4. Humankind and the Environment: A Bahaʼi Approach
Stephen Vickers
The Underlying Context
When approaching the Baha`i view of any subject, one needs to bear in mind three
themes which underlie the Baha`i weltanschaung. These themes have been colloquially described as ‘the three onenesses’.¹ There is no significance to the order in which
I deal with them here. Firstly there is one God, and whether one calls Him Gott, Dieu,
Allah or The Great Spirit, is of no importance. Secondly religions are one in essence.
This God communicates with humanity most directly and clearly by sending successive ‘Manifestations’ of himself, perfect mirrors who show forth this light and reveal
social teachings and laws appropriate to the exigencies of the time and place in which
they appear.² These Manifestations include Moses, Jesus Christ, Buddha, Muhammed,
Krishna, Zoroaster and Baha‘u’llah, whom Baha’is regard as God’s latest Manifestation. Although social teachings may vary between Manifestations, their spiritual
teachings, and the love which these Manifestations emanate, are relevant everywhere,
without regard to time and place. Thirdly humanity
is a single entity, with each person the ‘Supreme Talisman’,³ possessed of that miracle, the human spirit. People of whatever colour, class or creed, share a common humanity, and in the current age the limited loyalties of nationality, class, colour and religion must be transcended. One of the central aims of the Baha’i revelation, Baha’is
believe, is to assist humanity towards the realisation of a united world.
In the context of an ever-unfolding divine plan, Baha’is view the problems through
which the world is currently passing as the birth-pangs of a new world. What Baha’u’llah calls ‘these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars’,4 are usually associated with
antagonisms between limited groups, whether tribes, nations, religions or classes.
Humans need to develop a wider loyalty to humanity, a loyalty which must supersede
limited allegiances: ‘Let not a man glory in this, that he loves his country, let him
rather glory in this, that he loves his kind’.5
The Natural Environment
In part, this attachment to limited allegiances results from not understanding what it is
to be human. Similarly, the current upsurge in environmental problems — in pollution, in habitat depletion and in the extinction of species, are caused by the triumph of
greed and of short-term thinking over values and long-term thinking. Maltreatment of
the environment precipitates crises which, because the physical world is a single unified system, can only be confronted by international action. The world is therefore
becoming gradually more unified out of necessity as it has to unite to face environ-
mental problems. Such issues as Chernobyl and the depletion of the ozone layer, because they occur firmly in the international arena, have precipitated inter-state cooperation. To an extent there is an imperative here. If we do not act in accord with the
needs of the earth, it will create problems for us. As Baha’u’llah puts it: ‘Ye walk
upon my earth complacent and self-satisfied, heedless that my earth is weary of you
and everything within it shunneth you’.6
References to Nature in the Baha’i Writings
References to nature occur frequently, especially in the writings of Abdu’l-Baha, the
son of Baha’u`llah, who had the opportunity to travel to the West in l911—12, after
his release from prison. Many of these references are used to provide analogies to
illustrate Baha’i teachings. For example, in a Tablet to the noted Swiss Positivist, Dr
Auguste Forel, Abdu’l-Baha compares the human inability to create scientific tests for
God to the inability of a small garden organism to conceive of the gardener:
‘man is like unto a tiny organism contained within a fruit; this fruit hath developed
out of the blossom, the blossom hath grown out of the tree, the tree is sustained by
the sap, and the sap formed out of earth and water. How then can this tiny organism
comprehend the nature of the garden. Conceive of the gardener and comprehend his
being?’7
Baha’u’llah portrays the universe as a teaching matrix, ordained for the training of the
human soul:
Nature in its essence is the embodiment of My Name, the Maker, the Creator. Its
Manifestations are diversified by varying causes, and in this diversity there are
signs for men of discernment. Nature is God’s Will and is its expression in and
through the contingent world. It is a dispensation of Providence ordained by the
Ordainer, the All-Wise’.8
In this context, understanding nature and investigating the natural world help a person
to grow spiritually. Contact with nature centres the human being more effectively
upon the important things of life. In this vein Baha’u’llah, after several years incarcerated in the citadel of Akka, said ‘I have not gazed on verdure for nine years. The
city is the home of the body, the country is the home of the soul’.9
Caring for the environment
Although contact with nature speeds the progress of the human soul, the human being
is not entirely outside nature, but to an extent constitutes a part of it. Abdu’l Baha
talks about the inter-relationships between organisms, and of four kingdoms of creation: human, animal, vegetable and mineral.10
That he characterises the human kingdom as the highest is not to imply that humans
can exercise uncaring domination over the other kingdoms, but that humanity encompasses the others and has the power to affect them. Stewardship must be exercised
responsibly. People who are not detached from the pursuit of animal pleasures cannot
rise above the animal kingdom:
‘Until man is born again from the world of nature, that is to say, becomes detached
the world of nature, he is essentially an animal, and it is the teachings of God which
convert this animal into a human soul’.11
It is difficult for such a human to act in keeping with the needs of the environment,
since for him/her the pursuit of short-term gratification of his/her lower nature is
likely to be paramount. In striving to be spiritual, a person needs to forget his/her selfish and limited concerns:
‘busy not yourself with this world, for with fire We test Our gold, and with gold
We test Our Servants’.12
Having learned to look beyond its own selfish and limited concerns, humanity can
begin to care for the environment instead of despoiling it.
Relationships with Animals
Baha’u’llah does not forbid the eating of meat, although it is stated in the Baha’i writings that ‘the food of the future will be fruit and grains’.13 There is however, a conservationist approach to animals, in that people should not gratuitously hurt them. Hunting purely for sporting purposes is discouraged,14 and there are numerous passages in
the writings which specify kindness to animals, for example:
‘educate children from their infancy in such a way that they may be exceedingly
kind and merciful to animals. If an animal be sick, let the children try to heal it; if it
be hungry, let them feed it; if thirsty, let them quench its thirst; if weary, let them
see that it rests’.15
Exemplars
It is often the practice in school-based R.E. to make use of human exemplars. A useful
exemplar of the Baha’i view of nature is Richard St Barbe Barker, the founder of the
Men of the Trees. His approach to conservation illustrates a number of important Baha’i themes. Firstly, he emphasised the need for unified action by the people living in
an area, regardless of their level of education, as he did by mobilising tribal people in
East Africa to plant hundreds of thousands of trees. Baha’is set great store by co-
operation and consultation in problem-solving, and upon the value of unified action
by all people. Secondly, he took a ‘macro’ rather than a ‘micro’ approach, emphasising the inter-relatedness of nature; thus for example the reafforestation of the watersheds would lead to a wholesale improvement of the environment. This is in accord
with Baha’u’llah’s appeal for people to ‘let your vision be world-embracing rather
than confined to your own selves’.16 Thirdly, St Barbe Barker emphasised the ‘opportunity cost’ of warfare in terms of constructive human activities foregone. In his book
Sahara Challenge, presented to the rulers of all countries bordering on the Sahara, he
estimated that his plan to reclaim that desert would cost less than a year’s global arms
expenditure.17 This negative effect of arms expenditure upon the standard of living of
ordinary people had been noted by Baha’u’llah himself in his Tablet to Queen
Victoria.18 Teachers wishing to use Richard St Barbe Barker as an exemplar could either contact a local branch of the Men of the Trees, or read some of his books. 19
Resources
Resources for the teacher on Baha’i views of environmental issues do not present a
problem for the R.E. teacher. There is a wealth of Baha’i literature in English, and a
network of Baha’i communities the length and breadth of the country. If teachers experience any difficulties in this connection they should write to the National Spiritual
Assembly of the Baha’is of the U.K. A recent and brief publication which could provide a focus is ‘The Baha’i Statement on Nature’2O, the statement published on the
occasion of the Baha’i accession to the Assisi Declaration. For the pupil’s own use
there is less written material available, but some of the Home Study Units produced
by the Baha’i Education Committee 21 deal with environmental issues.
Footnotes:
1. Taken from the title of a song popular among Western Baha’is in the early l970s.
2. ‘The All-Knowing Physician hath His finger on the pulse of mankind. He
perceiveth the disease, and presenteth, in His unnerving wisdom, the remedy.
Every age hath its own problem’. Baha’i Revelation BPT (UK), Section 49, p.74.
3. Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, BPT (USA), Section 122, p.258.
4. From the introduction to E.G. Browne, A Travellers Narrative, BPT (USA), p.39.
5. Quoted in H.M, Balyuzi, Edward Granville Browne and the Baha’i Faith, George
Ronald, p.37.
6. The Hidden Words, BPT (UK), Part II, v.20.
7. Tablet to Dr Forel, In Baha’i Revelation, BPT (UK), p.227.
8. Tablets of Baha’u’llah revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas. BPT (UK), p.142.
9. Quoted in J. Esslemont, Baha’u’llah and the New Era, BPT (UK), p.33.
10. In Baha’i World Faith, BPT (USA), p.302.
11. Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, BPT (UK), p.304.
12. The Hidden Words, BPT (UK), Part I, v.55.
13. Quoted in J.M. Grundy, Ten Days in the Light of Akka, BPT (USA), p.9.
14. A Synopsis and Codification of the Kitab-i-Aqdas, BPT (UK), Note 34, p.63.
15. Selection from the Writings of Abdu’l Baha, BPT (UK), p.159.
16. Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, BPT (USA), Section 43, p.94.
17. R. St. Barbe Baker, Sahara Challenge, 1954 (O/P), introduction.
18. Tablet to Queen Victoria, Reproduced in Baha’i Revelation, BPT (UK), pp.9-12,
Ref at p.11.
19. The most easily available is R. St. Barbe Baker, My Life, My Trees, Findhorn
Press, 1985.
20. The Baha’i Statement on Nature, BPT (UK), 1988.
21. Available from the Baha’i Education Committee, Esslemont House, 30 High
Street, Uckfield, East Sussex, TN22 5DD.