New Year Message

By

Sri Swami Chidananda

God be with you. The old year 2007 has passed. We are commencing this New Year 2008 with added knowledge and experiences. These experiences and knowledge we have obtained through the 365 days of the past year 2007. Through the experiences of each day we have learnt something new. In the same way the 366 days stretches before you. You may add on to your knowledge and experience and get all the more wiser and benefit yourself and others.

God who has sent you into this human world regards your life as a process of positive evolution. God’s plan for man (who is the only creature having a mind and intellect) is for evolution and progress in every way because this earth life is meant to give each individual a scope that may end in total perfection.

In the previous two paras you have been told this human earth is a school for perfection. God’s Divine perfection is already within you but in a latent form, therefore you are apt to forget it. Your body from its head to foot is a Royal and Divine Palace for GOD to reside in. God’s throne is your spiritual Heart situated on the right side of your chest. It is not the anatomical heart which pumps blood throughout your physical body. This is why God is called ANTARYAMIN which means the one who dwells in your spiritual Heart. You are meant to gradually unfold this Divine perfection within you and consciously make this Divine perfection completely manifest in your life and reflect in and through your day-to-day activities. Each day you must learn something new and carry this process onward that ultimately will make you a perfect human being ethically and spiritually. All the lessons you have learnt in all the 365 days of the year 2007 must now be applied in the 366 days that are stretching before you in the year 2008. Body, mind and intellect should all go towards evolution to Perfection.

God has sent you to this human world not to be a static creature with no change or progress. God has sent you not to remain in the same condition of both body and intellect. God’s plan for you is evolution until you reach perfection. Body, mind, intellect and that which is imperishable within the perishable, all of them have to attain a state of completeness and Perfection.

In this matter, above referred, there is no other Indian scripture, so complete and thorough, giving the entire process of progress to perfection in all its aspects in its eighteen chapters in which Lord Krishna brings his friend Arjuna from a state of doubt and confusion to a state of certainty and action. This scripture is Srimad Bhagavad Gita.

In Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna tells Arjuna that the body, mind and intellect are restricted in their activities and are not above error. The soul which is imperishable is evolving to aid each other to bring the individual upon the State of Perfection where it is neither troubled nor affected by wind, water, or fire or any weapon. The individual must raise himself from doubt to faith and the knowledge of a perishable being to imperishable being. That is why man is born to attain this knowledge and become fearless. This was the reason why Dr. Anne Besant of Theosophical Society liked the Bhagavad Gita so much and persuaded others to follow its teachings in life.

As this is my New Year’s Message I want all readers to know that the purpose of life is evolutionary until you reach immortality by Realising that body and Soul (Atman) are quite different. Body is born and it dies. Death is inevitable to the body. In this entire human world wherever you go, in whichever direction and in whichever country, you will find crematoriums, graveyards behind the churches for the Christians and Kabristan for all those who follow the Muslim faith. In this body house, the Soul remains immortal and imperishable. This is what we call Atman (Soul). Your Atman is identical with Satchidananda Atman or Brahman. The Ultimate Spiritual Realisation is therefore the experience of “Aham Brahmasmi”. In this human world bodies come and go. But that which gives it life is the imperishable Atman dwelling within you.

This is my vital message to one and all the readers. They must base their lives upon this fundamental truth and be fearless and free.

May God and Gurudev bless you to understand and follow this message in your life from this very moment when you are reading this!

I wish you a happy and progressive new year 2008!

Swami Chidananda
President,
The Divine Life Society