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During the great period of transition that vast land has been, and still is, going through his thoughts have been very frequently with you all, and his anxiety for the safety of the beloved friends there is very keen.

He fully appreciates the fact that the Baha'is, in spite of their total lack of religious or other prejudice, and their strict political neutrality, are nevertheless placed in danger sometimes by the passions and unrest of their countrymen. His ardent prayers are offered for their protection, and he urges them to, at all times, set the highest example of tolerance, freedom from any form of partisanship in the present troubles and disputes going on, and sympathy with the deep sufferings of all classes and creeds.

Greater Dedication to Service

The work of your Assembly is even more onerous and delicate than before.

Now that India, Burma and Pakistan no longer form one unit, in the sense of being under one regime, you will, no doubt, have many new problems to meet. But he feels assured that the experience the Community of believers has gained during recent years, the increased awareness of the glory of this Cause, and the greater dedication to its service which unites the hearts of all the Baha'is out there, will now manifest themselves in the Community's wholehearted cooperation with the N.S.A., and in a renewed determination to achieve its Plan.

The believers must realize that they, in fulfilling the immediate goals of this Plan, are hastening the day when India, Pakistan and Burma can respectively have each its own National Spiritual Assembly, which, in due time, will become one of the pillars of the International House of Justice. Although three N.S.A.'s and not one must be envisaged in the future, how appropriate it is that, at present, when political division has taken place and animosities are fanned into flame, the believers in the Cause of God are united under one Spiritual Assembly, guiding and aiding all believers with love and understanding!

Please particularly assure the Serampur Baha'is of his loving prayers, and that he is proud of their devotion to the Faith.

He also wishes to assure you of his prayers for the progress of all the work your Assembly is doing, and especially for the solution of the problems involved in the National Headquarters' purchase. He attributes great importance to this undertaking, and is delighted to see the determined and self-sacrificing manner in which the believers are supporting it.

Opportunity Which May Never Occur Again

[From the Guardian:]

The strife and bloodshed, with their attendant misery, sorrow and confusion, that have afflicted the entire subcontinent of India, in recent months, have caused me the gravest concern. The disorders, following in the wake of this great crisis in the life of its people, constitute a challenge, which the Community of the steadfast followers of Baha'u'llah in that land must resolutely face, and demonstrate in meeting it the quality of their faith, the depth of their devotion, the strength of their unity, the solidity of their institutions and the heroic character of their resolve. They must neither feel alarmed, nor falter or hesitate in the execution of their Plan. Shielded by the institutions which their hands have reared, abiding securely in the stronghold of their love for Baha'u'llah and their devotion to His Faith, pursuing with unrelaxing vigilance and singleness of purpose the course set by the Plan they themselves have inaugurated, heartened by the initial success already achieved since that Plan was set in motion, they, however much buffeted by present circumstances, and no matter how perilous the path they now tread, must press forward, unafraid of persecution, scorn of calumny, towards the shining goals they have set themselves to attain.

The newly-fledged Assemblies, constituted with so much labour and sacrifice, must above all be thoroughly safe-guarded. The administrative nuclei formed throughout the length and breadth of that land, must, however great the effort demanded, be preserved and continually fostered, and enabled to develop into groups destined in time to evolve into firmly knit Assemblies. The obstacles that have arisen in connection with the purchase and registration of the Haziratu'l-Quds in Delhi must be resolutely overcome and all the subsidiary issues connected with it definitely and speedily settled, enabling thereby the attention of your Assembly to be focussed on the vital requirements of the teaching work on which the prosperity of the community and its rapid growth must ultimately depend. Attention, moreover, should be directed to the completion of the task undertaken in connexion with the translation and publication of the New Era in the few remaining languages selected for that purpose. The dissemination of Baha'i literature should, likewise, be simultaneously carried out with increasing vigour. Whatever measures are required to ensure a more systematic and extensive propagation of the teaching of the Faith among the masses must be promptly and unhesitatingly adopted.

The hour is indeed propitious. The ordeals and tribulations which the hungry, the dispossessed, the sick, as well as the disillusioned and restless multitudes, are now experiencing, offer the bearers of the Message of the Most Great Name, an opportunity which may never again recur. There is no time to lose. Every warrior in the ever-advancing army of Baha'u'llah must arise and participate in this holy crusade. The rewards and prizes to be won are inestimable. However circumscribed its resources, however small its numbers, however formidable the obstacles with which it is confronted, the entire community of the believers in India, Burma and Pakistan, must arise as one man, and, pledging anew its fidelity to its Faith prove itself fully worthy of the Cause it has espoused and the high mission it has undertaken.

October 24, 1947

Excommunication is a Spiritual Matter

Excommunication is a spiritual thing and up until now the Guardian has always been the one who exerted this power, and he feels for the present he must continue to be. Only actual enemies of the Cause are ex-communicated. On the other hand, those who conspicuously disgrace the Faith or refuse to abide by its laws can be deprived, as a punishment, of their voting rights; this in itself is a severe action, and he therefore always urges all National Assemblies (who can take such action) to first warn and repeatedly warn the evil-doer before taking the step of depriving him of his voting rights. He feels your Assembly must act with the greatest wisdom in such matters, and only impose this sanction if a believer is seriously injuring the Faith in the eyes of the public through his conduct or flagrantly breaching the laws of God. If such a sanction were lightly used the friends would come to attach no importance to it, or to feel the N.S.A. used it every time they got angry with some individual's disobedience to them. We must always remember that, sad and often childish, as it seems, some of those who make the worst nuisances of themselves to their National Bodies are often very loyal believers, who think they are protecting the true interests of their Faith by attacking N.S.A. decisions!

Unite to Serve Him

The Guardian feels very strongly that everywhere, throughout the entire Baha'i world, the believers have got to master and follow the principles of their divinely laid down Administrative Order. They will never solve their problems by departing from the correct procedure... The Baha'is have got to learn to live up to the laws of Baha'u'llah which are infinitely higher, more exacting and more perfect than those the world is at present familiar with. Running away, fighting with each other, fostering dissension, is not going to advance the Indian or any other Community; all it is going to do is to bring Baha'u'llah's plans and work to a standstill until such time as the believers unite to serve Him, or new and more dedicated souls arise to take their place.

Seeking to Purify the World

He also feels very strongly, as he has pointed out in the enclosed letter to the Calcutta Assembly, that the Baha'is must be mature and realize that, whether they are conscious of it or not, the intense feelings of hatred, suspicion and jealousy which are flaming up everywhere in India and Pakistan, are tinging the attitudes of the believers themselves. At such a time, seeing this colossal example before them of the very essence of everything we are seeking to purify the world from, the Hindu, Moslem and Zoroastrian Baha'is should determine to show a love for each other and an inner spiritual solidarity so great as to forcibly attract the attention of their countrymen and impress them with the fact that Baha'u'llah's Message is, indeed, the only remedy for the ills afflicting the great multitudes of the Far East. It would seem, however, from your reports and those of individuals who write him, that the Baha'is are doing the very opposite and enabling outsiders to point the finger at them and say "the very rivalry we are experiencing between various communities, the Baha'is are also experiencing!" How terrible, how tragic, if Baha'is should let such a situation develop, such a betrayal of not only the trust God has placed in their hands but also a betrayal of the glorious victories they themselves won during the past decade!

The Guardian assures you all, and through you, the believers of India, Pakistan and Burma, that he will supplicate in the Holy Shrines that the labours you have all achieved together may be preserved from blemish, and that you may go on together to fulfil your plan and raise still higher the name of your fame.

Stormy Yet Glorious Path of Service

[From the Guardian:]

The work now engaging the attention of the members of the Baha'i Communities in India, Pakistan and Burma, as it develops and is further consolidated, acquires momentous importance, and should be pursued with added zeal, ever deepening consecration, firmer unity, closer collaboration, greater vigilance and nobler self-sacrifice. The sufferings and trials they have recently experienced, the disappointments and anxieties they have borne, the obstacles and setbacks they have encountered in their path, should, far from causing them to flinch in their determination or to relax in their efforts, act as a stimulant and challenge, to scale loftier heights, and win mightier victories in their strenuous labours for the propagation of their beloved Faith.

Though they are pressed by the multitudinous demands of an ever-growing task, though overburdened by the manifold responsibilities of an ever-expanding administration, I have, in my desire to enable them to enrich the splendid record of their stewardship to the Faith in recent years, and enhance the prestige of all three communities, urged them to push still further the outposts of the Faith, both southward and eastward of the present field of their joint labours. In the island of Ceylon, the Republic of Indonesia and the sovereign State of Siam, which due to their proximity must, sooner or later be opened up to the Faith by these Communities, an effort, however tentative, must be made to establish a nucleus, through the settlement of one or two pioneers which will, as Plans are initiated in the years to come, develop into full-fledged communities capable of illuminating the eastern and southern fringes of the continent of Asia.

Through the successful conclusion of this added task to be shouldered by these communities, the believers in these three communities will have contributed, to a marked degree, to the raising to one hundred of the number of countries included within the pale of the ever-advancing Faith of Baha'u'llah. They will be emulating the example of their American, Canadian and Persian brethren, who, through their respective plans, are hastening this glorious consummation by initiating Baha'i activities in Latin America, in Greenland and New Foundland and the territories of the Arabian Peninsula.

Their solid achievements in recent years, the marvellous multiplication of Baha'i Centres, the establishment of befitting national headquarters, the remarkable impetus lent to the translation, publication and dissemination of Baha'i Literature, embolden me to appeal to them, to undertake fresh enterprises, ere the termination of the present Plan, and on however small a scale, beyond the confines of India and Burma.

The greater the range of their collective enterprises, the mightier the effusion of the Abha grace from on high, a grace that will sustain, protect, guide and cheer them as they

tread the stormy yet glorious path of service for the furtherance of their beloved Cause.

Let them, at this momentous stage of their historic labours, eliminate, once and for all, every trace of inharmony from their midst, purge their hearts from every lingering suspicion, prejudice and animosity, acquire a clearer vision of the greatness of their Faith and the significance of their mission, give heed to the urgent and tragic needs of the vast multitudes of their disillusioned and sore-tried countrymen, now hungering for the Bread of Life, and arise, as one man, to discharge their sacred and inescapable responsibilities. The hour is propitious, the situation critical, the Cause infinitely precious, the prize within reach and inexpressibly glorious.

May 8, 1948

Old and Tried Community

The news that from Calcutta two souls have volunteered to go forth as pioneers to Siam and Indonesia greatly pleased him. Likewise, he was rejoiced to hear a pioneer for Ceylon has been found.

The Burmese, Indian and Pakistan Baha'is, forming as they do a relatively old and tried Community of believers, have heavy responsibilities to discharge. They cannot be looked upon as children or youngsters in this great Cause, but rather must be considered more in the light of elders, and consequently their Baha'i brothers and sisters expect great things of them, and look to them for signs of leadership in that part of the world!

Therefore, the fulfilment of their Plan, and the sending forth of their pioneers to neighbouring Asiatic countries, is of crucial importance in maintaining their leadership in this field and their prestige in the Baha'i world.

He was very glad to see your Assembly has not relaxed its efforts in the matter of translating and publishing the Esslemont book. As you know, he considers this a vital service being rendered by your Community to not only the peoples of that part of the world, but to the Faith as a world-wide movement. He has begun to receive lately some of your publications, and trusts, now the mails are again running, to receive safely all the material you are sending.

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