Previous Section Table of Contents
Next Section
6 March 1946 [Alvin Blum]
Dear Bahá'í Brother,
Your letter of Dec. 13th has been received, and the beloved Guardian has instructed me to answer it on his behalf.
He deeply appreciates the valuable services you have rendered the Cause in both New Zealand and the Philippines, and hopes you will impress on the American friends the need of helping the Bahá'ís in Solano to get their scattered forces together again.
It is truly wonderful the way the Faith there has not only survived but spread; he was very happy to hear there is now, thanks to your efforts, a Bahá'í in Manila who is active. He was also delighted to hear there are American Bahá'ís stationed there and helping with the work.
He approves of your plan to return to Australasia and help the believers there. They need the stimulation of outside teachers being so very far away from other countries where the friends are active.
You may be sure he will pray that you and your dear wife may have a very happy life together and render the Cause you are both so devoted to many memorable services.
With Bahá'í love, R.Rabbani
May the Almighty abundantly reward you for your manifold services, bless your efforts in the days to come, & enable you to win, in distant fields, memorable victories for our glorious Faith,
Your true & grateful brother, Shoghi
9 March 1946
Mrs. Mariette Bolton, Somerset House, 9 Martin Place, Sydney. N.S.W. Australia.
Dear Bahá'í Sister:
Your letters, with their enclosures, and dated July 14th, and Aug. 9th, 1945, have been received, and the beloved Guardian would have answered you before only he has been too busy to do so.
He is very pleased to hear you are now teaching a new group in Wollongong, and hopes your efforts will soon lead to the establishment of an Assembly there.
Regarding your question about group members being allowed to cast votes for delegates: This is only necessary and practicable where there are large numbers of Bahá'ís scattered widely over states and Provinces, as there are now in America, Canada and Persia. Other Bahá'í Countries follow the same procedure as you do in Australia, namely that only Communities having Assemblies cast votes for, and have, a delegate. Whenever he sees that the Cause has grown sufficiently to change the basis of election he will let the friends know - and he hopes they will redouble their teaching efforts so as to increase sufficiently to necessitate a change!
Assuring you of his loving prayers for the success of your teaching work and for your dear family,
Yours, with Bahá'í love, R. Rabbani.
May the Almighty continually bless your efforts, guide every step you take in the path of service, reward you for your splendid achievements, and enable you to consolidate your meritorious activities,
Your true and grateful brother, Shoghi.
10 March 1946 The Bahá'ís of Hobart, Tasmania
Dear Bahá'í Friends:
Your loving Naw-RÏz greeting has just reached our beloved Guardian, and he has instructed me to answer it by conveying to you his own best wishes for a happy Bahá'í New Year and unprecedented success in your work for the Cause.
He will pray for you all in the Holy Shrines, that Bahá'u'lláh may bless your services and sustain you in your work for His Cause.
With Bahá'í love, R. Rabbani
22 March 1946 [National Spiritual Assembly]
Dulcie Dive, 2 Lang Road, Centennial Park, Sydney.
LOVING APPRECIATION REMEMBRANCE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DEAR FRIENDS AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND
25 March 1946 [National Spiritual Assembly]
Dulcie Dive, 2 Lang Road, Centennial Park, Sydney.
CONVENTION SHOULD BE HELD DURING RIDVAN PERIOD
25 March 1946 [National Spiritual Assembly]
Dear Bahá'í Sister,
Your letters, written on behalf of the N.S.A. and dated June 15th 1945, and 16th, July 26th and Sep. 15th, 1945, and Jan. 7th, 1946, together with their enclosures, have been received, and the Guardian has instructed me to answer them on his behalf.
He is very pleased to see the progress the Cause is making in Australia and New Zealand, and hopes that the N.S.A. will not only inspire and encourage the believers in their teaching activities, but will also constantly impress on them the need for the greatest love and unity to prevail in their midst; the masses will only really turn to the Faith when they see that in it true religion is practiced as well as preached!
The recent articles attacking the Cause are a sign that its influence is sufficiently felt to be feared - a great compliment to the progress you are making in spreading the message!
Concerning the various points raised in your letters:
He noticed from your letter of January 7th, that you were planning to hold the annual Convention in May, and cabled you, that it must be held in the Ridván period - as are all the other National Bahá'í conventions the world over, - even though some other date might be more convenient locally.
He feels that the Yerrinbool Summer School should hold longer sessions; in this respect the friends cannot do better than to pattern themselves on the American Summer Schools, some of which now hold two or three summer sessions, and even a "Winter Session". Although such a large number of sessions may be premature for Australia at present, the goal should be kept in mind as you seek to expand your school.
There can be no schism in the Bahá'í Faith because the Guardianship is established on an unassailable foundation, supported by a signed, sealed document - the Will. Schism can only flourish where there is ambiguity or no specific proof. The New History Society is like a branch that has no roots and will soon dry up and wither. It has not caused, nor can it cause a breach among the believers.
He was very happy to see you are now establishing Regional Teaching Committees, and hopes you will concentrate all your resources and the energy of the friends, on establishing new Assemblies and groups.
He assures you, one and all, that his loving prayers will be offered for your guidance and for the success of your important work.
With warm Bahá'í greetings, R. Rabbani
P.S. He was very pleased to see the article on the Faith in "Truth". The Cause is certainly getting very good publicity out there!
Dear and valued co-workers:
The activities initiated by the dearly beloved friends in Australia and New Zealand, and so diligently promoted by them all are highly meritorious, and will, no doubt, bear abundant fruit in the days to come. The utmost effort should be exerted by individuals as well as Local Assemblies to increase the number of the active supporters of the Faith and to enable them to disperse, to multiply the groups that must sooner or later evolve into Assemblies, to achieve greater publicity for the Faith through the radio and the press, to extend the range of the activities of the Bahá'í Faith, to foster the institution of the Summer School, and to consolidate and enlarge the scope of the Hazíratu'l-Quds. These are the main objectives that demand the concentrated attention of the Australian and New Zealand believers during the months that lie immediately ahead. No sacrifice is too great to ensure the realisation of these noble aims. All must arise and unitedly endeavour to carry to a successful conclusion these vital tasks, with which the immediate destinies of the Faith are so closely linked. That the beloved may guide and sustain you in all your undertakings, that He may crown your assiduous labours with magnificent success is my dearest wish and ardent prayer.
Your true and grateful brother, Shoghi
7 April 1946 [National Spiritual Assembly]
Dulcie Dive, 2 Lang Road, Centennial Park, Sydney.
APPROVE ONLY THIS YEAR
13 May 1946 [National Spiritual Assembly]
HEARTFELT APPRECIATION MESSAGE CONVENTION PRAYING FERVENTLY BLESSINGS DELIBERATIONS URGE MATURE CONSULTATION INITIATION EFFECTIVE MEASURES DESIGNED MULTIPLY BAHAI CENTRES PROCLAIM TEACHINGS FAITH CONSOLIDATE EXISTING INSTITUTIONS
21 May 1946 [National Spiritual Assembly]
MATTER REGARDING ELECTION NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SHOULD BE SETTLED BY OUTGOING ASSEMBLY
25 May 1946 [National Spiritual Assembly]
Dear Bahá'í Sister,
Your letter dated April 27th has been received and the beloved Guardian has instructed me to answer it on his behalf. He also acknowledges receipt of the enclosures forwarded with it.
He trusts that by the time this letter reaches you the complications which arose at Convention, about the election, will have been satisfactorily straightened out; as he already cabled you, this was a question for the out-going N.S.A. to decide.
He feels that the National Spiritual Assembly during the coming year should focus both its and the believers' attention on the all-important teaching work, and the necessity of increasing the number of groups and Assemblies throughout Australia and New Zealand. The friends should be urged and encouraged to arise both as pioneers and travelling teachers, and they should receive, in cases where they cannot afford it themselves, financial aid from the National Fund. Such measures are at the present time absolutely necessary, as the believers are few, the hour very pressing, and most of them not sufficiently well-off to do such work without assistance.
The Bahá'ís in the United States have just embarked on their second Seven Year plan; India is working hard on a Four and a half Year Plan; England is straining every nerve to achieve, during the Six Year Plan the friends have chosen for themselves, 19 Assemblies. It is only right and proper that such a vast and promising territory as Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania represents, should likewise win for itself new laurels in the Bahá'í teaching field during the next few years! He therefore suggests you choose, after surveying your own possibilities and soliciting suggestions from the friends, certain immediate objectives, and then work unitedly towards achieving them.
He assures you that he will offer special prayers on your behalf, that the N.S.A. members and the Bahá'ís they represent, may speedily forge ahead and enter into a new era of development of the Faith in that distant but promising land. With warm Bahá'í greetings, R. Rabbani
Dear and valued co-workers:
The activities in which you are engaged, are the object of my fervent and constant prayers. To teach the Faith, to stimulate the dispersal and settlement of pioneers, to enable the existing groups to attain Assembly status, and to multiply, steadily and speedily, the number of groups in Australia and New Zealand are the paramount tasks which demand the constant attention, the prayerful consideration and united and vigorous collaboration of the believers, and particularly of their national representatives. No sacrifice is too great to further these manifold and noble aims and purposes. Effective measures, unprecedented in scope, should be carefully and immediately devised, proclaimed to the believers, and, through sustained and organised effort, carried into effect. There is no time to lose. The masses, greatly tired by the calamities of the age, restless, disappointed, and eager to obtain real and complete relief in their hour of trial, hunger for the Message of the New Day, and will, if properly approached and appealed to, embrace the great verities it enshrines. Firm and unassailable unity among those who profess to be its bearers, unshakeable fidelity to the principles on which it is founded, generous and unfailing support of the institutions designed to propagate it, are the vital prerequisites of their urgent and sacred task. Every consideration, however profitable and laudable, must for the present be subordinated to the vital needs of the strenuous task now confronting the Australian and New Zealand Bahá'í communities. The administrative machinery designed to provide the necessary agency for the diffusion of the Message has been sufficiently consolidated to enable it to perform the glorious task for which it was originally erected. It should be utilised to the fullest possible extent. Its scope should simultaneously be enlarged to provide a still wider basis for the future extension of teaching activities. May the coming year witness a notable advance in the organized activities of the community for the furtherance of so glorious and meritorious a purpose.
Your true brother, Shoghi
30 May 1946 [National Spiritual Assembly]
URGE NEW ASSEMBLY DEVISE EFFECTIVE MEASURES DESIGNED STIMULATE TEACHING ACTIVITY SETTLEMENT PIONEERS INCREASE GROUPS ASSEMBLIES PRAYING SUCCESS PARAMOUNT TASK SHOGHI
7 June 1946 [National Spiritual Assembly]
Dr. J.W. Freudenburg
Dear Spiritual Friend:
Your interesting letter of May 16th has been received and Shoghi Effendi has instructed me to answer you on his behalf and to assure you that he much appreciates your warm friendship with the Bahá'ís and the co-operative spirit in which you assist them in their activities.
As regards the various points you have raised in your letter:
We must not take many of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's statements as dogmatic finalities, for there are other points which when added to them round out the picture. For instance, when He calls Aristotle and Plato Philosophers of the East, He is obviously placing them in that category because He believes they belong more correctly to Eastern culture than the Central European and the New World cultures of the West. When He calls the philosophers of the West materialistic this does not for a moment mean He includes all Western philosophers for, as you truly point out, many of them have been very spiritual in their concepts.
When studying at present, in English, the available Bahá'í writings on the subject of body, mind and spirit, one is handicapped by a certain lack of clarity because not all were translated by the same person, and also there are, as you know, still many Bahá'í writings untranslated. But there is no doubt that spirit and soul seem to have been interchanged in meaning sometimes; soul and mind have, likewise, been interchanged in meaning, no doubt due to difficulties arising from different translations. What the Bahá'ís do believe though is that we have three aspects of our humanness, so to speak, a body, a mind and an immortal identity - soul or spirit. We believe the mind forms a link between the soul and the body, and the two interact on each other.
Historians cannot be sure Socrates did not visit the Holy Land. But believing as we do that 'Abdu'l-Bahá had an intuitive knowledge quite different from our own, we accept His authority on this matter.
We cannot prove man was always man for this is a fundamental doctrine, but it is based on the assertion that nothing can exceed its own potentialities, that everything, a stone, a tree, an animal and a human being existed in plan, potentially, from the very "beginning" of creation. We don't believe man has always had the form of man, but rather that from the outset he was going to evolve into the human form and species and not be a haphazard branch of the ape family.
You see our whole approach to each matter is based on the belief that God sends us divinely inspired Educators; what they tell us is fundamentally true, what science tells us today is true; tomorrow may be entirely changed to better explain a new set of facts.
When 'Abdu'l-Bahá says man breaks the laws of nature, He means we shape nature to meet our own ends, as no animal does. Animals adapt themselves to better fit in with and benefit from their environment. But men both surmount and change environment. Likewise when he says nature is devoid of memory he means memory as we have it, not the strange memory of inherited habits which animals so strikingly possess.
These various statements must be taken in conjunction with all the Bahá'í teachings; we cannot get a correct picture by concentrating on just one phrase.
The Guardian hopes this will better enable you to understand our wonderful Faith - for a living religion it is, and not merely a philosophy!
He wishes you every success in your labours to promote the unity and enlightenment of mankind, so sorely needed these days, and he will pray for your happiness and spiritual advancement.
With cordial greetings, R. Rabbani
16 July 1946 [National Spiritual Assembly]
Dear Bahá'í Sister,
Your letter of June 20th has been received, and our beloved Guardian has instructed me to answer it on his behalf, also to acknowledge receipt of its enclosures.
He was very glad to see that amongst the actions taken by the N.S.A. at its recent meeting was to allot sums to the Regional Teaching Committees for teaching campaigns and finance travelling teachers and settlers - if possible. He considers this all very important, and he urges you to appeal to the Bahá'ís to arise and do pioneer work as their fellow believers are doing in England, India, Egypt, and America.
He also feels that, if the NSA considers such a course of action feasible, definite plans should be made for carrying the Cause to certain goal towns; in other words, a real plan with fixed objectives and a time limit is now possible for Australia, and should be speedily set in motion.
Likewise, he feels that the N.S.A. should meet more often, even if all members cannot always be present. Decisions by correspondence lack the vitality of those that arise out of active consultation, and now the Faith is progressing so well there, and has a sound administrative foundation, more vigorous and systematic action is required.
You may be sure all the members of the Assembly are remembered in his prayers, and he is supplicating for their guidance and success in the discharge of their sacred duties.
With loving greetings, R. Rabbani
Dear and valued co-workers:
The ever expanding activities of the Bahá'í communities of Australia and New Zealand, so clearly reflected in the reports and minutes forwarded recently by your Assembly demonstrate the character of the Faith which so powerfully animates you, testify to the loyalty, the vigour and the devotion with which you conduct the affairs of a continually growing Faith, proclaim the soundness of the foundation upon which you are rearing its institutions, and augur well for their future evolution and triumph. The attention of the believers throughout all centres in both communities should now be focussed on the steady multiplication and consolidation of these institutions which constitute the bedrock of the Administrative Order of which your Assembly is the appointed trustee and chief promoter. No sacrifice is too great for the promotion of such an urgent and vital task. A supreme effort, on the part of all, young and old alike, individuals, Assemblies and committees, is absolutely essential in the course of the present year, and as a prelude to the initiation of future plans aiming at a still greater development and further enrichment of the life of both communities. All secondary matters should be subordinated to the primary requirements of the present day. The furtherance of this noble objective should be made the object of the anxious and sustained deliberations of your Assembly. The resources of both communities should be devoted to such a purpose. Nothing should be allowed to deflect them from this course. If they persevere the blessings of the Almighty will enable them to achieve exploits far exceeding their fondest expectations. That they may be graciously aided, in their labours, by Bahá'u'lláh is my fervent hope and prayer. I feel confident that they will respond to my plea, and arise unitedly to achieve their immediate goal.
Your true & grateful brother, Shoghi
31 July 1946 [National Spiritual Assembly]
Dear Bahá'í Brother:
Your letter-with check enclosed-dated 15th of July was received and our beloved Guardian has instructed me to answer it on his behalf.
He is very sorry that from here he is unable owing to existing regulations, to forward this loving contribution made by both the believers and the N.S.A. to Persia for the Relief Fund. He suggests you try to send it direct to Tehran to the treasurer of this Fund, Mr. Varga. If you are able to do so, and will arrange to send the money to Mr. Daoud Toeq, he will see it reaches Mr. Varga in Tehran.
Please assure the members of the N.S.A., and all the friends, of his deep appreciation of this gift to their sorely tried brethren in other lands.
You may be sure he often prays for the success of your work and that of all the N.S.A. members. With loving Bahá'í greetings, R. Rabbani.
Assuring you of my loving prayers for the success of your efforts in the service of our beloved Faith and of its divinely appointed institutions.
Your true brother, Shoghi.
6 September 1946 [Ethel Dawe]
Dear Bahá'í Sister:
The beloved Guardian was very happy to receive news of your activities through your letter of Aug. 4th, and he has instructed me to answer you on his behalf.
He was particularly glad to hear you are able to give the Message to many people of importance, as this is a valuable and necessary form of teaching work. The fact that you are known as a Bahá'í in itself must attract the attention of many people you meet to the Cause, and he hopes that you will ever-increasingly find ways and means of carrying on your direct Bahá'í work.
He was also very pleased to hear you were able to visit Hobart, and help the friends there, and also visit many other Bahá'í Centers.
He wishes to thank you in advance for the kind gift you and your dear brother are sending him of photos taken in Bahjí, which he will be very happy to have.
You may be sure he will pray for you and for the success of your work, and that you may reach many people with the Cause during the conferences you mentioned would be taking place.
With warm Bahá'í love, R. Rabbani
Dear and valued co-worker:
I wish to assure you in person of my loving appreciation of your constant services to the Faith, & of my fervent prayers for your success in every effort you exert for its promotion. Persevere in your noble efforts, & rest assured that the Beloved will bless richly your high endeavours.
Your true & grateful brother, Shoghi.
He hopes the way will again open for you to visit Haifa. Present conditions in the country have necessitated the suspension of all pilgrimages at present. We can only hope the situation will improve soon.
Previous Section Table of Contents
Next Section
|
|
