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"lighten and uplift
them, so that they may soar on the wings of the Divine verses"
-Baha'u'llah
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A
Way of Life |
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From
the earliest times, religion has been a powerful force for
personal and social transformation. In both the lives of
individual believers, and in the distinctive communities it
has spawned, the Bahá'í Faith is a dramatic illustration of
this rule.
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The primary purpose of life is to know and to worship
God, and to contribute to an ever-advancing global
civilization. Bahá'ís seek to fulfil this purpose in a
variety of personal, family, and community activities.
The family unit, according to Bahá'u'lláh,
is the foundation of human society. Kimiko Schwerin
believes, for example, that her marriage can stand as an
illustration of the oneness of all peoples. In
traditional Japanese society, marriage to a foreigner is
an unwritten taboo. Once, for example, when she was
riding on a train with her husband in the early 1970s, a
middle-aged Japanese man walked up and abruptly slapped
her in the face "It was because I was with a
'foreigner'," said Ms. Schwerin, who grew up in
Nagasaki and now runs an English language school with
her husband in a Tokyo suburb. "In those days,
there was a strong prejudice against international
marriage. Marriage to a foreigner was not considered
decent." |
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For Bahá'ís, the purpose of life is to know and
to worship God, and to contribute to an
ever-advancing civilization. Teacher Jennifer Fong
leads a group of four-year-olds in a dance class
at the School of Nations, a Bahá'í school in
Macau. |
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"...The
peoples of the world, of whatever race or
religion, derive their inspiration from one
heavenly Source, and are the subjects of one
God."
-Bahá'u'lláh |
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"But
I didn't feel embarrassed, not at all," Ms.
Schwerin added. "I just felt sorry for the
man because of his prejudice. Because I'm a Bahá'í,
I feel international marriage is an entirely right
thing to do."
The Schwerins see their experience as an example
of how international marriage can promote a
greater awareness of other cultures. "Because
the Bahá'í Faith is inclusive of all races and
backgrounds, we avoid many of the conflicts that
might come traditionally when a Japanese person
marries a foreigner," said Ms. Schwerin.
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"For
example, John is from a Christian background and I am
from a Buddhist background," Ms. Schwerin said.
"The question of what faith to raise your children
in is often a problem for people in international
marriages. Because we believe in the oneness of
religions, we have educated our children to appreciate
all religions."
A
successful businesswoman in her own right, Ms. Schwerin
is also active in promoting the concept of women's
equality. She travels frequently throughout Japan and
surrounding countries to promote this principle and the
other ideals of the Bahá'í Faith.
The work
that Primo Pacsi and the other Bahá'ís of Laku Lakuni,
a remote village on the Bolivian altiplano, have done in
helping to establish a small pre-school and to promote
solar-heated green-houses offers an example of how Bahá'ís
strive to serve the community at large.
The
pre-school, which serves all of the children in Laku
Lakuni, gives students an important boost in their
development. Although a government-run primary school
exists in the village, the children in this remote and
impoverished high altitude region are often victims of
inadequate attention during their pre-school years,
considered the most important by many child development
specialists. As a result, they sometimes do poorly in
primary school, initiating a pattern of failure that
casts a shadow over their entire lives.
In the Bahá'í
pre-school, group activities are emphasized--activities
as simple as singing together--and the result is
significant. "There is a difference between the
students who have been to pre-school and those who start
the government primary school directly," Mr. Pacsi
said. "The ones who have gone to pre-school can
immediately understand the teacher. And the teacher has
noticed that the ones who have been to pre-school learn
much faster."
The
pre-school is a bare-bones operation. Mr. Pacsi is the
main teacher, and, for the most part, he volunteers his
time, assisted only by occasional donations from
parents. Held in a simple adobe building in the centre
of the village, its sessions last only a few hours a
day.
"At first, the. children were afraid to come,"
said Mr. Pacsi, who embraced the Bahá'í Faith in the
mid- 1980s. "They didn't want to be in a group. But
now they love to come and sing together. Now they say,
'Me, Me, Me!' when I teach a number and ask a question.
These things are connected in that Bahá'u'lláh teaches
that we must educate our children and that we must
cooperate and work together."
Mr. Pacsi
and his fellow Bahá'ís have also been instrumental in
promoting the use of solar-heated greenhouses in their
community. Developed by the Dorothy Baker Environmental
Studies Centre in Cochabamba, a Bahá'í-run
environmental research and study centre about 200 kilometres
away, the greenhouses enable families in Laku Lakuni and
other communities on the Andean high plateau to grow a
variety of fruits and vegetables which would not
ordinarily survive at such altitudes.
"We
really like the greenhouse," said Mr. Pacsi, who
was the first one in Laku Lakuni to build one.
"Without it, we could not have vegetables--we don't
have the money to buy them. But with the greenhouse we
can have vegetables. Now we can have omelettes with
tomatoes and onions. My little boy didn't even know
vegetables existed. Now he picks the tomatoes off the
plant and eats them right there in the greenhouse. Now
he knows that if you plant seed and nurture it, the
fruit comes up." |
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"The
All-Knowing Physician bath His finger on the pulse of
mankind. He perceiveth the disease, and prescribeth, in
His unerring wisdom, the remedy. Every age hath its own
problem... The remedy the world needeth in its
present-day afflictions can never be the same as that
which a subsequent age may require. Be anxiously
concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and
center your deliberations on its exigencies and
requirements."- Bahá'u'lláh |
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In composition, Bahá'í communities
are quite diffuse. Bahá'ís do not seek to shut out the
world. Bahá'u'lláh's writings encourage involvement with the
rest of humanity. Most Bahá'ís lead lives that would not
seem out of place in their native society--save for a strong
commitment to certain spiritual and social principles.
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The local Spiritual Assembly of Johannesburg,
South Africa. |
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Despite
this diffusion, however, Bahá'ís are able to maintain
their essential unity through a system of freely elected
governing councils, which operate at the local,
national, and international levels. At the local level,
for example, Bahá'ís each year elect a nine-member
administrative council, which is known as the local
Spiritual Assembly.
In all activities, Bahá'ís
are expected to obey civil law and remain loyal to their
respective governments. While they may accept
non-partisan government posts or appointments, Bahá'ís
are required to refrain from partisan political
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At
the time he began to look into Bahá'u'lláh's teachings in
the 1950s, for example, Stanlake Kukama was the local
secretary of the African National Congress. "I hated the
white man," said Mr. Kukama, who now lives in
Bophuthatswana. "To me, all whites were oppressors."
With
that attitude, it was at first difficult for Mr. Kukama to
accept the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh, because of His emphasis
on the oneness of humanity and the necessity of working to
eliminate all racial prejudice--a principle which means that
not only must whites accept blacks as equals and friends, but
that blacks must learn to live with and, even, to love whites.
Mr.
Kukama came to believe that, in the end, this path--and not
the confrontational world of politics--will lead to a better
world. And so, he has since worked to build a harmonious and
diverse community which could, at the proper time, demonstrate
to all South Africans that association between people of all
races is not only possible--but is in fact joyous and
reflective of the reality of human oneness.
The
diversity of the South African Bahá'í community today
embraces virtually all of the races, ethnic groups, and tribes
that reside there. More than 90 percent of the approximately
7,500 Bahá'ís in South Africa are non-white--a ratio that
roughly matches the proportions of the population at large.
Bahá'ís are spread throughout South Africa, too, with local
communities in more than 150 cities and towns.
"The
cause of the strife in South Africa is the 40 years of
apartheid, which emphasized ethnic separation," said Mr.
Kukama who became a school teacher after he became a Bahá'í.
"But in the Bahá'í community, even though we come from
different tribes or races, we are all one. And one day there
will be one world-- that is my vision of man. Togetherness,
not separateness." |
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Excerpted
from The Bahá'ís, a publication of the Bahá'í
International Community.
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