Is New Year celebration a scam A Bhagavad gita perspective talk

Podcast:

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna.
A happy new year is a word that we hear constantly it’s not just a word, it’s a sentiment it’s a hope, it’s an aspiration especially that we repeat at the start of every new year what would be the Bhagavad Gita perspective on this greeting and the aspiration it underlies let’s discuss briefly today Bhagavad Gita perspective on happy new year so the Gita is a book which gives many different insights and therefore different people can come up with different ways of looking at contemporary events drawing from different sections of the Gita so here I talk about three perspectives so one is based on the Gita somebody may say this is inconsequential someone will say the whole celebration, the festivities is misleading not just inconsequential distraction but it’s misleading and then another way of looking at it could be positively transformative so let’s look at how these three perspectives can be drawn from the Bhagavad Gita itself so why might the new year and the greetings and the celebrations and the wishes associated with it be considered inconsequential because the Gita talks about a cyclic conception of time in fact and it is not just the Gita’s conception of time we see time in nature is cyclic it’s morning, afternoon, evening, night morning again the months are cyclic, the years are cyclic so in general the conception of time in the Gita is cyclic and within the cyclic nature of the universe no time is particularly special so we have decided based on our current conceptions of the calendar which is the Gregorian calendar broadly speaking at a particular time conveys the transition from one year to another year so there is nothing cosmically significant about it and therefore this whole celebration is just inconsequential so we could ask the question what’s actually new about a new year and even this is not just the Bhagavad Gita perspective it could be backed even by empirical observations we know that time especially months and years are measured based on the movement of the cosmic bodies in their various orbits so we consider one year to be completed when the earth completes its revolution around the sun so if the earth is going in a circular path now there is no special point in a circle which marks a transition so even from that perspective we could say that new year celebrations are just a big ado about nothing since the earth is moving at its own regular pace around the sun and that’s all there is to it so this is one way that this is inconsequential I am not interested in new year celebrations I don’t care about them that might be one way of looking at it another way could be this is not just inconsequential it is consequential but in an unhealthy way it is misleading because these can become occasions or reasons or justifications for sensuality and revelry we just get into all kinds of materialistic sometimes hedonistic enjoyments and partying and drinking often rise to a peak at this time vacations available and especially when it follows with Christmas then people may sink deeper into unhealthy patterns of behavior from the Gita’s perspective excessive drinking and partying these reflect the lower modes the modes of rajas and tamas passion and ignorance in rajas we are just interested in doing and then after working very hard after partying very hard when it is not satisfactory we forget everything by going into tamas these can become self-reinforcing habits which may entrap us so that is misleading that is one way we can say this is misleading because instead of something coming happy and new actually what are we doing? the same thing which we have used for indulgence before and do they make us happy? so they are not new they are old and actually they end up making us disappointed if not distressed so we get a hangover, somebody drinks too much at the end of the new year celebration next morning we wake up and the same old grind begins so it is disappointing so on top of that it is misleading not just because we may get into sensuality and revelry but also because there is a whole mechanism, machinery a huge industrial complex out to commercially exploit us so the more the new year is hyped up the more people want to celebrate and we get targeted and sometimes we also get manipulated go to this place, enjoy, buy this, watch this go here and the corporate controlled media what they do is they incite desires within us and so much wasteful frivolity, inanity and even depravity comes out so we spend money unnecessarily and wastefully if we just consider the amount of liquor that is consumed and the amount that is spent on that that could help so many poor people, starving people so the point is that people get exploited this commercial exploitation is there systematic targeting, the hype is there just to fleece us Krishna talks about how the ungodly vision is exploitative and eventually self destructive so now these two are reasonably acknowledgeable but beyond that the happy new year greeting when it is said, it is said with a sentiment and what is that sentiment? that sentiment reflects a deep rooted human aspiration we want our life to be happier we want some newer things to be there in our life that’s because we are at our core spiritual beings and we are meant for a better life we long for something better because we are meant for something better and that brings us to the Bhagavad Gita’s core message why is this longing for a happier, newer life there a longing that is verbalized at the time of the new year because we at our core are souls and the soul is rich with potentials all these potentials are waiting to be actualized as the potentials get actualized as we find more and more enrichment, fulfillment we make greater contributions we bring about greater transformations in ourselves and in society so there is this potential which needs to be actualized so any occasion that stimulates us, that inspires us that motivates us for such actualization of our latent potentials that occasion is good so if the new year inspires us to transform ourselves for the better to become more of who we are meant to be then that is something which can be positively channeled so what would be a sattva guna approach we talked about rajas and tamas in sattva guna the mode of goodness is characterized with self observation so we can observe ourselves and then think of improving ourselves how? we take an objective look at our motivations, at our emotions and our actions this is broadly what we can call introspection Krishna talks about this in the Bhagavad Gita in the 14th chapter that we become illuminated what am I taking in through my senses what is coming out of my senses how am I speaking, what am I looking at what am I giving my ear to we become more alert so this can actually help us to become transformed so broadly speaking a new year can become an occasion for us to respond in sattva guna by trying to unleash the potential of our souls now how do we transform ourselves broadly speaking we can say retrospection and resolution so retrospection means that we look behind and look back at the past year to learn from it and resolution means that we look within and then we look ahead to see how we can do better things how we can become better beings so both these are important and we will see this broad theme even in popular culture people look back at say the year, if somebody is a cricket fan the five best moments of the year, the five worst moments of the year so we all can do retrospection like that people often read these kind of things so many websites have the best 10 articles of the year for us so this is common but we can do it for ourselves we look back at our lives now we may say I know the path I went, why do I need to retrospect I am driving the car of my life well are we really and is life really like a car drive life is more like a boat ride boat ride means that we often, we may be rowing the boat and we want to go in a particular direction but currents keep coming sometimes the currents are not even visible and sometimes even the invisible currents may be irresistible these currents may come from the world’s pressures or they may come from our mind’s conditionings either way they take us in directions other than our destination that’s why if we look back what trajectory did I follow in the last year where am I right now as compared to where I could have been where I wanted to be, where I should have been so this kind of retrospection helps us understand where we need to do some course correction so it helps us to reorient ourselves refocus ourselves so again this we don’t want to get lost in the past five things that I learnt from the past five things that were good in my last year five things which were not so good which I could try to build on or improve the good things I can build on the bad things I can try to rectify or at least prevent their repetition that’s retrospection why is resolution one way to bring something happier and newer into our happy new year greeting or into the new year itself because things may become better but unless we become better we won’t be able to tap those good things that may happen in our new year and we need to change ourselves but changing ourselves is tough and just as when we have to do something tough we gird our energy, if somebody says this is a heavy box then people ready themselves to lift that heavy box so sometimes changing ourselves requires similar girding ourselves, preparing ourselves so we need a conscious consistent intention that can commandeer the energy necessary to stimulate change and then to sustain change so a sattvic way to bring meaning into the happy new year greeting is by taking resolutions that will actually make our life happier and newer in the upcoming year now we could have a varying attitude towards resolutions also and these can be analyzed in terms of the Bhagavad Gita so one could be diffidence just I can never do anything this person makes no resolutions at all that is a tamasic attitude in the mode of ignorance Krishna says in 1835 then there could be over confidence about resolutions I can make any change that I want we make too many resolutions and make too big resolutions and then we start getting crushed by them and often it’s like a pendulum goes from one extreme to the other extreme so quite often with respect to resolutions we oscillate from rajas to tamas and then back to rajas so no resolutions, too many resolutions instead we can be more sattvic in our approach that means we have confidence yes I can make changes but let me make finite and realistic resolutions what can I do which is doable for me and which is measurable so this way, this is sattvic approach broadly centers on understanding or estimating our capacities properly so the tamasic view of resolutions is that people make a big hype about changing but nobody ever changes not for very long and my attempts have also not worked in the past so why bother, just forget it we may subconsciously think that I have no determination, I have no willpower however to hold on to our current way of functioning also requires strength if there are some unhealthy habits that we have and those are getting us into trouble holding on to those habits also requires strength and that is also a form of determination so holding on to unhealthy habits or unhealthy patterns of behavior is also a form of determination although it is a misdirected determination we all have determination, we just need to direct it construct it instead of thinking, oh I can never change it will require too much effort to change we can instead think, it is too much trouble to stay as I am we can remind ourselves of what all we are losing or missing how we are hurting ourselves maybe how we are hurting others by the way we are functioning right now that will motivate us to change a rajasic view of resolutions could be that I will make huge amounts of change in tiny amounts of time so that for example, people take severe weight loss therapies and then they may lose for some time and then again all the weight comes back so it is unsustainable and sometimes the health gets spoiled it is unbeneficial we all sometimes need to be inspired we need big goals, small goals may not inspire us but that is fine we can have big goals our goals may be realistic but our time frames may not be realistic so we need to be careful about not expecting too much from ourselves in too short a time small study in steps SSS that brings a sattvic view of resolutions so to actually unleash the energy that we need for sticking to resolutions what do we need? let’s make resolutions not just based on what everybody in the world is doing because if the motivation is coming from the world when that external motivation stops we will not be able to continue what are the things that really matter to me what are the areas in which I strongly feel that I need to improve then there may be many things but among the things that matter to me what are the things that I can do something about there are some things about us that we just can’t change we can’t change our IQ level, we can’t change our complexion we can’t change our height after we become adults let’s not lament about that are there things we can change? let’s focus our emotional energy on that and then how can I take tangible and measurable steps when we do that then we can move forward steadily, we can move forward confidently and that is how we can progress towards successful results so now another sattvic way of actually implementing resolutions is having a cyclic approach to fix resolutions that means what? our mind always craves for new things and that’s why if I say this is what I am going to do for the rest of my life the mind just gets too burdened instead what we can do is if we take four resolutions I want to exercise more, that’s for my physical health I want to meditate regularly, that’s for my spiritual health I want to study wisdom texts, that’s for my intellectual health and I want to appreciate others that’s for my social, relational health these are the four broad dimensions of our life so if we want to improve these then instead of just focusing for lifelong I am going to study everyday for one hour it’s good if we can but sometimes lifelong seems too long and we give up very quickly because it just feels too overbearing so instead just plan a resolution we take four resolutions and we plan one resolution per month now others also we can try to do but one is the focus one we focus and we do that if we have 10 resolutions, 50 resolutions then by the end of one or two days we forget even the resolutions leave alone implementing those resolutions so that is Rajasic a lot of resolutions is not actually a resolution, it’s just a wish list so finite resolutions and sometimes cyclic way helps so we focus on one for a month we develop some momentum and that momentum will keep going and shift to another one and third one, fourth one and then you can come back that way a cyclic way focusing on one resolution per month can help us to channel our energies constructively and then the devotion connection is very helpful what does that mean? that means that we all have some willpower which we can use to change ourselves but beyond that we have access to divine power that is the power of our almighty lord he is present in our hearts and he wants us to change for the better so by his grace we all can overcome the conditionings that we have usually these conditionings what happen they crash our resolutions we are flying, the airplane is flying it crashes we fly with our resolutions but sometimes it crashes down why? because we run out of energy the opposition from our conditionings becomes too much to avoid that we can power ourselves with devotion that is divine power omnipotent divinity can help us not only can our resolutions crash but it can crush our will to rise again to make resolutions but this devotion connection can be our greatest power and that brings us to the key resolution that is if we make one foundational resolution strengthen our devotion connection that means strengthen the way strengthen our commitment to that particular path particular thing by which we connect with the divine that may be praying, that may be chanting mantras that may be worshipping the lord the altar in the temple that may be some sacred music whatever it is for us what gives us devotional strength we strengthen our connection with that we solidify our connection with that we make a resolution for that and that will give us the inner power by which to empower all our other resolutions also and then our other resolutions will fly faster and fly further that indeed is the way we can actually make the new year happy so to summarize happy new year from bhagavata perspective can be seen as inconsequential nothing is changing, the world is cyclic time is cyclic or misleading because we just succumb to the modes of passion and ignorance by indulgence and the world also exploits us further, then we can see this as positively transformational because why do we long for the coming year to be happier and newer because as souls we are meant for a better life if we just actualize the potentials of adornment in the soul and for that purpose anything that motivates us towards that actualization is great so sattva guni approach is observe ourselves and improve so we take that approach in the transition of the new year we look back and we learn from the past that is retrospection so in the boat ride of our life did any currents take us off course how can we reorient ourselves and then as far as resolutions are concerned we need energy to sustain the change that can bring out our best and tamasic approach is i will never be able to stick to resolutions saharajic approach is we make too many resolutions sattvic approach is make finite measurable resolutions and make resolutions about things that matter to us things that we can change cycle through various important resolutions so that our mind’s eagerness for something new is also taken care of and if our conditionings are causing our resolutions to crash the plane is not only crashing our spirits are getting crushed we definitely need divine power that is accessible through the devotion connection and with that connection if we make a resolution to connect steadily and strongly with the divine then truly we can make our new year happier and much better we can make ourselves better contribute to making our world better