Prayer Requires Preparation:

Extracts from a talk by Mr. 'Alí Nakhjavání,
Local Bahá'í Centre, Cluj-Napoca, Romania,
24 February 2001

Prayer requires preparation: For example one performs ablutions for the Obligatory Prayers. There should be gardens around the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár - one arrives and walks through the gardens as a preparation. In Haifa and Bahjí one does not enter the Shrines immediately, one walks silently through the gardens. One distinction of this Faith is the number of prayers by Bahá'u'lláh, the Báb, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, unlike other religions, whose many prayers were written by the followers. Prayer is like a ladder for the soul to move from the earthly plane to the heavenly plane. We must deepen our understanding. Each sentence is like one step of the ladder, each helps us to detach ourselves from this material world and come closer to God. If we merely utter prayers, this may also be true, but it will not have its true effect unless we understand the words and sentences and their true meaning.

In one prayer: "Make firm our steps, O Lord." (US Prayer Book p. 70) 'Abdu'l-Bahá speaks about prayer in these terms: "a prayer that shall rise above words and letters and transcend the murmur of syllables and sounds.". We must not be satisfied with murmuring. We must go beyond and understand the meaning, to affect the heart and soul. If we climb the ladder and come right down, we do not fulfill our purpose. We must communicate with God.

There was a time when the claim was being made in the United States that "God is dead!" At a fireside a man asked Hand of the Cause William Sears whether this was true. Mr. Sears answered: "When I had a discussion with Him this morning, He was fine!"

It is a good idea first to tell Bahá'u'lláh that I am weak, needy, ignorant, have made many mistakes, have many shortcomings. In one prayer it says: "we are all sinners." (US Prayer Book p. 82).It means all of us, no one is excluded. I must ask for forgiveness for my many mistakes. I will continue to make mistakes because I am human. Shoghi Effendi wrote that he was not a Perfect Exemplar, that there is only one. If Shoghi Effendi says he is not the Perfect Exemplar, who are we? Strive to ask for forgiveness, while preparing, we hear the words of Bahá'u'lláh: "If you want your sins to be forgiven, forgive the sins of others!" If I don't like this person, hate another person, I am carrying a heavy load of hatred and jealousy. Ask for God's blessings for them, thus one begins to love them. Then I tell God what I have done wrong, and promise to try not to do things wrong again. This way I present my problem to Bahá'u'lláh. Remember that what I want is yes, but may be the answer is another.

In the prayers of Bahá'u'lláh He says: "I know not that which profiteth me or harmeth me." (US Prayer Book p. 144) If I ask God for something there can be three answers: 1. Yes; 2. No; 3. Wait. But we want "yes" and "now". If we present our problem to Bahá'u'lláh in a spirit of detachment and not insistent, sometimes as a result of prayer an idea comes to us. The idea may not be right. In the Writings we are given full assurance that because I prayed God will right the wrong, and push me in the right direction.

One Imám was asked: "How did you know God?" He answered: "I came to know God by the way He interferes in my life, by the way He changes my decisions, by the way he moves me to change my plans. God is the Ever-Present, the All-Knowing, the All-Hearing." We believe in such a God.

In a Tablet of 'Abdu'l-Bahá there is a tradition recorded: When Abraham was seized and thrown in the fire by King Nimrod, he was in trouble. He heard the voice of the Angel Gabriel and Gabriel told him: "Are you in need of anything?" Abraham responded: "I have no need of you. None whatsoever. It is sufficient for me that He knows what I am enduring!" A short prayer follows: "O Beloved One, may my life be sacrificed for You. However concealed are my secrets, You know them!"

One day Amatúl-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum told us that Shoghi Effendi said that there are many qualities that are mentioned in the Writings that Bahá'ís should try to acquire. But most important is purity of motive. It is the foundation upon which everything else is built. What is purity of motive? Why am I a Bahá'í? Why am I living a Bahá'í life? Why am I teaching the Cause? When alone we must ask these questions and we can identify the motivation of our lives. Am I doing these things to gain something, to be praised? Ask this question. If the answer centers around me, then I do not have purity of motive. Purity of motive means to do something for God, for the love of God, and God knows. In the Writings we read that we should not even do things because we are expecting something in the next world. This is selfish! There are two types of love for the Cause: 1. Selfish love for the Cause; 2. Selfless love for the Cause, and the latter is desired by God. In the Tablet of Visitation, 'Abdu'l-Bahá writes about selflessness: "Give me to drink from the chalice of selflessness; with its robe clothe me, and in its ocean immerse me." (US Prayer Book, p. 235).Selflessness means detachment from even one's own name. A mother loves her child for its own sake, not for it to love her when it grows up. The mother is even ready to give up her own life. This type of love is the kind God wants from us. Sacrifice means nothing if we love thus.

We've entered the Fifth Epoch of the Formative Age. Something has happened throughout the world to make the Universal House of Justice decide we've arrived at this point. Not only that we've done something good, but we must do something new. In many countries of the world the Faith has grown like a flow of water from a spring, and it is bubbling and flowing, including in Romania. If we watch the water it does not flow straight. If there is a rock in its path it flows around the rock. If there is a valley the water gathers and then flows on. The river zigzags.

What is the Fifth Epoch? It is something new. It is that National Spiritual Assemblies with the help of the Counselors decide "This is our field - we will no longer let the water flow just anywhere, we will systematize it, plan for it to flow where we want to irrigate all." This is a possible and important feature of the new Epoch.

In 1953, Shoghi Effendi had the same opportunity as we have now in 2001. He wanted a Ten-Year Plan, looked at the whole world globe, divided it and the countries into 3 categories:

1. with established National Assemblies (12);
2. Rest of the world: virgin countries with no Bahá'ís (130);
3. Countries with Bahá'ís, but not strong enough yet for National Assemblies.

The 19 people chosen to go to Haifa for the opening of the Terraces in May have a special responsibility to carry something back to their community. Every pilgrim has 2 aspects to his visit. This applies to the 19 from each country, to the 9-day pilgrim and the 3-day visitor. They must carry something from their own community to the Bahá'í World Centre to make the event something special. Shoghi Effendi called this "the lifeblood of the World Centre". This gathering in May, depending on conditions, will be the largest gathering of Bahá'ís in the history of the Faith at the World Centre. Important TV stations are interested and events will be able to be seen by the Bahá'ís and others by satellite around the world. This is a service to the Cause. It will attract the attention of the public internationally.

Hand of the Cause Dorothy Baker came to Haifa after many years of waiting. Because there were not many flights in those days and she had to go to Africa to attend the Intercontinental Conference, the 9-day pilgrimage was cut short to 5 days. On the last day Rúhíyyih Khánum said: "It's a pity that you've only had 5 days here." Dorothy Baker answered: "I was like a sponge, an empty sponge. I came here to a beautiful sea of living waters. My little sponge has been immersed and immediately absorbed everything. Time is not important. I am full, I am grateful." It is important to be like Dorothy Baker. To empty ourselves is important, and we must become a light, so that we can receive and retain. If we go full, and are full of ourselves, we are dipped in the water, are refreshed, like a stone, but on the way home we will become dry again.