[In 1964 Hand of the Cause 'Amatu'l-Baha Ruhiyyih Khanum spent several months in
India and in the nearby countries of Ceylon, Nepal and Sikkim. While in India she participated extensively in the mass teaching program being carried on in the villages in all parts of that land. The following comments written on her return to the Holy Land give much food for
thought among all the Baha'is of the world who wish to see their beloved
Faith grow and expand among the multitudes not
yet touched
by the Word of Baha'u'llah.]
The
entire Baha'i world is watching the progress being made in India. Her teaching
activities and the remarkable rate of increase in the number of believers in
that country during the last five years, are the envy and admiration of her
sister communities. But I feel a word of advice is in order here. Often, the
active workers inside a community, who are bearing the full weight of teaching,
administering and supporting it, get the idea that they should slow down on
'expansion' and 'consolidate.' This is a dangerous idea - a very dangerous
idea.
It was
our beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, who first used these terms; we learned them
from him; but he never separated the two things. To him expansion was constant
teaching, according to the express command of Baha'u'llah, like an army that is
marching to conquer, never losing an advantage, never ceasing to go on.
Consolidation is what comes behind the army; the food supply, the education of
the conquered people, the establishment of garrisons. It would be a sorry army indeed
that sat down to enjoy the luxuries of inaction when it had the advantage!
There are other armies on the march in these days, ominous, terrible,
destructive armies, not only physical ones (perhaps the least dangerous of all)
but ideological ones; materialism is on the march at a terrifying rate,
godlessness is advancing with frightening swiftness, inadequate political
ideologies, whether from the East or from the West, are seeking to conquer the
minds of men.
The Baha'i army is one of light -- its sole object is to conquer the hearts of men, its only battle is against the increasing spiritual darkness in the world. Nowhere in our teachings - neither from the pen of Baha'u'llah, 'Abdu'l-Baha nor the Guardian do we find mention of circumstances under which we should not teach this Faith actively all the time. Only when, by law, a government has forbidden us to teach actively do we bow our heads in obedience to government. There is never a point at which we have, temporarily, enough Baha'is. Baha'u'llah belongs to all the people of this world; He came to them - it is their right to hear of Him, to accept Him. To stand in the way of this process, to hold back the teaching work, is the deadliest of all sins.
It is
not only new spiritual laws which Baha'u'llah has brought to the world in this
day; it is a new social order, a divine policy. Shoghi Effendi used to say: 'We
Baha'is belong to no political party, we belong to God's party.'
Let us
ask ourselves how this World Order of our Faith is to be established, how its
educational, social, economic, as well as spiritual, programs are to be put
into practice, unless the material - vast masses of human beings calling
themselves Baha'is - is available? How can one do two entirely contradictory things
at the same time: require of people that they be mature, understanding,
well-informed Baha'is before letting them into the Faith, and, at the
same time, have enough Baha'is inside it to put into effect this great,
dynamic, Order of Baha'u'llah? It is like asking that kindergarten children should first sit
for entrance examinations to the university before they can begin their primary
education!
Let the
people come in. The law of averages decrees that everything has a scale of
percentages. Every milk has its percentage of cream; high or low, it is there. For
every hundred new Baha'is there is invariably going to be a percentage of
people of great capacity, both intellectually and spiritually; this group will
take care of the increase in less mature and understanding, but no less
sincere, souls who comprise the rest of the hundred. In other words you get
your rank and file, your foot soldiers, as well as your officers, all together at
the same time. Just teach. Trust more in the power of Baha'u'llah to work His
own miracles if you but let Him, and march on to conquer, while there is still
the opportunity to do so, the hearts of the people in that wonderfully
promising part of the world.
When we
older people look back on our lives, how often we realize that we just took it
for granted that the golden days of our teens or early youth, the first joys of
marriage, of parenthood, of travel, of study, whatever it was - would go on
forever! Suddenly we realized they had gone, never to come back. Today there is
an extraordinary receptivity in that part of the world (and indeed, in many other lands, maybe more
than we realize) to the Faith of Baha'u'llah like the soil waiting, dry and
breathless with longing, for the monsoon, for the rains that will generate life
and bring forth the new crop. This is our opportunity, our challenge, our
terrible responsibility. For our own sakes, for the sake of suffering humanity,
we cannot afford to fail in seizing this hour and exploiting it to the full. There
are almost half a billion people in India, not to mention those in neighboring countries.
Not hundreds, not thousands, but literally millions are ready to accept
Baha'u'llah if you will only tell them He has come to them, for them, in this
glorious new age in which we are living.
(Baha’i News April 1966)