For nine days, July 9-17, Greg and I joined my parents and brother for Baha'i Pilgrimage. The Baha'i Holy Land is in Haifa, Israel, and since the Baha'is want to stay on good terms with the government, Baha'is from all over the world have to 'sign up' and wait for their turn the the city doesn't become over-run with Baha'is. My family had been waiting for about 7 years for the opportunity to go - pilgrimage is something that every Baha'i is supposed to do at least once in their lifetime if they can make it work. For many pilgrims, going to Haifa is the first time they've been out of their native country, the first time they've been on an airplane - perhaps the first time they've left their place of birth. Pilgrims going to the Holy Land is often explained with the analogy of the blood going to the heart to gain spiritual energy to bring back to their various places of origin. Toward the end of last year my parents were notified that our family would be able to go and were given a choice of dates and with the school year, July was what we chose. Greg, having become part of the family, was immediately added and didn't have to go on the waiting list - lucky him!
Coming right from a busy trip in Mentawai, riding in dugout canoes to places with no electricity, Greg and I didn't have much time to prepare - mentally or spiritually. In every Baha'i home we visited in Mentawai, there wasn't any furniture, and the only wall decoration would be a picture or two of the Holy Land. When we arrived, it was a very 'Mary Poppins' experience, and a bit shocking to our senses. We were inside the pictures! Except that everything was more beautiful than the pictures, and the pictures don't convey the water pouring from the fountains and plunking down the sides of the stairs leading up the terraces or the light cast from the stained-glass windows of the shrine of the Bab at night. Or the gently swaying lacey-leaved trees inside the shrine of Baha'u'llah. Or the intense heat and humidity in Haifa in July!
Baha'i pilgrimage consists of visiting the most Holy places for Baha'is. The most important place is the resting place of the founder of the Baha'i Faith, Baha'u'llah, which is in a house called Baji near Akka (now called Acre). The other most Holy site is the shrine of the Bab, the forerunner of the Baha'i Faith. Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'u'llah's son is also buried in the Bab's shrine located on Mount Carmel right in the center of the city of Haifa, and such a prominent landmark that the locals proudly boast its beauty and brides consider it good luck to have their pictures taken inside the front gates. The whole section of the mountain is terraced with beautiful gardens, and a few terraces above the shrine of the Bab are several buildings collectively called the ark. There's the Universal House of Justice, the center of the covenant and currently the only international governing body in the world that makes sure the Baha'is all over the world are on the same page. It's the highest level of administration in the Baha'i world, above the National Spiritual Assemblies, which are above Local Spiritual Assemblies, each with nine elected members, elected by secret ballot without campaigning, of course. There's also the Center for the Study of the Text full of libraries and researchers, the International Teaching Center, and the Archives building. What I didn't know until I had a tour of the buildings, was how beautiful they are. I always thought they were just cool buildings, but the architecture and design is incredible. The outside of the Universal House of Justice is Carrara marble carved in Greece, the Center for the Study of the Text has a round sunk garden in the entryway with a fountain, the meeting chamber for the International Teaching Center has a prism-like layered glass window to allow light in with the ring-stone symbol etched into the glass in the middle of a nine-pointed star skylight... I guess because the building are in such a steep mountain, great effort was put into making the rooms filled with sunlight - and they certainly are. We also saw the prison where Baha'u'llah and his family were kept, as well as the numerous houses that he and his family lived in while under house arrest.
We basically spent the whole time praying at the shrines and in the houses. All the pilgrims were really taken care of - there were excellent facilities everywhere we went, we had an amazing guide, and it really wasn't like a tour group even though there were about 30 of us and we went everywhere on a bus together. There were about 250 pilgrims total when we were there, and nearly every night we got to hear talks from Hand of the Cause Dr. Varqa, members of the Universal House of Justice, and members of the International Teaching Center. It was really amazing to be in the Holy Land. Greg said that he felt like, coming straight from Indonesia where so many Baha'is will never be able to go on pilgrimage, that he was bringing the prayers of all the people with him. Maybe it helped that almost all the clothes we wore were made by Indonesian Baha'i friends of ours. It was powerful. And by the end of our nine days, we were exhausted, and Greg and I were ready to stop living out of our suitcases!
