August 10. On this date in 1898, Ramona Allen Brown was born in California. In 1904 she converted to the Bahá'í Faith and in 1954 made a Bahá'í pilgrimage during which Shoghi Effendi told her "Please share your notes that you have taken here with the friends when you return home" including such statements as "It is not enough to be good and kind and to lead a religious life today; it does not count for much unless one accepts the Manifestation of God, if one has heard of Him; it is almost wasted. One must accept the Manifestation in His day"; "All men are not of the same capacity"; "Every city, every town, and every village will have a [Bahá'í] Temple and a House of Justice in the future"; and "It is essential that the youth of today study deeply the Faith as they will usher in the Most Great Peace. The Lesser Peace will be established within this century. The Most Great Peace in the next century"

 

August 10. On this date in 1898, Ramona Allen Brown was born in California. In 1904 she converted to the Bahá'í Faith and in 1954 made a Bahá'í pilgrimage during which Shoghi Effendi told her "Please share your notes that you have taken here with the friends when you return home" including such statements as "It is not enough to be good and kind and to lead a religious life today; it does not count for much unless one accepts the Manifestation of God, if one has heard of Him; it is almost wasted. One must accept the Manifestation in His day"; "All men are not of the same capacity"; "Every city, every town, and every village will have a [Bahá'í] Temple and a House of Justice in the future"; and "It is essential that the youth of today study deeply the Faith as they will usher in the Most Great Peace. The Lesser Peace will be established within this century. The Most Great Peace in the next century"

One evening Shoghi Effendi said, "Please share your notes that you have taken here with the friends when you return home." This I have tried to do ever since, and following are some of the important and interesting things which he said to us while we were his guests in Haifa:

Bahá'ís must have a new way of life. They need to be different from other people. They must be distinguished. The more distinguished, the more they will attract people. The greater the distinction, the greater the attraction. They must read the Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, study the text of the Teachings. It is not enough to be good and kind and to lead a religious life today; it does not count for much unless one accepts the Manifestation of God, if one has heard of Him; it is almost wasted. One must accept the Manifestation in His day. If one has not heard of Bahá'u'lláh, they are not to be blame; the blame lies with the Bahá'ís. If the Bahá'ís fail to teach the Faith, the people who do not hear of the Faith are not to blame. The blame lies with the Bahá'ís.

All men are not of the same capacity. To serve to full capacity is meritorious with God. God judges men by how they use their capacity.

Every city, every town, and every village will have a [Bahá'í] Temple and a House of Justice in the future.

There are three processes in teaching: the first is to attract the people; the second is to convert the people; and the third is to be consecrated. There must be attraction, conversion, and consecration. The teachers must not be unwise. There are three Charters to be used: (1) the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh, or the Divine Plan; (2) the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá with the plan for world administration; and (3) the Tablet of Carmel, the Charter for the development for the World Center of the Faith. the Tablet of Carmel is the symbol of the House of Justice. The Ark is the symbol of the Administrative body. The higher cave of Elijah is the real one where Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Tablet of Carmel in such a loud voice that the priests heard it.

It is essential that the youth of today study deeply the Faith as they will usher in the Most Great Peace. The Lesser Peace will be established within this century. The Most Great Peace in the next century. The Global Crusade will establish the Bahá'í Faith the world over but will not have a direct influence in establishing the United States of the World. The first period will be that of suffering and cleansing; the second period will be that of unification; and the third, the establishment of the Bahá'í World Faith. After the International State is established and wars cease, the money now being expended for destruction and war will be used for education and science, and a method will be discovered for interplanetary communication, even interplanetary conferences. The time will come when people can cross the entire nation in one hour and eventually beyond the continent into interplanetary travel. The cycle of six thousand years of city building has come to an end, and now we will have a new pattern starting with villages, etc. Material civilization is becoming like the ancient city of Babylon, and it must be destroyed.

The young people must disperse far away, the old ones to outlying places; they must settle goal cities. Sell your property and pioneer!...The young people of America should go out into the country on farms and work with their hands and produce food for their families.

Americans are exposed to great dangers. Today the power of America is in the hands of the masses. There is a terrific power in the press, and the people are swayed by it. The United States, on a national scale, sets the pattern for an international pattern... There will be a world civil war followed by the establishment of a world state; all the nations will be part of it and will have to conform to it. This war has already started in Korea. Mankind cannot be purified and cleansed without suffering... It is positively dangerous to live in cities. The cities are doomed. They will evaporate... The Bahá'ís must disperse from the cities...why do they not disperse? If they do not respond and disperse, they will suffer spiritually, materially, and physically...In America the destruction will be great!... They must disperse for their own protection. the cities are doomed: New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles. They must flee from the United States because America will become the storm center of the future.... Buy property in Central Africa! Those with independent means must pack up and go.... Those with spirit must pack up and go.... There must be a mass response... I can warn them, but I cannot make them go.... The Cause will triumph in spite of the actions and inactivity of the believers. If one country falls down, another will make up for it. The Bahá'ís have been given the method. Now they must have the spirit. It is hopeless for capable teachers in the cities (the people will not listen).... The friends are calculating too much, and there is too much emphasis on nonessentials.

People are flocking to churches through fear. Americans must have a totally new way of life, become a race of wholly devoted souls, devoted to God and His ways. They must get to a simpler way of life. The standards of America must be lowered, have fewer luxuries.... Americans do not have enough belief in God, not enough detachment. They must be more spiritual, disencumber themselves from things, have Bahá'í standards, not American standards. Americans are too materialistic, too mechanized, too attached to family, health, and death. There must be less materialism, less intellectualism, and more spirit... America is the most disturbed nation, politically, on earth... There is too much organization in America and too little spirit.

Joseph smith was a seer, not a Prophet of God, neither major nor minor Prophet. He had a high standard... but the Bahá'ís have a higher standard coupled with God's power that comes direct from God. for this age.

We must encourage the marriage of blacks and whites...Bahá'u'lláh was sent to bring about world unity, and world unity is the cornerstone of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.

It is not enough to go pioneering; one must start immediately teaching the Faith... For pioneers to leave their posts means the next to arrive will have to go through the difficulties all over again, and it will be twice as difficult for them... As soon as the community is strong enough, one should leave and pioneer elsewhere.

The new race will be wholly devoted souls.