Sri Chinmoy’s New Year’s Message for 1968
A New Year dawns. A New Year, a new aspiration, a new dedication and a new realisation enter into us. Let us enter into the Supreme with a new joy, a new achievement and a new, constantly surrendering attitude. We are always fond of the new. Tomorrow, on New Year’s Day, that new newness will enter into us. What can we expect from tomorrow? We expect that which we do not have right now: freedom from bondage, freedom from limitation, freedom from disease, freedom from death. Our expectation is not enough. In addition to our expectation, we must cultivate deep within us the firm determination that we shall have it, that we are bound to have all these divine qualities.
I always say, “The past is dust.” Once again I repeat, “The past is dust.” Why? The past has not given us what we have been striving for. So the past is of no use. It is the present, and the golden future which enters into the present, which make us feel what we are going to be — nay, what we truly are. We are not children of the past, but children of the glorious future.
There are many things that we want to do, that we want to achieve. But unfortunately we have not been able to achieve them. Why? Because our aspiration is not intense, our determination is not firm, our cry, our inner cry, is not genuine. Yet there is no end to the progress we can make, and each New Year comes and stands in front of us to remind us of that very fact: that there is no end to our progress, both inner progress and outer progress.
How can we transcend ourselves? We can transcend ourselves the moment we feel that self-realisation or the conquest of the self is our birthright, our divine heritage. It is not that somebody has to come and thrust upon us this divine heritage.
We have to leave aside, cast aside, throw aside doubt, one of our greatest enemies. Doubt does not allow us to go one inch forward or one inch backward. When we want to look forward, doubt Says, “No, you are not so good.” And when we want to look back, a kind of subtle doubt again tells us, “No, you cannot be so bad.” Doubt never, never allows us to see the truth, to know where we actually stand. We stand right in front of God. And where are we seated? We are seated in the Lap of the Supreme.
Let us cry. The world needs seekers who will cry like a child for the Mother. We have forgotten how to cry. We know how to talk, how to impose truth on others, how to convince others of what we have acquired or what we have learned. From today on, let us cry from the inmost recesses of our hearts, Him to possess and Him to reveal. Without the Supreme, we do not exist. It is an unpardonable foolishness on our part when we say that we exist without Him. No, we do not exist, we can never exist even for a second without Him. If you really, sincerely, whole-heartedly care for the truth, then my fervent request to you is to go deep within and try to discover your own divinity.
I am here to be your eternal slave. I shall wash the very dust of your feet the moment you feel that you are prepared to cry, cry wholeheartedly for the Supreme.
All of us present here, all the true members of our spiritual family, must, once and for all, cast aside doubt. We must always feel that we are children of the Supreme. We are growing together, we are fulfilling the Supreme together. The Supreme is entering into us to inspire us to dive into the deepest, to fly into the highest, to run towards the farthest.
In the Name of the Supreme, I bless each and every one present here and all those who are in my boat, who need my help, my guidance, my assistance. It is not just for a year but forever, for Eternity. I shall be a loving, dedicated servant, a slave, to all of you who care for the Supreme and for the Supreme alone. If one says or feels that the Supreme is his or hers, then at that very moment that person can rest assured that I am here to be of immediate service to him.
For me there can be no greater joy, no greater pride, than to serve the seekers of truth. And this is my soul’s promise to each of you on the eve of the New Year.
— Sri Chinmoy
Notes:
This message for 1968 is delivered in person by Sri Chinmoy to the disciples of the Aum Centre in Puerto Rico on December 31, 1967, and is later published in the January issue of AUM Magazine in 1969.