He addressed the question: why are Baha'is spending money on constructing these buildings and not helping the poor? He said two points that are of interest are: First, construction of these types of buildings help to provide work for people and secondly, they help tourism which indirectly provides support for societies in those locations. His presentation was so heart warming that one was getting the feeling that we have to arise to serve the Cause. He finalized his presentation with a slide show that showed pictures of the construction of the Ark and Terraces on Mount Carmel. These slides illustrated the beauty of those places during day and night times. Also there were slides on construction animation for those undertakings. He stated that the Department of Tourism in Israel offered a donation of 2 million dollars, but it was informed that these places must be built by donations given by Baha'is only according to Baha'i laws. But they were asked to spend the money on the German Colony which that department did.
He also showed slides of the Indian Temple and a bit of history of its construction, also sacrifices of the Baha'i prisoners in Iran made in saving money for contribution to its construction. He stated that the Greatest Symbol on the dome was purchased by this money. He also said that the land was purchased by a sacrifice of a friend in the time of the Guardian and that the place was called Bahapur originally. He also mentioned the plans by the Indian Government to make the area a spiritual park, as there are four other temples in that area and the area is currently being cleaned for this purpose.
©Copyright 2002, Ahmad Aniss
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