SUTRI

SRI SRI'S NEW YEAR MESSAGES

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WHEN THERE IS A WISDOM HAPPINESS SIMPLY FOLLOWS

How do we celebrate the New Year? In ancient days people celebrated a New Year with a leaf of neem tree. Neem is the most bitter leaf you can find. The bitter neem leaf with a little jaggery on it, sugar. Sweet and bitter. The first thing you eat on a New Year is a combination of bitter and sweet thing. And you see the calendar. The second thing you do is - see the calendar. There are five aspects to the calendar. The star of the day - there are 27 stars, and each day there is a star. And the day, the month of course. Month, the fortnight, day, star and the combination which is called Yoga. Yoga is a word which is used in Astrology a lot.
So the month, fortnight, day of the week, and a star of the day, Yoga and what is called carena. These things are what is seen every day. The combination of all these, which is called 27 carena. Which is good for today. So knowledge of time and acceptance of sweet and bitter gives enormous strength for one to move on.
And why is this bitter leaf? Neem is very good for health, though it is bitter. The leaf is bitter but it destroys all those bugs which can destroy the health. And sweetness. In life what we consider as bitter as giving you some depth, as made you strong. So the challenges that come into life have in some way made you grow up stronger, powerful, nicer. And the sweetness, of course, gives you a comfort. If life is only bitter it is no sustenance, it won't survive. If life is all only sweet than there is not depth, even then it can't sustain. So life is a combination of sweet and bitter. And time. . . In the time, cycle of time there is always something wonderful happening, something not so good happening. When not so good thing happen you need to have a strength and courage, knowledge. When good thing happen you should have an ability to share with others, to serve. And this is a fact of life.
So how you manage this life? You look at the calendar and say "Oh, this many in the twelve months. There are some days, months which may not go well with me and let me prepare for those months. And there are other months which would be very good, which would open great opportunities for me let me prepare for that. This is why you see the calendar.
And on top of that you meditate. When you meditate what you do? Let all those bitter effect in life be minimal, they get reduced. And the good effect increase in life. This we shall make. We never say there should not be bitter incidents at all. Say "Let the bitter ones make me stronger and let it be the right dose, not too much". So an inner strength comes up, wells up. And that is why this knowledge, satsang, service activity is also important for a true honest celebration to happen. Real celebration happens when there is total acceptance of the nature.
So this is what we all do today - honoring the time, honoring life, honoring the Universe. And thank the Divine for what past year has given to us. The past year has given to us many lessons, what we should do and what we should not do. We've got the lessons what we should do and what we should not do. So New Year Eve is a time to reflect and thank and welcome with open heart a New year which would bring you more wisdom, more prosperity, health, happiness, everything. So wish for wisdom in life more than anything else. When there is a wisdom happiness simply follows. Do you get it? When you have wisdom what happens? Happiness follows you spontaneously and automatically.

European International Art of Living Center, Bad Antogast, Germany
December 31, 2010

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