A New Year Convention

Another year has arrived, hopefully on the wings of change. In a certain sense, New Year is a convention hiding within it the truth of the cyclic movement of Time. It depends upon when we see the starting point of the cycle of Earth’s revolution around the sun. Some take the starting point with the lengthening of the day, the solstice. Others, especially in different parts of India celebrate it with the change of season, the onset of spring. Still others with the harvest. Whatever it is the idea behind it all is the truth of the cyclic nature of time. As the earth completes one round of its endless journey the seasons start again. So too with our life. There are waves of time that seem apparently favourable whereas there are others that seem unfavourable. Yet humanity advances through both. The crests, as well as the troughs, lead us forwards. This is the secret truth that the outer events and circumstances hide. But just as each planet has its own motion but it is also part of the larger motion of the solar system as well as of the galactic motion, so too there are larger cosmic movements that carry individuals like flies upon a wheel. These motions are due to forces of nature that move the atoms, the stars, the titans, gods as well as human beings. Yet there is something in man, individually as well as collectively that can override these interlacing motions of cosmic forces that move individuals and groups. It is the human faith and will. These two powers in man spring from his soul and if they can come together and act in conjunction then everything can change. That is perhaps the reason behind the new year resolutions. It is to take advantage of the collective belief that things change with the changing of the year. Our individual will can ride over the swell of collective hope to its advantage. This is the principle behind the collective prayer that can change the course of things.

Of course there are beings who are so vast in their consciousness that they carry the prayers of a multitude in their solitary heart. Their single prayer is more powerful than the prayers of many that often do not form a cohesive mass and are simply a chaotic mixture of unformed wishes and unillumined desires. That is the reason why sometimes a prayer is chosen from some such a collection of the luminous ones, a prayer that carries the powerful vibration of the one who prayed on behalf of man. Such are the prayers of the Mother as She prayed for earth on behalf of men. All that is required then is to add our will and faith so that what She has prayed and hence what has already been sanctioned may be fulfilled in us and in all. Let us close with one such prayer of the Mother.

December 29, 1913

O LORD, grant that this collective convention of the ending year be for us also the occasion to put an end to a whole lot of bonds and attachments, illusions and weaknesses which have no longer any purpose in our lives. At every moment we must shake off the past like falling dust, that it may not soil the virgin path which, at every moment also, is opening before us.

May our mistakes, acknowledged and rectified within us, be no more than vain mirages powerless to bring any consequences and, pressing our foot down firmly upon all that no longer should exist, on all ignorance, all obscurity, all egoism, may we take our flight boldly towards wider horizons and intenser light, a more perfect compassion, a more disinterested love. . . . towards Thee.

I hail Thee, O Lord, Master of our life, and I want to proclaim Thy reign over all the earth. [CWM 1: 42]