Think energy. Think energetically. By Swami Kriyananda
March 17th, 2011 | No Comments »I am very pleased to be able to provide this “guest post” by Swami Kriyananda, a direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda. Kriyananda learned about the yugas and many future trends directly from Yogananda. Yogananda was himself a direct disciple of Sri Yukteswar, who wrote the Holy Science in which the yugas are described.
From Swami Kriyananda:
We are now over a century into an ascending Dwapara Yuga: the age of energy. Already, the word energy is heard everywhere. Today we face the growing probability of a great economic crises. My Guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, said it would be “much worse than the depression of the 1930s.” He added, “Money won’t be worth the paper it is printed on.” These troubles may be attributed to mankind’s need to adjust to new ways of looking at life and at objective reality. Already the true jobless figures are much higher than the official figures, which do not take into account all those, for example, whose unemployment compensation has run out, or those (for another) who have had to take relatively low-pay jobs after living in luxury on very high incomes.
The best way to weather this crisis will be to start thinking in Dwapara Yuga ways. Think energy. Think energetically. Think of those things which will help to generate energy in new ways: sun, wind, tides spring instantly to mind. Land used to be the basis of wealth. Today it is energy. One can make a fortune in his own basement; he doesn’t need land to make him rich.
Computers have made it possible for people to live far from the cities. Indeed, they have made it easier to do so. One can be in touch with a world-wide clientele. Mahatma Gandhi called the cities of modern times “a disease.” I believe they will in time become a thing of the past. I believe people will live in small communities, rather than in large cities. I have already proved that this is possible, by founding eight communities on three continents — places where a total of about 1,000 people live and support themselves. They do so in a most unusually happy and harmonious environment. Being people of high ideals, who share the same ideals, has made possible an environment altogether different from that which one finds in the cities, where people in the same apartment building do not even know one another.
Do they think in terms of energy? Yes, certainly. But I must add that there are many different kinds of energy. An atmosphere of kindness is a kind of energy. So is an atmosphere of mutual support and cooperation. So also is the understanding that high ideals are essential for a happy life, and that that happiness is greatly increased when all one’s associates share the same basic ideals.