You know there is a time-honoured theory of cause and effect. It is a recognized fact, a recognized standard of veracity, that wherever there is effect there must be cause. This was propounded by Maharshi Kanada. He first said that where there is an effect there must be a cause. We may or may not know the cause, but the cause is there. At the same time you should remember that wherever there is effect, there must be the cause, but wherever there is cause there may or may not be an effect.

You see, wherever you find any sprout, the cause is the seed; but wherever there is a seed there may or may not be a sprout. That seed may lack in qualifications for creating a sprout; or the seed may have had the power to create the sprout but did not create it. From a bad seed, from a weak seed, there will not be any sprout – but even if there is a very good seed, but that seed does not come in contact with earth, or air, or water, or light, in that case there will not be any sprout.

So we must say that nothing in this universe is non-causal.⁽¹⁾

Here we have come. Our coming is the effect of some cause. Because it is the effect, what is the cause? Why have we come here? The theory says that it is not non-causal. Then what is it for?

Wherever there is a movement, wherever there is a flow for a long time, if it does not [receive a fresh impetus], what happens? It loses the acceleration. And finally, what happens? Retardation starts. In our human society there was want of acceleration from the very start. And now the retardation has also started. Now humanity bleeds. The future is dark. So we have come here to do something. I have come here to do something, and you have also come here to do something. My coming is significant, and your coming is not less significant. We have come with a mission; and our lives, singularly and collectively, are a mission. Not missions – ours is a collective mission. Here we all are one. We have come to do something. And that is the causal factor.

And what will be the effect? The effect will be that the world will realize that humanity is one and indivisible, and no power in heaven or on earth can destroy this glorious humanity. We have come here to save humanity, and we will save humanity.

Another thing. We have come. Our coming is not non-causal, it is causal. And you see, nobody amongst us, A, B, C, X, Y, Z, is – what did I say? Insignificant. Each and every entity has got many a thing to do, and he or she will do it, and you see, our fates have been very closely associated with one another. This shows that in the past there has been some unity amongst us, some closeness, some proximity amongst us. That is why we have come together. It is not meaningless.

We must always remember this thing. When a group of good people – that group may be of a thousand, that group may be of a million, that group may also be of many billions – but when that group comes, it comes to do something concrete. And that group is known as Hari parimańd́ala gośt́hi, because that group moves around [makes a circle round] the Cosmic ideology.⁽²⁾ So you have come here to form a strong, well-knit Hari parimańd́ala for the coming generation.

Footnotes

(1) Sentence that was not clear in the original magazine publication of this discourse omitted here. –Eds.

(2) Hari parimańd́ala: “circle around the Lord”. Gośt́hi: “group”. –Eds.