About Gardian

There is a mountain and an ocean full of love and tenderness and generosity. It is amazing to me how he would never forget the least little thing, a little thing that we would consider completely unimportant. He would comment on something, and you would think, “Well, that was very beautiful.” Two or three weeks later, he would say, “I told you about so-and-so on that day, and now here is the rest of it.” Things that you would dismiss in your mind, the least little things, the Guardian never forgot anything; even the smallest things.

As he would go about, he would always be complimenting someone. The gardeners, even the gardeners taking care of the garden, he would say, “You planted that very beautifully. Your flowers are very beautiful. I am very pleased with the way that you are keeping up this lawn. And I would like you to do so and so, and it’s just very beautiful.” Everyone who worked for him, he was always thinking what he could say to make him happy. Everyone who had personal difficulties, he would say, what can I do to make that person happy? What can I do to lighten his load, so that he could carry on a little bit more efficiently, never thinking of himself. How could he have time, with all the world’s problems on his mind, to be thinking of all of these little things, all of those things which he did. It was amazing, his love! And he loved people. He loved everyone. He looked at everyone and he saw the face of God in everyone. He looked at their attributes of God. He looked at their accomplishments, he looked at their deeds, he didn’t look at their shortcomings. What registered before the Guardian was what the person was offering to God, and not his sins and shortcomings. The accomplishments, the good deeds, the character that he had developed, that’s what the Guardian saw. He didn’t see the other things. He wasn’t interested them. Always ready to forgive, always ready to help. So this love of the Guardian, this tenderness, this gentleness, the way the man who has to run the world would handle with his hands, it is a combination that is almost inconceivable, that a person could be so full of love and tenderness, and a tenderness that you can’t understand. No one would realize how he suffered from things, from mistreatment by some of the members of his family. Nobody knows what he suffered. You had to be there to see it. And anyone never said anything, but he would clearly suffer from those who had turned away from the Cause. His own kin. It was very difficult, because his love was so great. His forgiveness was so great. His forbearance was so great.

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I want to say a few words now about the Guardianship. I told you about the life of the Guardian, his guidance, his fore-knowledge. Shoghi Effendi was a very remarkable young man, and of course, he just worshipped Abdu’l-Baha. And when Abdu’l-Baha passed away, the whole world became dark for him. All light had gone out. When he returned to the Holy Land, he had in mind from the things which Abdu’l-Baha had said to him, (and I am now telling you what he said), “that I had in mind that Abdu’l-Baha would give me the honor of calling the great conclave, calling together the great conclave which would elect the Universal House of Justice. And I had thought in His Will and Testament, that that probably was what He was instructing to be done.” But, he said, “Instead of that, I found that I had been appointed as the Guardian of the Cause of God,” and he said, “I didn’t want to be the Guardian of the Cause. In the first place, I didn’t think I was worthy. The next days, I didn’t want to face these responsibilities. I think he talked one night along these lines when you were there, John, I’m not sure, but he went into this on other times, too, in great detail. He said, “I didn’t want to be the Guardian. I knew what it meant. I knew that my life as a human being was over. I didn’t want it, and I didn’t want to face it, so as you remember, I left, remember, I left the Holy Land, and I went up in the mountains of Switzerland, and I fought with myself until I conquered myself. Then I came back and I turned myself over to God, and I was the Guardian. Now,” he said, “every Baha’i in the world, every person in the world, has to do the exactly the same thing, whether you’re a Hand of the Cause, or whether you’re a Knight of Baha’u’llah, or whether you’re a member of a National Assembly, whether you’re a teacher, whether you’re a pioneer, whether you’re an administrator, or whatever you are in the Cause, every Baha’I must fight with himself and conquer himself. And when he’s conquered himself, then he becomes a true instrument for service to the Cause of God. And not until that. And he won’t achieve his great success until he has done it, and this is what every Baha’I in the world should know. And this is one of the main things that I want you to get out of this talk tonight, and bear out of this talk, there are the instructions that every individual must fight with himself, must conquer himself, must overcome his lower nature, and turn himself over to God, so that the Holy Spirit can function through you. And when the Holy Spirit functions through you, then you will gain victory after victory, because the Holy Spirit is the creative aspect of God, and it cannot do other than win victories and make successes for the Cause.

<In the Days of the Guardian – a Talk by Hand of the Cause of God Leroy Ioas in Johannesburg, South Africa, 1958>