29th Chapter
If a man rules his people with repression, from what I see he won’t win his people’s hearts that way.
Humans are divine instruments; one can’t treat them like that.
Even when asking them to do something one can’t force them.
A minister won’t succeed if he goes against his people’s will.
If he forces people, even more, he will lose his people’s heart.
A sage won’t go with his own wishes when he serves the people, therefore, he can serve them well. He doesn’t force people; therefore, his people won’t leave him.

People are of many types,
some are independent and like to do their own things and some like to follow others;
some take time and some rush;
some are rigid and some soft,
some are at ease and some in difficulty.
A sage will try to eliminate extremes, extravagance, and passivity.

Implications from the Holy Books

O ye the elected representatives of the people in every land! Take ye counsel together, and let your concern be only for that which profiteth mankind, and bettereth the condition thereof, if ye be of them that scan heedfully. Regard the world as the human body which, though at its creation whole and perfect, hath been afflicted, through various causes, with grave disorders and maladies. Not for one day did it gain ease, nay its sickness waxed more severe, as it fell under the treatment of ignorant physicians, who gave full rein to their personal desires, and have erred grievously. And if, at one time, through the care of an able physician, a member of that body was healed, the rest remained afflicted as before. Thus informeth you the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

We behold it, in this day, at the mercy of rulers so drunk with pride that they cannot discern clearly their own best advantage, much less recognize a Revelation so bewildering and challenging as this. And whenever any one of them hath striven to improve its condition, his motive hath been his own gain, whether confessedly so or not; and the unworthiness of this motive hath limited his power to heal or cure.

That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world is the union of all its peoples in one universal Cause, one common Faith. This can in no wise be achieved except through the power of a skilled, an all-powerful and inspired Physician. This, verily, is the truth, and all else naught but error. ──   Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh 120

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