 Aloha, my dear friends. Subject of my discussion today is Loving Interpretation of Space. This I have borrowed from a very lovely poem of my most favorite contemporary Persian poet, Sohrab Sepehri. In a poem called Traveler, a traveler has come, has reached to the place to the house of his host and they're sitting, is tired and exhausted from the trip and they are just, they have a very relaxed conversation. And at the time of their discussion, he asked, what does beautiful mean? And he, the other friend answers, beautiful means a loving interpretation of forms. Ashang, that is, Ta'beer-e-ash-a-vani-e-a-sh-a. And because I'm architect and we deal with the space, so I'm using the world of space. Of course, you might ask that we have so many important things to discuss. There were discussions about genocide yesterday. Really, I enjoyed Mr. Akhavan. Discussion, we have such mighty plan in our hand that we have to deal with. And why this confused person is talking about beauty, loving interpretation. It sounds, I want to argue my discussion is that in fact, we have no other choice. This is what I want to mention in my talk today. That is our, we have to talk about it. We are bound to talk about it. We have been instructed to talk about it. And there is nothing more important than this to talk about. I will give references to that. This is dispensation of beauty. The name of God in this dispensation is blessed beauty, blessed perfection, ancient beauty. There should be a reason for it. In a prayer of Bahá'u'lláh we read, O my Lord, make thy beauty to be my food. It's too heavy for me. You have to think about it. In a conference of architects in School of Architecture in Yale, two years ago, the subject of the conference was constructing ineffable above material, building without material. A very famous architect of North America, Mr. Mushe Safdi, referring to the gardens, to the shrine of the Bab and gardens, Baha'i gardens, said in his talk for the architects, most distinguished architects from all over the world. He said, it is so interesting for me that there is a religion in this world that the name of his God is Jamal, beauty. Then he said, Baha'is have turned garden to the place of worship, to the place of pilgrimage. So interesting. And then he said how this inspired him to become an architect because he lived in Haifa and he was born in Haifa. This, all of the talks of this conference is published in a book that you can buy from amazon.com, it's called Constructing the Ineffable. It also has my lecture there that was about the spiritual space. And I have, in full elaboration, talked about the Baha'i faith and perspective of the Baha'i faith and many of the topics that I talked about today in that discussion, Constructing the Ineffable. In a production of Vision TV that was called Recreating Eden in an episode that was about gardens of worship, about, I was asked in this program, I was asked that, is this correct to say Baha'i's worship, beauty of nature? I said at the risk of being totally misunderstood like what people consider Zoroastrian fire worshipers. I say yes, because blessed beauty is the name of God in this dissemination, so we worship blessed beauty. We worship, we believe that seal of God is sin in the beauty of His creation. He has put His seal in form of beauty, in everything. This is from Baha'u'llah in Hidden Words. O son of man, veiled in my immemorial being, and in the ancient eternity of my essence, I knew my love for thee, therefore I created thee. Have engraved on thee my image and revealed to thee my beauty. We recognize God, the best proof of existence of God is beauty in nature, in everything, in everything. Unbelievable, the beauty of creation of God. The most horrible thing that I don't like in my life is beetles, beetles I don't like. There is a museum of beauty of beetles. You have to see how beautiful it is, it's unbelievable. This insect that I hate is so beautiful. Now we don't talk about the life under the ocean, there is a museum, there is a aquarium in Dead Sea in Israel. It's very interesting that under the ocean, 20 kilometer deep in the waters, where there is no existence, nothing can be seen. The most beautiful things that you can imagine, all of them fluorescent lights, they have lights. It's full of, it's just like best, most beautiful firework of the world is happening 15 kilometer at the depth of the ocean. For no one, no one is watching it. It's for, it is, seal of God. Because, and only this ignorant, idiot human being still argues that is God exist? I mean, how such kind of beauty can happen by accident? Beauty cannot happen by accident. Order cannot happen by accident. Beauty that we are talking, and in the Baha'i Faith we are talking is not material. It is ineffable. The word used is Latif, letafat. The word Latif in Kitab-e-Aqdas is translated refinement. Refinement, letafat is translated to refinement. But in notes, note number 74, page 199, House of Justice explains that it is, this word has a wide range of meanings with both spiritual and physical implications, such as elegance, gracefulness, gentleness, delicacy, graciousness, as well as subtle, refined, sanctified, pure. Everything that is beautiful is in this world. And look at what Bob says about the beauty, about this subject. And whenever I use any quotation in English, I want to really give my thanks and my, really, I think all of us, we owe this to my dear friend, Mr. Nader Saidi, that we heard him last night for what he has done is so great in translating of the writings of the Bob to English. We have it Persian Bayan, revealed in Prison of Maku, the most horrible, ugly place on earth at the time that the Babis were martyred in Shfurtabarsi. Bob took time to talk about beauty. Not only he took time to talk about beauty, he said, for in this religion, no other command is as rigorously enjoined as the duty of refinement. And it is forbidden that one brings anything into being in a state of imperfection when he had the power to manifest it in utter perfection. For example, he's talking about architects. Look at that. This is manifestation of God in Prison of Maku. Nobody would know even what to do on this. He says, should one build an edifice, should one build an edifice and fail to elevate it to the utmost state of perfection that is possible for it, there would be no moment in the life of that edifice when angels would not beseech God to tournament him. Nay, rather all the atoms of that edifice do the same. I said, I think if poor architects of the world, they knew this, they would have lost their sleep completely. Not that they sleep very well anyhow. In Book of Asma, again Bob says, educate then oh my God, the people of Bayan means all of us, educate us in such wise that no product is found amongst them, save the very utmost perfection of industry is manifest therein. For verily thou has desired by this law to build the earth anew. This is very interesting. Listen to that, to build the earth anew by virtue of thy glorious handiworks through the hands of thy servants. But he's asking, he wants us to perfect his perfect creation. And some of, we say we don't have time right now, you know, we have other priorities, this and that, this and that. Yesterday I was, last night I was talking to my dear friend, Mr. Tuman. We heard his music beautiful. And I told him that you were too generous, you gave discount to the friend. You said maybe at the beginning of the fate, there was a time, there was an excuse to say that right now we don't have time, we have to establish the fate. Bob says, no, sorry. He was in prison, but this was getting killed in Fort Tabarsi. And he said that there is nothing else like this. We have to do this. And we have, this is our duty. And I, at the end I will say why he says that. He explains why. Again, in Persian Bayan, amongst the faithful of the Bayan, nothing may be seen, nothing may be seen, except that it had attained perfection in its own station. Then he's generous. He says that, however, these are all binding to the extent that one possesses the mean to do so. Not to inflict pain on himself in perfecting things. For God, love it not to behold a believer in the state of grief. Rather all are assuredly obligated to the extent of their capacity. But Abdul Bahad takes that discount. He says, men who suffer not attain no perfection. I'm sorry. Now, to return to the poem of Sohrab Saperi, the traveler is talking to his friend, to his host. He says, why are you downcast? Why are you downcast? Are you feeling lonely? And how lonely do I feel? I think you are a captive of the hidden veins of colors. Captive, that is enamored in love. And imagine how lonely would be the little fish where it a captive of the blueness of the infinite sea. Imagine and imagine how lonely would the little fish fill where it a captive of the blueness of the infinite sea. What a delicate, sad idea. Dochar, I mean, a sheik. And think how lonely would be the little fish where it a captive of the infinite sea. Here the fish has become aware of the loving interpretation of water, of the essence of water. He has fell in love with the essence, reality of water. And has become captive. And reality of the fish has become connected to the reality of water. And my talk is all about this captivity, this relation, this relation that is happening between the reality of things. In field of art and visual art, we are aware of four dimensions. There are three dimensions of length, width, and height that we know. And also one dimension of movement was added to that later. They said that movement is in the field of, in the art. Picasso spoke about that and brought it up. So we know about four dimensions. Water in a glass has three dimensions. It has three dimensions, but it's not wet. Water in a river has four dimensions because it moves, but it's not wet. If you do not exist, water is not wet because wet does not exist. A rainbow, rainbow is water. Rainbow does not exist. You can never reach to a rainbow. You can never go through a rainbow. You can never touch the rainbow. It does not exist. It's in relation with light, water, in relation with reality of light and reality of a sky and us becomes a rainbow. Rainbow does not exist if these four elements do not exist. But yet it's so beautiful. It's there. It exists. Now we see it. It's there, but you can never go through it. You can never reach to it. I have tried once. But the art, the act of seeing a rainbow in this glass of water is art. An artist is a person who can see the rainbow in this glass of water. In my opinion, it is in the Baha'i interpretation of art, which is the loving interpretation of art, which the fifth dimension is interpreted by Abdul Baha. He explains this fifth dimension, this totally, the reality of things in necessary relations inherent in reality of things. Says that everything has a reality. There is an inherent necessary relation between reality of things. It is not in our hand, you and me and this building and this light and everything has a reality. And we all have relation with each other, whether we like it or we don't like it. We have this relation with each other. Understanding of these relations is what Abdul Baha describes later. I will talk about that. What we know in a good poet, a good architect, a good painter, a good musician does not say that this is good, this is beautiful. It invokes the feeling. If the art is only three dimension, you have to talk about it. You have to say, this is beautiful. Look, this is beautiful because it's like that. But in real, when it has become a real art in the Baha'i interpretation of art, artist just creates a background. He creates a boom, a ground, invokes something that we can participate in that and together we can make it beautiful. Together we create that. When we look at the paintings of sunflowers, fields of Anguk, it's not only sunflowers. It's not, it's much more than pictures. You can see the reality of wind, sun, lights, his feelings, his emotions, everything together in that painting. All together it creates that beauty. Together with us, we create beauty. The Baha'i artist creates a mirror, puts in front of us and we, our imagination, from our, the image, from the mirror of our mirror and his mirror together, it becomes an infinite, totally a new vision is created, which is really the loving interpretation of form. It's really the essence of beauty. It's much more really majestic and beautiful than what we really know. This subject of relation and reality of things is very interesting subject in the Baha'i writings and really needs lots of thinking. Abdul Baha, in Tablet of Hague, he says talking about the, he says wise souls, wise souls, yesterday we heard from another that wise souls are intellectuals, are artists, are scientists, are scholars, are writers, are musicians, poets. The wise souls are aware of the necessary relations inherent in the reality of things. Definition of art, Abdul Baha says to us. Then in Tablet of Dr. Forel, he says talking about nature. He says nature is the essential properties and the necessary relations inherent in the reality of things. Then in another place talking about love, he says love is the vital bond inherent in accordance with the divine creation in the reality of things. Then in some answer question, he says religion. Religion is the vital bonds inherent in the reality of things. The same understanding of the essential, necessary relations inherent in the reality of things. This is so, for the Baha'is, nature, art, religion. In another place he talks about destiny. Destiny, he gives the same description. Destiny and art and intelligence are one, it's same. All of them have the same meaning. Look at the beauty of when we are talking about the most important really subject of the today and future in the world. In every field will be protection of environment. In my opinion, the catastrophe that we are talking about in the Baha'i writings is environmental. Because atomic bomb and this and that, they are over. It's not going to happen. What will happen is destruction of environment. This is what we are saying. And the Baha'i faith is the only religion in the world that has clear, look at that. Look, I will read for you from Al Gore. I mean, best authority on protection of environment. He talks about Baha'is. Look at that. He says in his book, Earth in the Balance. He says, one of the newest of the great universal religions, Baha'i, founded in 1863 in Persia, warns us not only to properly regard the relationship between humankind and nature, but also the one between civilization and the environment. Perhaps because its guiding were formed during the period of accelerating industrialism, Baha'i seems to dwell on the spiritual implications of the great transformation to which it bore fresh witness. Now quoting from Beloved Guardian. He's quoting, we cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us and say that once one of these is reformed, everything will be improved. Man is organic with the world. His inner life molds the environment and is itself deeply affected by it. Affected by it. The one acts upon the other and every abiding change in the life of man is the result of these mutual reactions. So look at what we have in this faith to use as the, for introducing the teachings of Baha'u'llah to the people that today are so concerned and so conscious about protection of environment. So I give you an example of architecture. Now imagine, I want to give you an example from architecture. Imagine you are in a room, in a box with six, with three dimensions. You have three dimensions, the wall has all around you, but it is, there is no light. You can feel the space, you can feel three dimension, but it's dead, space is dead. Now imagine we open one opening. The minute light comes in, the place becomes alive. You start thinking, you start imagining in the space. You can think, you can imagine what is behind that light, what is behind everything and the space is really, it gets a meaning. Now we can break the cube. We can break the box instead of having six walls that block your view, block your end. There is an end to that. Whenever you look at this, you hit the wall, you look at this direction, you hit the wall, you look at that direction, you hit the wall. If you see that the spaces are going through each other, they are turning around and there is no end to space and there is light, mysterious light that comes from different parts of the dome. Here you see this is the dome of the temple in India. You can see that the dome is intersection of nine sphere, nine dome turning inside each other, turning around. There is no space, no surface ends ever. The surface goes behind another surface and disappears mysteriously so that you can, and light comes through. This is the type of dome that was, look at the Islamic architecture, but as you see, what I wanted to show is that in the dome that I have designed, that those surfaces, I have opened the, I have opened these corners and light comes through. So there is no, I'm trying to just make it infinite, so that the light comes in and it allows you to imagine more than what it is really, what you could have seen only from three dimension. I want to make it five dimension. I go beyond the surface. The same thing, this is my last building that I built last in Haifa in Aqqa. This is Shrana Baha'u'llah in Bahji, new visitor center. Many of you have maybe gone there and have seen that this is a new visitor center or pilgrim center that they go there. Wherever you go, every wall, if you see, there is a light here, there is a hello, there is a mysterious light that moves in the building like a spirit. And the reason is that, as you see, no wall, every wall is washed with light, everyone. There is skylights that you don't see. There are, but they interpret the surface of every wall differently. So you can, and when you enter in space, you see there is no end to any wall. It's always, you can, there is a light here that is mysterious, but you see that it's all effect of those skylights that they are, every wall is being washed with a natural light from above. There is a light in this flower, as you see, there is a light that is, it makes it translucent, it makes it, it gives you a, now here, it's not only the flower, it's light, it's water, it's whole space together with you that makes this flower so special, so different from. I think light in relation with us and with the atmosphere can make any building ineffable, can make space, something that is not from earth, is not material, it's above a material, and that is where we have to create when we are talking about spiritual space. You are not, the aim here is not to have a beautiful garden, the aim here is not to have a beautiful building. The aim is to have a spiritual space where I say spiritual space, beautiful space talks to your heart, a beautiful space talks to your mind, talks to you, a spiritual space talks to your spirit, to your soul, you get different. I think God is in details, that is what I believe. God is in details, beauty is that, you have to take a flower, take a flower and look at that very closely and look at the details, how the colors are emerging with each other, how the details are, that is so important. This is a French photographer that has taken photographs from kite, look at the, by kite I'm sorry, and how the kite have been, if you look, the camera is now standing right at the center of the building, not one millimeter here and there, not one millimeter here and there, and then you can see that I have tried, I tried to reach to perfection. This building is plus minus three millimeter tolerance, the building that is 35 meters in some places, 40 meters high, it has tolerance of plus minus three millimeter and because of that when you look at the symmetry, compare the distances with the pools and you can see, look at how symmetrical it is and it's, it may not be needed, we can argue that it's not needed but you know I think it's, there is something interesting in details, you know if you go to the top of the dome of the shrine of the Bob, right at the top of the dome where nobody ever goes, if you go, it's only for technical matters, I went up there because we were supposed to inspect the dome behavior of the dome and this and that, maybe once every 10 years, I don't know, 20 years somebody goes there to just check that it is, right at the top of the dome, there is a ventilation, there is a space for opening where you can go out in fact to the, out of the dome, the most beautiful, elegant detail, bronze detail that Mr. Maxwell has designed, when you look at that you was wondering why all of this beauty here, when it's not going to be seen at all but you see it has, I think it has, it released a power that makes that whole space, I mean even if I had not seen it, I would have felt that power, that relation that it has with this beauty and perfection that it creates, it creates that kind of a spirit that will touch our heart, we know something special, there was a beautiful story I heard recently, I mean I heard about these last years of after revolution of Iran and suffering of our high friends, I was told that there was in a small city, they were possibility that they were attacking, they wanted to attack the Baha'i centers and destroy everything and burn the books and all of that and Baha'is were nervous and conscious about that, that why this is going to happen and they were talking to each other that you know what to do with the books and they couldn't hide it somewhere, it would have been more dangerous and one of the illiterate Baha'is that was there told them that I have a suggestion, he said I have some life saving, you also can all, we can let us all contribute, built by the most elegant material, cover all of these books, so when they burn, they are beautiful, I think there is a special power in this, it's really true and people, we feel something you know we all, there is no dispute that a rose is beautiful, everybody knows, I mean whether you are scholar or you are a construction worker or you are a laborer whatever you are, you appreciate that rose is beautiful, now an artist could explain it why it's beautiful, go to lots of, write a book about why a rose is beautiful, it's not important, the fact is that it's beautiful and everybody feels that it's beautiful and the other one, the one that is not educated also has that feeling that it's beautiful, so this is really when you go to spaces where you don't know what is it but you like it or you go to a place and you don't know what it is but you don't like it, they have spent so much money, so much elegance, so much money but you don't like it, it doesn't talk to you, it doesn't touch your heart, that is what is really important in a building, details, this is entrance of Taj Mahal people, when they come to the temple they respect it, from every religion they come, they respect it but I think they respect it because it's, they like the beauty and they feel that spirit in the space, this is just an ordinary day, there is record of 150,000 visitors in one day, here you see this the independent day of India, this is the government, they have done it, and look at this, four major religions of India, Hindus, Buddhists, Christian and Sikh, they are carrying the temple as the symbol of unity of religions, Baha'is have had nothing with this, it just themselves, so that is why I will tell you, this is an exhibition, right now in city of Bangalore, right now it is on, up to 10th of September I think it will be on, and you see that how they have used again their own choice, they invited Baha'is and all of that and they have made a whole temple with roses, I was told that it's written that 300,000 roses have been used, this is the information centre of the temple to introduce the faith, I have to be fast, my time is getting over, again light and symmetry and proportions are the main concept of this design, colours, details, there are almost 1000 drawings for details, I'm just trying, I'm showing these things because I want you to think about the subjects that I mentioned and I have tried to really use all of those ideas in this design, in different forms, this is famous Sa'adi, famous poet of Iran, is great and I want to show that space of Shiraz, this is the city of Shiraz to compare it because we wanted to have the fragrance of the gardens of Shiraz here, birthplace of the Bab, this is Ma'aku, where in this prison, Bab spoke about that beauty and that perfection and said there is nothing more important for us and he said he didn't have one light at his presence and that's why we have flooded this mountain with lights in memory of his dark nights in prison of Ma'aku, details, spend months to give this appearance to this fountain, to be crystal clear water, peace, not too much noise, not too much foam, details, this is the shrine of Bahá'u'lláh, the new garden that was in front of that visitor center that I mentioned, again you see just all creating, it does not, these are not real arches, it's not architecture but it just gives you the impression trying to create a palace with, in space, gives you direction to the shrine, this is a garden in Shiraz, I think Bahá'u'lláh, as you know, Bahá'u'lláh is the greatest name of God and Jamal, beauty, Jamal is reflection of God on earth in this dispensation, reflection of God on earth in this dispensation. Loving, if you can just, I'm worried about this falling down here, loving interpretation of the world, really Bahá'u'lláh's are trying to interpret this world lovingly, bring that perfection and that beauty to this world. And if it is, if that perfection that we spoke about it in Holy Writing is reflected in our life and in our work, we do not need to do anything else, the masses of people of the world are going to become Bahá'u'lláh by us, just the fact that they see that. Look at what Bob says in Persian Bayan, talking about the same perfection and beauty, he says should there be a faithful believer in the Bayan, in the far east of the earth, he would be beloved in his station, on account of his beauty and the beauty of all that he possesses. And this is the most mighty path, this, that beauty is the most mighty path for attracting the people of other religions to the true cause of the all-merciful God. So that is why I believe we have to think, we cannot say that right now is not time for perfection, it's time for compromise, we have to just say go ahead and do whatever we want. I think with whatever we are doing, if we consider that, if we consider perfection and try to make it as beautiful as we can, the result will be so majestic and I think that is the task that our artists are really doing and during these days of conference we saw and we were so moved by all of the beauty of their work and I was really honored to be here and thank you for your time.