All such outworn practices our Guardian urged us to discard

Today [1934-1935], a marriage has been solemnized here in the Bahá’í form and registered in accordance with the country’s law, and this event, we believe, is without a precedent in the history of our Cause in this land [India]. Heretofore it was the custom of the general body of the friends on all occasions where religious ceremonies were to be observed to follow those prescribed by their past Faiths. For instance, among those believers who hailed from the Zoroastrian fold, even the ceremony initiating their children into the Zoroastrian religion was prevalent. All such outworn practices our Guardian urged us to discard, and our community decided to render “instant, exact and complete obedience” by breaking entirely with the past and enforcing, within the limits of the law, the ordinances of the New Day. The path was not smooth. Enemies offered opposition and ridicule. Friends watched from a reverent distance with folded arms. “Premature,” “unwise,” “rash,” were some of the kind terms applied to our action. But we prevailed, for the Lord of Hosts was with us.

(Bahá’í News, Issue 93)

https://bahai.works/Bahá’í_News/Issue_93/Text#ANNUAL_REPORT_OF_THE_SPIRITUAL_ASSEMBLY_OF_THE_BAHA’IS_OF_POONA

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Baha'u'llah is Bhargo Devasia in Arya Varta?

"In Kali Yug, people will go against the Vedas and will forget to worship God, whom even Brahma is always worshipping.

At such a time when religion is at its lowest ebb and humanity so thoroughly wayward we are assured by Shree Krishna, in the Gita:

"Whenever there is decay of righteousness, O Bharat, and there is exaltation of unrighteousness then I Myself come forth, for the protection of the righteous, for the destruction of the evil-doers; for the sake of firmly establishing righteousness I am born from age to age.

"As if in fulfillment of this promise a call was raised in 1863 by Bahá’u’lláh (Bhargo Devasia or Glory of God) in Persia (Arya Varta), the land of the Aryas. He proclaimed to have arisen to uproot irreligion and to establish the truth, for He claimed to be the universally expected Manifestation.

(The Bahá’í Faith in India by Shirin Fozdar)

https://bahai.works/World_Order/Volume_13/Issue_5/Text#The_Bahá’í_Faith_in_India

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People are following gurus and then they think Bahá'u'lláh is another guru.

Here are some highlights of the video...

0:25 In India a very big problem with teaching was that people didn't mention that the Bahá'í Faith is a religion in the beginning and that Bahá'u'lláh is a manifestation of God just like Lord Krishna and Jesus Christ and that he is the Promised One.

1:11 I think the Bahá'í Faith in India is known as as a force that unites all the religion but they don't know about Bahá'u'lláh, and they don't know that it is a religion.

1:42 We didn't go into topics, controversial things...you reach a point but you have to invite the seeker to become a Bahá'í and that was something many of us have never done because we've been in the Institute process. We've been focusing on core activities and just inviting people to the core activities but not actually asking them that question, and the first time in January we couldn't find the words. We used many different analogies like we're building a New World Order and would you like to be a brick like us. And then another board member my colleague used the example of we're all drops and if we all get together and work together we can make a change in this world.

2:28 But after three cycles of growth I think we've become more audacious it was this nice time we actually asked the seekers do you think you can accept Bahá'u'lláh as a manifestation of God.

2:49 Actually we realize that we cannot go through the whole album we cannot go through the whole album. Seekers get tired and they lose their interest. So we went through the various, for Indians, the concept of Covenant, of manifestations of God, of Bahá'u'lláh being the most latest, and the unity of mankind we stopped at that quotation of 'Abdu'l-Bahá what of war comes.

3:15 If they are sitting and they have more time than we also go into the life of Bahá'u'lláh, because in India there are many gurus. People are following gurus and then they think Bahá'u'lláh is another guru. Then we talk about how manifestations of God are different, how they suffer for mankind and how yet they're so victorious, and then we compare it actually to the lives of many of our gurus in India.

6:11 It's the neighborhoods where we had Junior Youth classes, children's classes, we considered their parents to be a community of interest. So then every cycle during these days we hold a large-scale devotional in that neighborhood. In fact we print about a thousand invitations. The juniors and children give them out to their neighbors, their relatives, their friends, and then they perform. They perform what they've learned in their classes during the three months a small skit based on storied from this information and small speeches about what the Junior Youth have learned. And after the Junior Youth performance we we see a total change of the parents, both the mothers and the fathers. You can see the expression on their faces so right after the performance of the Junior Youth we announce to them that we would now like to talk to you about what what, what, what is theforce behind us working with your children over this long period of time, why we're working with them, so that you can support us and you can also help us. And then we immediately divide the parents to small groups and each of us sits with them with the Album and directly teaches them the Faith and invite them to be Bahá'ís. And they accept. Just like that. Parents are the most receptive. Consolidation, also it's easier because we already have their children with us every week.

(Counselor Gloria Javid)

https://youtu.be/26vh-OUixqU

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India will become a beautiful garden of believers.

Abdul-Baha has said that Bombay will surely advance and that India will become a beautiful garden of believers.

(Star of the West - Oct. 16, 1910)

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Kalkaji Mandir, is a Hindu Temple, dedicated to the Hindu Goddess Kali.

The new House of Worship will be built just south of Delhi, on a highland site of eight acres overlooking both old and New Delhi on the road to Agra and Bombay and southern India. The land was purchased in 1953 as a goal of the Ten Year Crusade. The beginning of construction of the edifice is a goal of the Five Year Plan.

Rúḥíyyih Khánum, in a brief address before she placed the cornerstone, pointed out that all the Messengers of God — Krishna, Buddha, Zoroaster, Moses, Christ and Muḥammád, as well as the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh — were, in the utmost happiness and joy, watching over the establishment of this House of Worship.

The ceremony took place in a tent erected on the site that provided seating for 10,000 persons. Prayers were offered in 10 languages.

Architect Fariborz Ṣahbá designed the new House of Worship. It will be in the shape of a nine-petaled lotus, paying homage to the glory of both the Buddhist and Hindu religious Dispensations, which arose in India.

It is interesting to note that Bahapur, the district in which the House of Worship site is located, means literally “town of Bahá.”

Opposite the site is an area named Kalka. “Kalka Avatar” — literally “Manifestation of Kalka” — is one of the titles of the Promised One of the Hindu religion, which says that the advent of Kalka in the world will herald the age of peace, prosperity, and universal brotherhood.

(Bahá’í News, Issue 562, January 1978)


EARLY in the Ten Year Crusade the goal assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of India of acquiring a Temple site for the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of India was achieved. At the time of the Intercontinental Conference in October 1953 an admirable site was found through the efforts of Shoghi Effendi’s representative to that conference and members of the National Spiritual Assembly of India. This site, a few miles south of Delhi, on the road to Agra, the city of the Taj Mahal, is so located that any building erected on it will be readily visible to the thousands who pass daily by rail or highway between Delhi and important centres in the southern part of India.

It is interesting to note that the village situated on the Temple land is called Bahapur (literally the village of Baha), and that opposite is a Hindu temple dedicated to Kalka Avatar. Kalka Avatar, according to Hindu belief, is one of the names of the Promised One of the Hindus whose appearance in the latter day will herald the age of peace, prosperity and universal brotherhood.

(The Bahá’í World, Volume 16)

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the friends should do their best to make as many converts among the Hindus as they possibly can.

The origins of this and many other religions that abound in India are not quite known to us, and even the Orientalists and the students of religion are not in complete accord about the results of their investigations in that field. The Bahá’í writings also do not refer specifically to any of these forms of religion current in India. So, the Guardian feels it impossible to give you any definite and detailed information on that subject. He would urge you, however, to carry on your studies in that field, although its immensity is wellnigh bewildering, with the view of bringing the Message to the Hindus. The task of converting this section of the Indian population is a most vital obligation, although the Guardian is fully aware of the many difficulties that it presents. Nevertheless the friends should do their best to make as many converts among the Hindus as they possibly can.

-Shoghi Effendi, The Compilation of Compilations vol. I, p. 19

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Hindu and Zoroastrian Baha'is continued to live as the members of their religious communities. And how the first Americans were converted to the Baha'i faith

The context Garlington chooses is that of depressed caste conversions in India. Garlington argues that, in contrast to the other three cases he considers, conversion to the Baha'i faith fulfilled no specific caste ambition, and there were no prominent individuals who provided model converts for the masses. In addition, he contrasts the devaluation of Hinduism in the other cases with Baha'is' acceptance of Hinduism as a valid spiritual tradition simply in need of some reform. In practical terms, this meant that Baha'u'llah was presented in a Hindu context and that converts were not required to break totally with their Hindu roots; converts could remain Hindus who believed in Baha'u'llah.

Although Garlington sees this approach to Baha'i conversion as a pattern initiated in the 1950s, there are interesting parallels in Stiles's description of late nineteenth-century conversions among Zoroastrians. Here Baha'u'llah was presented as the fulfillment of Zoroastrian prophecies and as a descendant of Yazdigird III, the last of the Sassanian monarchs, and converts here too continued to live as members of the Zoroastrian community. It was only when the Zoroastrian clergy expelled the Baha'is from the Zoroastrian community that they became a distinct group.

Richard Hollinger focuses his attention on Ibrahim George Kheiralla, a Syrian immigrant responsible for many early conversions among Americans. The 1890s were a time of many popular religious movements in the United States, and Kheiralla attracted converts by teaching the Baha'i faith in a graded series of esoteric classes especially designed to be compatible with Christianity. The faith that he taught, however, contained a number of superstitions, misinterpretations, and inaccuracies (at least by the standards of today's Baha'is). 

Peter Smith focuses on the Baha'i magazine Reality published in New York City during the 1920s. The history of this magazine illustrates the conflict between Baha'is of that era over whether the movement should remain more a "spiritual attitude than a distinct religion" (p. 137- one to which any humanitarian could be said to belong—or whether religious exclusivity should be promoted. While most Baha'is eventually opted for the latter, Reality magazine became ever more extreme in its promotion of the former, until the magazine finally ceased to make much reference to the Baha'i faith.

(Patricia J. Higgins, Review : From Iran East & West: Studies in Babi and Baha'i History. Edited by Juan R. Cole and Moojan Momen. Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1984)

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/iranian-studies/article/abs/from-iran-east-west-studies-in-babi-and-bahai-history-edited-by-juan-r-cole-and-moojan-momen-los-angeles-kalimat-press-1984-xiii-205-pp/17B2433BF683473C13C4BC0AE95B6D48

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India is like a jungle of different religions

Aqa Siyyid Mustafa, the renowned Baha’i teacher from Rangoon, Burma, found an occasion to say that the land of India is like a jungle of different religions and denominations. He said the beliefs, customs, and manners are very diverse and superstitions are rampant.

https://bahai.works/Bahá’í_World/Volume_19/Essays_and_Reviews

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In 1920, Muslims and Zoroastrians allied themselves with local Parsis in debating Baha’is.

By the 1920s, the itinerant Baha’i teacher, Mirza Munir Nabilzadah, was at the centre of a number of Iranian propagation efforts in India. As if directly responding to ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s call for the prioritization of oral engagement over the mere textual circulation of scripture, Nabilzadah’s publications were usually the direct outcome of face-to-face encounters. Sometime in the mid-1920s, he published an advertisement in three Bombay newspapers inviting people to a dialogue on the Baha’i Faith. Local journalists covered the ensuing debate between Nabilzadah and his Shi‘i and Zoroastrian interlocutors.

In response, an Iranian Muslim ‘Abd al-Husayn Sipanta and an Iranain Zoroastrian Shah Bahram [Shahrukh], allied themselves with local Parsis in debating Baha’is. They organized a conference at the Zoroastrian Fire Temple (atashkadah) in Bombay aimed at refuting Baha’i messianic claims to being the fulfillment of the Zoroastrian tradition. They enlisted the expertise of the famous Iranian Muslim Iranologist and scholar of Zoroastrianism, Ibrahim Purdavud. A series of articles questioning the validity of the Baha’i claim that Baha’u’llah was the promised Zoroastrian messiah Sayoshant were published in the Indian newspaper Jam. Nabilzadah described his response to these articles as “teeth-shattering” (dandan-shikan) and as leaving his opponents silenced.

(Farzin Vejdani, Transnational Baha’i Print Culture: Community Formation and Religious Authority, 1890–1921, Journal of Religious History, Vol. 36, No. 4, December 2012)

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The doctrine of metempsychosis upheld by the Hindus is fallacious.

'The Bahá'í view of 'reincarnation' is essentially different from the Hindu conception. The Bahá'ís believe in the return of the attributes and qualities, but maintain that the essence or the reality of things cannot be made to return. Every being keeps its own individuality, but some of his qualities can be transmitted. The doctrine of metempsychosis upheld by the Hindus is fallacious.'

(To an individual believer, March 27, 1938)

https://bahai-library.com/hornby_lights_guidance_2.html&chapter=4#n1820

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Bahà'u'llàh's works never mentioned Buddha or Krishna as manifestations

Bahà'u'llàh's works never mentioned Buddha or Krishna as manifestations, but his son 'Abdu'l-Bahà mentioned in his own works that Buddha and Krishna were indeed manifestations of God.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_revelation_(Bahá'í)

Paris Talks: Addresses Given by Abdu'l-Bahá in 1911. Baha'i Publishing Trust. ISBN 9781931847322.

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"idle conjectures of the Hindus"

My meaning, however, is not that the deductions that the astrologers of old made from the motions of the stars and planets were true, for these were mere figments of the imagination which had their origin with the Egyptian, Assyrian, and Chaldean priests, or rather stemmed from the idle conjectures of the Hindus and the superstitions of the Greeks, the Romans, and the other star worshippers.

-'Abdu'l Baha

https://bahaiteachings.org/abdul-baha-responds-blank-letter/

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These idols form the obstacle that impedeth man in his efforts to advance in the path of perfection.

Arise, O people, and, by the power of God’s might, resolve to gain the victory over your own selves, that haply the whole earth may be freed and sanctified from its servitude to the gods of its idle fancies—gods that have inflicted such loss upon, and are responsible for the misery of, their wretched worshipers. These idols form the obstacle that impedeth man in his efforts to advance in the path of perfection.

https://reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/GWB/gwb-43.html

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All the converts among the Jews are ours

Beha bought himself lands outside the town, laid out a garden, a true Persian garden, on the banks of the river, and took up his abode in a large house in the corn-growing plain of Acre for in those days, and during all his lifetime, money flowed in from Persia to support the exiles, money enough to permit of Beha’s organising an army of missionaries both in Persia and in India. These missionaries met, and still meet, with success. “To north Persia,” said a Beha’i, “the Europeans have sent out many missions to convert the Jews. How many have they converted? Not one. All the converts among the Jews are ours, and to us many hundred have turned.” A Hindu from Lahore who had become a Babi in India and journeyed out to Acre to receive the doctrine at the fountain head, stated that the faith prospered in his country. “My wife I left and my children in Lahore,” he explained. “It is two years since I saw them, but news reaches me by the post. First, I opened a shop in Alexandria, then having made sufficient money I came here to witness to the truth. After some time I shall return, for in my city we are many.” The printing press of the sect is in Bombay. The holy books amount to some hundred, exclusively the work of Beha. They are written in Arabic and Persian, the style of them being pure and beautiful, but singularly original. For Beha was an educated Persian gentleman, unlike the Bab who was too illiterate to write Arabic correctly, which defect he explained by saying that he had come to release all creation, animate and inanimate, from the bonds which sin had laid upon it, including letters, which were henceforth to be free from the rules of grammar and orthography.

-Gertrude Bell and the Babi and Baha'i Faith, Jamileh Yazdi

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The doctrine... upheld by Hindus is fallacious.

"The Bahá'í view of 'reincarnation' is essentially different from the Hindu conception. The Bahá'ís believe in the return of the attributes and qualities, but maintain that the essence or the reality of things cannot be made to return. Every being keeps its own individuality, but some of his qualities can be transmitted. The doctrine of metempsychosis upheld by the Hindus is fallacious."

-Shoghi Effendi

http://bahai-library.com/hornby_lights_guidance_2.html&chapter=4#n1820

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Baha'u'llah "returns from Age to Age"!

Consider the Words of Baha'u'llah when He is speaking as the Universal Manifestation of God, Who "returns from Age to Age".

For example, He refers to the Bab as "My previous Manifestation..." And even refers to, among Others, John the Baptist being "Him" Who was beheaded, then Jesus being "Him" Who was crucified...

"Praise be to Thee, O Lord My God, for the wondrous revelations of Thy inscrutable decree and the manifold woes and trials Thou hast destined for Myself. At one time Thou didst deliver Me into the hands of Nimrod; at another Thou hast allowed Pharaoh's rod to persecute Me. Thou, alone, canst estimate, through Thine all- encompassing knowledge and the operation of Thy Will, the incalculable afflictions I have suffered at their hands. Again Thou didst cast Me into the prison-cell of the ungodly, for no reason except that I was moved to whisper into the ears of the well-favored denizens of Thy Kingdom an intimation of the vision with which Thou hadst, through Thy knowledge, inspired Me, and revealed to Me its meaning through the potency of Thy might."

And again Thou didst decree that I be beheaded by the sword of the infidel. Again I was crucified for having unveiled to men's eyes the hidden gems of Thy glorious unity, for having revealed to them the wondrous signs of Thy sovereign and everlasting power. How bitter the humiliations heaped upon Me, in a subsequent age, on the plain of Karbila! How lonely did I feel amidst Thy people! To what a state of helplessness I was reduced in that land! Unsatisfied with such indignities, My persecutors decapitated Me, and, carrying aloft My head from land to land paraded it before the gaze of the unbelieving multitude, and deposited it on the seats of the perverse and faithless.

In a later age, I was suspended, and My breast was made a target to the darts of the malicious cruelty of My foes. My limbs were riddled with bullets, and My body was torn asunder. Finally, behold how, in this Day, My treacherous enemies have leagued themselves against Me, and are continually plotting to instill the venom of hate and malice into the souls of Thy servants. With all their might they are scheming to accomplish their purpose.... Grievous as is My plight, O God, My Well-Beloved, I render thanks unto Thee, and My Spirit is grateful for whatsoever hath befallen me in the path of Thy good-pleasure. I am well pleased with that which Thou didst ordain for Me, and welcome, however calamitous, the pains and sorrows I am made to suffer."

Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah XXXIX

"To Israel He was neither more nor less than the incarnation of the "Everlasting Father," the "Lord of Hosts" come down "with ten thousands of saints"; to Christendom Christ returned "in the glory of the Father," to Shiah Islam the return of the Imam Husayn; to Sunni Islam the descent of the "Spirit of God" (Jesus Christ); to the Zoroastrians the promised Shah-Bahram; to the Hindus the reincarnation of Krishna; to the Buddhists the fifth Buddha."

(Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 93).

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The effect of Bahá’u’lláh’s 200th Birthday Celebrations are staggering!

The effect of this (Bahá’u’lláh’s 200th Birthday Celebrations) has been staggering. A conservative estimate indicates that across India almost 200,000 friends spoke about Bahá’u’lláh and taught the Faith to more than 400,000 others. In addition, proclamation was also done through radio coverage reaching out to a number of cities and the film ‘Light to the World’ was shown in over 150 localities which meant that tens of thousands more heard of Him. Creative activities to befittingly celebrate the bicentenary anniversary ranged from peace rallies, debates, puppet shows, tree plantations, poem recitations, traditional dance performances, book exhibitions, medical camps and even a ‘Wall of Kindness” activity! In one cluster, a number of friends each kept aside a pound of uncooked rice every day for three months and in the weeks leading up to 22nd October they visited 600 homes inviting families to the celebrations and cooking lunch for everyone. Enrollments were on the rise and more than one thousand individuals declared their Faith in Him in the short span of a few months. The upsurge in activities has also had an impact on the movement of clusters across India with 78 clusters having progressed to the next level of intensity.

Now the challenge for every individual, institution and agency will be to consolidate these hard-won victories and ensure that the gains achieved will be taken to higher levels. The Regional Bahá'í Council of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Uttarakhand has taken to heart the words of the Universal House of Justice in its message of 31st October 2017, urging the Bahá'í world “to see in each person who responded to your invitation a potential protagonist in the community-building process” and, with the full support and enthusiasm of the friends, organized eleven institutional gatherings where systematic plans were made to consolidate the teaching efforts during the bicentennial year and increase the number of core activities in the region by a further 11,500 before the end of April 2018.

THE NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY OF THE BAHÁ'ÍS OF INDIA
30 December 2017

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Baha'is need not follow yoga or other forms of Hindu mysticism.

It is apparent that you are well aware of the importance of daily prayer and meditation, but we are asked to point out that the manner in which meditation is done need not follow practices such as those advocated by proponents of yoga or other forms of Hindu mysticism. For example, the reading of the “Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh” or other of His Writings, and subsequent meditation on the wisdom they contain, can be an effective way of meditating. Further, the daily study of the writings of our Faith and contemplation of the inspiration to be found therein should prove to be most gratifying and provide the tranquillity that one seeks through meditation.

(From a letter dated 16 September 1982 written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer)

https://bahai-library.com/brief_compilation_yoga

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Concerning Hindu prophecies of the coming of Baha'u'llah

"Concerning Hindu prophecies of the coming of Bahá'u'lláh and the relationship of the Hindu and Bahá'í Faiths, nothing authentic and specific is available at the World Centre, apart from the Guardian's statement in God Passes By that 'To Him the Bhagavad-Gita of the Hindus had referred as the "Most Great Spirit," the "Tenth Avatar", the "Immaculate Manifestation of the Krishna"', (p. 95); and a brief reference to Bahá'u'lláh as 'to the Hindus the reincarnation of Krishna . . .' (p. 94). Bahá'í teachings on progressive revelation do, of course, bear on the relationship of these Faiths. In a letter written on behalf of the beloved Guardian it is also written that 'We cannot be sure of the authenticity of the scriptures of Buddha and Krishna . . . ' (November 25, 1950); and in reply to a question as to whether Brahma is 'to be considered as referring to absolute diety' and Krishna 'as the Prophet of the Hindu Religion', his secretary wrote '. . . such matters, as no reference occurs to them in the Teachings, are left for students of history and religion to resolve and clarify.' (April 14, 1941)"

(From a letter dated September 1, 1977 written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer)

https://bahai-library.com/compilation_scriptures_previous_dispensations

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Baha'u'llah identifies himself with these prophets

"As to the list of the prophets with whom Bahá'u'lláh identified Himself in the passage found on pages 26 and 27 of 'The Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh', their names are as follows: Abraham, Moses, Joseph, John the Baptist, Jesus, Imam Husayn, on whom Bahá'u'lláh has conferred an exceptionally exalted station, (and) the Bab."

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada, August 7, 1936)

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