What Is a New Year?
In the following discourse, delivered more than three decades ago, on the occasion of the Telegu New Year day, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba calls on His devotees to recognize the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God. He emphasizes that love alone prevails in the affairs of men, and transcends as the instrument of joy and happiness.
Worldwide men today are power hungry and resort to self-praise and declamation with little compunction. They develop hatred against others, foster envy, and feed their fatal egos. They plunge their communities into fear, anxiety, and disorder. They fail to recognize that practice of and adherence to elevating ideals could gain them eternal fame; instead, they are content with cheap applause and short-lived publicity.
You have gathered here today since this is Yugadi festival day, the day reckoned by you as the day that ushers in a New Year with a new name. This day is the New Year day only because you have decided to call it so; it is not astronomically or climatically or meteorologically different from yesterday or tomorrow. Indeed, hundreds of thousands of such [New Year] days have come and gone, and many thousands have been celebrated as festival days, too. Likewise, this day has come and this, too, will be gone.
If the New Year day is used by any one to begin a new way of life, a new step toward self-realization or self-improvement through service, then the celebration has a meaning and significance. Otherwise, it is devoid of value. The red letter on the calendar, which indicates this day as separate from others, is a warning and a reminder of this duty that you owe to yourselves.
Do not anticipate anything
The name of the New Year that begins today is inspiring and auspicious. It is called Ananda—spiritual bliss, inner joy, unshakable calm. That name is a clarion call, which must ring in your ears all 365 days of the New Year, to earn ananda, be ananda, and become ananda. Cleanse the instruments of your consciousness. Devote yourselves to service so that you might weaken the forces of ego and strengthen the forces of social unity. Cultivate japa and dhyana (repetition of the Lord’s name and meditation) so that you might rise toward Godhood. These are the steps by which you can earn and establish yourselves in ananda.
Engage yourselves in your duties with intelligence and devotion, carrying these out as if they are acts of worship offered to God, and leave the fruit of these acts to His will, His grace, and His compassion. Do not be affected when the results you anticipate are not produced; do not anticipate at all, but leave it to Him. He gave you the time, the space, the cause, the material, the idea, the skill, the chance, the fortune, and you did but little of your own. So why should you feel as if you are the doer? Do your duty as a sincere sadhana [spiritual discipline].
Ananda is the name of the year, and you are happy it is so. But what is in a name except what you put into it or extract from it. A man named Rama must be inspired by that name to manifest in himself the qualities that led Rama [the divine incarnation] into the immortality which his name attained. If a person carries the name dharmaputra (son of righteousness), it is only a shameful burden unless he justifies the burden by being as righteous as the dharmaputra of Mahabharatha [a Hindu epic] was. At the very least, he should endeavor to manifest dharma (righteousness) in his life.
Man must earn enough for his upkeep
Man cannot reap the full fruits of his life in the world if he only gathers riches, or collects popular votes, or loads his head with tons of tomes. He has to cultivate and practice virtues too. He has to adhere to dharma. The shrutis (sacred texts) direct that man has to earn just enough for his upkeep by honest means, and use the rest of his time and skill for the general good, dharma-artha. Earn artha (wealth) through dharma (right conduct). Then, he will certainly have plenty of divine grace.
Dhritarashtra, the father of the 100 Kuru brothers who fought against their five Pandava cousins (the legitimate claimants to a share of the ancestral patrimony) had neither of these two despite abundant riches, superior armies, and greater military skill and strategy. Hence, Dhritarashtra had to witness the total extinction of his dynasty and kingdom. Most men, much like Dhritarashtra, pursue falsehoods and ignore truth; they amass the trivial and ignore the crucial.
They do not realize that death is stalking silently behind them; they do not notice the quick paces of time; they do not know how precious is the chance that the human body, the human intellect, the human society, and the heritage that it has accumulated for him has brought him here and now. They are unaware that the same spark of divinity that illumines every thought, word, and deed in them is activating every other beings in the universe, too. They do not sense the brotherhood among men; nor are they thrilled by the feeling of universal kinship.
Man has to be above brutes and beasts
Men sprawl in the slime of self-praise and are slaves of their egos. Consequently, they are never free from fear or anxiety. They also spread scandal about others, and so they bog themselves in sin. Though they claim the respect of others, they are objects of ridicule and hatred. They seek faults in others, and so their eyes revel only in faults. They cannot see good in any; so they are consumed by envy and greed. Do not try to master others; master your own self, your own senses, and your own mind. That is the real victory.
Do not waste time in unprofitable talk. Do not change your beliefs in accordance with changing loyalties and changing surroundings. God is inherent in everything, and in every being. You can find Him in and through all that you see or do. In the golden chalice of your heart, He is the wisdom that fulfils. Closing your eyes to this fact, you are spreading your hands outward to snatch the same. You may be compassionate, but that emotion must be regulated and pure.
A compassionate man once brought home a fish he found struggling on the bank of a river in full flood. He placed it between the folds of a warm blanket and poured hot coffee down its throat. He thought it was suffering from a fit of cold. The hot coffee killed the poor thing. He could have saved it by throwing it back into the floods. He lacked the intelligence that would tell him what to do.
Many leaders at the present time have compassion, but possess little intelligence. They do not know how to solve the distress that they see and sympathize with. They talk of the need to establish peace at home and prosperity abroad; but their acts betray their ignorance of the means by which they could succeed. How can they succeed, if they promote hatred and dishonesty? Any success won by adopting wrong means will only be trivial and temporary. Peaceful means alone, means that are wrought out of love alone, can ensure lasting benefits and real peace. Fear not; frighten not. That is the message of God to man. Brutes fear; beasts frighten. Man has to be above both the weaknesses. Have faith in truth and be fixed in morality. You need not fear any one, for God will be on your side. You will not frighten, for all will be seen by you as divine.
“I am the witness of activity”
Talking of names, let Me mention this, too. Some persons who do not care for truth or righteousness might adopt the name Sathya Sai and build institutions in that name; they crave only the outer shell of fame and fortune; but you must know that they are unconnected with Me and are engaged in acts which I have not authorized. In fact, I am the witness of activity, not a participant. I am like the electric fan. Switch it on, it gives cool breeze. Switch it off, it allows you to swelter in the heat. I have no likes or dislikes.
Those who talk ill of Me are also remembering My name and deriving joy therefrom and perhaps earning a few pennies thereby. They are happy when they write falsehood; and you are happy singing the truth. I am unconcerned with either. I have come on a task that I imposed on Myself. That task will go on, from victory to victory, irrespective of praise or blame. It can neither be halted nor hindered.
Truth knows no defeat, no fear
No trace of fear can tarnish the purity of the heart that is shining in the splendor of truth. I am Sathya Sai. Sathya Sai means—He who is based on truth, who reclines on truth, which the massive coils of objective desires cannot entangle—(like the name Sesha Sai meaning, He who is based on, who reclines on the massive coils of the poisonous snake Sesha or the massive coils of objective desires). Truth knows no defeat; truth knows no fear. It marches on heedless of acclamation or declamation.
Do not attach yourselves too much to the world, for it is ever changing, fast and furiously. Be ever ready to fall into the hands of death, gladly and gracefully, with gratitude for the chances afforded while alive. Never grieve, for God is resident in you as your truth. Later, in the last stages of your life, when you look back upon your failures and successes, you will have to say, as Purandaradasa said, “Alas, we do not find joy in this life as man.” Do not spend your days in such manner. Be warned now itself. Use the days allotted to journey toward love, joy, and peace.
In this part of the country the New Year day is called Yugadi—the inaugural day of the age, as if a new, big epoch is opening today. This is an opportunity to contemplate on the vastness of time, of its speed, of the short span of time which we share in this life, and which has to be put to the best use. Contemplate on the beginning of things, of nature, of life, of man, of the heart—all emanating from God and journeying toward God. Dwell on the grandeur of this procession from birth to liberation, through life after life. Become aware that you, nature, and all that is and was and will be are God.
To attain this awareness, love is the surest means. Do not inflict pain on anyone through word and deed. Control your passions, emotions, and impulses; especially, anger, envy, and greed. They thrive on the ego and make it a dangerous weapon. When you are enslaved by your passions, how can you stand forth and claim respect? Only cowards yield to their senses or passions. Brave men face up to them and win. The hero is he who overrules his mind and curbs his impulses; the zero is he who is overruled by them.
Stand fast like a rock when the waves beat. Have faith in your ideals and in God. Do not allow faith to falter when failure comes to your door. Meet it as a new challenge and triumph. Your vishvas (faith) must not be like your swas (breath); for swas comes in and goes out, it is in now and out next. Let your faith be firm, with no alternations of entrances and exits. If faith is one full continuous stream, grace too will be showered on you in one full continuous stream.
Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 12
