Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

If you wish to embark on a new life, you need not wait for the arrival of a new year. To wait for a whole year means waiting for twelve months and so many days, hours, minutes and seconds. Treat every second as new. Sanctify every moment of your life. This has to be done by realising the unity of Sath (the Divine) and Chith (the individual Consciousness). When this union is achieved, Ananda (Spiritual Bliss) is experienced. This is the primary task before everyone. Every second should be regarded as an expression of the Divine. This New Year Day relates to the Christian Era. December and January may come and go (every year) but God neither comes nor goes.

In this context, you have to bear in mind three things. One is that which, after it goes, will not come back. The second one is that which, after it comes will not leave. The third is the one that neither comes nor goes. That which, when it comes, will not go is Jnana (spiritual wisdom). When this sublime knowledge comes to one, it would not leave him. The knowledge which comes and goes relates to the waking and sleeping states. Knowledge of Supreme Reality, when once it is acquired, will never go away. The knowledge that is lost is not true knowledge. Ignorance is the thing which, once it is gone, will not return. If it returns, it is "ignorance piled on ignorance." This has been described in Vedantic parlance as Mithya in Mithya delusion within a delusion.

That which does not come and does not leave is Atma Thathwa (the Atmic Principle). That which is omnipresent, where can it go? Where is the place for it to go? You set up a door to separate one place from a place outside it. If there is no place outside, there will be no need for a door. There is no place where the Divine is not present. Where, then, can the Divine come or go? Such questions are the products of confused book knowledge. The state of mind of the confused person is described in a song by a Gopika (Cowherd girl). The doubting mind calls for closing the door of the mind (to truth). The person with faith asks for the opening of the door. Seeing the plight of the Gopika, who is racked by both doubt and faith, Radha was amused. Radha observed: When the whole Universe is the mansion of the Lord, Where is the need for a street or a door? When the cosmic Lord is shining within, Where is the need for a door? When one offers one's entire life to the Lord and sheds tears of bliss, that is all that is needed. As long as there is no such complete surrender, there will be need for doors and the like. Why are doors erected? To regulate the entry and exit of persons. But, it is the irony of the present Kali or Dark Age that the door is kept open for the entry of all kinds of undesirable creatures. Man's mind is kept open for the entry of evil thoughts. The door should be barred against the inroads of egoism and acquisitive impulses. The door (of the mind) should be kept sacred. Regard the entire cosmos as the great mansion of the Supreme Lord. It has no streets or doors. Total surrender is the way to enter the mansion. The advent of a New Year is greeted by welcoming the New Year and bidding farewell to the old one. This is the practice in the ordinary world. But it is not entirely a worldly affair.

The observance of the beginning of a New Year is based on the statements of the Siddhanthi (the almanac maker). The almanac is an artificial man-made work and is not related to anything permanent or unchanging. The sun and the moon remain unchanged. The calendar is a man-made device. For the Divine, there is no coming or going. God transcends such conceptions. He is the Lord of what is called the Kingdom of God. Each one has to acquire the qualification to enter that Kingdom. All are not entitled to enter it. But every human being should aspire to achieve that right. That is the essential purpose of human birth. Man is bound by his actions in this world. The actions should be good. Be pure in your speech. Develop a sacred vision. Purify your hearts. Discourse at Prashanthi Mandir to a vast gathering of devotees from all parts of world, 1 Jan