Need of Baha'i Teachers all over the World
He sincerely hopes that as a result of her (Mrs. Kehler's) trip the Cause will make a great progress in India and many souls will be drawn into the Cause. It was surely very nice and wise on the part of the National Assembly to appoint Mr. Pritam Singh to travel with her and help her make openings into intellectual circles. It is unfortunate, however, that she cannot stay long in every centre and make really confirmed believers such as she did in certain centres in Australia. But perhaps the National Assembly will attend to that task and keeping in touch with persons she will interest, and gradually make them embrace the Faith and lend a help towards its progress. We need teachers in every part of the world, and as those who are in active service are few we should create some from the material we have. It is the work of the N.S.A. to attend to such matters and develop some of our young Baha'is into competent teachers. Baha'u'llah and the New Era to be Translated into Urdu & Hindi
In a previous letter I informed you on behalf of Shoghi Effendi that as we already have a translation of Dr. Esslemont's book into Gujrati, you concentrate your efforts on having it rendered only into Urdu, so that the work may soon be completed and published.
[From the Guardian:]
I trust you have by now taken the necessary steps for a prompt and careful translation of the book into Urdu. This service will, I am sure, be an added blessing to the masses of India, whom you are striving so devotedly and energetically to arouse and teach. May it prove a prelude to an intensive and fruitful teaching campaign that shall bring in its wake enlightenment, peace and hope to the distracted multitudes of that agitated country.
April 12, 1932
Even though we can refer to a non-Baha'i when we have no one among the friends to undertake a proper work of translation, yet it is always preferable to have it accomplished by a person who is imbued with the spirit and is already familiar with the different expressions of Baha'i conceptions unfamiliar to a non-Baha'i. Shoghi Effendi wishes him success and will pray for his guidance.
Mrs. Ransom Kehler is now in Haifa taking some rest before starting for Persia, where she expects to stay a few months. Shoghi Effendi was very glad to hear of her great success in India. He hopes that she will after Persia pay another visit to that country and resume the work she has started. She is surely a very competent teacher and well versed in the Writings.
[From the Guardian:]
I trust and pray that you will be enabled to start promptly the publication of the Hindi translation on one hand, and to ensure, on the other, the early completion of the Urdu version, both of which, I feel are indispensable preliminaries to an intensive teaching campaign among the great masses of the Indian people. I am confident that the publication of the Gujrati version together with these and the Burmese translations, will reinforce the impetus which the projected visit of Mrs. Kehler to India next autumn will lend to the onward march of our beloved Cause in India.
May the Almighty reinforce your labours and bless your high endeavours.
May 31, 1932
He is very glad to know that the different translations of Dr. Esslemont's book, that you have undertaken to have made, are progressing rapidly. He sincerely hopes that before long they will be passed through the press and be ready for distribution.
Even though the book was written by a Christian and was meant to be for people of that Faith to read, yet it is a very fine presentation of the teachings as a whole and might prove interesting to other people as well.
Shoghi Effendi surely hopes that before long the Cause may produce scholars that would write books which would be far deeper and more universal in scope, but for the present this is the best we possess to give a general idea as to the history and teachings of the Faith to new seekers. After reading this they get the necessary introduction to delve more deeply into the fundamental tenets such as are explained in the Iqan.
Shoghi Effendi hopes that these books will greatly stimulate the teaching work in India and become the cause of guidance to many sincere souls.
Passing Away of the Greatest Holy Leaf
The Guardian wishes me also to thank you for your kind words of sympathy in connection with the passing away of the Greatest Holy Leaf. This great loss will be felt by every Baha'i but especially the pilgrims to whom she used to be such a source of inspiration and joy. All those who met her left her presence with a new spirit and a firm determination to serve the Cause for which she suffered so much and whose progress was so near to her heart.
What the Guardian is glad about is that her passing is creating a new spirit among the friends and arousing them to greater effort. May her death do for the progress of the Faith as much as her life did.
Publication of Baha'u'llah & the New Era
[From the Guardian:]
I wish to emphasize afresh the vital necessity of speeding up the work of the translation and publication of the Gujrati, the Urdu and the Hindi versions of the 'New Era', a book that has already been published into 14 different languages and is being translated into sixteen additional tongues. I am deeply appreciative of what you have already achieved, and wish to assure you of my continued prayers for the success of your painstaking efforts and the realization of your dearest wish in the service of our beloved Faith.
October 19, 1932
Shoghi Effendi wishes me to communicate with you to inquire regarding the Hindi and Urdu translations of Dr. Esslemont's book. It is sometime that he has had no definite word as to the progress of that work which you have so kindly undertaken to supervise. He sincerely hopes that gradually that task will be successfully achieved and that they will be ready to be submitted to the printers and then to the readers who may be anxiously awaiting to study them and benefit from their contents.
This work once completed will become a great stimulus to the teaching activities of the friends, for books can do infinitely more work than teachers. Sitting in a chair in a solitary corner one is infinitely more receptive to truth than in a lecture hall or in a discussion group. The public has learned the habit of reading. It is through that channel therefore that we have to approach them.
November 19, 1932
He was very glad to obtain some news regarding the translation of Dr.
Esslemont's book into Urdu and Hindi, for he feels deeply interested in the work. He feels that it is only when such books are accessible to the public that the Cause will begin to spread and its followers increase in number.
He, therefore, wishes you to exert your effort along that line so that the task may be achieved properly and without any needless delay. Also please keep him informed regarding any new development or any progress made.
We do not now have any pilgrims, but the news we receive from different parts of the world show great progress achieved by the friends. Even though material conditions in some instances hamper their activities to an appreciable extent, yet their devotion and self-sacrifice are daily winning for them the admiration and sympathy of the world around them.
Every day a new group is formed and new souls attracted to the faith.
[From the Guardian:]
I grieve to learn of the delay in the translation and publication of the various translations of Dr. Esslemont's valuable book, and I urge you to do all you possibly can to hasten the realization of our cherished hopes-hopes which when fulfilled will no doubt lend a great and fresh impetus to the advancement of the Faith in that land. I am enclosing a copy of my recent letter concerning the Greatest Holy Leaf and the measures which, I feel, must be taken by the friends in Persia preliminary to the formation of the House of Justice.
January 10, 1933
Baha'i Center in Calcutta
He sincerely hopes that through God's infinite blessings the necessary sum will be forthcoming and that in time a Center worthy of the prestige and name of the Cause will be purchased or built.
Such institutions greatly help the spread of the Faith, for there will be a permanent place where the interested souls can go for information. It also operates as the center of the different activities of the Spiritual Assembly of that locality.
In his moments of prayer at the Blessed Shrines, the Guardian will think of you as well as of the other friends in that locality and ask for you all divine guidance and help.
He was also delighted to hear that three new souls have accepted the Faith in Calcutta. He hopes that before long we will have large groups, comprising hundreds of earnest and seeking souls, enter the Cause and take part in spreading the Message. Please assure the three of them of Shoghi Effendi's loving greetings.
February 8, 1933 Translation of Baha'u'llah & the New Era into Burmese
Shoghi Effendi wishes me to write you this short note to enclose a check for thirty pounds.
This is his contribution towards the publication of the translation of Dr.
Esslemont's book into Burmese which has been made by Sayed Mustafa Rumi.
Please inform the latter about its receipt because he has asked the Guardian to send this contribution through you and he may be anxious to receive this news.
March 1, 1933
He was very glad to learn that the Burmese translation has been completed and that it is now in the hands of the printers.