August 6, 1914
Haifa
The gathering storm is most portentous! Mankind is gripped
in the paroxysm of a fearful alarm. They are in the throes of a deadly
consternation. On their ashen faces are engraved the distorted pictures of the
coming horrors. The kind shepherds have turned suddenly into ferocious wolves,
tearing the sheep and the lambs into pieces. Mercy has hidden its face; Love
has covered her countenance; Sympathy does not stretch forth its arms;
Affection has flown away; Truth finds itself a stranger among a large company
of hypocritical admirers; and Peace does not envisage herself in the clear
mirror of the pure hearts.
About ten or fifteen days ago I had the pleasure of meeting
the German Consul and discussing with him the ominous signs of the coming
European war. He delivered himself of the opinion, current among the statesmen,
that a nation must go on increasing its annual military and naval expenditures
if it desires to protect its growing commercial and national interests from the
attack of its equally powerful and expanding neighbors or rivals; that the
greater the military devices and paraphernalia, the more one is assured of the
progress of the nation and its constantly developing resources.
In that meeting there were present a number of German and
other nationalities. Strange to say, on this question they all agreed with the
Consul, and concurred in his opinion as though he had voiced their hidden and
most cherished thoughts.
I said: “If the power of Love and Peace become predominant
and supreme, their effects will be greater than the power of hate and Mars, the
god of war. In the world of existence there is no power as efficacious and as
penetrative as the Power of Love. Military Power coerces and compels men
through unnatural resort to force and violation, but mankind yield happily and
willingly to the Power of Love.
“The war expenses of each nation have increased greatly of
late years. Although there has not been the physical clash and turmoil of
actual war, yet in reality a financial and economic war has been going on
incessantly and draining the resources of the people. For a goodly portion of
what the poor laborers, farmers and artisans get with the sweat of their brows
and the labor of their hands is taken from them under the name of taxes, and
expended over military preparations. Hence war is uninterrupted. This exaction
breeds discontent, class feeling and group consciousness against the
established order -- everyone realizing that human society is out of gear.
“Now if they could employ this pugnacity, this hammer and
tongs, this fists and heels spirit, this feverish haste in the accumulation of
war materials, this waste of great thoughts over the perfection of military
science -- I say if they could expend this
exertion and effort, this endeavor and high mindedness in bringing about Love
among mankind, in strengthening the ties of interdependence between nations and
governments and in establishing fellowship and affinity between the races --
how much more efficient it would have been! Instead of unsheathing the sword to
shed each other's blood, they should think of the perfection of each other's
civilizations, sciences, arts, commerce, progress and advancement. Is this not
better? Is it not worthier for the noble station of man?”
The German Consul and others would not think of accepting my
ideas, and started to object to them.
Then I said again: “What victory will you gain out of this
war? What will be the outcome of this bloodshed? What will be the fruit of this
onslaught? What will be the result of this aggression? From the beginning of
history to the present time, what has been the profit that humanity has
gathered from war? Nothing but ruin, devastation, the desecration of the holy
rights of man, vandalism, carnage and the brutalization of the ideals deposited
by God in the hearts of men. And if we read the spirit of modern history
aright, we come to the conclusion that there is no war of conquest -- the
conqueror and the conquered find themselves in manifest loss at the end of the
engagement…
“Consider what ideal victories, what brilliant triumphs,
what spiritual traces, what heavenly successes have become manifest through the
Power of Love! Therefore how much nobler and worthier would it be if the sages
and thinkers of the world expended their physical, intellectual and moral
forces in the promulgation of the Power of Love among mankind. This Power of
Love is the means of reciprocity and cooperation between nations! It is the
cause of their everlasting Glory! It is conducive to the composure and security
of the world of creation!”
I found my listeners still far from accepting my plea. They
were silenced, but I knew it was a silence out of respect and not an
acknowledgment and a confession that they were convinced. I found today that
owing to the declaration of war in Europe, the Germans in this colony are very
sad, and depressed, so much so that it is indescribable. They know that they
are in danger; the danger of defeat of the Fatherland. Then, why should they
hail war?
Pursuing my conversation with the German Consul and others,
I said: “In reality all the inhabitants of Europe owe their allegiance to one
Religion, and that is the Religion of His Holiness Christ; they also belong to
one racial stock, which is no other than Aryan, which parent stock migrated
from Asia in ancient times and settled in the different parts of that
uninhabited country. After the lapse of many generations, one community called
itself Frank, another Saxon, another Norman, another Latin, etc. Later on, step
by step, they fabricated the means of differences, and many misconceptions
crept in which added day by day to the gravity of the situation.
“Furthermore, were we to ponder carefully, we would realize
that they are living on one continent Europe. Hence if they claim that their
misunderstanding is on account of religious differences, as they are
overshadowed by the influence of one religion, it must not exist. If they state
that their alienation comes from racial bias, because they are the descendants
of one primal race, it must be brushed aside. If they assert that their strife
is on patriotic grounds, inasmuch as they inhabit the one continent it must
have no weight. Moreover, they are all mankind. They have grown from one common
trunk and are the branches of one tree.”
“When I was traveling in Europe, I observed every nation
crying at the top of her voice: ‘O my Country! O my dear Country! O my beloved
Country!’ I said: Oh, my friends! What are all these clamors for? Why all these
acclamations? Why all these uproars and outcries? Why all this hullabaloo?
These countries over which you are so vociferous and at every moment show the
signs of obstreperousness, are One Country, the home of humanity. Wherever man
chooses to live, there is his home and his country. God has not divided this
earth. It is one globe, one sphere. These boundaries that you have defined are
the greatest illusions that man could ever conceive in his mind. They have no
reality. It is similar to the division of one room into different sections, with
so many hypothetical lines, calling this corner Germany, that corner France and
another corner England. Of a truth, these suppositional lines have no outward
existence. These assumed boundaries are canine divisions, for it is observed
that a number of dogs divide among themselves the public square into various
sections and if one dare to go beyond the limit set for it, and trespass on the
rights of others, the rest will set up a dreadful howl and bark and go for it;
notwithstanding that these imaginary lines have no real forms or shapes.
“Again, let us still go a little further and investigate and
find out what is this "country" over which you so quarrel and
scramble? A piece of land. If this is the case, very well then; it is
self-evident that man lives above this earth only for a few days and then for
all eternity he will go under it. It is his everlasting graveyard, his
unchangeable cemetery. Is it worthy of man to fight over his own burying
ground? To shed the blood of his own brethren? To destroy the divine edifice --
for man is the Edifice of God? Is it noble of him to commit all of these
inhuman atrocities for the necropolis of dead bodies?”
The object is this: These remarks were not relished by the
Germans on that day, but I saw them today in an unhappy mood. They were visibly
agitated and disturbed. But on the other hand they are manifesting great
courage and patriotism. The young men have given up their work and are ready to
start for Germany. There are more than fifty volunteers, and probably from this
small colony nearly one hundred young men will leave for the scene of war. They
are doing this with perfect joy and without the least complaint. But today's
news, that Russia, England and France are united together to crush Germany, has
given them much food for thought.
How cruel man is to send his brothers into the battle field,
so that they may cut each other to pieces! Just on the simple ground that thou
art German, I am English and he is French! Although in reality they are all
human and are living beneath the shade of one God. His Divine Bestowals, Favors
and Bounties have encircled all of them. They are all the sheep of God and He
as the Spiritual Shepherd is merciful to all.
In short, the display of this barbaric passion is no other
than the passion of nature. These men, like unto animals, are the prisoners of
nature, subdued and overcome by nature. According to the requirement of nature,
the animals are pugnacious and strive in the destruction of each other. In the
world of nature there are aggression, bloodthirstiness, oppression, struggle
for existence, rapacity. These qualities are the natural laws of nature. Just
as these animals are captives of nature, similarly man is conquered, subjugated
and humbled by nature. For example, anger gets the better of man, ferocity
prevails upon him, and be becomes the subject of the lower passions. What are
all these? They are no other than the mandates of the world of nature.
Only those persons who are in reality believers in God, who
have witnessed the Signs of God, are attracted to the Kingdom of God and turned
their faces toward God -- they and they
alone are freed from the bloody claws of nature. Whereas formerly they were the
subjects of nature, now they become the rulers. Whereas before they were
vanquished by nature, now they become its victors.
In brief, while nature invites man to the baser propensities
of ego and self, the Love of God attracts him to the worlds of sanctity and
holiness, justice and generosity, mercy and humanity.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a talk, Star of the West, vol. 5, no.
12, October 16, 1914)
