BAHAI MOVEMENT

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 39, 9 November 1940, Page 5

BAHAI MOVEMENT

Unity Of Humanity

Speaking to an appreciative audience at the Theosophical Hall last Sunday, Miss Dulcie Burns, Auckland, lecturing on behalf of the Bahai Spiritual Assembly, said that the principles of the Bahai movement stood upon the unity of humanity ; the need for personal independent investigation of truth; and the need for breaking down all barriers of prejudice—racial, social, and religious. “The world is but one family, ami mankind its citizens,” said Aliss Burns. “There is one race, the human race, lhe colourings of skins of the peoples' show them to be different coloured ilowers in the Garden of God. The wide world is but one native land. In every religion there is a Golden Rule, and these are expressed by quotations from Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Alohammedan, and Christian sacred books; and each religion speaks, of a Promised One. The Bahai revelation fulfils this prophesy. “The Bahai Faith is a special movement with a religious foundation whose fundamental teaching is the oneness of humanity as taught by Baha’u’llah (the Glory of God), the Universal prophet ot God for this cyclo. In May, 1544, his* precursor, a young' man named the Bab (the Door or the Gate) announced that the tine promised in all .Holy Scriptures would be made manifest. In 1860 Bah’u’llah (the Promised One) was exiled from Baghdad to Constantinople, . to Adrianople, and finally as a religious prisoner to Akka in Palestine. After Baha'u’JlahM death, Abdu’lßaha, his son (knighted by the late King George V for his work in Palestine during the war of 1914-18) carried his father’s teachings to the Uni toil .States of America, England and Europe during 1910-1912. A grandson is now a guardian of the Bahai Faith. The teachings also include the formation of a House of Justice backed by a Universal Tribunal, the members of which arc elected for their spirituality, capabilities, and attitude of service to the human race, not for their own country alone. A solution to the economic problem is in the attitude toward work. AVork done in a spirit of service is tin act of worship and a form of prayer to God. A universal language is to be chosen and taught to all schools, and universal education established.” Aliss Burns concluded with a quotation from an educationist in a Bahai school in the United States of America, who dwelt upon the world-to-be, when jungle-like competition would be at an end and 'the common acceptance of mercy, justice and love would be fulfilled.