| In the world of forked-tongues, one wonders what is true, if there is, in fact, any truth, and who determines so-called truthfulness? The necessity for even asking this compound question makes me think there must not be any truth anywhere. Anything that has to be defined in minute detail, argued about, and ultimately solved by killing off the anti-thesis is surely not truth. Totally subjective at best but impossibly objective at its worst, the truth “is” and all other answers can only be lies. I could end this writing right here by saying that truth, like beauty, is in the mind of the beholder and yet is not beholden to anyone, but I won’t. Decide for yourself what truth lies herein.
During one of my frequent visits to Webster’s Dictionary, I stumbled upon another of mankind’s “maps” for choosing true or false, a mutually exclusive choice. Would you believe there’s actually a Truth Table to which one can refer if confused? Or if one is an attorney? A computer logician? According to the Table, you can’t have both—truth and lies that is. You can’t even pretend that a proposition is true if there are untrue components contained in the proposition. But one can determine the value (or lack thereof) of the resulting “truth set.” The ‘garbage in—garbage out’ syndrome that has dumbed-down otherwise intelligent humans since ‘reason’ was introduced has left its stench in every culture and corner of the world.
In the mid-1960s, a dear friend gave me a 24” x 36” parchment upon which was printed Mirza Ahmad Sohrab’s A Persian Rosary (of Nineteen Pearls). Said to be a descendant of Muhammad, the man theosophized about religions in general, and apparently was connected to the Bahá'í Faith which later excommunicated him for his ideals. Caring not from whence it came, I framed the parchment poster upon receipt, and have read it frequently during the past thirty years.
Wanting to share it with you, my readers, I Googled Sohrab and his works to first find out if he actually existed and if still alive. I almost wish I hadn’t! A Persian Rosary was reprinted in The Theosophist, 1978, and again in The Light Bearer in the Winter of 2000-2001. Curious to see if either version was the same as my framed version, I compared word for word, only to find it had been altered along the way, and several of the “nineteen pearls” had been left out altogether. (And, two of his three names were misspelled in the reference materials!) What a jolt! What a disappointment! Evidently, nothing is sacred if the next to teach a philosophy doesn’t agree with the author’s original “truth set.”
Perhaps the distortions will mean nothing to you, but it gives me great pleasure to present his truths, as well as profound grief as a writer, to reprint his Rosary here. Others’ additions, changes (including upper or lower case letters), rearrangements, and omissions (including numbering) are hi-lighted in red:
1. Love and serve humanity.
2. Praise every soul. If you cannot praise him let him pass out of your life.
3. Dare, dare and then—dare more.
4. Do not imitate. Be original. Be inventive. Be yourself. Know yourself. Stand on your own ground. Do not lean on the borrowed staffs of others. Think your own thoughts.
5. There is no saint without a past. There is no sinner without a future.
6. See God and good in every face. All the perfections and virtues of the Deity are hidden in you. Reveal them. The Saviour also is in you. Let his grace emancipate you.
7. Be cheerful. Be courteous. Be a dynamo of irrepressible happiness. Assist everyone. Let your life be like unto a rose, though silent it speaks in the language of fragrance. You are a trinity of body, mind and soul. The food of the soul is Divine Love. Therefore, feed your soul on Divine Love—so that the body and the mind be invigorated.
8. Be deaf and dumb concerning the faults of others. Do not listen to gossip. Silence (is) the talebearer with (lofty) virtuous conversation.
9. Stop the circulation of the poisonous germs of religious fanaticism through your veins and arteries and those of your children. Never argue with any soul concerning his religious beliefs. Religious controversies lead to hatred and separation. Religion is love and Fellowship (and) not theological dogmas and creeds. When you have Love and Sympathy in your heart for your fellowmen, you have the highest type of religion, no matter by what name you may call yourself. Rest assured that the emancipation of the world is through the Nameless God of Love and in (the) Nameless Religion of Love.
10. Develop the qualities of essential goodness. Every soul is endowed with the attributes of intrinsic beauty. Discover those attributes and hold them before the world.
11. Religion is a personal relationship between man and his maker. For God’s sake, do not interfere with it, do not organize it, neither try to reduce it into so many ‘statements.’ Organization, in whatever form, is the death-knell of religion. Do not preach this. Practice and teach it. Let no one dictate to you regarding what you should or (and) what you should not believe and do in your spiritual life. The ultimate authority is the Authority of the Spirit within you and not (the authority) that of any man, dead or alive. The Unerring Witness is standing in the centre of your being—all powerful mighty and supreme! His is the final testimony. His is the
court of Last Appeal.
12. God’s love is in you and for you. Share it with others through association. Do not court separation from the creatures, but unite with them in love. To know yourself through your fellowmen is to know God.
13. Have courage. Realize your divine origin. You are the ray of the Sun of Immortal Bliss. You and the Father are one. The deathless, radiant Self is in you. Reverence your Celestial station. No harm will ever come to you. God’s perfect image and likeness you are, abiding in the fort of his Protection. Association with all the people will lead to spiritual unfoldment and not to the deterioration of the soul. Live about the world of faith and infidelity, religion and atheism, orthodoxy and Liberalism, truth and error, angel and devil, and you will be living with, and in God… the God of Absolute Good, the God of Absolute Beauty, the God of Absolute Perfection.
14. In religion there is no compulsion. The path to spiritual unfoldment is not by restrictions and constraints, not (by) anathema and excommunication, but by constant progress from world to world, from star to star, from constellation to constellation, forever and without end.
15. The light of lights is in your heart. Uncover it, and let it shine for the illumination of mankind. Do not expect a favor from friend or foe, and you shall never be disappointed.
16. Overcome malice, envy, personal spite and prejudice, and you are the master of Destiny.
17. Do not condemn a single soul. In condemning him, you are condemning yourself. Never for an instant forget that he is also the child of God. Upon the great sea of spirit, there is room for every sail. In the limitless sky of truth there is room for every wing.
18. Do not murder the character of a soul, under the guise of religion, either by bitter blame or faint praise. Spiritual murder is worse than the taking of a man’s life. Have a sin-covering eye. See only the beautiful, the lovely the noble.
19. Be gentle. Be lenient. Be forgiving. Be generous. Be merciful. Be wakeful. Be thoughtful. Be frank. Be positive. Soar in the atmosphere of freedom. Walk in your (the) chosen path (and be forever blest. Others’ ending.) and let no criticism disturb you in the least. This is the way to success, to happiness, to health, prosperity, to glory. Let me walk in it during the days of my life!
~ Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, (1893–1958), Son of Abdu’l-Baghi, a descendant of Muhammad. Persian-American author, excommunicated from the Bahá'í Faith in 1939 by Shoghi Effendi.
If you or any of your descendents survive me, will you please check once in awhile on my previous works? If they’ve been changed or altered in the slightest, will you kindly protest, in my name, the unforgivable sacrilege? I’ll be eternally grateful.
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