upon the
realities of all created things'' As the suppliant prays,
however, he rises to a higher level for soon he says : " Aid
me, O my Lord, to surrender myself wholly to Thy Will, and to
arise and serve Thee, for I cherish this earthly life for no other
purpose than to compass the Tabernacle of Thy Revelation and
the Seat of Thy Glory. Thou seest me, O my God, detached
from all else but Thee, and humble and subservient to Thy Will.
Deal with me as it beseemeth Thee, and as it befitteth Thy
highness and great glory."1
iBaháVlláh, Gleanings, pp. 310, 311.
122 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION
If we turn to the revealed prayers in the Baha'i writings,
one of the first things that impresses us is a clear exposition
of man's relation to God in the matter of prayer. Baha'u'llah
declares:1 " . . . None can befit tingly praise Thee except Thine
own Self and such as are like unto Thee. Thou hast, verily,
been at all times, and wilt everlastingly continue to remain,
immensely exalted beyond and above all comparison and
likeness, above all imagination of parity or resemblance.
Having, thus, recognized Thee as One Who is incomparable,
and Whose nature none can possess, it becometh incontrovertibly
evident that whosoever may praise Thee, his praise can befit
only such as are of his own nature, and are subject to his own
limitations, and it can in no wise adequately describe the
sublimity of Thy sovereignty, nor scale the heights of Thy
majesty and holiness. How sweet, therefore, is the praise
Thou givest to Thine own Self, and the description Thou givest
of Thine own Being! . . ." (p. 297).
Nevertheless in His mercy for us, God is willing to accept
our praise. Baha'u'llah says, stressing again man's inability to
know Him: ". . . The glory of Thy might beareth me witness!
Whoso claimeth to have known Thee hath, by virtue of such
a claim, testified to his own ignorance; and whoso believeth
himself to have attained unto Thee, all the atoms of the earth
would attest his powerlessness and proclaim his failure. Thou
hast, however, by virtue of Thy mercy that hath surpassed the
kingdoms of earth and heaven, deigned to accept from Thy
servants the laud and honour they pay to Thine own exalted
Self, and hast bidden them celebrate Thy glory, that the ensigns
of Thy guidance may be unfurled in Thy cities and the tokens
of Thy mercy be spread abroad among Thy nations, and that
each and all may be enabled to attain unto that which Thou
hast destined for them by Thy decree, and ordained unto them
through thine irrevocable will and purpose. . . ." (p. 123).
X
A11 the following prayers are from Prayers and Meditations. In some
cases the complete prayer is not quoted.
REVEALED PRAYERS 123

As we read and meditate upon the revealed prayers we
begin to comprehend, to some degree, the true meaning of
prayer. We learn how man, in his longing for spiritual
perfection, may approach God. To illustrate, let us consider
one phase of prayer, namely the type of appeal that man is
permitted to make. In the following prayers it is clear
that man can appeal to God's mercy, he can also appeal to
His attributes in general, and finally he can plead that having
bestowed favour upon him God cannot, in His mercy, forsake
him.
A N APPEAL TO GOD'S MERCY
" . . .lama sinner, O my Lord, and Thou art the Ever-Forgiving.
As soon as I recognized Thee, I hastened to attain the exalted
court of Thy loving-kindness. Forgive me, O my Lord, my
sins which have hindered me from walking in the ways of Thy
good-pleasure, and from attaining the shores of the ocean of
Thy oneness.
" There is no one, O my Lord, who can deal bountifully with
me to whom I can turn my face, and none who can have compassion on me that I may crave his mercy. Cast me not out,
I implore Thee, of the presence of Thy grace, neither do Thou
withhold from me the outpourings of Thy generosity and bounty.
Ordain for me, O my Lord, what Thou hast ordained for them
that love Thee, and write down for me what Thou hast written
down for Thy chosen ones. My gaze hath, at all times, been
fixed on the horizon of Thy gracious providence, and mine eyes
bent upon the court of Thy tender mercies. Do with me as
beseemeth Thee. No God is there but Thee, the God of power,
the God of glory, Whose help is implored by all men. .." (p. 29).
". . . In Thee I have placed my whole confidence, unto Thee I
have turned my face, to the cord of Thy loving providence I
have clung, and towards the shadow of Thy mercy I have
hastened. Cast me not as one disappointed out of Thy door,
O my God, and withhold not from me Thy grace, for Thee alone
124 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

do I seek. No God is there beside Thee, the Ever-Forgiving,
the Most Bountiful.
" Praise be to Thee, O Thou Who art the Beloved of them
that have known Thee!" (p. 220).
" . . . Potent art Thou to do what pleaseth Thee. None can
withstand the power of Thy sovereign might. From everlasting
Thou wert alone, with none to equal Thee, and wilt unto everlasting remain far above all thought and every description of
Thee. Have mercy, then, upon Thy servants by Thy grace
and bounty, and suffer them not to be kept back from the shores
of the ocean of Thy nearness. If Thou abandonest them, who
is there to befriend them; and if Thou puttest them far from
Thee, who is he that can favour them! They have none other
Lord beside Thee, none to adore except Thyself. Deal Thou
generously with them by Thy bountiful grace.
"Thou, in truth, art the Ever-Forgiving,, the Most Compassionate." (p. 73).
" . . . Cast me not from Thy presence, O my Lord, neither do
Thou drive me away from the shores of Thy love and Thy goodpleasure. For the poor can find no refuge unless he knocketh
at the door of Thy wealth, and the outcast can find no peace until
he be admitted to the court of Thy favour.
"Magnified be Thy name, O my Lord, for Thou hast enabled
me to recognize the Manifestation of Thine own Self and hast
caused me to be assured of the truth of the verses which have
descended upon Thee. Empower me, I implore Thee, to cling
steadfastly unto whatsoever Thou hast bidden me observe.
Help me to guard the pearls of Thy love which, by Thy decree,
Thou hast enshrined within my heart. Send down, moreover,
every moment of my life, O my God, that which will preserve
me from any one but Thee, and will set my feet firm in Thy
Cause . . ." (p. 176).
" I am he, O my Lord, that hath set his face towards Thee,
and fixed his hope on the wonders of Thy grace and the re vela-
REVEALED PRAYERS 125

tions of Thy bounty. I pray Thee that Thou wilt not suffer me
to turn away disappointed from the door of Thy mercy, nor
abandon me to such of Thy creatures as have repudiated Thy
Cause . . ." (p. 221).
". . . Do Thou destine for me, O my God, what will set me,
at alk times, towards Thee, and enable me to cleave continually
to the cord of Thy grace, and to proclaim Thy name, and to
look for whatsoever may flow down from Thy pen. I am poor
and desolate, O my Lord, and Thou art the All-Possessing,
the Most High. Have pity, then, upon me through the wonders
of Thy mercy, and send down upon me, every moment of my life,
the things wherewith Thou hast recreated the hearts of all Thy
creatures who have recognized Thy unity, and of all Thy people
who are wholly devoted to Thee.
"Thou, verily, art the Almighty, the Most Exalted, the
All-Knowing, the All-Wise." (p. 242).
". . . Every existence, whether seen or unseen, O my Lord,
testifieth that Thy mercy hath surpassed all created things,
and Thy loving-kindness embraced the entire creation. Look
upon them, I entreat Thee, with the eyes of Thy mercy.
Thou art the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Compassionate. Do
with them as beseemeth Thy glory, and Thy majesty, and Thy
greatness, and Thy bounteousness and Thy grace. Deal not
with them according to the limitations imposed upon them,
or the manifold vicissitudes of their earthly life . . ." (p. 113).
" . . . Deal Thou, therefore, O my God, my Beloved, my supreme
Desire, with Thy servants and with all that were created by
Thee as would beseem Thy beauty and Thy greatness, and
would be worthy of Thy generosity and gifts. Thou art, in
truth, He Whose mercy hath encompassed all the worlds, and
whose grace hath embraced all that dwell on earth and in
heaven. Who is there that hath cried after Thee, and whose
prayer hath remained unanswered! Where is he to be found
"who hath reached forth towards Thee, and whom Thou hast
126 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

failed to approach*! Who is he that can claim to have fixed
his gaze upon Thee, and toward whom the eye of Thy lovingkindness hath not been directed*! I bear witness that Thou
hadst turned toward Thy servants ere they had turned toward
Thee, and hadst remembered them ere they had remembered
Thee. All grace is Thine, O Thou in Whose hand is the kingdom
of Divine gifts and the source of every irrevocable decree . . . "
(p. 253).

A N APPEAL TO OTHER ATTRIBUTES
". . . I swear by Thy might, O my God! Wert Thou to regard
Thy servants according to their deserts in Thy days, they
would assuredly merit naught except Thy chastisement and
torment. Thou art, however, the One Who is of great bounteousness, Whose grace is immense. Look not down upon them,
O my God, with the glance of Thy justice, but rather with
the eyes of Thy tender compassions and mercies. Do, then,
with them according to what beseemeth Thy generosity and
bountiful favour. Potent art Thou to do whatsoever may
please Thee. Incomparable art Thou. No God is there besiqle
Thee, the Lord of the throne on high and of earth below, the
Ruler of this world and of the world to come . . ." (p. 137).
" . . . Cast not away, O my Lord, him that hath turned towards
Thee, nor suffer him who hath drawn nigh unto Thee to be
removed far from Thy court. Dash not the hopes of the
suppliant who hath longingly stretched out his hands to seek
Thy grace and favours, and deprive not Thy sincere servants
of the wonders of Thy tender mercies and loving-kindness.
Forgiving and Most Bountiful art Thou, O my Lord! Power hast
Thou to do what Thou pleasest. All else but Thee are impotent
before the revelations of Thy might, are as lost in the face
of the evidences of Thy wealth, are as nothing when compared
with the manifestations of Thy transcendent sovereignty, and
are destitute of all strength when face to face with the signs
REVEALED PRAYERS 127

and tokens of Thy power. What refuge is there beside Thee,
O my Lord, to which I can flee, and where is there a haven to
which I can hasten? Nay, the power of Thy might beareth me
witness! No protector is there but Thee; no place to flee
to except Thee, no refuge to seek save Thee. Cause me to
taste, O my Lord, the divine sweetness of Thy remembrance
and praise. I swear by Thy might! Whosoever tasteth of its
sweetness will rid himself of all attachment to the world and all
that is therein, and will set his face towards Thee, cleansed from
the remembrance of any one except Thee . . . " (p. 82).
" . . . The tenderness of Thy mercy, O my Lord, surpasse th
the fury of Thy wrath, and Thy loving-kindness exceedeth
Thy hot displeasure, and Thy grace excelleth Thy justice.
Hold Thou, through Thy wondrous favours and mercies, the
hands of Thy creatures, and suffer them not to be separated
from the grace which Thou hast ordained as the means whereby
they can recognize Thee. The glory of Thy might beareth
me witness! Were such a thing to happen, every soul would
be sore shaken, every man endued with understanding would
be bewildered, and every possessor of knowledge would be
dumbfounded, except those who have been succoured through
the hands of Thy Cause, and have been made the recipients
of the revelations of Thy grace and of the tokens of Thy
favours . . ." (p. 136).
". . . Cast not out, I entreat Thee, O my Lord, them that have
sought Thee, and turn not away such as have directed their
steps towards Thee, and deprive not of Thy grace all that love
Thee. Thou art He, O my Lord, Who hath called Himself
the God of Mercy, the Most Compassionate. Have mercy,
then, upon Thy handmaiden who hath sought Thy shelter, and
set her face, towards Thee.
"Thou art, verily, the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Merciful."
(p. 148).
". . . Thou art He, O my Lord, Whose bounty hath surpassed
128 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

all things, and Whose power hath transcended all things, and
Whose mercy hath encompassed all things. Look, then,
upon Thy people with the eyes of Thy tender mercies, and leave
them not to themselves and to their corrupt desires in Thy
days. How farsoever they may have strayed from Thee, and
however grievously they have turned back from Thy face, yet
Thou, in Thine essence, art the All-Bountiful, and, in Thine
inmost spirit, art the Most Merciful. Deal with them according
to the unrevealed tokens of Thy bounty and Thy gifts. Thou
art, verily, the One to the power of Whose might all things
have testified, and to Whose majesty and omnipotence the whole
creation hath borne witness.
No God is there but Thee, the Help in Peril, the Self-
Subsisting:' (p. 244).
. . . Look not on my state, O my God, nor my failure to serve
Thee, nay rather regard the oceans of Thy mercy and favours
and the things that beseem Thy glory and Thy forgiveness
and befit Thy loving-kindness and bounties. Thou art, verily,
the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Generous." (p. 167).

GOD CANNOT FORSAKE US
. . . Since Thou hast guided them, O my Lord, unto the living
waters of Thy grace, grant, by Thy bounty, that they may not
be kept back from Thee; and since Thou hast summoned them
to the habitation of Thy throne, drive them not out from Thy
presence, through Thy loving-kindness. Send down upon
them what shall wholly detach them from aught else except
Thee, and make them able to soar in the atmosphere of Thy
nearness, in such wise that neither the ascendancy of the
oppressor nor the suggestions of them that have disbelieved in
Thy most august and most mighty Self shall be capable of
keeping them back from Thee" (p. 117).
"Glory be to Thee, O Lord my God! Abase not him Whom Thou
hast exalted through the power of Thine everlasting sovereignty,
REVEALED PRAYERS 129

and remove not far from Thee him whom Thou hast caused to
enter the tabernacle of Thine eternity. Wilt Thou cast away,
O my God, him whom Thou hast overshadowed with Thy Lordship, and wilt Thou turn away from Thee, O my Desire, him to
whom Thou hast been a refuge? Canst Thou degrade him whom
Thou hast uplifted, or forget him whom Thou didst enable to
remember Thee?
" Glorified, immensely glorified art Thou I Thou art He
who from everlasting hath been the King of the entire creation
and its Prime Mover, and Thou wilt to everlasting remain
the Lord of all created things and their Ordainer. Glorified
art Thou, O my God! If Thou ceasest to be merciful unto
Thy servants, who, then, will show mercy unto them; and if
Thou refusest to succour Thy loved ones, who is there that
can succour them?. .." (p. 261).
". . . Now that Thou hast guided them unto the door of Thy
grace, O my Lord, cast them not away, by Thy bounty; and now
that Thou hast summoned them unto the horizon of Thy Cause,
keep them not back from Thee, by Thy graciousness and favour.
Powerful art Thou to do as Thou pleasest. No God is there
but Thee, the Omniscient, the All-Informed." (p. 112).
".. . Since Thou hast revealed Thy grace, O my God, deter not
Thy servants from directing their eyes towards it. Consider
not, O my God, their estate, and their concerns and their works.
Consider the greatness of Thy glory, and the plenteousness of
Thy gifts, and the power of Thy might, and the excellence of
Thy favours. I swear by Thy glory! Wert Thou to look upon
them with the eye of justice, all would deserve Thy wrath and
the rod of Thine anger. Hold Thou Thy creatures, O my God,
with the hands of Thy grace, and make Thou known unto them
what is best for them of all the things that have been created
in the kingdom of Thy invention . . . " (p. 31).
". . . Wilt Thou withhold, O my God, from such as love Thee
the wonders of Thine ascendancy and triumph? Wilt Thou
130 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

shatter, O my Beloved, the hopes which they who are devoted
to Thee have fixed on Thy manifold bounties and gifts? Wilt
Thou keep back, O my Master, those that have recognized Thee
from the shores of Thy sanctified knowledge, or wilt Thou
cease to rain down upon the hearts of such as desire Thee
the showers of Thy transcendent grace? No, no, and to this
Thy glory beareth me witness! I testify this very moment
that Thy mercy hath surpassed all created things, and Thy
loving-kindness encompassed all that are in heaven and all
that are on earth. From everlasting the doors of Thy generosity
were open to the faces of Thy servants, and the gentle winds
of Thy grace were wafted over the hearts of Thy creatures,
and the overflowing rains of Thy bounty were showered upon Thy
people and the dwellers of Thy realm . . ." (p. 332).
". . . Wilt Thou keep back from Thee the stranger whom Thou
didst call unto his most exalted Home beneath the shadow of
the wings of Thy mercy, or cast away the wretched creature
that hath hastened to attain the shores of the ocean of Thy
wealth? Wilt Thou shut up the door of Thy grace to the face
of Thy creatures after having opened it through the power of
Thy might and of Thy sovereignty, or close the eyes of Thy
people when Thou hast already commanded them to turn unto
the Day-Spring of Thy Beauty and the Dawning-Place of the
splendours of Thy countenance?
" Nay, and to this Thy glory beareth me witness! Such
is not my thought of Thee, nor the thought of those of Thy
servants that have near access to Thyself, nor that of the sincere
amongst Thy people . . . " (p. 270).
CHAPTER XII

PRAYERS FOR SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT
Out of the voluminous Writings of Baha'u'llah, we have
selected a few for spiritual unfoldment. They will serve
as a source of divine inspiration for meditation. The classification is more or less arbitrary, but it may assist the reader
in selecting the prayer most suited to his spiritual status.
The following prayers are taken from Prayers and Meditations
by Baha'u'llah, In some cases the complete prayer is not
quoted.
TURNING TOWARD GOD
" Suffer me, O my God, to draw nigh unto Thee, and to
abide within the precincts of Thy court, for remoteness from
Thee hath well-nigh consumed me. Cause me to rest under
the shadow of the wings of Thy grace, for the flame of my
separation from Thee hath melted my heart within me. Draw
me nearer unto the river that is life indeed, for my soul burneth
with thirst in its ceaseless search after Thee, My sighs, O my
God, proclaim the bitterness of mine anguish, and the tears I
shed attest my love for Thee,
" / beseech Thee, by the praise wherewith Thou praisest
Thyself and the glory wherewith Thou glorifiest Thine own
Essence, to grant that we may be numbered among them that
have recognized Thee and acknowledged Thy sovereignty in Thy
days. Help us then to quaff, O my God, from the fingers of
mercy the living waters of Thy loving-kindness, that we may
utterly forget all else except Thee, and be occupied only with
Thy Self, Powerful art Thou to do what Thou wiliest. No
God is there beside Thee, the Mighty, the Help in Peril, the Self
Subsisting,
132 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION
Glorified be Thy name, O Thou Who art the King oj all
Kings r (p. 30).
I beseech Thee, O my Lord, by that Remembrance oJThee
through which all things have been raised to life, and through
which all faces have been made to shine, not to frustrate the
hopes I have set on the things Thou dost possess. Cause me,
then, by Thy mercy, to enter beneath Thy shadow that shadoweth
all things.
Be Thou, O my Lord, my sole Desire, my Goal, mine only
Hope, my constant Aim, my Habitation and my Sanctuary. Let
the object of mine ardent quest be Thy most resplendent, Thine
adorable, and ever-blessed Beauty. I implore Thee, O my
Lord, by whatsoever is of Thee, to send, from the right hand of
Thy might, that which will exalt Thy loved ones and abase
Thine enemies.
No God is there beside Thee, Thou alone art my Beloved
in this world and in the world which is to come. Thou alone art
the Desire of all them that have recognized Thee.
Praised be God, the Lord of the worlds.''' (p. 178).
We testify, O my God, that Thou art God, and that there
is no God besides Thee. From eternity Thou hast existed
with none to equal or rival Thee, and wilt abide for ever the
same. I beseech Thee, by the eyes which see Thee stablished
upon the throne of unity and the seat of oneness, to aid all
them that love Thee by Thy Most Great Name, and to lift
them up into such heights that they will testify with their own
beings and with their tongues that Thou art God alone, the
Incomparable, the One, the Ever-Abiding. Thou hast had
at no time any peer or partner. Thou, in truth, art the All-
Glorious, the Almighty, Whose help is implored by all men."
(p. 31).
. . . Having testified, therefore, unto mine own impotence
and the impotence of Thy servants, I beseech Thee, by the
brightness of the light of Thy beauty, not to refuse Thy creatures
PRAYERS FOR SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT 133

attainment to the shores of Thy most holy ocean. Draw them,
then, O my God, through the Divine sweetness of Thy melodies,
towards the throne of Thy glory and the seat of Thine eternal
holiness. Thou art, verily, the Most Powerful, the Supreme
Ruler, the Great Giver, the Most Exalted, the Ever-Desired,
" Grant, then, O my God, that Thy servant who hath turned
towards Thee, hath fixed his gaze upon Thee, and clung to the
cord of Thy mercifulness and favour, may be enabled to partake
of the living waters of Thy mercy and grace. Cause him, then,
to ascend unto the heights to which he aspireth, and withhold
him not from that which Thou dost possess. Thou art, verily,
the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Bountiful," (p. 124).
" . . . I entreat Thee, O my God, by Thy name through which the
clouds have rained down their rain, and the streams have flowed,
and the fire of Thy love hath been kindled throughout Thy
dominion, to assist Thy servant who hath turned towards Thee,
and hath spoken forth Thy praise, and determined to help Thee,
Fortify, then, his heart, O my God, in Thy love and in Thy
Faith, Better is this for him than all that hath been created
on Thine earth, for the world and whatsoever is therein must
perish, and what pertaineth unto Thee must endure as long
as Thy most excellent names endure. By Thy Glory! Were
the world to last as long as Thine own kingdom will last, to set
their affections upon it would still be unseemly for such as
have quaffed, from the hands of Thy mercy, the wine of Thy
presence; how much more when they recognize its fleetingness
and are persuaded of its transience. The chances that overtake
it, and the changes to which all things pertaining unto it are
continually subjected, attest its impermanence,,." (p. 116).
". . . Thou knowest, O my God, that I have severed every tie
that bindeth me to any of Thy creatures except that most exalted
tie that uniteth me with whosoever cleaveth unto Thee, in this
the day of the revelation of Thy most august Self, that hath
appeared in Thy name, the All-Glorious, Thou knowest
134 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

that I have dissolved every bond that knitteth me to any one of
my kindred except such as have enjoyed near access to Thy
most effulgent face,
" / have no will but Thy will, O my Lord, and cherish no
desire except Thy desire. From my penfloweth only the summons
which Thine own exalted pen hath voiced, and my tongue
uttereth naught save what the Most Great Spirit hath itself
proclaimed in the kingdom of Thine eternity, I am stirred by
nothing else except the winds of Thy will, and breathe no word
except the words which, by Thy leave and Thine inspiration,
I am led to pronounce , , ." (p. 108).

DIVINE BOUNTY
"... Do Thou preserve me beneath the shadow of Thy Supreme
Sinlessnešs, and enable me to magnify Thine own Self amidst
the concourse of Thy creatures. Withhold not from me the
Divine fragrance of Thy days, and deprive me not of the sweet
savours wafting from the Day-Spring of Thy Revelation.
Bestow on me the good of this world and of the next, through
the power of Thy grace that hath encompassed all created
things and Thy mercy that hath surpassed the entire creation.
Thou art He Who holdeth in His grasp the kingdom of all
things. Thou doest what Thou wiliest through Thy decree,
and choosest, through the power of Thy might, whatsoever
Thou desirest. None can resist Thy will; naught can exhaust
the impelling force of Thy command. There is no God but
Thee, the Almighty, the All-Glorious, the Most Bountiful."
(p. 100).
". . . / beseech Thee, O Thou Who art my Companion in my
lowliness, to rain down upon Thy loved ones from the clouds
of Thy mercy that which will cause them to be satisfied with
Thy pleasure, and will enable them to turn unto Thee and to
be detached from all else except Thee. Ordain, then, for them
every good conceived by Thee and predestined in Thy Book.
PRAYERS FOR SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT 135

Thou art, verily, the All-Powerful, He Whom nothing whatsoever can frustrate. From everlasting Thou hast been clothed
with transcendent greatness and power, with unspeakable
majesty and glory. There is no God beside Thee, the Almighty,
the All-Glorious, the Ever-Forgiving.
" Glorified be Thy name, Thou in Whose hand are the kingdoms
of earth and heaven." (p. 17).
" Praised be Thou, O Lord my God I This is Thy servant
who hath quaffed from the hands of Thy grace the wine of Thy
tender mercy, and tasted of the savour of Thy love in Thy
days. I beseech Thee, by the embodiments of Thy names whom
no grief can hinder from rejoicing in Thy love or from gazing
on Thy face, and whom all the hosts of the heedless are powerless
to cause to turn aside from the path of Thy pleasure, to supply
him with the good things Thou dost possess, and to raise him
up to such heights that he will regard the world even as a shadow
that vanisheth swifter than the twinkling of an eye.
"Keep him safe also, O my God, by the power of Thine
immeasurable majesty, from all that Thou abhorrest. Thou
art, verily, his Lord and the Lord of all worlds." (p. 15).
". . . By the glory of Thy might, O my God! Wert Thou to
set me king over Thy realms, and to establish me upon the
throne of Thy sovereignty, and to deliver, through Thy power,
the reins of the entire creation into my hands, and wert Thou
to cause me, though it be for less than a moment, to be occupied
with these things and be oblivious of the wondrous memories
associated with Thy most mighty, most perfect, and most
exalted Name, my soul would still remain unsatisfied, and the
pangs of my heart unstilled. Nay, I would, in that very state,
recognize myself as the poorest of the poor, and the most
wretched of the wretched..." (p. 93).
". . . I beseech Thee, O Thou Who art the Lord of all names,
to guard Thy loved ones against Thine enemies, and to strengthen
them in their love for Thee and in fulfilling Thy pleasure. Do
136 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

Thou protect them, that their footsteps may slip not, that their
hearts may not be shut out as by a veil from Thee, and that their
eyes may be restrained from beholding anything that is not of
Thee. Cause them to be so enraptured by the sweetness of
Thy divine melodies that they will rid themselves of all attachment
to any one except Thee, and will turn wholly towards Thee, and
extol Thee under all conditions, saying: 'Praised be Thou,
O Lord our God, inasmuch as Thou hast enabled us to recognize
Thy most exalted and all-glorious Self. We will, by Thy mercy,
cleave to Thee, and will detach ourselves from any one but Thee.
We have realized that Thou art the Beloved of the worlds and
the Creator of earth and heaven.'.
" Glorified be God, the Lord of all creation." (p. 98).
" Glorified art Thou, O Lord my God! I pray Thee, by
Him Who is the Day-Spring of Thy signs and the Manifestation
of Thy names, and the Treasury of Thine inspiration, and the
Repository of Thy wisdom, to send upon Thy loved ones that
which will enable them to cleave steadfastly to Thy Cause, and to
recognize Thy unity, and to acknowledge Thy oneness, and to
bear witness to Thy divinity. Raise them up, O my God, to
such heights that they will recognize in all things the tokens
of the power of Him Who is the Manifestation of Thy most
august and all-glorious Self.
" Thou art He, O my Lord, Who doeth what He willeth, and
ordaineth what He pleaseth. Every possessor of power is
forlorn before the revelations of Thy might, and every fountain
of honour becomes abject when confronted by the manifold
evidences of Thy great glory . . ." (p. 164).
" . . . How sweet to my taste is the savour of woes sent by Thee,
and how dear to my heart the dispositions of Thy providence!
Perish the soul thatfleethfrom the threats of kings in its attempt
to save itself in Thy days! I swear by Thy glory! Whoso hath
quaffed the living waters of Thy favours can fear no trouble
PRAYERS FOR SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT 137

in Thy path, neither can he be deterred by any tribulation from
remembering Thee or from celebrating Thy praise . . . " (p. 154).

GOD'S PROTECTION
". . . I beseech Thee, O God of bounty and King of all created
things, to guard Thy servants from the imaginations which
their hearts may devise. Raise them up, then, to such heights
that their footsteps may slip not in the face of the evidences
of Thy handiwork, which the manifold exigencies of Thy wisdom
have ordained, and whose secrets Thou hast hid from the face
of Thy people and Thy creatures. Withhold them not, O my Lord,
from the ocean of Thy knowledge, neither do Thou deprive
them of what Thou didst destine for such of Thy chosen ones
as have near access to Thee, and those of Thy trusted ones
as are wholly devoted to Thy Self Supply them, then, from
Thy sea of certainty with what will calm the agitation of their
hearts . . ." (p. 283).
" . . . Do Thou ordain, moreover, for every one who hath turned
towards Thee what will make him steadfast in Thy Cause,
in such wise that neither the vain imaginations of the infidels
among Thy creatures, nor the idle talk of the froward amidst
Thy servants will have the power to shut him out from Thee.
Thou, verily, art the Help in Peril, the Almighty, the Most
Powerful:' (p. 70).
" . . . Make steadfast Thou, O my God, Thy servant who .hath
believed in Thee to help Thy Cause, and keep him safe from
all dangers in the stronghold of Thy care and Thy protection,
both in this life and in the life which is to come. Thou, verily,
rulest as Thou pleasest. No God is there save Thee, the Ever-
Forgiving, the Most Generous." (p. 159).
" . . . Thy glory is my witness! At each daybreak they who
love Thee wake to find the cup of woe set before their faces,
because they have believed in Thee and acknowledged Thy
signs. Though I firmly believe that Thou hast a greater com-
138 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

passion on them than they have on their own selves, though
I recognize that Thou hast afflicted them for no other purpose
except to proclaim Thy Cause, and to enable them to ascend
into the heaven of Thine eternity and the precincts of Thy
court, yet Thou knowest full well the frailty of some of them,
and art aware of their impatience in their sufferings.
" Help them through Thy strengthening grace, I beseech
Thee, O my God, to suffer patiently in their love for Thee,
and unveil to their eyes what Thou hast decreed for them behind
the Tabernacle of Thine unfailing protection, so that they may
rush forward to meet what is preordained for them in Thy path,
and may vie in hasting after tribulation in their love towards
Thee..r (p. 158).
" . . . Shield, I pray Thee, O my Beloved, my hearťs Desire,
Thy servant who hath sought Thy face, from the darts of them
that have denied Thee and from the shafts, of such as have
repudiated Thy Truth. Cause him, then, to be wholly devoted
to Thee, to declare Thy name, and to fix his gaze upon the
sanctuary of Thy Revelation. Thou art, in truth, He Who,
at no time, hath turned away those who have set their hopes
in Thee from the door of Thy mercy, nor prevented such as
have sought Thee from attaining the court of Thy grace. No
God is there but Thee, the Most Powerful, the All-Highest,
the Help in Peril, the All-Glorious, the All-Compelling, the
Unconditioned." (p. 160).

THE LIVING WATERS

" Many a chilled heart, O my God, hath been set ablaze
with the fire of Thy Cause, and many a slumberer hath been
wakened by the sweetness of Thy voice. How many are the
strangers who have sought shelter beneath the shadow of the
tree of Thy oneness, and how numerous the thirsty ones who have
panted after the fountain of Thy living waters in Thy days!
PRAYERS FOR SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT 139

"Blessed is he that hath set himself towards Thee, and hasted
to attain the Day-Spring of the lights of Thy face. Blessed
is he who with all his affections hath turned to the Dawning-
Place of Thy Revelation and the Fountain-Head of Thine
inspiration. Blessed is he that hath expended in Thy path
what Thou didst bestow upon him through Thy bounty and favour.
Blessed is he who, in his sore longing after Thee, hath cast
away all else except Thyself. Blessed is he who hath enjoyed
intimate communion with Thee, and rid himself of all attachment
to any one save Thee. . ." (p. 33).
". . . I pray Thee, O Thou Who causest the dawn to appear, by
Thy Name through which Thou hast subjected the winds, and
sent down Thy Tablets, that Thou wilt grant that we may draw
near unto what Thou didst destine for us by Thy favour and
bounty, and to be far removedfrom whatsoever may be repugnant
unto Thee. Give us, then, to drink from the hands of Thy grace
every day and every moment of our lives of the waters that are
life indeed, O Thou Who art the Most Merciful!. . ." (p. 37).
" O God! The trials Thou sendest are a salve to the sores
of all them who are devoted to Thy will; the remembrance
of Thee is a healing medicine to the hearts of such as have
drawn nigh unto Thy court; nearness to Thee is the true life
of them who are Thy lovers; Thy presence is the ardent desire
of such as yearn to behold Thy face; remoteness from Thee
is a torment to those that have acknowledged Thy oneness, and
separation from Thee is death unto them that have recognized
Thy truth!
" I beseech Thee by the sighs which they whose souls pant
after Thee have uttered in their remoteness from Thy court,
and by the cries of such of Thy lovers as bemoan their separation
from Thee, to nourish me with the wine of Thy knowledge and
the living waters of Thy love and pleasure . . ." (p. 78).
" . . . Behold, then, O my God, my loneliness among Thy servants and my remoteness from Thy friends and Thy chosen ones.
140 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

/ beseech Thee, by the showers of the clouds of Thy mercy,
whereby Thou hast caused the blossoms of Thy praise and
utterance and the flowers of Thy wisdom and testimony to
spring forth in the hearts of all them that haye recognized Thy
oneness, to supply Thy servants and my kindred with the fruits
of the tree of Thy unity, in these days when Thou hast been
established upon the throne of Thy mercy. Hinder them not,
O my Lord, from attaining unto the things Thou dost possess,
and write down for them that which will aid them to scale the
heights of Thy grace and favour. Give them, moreover, to
drink of the living waters of Thy knowledge, and ordain for
them the good of this world and of the world to come..." (p. 109).
". . . / implore Thee to supply whosoever hath sought Thee
with the living waters of Thy bounty, that they may rid him
of all attachment to any one but Thee. Thou art, verily, the
Omniscient, the All-Glorious, the Almighty." (p. 152).
' " . . . We entreat Thee, O Thou Who art the Cloud of Bounty
and the Succourer of the distressed, that Thou wilt aid us to
remember Thee, and to make known Thy Cause, and to arise to
help Thee. Though all weakness, we yet have clung to Thy
Name, the Most Powerful, the Almighty.
" Bless Thou, O my God, them that have stood fast in Thy
Cause, and whom the evil suggestions of the workers of iniquity
have failed to deter from turning towards Thy face, and who
have hastened with their whole hearts toward Thy grace, until
they finally quaffed the water that is life indeed from the hands
of Thy bounty.
"Potent art Thou to do Thy pleasure. No God is there
save Thee, the Mighty, the Most Generous." (p. 239).
" / give praise to Thee, O my God, that the fragrance of
Thy loving-kindness hath enraptured me, and the gentle winds
of Thy mercy have inclined me in the direction of Thy bountiful
favours. Make me to quaff, O my Lord, from the fingers of
Thy bounteousness the living waters which have enabled every
PRAYERS FOR SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT 141

one that hath partaken of them to rid himself of all attachment
to any one save Thee, and to soar into the atmosphere of detachment from all Thy creatures, and to fix his gaze upon Thy
loving providence and Thy manifold gifts.
" Make me ready, in all circumstances, O my Lord, to serve
Thee and to set myself towards the adored sanctuary of Thy
Revelation and of Thy Beauty. If it be Thy pleasure, make me
to grow as a tender herb in the meadows of Thy grace, that the
gentle winds of Thy will may stir me up and bend me into
conformity with Thy pleasure, in such wise that my movement
and my stillness may be wholly directed by Thee. . ." (p. 240).
". . . / swear by Thy glory, O Thou the Lord of all being and
the Enlightener of all things visible and invisible! Whoso
hath quaffed from the hands of Thy bounteousness the living
waters of Thy love will never allow the things pertaining to Thy
creatures to keep him back from Thee, neither will he be dismayed at the refusal of all the dwellers of Thy realm to acknowledge Thee. Before all who are in heaven and on earth such a
man will cry aloud, and announce unto the people the tumult of
the Ocean of Thy bounty and the splendours of the Luminaries
of the heaven of Thy bestowals.
" Happy indeed is the man that hath turned towards the
sanctuary of Thy presence, and rid himself of all attachment
to any one except Thyself. He is truly exalted who hath
confessed Thy glory, and fixed his eyes upon the Day-Star of
Thy loving-kindness. He is endued with understanding who is
aware of Thy Revelation and hath acknowledged Thy manifold
tokens, Thy signs, and Thy testimonies.. ." (p. 268).
EPILOGUE
The unity of mankind is an inevitable stage in human
evolution. World citizenship associated with world civilization and world culture signalizes humanity's coming of age.
This is the core of the Baha'i Teaching. The mission of
Baha'u'llah, the Founder of the Baha'i Faith, started about
the middle of the nineteenth century in 'Irán. He brought to
the world a body of spiritual and humanitarian teachings
suited to the needs of present-day society. The revelation
of Baha'u'llah, like the revelation of Christ or Muhammad,
is divine in origin. Unlike the times of Christ or Muhammad,
however, this is the day of the fulfilment of the promises of
past dispensations. 'Irán, noted for its fanaticism and
appalling degradation, was wholly unprepared for a fresh
outpouring of divine grace; nevertheless His universal ideals
spread from this inhospitable region to all parts of the globe.
To-day there are Baha'is in over 300 countries and islands.
His logic was incomparable, His love irresistible; but the
masses responded with barbaric cruelty. In fact no less than
twenty thousand martyrs sacrificed their lives to promote the
laws and principles of this world-embracing Faith. Lord
Curzon, speaking of the courage displayed in this persecution,
says that it was not surpassed by that evoked by the fires of
Smithfield; and Professor Carpenter of Oxford was constrained
to ask, " . . . has Persia, in the midst of her miseries, given
birth to a religion which will go round the world ? "
Church and State conspired against Him until in 1853 He,
His family and a few of His followers were exiled to Baghdad,
and eventually to 'Akká, where He passed away in 1892.
Exile, persecution and imprisonment were His lot for over
forty years. While the masses exhibited only unrelenting
EPILOGUE 143

hatred and animosity, a few men of eminence like Sir Arnold
Burrows Kemball (Consul-General in Baghdad), Tolstoy,
and Professor Browne of Cambridge, displayed a tolerant
and sympathetic attitude.
Baha'u'llah appointed His eldest son, 'Abdu'1-Bahá, as
the authoritative Interpreter of His Teachings. In the years
1911-1913 'Abdu'1-Bahá, though nearly seventy and suffering
from ill-health, travelled in Egypt, Europe and America,
proclaiming the universal principles of his father's Faith in
church, synagogue, university, college and also to small
groups interested in world peace and human welfare. Everywhere He was received with enthusiasm. His first public
address in the Western world was in a Christian house of
worship, the City Temple in London. He also addressed the
congregation of the Church of St. John the Divine, at Westminster, had breakfast with the Lord Mayor of London,
and spoke to an academic audience at Manchester College,
Oxford. He met all classes, and upon all he conferred a
blessing never to be forgotten. In the United States, he
travelled from coast to coast, addressing large and representative audiences interested in spiritual unfoldment or a
new social order.
During the British occupation in Haifa many representative
officials, such as General Allenby and Sir Herbert Samuel,
sought His presence. For His humanitarian work a knighthood of the British Empire was conferred upon Him. He
passed from this life in 1921.
In His Will He appointed His eldest grandson, Shoghi Effendi,
as Guardian of the Baha'i Faith. During Shoghi Effendi's
ministry, 1921-1957, the Administrative Order delineated in
Scripture was firmly established. To-day, the Universal House
of Justice, the world legislative body ordained by Baha'u'llah,
which was first elected in 1963 by the Baha'i communities of
East and West, directs the affairs of the Faith. From Haifa,
144 MYSTICISM, SCIENCE AND REVELATION

the World Centre, the integrity of the laws and precepts, and
the unity of the believers, are safeguarded and fully maintained.
The Faith brings to a distracted world, which has lost its
anchor, the spiritual power that will regenerate the individual,
and principles upon which a new social order can be built.
A few of the basic teachings of Baha'u'llah are the following:
the oneness of mankind, the independent investigation of
truth, the fundamental reality of all religions is one, the
necessity that religion be the cause of unity and be in accord
with science and reason, equality between men and women,
the elimination of prejudices of all kinds, universal peace,
universal education, the spiritual solution of the economic
problem, a universal language and an international tribunal.
For progressive movements to-day these Teachings are
not new, but they were new when given to the world. There
are many principles in the Baha'i Teachings, however, which
are not universally accepted to-day. Take, for example,
progressive revelation. The idea that divine revelation has
ceased, that God cannot or will not reveal His will again to
mankind through a Prophet like Baha'u'llah is, of course,
absurd.
The most striking aspect of the failure of scholars and
statesmen to appreciate the message of Baha'u'llah, is t h e fact
that to-day we are doing some of the things He told us t o do
three-quarters of a century ago. To illustrate, He said:
" The well-being of mankind, its peace and security are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established"
After indulging in two global wars we get this interesting
statement from the atomic physicists: " As long as the causes
for war exist, aggressor nations can challenge the international
controls. Only in a unified world community can peace
exist in the world." Again, foreshadowing the tentative
efforts to unite the rulers of the world for the purpose of
discussing world peace, He said: " The time must come, when
EPILOGUE 145

the imperative necessity for the holding of a vast, an allembracing assemblage of men will be universally realized"
And just a few years ago the editors of One World or None
made the following suggestion: " T h e statesmen, the experts
in international affairs, in government . . . must speak out,
and their proposals must be discussed and weighed in a great
public debate."
It is too early to anticipate the outcome of the efforts that
are now being made to establish peace, but modern theorists
would do well to consider rather carefully a Faith that has
encircled the globe, that has been highly successful in assimilating diverse races, nations and religions, that has preserved
the purity of its laws and precepts, and that has maintained
its unity against relentless foes for one hundred years.

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