New Year Message for 2009
by Chariji, December 31, 2008, Manapakkam, Chennai, India
Dear Brothers and Sisters, my co-travellers, those who have joined me on this immense, eternal journey to the goal of Sahaj Marg, who are travelling with me in what we can call a virtual train which is being, shall we say, driven by my divine Master Babuji Maharaj, at whose feet I am sitting now, to give you what I consider to be my New Year Message, since in a few hours, at least here in India, the year 2009 will gently march into our lives.
As abhyasis of Sahaj Marg, we have to be conscious of the fact that there should be only one goal in our human lives, and that is the goal of, first, liberation, second, realisation, and third and final, complete merger with the Divine. It is possible. The lower stage has evaded millions and millions and millions of human beings throughout the history of the world. In fact, history does not record more than a few who are supposed to have achieved liberation. In India, the pantheon of those who have achieved this is considerably larger and well recorded in the history of ancient India in what are called the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Puranas. It was the privilege of the rishis [seers] and the munis [saints], those who went away to the forest renouncing family, friend and the worldly life, who achieved this many recorded; there again a large majority went unrecorded whose names are lost forever.
In today's world Sahaj Marg, as stated by Babuji Maharaj, is the easiest and the quickest way to the goal of liberation. But he has also emphasised that the subsequent goals of realisation and merger are not difficult, provided we set our minds firmly on this single achievement in this life, which is also the goal of human evolution and the goal of human life.
All that is necessary for us, dear brothers and sisters, is to put our heart into the whole thing, meditate with the heart, meditate on the heart, meditate on the presence within the heart, the divine light eschewing all other ambitions, material or otherwise, in the sure knowledge that Babuji Maharaj has given us, that our worldly life will be at the mercy of our samskaras that we have brought into this world. Nothing in it can be changed. The physical cannot be changed: we cannot change in height, we cannot change in our colour, we cannot change in our other situations such as education, wealth, et cetera. It must be accepted that the mental changes are more easy, while the spiritual change that is from animal man to human man to divine man is the easiest of all with His help. This is my Master's assurance.
On this auspicious occasion of a New Year, which is a gift by our Master to us, because it is in fact a gift of time to us in which to fulfil our journey. We do not realise the value of time, although we are always talking of - I have time, or I have no time. He who has no time, said my Master, for meditation, will never have time for anything else. And he who has time for meditation, which, after all, is just a few hours in a day, will surely, by His grace, achieve the goal.
On this occasion let us all realise that whether we are working on the committees of the Mission, or in its leadership positions, or as preceptors and as abhyasis, we are all one solid unit which must be welded together as a brotherhood as he desired it to be. There is no higher, there is no lower among us. There is no senior, there is no junior among us. There is no good, there is no bad. There is no sinner, there is no virtuous person. We are all marching together, impeded by our samskaras, pulled in the right direction by our beloved Master, and therefore we should, among ourselves, have nothing against each other or for each other, but just remember we are brothers and sisters willing to forget and forgive whatever we may see or note in others. Let us remember the old saying that when you point a finger at somebody, three fingers are pointed against yourself. Let us not point fingers at others. Let us learn to forget and to forgive.
I know many abhyasis who have left the Mission because they could not tolerate somebody else. I know others have left the Mission because they could not tolerate something in the leadership. And I know many are leaving because they cannot tolerate having various colours together in our assemblies, in our satsanghs. We must forget and remove from our minds all differences that are created by us, by religion, by culture, by education, by society. And remember that which unifies all of us in this what we call human life, is the soul that is inside us, which eternally is the same as anybody else's soul. The body makes mistakes because of samskaras. The mind makes mistakes because of preconceived notions and prejudices. The soul never makes mistakes.
Let us therefore, brothers and sisters, learn to look only at the souls of each other, admire what we see there, venerate them because they are part of the divine existence and essence, and help each other in achieving the goal: making a resolution now and forever that we shall not blame others, we shall forgive others as we forgive ourselves. And he who cannot forgive himself can forgive nobody else the beginning of guilt is the inability to forgive yourself.
I therefore beseech you all to make a resolution: O Master, help me to forgive myself, and therefore through myself, forgive all others for whatever I think or imagine they have done to me and to others, either for or against, knowing that ultimately it is the Divine Master who is guiding this divine play that we call human existence on earth.
And I pray to you, beloved Master, to grant us this privilege of rejoining you in the brighter world as soon as possible.
Thank you.