The Guardian wishes to once again stress the immediate tasks which face your Assembly: the important--and almost miraculous --work achieved during the closing years of our first Baha'i Century in forming so many Assemblies, most of them in virgin territory, should be carefully consolidated through travelling teachers, additional pioneers (if necessary), extension of financial help, etc., so that none of them will be weakened and forced to revert to group status. Also the newly formed groups should be given every assistance to enable them to become Assemblies and take part in the administrative order of the Cause in India. He urges you to concentrate on these three things: the publication and distribution of the newly translated books; the firm consolidation of the new Assemblies; and the development of existing groups, that they may speedily achieve Assembly status.
Important as new teaching undertakings are they should not be given precedence at the present time until these other objectives are well on the way to being realized.
In closing let me assure you that the beloved Guardian cherishes the brightest hopes for the future development of the Cause there, and expects great things of the Indian believers in view of the truly remarkable tasks they have been accomplishing these last few years with such a spirit of zeal and devotion. His loving prayers are offered on your behalf and for your fellow-members of the N.S.A., that you may be blessed and guided always.
In the Guardian's own handwriting:
The achievements of the Indian Baha'i Community during the closing years of the first Baha'i Century have shed a great lustre on the record of their imperishable services ever since the inception of the Faith in their vast and promising country. Both in the teaching and administrative spheres of Baha'i activity they have assiduously laboured, nobly persevered, generously given of their resources, consistently collaborated, achieved mighty victories and raised to a new level the standard of Baha'i stewardship. The field now stretching before them during the opening year of the second Baha'i Century is vast and highly promising. The call is urgent, the opportunities priceless, the need of the waiting masses desperate, the machinery for the execution of the Divine Purpose already erected and vigorously functioning, the promise of signal victory clear and definite. A higher degree of administrative efficiency; a closer collaboration between the various elements constituting the organic Baha'i Community; a greater measure of self sacrifice; a still more intensified exertion aiming at the consolidation and preservation of the newly constituted Assemblies and the rapid conversion of the existing groups into full-fledged Assemblies; a systematic, sustained and nation-wide endeavour for the purpose of disseminating the literature of the Faith, increasing its volume and adding to its diversity and lastly a more audacious and convincing presentation of its tenets to the masses of the people--these constitute the primary tasks facing now the Indian believers. That they may achieve their high destiny is my constant hope and fervent prayer.
December 20, 1944