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From the new year, you have to understand the true meaning of humanness and transform your life. You will then be true servants of the nation. Play your part in every field of public life, keeping your heart pure and unsullied.
Students! Remember that you are in a "golden age" in your lives. Do not waste it. Do your duty. Love and revere your parents. Serve society. Adhere to the good qualities associated with right education. Be happy and make others happy.
From this new year onward, when students cultivate humility, reverence for elders, and love toward all, I shall feel very happy.
This is New Year Day, according to the Gregorian calendar. We have other New Year days according to the practice in different parts of the country. There is no need to bother about the year as such. Devote every moment to actions that will please God. Develop love for God, which will confer every blessing on you. This is exemplified by the life of Harischandra. He sacrificed everything in the cause of truth, and ultimately he got back everything by the grace of God.
On this New Year Day, I wish you all every happiness and prosperity. The ancients used to bless those who came to them with long lives of 100 years and good health. They wished the people long life so that they may lead worthy lives. Lead a long life, happy life, peaceful life, loving life, and divine life. Redeem your lives by practicing Divine Love.
The year becomes new, the day become holy, when you sanctify it by spiritual practices (sadhana), not otherwise. Sadhana can grow only in a field fertilized by Love. Love (prema) is the sine qua non of devotion (bhakthi). The love you now have toward material objects, name, fame, wife, children, etc. should be sanctified by being subsumed by the more overpowering Love of God. Let your tiny drops of love for things material merge with the stream of love for God and be elevated. Have the love of God filling and thrilling your heart; then you cannot hate anyone, you cannot indulge in unhealthy rivalries, you will not find fault with anyone. Life becomes soft, sweet and smooth.
Divine
Discourse: 1 January 1967
Calendar makers calculate the years and declare that this day is New Years Day. But lapse of time is to be calculated in proportion to the work accomplished, rather than the revolution of our earth around the sun. For each individual, there is a New Year Day, a day that marks the completion of his revolution round the sun, that is to say, the awakened effulgent intelligence, capable of conferring on him discrimination and detachment. Enquire into the will of God, discover the commands of God, guess what will please Him most and, regulate your life accordingly. Do not harden your heart through greed and hate. Soften it with love. Cleanse it through pure habits of love and thinking. Use it as the shrine, wherein you install your God. Be happy that you have within you the source of power, wisdom, and joy.
On this New Year Day, you should resolve to start every day with love, spend the day with love, fill the day with love, and end the day with love. There should be no difference of caste, creed, color, religion, or nationality. Love knows no distinction of any kind. You must wish everyone to be happy. Fill the heart with love. The country will prosper and the world will prosper and everyone will be happy. Cultivate good thoughts, speak good words, and do good deeds with the broad view that everyone in the world should be happy. Give up your evil thoughts and evil qualities, since they are the cause for all sufferings in the world.