The great
master lived his sublime life in partial seclusion, and steadfastly
refused to permit his followers to build any organization around
his teachings. He made, nevertheless, a significant prediction.
"'About fifty years after my passing,' he said, 'my life will be written
because of a deep interest in yoga which the West will manifest.
The yogic message will encircle the globe, and aid in establishing
that brotherhood of man which results from direct perception of
the One Father.'
"My son Yogananda," Sri Yukteswar went on, "you must do your part
in spreading that message, and in writing that sacred life."
Fifty years after Lahiri Mahasaya's passing in 1895 culminated in
1945, the year of completion of this present book. I cannot but be
struck by the coincidence that the year 1945 has also ushered in
a new age-the era of revolutionary atomic energies. All thoughtful
minds turn as never before to the urgent problems of peace and
brotherhood, lest the continued use of physical force banish all
men along with the problems.
Though the human race and its works disappear tracelessly by time
or bomb, the sun does not falter in its course; the stars keep their
invariable vigil. Cosmic law cannot be stayed or changed, and man
would do well to put himself in harmony with it. If the cosmos is
against might, if the sun wars not with the planets but retires at
dueful time to give the stars their little sway, what avails our
mailed fist? Shall any peace indeed come out of it? Not cruelty
but good will arms the universal sinews; a humanity at peace will
know the endless fruits of victory, sweeter to the taste than any
nurtured on the soil of blood.
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