To contact us Click HERE
From @kanakkupullai:
"I have a superb secret to tell. I traded stocks, and gained over two lakhs."
"What?? Why didn't you tell me before?"
"Speculation is a risky business, you wouldn't have allowed me!"
"So, you conveniently ignored my feelings?"
"Well..I just..."
"Shut up! You chose to speculate not just on stocks, but on me as well!"
From @chaosparticle: She called him as the train chugged away from the platform. There was room for a last conversation at the convocation. But they had speculated a callous dealing of emotions, which got the better of memories. Now as he heard her voice one last time, the call dropped. "Out of network coverage," the screen read.
From @deescjockey: There was an unmistakable spring in her step this morning. Noone had failed to notice the gradual brightening up of her choice in kurtas ever since Prof Madhavan joined. As her colleagues huddled in the staff room, sharing gossip and speculation of varying viciousness, they had no idea how close they were to the truth.
From @RBtrary: Holding hands and strolling beside the flower-beds; few stolen kisses and warm cuddles. World seems better, future looks bright and rosy.Time passes-by and possessiveness grows. For few the mind wanders and in come the commitment woes.Ever-changing speculations and infinite blind turns is what keeps the gamblers enthralled in the game called Love.
From @sohamsabnis: Seed never speculates. It fall for the soil and longs for sunlight. It survives, cracks the soil and shoots towards the sky. It is never alone in that soil, with minerals and microbes; it grows and later learns to dance with the wind. Learning not to break, but to bend.
From @MirrorofErised_ : It didn't matter if it suited her choice, if the decision pleased her. All that mattered was what was fodder for the media. Her celebrity-status needed constant approval from her audience. One move wrongly played, and her image would be tossed away like a defeated pawn in chess.
From @Whiteness: She was musing over an idea that came upon to her mind. It was so sudden that she could resist her own standards. After all, why should women always sacrifice her desires for the family? Without further speculation she savored the last gulab jamun that was left in the jar before her son could ask.
From @iyer_raman: “Captain’s wicket, third ball of the next over, 10 to 1” said the old man, placing a fresh wad of notes. The wicket fell. He downed his drink, and collapsed, clutching his chest. The chairman smiled, pocketed the notes and then called for an ambulance. “Sorry son…shouldn’t have overheard…” were the old man’s last thoughts.
From @BeingInane: I waited for you to say something,something that will silent the ghosts in my mind.I know you are a man of few words,but people need reassurance.And I am no different.My assumptions ruined us.But how can you blame me ?..What more can an insecure mind do than speculate.
5 Şubat 2013 Salı
Theme 207 - Guilt
To contact us Click HERE
From @lilmississues:
I have this dream. I’m 7 years old, scribbling bracelets around my wrists to make them pretty. Jake, my 2nd grade lover gives me that smile, we’re going to be forever.
It’s been 20 years. My wrists have bracelets of blood. Jake just left.
Quit acting like you’re the only one who spends their nights awake.
From @SugarsNSpice:
She trusted him the most. Often, fighting the world to prove his lies were the truth. Then one day the cracks appeared. He always said if the glass is broken, it can never be mended completely. She still cries for the lost love. The guilt of not been able to stop her kill him everyday.
From @AwaaraMaseeha:
"She loved him, undoubtedly. But he loved him too. And he was pretty sure of his sexuality. One way was lifelong happiness of mind but anguish of heart. The other way was a shortcut to apocalypse, where all hell would break loose and he would be damned, forever. Whose was the guilt? His, or their?"
I have this dream. I’m 7 years old, scribbling bracelets around my wrists to make them pretty. Jake, my 2nd grade lover gives me that smile, we’re going to be forever.
It’s been 20 years. My wrists have bracelets of blood. Jake just left.
Quit acting like you’re the only one who spends their nights awake.
From @SugarsNSpice:
She trusted him the most. Often, fighting the world to prove his lies were the truth. Then one day the cracks appeared. He always said if the glass is broken, it can never be mended completely. She still cries for the lost love. The guilt of not been able to stop her kill him everyday.
From @AwaaraMaseeha:
"She loved him, undoubtedly. But he loved him too. And he was pretty sure of his sexuality. One way was lifelong happiness of mind but anguish of heart. The other way was a shortcut to apocalypse, where all hell would break loose and he would be damned, forever. Whose was the guilt? His, or their?"
Theme 208 - Addiction
To contact us Click HERE
From @kanakkupullai:
Who would ever want to live a virtual life? It was a dump yard, time wasting, addictive and artificial. No one was what they ever seem like on the social network! Even the most celebrated celebrity could be a fake in the end! And then habitually, he refreshed the page to see for new RTs.
From @MirrorofErised_ :
Beep. Tweep. Tring. Whatsapp, Twitter, Facebook, Gmail messages. Her phone was the first thing she looked at in the morning and the last thing at night. Her companions were virtual, in reality she was alone. Absorbed into the virtual world, her addiction had consumed her. This realisation hit her but by then it was irrevocable.
From @Quratzafar:
Every part of her was aware, straining, begging for just one look, just a tiny little bit of attention that he had lavished on her once. He refused to acknowledge her.
From @deescjockey:
"I'm giving you up," she told the empty space. No more drunk dialing, she told herself, no more "surprise" visits, no more begging to give "us" another chance - I'm starting over, without him. She would remember these words with bitter reproach the next morning, as she watched him gather his clothes and leave.
From @SugarsNSpice:
Creativity made them acquaintances. From sharing thoughts, to wiping tears, he didn't take long to be her best buddy. Before she knew, he was his addiction for life. Sharing cute morning texts, having long conversations and flirting lusciously, they did it all. Then one day, he moved on. She still sleep with memories, of him.
From @MinolAjekar:
She opens the door, finds him standing there smugly in those jeans she likes so much. Hair freshly washed, his scent envelopes everything. And then he smiles.
He holds chocolates, oysters, a bottle of tequila and smokes. Does he not know he is the only high she needs?
From @sinpinklove:
He was sacked from work. His wife left him . She got custody of the kids. The bank took away his three bedroom flat. He lay on the roadside, a bottle in hand. He sang to himself. He laughed. He cried. Alcohol had won. Once again.
From @chaosparticle:
Three hundred grams down in four months. Nowhere close to the goal she had set before her friends when they saw her wedding dress wouldn't fit. This chocolate mudpie at the cafe did little to help. But then, what good was the strongest resolve if it could not be impeded by the sweetest addiction?
From @zoarcher:
Dev was where he was normally found nowadays. In his lab, working on a project, whose scale matched that of creating the world. In a way he would. By inventing compositions to free mankind from its helpless dependency on love, sex, drugs, coffee, work. But in the bargain, he developed an unbreakable bond with megalomania
From @AwaaraMaseeha:
His flat was teeming with people. They were his friends, whom he had called for a meet. They sat and he begun “I want to make money the only addiction in your life. Think, plan, snatch, kill if needed.” They knew what he meant. But they were college students. Where would this addiction take them?
Who would ever want to live a virtual life? It was a dump yard, time wasting, addictive and artificial. No one was what they ever seem like on the social network! Even the most celebrated celebrity could be a fake in the end! And then habitually, he refreshed the page to see for new RTs.
From @MirrorofErised_ :
Beep. Tweep. Tring. Whatsapp, Twitter, Facebook, Gmail messages. Her phone was the first thing she looked at in the morning and the last thing at night. Her companions were virtual, in reality she was alone. Absorbed into the virtual world, her addiction had consumed her. This realisation hit her but by then it was irrevocable.
From @Quratzafar:
Every part of her was aware, straining, begging for just one look, just a tiny little bit of attention that he had lavished on her once. He refused to acknowledge her.
From @deescjockey:
"I'm giving you up," she told the empty space. No more drunk dialing, she told herself, no more "surprise" visits, no more begging to give "us" another chance - I'm starting over, without him. She would remember these words with bitter reproach the next morning, as she watched him gather his clothes and leave.
From @SugarsNSpice:
Creativity made them acquaintances. From sharing thoughts, to wiping tears, he didn't take long to be her best buddy. Before she knew, he was his addiction for life. Sharing cute morning texts, having long conversations and flirting lusciously, they did it all. Then one day, he moved on. She still sleep with memories, of him.
From @MinolAjekar:
She opens the door, finds him standing there smugly in those jeans she likes so much. Hair freshly washed, his scent envelopes everything. And then he smiles.
He holds chocolates, oysters, a bottle of tequila and smokes. Does he not know he is the only high she needs?
From @sinpinklove:
He was sacked from work. His wife left him . She got custody of the kids. The bank took away his three bedroom flat. He lay on the roadside, a bottle in hand. He sang to himself. He laughed. He cried. Alcohol had won. Once again.
From @chaosparticle:
Three hundred grams down in four months. Nowhere close to the goal she had set before her friends when they saw her wedding dress wouldn't fit. This chocolate mudpie at the cafe did little to help. But then, what good was the strongest resolve if it could not be impeded by the sweetest addiction?
From @zoarcher:
Dev was where he was normally found nowadays. In his lab, working on a project, whose scale matched that of creating the world. In a way he would. By inventing compositions to free mankind from its helpless dependency on love, sex, drugs, coffee, work. But in the bargain, he developed an unbreakable bond with megalomania
From @AwaaraMaseeha:
His flat was teeming with people. They were his friends, whom he had called for a meet. They sat and he begun “I want to make money the only addiction in your life. Think, plan, snatch, kill if needed.” They knew what he meant. But they were college students. Where would this addiction take them?
Theme 209 - Surrender
To contact us Click HERE
From @BeingInane: She did all she could.She stopped listening to the songs that reminded her of him.She switched channels when his favorite movie is playing.She got rid of everything that had his mark.She even started seeing other people.Yet,when she is alone and when the urge to be with him leaves her helpless,all she wants to do is swallow her pride and surrender
From @Raingirl: When she got engaged, she thought the only thing that she will have to surrender will be her last name. But no one had told her that it was a package deal. Name, freedom, happiness and dreams - all were exchanged with the vows around the sacred fire and burnt till there was no trace left of her.
From @eternalscrewup: He was almost out of bullets, he panted. Sweat dropped into his eyes, he shriveled. His camp had been attacks by cannibals, a group of savage killers. He couldn't decide if he ought to kill himself, or surrender for a gruesome death or wait for a Messiah, of whose arrival he was unsure of, he shuddered.
From @AbhiandNow: He ran. There were mountains, deep seas, dangerous jungles, and then there was this fire, constantly burning inside him; it was constantly burning insides of him. He had two options; to surrender and die, or to let it burn him out.
He chose the option that others rejected, and the last man on Earth ran.
From @kanakkupullai: He looked up. It was dark. There was a continuous ringing around him. He searched in the gloom. Down by his head was the alarm. He had to go for a walk. He woke up, brushed, got ready, and looked at his bed. Meekly, he surrendered to it’s tempting call. There’s always an alternative, right?
From @aaroo4: Staring into his eyes, she said “So, you really are going to get me what I asked for? Promise me you won’t forget?” He replied “I promise, cross my heart hope to die.” She smiled, a smile that lit up the entire room and ran towards him straight into his open arms- “Love you daddy”
From @divigyaan: What a little beast! Hard to catch. Behind the chair, under the table, camouflaged, time and again. He wonder where to find this little brat. He banged and tripped but didn't lose hope. Eating it became a secondry thing. Now, all Tom wanted was to hear from him, "I surrender".
From @zoarcher: After long, Raja had been released from his caged life. He had forgotten the feel of rugged outdoor. He passed a black and white beauty but felt no urge to chase her. Raja had given up his wild ways and now he was ready to live like this, in complete surrender to his new self.
From @tweettabulous:
Obnoxious surrounding. Illogical scenarios. The harassment. Improper treatment. The torture. Mental agony. The threats. Emotional scarring. Physical abuse.
The will to fight this wretched evil is overshadowed by the social obligations and I just surrender to my ill fate... A psychopath wife beater.
From @blah_oholic:
What I want. What I get.Fate walking its lame path; in south of all my plans.I refrain. Fight. Persevere. Relook. Tune. Loose.From fancy dreams to harsh reality.To life, I surrender!
From @Raingirl: When she got engaged, she thought the only thing that she will have to surrender will be her last name. But no one had told her that it was a package deal. Name, freedom, happiness and dreams - all were exchanged with the vows around the sacred fire and burnt till there was no trace left of her.
From @eternalscrewup: He was almost out of bullets, he panted. Sweat dropped into his eyes, he shriveled. His camp had been attacks by cannibals, a group of savage killers. He couldn't decide if he ought to kill himself, or surrender for a gruesome death or wait for a Messiah, of whose arrival he was unsure of, he shuddered.
From @AbhiandNow: He ran. There were mountains, deep seas, dangerous jungles, and then there was this fire, constantly burning inside him; it was constantly burning insides of him. He had two options; to surrender and die, or to let it burn him out.
He chose the option that others rejected, and the last man on Earth ran.
From @kanakkupullai: He looked up. It was dark. There was a continuous ringing around him. He searched in the gloom. Down by his head was the alarm. He had to go for a walk. He woke up, brushed, got ready, and looked at his bed. Meekly, he surrendered to it’s tempting call. There’s always an alternative, right?
From @aaroo4: Staring into his eyes, she said “So, you really are going to get me what I asked for? Promise me you won’t forget?” He replied “I promise, cross my heart hope to die.” She smiled, a smile that lit up the entire room and ran towards him straight into his open arms- “Love you daddy”
From @divigyaan: What a little beast! Hard to catch. Behind the chair, under the table, camouflaged, time and again. He wonder where to find this little brat. He banged and tripped but didn't lose hope. Eating it became a secondry thing. Now, all Tom wanted was to hear from him, "I surrender".
From @zoarcher: After long, Raja had been released from his caged life. He had forgotten the feel of rugged outdoor. He passed a black and white beauty but felt no urge to chase her. Raja had given up his wild ways and now he was ready to live like this, in complete surrender to his new self.
From @tweettabulous:
Obnoxious surrounding. Illogical scenarios. The harassment. Improper treatment. The torture. Mental agony. The threats. Emotional scarring. Physical abuse.
The will to fight this wretched evil is overshadowed by the social obligations and I just surrender to my ill fate... A psychopath wife beater.
From @blah_oholic:
What I want. What I get.Fate walking its lame path; in south of all my plans.I refrain. Fight. Persevere. Relook. Tune. Loose.From fancy dreams to harsh reality.To life, I surrender!
Theme 210 - Nothing
To contact us Click HERE
From @QuratZafar: Another stray leaf under his feet, another winding road that lednowhere, another lonely traveller...nothingness meant having no one to love,not even himself.
“Some things in life are just worth nothing.Some things in life are worth everything. A pretty contrasting moment, whennothing becomes everything. After all, what is one man’s trash is another man’scash.”
He walked on to the next garbage.
From @AbhiAndNow:
There was sand below, a starry sky above me. There were ghosts gossipingabout the time, and their stories floating in the air. I plucked few andclenched them in my fist.
From @wekneweachother:
“Nothingness as afresh start. Nothingness as a Monday hangover. Nothingness as looking at apainting by Rothko and finding the meaning of life. Nothing is more profoundthan something. It is a void or maybe even a Black Hole.”, a 65 year oldtattooed woman wrote in her diary on December 31, 2067.
From @BeingInane:
From when she was born,therewas someone to tell her what to do.She never complained.She didn't know shecan.She lived her life,passively.She was an outsider in her own life.Then shegot married but it's the same.The decision makers changed,tats all.And nowafter all these years when she tries to look back at her life,all she can seeis a void.A big nothing.
From @AapChutiyeHain:
“Heis the one, the one I have waited my entire life for, All my friends would be sojealous when they see us together, We’ll keep making out in public places andscandalizing people all the time, and fuck like jackrabbits the next Goa trip”
“What’re you grinning like that for?”
“Kuch Nahi”.
From @MirrorOfErised_ :
"What's up?"
"Nothing."
That bleak 'nothing' was a lie. So many painfulstories she held back. Her tears had moisetened the screen of her phone. Shelooked for solace over her contact list but in vain when realisation hit her.She could share audios, videos and pictures but technology could not let hershare emotions.
From @tweettabulous:
Love like the one I never knew. Promises of a lifetime of happiness.Foresee growing old together.
From @chaosparticle:
From @randomWhiz:
I had to clear my head. To tell it, thatnothing is absolute, and can be changed. That alone has had me going all theseyears, facing challenges. But to believe that, my head needs to be absolutelyempty first. From nothing, will come something. Something new
From @ponderpuffman:
She was expecting a child.
But she was also not expecting.
She delivered.
From @absoluteme:
With you, I am clingy. I crib, I getjealous. I think too much. I bitch. I act unreasonable. I cry a lot. But I alsolaugh. I get drunk happy. I start dreaming. With you, I feel more vulnerable,more joy, more me. I feel more human. Without you? Without you... Nothing!
From @QuratZafar: Another stray leaf under his feet, another winding road that lednowhere, another lonely traveller...nothingness meant having no one to love,not even himself.
“Some things in life are just worth nothing.Some things in life are worth everything. A pretty contrasting moment, whennothing becomes everything. After all, what is one man’s trash is another man’scash.”
He walked on to the next garbage.
From @AbhiAndNow:
There was sand below, a starry sky above me. There were ghosts gossipingabout the time, and their stories floating in the air. I plucked few andclenched them in my fist.
From @wekneweachother:
“Nothingness as afresh start. Nothingness as a Monday hangover. Nothingness as looking at apainting by Rothko and finding the meaning of life. Nothing is more profoundthan something. It is a void or maybe even a Black Hole.”, a 65 year oldtattooed woman wrote in her diary on December 31, 2067.
From @BeingInane:
From when she was born,therewas someone to tell her what to do.She never complained.She didn't know shecan.She lived her life,passively.She was an outsider in her own life.Then shegot married but it's the same.The decision makers changed,tats all.And nowafter all these years when she tries to look back at her life,all she can seeis a void.A big nothing.
From @AapChutiyeHain:
“Heis the one, the one I have waited my entire life for, All my friends would be sojealous when they see us together, We’ll keep making out in public places andscandalizing people all the time, and fuck like jackrabbits the next Goa trip”
“What’re you grinning like that for?”
“Kuch Nahi”.
From @MirrorOfErised_ :
"What's up?"
"Nothing."
That bleak 'nothing' was a lie. So many painfulstories she held back. Her tears had moisetened the screen of her phone. Shelooked for solace over her contact list but in vain when realisation hit her.She could share audios, videos and pictures but technology could not let hershare emotions.
From @tweettabulous:
Love like the one I never knew. Promises of a lifetime of happiness.Foresee growing old together.
From @chaosparticle:
From @randomWhiz:
I had to clear my head. To tell it, thatnothing is absolute, and can be changed. That alone has had me going all theseyears, facing challenges. But to believe that, my head needs to be absolutelyempty first. From nothing, will come something. Something new
From @ponderpuffman:
She was expecting a child.
But she was also not expecting.
She delivered.
From @absoluteme:
With you, I am clingy. I crib, I getjealous. I think too much. I bitch. I act unreasonable. I cry a lot. But I alsolaugh. I get drunk happy. I start dreaming. With you, I feel more vulnerable,more joy, more me. I feel more human. Without you? Without you... Nothing!
3 Ocak 2013 Perşembe
Abdu'l-Baha, and Saffa and Vafa Kinney
To contact us Click HERE
Saffa and Vafa Kinney were pillars of the Faith, immensely blessed by the Master. Edward was his birth name, but everyone knew him by the name the Master gave him, Saffa -- Serenity; and they called Carrie by the name the Master gave her, Vafa -- Certitude.
When Abdu'l-Baha's ship arrived in New York Harbor, and a multitude was awaiting Him on the dock, He asked Mr. Kinney to come on board, and He spoke with him. Then He directed everyone to go to the Kinneys' home, and wait for Him there. His first address on American soil was in the Kinney home:
When the Master fell asleep on John Bosch's shoulder during an automobile drive in New York, that drive ended at the Kinneys' home.
When the Master told Howard MacNutt, who had followed Khayrullah and then came back to the Covenant, and for a bountiful reward was directed to compile all of the Master's addresses into The Promulgation of Universal Peace -- when the Master told Mr. MacNutt to go and tell the people, "I was like Saul, now I am Paul" -- that was at the Kinneys' house, as recounted here.
In the movie of Abdu'l-Baha at the MacNutt home in Brooklyn, Mr. Kinney and Mr. Getsinger at the beginning of the movie are together walking up the sidewalk after the Master does.
This experience of Howard Colby Ives was in the Kinneys' home:
Abdu'l-Baha and the Kinney family
Copyright © 2010 Baha'i National Archives, WilmetteUsed With Permission
During a meal during that Pilgrimage, Juliet writes:
Mr. Kinney recounted that the New York Spiritual Assembly met in the Kinney home: Mr Kinney: "The Board of Council has met for three years past in my studio and I am very proud of it."
Our Lord: "It is indeed worthy to be proud of. I hope your home may always be the place of the gatherings; that the beloved of God may always come together there, be engaged in commemoration of God, have heavenly talks and speak through the confirmation of the Holy Spirit. Your home will be one of the heavenly constellations, Insha'llah, and the stars will gather there."
Mr Kinney: "What could I ask for more?"
Our Lord: "There is nothing superior to this."
The Master permitted the Kinneys to remain as pilgrims in the Holy Land for eight months during 1906. They asked Him for the privilege of returning the favor, imploring Him to visit America, and when He did, to stay as a guest in their home. He did, and while in their home in New York He told Mrs. Kinney, "I am returning your visit, but while I am in your home I will be the host and you will be the guests."
SAFFA KINNEYCopyright © 2010 Baha'i National Archives, Wilmette
Used With Permission
On the occasion of Saffa Kinney's passing, Shoghi Effendi cabled to the Baha'i world:
GRIEVE PASSING DEARLY LOVED, HIGHLY ADMIRED, GREATLY TRUSTED, STAUNCH, INDEFATIGABLE, SELF-SACRIFICING TEACHER, PILLAR FAITH, SAFFA KINNEY. HIS LEONINE SPIRIT, EXEMPLARY STEADFASTNESS, NOTABLE RECORD SERVICES ENRICHED ANNALS CLOSING PERIOD HEROIC AGE OPENING PHASE FORMATIVE AGE BAHA'I DISPENSATION. BOUNTIFUL REWARD ASSURED ABHA KINGDOM BENEATH SHADOW MASTER HE LOVED SO DEARLY, SERVED SO NOBLY, DEFENDED SO HEROICALLY UNTIL LAST BREATH. SHOGHI
"Saffa was so human." (Statement by one of Saffa Kinney's friends after his passing.)
That beautiful scene recounted in Portals to Freedom (pp. 50 ff.), when Howard Colby Ives followed the Master up the stairs when the Master was so tired, and asked Him about Renunciation, was in the Kinneys' home.
One day the Master asked Saffa Kinney to walk with Him on Riverside Drive. He stopped and looking deep in to Saffa's eyes asked in heart-piercing tones,
"Do you love Me? Do you love Me? Do you love Me?"
The next-to-last talk of the Master on America's shores was at the Kinneys' home:
‘Abdu’l-Bahá seated in the Kinneys Home, New York City, 1912Copyright © 2010 Baha'i National Archives, Wilmette Used With Permission
‘Abdu’l-Bahá Farewell at New York Harbor, December 5, 1912
Copyright © 2010 Baha'i National Archives, Wilmette Used With Permission
When Abdu'l-Baha's ship arrived in New York Harbor, and a multitude was awaiting Him on the dock, He asked Mr. Kinney to come on board, and He spoke with him. Then He directed everyone to go to the Kinneys' home, and wait for Him there. His first address on American soil was in the Kinney home:
How are you? Welcome! Welcome!Several important talks in the City of the Covenant recorded in The Promulgation of Universal Peace were in the Kinneys' home.
After arriving today, although weary with travel, I had the utmost longing and yearning to see you and could not resist this meeting. Now that I have met you, all my weariness has vanished, for your meeting is the cause of spiritual happiness.
I was in Egypt and was not feeling well, but I wished to come to you in America. My friends said, "This is a long journey; the sea is wide; you should remain here." But the more they advised and insisted, the greater became my longing to take this trip, and now I have come to America to meet the friends of God. This long voyage will prove how great is my love for you. There were many troubles and vicissitudes, but, in the thought of meeting you, all these things vanished and were forgotten.
I am greatly pleased with the city of New York. Its harbor entrance, its piers, buildings and broad avenues are magnificent and beautiful. Truly, it is a wonderful city. As New York has made such progress in material civilization, I hope that it may also advance spiritually in the Kingdom and Covenant of God so that the friends here may become the cause of the illumination of America, that this city may become the city of love and that the fragrances of God may be spread from this place to all parts of the world. I have come for this. I pray that you may be manifestations of the love of Bahá'u'lláh, that each one of you may become like a clear lamp of crystal from which the rays of the bounties of the Blessed Perfection may shine forth to all nations and peoples. This is my highest aspiration.
It was a long, long trip. The more we traveled, the greater seemed the expanse of the sea. The weather was brilliant and fine throughout; there was no storm and no end to the sea.
I am very happy to meet you all here today. Praise be to God that your faces are shining with the love of Bahá'u'lláh. To behold them is the cause of great spiritual happiness. We have arranged to meet you every day at the homes of the friends.
In the East people were asking me, "Why do you undertake this long voyage? Your body cannot endure such hardships of travel." When it is necessary, my body can endure everything. It has withstood forty years of imprisonment and can still undergo the utmost trials.
I will see you again. Now I will greet each one of you personally. It is my hope that you will all be happy and that we may meet again and again.
When the Master fell asleep on John Bosch's shoulder during an automobile drive in New York, that drive ended at the Kinneys' home.
When the Master told Howard MacNutt, who had followed Khayrullah and then came back to the Covenant, and for a bountiful reward was directed to compile all of the Master's addresses into The Promulgation of Universal Peace -- when the Master told Mr. MacNutt to go and tell the people, "I was like Saul, now I am Paul" -- that was at the Kinneys' house, as recounted here.
In the movie of Abdu'l-Baha at the MacNutt home in Brooklyn, Mr. Kinney and Mr. Getsinger at the beginning of the movie are together walking up the sidewalk after the Master does.
This experience of Howard Colby Ives was in the Kinneys' home:
Not long after that great first experience with 'Abdu'l-Bahá I was again talking with Him. It was in the beautiful home of Mr. and Mrs. Kinney, a family of the friends who seemed to feel that the gift of all which they possessed was too little to express their adoring love. Entering their home the roar of the city, the elegance and luxury of Riverside Drive, the poverty and wealth of our modern civilization all seemed to merge into a unity of nothingness and one entered an atmosphere of Reality. Those heavenly souls who thus demonstrated beyond any words their self-dedication had a direct influence upon my hesitating feet of which they could have had no suspicion. My heart throughout all worlds shall be filled with thankfulness to them.Juliet Thompson records in her diary that during her Pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1906, at which the Kinney family were fellow-pilgrims, these events occurred:
In this home I had become a constant habitue. I could not keep away. One day 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the interpreter and I were alone in one of the smaller reception rooms on the ground floor. 'Abdu'l-Bahá had been speaking of some Christian doctrine and His interpretation of the words of Christ was so different from the accepted one that I could not restrain an expression of remonstrance. I remember speaking with some heat: "How is it possible to be so sure?" I asked. "No one can say with certainty what Jesus meant after all these centuries of misinterpretation and strife." He intimated that it was quite possible. It is indicative of my spiritual turmoil and my blindness to His station, that instead of His serenity and tone of authority impressing me as warranted it drove me to actual impatience. "That I cannot believe." I exclaimed. I shall never forget the glance of outraged dignity the interpreter cast upon me. It was as though he would say: "Who are you to contradict or even to question 'Abdu'l-Bahá!" But not so did 'Abdu'l-Bahá look at me. How I thank God that it was not! He looked at me a long moment before He spoke. His calm, beautiful eyes searched my soul with such love and understanding that all my momentary heat evaporated. He smiled as winningly as a lover smiles upon his beloved, and the arms of His spirit seemed to embrace me as He said softly that I should try my way and He would try His.
It was as though a cool hand had been laid upon a fevered brow; as though a cup of nectar had been held to parched lips; as though a key had unlocked my hard-bolted, crusted and rusted heart. The tears started and my voice trembled, "I'm sorry," I murmured.
Often since that day have I pondered on the tragic possibilities of the effect of an expression of the face. I have even thought I should like to write a book on The Glance that Saved the World, taking as a theme the way Jesus must have looked upon Peter after the three-fold denial. What could that glance have carried to the fear-stricken, doubting, angry Peter? Surely not the self-righteous, dignified look in the eyes of the interpreter for 'Abdu'l-Bahá. As surely it must have been something in the nature of the expression of all-embracing love, forgiveness and understanding with which 'Abdu'l-Bahá calmed and soothed and assured my heart. ("Portals to Freedom," pp. 36 ff.)
First, with a father's tender care, He came to the carriage with us and watched us start. At the house in Bahji He joined us in a cool, whitewashed room, its door and window-trimmings painted blue, the usual linen-covered divan lining its walls, under three wide windows. Outside stood wonderful trees, like still sentinels guarding the Tomb. Sanctity hung in the air, a brooding spirit. Nowhere else in the world is the beauty of nature so impregnated with the soul of Beauty, a reflection from another world. In the air of 'Akká and Carmel is -- Life.
On a table was a single photograph, Lua's. Our Lord called me to sit by His side, then, pointing to the photograph, said: "Your friend!"
I got it and placed it on a little table close to His elbow, between the couch where He sat and my own chair. As I did this His face lit up with a smile of heaven.
Tea was brought in -- in the little clear glasses always used in 'Akká -- and He served us with His own hands. Then, seating Himself again on the divan, He called the four children who were with us: two of his own little grandsons (Shoghi Effendi and Ruhi) and the two Kinney boys, and with a lavish tenderness, a superabundance of overflowing love, such as could only have come from the very Centre and Source of Love, He drew all four to His knees, clasped them in His arms, which enclosed them all, gathered and pressed and crushed them to His Heart of hearts. Then He set them down on the floor and, rising, Himself brought their tea to them.
`Words absolutely fail me when I try to express the divine picture I saw then. With the Christ-love radiating from Him with the intensest sweetness I have yet witnessed, He stooped to the floor Himself to serve the little children, the children of the East and the children of the West. He sat on the floor in their midst, He put sugar into their tea, stirred it and fed it to them, all the while smiling celestially, an infinite tenderness playing on the great Immortal Face like white light. I cannot express it! In a corner sat an old Persian believer, in a state of complete effacement before his Lord, his head bowed, his eyelids lowered, his hands crossed on his breast. Tears were pouring down his cheeks.
Abdu'l-Baha and the Kinney familyCopyright © 2010 Baha'i National Archives, WilmetteUsed With Permission
During a meal during that Pilgrimage, Juliet writes:
He called Mr. Kinney's attention to the rice. "Rice. Rice," He said in English, "very good." Then looking at me and laughing: "She is smiling at My English!" "I smile because Your voice makes me happier than anything in the world."
Soon, sensing my wish to speak to Him, only for the sake of speaking to Him: "Speak. Speak."
But I had really nothing to say! I brought forth this: "Even this physical food is the best in the world."
"That is because of your intense love. A poison given by a friend is like honey. A Persian poet says: 'The poison which comes from Thee to me is my antidote. A wound from Thee is remedy.' Certainly these physical dishes are tasteful to you because you have the greatest love."
I supplicated that He might give me poison and wound me in His Cause, that I might be found worthy of this. "I will. When afflictions and bitter conditions taste sweet to man, this shows that he is favoured in the sight of God." Mr Kinney said: "I am not eating now, but my Master is feeding me." Our Lord: "I, Myself, am the Food." As He spoke His head was bowed, His hands upturned, like cups, in His lap. He sat, the embodiment of Divine humility. A great Mystery flooded the room, and a tremendous Power. "How like Jesus that sounds!" whispered Mr Kinney. "Jesus," said our Lord, His head still bowed, "was the Bread that came down from Heaven, but I am the Food prepared by the Blessed Beauty, Bahá'u'lláh."
Mr. Kinney recounted that the New York Spiritual Assembly met in the Kinney home: Mr Kinney: "The Board of Council has met for three years past in my studio and I am very proud of it."
Our Lord: "It is indeed worthy to be proud of. I hope your home may always be the place of the gatherings; that the beloved of God may always come together there, be engaged in commemoration of God, have heavenly talks and speak through the confirmation of the Holy Spirit. Your home will be one of the heavenly constellations, Insha'llah, and the stars will gather there."
Mr Kinney: "What could I ask for more?"
Our Lord: "There is nothing superior to this."
The Master permitted the Kinneys to remain as pilgrims in the Holy Land for eight months during 1906. They asked Him for the privilege of returning the favor, imploring Him to visit America, and when He did, to stay as a guest in their home. He did, and while in their home in New York He told Mrs. Kinney, "I am returning your visit, but while I am in your home I will be the host and you will be the guests."
SAFFA KINNEYCopyright © 2010 Baha'i National Archives, Wilmette Used With Permission
On the occasion of Saffa Kinney's passing, Shoghi Effendi cabled to the Baha'i world:
GRIEVE PASSING DEARLY LOVED, HIGHLY ADMIRED, GREATLY TRUSTED, STAUNCH, INDEFATIGABLE, SELF-SACRIFICING TEACHER, PILLAR FAITH, SAFFA KINNEY. HIS LEONINE SPIRIT, EXEMPLARY STEADFASTNESS, NOTABLE RECORD SERVICES ENRICHED ANNALS CLOSING PERIOD HEROIC AGE OPENING PHASE FORMATIVE AGE BAHA'I DISPENSATION. BOUNTIFUL REWARD ASSURED ABHA KINGDOM BENEATH SHADOW MASTER HE LOVED SO DEARLY, SERVED SO NOBLY, DEFENDED SO HEROICALLY UNTIL LAST BREATH. SHOGHI
"Saffa was so human." (Statement by one of Saffa Kinney's friends after his passing.)
That beautiful scene recounted in Portals to Freedom (pp. 50 ff.), when Howard Colby Ives followed the Master up the stairs when the Master was so tired, and asked Him about Renunciation, was in the Kinneys' home.
One day the Master asked Saffa Kinney to walk with Him on Riverside Drive. He stopped and looking deep in to Saffa's eyes asked in heart-piercing tones,
"Do you love Me? Do you love Me? Do you love Me?"
The next-to-last talk of the Master on America's shores was at the Kinneys' home:
I am greatly pleased with you all and rejoice that you have shown me the utmost kindness and affection. It is my desire that Bahá'u'lláh shall be pleased with you, that you may follow His precepts and become worthy of His confirmations. The requirements are that your minds must be illumined, your souls must be rejoiced with the glad tidings of God, you must become imbued with spiritual moralities, your daily life must evidence faith and assurance, your hearts must be sanctified and pure, reflecting a high degree of love and attraction toward the Kingdom of Abha. You must become the lamps of Bahá'u'lláh so that you may shine with eternal light and be the proofs and evidences of His truth. Then will such signs of purity and chastity be witnessed in your deeds and actions that men will behold the heavenly radiance of your lives and say, "Verily, ye are the proofs of Bahá'u'lláh. Verily, Bahá'u'lláh is the True One, for He has trained such souls as these, each one of which is a proof in himself." They will say to others, "Come and witness the conduct of these souls; come and listen to their words, behold the illumination of their hearts, see the evidences of the love of God in them, consider their praiseworthy morals, and discover the foundations of the oneness of humanity firmly implanted within them. What greater proof can there be than these people that the message of Bahá'u'lláh is truth and reality?" It is my hope that each one of you shall be a herald of God, proclaiming the evidences of His appearance, in words, deeds and thoughts. Let your actions and utterances be a witness that you are of the Kingdom of Bahá'u'lláh. These are the duties enjoined upon you by Bahá'u'lláh.
Bahá'u'lláh endured the greatest hardships. He found neither rest by night nor peace by day. He was constantly under the stress of great calamity -- now in prison, now in chains, now threatened by the sword -- until finally He broke the cage of captivity, left this mortal world and ascended to the heaven of God. He endured all these tribulations for our sakes and suffered these deprivations that we might attain the bestowals of divine bounty. Therefore, we must be faithful to Him and turn away from our own selfish desires and fancies in order that we may accomplish that which is required of us by our Lord.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá seated in the Kinneys Home, New York City, 1912Copyright © 2010 Baha'i National Archives, Wilmette Used With Permission‘Abdu’l-Bahá Farewell at New York Harbor, December 5, 1912Copyright © 2010 Baha'i National Archives, Wilmette Used With Permission
The House of 'Abdu'llah Pasha
To contact us Click HERE
THE HOUSE OF 'ABDU'LLAH PASHA
The house in 'Akká that 'Abdu'l-Bahá rented in 1896 and that served as His residence until He moved to Haifa in 1910. Historical photograph from media.bahai.org
"Some of the most poignant, dramatic and historically significant events of the Heroic Age of our Faith are associated with this house, which derives its name from the Governor of 'Akká who built it and used it as his official residence during his term of Office, from 1820 to 1832.... It was in this house that ['Abdu'l-Baha's] celebrated table talks were given and compiled, to be published later under the title "Some Answered Questions." In this house and in the darkest hours of a period which the beloved Guardian describes as 'the most dramatic period of His ministry,' 'in the heyday of His life and in the full tide of His power' He penned the first part of His Will and Testament.... In this house was born the child ordained to hold the destiny of the Faith in his hands for thirty-six years and to become its 'beloved Guardian,' the child named 'Shoghi' by his Grandfather, who grew up under His loving and solicitous care ...."
[As Thornton Chase, the First American Baha'i, wrote of his Pilgrimage, when he visited Abdu'l-Baha in this house:]
"As we contemplate the extraordinary focusing of powerful forces and events upon this house, we eagerly anticipate the day when it will be restored and made ready for pilgrims, who may inhale from its atmosphere, its grounds and sacred walls, the fragrances of a glorious past."(The Universal House of Justice, Messages 1963 to 1986, Message 157)
~ ~ ~
O House! Who climbed your stairway? When the Master was a prisoner our spiritual forbears came to you in the night, hearts pounding, souls reaching and hoping: Lua and Sarah, and Phoebe and Robert, and Louis, and Laura, and Thornton -- the first in the West to hear the voice of their Shepherd, Christ, in His "New Name."
We hear their footsteps now, the dust crackling beneath their feet. We hear their spirits, crushing doubt, opening the doors of their hearts to the Light of the New Jerusalem.
A child was born here, too --one promised by Isaiah. He ran up and down your stairs, his praises of God filling the courtyard.
- The courtyard? His voice filled the earth, and fills it still, and will for ages to come!
O Palm Tree, witness of servitude and grandeur, bearer of beauty and joy! How sweet your form, how dear your shadow, caressing the room of the Beloved! We, too, would press our cheek against that wall, feel its coolness against our face, inhale its fragrance, and seek to hear the soul-uplifting Voice within, charting destinies, answering questions, granting certitude.
THE HOUSE OF 'ABDU'LLAH PASHA The house in 'Akká that 'Abdu'l-Bahá rented in 1896 and that served as His residence until He moved to Haifa in 1910. Historical photograph from media.bahai.org
"Some of the most poignant, dramatic and historically significant events of the Heroic Age of our Faith are associated with this house, which derives its name from the Governor of 'Akká who built it and used it as his official residence during his term of Office, from 1820 to 1832.... It was in this house that ['Abdu'l-Baha's] celebrated table talks were given and compiled, to be published later under the title "Some Answered Questions." In this house and in the darkest hours of a period which the beloved Guardian describes as 'the most dramatic period of His ministry,' 'in the heyday of His life and in the full tide of His power' He penned the first part of His Will and Testament.... In this house was born the child ordained to hold the destiny of the Faith in his hands for thirty-six years and to become its 'beloved Guardian,' the child named 'Shoghi' by his Grandfather, who grew up under His loving and solicitous care ...."
[As Thornton Chase, the First American Baha'i, wrote of his Pilgrimage, when he visited Abdu'l-Baha in this house:]
'We did not know we had reached our destination until we saw a Persian gentleman, and then another and another, step out at the entrance and smile at us. We alighted and they conducted us through the arched, red brick entrance to an open court, across it to a long flight of stone steps, broken and ancient, leading to the highest story and into a small walled court open to the sky, where was the upper chamber assigned to us, which adjoined the room of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. The buildings are all of stone, whitewashed and plastered, and it bears the aspect of a prison.'
"As we contemplate the extraordinary focusing of powerful forces and events upon this house, we eagerly anticipate the day when it will be restored and made ready for pilgrims, who may inhale from its atmosphere, its grounds and sacred walls, the fragrances of a glorious past."(The Universal House of Justice, Messages 1963 to 1986, Message 157)
"Freedom is not a matter of place. It is a condition. I was thankful for the prison, and the lack of liberty was very pleasing to me, for those days were passed in the path of service, under the utmost difficulties and trials, bearing fruits and results. Unless one accepts dire vicissitudes, he will not attain. To me prison is freedom, troubles rest me, death is life, and to be despised is honour. Therefore, I was happy all that time in prison."(`Abdu'l-Baha in London, p. 120)
~ ~ ~
O House! Who climbed your stairway? When the Master was a prisoner our spiritual forbears came to you in the night, hearts pounding, souls reaching and hoping: Lua and Sarah, and Phoebe and Robert, and Louis, and Laura, and Thornton -- the first in the West to hear the voice of their Shepherd, Christ, in His "New Name."
We hear their footsteps now, the dust crackling beneath their feet. We hear their spirits, crushing doubt, opening the doors of their hearts to the Light of the New Jerusalem.
A child was born here, too --one promised by Isaiah. He ran up and down your stairs, his praises of God filling the courtyard.
- The courtyard? His voice filled the earth, and fills it still, and will for ages to come!
O Palm Tree, witness of servitude and grandeur, bearer of beauty and joy! How sweet your form, how dear your shadow, caressing the room of the Beloved! We, too, would press our cheek against that wall, feel its coolness against our face, inhale its fragrance, and seek to hear the soul-uplifting Voice within, charting destinies, answering questions, granting certitude.
Kaydol:
Kayıtlar (Atom)