One of the songs I remember best from my Bahá’í youth I may have heard only once or twice, and that, only in part:
World, world, world, world, why do you reject your Lord?
When will you receive your Savior, Bahá’u’lláh?
The couplet echoed in my head until it was as though I’d heard it a hundred times.
I think I remember it being sung in a three-part harmony, with the slow, plodding tempo of a funeral march. I thought it was quite beautiful then, but over the years it began to seem haunted with the dark, lonesome misery of a cult chant. The idolatry in it is almost palpable.
Here’s the complete lyric, according to an obscure Internet source that I don’t see any point in citing:
World, world, world, world, why do you reject your Lord?
When will you receive your Savior, Bahá’u’lláh?
Peace, peace, peace, peace, this is what we’re waiting for.
Love shall conquer all the hatred, Bahá’u’lláh.
Joy, joy, joy, joy, inside of every man,
If only he would discover Bahá’u’lláh.
World, world, world, world, everything has been fulfilled.
For the Prince of Peace has come – Bahá’u’lláh, Bahá’u’lláh.
Read your postings on Guy Murchie who I am going to speak about tonight in a lecture at Lynchburg College. His Music of the Spheres were most influentiasl when I first started pondering it all. Thanks for your input.
Hi Michael. Good to know that someone else out there is still interested in Mr. Murchie!