New Year Message
(Sri Swami Sivananda)
Sadhaks Bold!
A Happy New Year is now before you, a year which heralds a glorious new step in your sadhana. Proceed courageously along with your spiritual endeavour. Let not the noise of the busy world din your ears. Be intent upon hearing the voice of the inner Spirit. Live in the world of the pursuit of shreyas or the good, the world of sadhana for God-realisation. Let every one of your acts affirm the existence of the Eternal Overlord of beings. Remember the last verse of the Bhagvadgita. “Wherever is Krishna, the Lord of Yoga, and wherever is Partha, with wielder of the bow, there are prosperity, victory, happiness and firm polity.” Everyone of you is a Partha holding the bow of this body for fighting the battle of life, for waging the war of sadhana against the hostile forces of Rajas and Tamas, the Kauravas. But this Partha alone is not enough there should be Yogeshwara Krishna behind this war; the charioteer should be the Supreme Master. When you act, surrendering yourself to the Lord, prosperity and victory shall be yours. Happiness shall be yours. All glory shall be yours. Therefore, think and act with the unceasing remembrance of the Universal Director of thought and action.
The material world of nature will have its own ways. Now it cracks, now it unifies, now it waxes, now it wanes. It is ever in a fluctuating condition. But, in the midst of change, strife and suffering it is possible to have peace, love and happiness provided you all do your best to live and spread the canons of Divine Life everywhere. Wherever is Divine Life there shall be success—Yato Dharmastato Jayah—victory shall follow the practice of righteousness. Be a witness and do the needful, according to your capacity, for bringing solidarity among people, by burning the increasingly brilliant lamp of spirituality and the religion of Self-realisation in every nook and corner. Greed, jealousy, pride and egoism which have resulted in bloodshed, famine and epidemics, due to the misuse of the resources of nature, show that the anti-divine blind powers have rampantly taken hold of man’s nature, who because of the delusion he is in, has forgotten that the way to the greatest happiness to the greatest number, nay, the permanent peace of all, is love and not hatred, sacrifice and not domination, unity and not dissension. More than this, it is the lack of the spiritual note in the life of the individual that is mainly responsible for the restlessness the world is experiencing.
There is no value in life if there is everything in it but the touch of the Divine. The materialistic view of life cannot be a safe guide since it leads one to fear, anxiety and sorrow alone, as it has not in it the element of what is really enduring as the very sap of one’s life, the Soul, by paying a deaf ear to the calls of which none can hope to achieve happiness or success. Life is meant for the realisation of the Absolute Spirit and nothing short of it. There can be no sense in thinking that one can be happy after denying God, condemning religion, overriding ethics and morality, and sheerly by directing powers against others. The faces drenched by tears and the stomachs scorched by hunger shall bear witness to the criminality of the hands which have upset the peace of the world. Peace is theirs, who see themselves in all. Those who disrupt the happiness of others cannot be happy. Woe is experienced as a reaction against the woe that is given to others. Joy is the fruit of joy given to others. “Do unto others as you wish to be done by.” Remember this, the essence of all real religions, and do the right.
Forget the mistakes of the past, but be righteous and correct yourself from now. Remember the Lord; pray to Him; He shall burn all sins, show you the light an guide you along the right path. One simple idea of God arisen in your mind is able to lift you up to the heights of virtue and purity. Divine grace should back up personal effort. Break the knots of the impressions of past mistakes through critical self-analysis and introspection. Find out the ultimate cause of every trouble and root out all such obstructive Samskaras. Many times the detection of the cause of a trouble is itself the remedy therefore.
Finally, it will be found that, all mistakes are but the violation of one or the other or some or all of the five great Yamas, viz., Ahimsa, Satya, Asteya, Brahmacharya and Aparigraha. Error is the action done in sympathy with the conceited ego and the senses which ever run riot. Take a vow today that you will make the utmost attempt to turn away from these worldly impulses and work in accordance with the laws of the inner Self, that you will observe strictly Ahimsa, Satya, Brahmacharya; that you will love all equally; and that you will lead a life in conformity with perfect virtue and the voice of the Divine Conscience within. Make a review of your spiritual diary and with quicker strides strive to proceed nearer to the Divine Being. Take new resolves and stick up to the same. Let your mottoes be self-sacrifice, self-surrender, self-restraint, self-analysis and self-knowldege. Study the “Twenty Important Spiritual Instructions” and find out whether you have failed to abide by any item therein. If so, correct yourself now and become an entirely changed person. Let this new year witness the bright flaming march of the heroic Sadhaka with his ideals praiseworthy adhered to: “Serve, Love, Give, Purify, Concentrate, Meditate, Realise”.
May success and fulfilment await the sincere Sadhakas! May the infinite mercy of the Almighty be upon all!
