We are welcoming 2022 with great expectations, just as we anticipate the glorious sunrise after the darkness of night as we begin to see the twilight of dawn. May this new year fill everyone’s lives with happiness, good cheer, peace and prosperity. Amma knows people are still agitated—that their fear has yet to completely go. Even so, this is what Amma’s heart desires.
We welcome the new year with exquisite displays of fireworks, beautiful light arrangements and wish each other a very happy new year. However, these celebrations and expressions of joy are short-lived. Soon, people are once again immersed in their narrow thoughts and actions. If the external lights and expressions of joy are unable to fill us with light or to make our mind more discerning, what is the use of such celebrations?
This doesn’t mean celebrations are not needed. Amma just feels that along with such celebrations, we should also understand the underlying supreme truth. Today, people get very few opportunities to forget everything and celebrate. They are so immersed in their day-to-day lives and problems with their jobs and children and other responsibilities. To propel a boat forward in a river full of water moss, we have to first remove the moss.
As the boat keeps moving forward, the moss has to be removed again and again. Similarly, the things we do to make our lives move forward are only temporary fixes. The happiness we get does not come out of true knowledge. While there is nothing wrong with gaining happiness in this manner, we should also seek the joy that comes from helping the poor and suffering. So, Amma is not saying we shouldn’t celebrate. Let people celebrate and be happy at least in this way.
What is the right way to welcome the new year? First of all, we should do some self-introspection. Sincerely weigh all the good and bad you have done during the past year in the scales of your mind. Earnestly try to differentiate between dharma and adharma. Try to forgive those who have erred and to love those you dislike. Find it in yourself to forget and forbear. Try to do all your actions as an offering to God, and to accept their results as God’s will, with courage and determination. Incorporate selflessness into your life. At least try to do some small selfless actions every day; since you have not studied the scriptures, you may be unable to do this completely.
Nurture your sense of social responsibility. Change the attitude that you are separate from the world, and act with the knowledge that you are a member of this massive universal family. This is the manner in which we should welcome and celebrate the new year—changing our attitude and acting accordingly and being aware and remaining awake at all times, in all circumstances. Our life’s goal should be to awaken to such a state of constant wakefulness. Otherwise, even though the calendar’s numbers are changing, there will be no change in us or in the world around us.
The writer is a world-renowned spiritual leader and humanitarian