Inaugurate a Fresh Campaign of Teaching
Shoghi Effendi prays for all of you and hopes that through your practical devotion, you will all attract divine assistance more and more day by day and so this coming year the Cause of God will make unprecedented progress in that country. He sends you and all the members of the National Spiritual Assembly his affectionate greeting and expects your good news regularly.
[From the Guardian:]
I pray that your newly constituted National Spiritual Assembly may grow from strength to strength, may co-ordinate and consolidate the ever-expanding activities of the friends in India and Burma and inaugurate a fresh campaign of Teaching that will redound to the glory and power of the Most Great Name.
May the projected Congress at Cawnpore attract widespread interest and stimulate the work undertaken by the friends in that promising country. I assure you of my best wishes for your success.
November 24, 1925
Increasing Activities
It is always a source of immeasurable joy and encouragement to our dear Guardian to learn of your increasing activities in serving our dear Cause and also of the growing measure of success which you are meeting with in all your endeavours. The unity of the friends in India and Burma, the spread of the Cause in that vast country and especially among the real natives, intelligent connections with the universities and schools and the direction of the thoughts of the students to a proper understanding of the Cause and its great mission on earth, will not only be real accomplishment on the part of our dear fellow-workers but will relieve to a very large extent our dear Guardian of the stupendous task that he shoulders, and will give him the deepest joy and confidence. We earnestly trust that through the help of our dear Master from on high all your efforts will be crowned with success.
Shoghi Effendi is always interested to hear from you on the work in India and to help you in every possible way.
You are, I am sure, in touch with Mr. Horace Holley in America and you would be interested to know that they are publishing soon a Baha'i Year Book which will be of widespread interest not only to the Baha'is but also to many interested men and women in our dear Cause.
Mrs. Stannard is very successful in her work in Geneva and she has already started a fine center there. She is able to make many connections with influential men and learned people and this is in itself a great work.
[From the Guardian:]
I am very pleased and gratified to learn of your persistent efforts in advancing and consolidating the Cause. The establishment of a Central Office in Delhi is a great step forward and I await very eagerly the first issue of the publication of the National Spiritual Assembly of India & Burma. The Burmese friends are very satisfied and pleased with the consideration shown and the activity displayed by your Assembly and my prayer is that the relations of the National Body with the local Assemblies will grow firmer everyday. I will specially remember the friends who are promoting the Cause among the Qadiyani community whenever I visit the Shrines. I wish them the fullest success.
March 27, 1926
Bring Together the Hindus and Mohammedans
Shoghi Effendi received your letter dated June 11th and was very glad to see the result of the election of the National Spiritual Assembly. He sincerely hopes that this year will witness a great change and progress for the Cause in India. As the friends are sincere in their love and devotion, the members of the Assembly strong in their faith and unfailing in their services, there is full assurance of an ultimate victory and final settlement of the existing difficulties. Shoghi Effendi has great hopes in you personally and trusts in your wise judgment, watchful attentiveness and absolute assurance in the Cause you serve. He wants me to assure you of his prayers.
He also hopes that the friends in India will do their very best to bring together the Hindus and Mohammedans. In such cases the friends can show their good-will, devotion to humanity, and disinterestedness in the material result obtained. He will pray that ... Prof. Pritam Singh will be guided in this undertaking and ably represent the spirit of the Cause as well as its teachings. Being competent themselves and having the necessary divine blessing and guidance it is sure that they will achieve much. May be this will be a good chance for attracting the attention of some of the prominent leaders to the reality of the Cause.
[From the Guardian:]
I have written in person to the Bombay Assembly and urged them most emphatically to support morally and financially the National Assembly and the National Fund. ...We have to repeat and repeat over and over again until the truth, the necessity and the urgency of our Beloved's instructions sink in the hearts and minds of the believers. I am sure you will continue to remind the friends of their primary obligations. Assuring you again of my prayers for your success in your high endeavours.
July 10, 1926
Cause Will Ultimately Conquer
'Abdu'l-Baha used often to say that the difference between a prophet and an ordinary person is that the latter looks only to the present. He does not try to imagine the future victories and thereby forget the present trivial obstructions. The prophet, however, having a deep insight in the future condition of things sees his ultimate victory and does not get disheartened even though he sees a whole-sale massacre of his followers.
As Baha'is we should follow the prophet's method. We know that the Cause will ultimately conquer and its ranks be fully united. We know that the Master's promises will ultimately be realized, therefore why be discouraged by trivial oppositions we see on our way. We should rather add to our zeal and persist in our prayers and endeavours... It always takes time for a people to change from one administration to another. Up to the present they have been accustomed to think of the local assemblies as next only to the Center of the Cause, and it will take some time and training before they can admit another superior.
[From the Guardian:]
I have cabled to Bombay and will soon confirm it by letter. I have urged them to support consistently and whole-heartedly the very essential and vital institutions of the National Fund and the National Assembly. It must be made clear to them all that continuous support to these twin institutions is the corner-stone of all future achievements, the mainspring from which all future blessings will flow. Persevere in your heroic effort and remember that the end is glorious and bright.
September 7, 1926
I take pleasure in thanking you on behalf of our dear Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, for your letter...
As it announced the election of a new body to take up the responsible but lofty work of supervising and guiding the promulgation of the Baha'i Cause throughout India and Burma, Shoghi Effendi wishes me to take this opportunity and assure each and every member of that distinguished body not only of his heartfelt congratulations and prayers but also of the high hopes that he cherishes for you all. It is from you and through you that he expects to see emanating that glorious spirit for which our departed Master gave his entire life; and with your earnest endeavours, your consummate wisdom and your unflinching faith he awaits to see you lead the humble workers of that great country to an ultimate victory.
May I also take this opportunity and express the great desire of Shoghi Effendi that the National Assembly should try to be in close communication with him. To him it is a joy beyond words to try to do all in his power to help you in the noble work you have undertaken.
[From the Guardian:]
Now that the N.S.A. has been properly constituted and its officers duly appointed, it is incumbent upon each and all to introduce and promote such measures as will consolidate the work that you have so well begun. The institution of the National Fund, a Baha'i Bulletin similar to the News Letter issued by the American N.S.A., a rigorous and well-conceived campaign of Teaching, a continuous and purposeful endeavour to coordinate the activities of the local Assemblies and groups throughout India and Burma and the sending of detailed and frequent reports to the Holy Land are among the most primary and urgent requirements of the new day that has dawned upon India. I eagerly await your reports and assure you of my continued prayers for the success of your arduous labours.
October 28, 1926
Publication of Kaukab
The news that the difficulties, which for a time prevailed and threatened grave disturbances between the N.S.A. and the Local Assemblies, have vanished, was a source of great satisfaction and gratification to him. We were quite sure that it was all due to misunderstandings and that they would be easily overcome...
In a letter which I have lately written to Seyed Jenabe Ali on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, I intimated his desire that a special committee of the N.S.A. should be created to undertake the management of everything pertaining to the Kaukab. Furthermore, if a certain sum is offered to the National Fund with the expressed desire that it should be spent for the Kaukab, i.e., if the offer is labelled, then the N.S.A. should take into consideration the wish of the giver and spend it only for that purpose.
Though the friends are advised to give unlabelled contributions they cannot in any way be prevented from using their choice in the way it should be spent.
Though the Local Assemblies should give the N.S.A. all the moral and financial support the latter needs, it is the duty of the N.S.A. to inspire the necessary confidence in keeping the management of its work as efficiently as possible.
In a cable recently sent to the N.S.A. Shoghi Effendi recommended the publication of the Kaukab. He desires this paper to play an important role in drawing the attention of the more thoughtful and seeking people to the potency of this divine Cause. I herein enclose a cheque for L19 which Shoghi Effendi desires to be spent for this all important organ of the Cause in India.
[From the Guardian:]
I am enclosing a general message, clearly worded, emphatically expressed, and vitally important in all its bearings, conveyed through Mirza Mahmood to the National Assembly for the information of all Baha'is in India and Burma. I am sure you will promptly and effectively take all necessary measures for its dissemination throughout India and Burma. The 'Kaukab'
must, at all costs be continued, and I feel that its two editors ... are the most suitable to form a committee which will conduct its affairs under the direct supervision of the National Assembly. Whatever is contributed to the National Assembly for a specific purpose should be expended for that purpose only, but I would encourage the friends to send unlabelled contributions in order not to tie the hands of the National Assembly although I do not in the least require them to do so. I will pray for your success from all my heart.
November 16, 1926