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In light of this wonderful new cycle, First of the Golden Years, and all the amazing new changes you have brought forth, what would be the most important spiritual idea or principle to share with chelas, so they too may catch this new wave of Light and Sound?

Happiness!

Think of all the love and happiness you and other chelas find in knowing the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ is always with you. The world has plenty of dark places, but the love and happiness you carry inside you lifts up all who need a smile.

Every person is an ECK chela, no matter what religion they pursue. So we serve them, God’s children—as we are too.

You are a happiness child. Isn’t it grand?

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I have been wondering about ECK leaders and their Facebook pages. My Satsang Society has one, and I have a personal one with “likes,” and it is a way to keep in touch with friends and family. Do you see this as in any way detracting from my position as an ECK leader?

I have used my personal Facebook page to invite friends to our Sound of Soul events and other ECK events, and it works very well. If it is something I should not be doing, I will gladly cancel it.

You are using today’s electronic communications to good purpose. Methods of telling people about ECK will continue to snowball.

Today and tomorrow, our golden age to let others learn of ECK.

Look at all the opportunities now. Let’s catch the wave. Our predecessors could only dream of all the advantages of communication we delight in. Imagine, talking to Souls on the other side of the globe. Or in space (if they’d only give out their number).

It’s a remarkable lifetime. You’ve earned it. Use it well.

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With the aging of our chela population, it appears that there is an ever-greater percentage of H.I.’s. However, the chela population has not increased that much. What is the spiritual significance of this? Where does this lead?

Yours is an important question that needs to be addressed. I am glad you asked it.

Paul Twitchell introduced ECKANKAR to the world in 1965. The timing was anything but chance. The can-do spirit engendered during World War II had all but died in the ensuing two decades, a casualty of materialism, the “good life.”

Into this spiritual void swept the Wind of Change, the ECK. And with that, adventurous youth. The can-do attitude of the war was reborn as the youth broke free of society’s rigid codes. They hit the road in brightly painted cars and vans, curious as to the possible wonders around the bend. They were seekers.

Paul tapped into this youthful energy. He enlisted the aid of youth amenable to the ECK teachings. These youth were like bees: pollinators, able missionaries.

ECKANKAR’s rolls exploded.

This rapid growth also brought out leadership problems. So Paul offered early initiations to chelas who were actively taking the ECK teachings into their communities.

I was one of these fortunate chelas. Paul offered to give me the Second Initiation a year early, but I declined his offer. There were still a few spiritual loose ends that needed to be tied up. I would have been uncomfortable moving on yet. Later, I understood that Paul’s offer was a test, to see whether I wanted the glory of a higher station, or what?

Many early ECKists fell by the wayside. They could not handle the greater spiritual forces unleashed by their early advancements. It needed more discipline than they wished to expend.

So where is today’s spiritual pulse?

In general, the adventurous youth of the 1960s and 1970s are history. Many youth now stay in their parents’ home into their thirties. Or they are “eternal students.”

Security and comfort: the two watchwords of people who will, in time, learn that life guarantees neither.

The Kal, negative, force is successful when it slows or stops humanity’s mobility, in terms of physical and mental movement. Is not that the very condition of slavery? That is our society’s state today. It will take a thunderclap of outer events to jar society from its spiritual doldrums.

An upheaval will come when the ECK and the Kal go head-to-head on the battlefield of awakening.

All that aside, and yet not, there are many, many Souls ready for the teachings of ECK. Our role is to find new ways, along with the old, to make the teachings relevant to them.

We can do this. Are we not endowed with an unlimited means of creativity? Of course!

Support our missionary programs. Suggest new methods to us that work for you. And remember to tell your friends, family, and coworkers about ECK. There is much we can do now.

—Sri Harold Klemp

See with the eyes of the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ, and inwardly acknowledge each person in your day as an ECK chela. This exercise will open your heart and your Spiritual Eye in a new way.

You can practice this as a Friday fast if you like.