Contents Preface by Holly Hanson
ix
PART ONE 1 The Nature of Spiritual Forces Introduction The Word of God as the Source of Life Spirit Has Many Names and Functions Spirit is Expressed in Every Dimension of Reality
3 3 4 5 6
2 The Outpouring of Creative Forces Primal Will: The Incarnation of God’s Purpose Creative Powers of the Word of God The Process of Divine Revelation
10 10 12 15
3 The Crystallization of Divine Forces Crystallizing Spiritual Energy Crystallization of Spiritual Forces in Human Hearts The Covenant and Creative Energies Crystallization of Spiritual Forces as the Administrative Order Crystallization of Spiritual Forces in the Structures of Society
18 21 23 25 26 27
4 The Progressive Release of Divine Forces Stages in the Release and Crystallization of Divine Power Release of Divine Forces through the Administrative Order Release of Divine Forces through Systematic Teaching Release of Divine Power through Bahá’í Houses of Worship The Development of Capacity in Successive Epochs of the Formative Age
30 31 33 35 37 39
forces of our time 5 Universal Fermentation and the Impact of Creative Forces on Human Society The World is Revolutionized A Time of Painful Transition Why Humanity is Suffering Acting on an Understanding of the State of the World The Inner and Outer Dimensions of the Plan of God Converge Crisis and Victory
43 44 45 47 50 53 54
6 Understanding Forces of Darkness The Dual Nature of Human Beings Consequences of the Individual’s Choice Identifying Dark Forces The Force of Irreligion Materialism Dark Forces in Our Inherited Cultural Outlooks Cultural Tendencies that Impede the Progress of the Faith The Source of Illumination
58 59 61 63 64 67 70 73 76
7 Combatting Forces of Darkness Spiritual Armaments Spiritual Discipline in the Individual’s Battle Taking Responsibility for the Darkness within Ourselves Seeking Divine Assistance to Combat Dark Forces
79 80 83 85 89
8 Custodians of the Forces of Light Our Interactions with Others Transmitting Divine Power to Others The Individual: Fulcrum of the World’s Transformation
92 93 97 102
PART TWO Extracts from the Writings and Messages of Shoghi Effendi on the Forces of Our Time 109 Bibliography References
147 151
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The Progressive Release of Divine Forces The Word of God may be likened unto a sapling, whose roots have been implanted in the hearts of men. It is incumbent upon you to foster its growth through the living waters of wisdom, of sanctified and holy words, so that its root may become firmly fixed and its branches may spread out as high as the heavens and beyond. Bahá’u’lláh1
Spiritual energies are released and take effect in the world in a gradual manner. As the light of Bahá’u’lláh is increasingly recognized and the people of the world begin to order their individual and collective lives in response to His words, latent spiritual powers are awakened. Just as the human body grows through progressive stages towards maturity, with particular gifts and strengths appearing at each stage, the fruit of divine revelation also grows through successive stages. As the institutions of the Cause and Bahá’í communities mature, they are able to channel a greater measure of divine forces. In this chapter, we look at Shoghi Effendi’s delineation of these stages and consider the release of divine energy through the institutions of the Administrative Order, the teaching plans and the Bahá’í Houses of Worship. The gradual, progressive release of divine forces implies that what we now experience of the power of Bahá’u’lláh is the merest glimmering of the dawn of His sun. Years ago one of the friends in Europe asked Shoghi Effendi why the world was full of chaos and confusion; she presumed that such disorder was supposed to have happened first and only then Christ could return. The Guardian’s response was that Bahá’u’lláh’s coming is not just His 30
the pro gressive release of divine forces
physical appearance. Rather His coming is that stage of recognition by humanity when He shall be accepted, when His glory shall be manifest in the world – when all eyes shall see Him. Stages in the Release and Crystallization of Divine Power Shoghi Effendi uses the words ‘infuse’, ‘diffuse’ and ‘suffuse’ to describe different stages in the propagation of the light of the Word of God. Infusion happens when the divine will instils new capacity and ability within us. At the moment of revelation ‘boundless potentialities’ are ‘infused into the entire body of mankind’.2 Diffusion of divine light is the initial spread of faith in Bahá’u’lláh throughout the world. The divine light has been diffused and propagated through the teaching efforts of the first travelling teachers who arose, the pioneers and the first believers who established Bahá’í communities all over the planet. With the opening of the former communist countries to the Faith in the 1990s, that process was basically completed. The current focus of Bahá’í activity is to develop human resources systematically so that the Bahá’í community can grow from the phase of spreading everywhere to the point of eliciting a strong, profoundly committed, active response to Bahá’u’lláh among the masses. That is the stage of suffusion and it will occur and continue until the divine light penetrates into the very heart of the nations of the world, until they are fully permeated with the influence of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation. Shoghi Effendi alludes to these stages when he calls the Bab’s Revelation a ‘Holy Seed of infinite preciousness, holding within itself incalculable potentialities’.3 He describes how this Seed of the Faith is ground in the mill of martyrdom and oppression, but yields an oil . . . whose first flickering light cast upon the sombre, subterranean walls of the Síyáh-Chál of Tihrán, whose fire gathered brilliance . in Baghdád and shone in full resplendency in its crystal globe in Adrianople, whose rays warmed and illuminated the fringes of the American, European, Australian continents through the tender ministerings of the Centre of the Covenant, whose radiance is 31
forces of our time now overspreading the surface of the globe during the present Formative Age, whose full splendour is destined in the course of future millenniums to suffuse the entire planet.4
The successive processes of infusion, diffusion and suffusion are characteristic of the different ages of the Faith. During the Heroic Age, spiritual forces and potentialities were infused into the world when the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh revealed the Word of God. Our age, the Formative or Iron Age, which commenced with the passing of the Master, is the time of the wide diffusion of those forces and the beginning of their systematic effect on society. In this age the Administrative Order has been created, strengthened and spread over the entire planet. It has established the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh in every part of the world. The whole purpose of the Administrative Order is to propagate the Cause so that human souls may drink of the water of life and bring about the transformation in human society that is the promise of our Faith. This Order is the embryonic stage of that World Order which will appear throughout human society as the planet becomes suffused with the message of Bahá’u’lláh. In outlining the nature of the growth of the Faith in the second Bahá’í century, from 1944 to 2044, Shoghi Effendi made reference to the Administrative Order and foreshadowed the movement from diffusion to suffusion: The second [Bahá’í] century is destined to witness a tremendous deployment and a notable consolidation of the forces working towards the worldwide development of that Order, as well as the first stirrings of that World Order, of which the present Administrative System is at once the precursor, the nucleus and pattern – an Order which, as it slowly crystallizes and radiates its benign influence over the entire planet, will proclaim at once the coming of age of the whole human race, as well as the maturity of the Faith itself, the progenitor of that Order.5
Eventually, in the coming Golden Age, the spiritual forces of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh will entirely permeate the planet. The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh will come about as a majority of 32
the pro gressive release of divine forces
people in the world embrace the Faith and spontaneously adopt the system of Bahá’u’lláh to structure the affairs of daily life – the civil affairs of society. The Bahá’í writings predict that this will happen in the future, as more and more people become Bahá’ís and eventually the masses of mankind come under the light of the Revelation. The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, Bahá’ís believe, will be the fulfilment of the Christian prayer for the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth. It means that humanity will voluntarily come under the governance of God, through the divinely ordained laws and institutions promulgated by Bahá’u’lláh. It is important when we consider the future to keep in mind that these things will come about through humanity’s own response to Bahá’u’lláh and not through any coercion. There could never be any forced conversion or any compulsion that people accept Bahá’í law. Our Faith prohibits that, and also – from a purely practical point of view – the forced conversion of any individual would be senseless and self-defeating as it would, by definition, mean that the unwillingness of such a person would nullify his ability to contribute to the unity and strength of the community. The gradual and organic growth of a global civilization based on Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings is something we naturally anticipate, arising from the belief that He is a Messenger of God. Release of Divine Forces through the Administrative Order Bahá’í Assemblies, Shoghi Effendi has explained, release spiritual forces which endow a nation with new powers and capacities. Although this observation comes in a letter which refers to the Bahá’í Assemblies of North America, in principle it applies to Assemblies all over the world. The creative energies, mysteriously generated by the first stirrings of the embryonic World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, have, as soon as released within a nation destined to become its cradle and champion, endowed that nation with the worthiness, and invested it with the powers and capacities, and equipped it spiritually, to play the part foreshadowed in these prophetic words.6 33
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