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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Harilal M. Munje, 1844 A.D.: Pinpoint Target of All Faiths, New Delhi, India: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1982/1987, bahai-library.com.
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1844AD.
PINPOINT TARGET
OF ALL FAITHS
by
DR H.M. MUNJE
Baha'i Publishing Trust
New Delhi
Published by BA.HA.'~PUBLISHING TRUST oflndia
Baha'f House, 6 Canning Road, New Delhi I 10001, India
Copyright© Dr. RM Munje 1982
Originally published in 1982in Malaysia by the Spiritual
Assembly of the Baha'is of Malaysia .
This First Indian 1987 edition is published with the per-
mission of the National Spiritual Assembly of the
Baha'is of Malaysia .
ISBN 81-85091-26-9
Printed in India by Unicom Iteroational
THE GREATNESS
OF THIS DAY
Baha'u' llah says :
"The time fore-ordained unto the peoples and kindreds of
the earth is now come. The promises of God, as recorded in
the Holy Scriptures, have all beenfulfilled.
"This is the Day which the Pen of the Most High hath
glorified in all the Scriptures. " - Gleanings, X
"There hath appeared in this Revelation what hath never
appeared before. " - Gleanings, LXVII
"This New World Order... this wondrous system - the like
of which mortal eyes have never witnessed. Immerse yourselves
in the ocean of My words, that ye may unravel its secrets,and
discover all the pearls of wisdom that lie hid in its depths. "
-Gleanings, LXX
"Canst thou discover any one but Me, 0 Pen, in this
Day? What hath become of the creation and the manifes-
tations thereof? What of the names and their kingdoms ?
Whither are gone all created things, whether seen or unseen ?
What of the hidden secrets of the universe and its revelations?
Lo, the entire creation hath passed away. Nothing remaineth
except My Face, the Ever-abiding, the Resplendent, the All-
Glorious." - Gleanings, XIV
''/ beseech Thee, 0 my God, by that Letter which, as soon
as it proceeded out of the mouth of Thy will, hath caused the
oceans to surge, and the winds to blow, and the fruits to be
revealed, and the trees to springforth, and all past traces to
vanish, and all veils to be rent asunder, and them who are
devoted to Thee to hasten unto the light of the Countenanceof
their Lord, the Unconstrained, to make known unto me what
lay hid in the treasuries of Thy Knowledge and concealed
within the repositories of Thy wisdom. " - Prayers and
Meditations, CLXXVII
"I testify that no scionerhad the First Word proceeded,
through the potency of Thy will and purpose, out of His
mouth , and the First Call gone forth from His lips that the
whole creation was revolutionized, and all that are in the
heavens and all that are on earth were stirred to the depths.
Through that Word the realities of the created things were
shaken , were divided, separated, scattered, combined and
reunited, disclosing, in both the contingent world and the
heavenly kingdom, entities of a new creation, and revealing,
in the unseen realms, the signs and tokens of Thy unity and
oneness. Through that Call Thou didst announce unto all Thy
servants the advent of Thy Most Great Revelation and the
appearance of Thy Most Pe,ject Cause." - Prayers and
Meditations, CLXXVIII
"This is the Day wherein naught can be seen except the
splendorsof the Light that shinethfrom the Face of Thy Lord,
the Gracious, the Most Bountiful. Verily, We have caused
every soul to expire by virtue of our i"esistible and all subdu-
ing sovereignty. We have, then , called unto being a new crea-
tion , as a token of Our grace unto men . I am, verily, the
All-Bountiful, the Ancient of Days." - Gleanings.,XIV
"This is a matchless Day ... the Desireof all nations .... The
whole human race hath longedfor this Day ... The allusions
made in the Scriptures have been unfolded, and the signs
recordedtherein have been revealed..." - Gleanings, XV
"The promise is fulfilled, that which had been announced
in the Holy Writ of God, the Most Exalted, the Almighty, the
Most Beloved, is made manifest." - Gleanings, CV
"Say: 0 people: The Day, promised unto you in all the
Scriptures, is now come. " - Gleanings, CXLIV
"Neither Sun nor Moon hath witnessed a day such as
this."
Baha'u'llah declared this truth over a hundred years
ago and , it has been literally proved and made manifest
in many respects . Moon had never in the past seen a day
in which a man from this earth could have gone onto the
moon , and , after digging out a specimen from its
ground , would have brought it back to this earth for
chemical analysis . Sun also , from an immensity of space-
distance must have been astonished, musing within itself.
While looking at such an unprecedented and even
unbelievable event in the universe as a whole .
Baha'u'llah has rightly said : "In the days to come, ye
will verily, behold things of which ye have never heard
before . Thus hath it been decreed in the Tablets of God ,
and none can comprehend it except they whose sight is
sharp."
1844
But, now, everybody can see them because promised
events have actually and openly taken place and results
thereof are manifest .
Similarly, the pinpoint target year, viz. 1844 A.D.
had been prophesied in the Holy Books of each and all
the Religions of the past, including the Hindu Faith ,
Jewish Faith , Zoroastrian Faith , Buddhist Faith , Chris-
tianity and Islam .
The period of arrangement while well establishing
Islam, even in the West was 260 years A.H., and in that
same year, 11th Imam, }Jasan 'Askari who was the last
Imam , ascended to paradise , and thereafter, one thou-
sand years, as per prophecy in the Holy Qur'an in the
Surih of Sijdih, Verse 1, when the Command of God
ascended back unto God. This took place in 1260 A .H .
when the Bab declared Himself as the long awaited Imam,
Mihdi, and terminated "Duru's-satr", the Age of Hiding,
"and inaugurated" the New Cycle of Discoveries, "Duru'l
Kashr:
Jesus Christ promised His Second Coming and de-
scribed many signs attending His Second appearance in
this world , including the renovation of the sanctuary.
When asked about the time , he referred His disciples
to Daniel the Jewish Prophet, who had symbolically
prophesied the time of Renovation at the completion of
2300 days and , according to the Book of "Numbers" in
the Old Testament a day is equal to a year. Now, this
sanctuary was built up by the Jewish Prophet Ezra in 456
B .C. So, by deducting this period of 456 B .C. from 2300
years, the exact year 1844 A .D. comes, when, actually
the Bab declared. The Renewal , and a New Baha'i Cycle
started. This had fulfilled both the Jewish and the Chris-
tian prophecies indeed.
Nearly 2000 years ago , Jesus Christ appeared and pro-
mised His second coming , describing many signs attend-
ing His second appearance in this world . One important
sample of these promises is found in Thief in the Night by
William Sears, and the reader can refer to that book for
details . Our treatment here will be brief. One promise
that Jesus Christ made about His return was recorded in
the New Testament of the Bible in the book of Matthew,
Chapter 24. In verse 3 we find, "And as he sat upon the
mount of Olives, the disciples came upto him privately,
saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what
shall be the sign of thy coming?" Jesus Christ then
foretold that "iniquity shall abound" in that day and the
"love of many shall wax cold" and followed with His pro-
mise in verse 15: "When ye therefore shall see the
abomination of desolation , spoken of by Daniel the pro-
phet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him
understand.)" Chapters 8-12 of the Old Testament book
of Daniel deal with this subject. Specifically, in Daniel,
Chapter 8, verses 13-14, we read," How long shall be the
vision concerning the daily sacrifice , and the abomina-
tion of desolation , to give the sanctuary and the host to be
trodden under foot? And he said upto me, Unto two
thousand and three hundred days : then shall the
sanctuary be cleansed." Now, Biblical scholars have
noted that in the Bible a "day" becomes a "year" when
calculating the passing of time. For instance, in the book
of Numbers 14: 34 it is stated, "Even forty days, each
day for a year." Therefore, 2300 years were to pass before
the sanctuary would be cleansed . Some Biblical scholars
prior to 1844 felt that this referred to one of four decrees
mentioned in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah to rebuild
Jerusalem, with the third decree, mentioned in the 7th
chapter of Ezra , most generally accepted as the correct
one. This was issued by Artaxerxes in the year 457 B .C.
"Some scholars pointed out that from the issuing of the
decree in 457 until the birth of Christ there were 456
years , not 457 ; therefore, it was necessary to subtract 456
from 2300. This left the year 1844."
In "D asatir-1-~mam
' ' • " - ' '" th e "Book of H eaven 1y Com-
mandments" of the Zoroastrian Faith , the exact time is
indicated in this way : "When the people of Iran will
become wicked and do evils ... at that time a Man shall
rise up from the Arabs , through whose disciples they will
loose the crown , the throne , the land , and their religion ,
and be destroyed ... By the lapse of one thousand years ,
after the establishment of that Arabic Religion, His
followers will have already spoiled their Faith so much by
splitting up themselves into sects that, were it to be pre-
sented to its Founder, He would not recognise the same .
Thus shalt thou see the Iranians that they shall not listen
to any Wise Man. Were some one to say the Truth, they
shall feel ill , and, instead of responding wisely they shall
come out with weapons to fight with Him . The worst
among the evil deeds of Iranians is that they have killed
the One Who , though from amongst themselves , was the
Sovereign Lord of all the Angelic Attributes."
The above prophecy foretells the coming of Islam in
Iran , and then , when the establishment of Islam will be
completed, that is to say that, from the year of the ascen-
sion of the 11th Imam l;Iasan 'Askari in 260 A.H. one
thousand years more will pass , and, exactly in the year
1260 A.H. i.e. 1844 A .D. a New Era will start. Also the
Martyrdom of the Bab , "the Sovereign Lord of all the
Angelic Attributes" is already foretold in this prophecy.
Now, we shall see clearly the ancient most prophecies
for the pinpoint year - 1844 A .D. in the Hindu Holy
Books:
"Manu Smriti", "the Memorandum of Manu" , the
Divine Law-Giver to mankind , described the life span of
the Universe which is merely a speck in the Creation of
God . He also specified calculations of the eternally cyclic
life span of Brahma . The Divine Agency of the Creative
Attribute of God , large and minor Religious Cycles of
Virtues comprising of various aeons , ages , epocs and
their linking periods , His book is known as the Source of
all laws , or "Law-Codes of Manu" , also "Yug-Shastra"
means "the Book of Yug ," in which Manu has declared
the beginning of a long big cycle of 12000years containing
within itself 4 minor and uneven periodic cycles , at the
termination of which the beginning of a new "Krit Yug"
which means the "Cycle of Truth in Deeds" will start .
"Manu-smriti" or "Manava Dharma-sastra" the Code or
Institutes of Manu . A collection of laws based on custom
and precedent and the teaching of the Vedas . It is
traditionally attributed to the mythical first Manu,
Svayambhuva, but it is obviously the work of many
hands . Buhler suggests that is was probably based on
'manuals written by the teachers of the Vedic schools for
the guidance of their pupils . . . and only later ack-
nowledged as sources of sacred law applicable to all
Aryas' . (Laws of Manu, SBE Sacred Books of the East, pp .
XIF; V. also CHI The Cambridge History of India, I, p .
278 .) Thus they represent 'the sum of the conditions of
social co-existence with regard to the activity of the com-
munity and of the individual' (R . Pal , History of Indian
lAw, p . 2) in India during almost the whole of the first
millennium B .C. . ...
Divine revelation (sruti) and empirical knowledge
(smrti) are drawn upon to define the Law of Conduct and
to apply it, though not always impartially, to all classes of
the community.
As per the calculations given in Manu Smriti , Chapter
I, Verses 68 to 72: that long cycle was to end exactly in
1844 A .D. and the New Era was to begin, which Most
Great Event has already taken place at the moment when
the Bab declared himself.
The exact calculation is as follows :
NameofYug Prelink Duration Post- Full
Link Period
SatYug 100 +1000 +100 =1200
Treta Yug 200 +2000 +200 =2400
DwaparYug 300 +3000 +300 =3600
Kali Yug 400 +4000 +400 =4800
Grand Total years = 12000
In India we have roughly the history of 5000 years , or
a little more. We have no records of the pre-historic
Yugas and their prelink and postlink periods . Of course ,
we have all legendary records about Sat Yug, Treta Yug
and Dwapar Yug, along with Manifestations of God Who
appeared in succession , one after the other, during those
three Yugas and even those before Manu. Rig Ved was
revealed by Agni Rishi, Yajur Ved by Vayu Rishi, Sam
Ved by Aditya Rishi and Atharva Ved by Angira Rishi.
"Rishi" means "a Divine Sage" or a "Sage having Divine
Authority" .
Manu , like Moses , confirmed all the four previous
Holy Revelations and the Divine Revealers thereof and
gave ten commandments, and many codes of laws, de-
scribed Genesis of this world , Cycles of previous Manus
and prophesied future aeons , cycles and ages .
What we can now calculate with historic accuracies is
the period of little more than 5000 years , viz . from the
time of Bhagwan Shri Krishna, The Divine Revealer of
the Holy Gita, Who was born 5207 years ago from now
i.e . 1982 A .D. In those days Solar System of almanac
was not known, and a calendar showing Lunar years was
prevailing. After about 3000 years from Bhagwan Shri
Krishna there was a noble king Vikramaditya who in 56
B .C. in-augurated the Solar Calendar, using the same
names of the months but adding one duplicate month
"Adhik Mas" in every third year. which became a leap
year, and also adjusting some duplicate dates "Adhik
Tithies" in various months . This Vikram Samvat is now
running its 2039th year. But, Shri Krishna Samvat is also
simultaneously running 5207th year because Shri
Krishna's devotees are observing their religious rites and
sacred duties according to Shri Krishna Samvat Calen-
dar. Vikram Samvat has always been, and even now is ,
56 years ahead of the Christian Calendar which runs on
the Gregorian Solar System .
Shri Krishna Calendar has 355 days in each year, and
hence 10¼ days less than the Christian Calendar year.
We have therefore to add 10¼ days per year to Shri
Krishna Samvat which is now 5207 .
From Vishnu Puran, Part IV, Chapter 24, Verses 109
and 113 , we learn that "on the day Bhagwan Krishna
ascended to His Holy Abode, at his age of 126 years
according to Shri Krishna Samvat Calendar, Kali Yug
did put its first foot on earth". "Kali" literally means "a
bud ; a petal of the flower; then , strifes , clash , quarrel;
wars; one side of die;" (Refer to "Amar-Koshi" Sanskrit
Dictionary) . In Vishnu Puran it is also stated that so long
as Bhagwan Shri Krishna was touching this earth with His
wtus Feet, Kali Yug could not put its foot on earth . The
word "Kali" has a dual meaning, which depicts that a
beautiful bud and a fragrant rose also, ultimately decays,
dries up and dies out. Hence, there are clear-cut proph-
ecies in the Hindu Scriptures about the bad events to
come and evil occurrances to happen at the end part of
Kali Yug - "Kaliyugantey". Usually Hindus and also the
generality of the people think that Kali Yug as a whole is
an evil age , which it is not . Because it is God's open and
loudest declaration that whenever a God-Man, Manifes-
tation of Divinity, appears on earth He most assuredly
brings once again and establishes Religion, and an age of
Righteousness in the world of Humanity is renewed. The
same thing was exactly done by Shri Krishna . He did
establish a beautifully budding civilisation, a spiritualised
nobility flourishing like the opening of a petal - "Kali" -
of a fragrant rose . He specially claims : ' I am the flowery
Spring Season" "Aham Rutuna Kusumakarah" , Gita X.
So Kali was a budding age of goodness, which, at the last
end, during its "Sandhayansh" the twilight point of 400
years , decayed and became worse and worse and finally
died in 1844 A .D. which was the 5065th year of Shri
Krishna Samvat.
From these 5065 years of Shri Krishna Samvat we
deduct 126 years of Shri Krishna's life on earth, what
remained is 4939 years of 355 days each . Converting them
into Solar years of 365 .25 days each : 4939 X 355 =
1753345 + 365 .25 = 4800 .3969 years . The year 1844 A .D .
synchronizes with this year 4800 .3969 . The fraction
0 .3969 depicts 4 months , 24 days , 23 hours , 13 minutes
and 31 .008 seconds of the year 1844 A .D. or the year
4800 of the expiry of Kali Yug. The prophecy says that
Kali Yug will end at this particular year, and by the end
of the age there will appear a Manifestation of God Who
will inaugurate a New "Krityug" which means "the Age of
Deeds" . This is exactly what the Bab had done on the
23rd of May 1844 A .D. 2 hours and 11 minutes after sun-
set, and fulfilled the great and long-standing prophecy.
There is a definite method of God usually found in all
the prophetic Books , that prophecies and predictions for
the remote future events are always made in the form of
riddles and allegories , so that they remain concealed and
locked up in the safe custodies of the knowledge of God
and His Saints and the possessors of spiritual insight only
till the actual happenings and events take place and the
Promised One from God appears and unlocks mysteries
with His Master Key . This Divine arrangement is a very
wise system meant for just safeguarding the real truth
seekers and devotees of God from false claimants and
pseudo prophets who generally try to misguide the peo-
ple , though themselves know nothing about the mysteries
and are ignorant of the realities of the Divine prophecies .
saints and holy persons make significant prophecies and
indicate hidden mysteries. In the year 1565 A .D. saint
Surdas straightaway made an exact pinpoint prophecy for
the target year 1844 A .D. in unambiguous and very
emphatic terms . Surdas was a blind saint who lived in
Parsavli village , near Mathura , the birth-place of Shri
Krishna in Uttar Pradesh, India. In the year 1587 he
passed away at the age of 94 years . At that time Vikram
Samvat was prevailing in India and the Gregorian Solar
Calendar throughout the world .
Manu in His Divine wisdom, knew that by the time
Kali Yug will end there shall be Solar System of all the
Calendars prevailing universally. And hence , he gave all
calculations in His prophecy in Solar Years .
Brief but poignant prophecy of saint Surdas is as
follows:
0 Mind! Why dost thou not have patience ? None can
put back the destined march of events.
Meghnath - the son of Ravana shall take birth again .
One thousand nine hundred and above, such event shall
occur that a cycle of Truth shall prevail for a thousand
years to come and the creeperof Religion shall start rising
high.
The Golden Flower shall bloom on earth , and then alone
the condition of the World shall take a tum .
0 Surdas ! This is the Mysterious Play of God, which
cannot be averted.
In the above prophecies saint Surdas begins and ends
with strong and firm and unambiguous notes of assertion
that whatever he has said shall inevitably come to pass
and none can resist it, or put it back.
He says that there shall be the return of "Meghnath"
who was a monstrous king and the enemy of Rama - the
Manifestation of God. Also Meghnath was the son of
"Ravana" who was also a king and the enemy of Rama.
This has actually taken place : King Muhammad Shah
was the enemy of the Bab , and after Muhammad Shah
came his son Na{>iru'd-DinShah, by whose order the Bab
-was martyred , thousands of His followers were killed ,
butchered , burnt alive and tyranized in the most horrible
fashions in the history of human beings . Also N.i&iru'd-
Din Shah imprisoned Baha'u'llah, 'Abdu'l-Baha, and the
whole Holy Family, and banished them to 'Akka, in
league with the Turkish government, and thirty thousand
Baha'1s were most cruelly martyred, men, women and
children, and even suckling babes in the unprecedented
demonical manner . Then saint Surdas says that one thou-
sand nine hundred and above , such an event shall occur
that the cycle of Truth shall prevail for a thousand years
to come and religion shall start rising high slowly like a
creeper.
As we already know that this Hindu Vikram Samvat
runs 56 years ahead of the Christian calendar , 1900
Vikram Samvat was therefore exactly in 1844A.D. to wit:
1900 - 56=1844. And saint Surdas says "1900 and above;
this "above" means not one full-year but a fraction more
than 1900. And that also was fulfilled , because the Bab
declared in the month of May on the 22nd, 2 hours and
11 minutes after sunset to be exact 4 months , 22 days 2
hours and 11 minutes above 1900Vikram Samvat.
The Baha'i Era started in 1844 A.D. and the Baha'i
Faith shall run its first course for not less than one thou-
sand years as no Manifestation of God, according to
Baha'u'llah , shall appear before the completion of one
full thousand years . According to saint Surdas the Baha'i
Faith is now growing like a creeper , and a time will surely
come when the Golden Age of the Cause of Baha'u'llah
shall certainly come, when "the golden flower" shall
bloom on earth and the condition of the world shall be
changed and "Heaven on earth" or "Ramrajya" i.e. "the
Kingdom of God" shall be firmly established on earth.
Of course, this shall come to pass and "none shall
have the power to resist or avert it" .
ONE
UNIVERSAL SOURCE
Baha'u'llah says :
"Soon will the present day order be rolled up and a New
One spread out in its stead. Verily, Thy Lord speaketh the
Truth and is the Knower of things unseen. "
"When the moon, the Sun, similarly the Heavenly Archer
Jupiter, the Master - shall come evenly in one Zodiacal sign
then the Krit Yug - the Cycle of Truth shall be."
Vishnu Puran - W, Chapter24, Verse102.
"When the prevailingcycleshall be coming to naught there
shall be tumultous upheavals and clashes. When the Moon,
the Sun . as also the Heavenly Archer Jupiter - the Master -
shall come in a single Zodiacal sign , it is then that the Age of
Action - the Krit Yug - shall come " - Mahabharat. Vana
Parva, Chapter1 , Verse90.
This prophecy is symbolical; like that of the Qur'an,
where also , the Sun and the Moon are foretold as coming
together and the moon to be eclipsed , means Baha'u'llah
and Bab together and the Bab to be martyred .
In this Hindu Prophecy : Moon - the Bab , Sun -
Baha'u'llah and the Master, 'Abdu'l-Baha, all the three
are prophesied as coming together, at that appointed
time , in 1844 A .D . and , Lo , when the Bab declared
Himself as the Forerunner of a Mightier Manifestation of
God, Baha'u'llah - Who was hidden behind the Veils of
Glory and at whose indications the Bab Himself was mov-
ing and speaking , 'Abdu'l- Baha - "the Master" also was
born on that same date, viz., 23rd May 1844 A .D.
Hence, this prophecy was also fulfilled completely and
the Promised Krit Yug - the Cycle of Truth indeed -
started.
From all the above references of the prophecies from
the Holy Books of all religions - some revealed as far
back as 12000 years ago in Sanskrit in India, some 500
years ago in Hindi over here, some more than 3000 and
2000 years ago in Semetic series of religions in Hebrew
and ancient Greek languages , some 3500 years ago in
Zend-Avastha in Iran; and some about 1300 years ago in
Qur'an in Arabic - it is proved beyond even a shadow of
doubt, that the original source of all these prophecies is
One and the only One - God Himself has so accurately
fulfilled all these promises through Manifestations, the
Bab, Baha'u'llah and also 'Abdu'l-Baha on that PIN-
POINT TARGET YEAR 1844A .D.
Prophecies were made in various lands thousands and
thousands of miles away from each other , and in widely
different ages , being thousands and thousands of years
apart from one another , and in completely different
languages unknown to one another, and , that too , during
the ages in which there was no international transporta-
tion and no means of communication at all .
Had there not been one universal source , all these
prophecies could not have one common target . On the
other hand, had the Bab not declared His Divine Mission
on that very date and at that very time , all these and
innumerable other various prophecies would have been
proved wrong, and those Holy Souls Who had made
these prophecies could have been known, God forbid, as
false.
But , praise be to God , Who is the All-Prevailing
Lord, the Omnipresent both in time and in space, the
All-Knowing, the Omnipotent, the All-Wise , the Ruler
and Protector of all , the Source of all Truth, the All-
Merciful , the All-Bountiful , the Loving and the only one
Beloved of all .
It is for this reason that Baha'u'llah has rightly said :
"This is that Most Great Beauty foretold in the books of the
Messengers, through Whom Truth shall be distinguishedfrom
e"or and the wisdom of every command shall be tested. Veri-
ly, He is the Tree of Life that bringethforth the fruits of God,
the Exalted, the Powe,ful, the Great. "
"Be thou assured in thyself that, Verily, he who turns
away from this Beauty hath also turned away from the
Messengers of the past and showeth pride towards God from
all eternity to all eternity. "
"O people! If ye deny these verses, by what proof have ye
believed in God? Produce it, 0 assemblage of the false ones!
Nay, by the one in Whose Hand in My Soul, they are not and
never shall be able to do this, even should they combine to
assist one another. "
"Thus doth the Nightingale utter His Call unto you from
this prison, He hath but to deliver this clear Message, who-
soever desireth let him tum aside from this counsel, and
whosoeverdesireth let him choose the Path to His Lord. "
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1844AD.
PINPOINT TARGET
OF ALL FAITHS
by
DR H.M. MUNJE
Baha'i Publishing Trust
New Delhi
Published by BA.HA.'~PUBLISHING TRUST oflndia
Baha'f House, 6 Canning Road, New Delhi I 10001, India
Copyright© Dr. RM Munje 1982
Originally published in 1982in Malaysia by the Spiritual
Assembly of the Baha'is of Malaysia .
This First Indian 1987 edition is published with the per-
mission of the National Spiritual Assembly of the
Baha'is of Malaysia .
ISBN 81-85091-26-9
Printed in India by Unicom Iteroational
THE GREATNESS
OF THIS DAY
Baha'u' llah says :
"The time fore-ordained unto the peoples and kindreds of
the earth is now come. The promises of God, as recorded in
the Holy Scriptures, have all beenfulfilled.
"This is the Day which the Pen of the Most High hath
glorified in all the Scriptures. " - Gleanings, X
"There hath appeared in this Revelation what hath never
appeared before. " - Gleanings, LXVII
"This New World Order... this wondrous system - the like
of which mortal eyes have never witnessed. Immerse yourselves
in the ocean of My words, that ye may unravel its secrets,and
discover all the pearls of wisdom that lie hid in its depths. "
-Gleanings, LXX
"Canst thou discover any one but Me, 0 Pen, in this
Day? What hath become of the creation and the manifes-
tations thereof? What of the names and their kingdoms ?
Whither are gone all created things, whether seen or unseen ?
What of the hidden secrets of the universe and its revelations?
Lo, the entire creation hath passed away. Nothing remaineth
except My Face, the Ever-abiding, the Resplendent, the All-
Glorious." - Gleanings, XIV
''/ beseech Thee, 0 my God, by that Letter which, as soon
as it proceeded out of the mouth of Thy will, hath caused the
oceans to surge, and the winds to blow, and the fruits to be
revealed, and the trees to springforth, and all past traces to
vanish, and all veils to be rent asunder, and them who are
devoted to Thee to hasten unto the light of the Countenanceof
their Lord, the Unconstrained, to make known unto me what
lay hid in the treasuries of Thy Knowledge and concealed
within the repositories of Thy wisdom. " - Prayers and
Meditations, CLXXVII
"I testify that no scionerhad the First Word proceeded,
through the potency of Thy will and purpose, out of His
mouth , and the First Call gone forth from His lips that the
whole creation was revolutionized, and all that are in the
heavens and all that are on earth were stirred to the depths.
Through that Word the realities of the created things were
shaken , were divided, separated, scattered, combined and
reunited, disclosing, in both the contingent world and the
heavenly kingdom, entities of a new creation, and revealing,
in the unseen realms, the signs and tokens of Thy unity and
oneness. Through that Call Thou didst announce unto all Thy
servants the advent of Thy Most Great Revelation and the
appearance of Thy Most Pe,ject Cause." - Prayers and
Meditations, CLXXVIII
"This is the Day wherein naught can be seen except the
splendorsof the Light that shinethfrom the Face of Thy Lord,
the Gracious, the Most Bountiful. Verily, We have caused
every soul to expire by virtue of our i"esistible and all subdu-
ing sovereignty. We have, then , called unto being a new crea-
tion , as a token of Our grace unto men . I am, verily, the
All-Bountiful, the Ancient of Days." - Gleanings.,XIV
"This is a matchless Day ... the Desireof all nations .... The
whole human race hath longedfor this Day ... The allusions
made in the Scriptures have been unfolded, and the signs
recordedtherein have been revealed..." - Gleanings, XV
"The promise is fulfilled, that which had been announced
in the Holy Writ of God, the Most Exalted, the Almighty, the
Most Beloved, is made manifest." - Gleanings, CV
"Say: 0 people: The Day, promised unto you in all the
Scriptures, is now come. " - Gleanings, CXLIV
"Neither Sun nor Moon hath witnessed a day such as
this."
Baha'u'llah declared this truth over a hundred years
ago and , it has been literally proved and made manifest
in many respects . Moon had never in the past seen a day
in which a man from this earth could have gone onto the
moon , and , after digging out a specimen from its
ground , would have brought it back to this earth for
chemical analysis . Sun also , from an immensity of space-
distance must have been astonished, musing within itself.
While looking at such an unprecedented and even
unbelievable event in the universe as a whole .
Baha'u'llah has rightly said : "In the days to come, ye
will verily, behold things of which ye have never heard
before . Thus hath it been decreed in the Tablets of God ,
and none can comprehend it except they whose sight is
sharp."
1844
But, now, everybody can see them because promised
events have actually and openly taken place and results
thereof are manifest .
Similarly, the pinpoint target year, viz. 1844 A.D.
had been prophesied in the Holy Books of each and all
the Religions of the past, including the Hindu Faith ,
Jewish Faith , Zoroastrian Faith , Buddhist Faith , Chris-
tianity and Islam .
The period of arrangement while well establishing
Islam, even in the West was 260 years A.H., and in that
same year, 11th Imam, }Jasan 'Askari who was the last
Imam , ascended to paradise , and thereafter, one thou-
sand years, as per prophecy in the Holy Qur'an in the
Surih of Sijdih, Verse 1, when the Command of God
ascended back unto God. This took place in 1260 A .H .
when the Bab declared Himself as the long awaited Imam,
Mihdi, and terminated "Duru's-satr", the Age of Hiding,
"and inaugurated" the New Cycle of Discoveries, "Duru'l
Kashr:
Jesus Christ promised His Second Coming and de-
scribed many signs attending His Second appearance in
this world , including the renovation of the sanctuary.
When asked about the time , he referred His disciples
to Daniel the Jewish Prophet, who had symbolically
prophesied the time of Renovation at the completion of
2300 days and , according to the Book of "Numbers" in
the Old Testament a day is equal to a year. Now, this
sanctuary was built up by the Jewish Prophet Ezra in 456
B .C. So, by deducting this period of 456 B .C. from 2300
years, the exact year 1844 A .D. comes, when, actually
the Bab declared. The Renewal , and a New Baha'i Cycle
started. This had fulfilled both the Jewish and the Chris-
tian prophecies indeed.
Nearly 2000 years ago , Jesus Christ appeared and pro-
mised His second coming , describing many signs attend-
ing His second appearance in this world . One important
sample of these promises is found in Thief in the Night by
William Sears, and the reader can refer to that book for
details . Our treatment here will be brief. One promise
that Jesus Christ made about His return was recorded in
the New Testament of the Bible in the book of Matthew,
Chapter 24. In verse 3 we find, "And as he sat upon the
mount of Olives, the disciples came upto him privately,
saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what
shall be the sign of thy coming?" Jesus Christ then
foretold that "iniquity shall abound" in that day and the
"love of many shall wax cold" and followed with His pro-
mise in verse 15: "When ye therefore shall see the
abomination of desolation , spoken of by Daniel the pro-
phet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him
understand.)" Chapters 8-12 of the Old Testament book
of Daniel deal with this subject. Specifically, in Daniel,
Chapter 8, verses 13-14, we read," How long shall be the
vision concerning the daily sacrifice , and the abomina-
tion of desolation , to give the sanctuary and the host to be
trodden under foot? And he said upto me, Unto two
thousand and three hundred days : then shall the
sanctuary be cleansed." Now, Biblical scholars have
noted that in the Bible a "day" becomes a "year" when
calculating the passing of time. For instance, in the book
of Numbers 14: 34 it is stated, "Even forty days, each
day for a year." Therefore, 2300 years were to pass before
the sanctuary would be cleansed . Some Biblical scholars
prior to 1844 felt that this referred to one of four decrees
mentioned in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah to rebuild
Jerusalem, with the third decree, mentioned in the 7th
chapter of Ezra , most generally accepted as the correct
one. This was issued by Artaxerxes in the year 457 B .C.
"Some scholars pointed out that from the issuing of the
decree in 457 until the birth of Christ there were 456
years , not 457 ; therefore, it was necessary to subtract 456
from 2300. This left the year 1844."
In "D asatir-1-~mam
' ' • " - ' '" th e "Book of H eaven 1y Com-
mandments" of the Zoroastrian Faith , the exact time is
indicated in this way : "When the people of Iran will
become wicked and do evils ... at that time a Man shall
rise up from the Arabs , through whose disciples they will
loose the crown , the throne , the land , and their religion ,
and be destroyed ... By the lapse of one thousand years ,
after the establishment of that Arabic Religion, His
followers will have already spoiled their Faith so much by
splitting up themselves into sects that, were it to be pre-
sented to its Founder, He would not recognise the same .
Thus shalt thou see the Iranians that they shall not listen
to any Wise Man. Were some one to say the Truth, they
shall feel ill , and, instead of responding wisely they shall
come out with weapons to fight with Him . The worst
among the evil deeds of Iranians is that they have killed
the One Who , though from amongst themselves , was the
Sovereign Lord of all the Angelic Attributes."
The above prophecy foretells the coming of Islam in
Iran , and then , when the establishment of Islam will be
completed, that is to say that, from the year of the ascen-
sion of the 11th Imam l;Iasan 'Askari in 260 A.H. one
thousand years more will pass , and, exactly in the year
1260 A.H. i.e. 1844 A .D. a New Era will start. Also the
Martyrdom of the Bab , "the Sovereign Lord of all the
Angelic Attributes" is already foretold in this prophecy.
Now, we shall see clearly the ancient most prophecies
for the pinpoint year - 1844 A .D. in the Hindu Holy
Books:
"Manu Smriti", "the Memorandum of Manu" , the
Divine Law-Giver to mankind , described the life span of
the Universe which is merely a speck in the Creation of
God . He also specified calculations of the eternally cyclic
life span of Brahma . The Divine Agency of the Creative
Attribute of God , large and minor Religious Cycles of
Virtues comprising of various aeons , ages , epocs and
their linking periods , His book is known as the Source of
all laws , or "Law-Codes of Manu" , also "Yug-Shastra"
means "the Book of Yug ," in which Manu has declared
the beginning of a long big cycle of 12000years containing
within itself 4 minor and uneven periodic cycles , at the
termination of which the beginning of a new "Krit Yug"
which means the "Cycle of Truth in Deeds" will start .
"Manu-smriti" or "Manava Dharma-sastra" the Code or
Institutes of Manu . A collection of laws based on custom
and precedent and the teaching of the Vedas . It is
traditionally attributed to the mythical first Manu,
Svayambhuva, but it is obviously the work of many
hands . Buhler suggests that is was probably based on
'manuals written by the teachers of the Vedic schools for
the guidance of their pupils . . . and only later ack-
nowledged as sources of sacred law applicable to all
Aryas' . (Laws of Manu, SBE Sacred Books of the East, pp .
XIF; V. also CHI The Cambridge History of India, I, p .
278 .) Thus they represent 'the sum of the conditions of
social co-existence with regard to the activity of the com-
munity and of the individual' (R . Pal , History of Indian
lAw, p . 2) in India during almost the whole of the first
millennium B .C. . ...
Divine revelation (sruti) and empirical knowledge
(smrti) are drawn upon to define the Law of Conduct and
to apply it, though not always impartially, to all classes of
the community.
As per the calculations given in Manu Smriti , Chapter
I, Verses 68 to 72: that long cycle was to end exactly in
1844 A .D. and the New Era was to begin, which Most
Great Event has already taken place at the moment when
the Bab declared himself.
The exact calculation is as follows :
NameofYug Prelink Duration Post- Full
Link Period
SatYug 100 +1000 +100 =1200
Treta Yug 200 +2000 +200 =2400
DwaparYug 300 +3000 +300 =3600
Kali Yug 400 +4000 +400 =4800
Grand Total years = 12000
In India we have roughly the history of 5000 years , or
a little more. We have no records of the pre-historic
Yugas and their prelink and postlink periods . Of course ,
we have all legendary records about Sat Yug, Treta Yug
and Dwapar Yug, along with Manifestations of God Who
appeared in succession , one after the other, during those
three Yugas and even those before Manu. Rig Ved was
revealed by Agni Rishi, Yajur Ved by Vayu Rishi, Sam
Ved by Aditya Rishi and Atharva Ved by Angira Rishi.
"Rishi" means "a Divine Sage" or a "Sage having Divine
Authority" .
Manu , like Moses , confirmed all the four previous
Holy Revelations and the Divine Revealers thereof and
gave ten commandments, and many codes of laws, de-
scribed Genesis of this world , Cycles of previous Manus
and prophesied future aeons , cycles and ages .
What we can now calculate with historic accuracies is
the period of little more than 5000 years , viz . from the
time of Bhagwan Shri Krishna, The Divine Revealer of
the Holy Gita, Who was born 5207 years ago from now
i.e . 1982 A .D. In those days Solar System of almanac
was not known, and a calendar showing Lunar years was
prevailing. After about 3000 years from Bhagwan Shri
Krishna there was a noble king Vikramaditya who in 56
B .C. in-augurated the Solar Calendar, using the same
names of the months but adding one duplicate month
"Adhik Mas" in every third year. which became a leap
year, and also adjusting some duplicate dates "Adhik
Tithies" in various months . This Vikram Samvat is now
running its 2039th year. But, Shri Krishna Samvat is also
simultaneously running 5207th year because Shri
Krishna's devotees are observing their religious rites and
sacred duties according to Shri Krishna Samvat Calen-
dar. Vikram Samvat has always been, and even now is ,
56 years ahead of the Christian Calendar which runs on
the Gregorian Solar System .
Shri Krishna Calendar has 355 days in each year, and
hence 10¼ days less than the Christian Calendar year.
We have therefore to add 10¼ days per year to Shri
Krishna Samvat which is now 5207 .
From Vishnu Puran, Part IV, Chapter 24, Verses 109
and 113 , we learn that "on the day Bhagwan Krishna
ascended to His Holy Abode, at his age of 126 years
according to Shri Krishna Samvat Calendar, Kali Yug
did put its first foot on earth". "Kali" literally means "a
bud ; a petal of the flower; then , strifes , clash , quarrel;
wars; one side of die;" (Refer to "Amar-Koshi" Sanskrit
Dictionary) . In Vishnu Puran it is also stated that so long
as Bhagwan Shri Krishna was touching this earth with His
wtus Feet, Kali Yug could not put its foot on earth . The
word "Kali" has a dual meaning, which depicts that a
beautiful bud and a fragrant rose also, ultimately decays,
dries up and dies out. Hence, there are clear-cut proph-
ecies in the Hindu Scriptures about the bad events to
come and evil occurrances to happen at the end part of
Kali Yug - "Kaliyugantey". Usually Hindus and also the
generality of the people think that Kali Yug as a whole is
an evil age , which it is not . Because it is God's open and
loudest declaration that whenever a God-Man, Manifes-
tation of Divinity, appears on earth He most assuredly
brings once again and establishes Religion, and an age of
Righteousness in the world of Humanity is renewed. The
same thing was exactly done by Shri Krishna . He did
establish a beautifully budding civilisation, a spiritualised
nobility flourishing like the opening of a petal - "Kali" -
of a fragrant rose . He specially claims : ' I am the flowery
Spring Season" "Aham Rutuna Kusumakarah" , Gita X.
So Kali was a budding age of goodness, which, at the last
end, during its "Sandhayansh" the twilight point of 400
years , decayed and became worse and worse and finally
died in 1844 A .D. which was the 5065th year of Shri
Krishna Samvat.
From these 5065 years of Shri Krishna Samvat we
deduct 126 years of Shri Krishna's life on earth, what
remained is 4939 years of 355 days each . Converting them
into Solar years of 365 .25 days each : 4939 X 355 =
1753345 + 365 .25 = 4800 .3969 years . The year 1844 A .D .
synchronizes with this year 4800 .3969 . The fraction
0 .3969 depicts 4 months , 24 days , 23 hours , 13 minutes
and 31 .008 seconds of the year 1844 A .D. or the year
4800 of the expiry of Kali Yug. The prophecy says that
Kali Yug will end at this particular year, and by the end
of the age there will appear a Manifestation of God Who
will inaugurate a New "Krityug" which means "the Age of
Deeds" . This is exactly what the Bab had done on the
23rd of May 1844 A .D. 2 hours and 11 minutes after sun-
set, and fulfilled the great and long-standing prophecy.
There is a definite method of God usually found in all
the prophetic Books , that prophecies and predictions for
the remote future events are always made in the form of
riddles and allegories , so that they remain concealed and
locked up in the safe custodies of the knowledge of God
and His Saints and the possessors of spiritual insight only
till the actual happenings and events take place and the
Promised One from God appears and unlocks mysteries
with His Master Key . This Divine arrangement is a very
wise system meant for just safeguarding the real truth
seekers and devotees of God from false claimants and
pseudo prophets who generally try to misguide the peo-
ple , though themselves know nothing about the mysteries
and are ignorant of the realities of the Divine prophecies .
saints and holy persons make significant prophecies and
indicate hidden mysteries. In the year 1565 A .D. saint
Surdas straightaway made an exact pinpoint prophecy for
the target year 1844 A .D. in unambiguous and very
emphatic terms . Surdas was a blind saint who lived in
Parsavli village , near Mathura , the birth-place of Shri
Krishna in Uttar Pradesh, India. In the year 1587 he
passed away at the age of 94 years . At that time Vikram
Samvat was prevailing in India and the Gregorian Solar
Calendar throughout the world .
Manu in His Divine wisdom, knew that by the time
Kali Yug will end there shall be Solar System of all the
Calendars prevailing universally. And hence , he gave all
calculations in His prophecy in Solar Years .
Brief but poignant prophecy of saint Surdas is as
follows:
0 Mind! Why dost thou not have patience ? None can
put back the destined march of events.
Meghnath - the son of Ravana shall take birth again .
One thousand nine hundred and above, such event shall
occur that a cycle of Truth shall prevail for a thousand
years to come and the creeperof Religion shall start rising
high.
The Golden Flower shall bloom on earth , and then alone
the condition of the World shall take a tum .
0 Surdas ! This is the Mysterious Play of God, which
cannot be averted.
In the above prophecies saint Surdas begins and ends
with strong and firm and unambiguous notes of assertion
that whatever he has said shall inevitably come to pass
and none can resist it, or put it back.
He says that there shall be the return of "Meghnath"
who was a monstrous king and the enemy of Rama - the
Manifestation of God. Also Meghnath was the son of
"Ravana" who was also a king and the enemy of Rama.
This has actually taken place : King Muhammad Shah
was the enemy of the Bab , and after Muhammad Shah
came his son Na{>iru'd-DinShah, by whose order the Bab
-was martyred , thousands of His followers were killed ,
butchered , burnt alive and tyranized in the most horrible
fashions in the history of human beings . Also N.i&iru'd-
Din Shah imprisoned Baha'u'llah, 'Abdu'l-Baha, and the
whole Holy Family, and banished them to 'Akka, in
league with the Turkish government, and thirty thousand
Baha'1s were most cruelly martyred, men, women and
children, and even suckling babes in the unprecedented
demonical manner . Then saint Surdas says that one thou-
sand nine hundred and above , such an event shall occur
that the cycle of Truth shall prevail for a thousand years
to come and religion shall start rising high slowly like a
creeper.
As we already know that this Hindu Vikram Samvat
runs 56 years ahead of the Christian calendar , 1900
Vikram Samvat was therefore exactly in 1844A.D. to wit:
1900 - 56=1844. And saint Surdas says "1900 and above;
this "above" means not one full-year but a fraction more
than 1900. And that also was fulfilled , because the Bab
declared in the month of May on the 22nd, 2 hours and
11 minutes after sunset to be exact 4 months , 22 days 2
hours and 11 minutes above 1900Vikram Samvat.
The Baha'i Era started in 1844 A.D. and the Baha'i
Faith shall run its first course for not less than one thou-
sand years as no Manifestation of God, according to
Baha'u'llah , shall appear before the completion of one
full thousand years . According to saint Surdas the Baha'i
Faith is now growing like a creeper , and a time will surely
come when the Golden Age of the Cause of Baha'u'llah
shall certainly come, when "the golden flower" shall
bloom on earth and the condition of the world shall be
changed and "Heaven on earth" or "Ramrajya" i.e. "the
Kingdom of God" shall be firmly established on earth.
Of course, this shall come to pass and "none shall
have the power to resist or avert it" .
ONE
UNIVERSAL SOURCE
Baha'u'llah says :
"Soon will the present day order be rolled up and a New
One spread out in its stead. Verily, Thy Lord speaketh the
Truth and is the Knower of things unseen. "
"When the moon, the Sun, similarly the Heavenly Archer
Jupiter, the Master - shall come evenly in one Zodiacal sign
then the Krit Yug - the Cycle of Truth shall be."
Vishnu Puran - W, Chapter24, Verse102.
"When the prevailingcycleshall be coming to naught there
shall be tumultous upheavals and clashes. When the Moon,
the Sun . as also the Heavenly Archer Jupiter - the Master -
shall come in a single Zodiacal sign , it is then that the Age of
Action - the Krit Yug - shall come " - Mahabharat. Vana
Parva, Chapter1 , Verse90.
This prophecy is symbolical; like that of the Qur'an,
where also , the Sun and the Moon are foretold as coming
together and the moon to be eclipsed , means Baha'u'llah
and Bab together and the Bab to be martyred .
In this Hindu Prophecy : Moon - the Bab , Sun -
Baha'u'llah and the Master, 'Abdu'l-Baha, all the three
are prophesied as coming together, at that appointed
time , in 1844 A .D . and , Lo , when the Bab declared
Himself as the Forerunner of a Mightier Manifestation of
God, Baha'u'llah - Who was hidden behind the Veils of
Glory and at whose indications the Bab Himself was mov-
ing and speaking , 'Abdu'l- Baha - "the Master" also was
born on that same date, viz., 23rd May 1844 A .D.
Hence, this prophecy was also fulfilled completely and
the Promised Krit Yug - the Cycle of Truth indeed -
started.
From all the above references of the prophecies from
the Holy Books of all religions - some revealed as far
back as 12000 years ago in Sanskrit in India, some 500
years ago in Hindi over here, some more than 3000 and
2000 years ago in Semetic series of religions in Hebrew
and ancient Greek languages , some 3500 years ago in
Zend-Avastha in Iran; and some about 1300 years ago in
Qur'an in Arabic - it is proved beyond even a shadow of
doubt, that the original source of all these prophecies is
One and the only One - God Himself has so accurately
fulfilled all these promises through Manifestations, the
Bab, Baha'u'llah and also 'Abdu'l-Baha on that PIN-
POINT TARGET YEAR 1844A .D.
Prophecies were made in various lands thousands and
thousands of miles away from each other , and in widely
different ages , being thousands and thousands of years
apart from one another , and in completely different
languages unknown to one another, and , that too , during
the ages in which there was no international transporta-
tion and no means of communication at all .
Had there not been one universal source , all these
prophecies could not have one common target . On the
other hand, had the Bab not declared His Divine Mission
on that very date and at that very time , all these and
innumerable other various prophecies would have been
proved wrong, and those Holy Souls Who had made
these prophecies could have been known, God forbid, as
false.
But , praise be to God , Who is the All-Prevailing
Lord, the Omnipresent both in time and in space, the
All-Knowing, the Omnipotent, the All-Wise , the Ruler
and Protector of all , the Source of all Truth, the All-
Merciful , the All-Bountiful , the Loving and the only one
Beloved of all .
It is for this reason that Baha'u'llah has rightly said :
"This is that Most Great Beauty foretold in the books of the
Messengers, through Whom Truth shall be distinguishedfrom
e"or and the wisdom of every command shall be tested. Veri-
ly, He is the Tree of Life that bringethforth the fruits of God,
the Exalted, the Powe,ful, the Great. "
"Be thou assured in thyself that, Verily, he who turns
away from this Beauty hath also turned away from the
Messengers of the past and showeth pride towards God from
all eternity to all eternity. "
"O people! If ye deny these verses, by what proof have ye
believed in God? Produce it, 0 assemblage of the false ones!
Nay, by the one in Whose Hand in My Soul, they are not and
never shall be able to do this, even should they combine to
assist one another. "
"Thus doth the Nightingale utter His Call unto you from
this prison, He hath but to deliver this clear Message, who-
soever desireth let him tum aside from this counsel, and
whosoeverdesireth let him choose the Path to His Lord. "
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