Learned

Learning to be Learned; Protection and Propagation of the Kingdom

By John Taylor; 31 July, 2005

Our world is bogged down in power struggles. What should be exalted as
sacred is politicized instead. As Jesus warned, one should not cast
pearls before swine, that is, fight over what we do not and often
never will understand completely. Baha'u'llah's Order offers hope to
the pearl merchant, for it frees the learned from contending for
wealth and power, and humankind from the tyranny of struggle for mere
survival. The learned in His Commonweal are angels of the mind,
answerers of this prayer in the "Great Announcement" to Humanity:

"God grant that the light of unity may envelope the whole earth and
that the seal `the kingdom is God's' may be stamped on the brow of all
its peoples." (Gleanings, 11; Proclamation, 112)

This I call the "first principle prayer," for it contains within it
each and all of the Baha'i principles. Every social principle starts
and ends here, for ultimately both personal and social are not our
attributes but God's. The growing, propagational role of knowledge is
here, the "light of unity," and the protective principle too, the
realization that all things are property of God, and of God alone.
When that is stamped on our brow, there will be no question of staking
a claim on anything.

If we had nothing else but this prayer and if mind and heart were
absolutely pure, I am certain that we could deduce from it all of the
Baha'i principles on our own; however, since minds and personalities
vary and hearts are not totally pristine we must depend upon the
entire body of the Writings. The more we learn from them the more
intimately we realize our dependence upon God and how sacred all real
things really are. Here is an example, from Baha'u'llah's monumental
"Prayers and Meditations,"

"How bewildering to me, insignificant as I am, is the attempt to
fathom the sacred depths of Thy knowledge! How futile my efforts to
visualize the magnitude of the power inherent in Thine handiwork --
the revelation of Thy creative power! How can mine eye, which hath no
faculty to perceive itself, claim to have discerned Thine Essence, and
how can mine heart, already powerless to apprehend the significance of
its own potentialities, pretend to have comprehended Thy nature? How
can I claim to have known Thee, when the entire creation is bewildered
by Thy mystery, and how can I confess not to have known Thee, when,
lo, the whole universe proclaimeth Thy Presence and testifieth to Thy
truth?" (Baha'u'llah, Gleanings, 63)

This stance on the part of the first teacher of philosophy was called
Socratic Ignorance, but humility is equally characteristic of the
guardians and protectors of knowledge, for that is the difference
between the concern for one another of brotherhood and Big Brother.
There are no exceptions. The spiritually learned are those who best
realize that they are most helpless of all,

"The learned have, without exception, admitted their ignorance when
confronted with the radiance of the Luminary of Thy knowledge..."
(Baha'u'llah, Prayers and Meditations, 281)

Lest this ever be forgotten, we have the precedent of all history to
look back on, for it was the officially learned in every age who
rejected true authority and caused the suffering of the Manifestation.
The story of their folly and cruelty is, as we learned here from the
Writings of the Bab lately, the most shameful story ever told. But
even in the delusion of most learned doctors of the past, there is a
hidden wisdom.

"What unspeakable cruelties they that have occupied the seats of
authority and learning have inflicted upon the true Monarchs of the
world, those Gems of divine virtue! Content with a transitory
dominion, they have deprived themselves of an everlasting sovereignty
... By their sanction and authority, every Prophet of God hath drunk
from the chalice of sacrifice, and winged His flight unto the heights
of glory." (Baha'u'llah, Kitab-i-Iqan, 15)

The learned in this Cause no longer have unfettered authority to
interpret or to make independent rulings; only the Guardianship can
authoritatively do the former and the House of Justice the latter. But
Baha'u'llah has not ejected the learned completely. Out of His bounty,
God has removed all that shame from their shoulders for the past
transgression of denial. A great bounty, not to be forgotten. But now
the learned must act only through loving influence rather than
compulsion and power; they are brothers and sisters, temporary guides
pointing to clear guideposts unto the Kingdom.

I think of their new form of service as not unlike what in earlier
religious systems was called guardian angels. What a guardian angel
tells you may not come straight from God. It is flawed, but only a
fool would lightly ignore it. Indeed, let us never forget that despite
all this, Baha'u'llah has not distained to confer upon what He calls
His servants a sure authority. This authority is not exclusive to the
learned but applies to anyone acting in the capacity of servant of
God, the highest human station attainable.

"Deny not My servant should he ask anything from thee, for his face is
My face; be then abashed before Me." (AHW 30)

Abashed means embarrassed, shamed, being aware that one is acting
beneath what one could and should be. Thus if one of His servants as a
teacher, or a parent, or a police officer, or in any other capacity
sincerely asks me to do something, I am going to obey, for Baha'u'llah
is closely identified with that authority. For Baha'u'llah has removed
the shame from the learned and from those with authority, but not from
those who fail duly to respect authority. In conformity with search
for truth, we obey the true servant not abjectly but out of a sense of
our own dignity, never because we are forced or obligated to do so.
For the truth makes us ever aware that the learned servant is there to
lead us down His garden path. She keeps us from wandering off the path
and harming the flowers of His garden.

The learned are now servants like you and me, only more so. They know
the most important thing knowable, their own ignorance. That awareness
is the essence of philosophy. Their mandate and ours is to come to
understand the underlying purpose of all Holy Writ and all religious
traditions, to establish that we are all one in the One. All is His
property, comes of Him, and returns to Him. This is why I think that
the first principle prayer and its seal, "the kingdom is God's" prayer
is so wonderful. For here Baha'u'llah gives us and the learned an
understanding of what is the goal of learning in all times and ages:

"If any man were to meditate on that which the Scriptures, sent down
from the heaven of God's holy Will, have revealed, he would readily
recognize that their purpose is that all men shall be regarded as one
soul, so that the seal bearing the words 'The Kingdom shall be God's'
may be stamped on every heart, and the light of Divine bounty, of
grace, and mercy may envelop all mankind." (Baha'u'llah, Tablets, 162,
Lawh-i-Maqsud)

This awareness is precisely what the Lord's prayer both begs and
predicts, "Thy kingdom come on earth as in heaven," "Thine is the
kingdom, the power and the glory..." This is the pearl of knowledge,
the consummation of the Long Obligatory Prayer, testifying to what all
real things agree upon and assert: "The kingdoms of earth and heaven
are Thine, O Lord of the Worlds!"

--
John Taylor

badijet@gmail.com