Anyone: Tolstoy Quote?
Casper Voogt
Allah'u'Abha everyone,
I have a quote by Tolstoy that I found once, but I never did have the
reference, perhaps because the place I found it didn't list it, or maybe
(oops!) because I was lazy. I would really like to find out where the
following, or something similar to it, comes from:
"We spend our lives trying to unlock the mystery of the universe
but there is a prisoner, Bahá'u'lláh, in Akka, Palestine, who had the
key."
I emphasize that right now I'm not so sure anymore that the quote is
entirely correct, so if you remember something LIKE this, please let me
know where it's from.
Thank you,
Casper
----------
Robert Pascoe
I found this quote in two places: The Baha'i Faith in Russia; Two Early
Instances, where it is quoted at the beginning of the aticle by A.M.
Ghadirian (now a member of the Continental Board of Counsellors) and the
second is in the Baha'i World Volume 5, page 644. It is unfortunately
reported to Martha Root, the author of the article second-hand, so we're
getting it third hand. This tends to lessen the veracity of the quote.
However in two letters written by Tolstoy in 1903 and 1908 we have the
following: "I therefore sympathize with Babiism with all my heart inasmuch
as it teaches people brotherhood and eqality and sacrifice of material
life for service to God."
and in 1908:
The teachings of the Babis which come to us out of Islam have through
Baha'u'llah's teachings been gradually developed and now present us with
the highest and purest form of religious teaching.
Martha Root's quote is from Tolstoy's secretary Valentin Bulgakov and
verified by Tolstoy's daughter as being true.
"We spend our lives trying to unlock the mystery of the universe, but
there was a Turkish Prisoner, Baha'u'llah, in Akka, Palestine, who had the
key!"
Hope this is of some assistance,
love,
Rob Pascoe
rpa...@freenet.npiec.on.ca
----------
Ross Deeley
On Thu, 1 May 1997, Casper Voogt wrote:
> Allah'u'Abha everyone,
>
> I have a quote by Tolstoy that I found once, but I never did have the
> reference, perhaps because the place I found it didn't list it, or maybe
> (oops!) because I was lazy. I would really like to find out where the
> following, or something similar to it, comes from:
>
> "We spend our lives trying to unlock the mystery of the universe
> but there is a prisoner, Bahá'u'lláh, in Akka, Palestine, who had the
> key."
The quote as I have it is:
We spend our lives trying to unlock the mystery of the universe, but
there was a Turkish prisoner, who had the key."
The bit explaining it was Baha'u'llah in Akka was in brackets.
I am not sure WHERE this is from, but it is quoted in John Huddleston's
book
The Earth is but one country. (page 27)
Hmm at the bottom of the page there is a reference to Star of the West
vol XXIII page 233 but as I don't have Star of the West I can't check
that out.
>
> I emphasize that right now I'm not so sure anymore that the quote is
> entirely correct, so if you remember something LIKE this, please let me
> know where it's from.
Hope this assists you in tracking it down.
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----------
Gordon Dicks
In a previous article, ros...@ramhb.co.nz (Ross Deeley) says:
>On Thu, 1 May 1997, Casper Voogt wrote:
>
>> I have a quote by Tolstoy that I found once, but I never did have the
>> reference, perhaps because the place I found it didn't list it, or maybe
>> (oops!) because I was lazy. I would really like to find out where the
>> following, or something similar to it, comes from:
>>
>> "We spend our lives trying to unlock the mystery of the universe
>> but there is a prisoner, Bahá'u'lláh, in Akka, Palestine, who had the
>> key."
>
Sorry I don't have a reference for this particular quote; you might try
hunting down the book "Leo Tolstoy and the Baha'i Faith" by Luigi Stendardo
(George Ronald 1985)
An academic article in the Journal of Baha'i Studies 5:3 cites some vague
references to the Faith directly from Tolstoi's diaries, but says that we
can't draw much of a conclusion about his beliefs about the Faith from
them. The quote you mention, and another in which Tolstoi is said to have
stated that the Baha'i teachings are "the highest and purest form of
religion", are probably not verifiable independently. He might well have
said these things, but if they were just passed on in conversation (maybe
to one of the several Baha'is that visited him) we have to be careful
about using them. Unfortunately I don't have Stendardo's book to check
out. Hope this helps.
--
---------------
Gordon Dicks (uc...@freenet.victoria.bc.ca)
----------
Gordon Dicks
I just remembered that there's another source of info about Tolstoi and
the Baha'i Faith which not too many soc.religion.bahai participants have
access to (probably) since it's in Russian. Here's my stab at a
translation:
from "The Baha'i Faith in Russia" by Nancy Ackerman & Graham Hassall,
(Appendix II in the Russian edition of Hatcher & Martin's introductory
book about the Baha'i Faith) excerpt from pp. 259-262
"The Faith also attracted the attention of Russia's great thinker, L.
N. Tolstoi, who first heard about the Babis in 1884 from O. S. Lebedev.
Over the course of 16 [?] years (until his death in 1910) the writer wrote
several times about the Babi and Baha'i teachings in his correspondence
and diaries. Nor did he not overlook Grinevskaya's play. [Isabella
Grinevskaya, a playwright of the time, wrote a play about the Bab which
had two very successful runs in St. Petersburg. Grinevskaya became a
Baha'i, and later met both `Abdu'l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi.] Tolstoi wrote
her a letter in which he spoke warmly about her work and noted that
"...the teachings of the Babis... since they uphold the fundamental,
underlying ideas of brotherhood, equality and love, have a great future."*
Tolstoi's letter was published, and public interest in the Faith in Russia
grew significantly.
Tolstoi was a champion of true religion, and his spiritual search and
important ideas - such as the crucial need for a universal religion,
independent investigation of truth, the harmony of faith and reason, the
simplification of religious ritual, and universal education - were in
agreement with Baha'i principles.True, the writers's relationship with the
Faith was complex and, at times, uneven: periods in which he put the
highest possible value on it alternated with periods of coolness and
criticism. Without access to reliable sources, Tolstoi naturally was
unable to get a clear picture of the Baha'i teachings. This limited
knowledge, together with internal conflicts in his own philisophical
outlook, at times prompted him to reject the Faith, since it seemed to him
that its postulates did not coincide with his own views and and
aspirations. However, in his correspondence with Baha'is and those
researching the Faith Tolstoi never stopped exploring those questions
which troubled him: the nature of God, patriotism, the station of the
great Prophets, the oneness of religions, and the link between mind and
soul.
... It is known from Tolstoi's letters that he received a number of
books about the Faith, sent by correspondents who were interested in
religious questions. The brief references to Babis and Baha'is in his
diaries are unclear, but they affirm that an interest in the Faith never
left him.
`Abdu'l-Baha knew that Tolstoi was interested in the Faith, and he
advised Baha'is living in Russian-controlled territories (including
Ali-Akbar Nakhjavani from Baku) to keep in contact with the him and
provide Tolstoi with reliable information about the Faith. In a letter to
Nakhjavani Tolstoi mentioned that he intended to write a book about the
Babi and Baha'i religions.**
In 1901 in a letter to the Persian ambassador to Russia, who had sent
his poem "Peace" to Tolstoi, Lev Nikolaevich [Tolstoi] wrote: "I believe
that there are people everywhere, like the Babis in your homeland, who
profess the true religion, and despite the persecution which they have
always suffered everywhere, their ideas will spread increasingly rapidly
and in the end will triumph over barbarism..."***
In September 1902 an Iranian Bah 'Ą, Aziz'u'llah Jazab, arrived at
Yasnaya Polyana [Tolstoi's home] with a personal message from
`Abdu'l-Baha, which said in part: "Act in such wise, that your name will
be a memory of the good in the world of religion. Many philosophers have
appeared, and each has raised a banner, say, to a height of five metres.
You have raised a banner ten metres; immerse yourself in the ocean of
oneness and you shall obtain for everlasting the assistance of God."^
In response to the messenger's question about Tolstoi's relationship
to Baha'u'llah and His Cause, Tolstoi replied: "How can I reject it? ...
Clearly, this cause will win over the whole world."^^ Tolstoi observed
that the principles of the Baha'i Faith were in accordance with the spirit
of the age and, in time, would be firmly established in the world,
ensuring the well-being of humanity.
Towards the end of his life L. N. Tolstoi came to the conclusion that
the teachings of the Bab, as developed in the works of Baha'u'llah,
represented that highest and purest form of religion.^^^ In 1910, shortly
before his death, Tolstoi wrote of the Baha'i Faith: "It is very profound.
I know of no other religion which is so profound.""^^^^
* Moojan Momen, The Babi and Baha'i Religions, p. 52
** Luigi Stendardo, Leo Tolstoi and the Baha'i Faith, Ch. 3-4
*** L. N. Tolstoi, Polnoye sobraniye sochinenii [Complete Works] v. 80,
p. 102
^ Stendardo, p. 2
^^ Momen, p. 30
^^^ Tolstoi, Complete Works, v. 78, p. 306
^^^^ D.P. Makovitskii, U Tolstogo: 1904-1910 Yasnopolyanskiye zapiski
(With Tolstoi: 1904-1910, Notes from Yasnaya Polyana] Moscow, Nauka 1979,
v. 4, p. 255