A THOUGHT FOR THE NEW YEAR

Another year is about to pass. A few millions surely must have passed for ever. But the whole creation has surely changed. Nothing remains untouched by the passage of time except of course one’s own Self.

The other day as I was going for my morning walk, a gentleman who always meets us on the way suddenly asked me “Swamiji, how old are you?” I just laughed and started walking. The man also smiled and continued on his walk. After few steps I really started thinking as to what answer I could have given. There are so many of ‘me’ in ‘Me’ – the ‘I’ with different identities. The body is in his fifties. When my parents passed away in 1997, the son in me passed away who was in his forties. If I consider myself a graduate, then the graduate will be in his thirties as I got my degree in my twenties. If I look at myself as the teacher who is teaching the Self Knowledge then that teacher is in his early thirties. The disciple in me is in his late thirties. If I look at myself as a traveler around the world I am twenty-five years old as my travel started in 1983. If I consider myself as a founder of the schools and institutions, then I am only twelve years old. As a friend I am of different ages to different friends, depending on when our friendship began.

Thus there are so many people inside ‘Me’ and they are all of different ages but the real ‘Me’ is Ageless and Deathless. Therefore to answer the question of the fellow morning walker, I would have to answer him from the standpoint that he was interested in. As even when I go to a Consulate for visa, I have to tell him the age of my body as he is not interested in my ‘Ageless Being’.

Therefore friends, one more year is added to all the different roles of our life but essentially we remain ‘Ageless and Changeless’. There is absolutely no problem from the Absolute, Changeless standpoint. We have to learn to deal with the changing creation, the body and the mind. And what a change takes place all over the changing realms! All the human beings are struggling to go through the changes ultimately to be with the ‘Changeless’ but not many are aware of the process.

That is where the responsibility comes when we are aware of the ‘Changelessness, the Happiness, the Ultimate wealth in our lives, to share this wisdom with others. But long before somebody is aware of the need of the ‘Changeless, the Happiness’ most people are in the need of maintaining the changing situations and dying body in the world. The world that is terror stricken, poverty ridden, disease infested and full of arrogance and helplessness born of ignorance is in no mood to appreciate the calm, fulfilling wisdom of the Self. In fact, if one talks about the Absolute Happiness, the world will cynically ridicule him as self obsessed, insensitive individual. Yes, selfish we are if we remain happy without sharing the happiness, we remain rich without sharing the riches, we are educated without sharing the same privilege to others. It is not selfish to be educated, to be rich or to be happy. Nobody calls the materially poor people, materially selfish as they don’t have anything to share. Only if you have and you don’t share then only you can be branded selfish. That is why first we must ‘have’ education, must ‘have’ resources and find the ultimate wealth of happiness with ourselves and none of this is a selfish pursuit. But after having it, if we do not share it with others then only we become insensitive and that triggers a lot of problems in the world.

Hope as the students of Self Knowledge, as the friends in Self Knowledge, we are all aware of the Timeless, Changeless existence, the Happiness that we are and then we continue to share our relative prosperity at all levels not only with the fellow human beings in general but also the birds, the animals, the plants and the whole environment which continuously sustain us. May we must constantly remember: while living for ourselves how much we are living for others. Let us feel blessed, feel grateful to God and let us happily live and let live in the time present and the Timeless Presence.

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND EVER.

Swami Suddhananda