This is a time when people need to “stand up and be counted” – a time for active participation in the outer struggle of light against darkness.

What is needed today is a spiritual army of souls demonstrating — not militantly or aggressively, but with sincerity declared — their commitment to higher values, to God, and to a firm rejection of worldly values.

Some may think, “I’ve already committed myself to the spiritual quest as deeply as I can. Becoming part of this new order won’t change that. Is it necessary to take an outward formal step to make that statement of commitment?”

People are no longer content to hear, “Heaven will come after you die.” People want to do something right now that will make them better people. And science is confirming that you can do things that will make you a better human being. In the process, science is also corroborating some of the fundamental teachings of yoga.

Today anyone who is truly aware of human directions believes we’re in for very hard times. For devotees, such times present an extraordinary opportunity for service and spiritual growth, greater than any in recorded history.

Whatever our role, we must see ourselves as a part of the great divine whole and have compassion for our brothers and sisters who are acting in ignorance. This is often the missing element in the ecology and environmental movements.

Paramhansa Yogananda told us more than once that in a former life he had been William the Conqueror. Some months after his passing, an inspiration came to me: I suddenly realized that I had been his youngest son, Henry, who later was crowned as Henry I.