Nov. ’99–Latest Message From Guru Maharaj Sri Swami Chidanandaji Maharaj

TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY, RISHIKESH, INDIA AND TO ALL MY BRETHREN OF HOLY MASTER GURUDEV SWAMI SIVANANDA’S SPIRITUAL FAMILY

Radiant Immortal Atman!
Blessed Brethren of Gurudev’s spiritual family,

Greetings and good wishes. Peace and joy be unto you. May the abundant grace of the Supreme Spirit Divine and the choicest blessings of Gurudev Swami Sivanandaji be upon you all and grant you a noble life of a lofty and pure character and spotless good conduct. May your personality and your day-to-day living be endowed with spiritual quality. These are my good thoughts and sincere wishes for you as we are approaching the final month of our current year 1999 which will also bring to an end not only this calendar year but also the 20th century as well as the 2nd millennium.

This is my fourth letter in the Internet. There has been a long gap of 6 months and more since the third letter, which came to you sometime in the middle of April ’99. It was posted on the website from Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. I had to leave for Australia when the Malaysian programmes were concluded in order to be present at Canberra, the Australian capital for the inauguration of a grand Hindu Temple that has taken the devotees over there several years to finally accomplish. All the important Hindu deities are enshrined therein. They were all made to order at Jaipur in Rajasthan. The third week of April saw the temple come into being. This was the main purpose of my going to Australia. It was a revisit after an interval of full 28 years when I last visited it in 1970. It was a well attended function which some of the state authorities also attended. Next I had to go almost halfway across the world to the city of Lucca in Italy for presiding over and participating in the Silver Jubilee Anniversary functions of the Italian Yoga Teacher’s Federation at the invitation of Eros Selvenizza, the Secretary General of the federation. It was a well represented and enthusiastic event attended by Yoga teachers from all over Italy and many other Yoga enthusiasts from other countries as well. It was an extremely cordial and happy get-together of numerous people bound together and united through their common love for the science of Yoga and its teaching and propagation in their country. It commenced on the 29th of April and concluded on the 2nd of May. Bright and sunny weather helped to make this special 25th Anniversary thorough success.

Leaving the city of Lucca on 2nd May I came down to Holy Assisi, the town of Beloved Saint Francis for a four days stay during which I briefly participated in a spiritual retreat that was taking place at that time. From there on 6th May I returned to Rome in order to take a flight to Frankfurt and Koln for very brief visits to these two places. The visit to Koln was to The Divine Life Society Branch there for a special satsang evening. My visit was not only equally for the satsang but equally to look up my beloved old friend Sri Akai Buttner and Mother Christina Naizzy who has been conducting this branch for long many years. This visit as well as my meeting with them happens to be my very last and final visit and meeting. Because, even at that time I had made up my mind that when I return to India I shall no more leave India and travel anywhere outside.

Throughout these travels from Australia onwards Sri Sandeep Goswamiji was my travelling companion and helper looking after all details of stop-overs, long waits in airport lounges due to time gap for our next connecting flight, serving me, attending to my requirements like tea etc. fixing up suitable undisturbed place for rest and in all ways seeing that I was comfortable and did not have any physical difficulty of any kind. This was really a great blessing and boon from God because of my physical age with its aches and pains all over and with the difficulty of the body in sitting down, getting up, moving carefully with the help of a stick upon the steps of stairs where lift was not available. I can never forget the amount of trouble he took and the length to which he went in order to help me in ever so many ways through out these numerous days from 8th April right upto 21st of May ’99. I gratefully remember his indispensable seva as I write these lines of this fourth Internet letter.

On Saturday, 8th May we both took a flight from Koln to London Heathrow Airport. As devotees from different parts of UK had turned up to receive us at the airport. They had discussed together and fixed up a little place where all of them had assembled and arranged a raised seat for me. Thus our arrival immediately took a form of a regular satsang. So many bouquets of beautiful flowers filled my hands and my lap. Many had brought sweets and biscuits as prasad. After chanting the Lord’s name and uttering a prayer prasad was distributed to one and all. Queries about my programme were answered by my two hosts, namely, Jagdishbhai & Hemaben Patel of Belmunt, Surray and Anil & Rajeshwari Mehta of Southfield, who conduct a branch of The Divine Life Society in their home. Their home is a well known centre of D.L. Society satsang familiar to all devotees of Sivananda Gurudev in UK. Here I must say that the main cause and reason for this London visit was the repeated and earnest loving invitation of Smt. Hemaben & Jagdishbhai to come and take complete rest in their comfortable home. They promised that my rest would be quite undisturbed even by themselves as my hosts. Their word they kept up without fail. Also, they did make it absolutely undisturbed. Theirs was a long pending request of over past 2 years and more. I was happy to be able to fulfil their request at last.

The first two days 9th and 10th May were given to the young Mehta couple at Southfield. They had arranged a big satsang with my permission with a dinner to all devotees at the close of the satsang. On 10th afternoon I shifted to the Hema & Jagdishbhai Patel family’s home and remained there until my departure back to India on 21st May. As already mentioned, this was to be my very last visit to this loving couple’s hospitable home. They keep contact with me through anyone happening to travel from London to India. Otherwise they keep contact by telephone to Sri Sandeep Goswamiji, Delhi with whom they are quite familiar. This they do because it is very difficult to get me on the phone at Sivananda Ashram Rishikesh.

Arriving in New Delhi on 21st May I had to live the very same day for Bombay by an evening flight as an important function was scheduled at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan on the 22nd May. The function was for the release of set of two audio cassettes called “Upanishad Amrut”. To prepare which Madhavi Badhiani (A very great devotee of Sri Sri Anandamayee MA) had undertaken a great deal of trouble and shouldered much responsibility. 23rd May saw me back in Delhi to take the night Mussourie Express train for my return to Ashram where I arrived the next morning. This travel account have become long and chatty. However, I have knowingly done it to compensate for the time gap through my continued silence from April up to November. After my return to Ashram I stayed there just for a fortnight. I left for the hills on the early morning of 7th June and stayed away for more than four months. About a month and odd was spent in Gangotri. The remaining period from mid July to October 10th was spent near Uttarkashi in the Ganeshpur Ashram of my Gurubhai (Spiritual brother) revered Sri Swami Premanandaji Maharaj. He is usually referred to as Uttarkashi Premanandaswamiji so as to distinguish between him and our own senior gurubhai, His Holiness Revered Sri Swami Premanandaji Maharaj of Gurudev Sivananda Ashram, Muni-Ki-Reti. The Annual 9 days Durga Puja worship was going on at the Ashram when I returned from the hills on 11th October.

I could stay only for 5 days because I had to leave on the 16th on my way to Phulbani in the hilly, agency area of Orissa where the 29th All Orissa Divine Life Conference had been arranged at the end of the same fortnight by the All Orissa D.L. Central Committee. It was a very well attended 3 days conference from 22nd to 24th October. This was before the sudden super cyclone smashed into the coastal area, destroyed everything in its way and working terrible havoc. The very next day after the conference I returned to Bhubaneswar and took a train that same afternoon for Deogarh side in Bihar. This was in order to visit a Gurubhai of mine whom I had not seen for quite some years past. He is Sri Swami Satyananda Paramahamsa who lived as an Avadhoot for more than six years practicing the severe austerity of Panchagni Tapas. He performed this difficult tapasya for six continuous years. In each year he sat for six months at a stretch under the Sun with four other fires behind and before him and to his right and his left. This was from morning from sunrise until evening till sunset. Revered Swamiji also had been wishing to meet me. I reached him on October 26th morning and stayed for 4 days until the night of October 29th. It was a truly revealing experience. He is the founder of the Bihar School of Yoga and the organisation called International Yoga Fellowship. They had their headquarters in Monghyr in Bihar. It became a worldwide organisation. It gave yoga training and other skills to thousands of aspiring students from all over the world. It conducted systematic courses. He visited many countries abroad. But, some 10 or 12 years ago he decided to withdraw from all activities and seclude himself in a small village named Rikiadham because it has become a holy place due to a Dashanami Sannyasin settling down there. He called his Ashram the SIVANANDA MATH. It has a number of residential quarters each one of which contains a temple dedicated to some expression of divinity. I stayed in the Dattatreya Kutir. There is a Raghunath Kutir. There is a Ganesh Kutir and so on. The Math runs a charitable hospital with indoor and outdoor sections both working with sincerity. The main objective of the Sivananda Math is to uplift the underdeveloped rural people and give them a sense of self respect. Literacy is encouraged. The Math serves the village community in a number of important ways. It bores tube wells for borification. It builds houses for those who have no dwelling. Roads are constructed to previously inaccessible areas. Help is given to set up schools. Very old and somewhat disabled people beyond age 65 years are given Rs. 200/- per month as a sort of a personal pension so that they never go even a day without daily meal. Another revolutionary measure is to have successfully abolished the unfair and degrading treatment meted out to the unfortunate widows in Hindu society. Swami Satyananda Paramahamsa has succeeded in abolishing the term “Vidhava”. The widows are now addressed as “Divya” for they represent an aspect of Divine Mother. The villagers have accepted the idea of seeing these Divyas wearing normal type of sarees like other women and have on their person a few simple ornaments except the Mangalasutra. Revered Swamiji helps to rehabilitate them. Helps their higher education if they wish. I have never seen the like of it anywhere else in the whole of Bharatavarsha. To give employment to the youth he prompts his devotees to give them three wheelers, tempos and even tractors. If they have to cover a long distance to go to their workplace, bicycles or scooter or motorcycle is gifted to them. But, most extraordinary seva is a gift suitcase presented to the new couples. The overall cost of the suitcase with its contents comes to something between Rs. 60000/- to Rs. 65000/-. The contents of this suitcase is comprehensive and selected with great thought. The contents of the suitcase were such that they practically included everything down to the minutest detail even giving a place to small items like a comb, toothpaste, tooth powder and tongue cleaner down to a roll of hair tying ribbon and hairclips etc. It also contained jewellery set of Gold and Silver for face, hands, feet and toes as well as wrist watches for both.

Revered Swamiji’s band of Sannyasins and Brahmacharis nearly 100 in number are deeply devoted to him and ever ready at his service at the beck and call. To note their devotion, their spirit of Guruseva as well as selfless service of the poor villagers is an elevating experience in itself. During my stay Swami Niranjan took me to visit a cluster of very ancient temples nearby. The local belief is that these temples are thousand of years old dating back much prior to the birth of Jesus Christ.

Our departure train on the 29th was very late in the night. No matter however much I requested Swami Satyanandaji to kindly retire for the night at his usual routine hour, he was not prepared to listen to me and insisted upon coming out from his quarters and seeing me off in the Math car even at that midnight hour. This visit to Rikiadham Sivananda Math was the most important part of my programme in this entire Oct.-Nov. tour of mine. It has been a visit that has given me great satisfaction and very great happiness. Swami Swarupanandaji of Bhubaneshwar was constantly in my seva and he as well as his Gurubhai from Bolangir travelled with us on the same train from Jasidih to Calcutta. We parted company at Howrah because I was bound towards Dumdum airport side for taking my flight to Bombay and they had to wait and take a chance of boarding some train to Orissa where transportation had been disrupted due to the violent cyclone, that had hit the state. Here the onward part of my tour had come to a conclusion and I was to fly to Bombay the next day upon my last return leg of travel back to Rishikesh Ashram. Enroute I had two brief engagements at Jaipur and at Bikaner to which I had committed myself at the request of the D.L. Society branches there. Jaipur had a forenoon gathering of the branch members for awarding some citations to honour distinguish services and evening open public satsang with chanting of divine name and spiritual discourse. A special tent had been put up within the courtyard of the branch premises for seating the general public. The visit to Bikaner branch had a more specific purpose and programme. It was the inauguration of a suitable residential quarter for my stay during future visits to the branch. Hitherto, in the absence of any residential facility in the branch they usually put me up in the home of a Doctor couple Mr. & Mrs. Joshi in their residence nearby. It is literally so very nearby that the branch was within easy walking distance. Many times I just walked across to conduct my spiritual programme in the Bikaner programme hall. The doctors were most hospitable. I was made to feel quite at home. However this time due to a great deal of persistent and determined effort including fund raising by Sri Pushpa Kathuria and her colleagues, this residential premises was constructed and made ready for its inauguration on 7th November. And my stay also was in this newly inaugurated Guru Niwas. Still, I visited my old hosts nearby and spent an hour meeting their friends and relatives. It was a joy to them as well as to me.

The day after Diwali, on 8th November we took the night train from Bikaner to Delhi. Arriving at Delhi we had to detain at a small railway station Sarai Rohilla by name, a considerable distance away from Delhi. This was because the train terminates at this station, living no other alternative. The ever hospitable Sandeep Goswami and his eldest brother very kindly met us and took us to their elegant home situated in the quiet bustle free colony of Anand Vihar. After a fairly relaxed stay we took the Mussourie express the very same night back to Dehradun and to the Ashram.

At the time of mailing this letter the whole world is waiting and looking forward to the dawn of the 21st century and the advent of the third millennium. What do they have in store for mankind? What will they bring to this world where the common man is wearied of war and violence and longs to see an era of peace, friendship and goodwill prevail upon earth. This has been the dear dream and the fond hope of all human beings throughout the world over the past many many centuries. The law of jungle must seize to be. A humane humanity all people wish to see.

If a major world-catastrophe is to be prevented in time, the foremost philosophers, mystics and men of goodwill of the world must come forward. Theirs is this sacred duty. For, the Light of Divine Knowledge, the radiance of the Universal Power that holds all beings together that supports the whole universe and sustains it, expresses itself through them. Their personalities are the manifestations of the Great Cosmic Law. In ages past there have appeared on the scene great Prophets and messengers of God, whenever there was need to prevent decline of righteousness. Lord Krishna, Lord Buddha, Lord Jesus, Lord Mahavira, Lord Zoroaster and such beings—so many of them appeared when and where Divine Intervention was needed in the affairs of mankind. There is such a need now. But, times have changed. The world has shrunk considerably. The tempo of life has been greatly accelerated. Even benevolent autocracy and monarchy has had to yield to democracy. Not a king nor any such individual rule anymore but, people themselves rule the nations, through an elected representative body. It is no wonder that Divine Intervention too might take a similar form. Not an individual Prophet, but a united body of world philosophers and mystics alone can solve the present-day problems of the world and give the proper lead to those that govern the nations, their business, their social life etc.

It is not enough today if His message is delivered on a battlefield (Gita), or on a mount (New Testament), or in a holy place (Sarnath) and allowed to take its own time to spread far and wide. Simultaneously all over the world, everybody should hear the Word of God and take to the right path. This is possible only through the agency of a united body of world philosophers and mystics etc. and therefore, Divine Intervention might well take that form.

Researches conducted in scientific theories and conferences of scientists, have produced not only wonderful inventions of great utility that add to man’s comfort and pleasure, but weapons of destruction endowed with amazing power. Researches conducted in the field of economics and conferences of businessmen and industrialists have no doubt enabled all the world to enjoy products proved anywhere in the world but, they have also generated the spirit of rivalry, unethical competitiveness, fierce urge for monopoly and ultimately becoming the incentive to war and destruction. Why? There is nothing wrong in scientific advancement, nothing wrong with economics and business progress. There is nothing wrong in researches and conferences. But they have lacked proper guidance. Blind men have led the blind, and all of them are standing on the edge of precipice.

The philosophers, mystics and men of goodwill of the world with their spiritual insight must come to the rescue now. For, they have the impartial eye of rational intellectual discrimination and dispassionate guidance of human society for the good of all. They discern what is right and what is wrong. To them the Laws of God are Living Realities. They know that love is divine and hatred is undivine. They know that the world has been created by God in order that men might love one another and not kill one another. Their word, endowed with the authority of their inner communion with God, alone can save the world from the worst calamity. The problem is a serious and urgent One. Philosophers must act at once.

The first thing is to set the house in order. The foremost Philosophers belonging to the various major religions of the world must organise and conduct research into the fundamental tenets of their own religions. Interpolations and accretions that tilt the scale of values the wrong way, have to be removed. The spirit must be rescued from the mere form and the reality must be re-discovered and the appearances negated.

Secondly, the philosophers of all the religions must confer and exchange their ideas. This conference might well prove to be the Collective descent of Divinity to save the world from ruin and destruction. They will not only discover the common thread that links all the religions of the world, but also the spiritual needs of the different nations and religions, and ways and means of supplying them. Such a conference will enable each individual philosopher to view his or her own religion in a new light. Without in anyway altering the fundamentals of the religion, they will be able to bring about a synthesis of all the religions, each religion taking what is best from the others. Thus will a new World order emerge, through a new Unity of Religions.

Thirdly, this World Philosophical Congress will provide the correct philosophical basis for the scientists, economists and politicians to build their edifices on. Thus guided by the philosophers, scientists will work for the happiness and welfare of humanity, economists will plan for the commonwealth, politicians will discover ways and means of living at peace and maintaining the peace of the world. This is the need of the hour. I pray to all the people of world to urge and persuade the philosophers to bring about this event on the above lines and serve the cause of world-peace and brother-hood. May God bless the whole mankind with peace and prosperity!

I now bring holy master Swami Sivanandaji’s words to you, “Love is the law of life. To love is to fulfil the law. And to fulfil the law means universal welfare, peace and happiness. This world has come out of love. It exists in love. It finally merges in to the Great Love. Love is life. Love is joy. Love is warmth. Love is the golden tie which binds heart to heart, soul to soul. Love is constructive and creative. Love binds and builds. Love is the principle of regeneration. Love is an actual spiritual force you can use with confidence. Love is a positive concrete thing. He who applies the law of love with scientific precision can work wonders. The law of love is far greater science than any modern science. The law of love prevails among saints, mystics and men of good heart.

To live is to love. To love is to live. You live that you may learn to love. You love that you may learn to live in the Eternal. A life without faith, love and devotion is a dreary waste. It is real death. There is no virtue higher than love; there is no religion higher than love; because love is Truth; love is God. God is an embodiment of love. In every inch of His creation, you can verily understand His love. Love is the immediate way to Truth or the Kingdom of God. It is the life-principle of creation. It is the highest expression of soul-force. It is the sum total of all the duties of religion. It is the magic wand in the hand of a devotee by which he conquers the whole world. It was the driving force behind Mira, Radha, Tukaram, Tulasidas, Gouranga, Jesus and the God-intoxicated Sufis, Mansoor and Shams Tabriez.

Love of body or skin is passion. Love of God is Prem or devotion. It is pure love. It is love for love’s sake. To love anyone for attaining some selfish gain is selfish love. It binds you to this earth. To love all beings as children of God, as manifestations of divinity is pure love. It is divine love. It leads to liberation. A husband loves his wife not for the sake of his wife, but loves her for the sake of his own Self. He is selfish. He expects sensual pleasure from her. If some face disfiguring disease takes away her beauty, his love for her cease. There is physical passion in this love. There is deep selfishness. The love is mercenary. In every earthly love, there is a hollowness, a jarring note, a hidden doubt, and a flaw. But true, pure love is rich, profound, full and flawless. It is eternal, unchanging, infinite. Selfish passion seeks gratification through other. But pure, divine love seeks to make the beloved happy and to derive happiness from the happiness of the latter. Love is sacrifice. To love is to share and serve.

Love vibrates in the form of service, charity, generosity and benevolence. The spirit of service must be ingrained in you. The spirit of service must be innate or inherent in you. There should not be a mere show. All service is empty if there is no love, affection, sincerity and bhav. It you serve with bhav (sublime attitude) and love, God is behind you. Sankara, Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed served. Janaka and Samartha Ramdas served. Serve, love, give. He who practices these instructions can live through hard times and bad days enlightened by heavenly ray.

Make others truly happy as you strive to make yourself happy. Speak a helpful word. Give a cheering smile. Do a kind act. Serve a little. Wipe the tears of one who is in distress. Render smooth a rough place in another’s path.

Worship the poor, the down-trodden, and the oppressed. These are your gods. These are your visible first Gods. Love all. You will reap the benefit of more than a million Yajnas or sacrifices, austerities and religious vows. Regard your neighbour’s happiness as your own happiness, and regard your neighbour’s pain as your own pain. Man is one. God is one. Love is one. Law is one. Realisation is one. We are all the fruits of one tree and the leaves of one branch. There is no stranger, no alien in this world. Everyone is God in the process of evolution. Identify yourself with everything that lives. Live at peace with friend and foe. All men are limbs of one body. All creation is the family of God. Love all God’s creation. Love even the leaf; love the animals; love the birds; love the plants; love everything. This is the way to a knowledge of the mystery underlying them all. I follow the religion of love. I am a true Christian, a true Mussalman, a true Hindu, a true Buddhist, a true Sikh and a true Parsi.

True religion does not consist in ritualistic observances, baths, and pilgrimages, but in loving all. Cosmic love is all-embracing and all-inclusive. In pure love, no one is shut out from the condemned prisoner to the mighty emperor, from the worst scoundrel to the most reputed saint on the surface of this earth. It is hatred that separates man from man, nation from nation and country from another man. Hatred, pride and egoism are mental afflictions. They are the products of ignorance only. They cannot stand before pure love.

Hatred breeds hatred. Love begets love. Fear breeds fear. This is the immutable psychological law. It is the natural right of love, the power of God, to prevail upon this earth, conquering all the forces of hate and evil.

In love lies the salvation of all beings. Love is the hope of this dark lonesome world. This world needs leaders in every country filled with sympathy, co-operation, love, sacrifice, compassion and tolerance. In the cultivation of this cosmic love is individual spiritual progress, the welfare of the community and the peace of the whole world. Set to work therefore, and spread this gospel of cosmic love throughout the whole world.

Visit every locality nay every house. Do kirtan. Conduct mass-prayer. Spread the message of love, unity, goodwill, service, sacrifice, co-operation and sympathy. Let the spiritual message of oneness and the divine call to unity, friendship, amicable co-operation, reach the hearts of all and awaken love and brotherhood in the bosom of humanity. Let all the world be circled with a girdle of love and enveloped in a vast heart of love.

The saints, seers and prophets of the word have spoken of love as the end and aim and goal of life. The Rasa-lila of Sri Krishna is filled with divinely mysterious cosmic love. My children of Love, draw inspiration from their teachings. Tread the path of love, commune with God, and reach the eternal abode of love. This is your highest duty. You have taken this body to achieve Love, which alone is the goal of life.

Live in love. Breathe in love. Sing in love. Eat in love. Drink in love. Move in love. Die in love. Purify your thoughts, speech and action in the fire of love. Bathe and plunge in sacred ocean of love. Take the honey of love and become an embodiment of love. 

Feel that this body is a moving temple of God. Feel that all beings are images of God. Feel that this world is indwelt by the Lord. Feel that the one power of God works through all hands, see through all eyes, hears through all ears. You will become a changed being. You will enjoy the highest peace and bliss.” Thus admonished our Worshipful Holy Master Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj.

This our world (which Wendell Wilkies circled in 80 days), this planet earth our home is not going to be transformed into a paradise. This is certain no matter what persons holding on to some particular faith may believe and declare. Such ideas and theories are no doubt comforting and nice but, they are Utopian ideas. It is going to be what it is and what it has been. Love and hate, harmony and discord, friendship and enmity, peace and war, prosperity and adversity, success and failure, happiness and misery, health and disease, fortune and misfortune, applause and derision and contempt and all such pairs of opposites will continue to prevail. Is it therefore a really hopeless situation? Certainly not so! If that is so, then where is the hope to be sought? Where is the key to help open up a new era with a different and better state of affairs? In which direction lies the way? What is that factor that will bring about a halt to this downward trend and become the turning point and initiate a dynamic movement upward, forward and onward unto heralding the stirring advent of a new humanity?

That factor is threefold in its essential content. Broad hearted tolerance in all people of the world, genuine and sincere inter-religious fellowship, thirdly, the adoption of Gandhian Non-Violence (Ahimsa) as a way of life by all countries throughout the world. We must keep up a sustained and continuous efforts to establish these three redeemers of human values and of human welfare. This way the world will move towards a new dawn and a day of commonweal, world neighbourhood, loving friendships & spiritual brotherhood.

We have the negative side and the positive side in this human world. The task before us now and tomorrow is to do all that we can to replace the negative by the positive. We must strive to discard the lower life for higher life. We must rise up from the unspiritual into the spiritual. Hold aloft the ideal, selflessly living for others by rejecting the downward pull of selfish, self-centred living. Emphasise benign and creative unity instead of dire destructive disunity. Work as though this task depends upon you, but pray to the Almighty Lord to make you an instrument of his love, harmony and peace.

As we move towards the 21st century and the new millennium we must give prime priority to this world altering service just indicated through the foregoing varied aspects of our blessed duties towards the human family which has endured much travail and suffering. It deserves a liberating new experience as it moves into the new world being aspired after and being planned by noble hearts and minds moved by deep human concern. Let that day dawn. Let us salute the rising sun. Let the light shine. Let joy herald this advent. May mankind rejoice. Om Om Om!

Let me conclude with the Great Invocation:

From the point of Light
Within the Mind of God
Let Light stream forth into
the minds of men. 
Let Light descend on Earth.

From the point of Love
Within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into
The hearts of men. 
May Christ return to Earth.

From the centre where the 
Will of God is known 
Let purpose guide the little 
wills of men—
The purpose which the
Masters know and serve.

From the centre which we
Call the race of men 
Let the Plan of Love and
Light work out. 
And may it seal the door 
Where evil dwells. 
Let light and love and
Power restore the
Plan on heart.

Swami Chidananda