Every time I think of the beautiful spiritual family of Paramahansa Yogananda
spread all over the world,
I see each of you as those shining jewels that he spoke of in his 'Autobiography Of A Yogi,'
scattered over the earth, radiating by your sincerity,
by your dedication, by your focus, by your determination
radiating a new light of divine awakening for all the world,
helping this dispensation that he brought
to gather force, to gather power,
and to further that divine mission that
Paramahansaji was sent to the West to accomplish -
to bring to the world, to bring to people of all faiths, of all nationalities,
of all cultures, the entire human family, to bring to them the key
to that divine realization, that key to the kingdom of heaven.
Today, this year, this celebration
I would say it's only partly about looking back.
Yes, we honor, we look back with gratitude,
we reinforce the consciousness of what we have been given.
But more than that it's a time to look forward,
a time to look forward to the further unfolding,
the ongoing divine dispensation of light and grace
and wisdom and realization and liberation
that his Self-Realization Fellowship worldwide work is destined to bestow upon the world.
There's no question that the world today is in a dire situation.
Everywhere we look there's uncertainty, insecurity.
There's the threat of war, threats of disaster,
threats to the well-being and equanimity and basic livelihood
of so many millions of souls around the world,
an erosion of the basic fabric of civility, of kindness, of harmony,
of understanding and mutual regard that even holds society together.
You know these things - these things are very real
and these things are today a source of insecurity for millions around the world
including those of us on this path of Self-Realization Fellowship,
including those of us who, even knowing that there is a diviner purpose to life,
a diviner refuge, a diviner source of strength and power.
And in the face of all of these challenges, in the face of the
temporary, temporary darkness that the world will have to go through and is going through
our Master's message was one. It was this. It was never give in to fear.
Never give in to a consciousness of vunerability.
Cast out all fear. And instead, he said, focus.
Let us focus on the constructive actions,
the constructive steps that we can take to ensure a better future.
For that better future, he promised us, will surely come.
It will come. Positively it will come.
This is one of the greatest points that we can emphasize
as we think upon the one hundred years of Self-Realization Fellowship
and the many more years, decades, and centuries that this work will go on.
Focus on the constructive actions. Focus on the positive
because by doing that we're doing our part
to counteract all of that temporary drags, you might say,
on the upward ascending consciousness of humanity.
I wanted to share today some words that our beloved past president,
Sri Daya Mata, said about this.
And those of you, all of you know, of course,
what a tremendous seminal role she played
in the history of Self-Realization Fellowship in these past one hundred years.
She and those other early disciples who came here and gave their lives
decade after decade to living and serving and exemplifying what our Guru brought.
So one time, this was just a few - a couple - of years before
her passing, our beloved Ma was writing to the worldwide family of SRF.
And I wanted to share what she said on this occasion because
it's so pertinent to what we've been talking about.
She said this. She said, "Every now and then
read the aims and ideals that Guruji set forth for his world mission
for they depict the future of the world."
Read those aims and ideals. They're printed in every SRF publication, every book.
You all know them. You all have been living by them.
You all were drawn to this path because of their nobility, because of the promise,
the hope, the enthusiasm that they rouse in each of us.
So she said, "Read those aims and ideals for they depict the future of the world.
Yes, Guruji intended them as goals for his organization,
but do you think that Master would have articulated them as such
if God and the Great Ones behind this work had not definitely shown him
that these were to come to pass as we move into the coming higher age."
And Ma said, "Even in the relatively short period since Guruji's lifetime
we have seen significant progress.
And, as all of us do our part in furthering these ideals, here is what we'll see increasingly."
And then she listed - this was very inspiring - she listed the progress.
She listed some of the points of spiritual evolution and improvement that she,
out of her realization and echoing the vision that was implanted in our Guru by God,
by his Paramgurus, she was echoing that vision of what was to come
in the decades, in the centuries ahead of us.
She said, "First of all we'll see more and more the spread among all nations
of the harmonizing uplifting yoga science of meditation,
as Guruji said, definite scientific techniques for attaining
direct personal experience of God."
"Not only that," she said, "we'll see, we can look forward to,
the diminishing of divisiveness between warring religions
as humanity realizes the common scientific foundation of all true religions."
This was the promise. This was the legacy that Guruji set in motion
when he founded this work one hundred years ago.
"And not only that," she said, "but a return to this ideal that Guruji loved so much,
the ideal of plain living and high thinking and a spirit
a spirit of unselfish service and brotherhood among all peoples as they realize,
encouraged and reinforced by the practice of meditation, as they realize,
the eternal basis of the unity of the human family -
oneness with God, kinship with God."
And she said, "Then we'll also see this. We will see, as Guruji said
and as he embodied in those aims and ideals,
we'll see an increase in the scientific and practical understanding
of the superiority of mind over body and of soul over mind. And correspondingly,
we will see a great progress in healing the threefold suffering of humankind -
physical disease, mental inharmonies, and spiritual ignorance."
And she said, "We will also see," and this is so beautiful,
"we will see the dawning and the growth and the progress of an ideally balanced
global culture that combines the spiritual wisdom of the East
and the material progressiveness and prosperity
that's been developed in the Western countries,
creating a sustainable and harmonious planetary civilization."
And then our beloved Ma, she ended this overview, this recapping of the vision,
and she said, "Doesn't this vision fill your heart with enthusiasm
and a resolve to live by the ideals taught in Guruji's lessons and books?"
She said, "By doing so you bring your life in tune with the divine protection
and you hasten your own evolution
and simultaneously contribute to the evolution of all humanity."
So, as I said, today and this year
as we celebrate the hundred years of Self-Realization Fellowship
let it be primarily a looking forward. Let it be primarily
a rededicating, a rekindling of the enthusiasm, the resolve,
the divine hope, the divine confidence, the divine sense of security
that we feel when we reflect on what our Guru brought in these SRF teachings
what this divine dispensation,
the special dispensation of the light of Kriya Yoga, the techniques of Kriya Yoga
and the teachings of the SRF way of life promise for each of us and for all the world.
It isn't something that will happen without the willing participation,
the willing embrace of that responsibility by each member of the SRF YSS family.