New Year Message – 2019

Swamini Brahmaprakasananda Saraswati

Time is not divisible. Yet for transactions it seems to be divisible.
The truth of Time is satyam and jñānam. This is because, the truth of Time is the present moment, not the past… not the future… They exist only with reference to the present moment. The previous moment was past. The next moment is future.
            At the present moment, all that is here is ‘I’, aham… śuddha-caitanyam… brahma…
We start measuring the Time when the Space manifested as the first element. That is why, even modern science will say, that the Time and the Space are together… the Time-Space Continuum…  And, both of them have existence only for an observer.
            You are an observer. You can observe the Space and everything in it… and the Time… and everything… every object in it… Everything is conditioned by this Time and Space (place).
            So the truth of Time is the present moment and, in the present moment only you – the observer – is present. The truth of the observer is existence, consciousness which is not limited, satyam, jñānam, anantam brahma.
            But, for our transactions we have day and night… together make one day, a week, a fortnight (pakṣa), a month (māsa), a year (saṁvatsara), a yuga, a caturyuga… Then so on up to the entire kalpa. Yet the truth of the Time is the present moment. And in that moment only I am present ̶ as pure existence-consciousness.
            That is why Kṛṣṇa says in the Eleventh Chapter of the Bhagavadgītā, “kālo’smi bharatarṣabha” ̶  “I am the Time” that which brings every change in everybody.          
Time and Space are from māyā. Māyā  is from brahman. Like everything is brahman, the Time-Space is also brahman… Then it is Myself.
            But, since we live in a world of transactions, arbitrarily we will say, “Today is a New Year”. The Time is measured for transaction. It does not matter. Every day is the beginning of that year. Starting from that day you can count a new year, everyday.
            But since this is the New Year accepted by the whole world, today we will make a prayer to Īśvara for the whole World.
            So today we will pray for the entire world, starting with oneself. We pray to Īśvara first for oneself. Always the world starts with oneself as the center, then in concentric circles people and things stand related to us.
            There can be only one prayer for the seeker of ātma-jñānam, so we pray asking for dṛḍha-jñāna-vairāgya-siddhyartham. Then we pray for everything that is necessary for that, which we should gain by His grace.
            The body has to be healthy. The mind has to be sharp and ready all the time. The buddhi (intellect) has to be sharp to grasp everything and retain everything. All my transactions all through the day should be conducive for this purpose  ̶  for this puruṣārtha . And my prayer is, I should neither rub against anybody, nor should I get rubbed by anybody.
            All this is the prayer for myself.
            Then we extend our prayer for health, happiness and success in whatever anybody wants to do, for each and everyone related to us in the first concentric circle – the family, then to the extended family, then to the community in which we live, to the country, to the whole World, to the whole Universe.
            Then the final prayer can only be as follows. Let me and everybody else have the courage and strength to change what can be changed; to accept with grace what cannot be changed and, to know the wisdom to differentiate between the two and remain happy, peaceful and contented… and gain that final purpose of life, mokṣa. And in this pursuit let me never transgress dharma in anything that I do. And let me appreciate Īśvara all the time in and through everything.