Paramhansa Yogananda

Many who were with us last Christmas are not with us now, and who knows who will be here next Christmas? Such is the way of life. And still life goes on. It is a caravan in which we are traveling for a little while. Some of our companions have fallen into ditches of folly and ignorance, but when they are tired of the suffering they experience, they will begin to seek the safe guidance of the Owner of the caravan, who is also the Owner of this earth-none other than the Heavenly Father. Even though we part in this caravan, and the beginning and end of our journey are shrouded in darkness, still, life has a deep meaning: to teach us to seek God earnestly.

This world may also be likened to a play. The actors do not come out of nowhere; there is a backstage. After their part is over, the players do not cease to exist; they only go behind the scenes for a rest. It is the scheme of the Stage Manager that we come here to play for a time on this stage of life; then we depart. We are not dead-only backstage, hidden behind the screen of time, according to the direction of the Stage Manager. And we will be seen on this stage of life again and again, until we become such good actors that we can play our parts perfectly, according to the Divine Will. Then He will say: “You need go no more out. You have done My Will. You have played your part, and acted well. You did not lose courage. Now you have come back to Me, to be a pillar of immortality in the temple of My Eternal Existence.”* [*“Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out” Revelation 3:12]

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