Tramp in the Garden

The Tramp in the Garden

By John Taylor; 20 September, 2005

Our animator missed our Ruhi session last night, having a birthday
celebration to attend (his own). I temporarily took over his job but
messed up terribly. What happened was that we going over the story
describing Baha'u'llah's period of two years of self-imposed exile in
the mountains, as described in Lesson 22 of Ruhi Book 5, "Teaching
Children's Classes, Grade 2," and I got the date of the time in the
mountains of Kurdistan wrong. Worse, I criticized the Ruhi text
unfairly. Seeking a proper combination of comfort and admonition, I
found it in the first few verses of Alexander Pope's "Essay on
Criticism,"

"'Tis hard to say, if greater Want of Skill
Appear in Writing or in Judging ill,
But, of the two, less dang'rous is th' Offence,
To tire our Patience, than mis-lead our Sense:
Some few in that, but Numbers err in this,
Ten Censure wrong for one who Writes amiss..."

Still, I cannot help myself, there is something about Ruhi that brings
out the critic in me. There seems to be an unspoken rule that if
material is for kids it must be dumbed down. Only the very best
children's literature manages to be simple without being simplistic,
fun without being childish. Unfortunately the Ruhi courses tip towards
the patronizing even when dealing with adults, so it is to be expected
that it will be worse with children's lessons. But even so, I do not
know how even the least patronizing historian could tell the story of
Baha'u'llah's exile to the mountains without speculating upon His
motives for doing so. It was a voluntary exile, so He had to have a
reason. Unfortunately, there is little or no first hand or for that
matter second hand material to explain the specific problems that made
Him take that dire course. We have only the testimony of the Master,
His sister, and Baha'u'llah Himself, told much later, to go by;
nothing as far as historical data. Peter Smith in his article in the
Baha'i Encyclopedia does the only thing possible; he admits the lack
of raw material:

"Accompanied by his family ... Baha'u'llah made the difficult winter
journey over the mountains to Ottoman Iraq, arriving in BAGHDAD on 8
April 1853. Here they were later joined by Azal, who had gone into
hiding following the attempt on the life of the shah. What happened
next is difficult to establish in detail, and is coloured by the later
partisan accounts of Baha'is and AZALlS, but in essence it would seem
that Baha'u'llah began to eclipse Azal as a leader (e.g. see Tablet of
'ALL FOOD'), a development increasingly resented by the latter, who
yet insisted on maintaining a hidden existence from most of the Babis
for his own protection. The tensions were such that Baha'u'llah
finally decided to abandon the city to pursue the life of a solitary
mystic in the mountains of Kurdistan, leaving his family in the care
of Mirza Musa. He left Baghdad on 10 April 1854, accompanied by a
single servant, later writing that his 'withdrawal contemplated no
return' (KI 160). Initially living as a hermit in a cave in the
mountains at Sar Galli, he 'communed with [his] spirit' oblivious of
the world." (Smith, Baha'i Encyclopedia, "Baha'u'llah," p. 74)

The Guardian, in answer to a query by a British believer, also admits
the impossibility of saying for sure what the Ruhi author is very sure
of, the exact motives of Baha'u'llah in withdrawing, to the extent
that he goes on and on endlessly about it.

"We cannot, not knowing the factors Baha'u'llah weighed in His own
mind, judge of the wisdom of His withdrawal to Kurdistan. But,
studying His life and teachings, we should see in it an act of wisdom,
and not superficially measure Him by our standards." (Shoghi Effendi,
Unfolding Destiny, p. 406)

In spite of this quibble, I see the curriculum laid out and the pious
stories told in this book as a very good thing. I would love to turn
all the lessons here into illustrated PowerPoint presentations; this
would if nothing else benefit our children, whose education is far too
material right now. The only thing that holds me back is the question
of whether I should start writing for profit instead of pure love, now
that my health is starting to improve.

I started off this month dead set determined, thinking and planning to
write a quicky exploitation book about how to solve the vulnerability
of our built environment to tsunamis and hurricanes, cashing in on the
New Orleans disaster. No mention of Baha'i, no long delay for review,
just a plan, short and simple. Maybe that would gain me something like
financial independence if people interested by these fiascos took
interest in and bought such a book. But for the life of me I just
cannot get away from the Faith no matter how hard I try. I feel like
this:

Back when my father and I lived in a shack on the corner of Mohawk and
Upper Paradise, we never bothered cut our lawn. Sometimes when I rose
in the morning of a Sunday I would notice that one or more drunks had
flopped out in the high grass behind our house. I would wander into
the kitchen, bang a few pots and make my breakfast before calling the
police. But when I looked out the window to see if the bum was still
there, he would always be gone.

Now that I look over my life, I realize that I am just such a tramp. I
do not study the life of Baha'u'llah for legitimate reasons, for
career or academic advance or whatever, I do it on my own and then
leave without a trace. Think of that beautiful passage in the Writings
where Baha'u'llah talks about the Cause as a rose garden where some
come to sniff the flowers but others stay permanently to tend the
garden; but He does not mention the bum who wanders in at night when
nobody is around, roots around, and then leaves as soon as the legit
owners and visitors show their faces. That person not mentioned is the
likes of me.

If anyone is interested in May Maxwell's pilgrim's notes, they are
available online at:

http://bahai-library.com/books/pilgrimage.maxwell.html

Ella Goodall's Daily Lessons I was about to scan in when I noticed
that it is already available at:

http://bahai-library.com/?file=goodall_cooper_daily_lessons

I have also been reading Tarazullah Samandari's inspiring account of
his pilgrimage to Baha'u'llah in Akka and Bahji, called "Moments with
Baha'u'llah." This is not available online (Kalimat Press does not
seem to be as liberal sharing copyright as George Ronald) so I will
see if I have time to scan that in for you, dear reader. I would also
like to share his astonishing talk at the world congress, 1963, and I
will as soon as I get a hold of it.

--
John Taylor

badijet@gmail.com