Speaking Tree - India's message of Hope to the World

Speaking Tree - India's message of Hope to the World:

In 1946, as the first half of the twentieth century drew to a close, India was on the verge of winning her independence – and of suffering the agonies of partition. The world had seen two global wars, and the dropping of the first atomic bombs. By the dawn of that year, the number of those killed in battle, by bombs, deprivation, and violence, was unprecedented. Many lives had been lost, but – even worse – humanity had lost idealism, faith, and hope.

But then, in 1946, something of great importance happened, unnoticed at the time by all but a few: the spark of a spiritual revolution. Seventy years ago, Paramhansa Yoganandaji published his ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’, a work that was destined to change the lives of untold millions.

More than just a book, the ‘Autobiography’ was a divine carrier, a wave of blessings from the spiritual masters of India for the uplift of humankind.

Its message above all is one of hope. It presents God as a living reality, not only in infinity, but in the hearts of living human beings. In story after story, we read how “Divine Mother” – the form Yoganandaji worshipped – knows our problems, hears our prayers, and answers them again and again in miraculous ways.

The book tells also of Yoganandaji’s intense love and yearning for God – a potential we all carry within us. So deep and all-consuming was his devotion that it not only filled his own life with blessings, but changed the consciousness of everyone he met.

‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ brings hope to ordinary men and women that they, too, can find God in the midst of their daily life. As Yoganandaji said, “The time for knowing God has come.” Through the great technique of Kriya Yoga meditation, which was reintroduced to the world in modern times by Babaji and brought to the West by Yoganandaji, everyone can speed up his or her spiritual progress. “New hope for new men!” he declared. 

Finally, the ‘Autobiography’ brings hope to our planet at a time when humankind seems lost in hatred, violence, and materialism. Its pages reveal to us the existence of a divine plan, designed by God and the great masters of the world, to show humanity how to live in harmony, unity, and kinship in God. In one particularly striking passage, Yoganandaji wrote:

“Babaji is in constant communion with Christ; together they send out vibrations of redemption, and have planned the spiritual technique of salvation for this age. The work of these two fully-illumined masters – one with the body, and one without it – is to inspire nations to forsake suicidal wars, race hatreds, religious sectarianism, and the boomerang evils of materialism. 

Babaji is well aware of the trend of modern times, especially of the influence and complexities of Western civilisation, and realises the necessity of spreading the self-liberations of yoga equally in the West and in the East.”

Read by millions, translated into over thirty languages, beloved by people of all faiths, ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ is more than India’s gift to the world. In its universal appeal, its sincerity and humility, it is a gift from God Himself: a vehicle through which He speaks to us all.