*Mahmud writes: “A number of people met `Abdu'l-Bahá in the morning. He spoke to them about divine knowledge and the spiritual stations which lead to eternal life -- the ultimate goal of human existence. A black youth was there, to whom the Master gave the name `Mubárak' [`happy'], and to a black woman He gave the name `Khush Ghadam' [a person who brings good fortune, welcome news, good omen]. He spoke to them about the importance of harmony between the white and black races of America and described the various meetings attended by both blacks and whites and the talks given at them which dealt with this question.
Mrs Kaufman asked about the influence of heavenly bodies on the affairs of humanity. `Abdu'l-Bahá replied:
The words of the astrologers are for the most part doubtful and unreliable. But the whole of creation is interrelated like the different parts of the human body which have a complete affinity from the toenail to the hair on the head. Every part is perfectly connected with the other. Similarly, the whole of creation forms a chain composed, as it were, of many links connected with each other. It is therefore obvious that they all greatly influence each other and are part of organized, regular cycles.
He was then asked about the connection between the soul and the body. He replied, `It has the same connection as the sun has with the mirror. Death consists of the severance of this connection.'
`Some say that your prayers and promises for us have come true and are being completely fulfilled.'
`I always pray with complete self-effacement and humbly implore confirmations from the Kingdom of Abhá.'
`Do you feel the excessive heat? Does it affect your health?'
`I am so absorbed that I feel neither the heat nor the cold. It is all the same to me.'
Today the Master was occupied in revealing Tablets for the Eastern friends. Notwithstanding the heavy pressure of work, He does not delay His answers to important questions.
There was a large crowd in the evening to whom He spoke about the various kingdoms of creation and the virtues of the world of existence. After the meeting several seekers visited the Master in His room. He answered their questions regarding the stations of divinity and the journey in the path of knowledge and servitude. Everyone was pleased and delighted and joined us in offering praise and glory to God.”
*It is not clear what day these events occurred on. Mahmud's accounts have been one day off in the previous section of his diary. [AP]
Wouldn’t you love to be known as a person who brings “good fortune, welcome news, good omen”? For that matter, wouldn’t you love to have been given a name by Abdu’l-Baha? One wonders if he/she perfectly matched the name OR if he/she grew into the name, after He bestowed it.On the subject of the interconnection of creation, several friends have been impressed with the recently released film, “I Am.” Apparently, this is one of its central messages. How I wish that we could convey this idea more easily through art and film!
Mahmud dates the following entry July 5: "Some Tablets were revealed for friends in California, consoling them because of their separation from Him since He was not traveling to that state at the present time. Most of the friends on the West Coast of America had not yet had the honor to see Him. When they learned of His intention, they were saddened and sent telegrams begging Him to visit their state.
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| National Museum of American History |
In the evening, He spoke to a large number of friends and seekers at His home about detachment from physical desires and the attainment of everlasting life. Everyone was delighted."
Rob Stockman [in his forthcoming book about Abdu'l-Baha in America] writes: "July, 1912, was fairly hot and humid; several times `Abdu'l-Bahá fell ill. Apparently He was prone to tab-i-asabí, “nervous fever,” presumably a stress-related illness. The city’s air pollution and `Abdu'l-Bahá’s childhood bout of tuberculosis may have been factors as well. “I cannot see him living through this heat,” Ahmad Sohrab said in a letter to Agnes Parsons, “It melts iron.” `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself commented on His eyes looking “sunken in the sockets” from the heat. He “endured all the discomfort of the hot weather,” `Abdu'l-Bahá explained, to strengthen the unity and amity of the New York Bahá'ís: “The condition is very different [now] . . . the friends invite each other and go to each other’s meetings . . . unity + harmony are established. . . I am very happy.”
But He could not imagine how, in His current state of health, He could continue across the United States to California, four or five days by train to the west. On July 5, He wrote a series of tablets to Bahá'ís in California informing them of His change of plans and consoling them. He sent a telegram to Helen Goodall and her daughter, Ella Cooper, two of the most active Bahá'ís in California, summoning them to New York to discuss the change of plans with them. They left San Francisco immediately and arrived in New York on July 9."
Juliet Thompson includes the following description of the museum visit in her diary (note date discrepancy): “On Monday, 9 July, the Master invited me, with the Persians to go to the Natural History Museum. It was a broiling afternoon and I couldn't imagine why He should want to go to that Museum, and in the hottest part of the day. But wherever He went, there I wanted to be.
When we reached the Ninth Avenue corner of the Museum the Master, exhausted by that time, sank to a low stone ledge to rest. Between us and the main door on the Central Park corner stretched a long cross-town block in glaring sun, not a single tree on the sidewalk.
"My Lord," I said, "let me try to find a nearer entrance for You." And I hurried along the grass, keeping close to the building, searching the basement for a door. The employees' entrance was locked. Just beyond stood a sign: "No Thoroughfare." I was rushing past this when a shrill whistle stopped me, and I turned to face the watchman of the grounds. He was a little bent old Jew with a very kind face.
"Oh excuse me," I said, "for breaking the rules, but I must find a nearer door than the main one. See Who is sitting on that ledge! I must find it for Him."
The watchman turned and looked at the Master, looked and looked, at that Figure from the East, from the Past--the Days of the Old Testament--and his eyes became very soft. "Is He a Jew?" he asked.
"A descendant of Abraham."
"Come with me," said the watchman. "Ask Him to come with me."
I went over and spoke to the Master and He rose and followed with the Persians, I dropping back to walk with them. There was not a nearer entrance, but the watchman, taking a risk perhaps, led us across the grass, where at least it was cooler and the way shorter.
In the Museum we passed through a room in which a huge whale hung from the ceiling. The Master looked up at it, laughed and said: "He could hold seventy Jonahs!"
Then He took us straight to the Mexican exhibit, and this seemed to interest Him very much. In the great elaborately carved glyphs standing around the room He found traces of Persian art and pointed them out to me. He told us this sculpture resembled very closely the ancient sculpture of Egypt. "Only," He said, "this is better." Then He took me over to the cases where He showed me purely Persian bracelets.
"I have heard a tradition," I said, "that in the very distant past this country and Asia were connected."
"Assuredly," answered the Master, "before a great catastrophe there was such a connection between Asia and America."
After looking at everything in the Mexican rooms, He led us to the front door and out into the grounds again. Then, stepping from the stone walk to the grass, He seated Himself beneath a young birch tree, His back to us, while we stood behind Him on the flags. He sat there a long time, silent. Was He waiting for someone? I wondered.
While He--waited?--the old Jewish watchman stole quietly up to me from the direction of the Museum.
"Is He tired?" he whispered. "Who is He? He looks like such a great man."
"He is 'Abdu'l-Bahá of Persia," I said, "and He has been a great Sufferer because of His work for the real Brotherhood of Man, the uniting of all the races and nations."
"I should like to speak to Him," said the Jew. And I took him over to the tree under which the Master still sat with His back to us.
At the sound of our footsteps He turned and looked up at the watchman, His brilliant eyes full of sweetness. "Come and sit by Me," He said.
"Thank You, Sir, but I am not allowed."
"Is it against the rules for Me to sit on the grass?"
The old man's eyes, softly shining, were fixed on the Master. "No, You may sit there all day!"
But the Master rose and stood beneath the tree.
Such pictures as I see when the Master is in them could never be put upon canvas--not even into words, except by the sublimest poet--but I always want to try at least to leave a trace of their beauty. The Master, luminous in the sunlight, His white robe flowing to the grass, standing beside the white slender trunk of the birch tree, with its leafy canopy over His head. The Jew standing opposite Him--so bent, so old--his eyes, like a lover's, humbly raised to the face of his own Messiah! As yet unrecognized, his Messiah, yet his heart worshiped.
Eagerly he went on, offering all he could think of to this Mysterious One Who had touched him so deeply.
"You didn't see the whole of the Museum. Would You like to go back after You have rested? You didn't go up to the third floor." (Unseen by us he must have been following all the time.) "The fossils and the birds are up there. Wouldn't You like to see the birds?"
The Master answered very gently, smiling. "I am tired of travelling and looking at the things of this world. I want to go above and travel and see in the spiritual worlds. What do you think about that?" He asked suddenly, beaming on the old watchman.
The watchman looked puzzled and scratched his head.
"Which would you rather posses," continued the Master, "the material or the spiritual world?"
Still the old man pondered. At last he brought forth: "Well, I guess the material. You know you have that, anyway."
"But you do not lose it when you have attained the spiritual world. When you go upstairs in a house, you don't leave the house. The lower floor is under you."
"Oh I see!" cried the watchman, his whole face lighting up, "I see!"
After we parted from the watchman, who walked with us all the way to the Ninth Avenue corner, leading us again across the grass, I began to blame myself for not inviting him to the Master's house, forgetting that the Master Himself had not done so. Every day I meant to return to the Museum to tell the old man where the Master lived, but I put off from day to day.
When, at the end of a week, I did run over to the Museum, I found a young watchman there, who seemed to know nothing of the one he had replaced.
Had our friend "gone upstairs?"
Why had the Master visited a Museum of Natural History in the hottest hour of a blistering July day? Had He instead visited a soul whose need was crying out to Him, to open an old man's eyes so that he might see to climb the stairs, to take away the dread of death?"
May He take away all of our dreads. . . .
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