Salat

Declaration by Pantomime

 

By John Taylor; 2009 Feb 17, 11 Mulk, 165 BE

 

Last night my nine-year-old son Tomaso came up to me with a blank look on his face and failed to recognize who I am. In a wooden voice, he identified himself as "Tommy One." "I do not know you. Who are you?," he asked. "I am your father, God help me." Later he explained that that kid I saw before was not him; it was one of his clones, of which there are several it seems. He was all ready to send the Tommy One clone off to school in his place this morning. Fortunately, he remembered he had something to show one of his little Grade Four friends, so he went off in person.

 

Last night the kids rented the oh, so super slick and New York-frame-of-mind sophisticated animated feature, "Madagascar II, Return to Africa." At one point the male lion, who had been kidnapped and sold to the Bronx Zoo, returns to an African game preserve, his original home. Thinking the African animals do not understand English, he pantomimes the story of how he ended up there. In slow, laboured speech he spreads his arms to show what an airplane is, then charades how his airplane crash happened. One giraffe leans over to another and asks, "Is he dancing an airplane crash?" He then understands that they speak English, and communication goes quicker after that.

 

His choreographed attempt at combined auditory and visual communication reminded me of the long obligatory prayer. The Master said of it,

 

"Know thou that in every word and movement of the obligatory prayer there are allusions, mysteries and a wisdom that man is unable to comprehend, and letters and scrolls cannot contain." ('Abdu'l-Baha: Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Baha, Vol. I, p. 85, in Lights of Guidance, p. 463)

 

The difference, of course, is that God understands the meaning of my charade better than I do. The one who is being dense, who needs to have the meaning underlined by bodily motion, is really me. I do not understand the language of spirit, so I have to act my words of that prayer out for my own benefit, not God's.

 

As I go through the motions of this prayer, I often am reminded of how superficial the other, outer marks of my "Baha'i-ness" are. I may believe in this or that or disbelieve this or that, but that is hardly what makes me a Baha'i. Faith goes much deeper, it is way above what I think or believe. This, the motions of this long obligatory prayer, this is my declaration of belief. The tears I shed in that section towards the end, they declare my sincerity. The Bab wrote,

 

"Whenever the faithful hear the verses of this Book being recited, their eyes will overflow with tears and their hearts will be deeply touched by Him Who is the Most Great Remembrance for the love they cherish for God, the All-Praised. He is God, the All-Knowing, the Eternal. They are indeed the inmates of the all-highest Paradise wherein they will abide for ever. Verily they will see naught therein save that which hath proceeded from God, nothing that will lie beyond the compass of their understanding. There they will meet the believers in Paradise, who will address them with the words 'Peace, Peace' lingering on their lips..." (The Bab, Selections, 62-63)

 

That is a good way to think of it. My Baha'iness is declared by the words of this prayer "lingering on my lips" in all I say afterwards.

 

Outer beliefs, uninspired words have little to do with my Baha'iness. After all, one fellow might believe in everything that Baha'is believe and commit horrible deeds that prove he is the reverse of a Baha'i. On the other hand, somebody else may believe the reverse of Baha'i doctrine, but if they catch the gist of what those motions are trying to get through, they may leap in a second far closer to Baha'u'llah than I have traveled in a lifetime of obligatory prayers.

 

"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, Lawh-i-Maqsud, p. 161)

 

--
John Taylor

email: badijet@gmail.com
blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/

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