Courage, good-will, resolution, self-abnegation, are imperatively required, at this momentous stage in the evolution of these nascent communities, who, having reared, with assiduous care, the machinery of their Administrative Order, and launched the Plan which the institutions of that Order are now so efficiently promoting, have arisen to initiate a crusade which, as it gathers momentum, must embrace all the diversified races, classes and creeds of that vast country, and its adjoining territories. May the impelling power of the Faith which they champion enable them to surmount every obstacle, and reach their destined goal.
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.
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!