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GOL AIDUN
1930—1987
DEEPLY GRIEVED UNTIMELY PASSING DEAR WIFE GOL WHILE TRAVELING IN INDIA. HER KINDLY SPIRIT, GREAT ZEAL IN TEACHING INCLUDING MANY JOURNEYS BEHALF BELOVED FAITH, HER HISTORICAL RESEARCH ON PERSONS AND TOPICS OF CAUSE MAKE HER LOSS IRREPARABLE. EXTEND HEARTFELT CONDOLENCES ALL MEMBERS FAMILY. ASSURE FERVENT PRAYERS HOLY SHRINES PROGRESS HER ILLUMTNED SOUL WORLDS GOD.
Universal House of Justice 28 January 1987
Gol Yagénigi (Yaganegi) was born 12 March 1930 in Poona, India, the third of seven children of Isfandiyar and Keshwar Yaganigi. Her parents, after years of hardship and investigation, became Bahá’ís after Gol was born. When she was about three years old and again at eight years of age Gol met the Hand of the Cause of God Martha Root, who recognized her potential and encouraged her to teach the Faith and serve humanity. Miss Root presented Gol with a photograph on the back of which was written the inscription:
Allah’u’Abhá. If one speck of a jewel be hid in a stone and that stone be beyond the Seven Seas, until I have sought and found that jewel, my hand from its search will not stay. —Baha’u’llah. To beloved Gol Yaganegi, With tenderest Bahá’í love and fervent prayer that you will become a great Bahá’í teacher. In His Covenant, Martha L. Root at the Bahá’í School, Poona, India, F ebruary 7, 1938.
G01 treasured this gift all her life.
In the early 19403, Mr. and Mrs. Isfandiyar Yaganigi and their children became the first pioneers to Panchgani, which today is the site of the New Era School and the Bahá’í Academy. G01 attended the Catholic Convent School in Panchgani as a day scholar and later as a boarder. The nuns impressed
IN MEMORIAM
her very much and taught her firmness, determination, perseverence, and self—sacrifice, qualities Which became an integral part of her dynamic personality.
Gol’s firmness in the Covenant was unshakeable. She deeply believed in the unity of mankind, her role model being Miss Martha Root. When Gol was 14 years old, she accompanied Dr. Khodadad and Mrs. Shirin Fozdar on her first teaching trip, a journey by train to the southern part of India. As a youth she served on a number of national and local committees and later on the Local Assembly of Pune. After receiving her bachelor’s degree from Pune University, she married J amshid Aidun in 1953 and moved to Karachi, Pakistan, where Jamshid was studying medicine.
In 1955, G01 arose to a call for pioneers to help form a new Local Spiritual Assembly in Navab Shah, Pakistan. Reassuring her husband, Jamshid, who was studying medicine in Karachi, that she would return as soon as there were other Bahá’ís in Navab Shah to take her place, Gol left Karachi in March 1955 with her one—year-old daughter, Laila. After almost two years G01 was able to fulfill her promise and the family was reunited.
In 1957 their second daughter, Seema, was born, and Gol, with her two daughters, joined Jamshid in the United States where a few months earlier he had begun his postgraduate studies in surgery. G01 and Jamshid served on the first Local Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Syracuse, New York.
After meeting some Canadian Bahá’ís in Niagara Falls on the occasionof the Anniversary of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s visit there, G01 and her family were asked by the Canadian Teaching Committee if they would consider pioneering to the province of Manitoba, which they did in July of 1963. At the time the newest member of the family, a son, Vahid, was only a few months old. As a member of the Winnipeg Local Spiritual Assembly, which had the goal of opening up to the Faith Brandon, the province’s second largest city, Gol once again volunteered to
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pioneer with her family. In 1965 the family moved to Brandon, and in 1970 the first Local Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís was formed there.
Gol was very outgoing and friendly, and had a keen interest in everyone and everything. Her home was always filled With friends from all walks of life. Of all her passions, Gol’s first love was travelling to teach, and in the early 1970’s, when the youngest of her three children was still in school, Gol started travelling to different paits of the world for three to five months each year in response to the needs of the Plans. These trips took her to all the provinces of Canada and to over 100 countries and islands. She was at home with dignitaries as well as with Village people, never regarding herself as better than anyone. Instead, she felt that she was leaming something from each individual that she met.
When the call came from the House of Justice for women to take on a more active role in the activities of the Faith, G01 immediately arose and concentrated on reaching out to the women in the Villages that she Visited. She also loved children and youth, and they returned this love. Age was never a barrier with Gol who was eternally young at heart.
Gol loved jokes, and had a keen sense of humour which was very contagious. Her best jokes were about herself and her difficulty remembering people’s names. It is difficult to think of Gol Without recalling some incident that brings a smile or a laugh.
At home Gol was a loyal, devoted, and loving companion to her husband, Jamshid, and they complemented each other in character, creating a bond of love and unity. As a mother Gol was firm, but supportive and encouraging, all her actions being tempered with an abundance of unconditional love. She instilled her beliefs in her children and raised them to be servants of mankind, for by serving others they would be serving God.
While at home, she also worked hard for various peace groups and organizations. She
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Gal Aidun
was active with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), helping to form the first UNICEF committee for Brandon; she served as local president of the United Nations Organization; and she was a member of Project Ploughshares, International Women Together, and the West—Man Multicultural Centre, to name a few. She often wore a dove broach as it was a symbol of peace.
Her teaching activities in Canada focused on Native Americans, among whom she developed many close friendships. She would often visit these friends on their reserves, showing slides of her travels, encouraging them to honour their native arts and culture, and always eager to learn more about their beliefs. Noting an interest on one reserve for the art of ceramics, Gol enlisted the help of two Bahá’í ceramic teachers, and with government grants, saw that classes were started on the reserve for the native women. At Brandon University Gol was involved with the native programmes, taking native studies courses and often inviting the native students she had befriended to her home. She attended many Pow Wows, often expressing
THE BAHA’I’ WORLD
her respect for the great dignity and maj esty of the native people at these colourful, spiritual gatherings.
G01 had an interest in everything. She was a researcher, an artist, and a concerned citizen in the areas of environment, health, gardening, birds and animals. Her formal education did not end when she married and had children. Her university degree from India was not recognized in Canada, so she gradually picked up courses while her children were in school and proudly graduated from Brandon University in 1975, along with her eldest child, with a bachelor of arts degree in religion. Having developed close ties with the professors in the religion department, Gol was able to encourage them to offer the Bahá’í Faith as a credit course (Zoroastrianism, Islam and Bahá’í) at the University.
With the inception in 1974 of the Association for Bahá’í Studies, in which G01 and Jamshid immediately became life members, her scholarly focus shifted somewhat from university courses, which she still took, to the writing of historical papers on the Faith. She presented four studies at the annual Association meetings, including papers on Manekji Limji Hataria, Pritam Singh, Mishkin-Qalam, and Marion Jack. Asked to represent the Bahá’ís at the World Congress of Religions held in Sydney, Australia in August 1985, G01 presented a paper and slides on Mishl<in~Qalam and his calligraphy. These presentations were always lively and filled with love, stories and laughter, belying the hours of grueling research she would put into each paper. Gol also studied the Bahá’í Writings with a passion, often leaving mounds of books all over which were filled with slips of papers and notes marking references on numerous topics.
Gol possessed the heart and soul of a true artist. Whether splashing Vivid colours on a canvas, painstakingly highlighting MishkinQalam—styled calligraphy on ceramic vases, or photographing prairie crocuses with the dawn dew glistening on them, her talent was natural and inspired by the Writings. ‘
IN MEMORIAM
The importance of agriculture grew in Gol’s conscience as she lived in the midst of Canada’s vast farmlands, and she would return from her travels each spring in time to plant and toil in “the good earth” of her vast garden. Meeting Sir Richard St. Barbe Baker instilled an even greater enthusiasm for
nature in G01, and she initiated a city—wide'
tree planting campaign in Brandon amongst all the schools during a youth year celebration.
In all her endeavours Gol was guided by constant prayer and meditation, and a total reliance on God. Asked if she was concerned for her safety she would always reply that she was not afraid of death and that she knew that God would somehow guide and protect her. Her gift of intuition was exceptional and she often had dreams which seemed to guide her.
It seems that Gol’s last teaching trip was to India, where she had begun her first. This journey was an especially joyous one for Gol as she attended the dedication of the Mother Temple of the Indian Subcontinent, in New Delhi, her homeland, along with J amshid, her three children, son-in-law, and two of her grandchildren. Following the dedication G01 had a family reunion in Pune with her mother and six brothers and sisters, who had come together now for the first time after 32 years.
After her husband and family returned to Canada, Gol stayed on to teach. In the last days before her passing, she was completely preoccupied with teaching in the Villages and towns around Pune and Panchgani, keeping a schedule which those around her found exhausting. Then, tragically, while travelling from Pune to New Delhi, where she was to serve as a guide at the newly dedicated Temple, Gol fell from the train and met her untimely death during the early hours of 23 January 1987.
In the months that followed, teaching plans dedicated to Gol’s memory sprang up around the world, many donations were made to various organizations, and numerous
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articles appeared about her passing in various newsletters. The West—Man Multicultural Centre in Brandon established the G01 Aidun Scholarship Fund, “to be given to outstanding achievements in the area of native art, promotion of multiculturalism and increasing awareness of peace”, a most fitting remembrance to one who was described in Brandon as a “cultural champion”. Later, in May 1987, at the Premier’s Volunteer Service Awards for the province of Manitoba, Canada, Jamshid accepted a special posthumous award to G01 for “the outstanding volunteer in the area of Cultural-Natiye development”.
Gol was laid to rest in the Bahá’í cemetery in Pune, India, the city of her birth. The night before her passing Gol dreamt that her son, Vahid, and her grandson J amal were very distressed because their favourite bird had flown away. Disturbed as to the significance of this dream she phoned Jamshid in Canada to inquire about everyone’s health. Reassured that all were well, she boarded her train.
Our favourite bird has been set free and taken flight to the glorious reahns of the Abhá Kingdom.
LAILA AIDUN EIRIKSSON
