Where, Where Is the Sun of Truth?

A retelling based on The Chosen Highway by Lady Blomfield. Words in quotation marks are as she recorded them.

In the autumn of 1911 'Abdu'l-Bahá spent nine weeks in Paris. Every morning, Lady Blomfield remembered, He explained the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh to whoever gathered around Him, "the learned and the unlearned, eager and respectful." They came from the East and from the West: Theosophists, agnostics, materialists, spiritualists, Christian Scientists, social reformers, Hindus, Sufis, Muslims, Buddhists, Zoroastrians and many others. He spoke in Persian, and Monsieur and Madame Dreyfus-Barney translated His words into French. Lady Blomfield, her two daughters, Mary and Ellinor, and their friend Beatrice Platt took notes from day to day, and at the Master's request those notes were published in English. When they were ready the book was sent to 'Abdu'l-Bahá. He read it through, was well pleased with the English translation and wished it published without delay, and it came out in May 1912.

The words could be put on paper, she wrote. The smile, the loving-kindness and, at times, the authority of His voice could not.

He would often answer their questions before they asked them. Sometimes He would encourage them to put a question into words.

"And now your question?" He said to her once.

She told Him she had been wondering whether, in the next world, she should ask to be allowed to come back to earth to help.

"Why should you wish to return here? In My Father's House are many mansions - many, many worlds! Why should you desire to come back to this particular planet?"

A man came who had worked for sixteen years in the French Congo to lighten the hardships of the people there. 'Abdu'l-Bahá told him: "It was a great comfort to me in the darkness of my prison to know the work which you were doing." "Explanations were not necessary when coming to 'Abdu'l-Bahá!" Lady Blomfield wrote.

One day a mother came in deepest mourning, weeping too bitterly to speak. Her son was to have a dangerous operation. "Do not weep," 'Abdu'l-Bahá said, wiping away her tears. "Do not weep. Be happy! It will be well with the boy. Bring him to see me in a few days." On her way out she said, "Oh, my child! He is to go through a dangerous operation today. What can I do?" She was answered: "The Master has told you what to do. Remember His words: 'Do not weep, it will be well with the boy. Be happy, and in a few days bring him to see me.'" A few days later she brought the boy to Him, perfectly well.

One evening, at the home of Monsieur and Madame Dreyfus-Barney, an artist was presented to Him.

"Thou are very welcome. I am happy to see thee. All true art is a gift of the Holy Spirit."

"What is the Holy Spirit?"

"It is the Sun of Truth, O Artist."

"Where, where, is the Sun of Truth?"

"The Sun of Truth is everywhere, It is shining on the whole world."

"What of the dark night, when the Sun is not shining?"

"The darkness of night is past, the Sun has risen."

"But, Master, how shall it be with the blinded eyes that cannot see the Sun's splendour? And what of the deaf ears that cannot hear those who praise its beauty?"

"I will pray that the blind eyes may be opened, that the deaf ears may be unstopped, and that the hearts may have grace to understand."

As 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke, Lady Blomfield wrote, "the troubled mien of the artist gave place to a look of relief, satisfied understanding, joyous emotion."

"Thus interview followed interview," she went on. Clergy of several churches came as well, some of them, in her words, "earnestly desirous of finding new aspects of the Truth."

The Japanese Ambassador to Spain and his wife were staying in Paris, and she very much wished to meet 'Abdu'l-Bahá. But her cold was severe, and she was leaving for Spain early the next morning. "If only there were a possibility of seeing Him," she said. This was told to the Master, who had just returned after a long, tiring day. "Tell the lady and her husband that, as she is unable to come to me, I will call upon her." Though the hour was late, He came through the cold and the rain to their hotel. For more than an hour He talked with them of conditions in Japan, of the work for the abolition of war, of the need to improve the lives of workers and of educating girls and boys equally. "The religious ideal is the soul of all plans for the good of mankind," He told them. The friends said in wonder: "How is it possible that, having spent all His life imprisoned in an Eastern fortress, He should so well understand world problems and possess the wisdom to solve them so simply?"

This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see The Chosen Highway by Lady Blomfield, Part III, "'Abdu'l-Bahá in Paris."

Blomfield, L.. (1940). *The Chosen Highway*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust.