2,000 Greater & Lesser Mysteries/2,000 Greater and Lesser Mysteries.iso/bahi/mys00175.txt

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      The Promise of World Peace   (part 2 of 2)

 27.  The tentative steps towards world order, especially since World War
      II, give hopeful signs.  The increasing tendency of groups of
      nations to formalize relationships which enable them to cooperate
      in matters of mutual interest suggests that eventually all nations
      could overcome this paralysis.  The Association of South East Asian
      Nations, the Caribbean Community and Common Market, the Central
      American Common Market, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance,
      the European Communities, the League of Arab States, the Organiza-
      tion of African Unity, the Organization of American States, the
      South Pacific Forum--all the joint endeavors represented by such
      organizations prepare the path to world order.

 28.  The increasing attention being focused on some of the most deep-
      rooted problems of the planet is yet another hopeful sign.  Despite
      the obvious shortcomings of the United Nations, the more than two
      score declarations and conventions adopted by that organization,
      even where governments have not been enthusiastic in their commit-
      ment, have given ordinary people a sense of a new lease on life.
      The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the
      Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and the similar
      measures concerned with eliminating all forms of discrimination
      based on race, sex or religious belief; upholding the rights of the
      child; protecting all persons against being subjected to torture;
      eradicating hunger and malnutrition; using scientific and technolog-
      ical progress in the interest of peace and the benefit of mankind--
      all such measures, if courageously enforced and expanded, will ad-
      vance the day when the specter of war will have lost its power to
      dominate international relations.  There is no need to stress the
      significance of the issues addressed by these declarations and
      conventions.  However, a few such issues, because of their immedi-
      ate relevance to establishing world peace, deserve additional
      comment.

 29.  Racism, one of the most baneful and persistent evils, is a major
      barrier to peace.  Its practice perpetrates too outrageous a viola-
      tion of the dignity of human beings to be countenanced under any
      pretext.  Racism retards the unfoldment of the boundless potenti-
      alities of its victims, corrupts its perpetrators, and blights
      human progress.  Recognition of the oneness of mankind, implemented
      by appropriate legal measures, must be universally upheld if this
      problem is to be overcome.

 30.  The inordinate disparity between rich and poor, a source of acute
      suffering, keeps the world in a state of instability, virtually on
      the brink of war.  Few societies have dealt effectively with this
      situation.  The solution calls for the combined application of
      spiritual, moral and practical approaches.  A fresh look at the
      problem is required, entailing consultation with experts from a
      wide spectrum of disciplines, devoid of economic and ideological
      polemics, and involving the people directly affected in the deci-
      sions that must urgently be made.  It is an issue that is bound up
      not only with the necessity for eliminating extremes of wealth and
      poverty but also with those spiritual verities the understanding of
      which can produce a new universal attitude. Fostering such an
      attitude is itself a major part of the solution.

 31.  Unbridled nationalism, as distinguished from a sane and legitimate
      patriotism, must give way to a wider loyalty, to the love of human-
      ity as a whole.  Baha'u'llah's statement is:  "The earth is but one
      country and mankind its citizens."  The concept of world citizen-
      ship is a direct result of the contraction of the world into a
      single neighborhood through scientific advances and of the indisput-
      able interdependence of nations.  Love of all the world's peoples
      does not exclude love of one's country.  The advantage of the part
      in a world society is best served by promoting the advantage of the
      whole.  Current international activities in various fields which
      nurture mutual affection and a sense of solidarity among peoples
      need greatly to be increased.

 32.  Religious strife, throughout history, has been the cause of innu-
      merable wars and conflicts, a major blight to progress, and is
      increasingly abhorrent to the people of all faiths and no faith.
      Followers of all religions must be willing to face the basic ques-
      tions which this strife raises, and to arrive at clear answers.
      How are the differences between them to be resolved, both in theory
      and in practice?  The challenge facing the religious leaders of
      mankind is to contemplate, with hearts filled with the spirit of
      compassion and a desire for truth, the plight of humanity, and to
      ask themselves whether they cannot, in humility before their Al-
      mighty Creator, submerge their theological differences in a great
      spirit of mutual forbearance that will enable them to work together
      for the advancement of human understanding and peace.

 33.  The emancipation of women, the achievement of full equality between
      the sexes, is one of the most important, though less acknowledged
      prerequisites of peace.  The denial of such equality perpetrates an
      injustice against one half of the world's population and promotes
      in men harmful attitudes and habits that are carried from the
      family to the workplace, to political life, and ultimately to
      international relations.  There are no grounds, moral, practical,
      or biological, upon which such denial can be justified.  Only as
      women are welcomed into full partnership in all fields of human
      endeavor will the moral and psychological climate be lreated in
      which international peace can emerge.

 34.  The cause of universal education, which has already enlisted in its
      service an army of dedicated people from every faith and nation,
      deserves the utmost support that the governments of the world can
      lend it.  For ignorance is indisputably the principal reason for
      the decline and fall of peoples and the perpetuation of prejudice.
      No nation can achieve success unless education is accorded all its
      citizens.  Lack of resources limits the ability of many nations to
      fulfill this necessity, imposing a certain ordering of priorities.
      The decision-making agencies involved would do well to consider
      giving first priority to the education of women and girls, since it
      is through educated mothers that the benefits of knowledge can be
      most effectively and rapidly diffused throughout society.  In
      keeping with the requirements of the times, consideration should
      also be given to teaching the concept of world citizenship as part
      of the standard education of every child.

 35.  A fundamental lack of communication between peoples seriously
      undermines efforts towards world peace.  Adopting an international
      auxiliary language would go far to resolving this problem and
      necessitates the most urgent attention.

 36.  Two points bear emphasizing in all these issues.  One is that the
      abolition of war is not simply a matter of signing treaties and
      protocols; it is a complex task requiring a new level of commitment
      to resolving issues not customarily associated with the pursuit of
      peace.  Based on political agreements alone, the idea of collective
      security is a chimera.  The other point is that the primary chal-
      lenge in dealing with issues of peace is to raise the context to
      the level of principle, as distinct from pure pragmatism.  For, in
      essence, peace stems from an inner state supported by a spiritual
      or moral attitude, and it is chiefly in evoking this attitude that
      the possibility of enduring solutions can be found.

 37.  There are spiritual principles, or what some call human values, by
      which solutions can be found for every social problem.  Any well-
      intentioned group can in a general sense devise practical solutions
      to its problems, but good intentions and practical knowledge are
      usually not enough.  The essential merit of spiritual principle is
      that it not only presents a perspective which harmonizes with that
      which is immanent in human nature, it also induces an attitude, a
      dynamic, a will, an aspiration, which facilitate the discovery and
      implementation of practical measures.  Leaders of governments and
      all in authority would be well served in their efforts to solve
      problems if they would first seek to identify the principles in-
      volved and then be guided by them.


                                   III

 38.  The primary question to be resolved is how the present world, with
      its entrenched pattern of conflict, can change to a world in which
      harmony and cooperation will prevail.

 39.  World order can be founded only on an unshakable consciousness of
      the oneness of mankind, a spiritual truth which all the human
      sciences confirm.  Anthropology, physiology, psychology, recognize
      only one human species, albeit infinitely varied in the secondary
      aspects of life.  Recognition of this truth requires abandonment of
      prejudice--prejudice of every kind--race, class, color, creed,
      nation, sex, degree of material civilization, everything which
      enables people to consider themselves superior to others.

 40.  Acceptance of the oneness of mankind is the first fundamental
      prerequisite for reorganization and administration of the world as
      one country, the home of humankind.  Universal acceptance of this
      spiritual principle is essential to any successful attempt to
      establish world peace.  It should therefore be universally pro-
      claimed, taught in schools, and constantly asserted in every nation
      as preparation for the organic change in the structure of society
      which it implies.

 41.  In the Baha'i view, recogniion of the oneness of mankind "calls
      for no less than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the
      whole civilized world--a world organically unified in all the
      essential aspects of its life, its political machinery, its spirit-
      ual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and language, and
      yet infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of
      its federated units."

 42.  Elaborating the implications of this pivotal principle, Shoghi
      Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha'i Faith, commented in 1931 that:
      "Far from aiming at the subversion of the existing foundations of
      society, it seeks to broaden its basis, to remold its institutions
      in a manner consonant with the needs of an ever-changing world.  It
      can conflict with no legitimate allegiances, nor can it undermine
      essential loyalties.  Its purpose is neither to stifle the flame of
      the system of national autonomy so essential if the evils {f exces-
      sive centralization are to be avoided.  It does not ignore, nor
      does it attempt to suppress, the diversity of ethnical origins, of
      climate, of history, of language and tradition, of thought and
      habit, that differentiate the peoples and nations of the world.  It
      calls for a wider loyalty, for a larger aspiration than any that
      has animated the human race.  It insists upon the subordination of
      national impulses and interests to the imperative claims of a
      unified world.  It repudiates excessive centralization on one hand,
      and disclaims all attempts at uniformity on the other.  Its watch-
      word is unity in diversity. . . ."

 43.  The achievement of such ends requires several stages in the ad-
      justment of national political attitudes, which now verge on anar-
      chy in the absence of clearly defined laws or universally accepted
      and enforceable principles regulating the relationships between
      nations.  The League of Nations, the United Nations, and the many
      organizations and agreements produced by them have unquestionably
      been helpful in attenuating some of the negative effects of inter-
      national conflicts, but they have shown themselves incapable of
      preventing war.  Indeed, there have been scores of wars since the
      end of the Second World War; many are yet raging.

 44.  The predominant aspects of this problem had already emerged in the
      nineteenth century when Baha'u'llah first advanced his proposals
      for the establishment of world peace.  The principle of collective
      security was propounded by him in statements addressed to the
      rulers of the world.  Shoghi Effendi commented on his meaning:
      "What else could these weighty works signify," he wrote, "if they
      did not point to the inevitable curtailment of unfettered national
      sovereignty as an indispensable preliminary to the formation of the
      future Commonwealth of all the nations of the world?  Some form of
      a world superstate must needs be evolved, in whose favor all the
      nations of the world will have willingly ceded every claim to make
      war, certain rights to impose taxation and all rights to maintain
      armaments, except for purposes of maintaining internal order within
      their respective dominions.  Such a state will have to include
      within its orbit an International Executive adequate to enforce
      supreme and unchallengeable authority on every recalcitrant member
      of the commonwealth; a World Parliament whose members shall be
      election shall be confirmed by their respective governments; and a
      Supreme Tribunal whose judgment will have a binding effect even in
      such cases where the parties concerned did not voluntarily agree to
      submit their case to its consideration.

 45.  "A world community in which all economic barriers will have been
      permanently demolished and the interdependence of capital and labor
      definitely recognized; in which the clamor of religious fanaticism
      and strife will have been forever stilled; in which the flame of
      racial animosity will have been finally extinguished; in which a
      single code of international law--the product of the considered
      judgment of the world's federated representatives--shall have as
      its sanction the instant and coercive intervention of the combined
      forces of the federated units; and finally a world community in
      which the fury of a capricious and militant nationalism will have
      been transmuted into an abiding consciousness of world citizen-
      ship--such indeed, appears, in its broadest outline, the Order
      anticipated by Baha'u'llah, an Order that shall come to be regarded
      as the fairest fruit of a slowly maturing age."

 46.  The implementation of these far-reaching measures was indicated by
      Baha'u'llah:  "The time must come when the imperative necessity for
      the holding of a vast, an all-embracing assemblage of men will be
      universally realized.  The rulers and kings of the earth must needs
      attend it, and, participating in its deliberations, must consider
      such ways and means as will lay the foundations of the world's
      Great Peace amongst men."

 47.  The courage, the resolution, the pure motive, the selfless love of
      one people for another--all the spiritual and moral qualities
      required for effecting this momentous step towards peace are fo-
      cused on the will to act.  And it is towards arousing the necessary
      volition that earnest consideration must be given to the reality of
      man, namely, his thought.  To understand the relevance of this
      potent reality is also to appreciate the social necessity of actu-
      alizing its unique value through candid, dispassionate and cordial
      consultation, and of acting upon the results of this process.
      Baha'u'llah insistently drew attention to the virtues and indispen-
      sability of consultation for ordering human affairs.  He said:
      "Consultation bestows greater awareness and transmutes conjecture
      into certitude.  It is a shining light which, in a dark world,
      leads the way and guides.  For everything there is and will con-
      tinue to be a station of perfection and maturity.  The maturity of
      the gift of understanding is made manifest through consultation."
      The very attempt to achieve peace through the consultative action
      he proposed can release such a salutary spirit among the peoples of
      the earth that no power could resist the final, triumphal outcome.

 48.  Concerning the proceedings for this world gathering, 'Abdu'l-Baha
      the son of Baha'u'llah and authorized interpreter of his teachings,
      offered these insights:  "They must make the Cause of Peace the
      object of general consultation, and seek by every means in their
      power to establish a Union of the nations of the world.  They must
      conclude a binding treaty and establish a covenant, the provisions
      of which shall be sound, inviolable and definite.  They must pro-
      claim it to all the world and obtain for it the sanction of all the
      human race.  This supreme and noble undertaking--the real source of
      the peace and well-being of all the world--should be regarded as
      sacred by all that dwell on earth.  All the forces of humanity must
      be mobilized to ensure the stability and permanence of this Most
      Great Covenant.  In this all-e[bracing Pact the limits and fron-
      tiers of each and every nation should be clearly fixed, the princi-
      ples underlying the relations of governments towards one another
      definitely laid down, and all international agreements and obliga-
      tions ascertained.  In like manner, the size of the armaments of
      every government should be strictly limited, for if the prepara-
      tions for war and the military forces of any nation should be
      allowed to increase, they will arouse the suspicion of others.  The
      fundamental principle underlying this solemn Pact should be so
      fixed that if any government later violate any one of its provi-
      sions, all the governments on earth should arise to reduce it to
      utter submission, nay the human race as a whole should resolve,
      with every power at its disposal, to destroy that government.
      Should this greatest of all remedies be applied to the sick body of
      the world, it will assuredly recover from its ills and will remain
      eternally safe and secure."

 49.  The holding of this mighty convocation is long overdue.

 50.  With all the ardor of our hearts, we appeal to the leaders of all
      nations to seize this opportune moment and take irreversible steps
      to convoke this world meeting.  All the forces of history impel the
      human race towards this act which will mark for all time the dawn
      of its long-awaited maturity.

 51.  Will not the United Nations, with the full support of its member-
      ship, rise to the high purposes of such a crowning event?

 52.  Let men and women, youth and children everywhere recognize the
      eternal merit of this imperative action for all peoples and lift up
      their voices in willing assent.  Indeed, let it be this generation
      that inaugurates this glorious stage in the evolution of social
      life on this planet.


                                   IV

 53.  The source of the optimism we feel is a vision transcending the
      cessation of war and the creation of agencies of international
      cooperation.  Permanent peace among nations is an essential stage,
      but not, Baha'u'llah asserts, the ultimate goal of the social
      development of humanity.  Beyond the initial armistice forced upon
      the world by the fear of nuclear holocaust, beyond the political
      peace reluctantly entered into by suspicious rival nations, beyond
      pragmatic arrangements for security and coexistence, beyond even
      the many experiments in cooperation which these steps will make
      possible the crowning goal; the unification of all the peo-
      ples of the world in one universal family.

 54.  Disunity is a danger that the nations and peoples of the earth can
      no longer endure; the consequences are too terrible to contemplate,
      too obvious to require any demonstration.  "The well-being of
      mankind," Baha'u'llah wrote more than a century age, "its peace
      and security are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly
      established."  In observing that "mankind is groaning, is dying to
      be led to unity, and to terminate its agelong martyrdom," Shoghi
      Effendi further commented that:  "Unification of the whole of
      mankind is the hallmark of the stage which human society is now
      approaching.  Unity of family, of tribe, of city-state, and nation
      have been successively attempted and fully established.  World
      unity is the goal towards which a harassed humanity is striving.
      Nation-building has come to an end.  The anarchy inherent in state
      sovereignty is moving towards a climax.  A world, growing to matu-
      rity, must abandon this fetish, recognize the oneness and wholeness
      of human relationships, and establish once for all the machinery
      that can best incarnate this fundamental principle of its life."

 55.  All contemporary forces of change validate this view.  The proofs
      can be discerned in the many examples already cited of the favora-
      ble signs towards world peace in current international movements
      and developments.  The army of men and women, drawn from virtually
      every culture, race and nation on earth, who serve the multifarious
      agencies of the United Nations, represent a planetary "civil ser-
      vice" whose impressive accomplishments are indicative of the degree
      of cooperation that can be attained even under discouraging condi-
      tions.  An urge towards unity, like a spiritual springtime, strug-
      gles to express itself through countless international congresses
      that bring together people from a vast array of disciplines.  It
      motivates appeals for international projects involving children and
      youth.  Indeed, it is the real source of the remarkable movement
      towards ecumenism by which members of historically antagonistic
      religions and sects seem irresistibly drawn towards one another.
      Together with the opposing tendency to warfare and self-aggrandize-
      ment against which it ceaselessly struggles, the drive towards
      world unity is one of the dominant, pervasive features of life on
      the planet during the closing years of the twentieth century.

 56.  The experience of the Baha'i community may be seen as an example of
      this enlarging unity.  It is a community of some three to four
      million people drawn from many nations, cultures, classes and
      creeds, engaged in a wide range of activities serving the spirit-
      ual, social and economic needs of the peoples of many lands.  It is
      a single social organism, representative of the diversity of the
      human family, conducting its affairs through a system of commonly
      accepted consultative principles, and cherishing equally all the
      great outpourings of divine guidance in human history.  Its exist-
      ence is yet another convincing proof of the practicality of its
      Founder's vision of a united world, another evidence that humanity
      can live as one global society, equal to whatever challenges its
      coming of age may entail.  If the Baha'i experience can contribute
      in whatever measure to reinforcing hope in the unity of the human
      race, we are happy to offer it as a model for study.

 57.  In contemplating the supreme importance of the task now challenging
      the entire world, we bow our heads in humility before the awesome
      majesty of the divine Creator, Who out of His infinite love has
      created all humanity from the same stock; exalted the gemlike
      reality of man; honored it with intellect and wisdom, nobility and
      immortality; and conferred 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."

 58.  We hold firmly the conviction that all human beings have been
      created "to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization"; that the
      virtues that befit human dignity are trustworthiness, forbearance,
      mercy, compassion and loving kindness towards all peoples.  We
      reaffirm the belief that the "potentialities inherant in the sta-
      tion of man, the full measure of his destiny on earth, the innate
      excellence of his reality, must all be manifested in this promised
      Day of God." These are the motivations for our unshakable faith
      That unity and peace are the attainable goal towards which humanity
      is striving.

 59.  At this writing, the expectant voices of Baha'is can be heard
      despite the persecution they still endure in the land in which
      their faith was born.  By their example of steadfast hope, they
      bear witness to the belief that the imminent realization of this
      age-old dream of peace is now, by virtue of the transforming ef-
      fects of Baha'u'llah's revelation, invested with the force of
      divine authority. Thus we convey to you not only a vision in
      words: we summon the power of deeds of faith and sacrifice; we
      convey the anxious plea of our coreligionists everywhere for peace
      and unity. We join with all who are the victims of aggression, all
      who yearn for an end to conflict and contention, all whose devotion
      to principles of peace and world order promotes the enobling
      purposes for which humanity was called into being by an all-loving
      Creator.

 60.  In the earnestness of our desire to impart to you the fervor of our
      hope and the depth of our confidence, we cite the emphatic promise
      of Baha'u'llah:  "These fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall
      pass away, and the 'Most Great Peace' shall come."


                          THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE