The Locusts' Bridge

In a farewell interview in Paris with S. S. Chamberlain, editor of The London Budget, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was asked how the new civilization was to be brought about. He answered:

“Through solidarity. In some animals mutual co-operation is frequently seen; when in time of danger, each will try to surpass the others in help. One day as I was standing near the border of a little stream on Mt. Carmel, I noticed a number of locusts that had not yet developed full wings. These insects wishing to pass from my side of the stream to the other in order to procure some food, threw themselves forward, each one trying to emulate the other in flinging itself into the water, so that a bridge was formed in order that the others might pass over and this was accomplished; yet those who gave themselves as a bridge finally perished. Consider how much solidarity makes for life as compared to the fighting for self interest which destroys it.”

Source: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on Divine Philosophy (compiled by Isabel Fraser, 1918), ch. IX, “A Loving Farewell”, pp. 187–188.

Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: unity).

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