New Year Message - 2004

We are all assembled to welcome the New Year with a mind stilled by the deep meditation that we have just come out of, in a state of comparative tranquillity, happy to be united together in the love of the Great and benevolent Master whom we are striving to follow with sincerity of purpose, diligence and regularity in practice, and a clarity about the Goal towards which He is leading us all. In this moment of joyful unification of hearts, we can benefit from the grace that He showers upon us all, wherever we may be. We should believe in Him and be obedient to His wishes and instructions; we should be diligent in the practice of the method that He has bequeathed to us; and we should be ever grateful for the permanent loving protection that he affords us, if we are careful to live by the Ten Maxims that form the core of a genuine ethical and moral system, good for all humanity everywhere. His plans and projects go well beyond what we, as embodied humans, can perceive. Love, faith and trust are all that are required for the successful completion of our spiritual journey, guided on and on by His unfailing care and love.

His action is multi-pronged, over several levels of application, pervading all the worlds over which He rules. He possesses knowledge in its pure state. He covers a universe that is beyond our vision but of which we have some prescience, which creates in us a boundless admiration. His love nourishes our souls. It is His love that redeems us. His love burns with a raging fire, burning away the grossness and the impurities that we, as human beings, accumulate through our thoughts and actions.

The life of the Sahaj Marg abhyasi, a true devotee of the Great Master, is unique. We would not willingly change our role for any other. He made our choice for us, though we think that we have made that choice ourselves. Our lives are neither simple nor free from the ordeals and sufferings of the human condition, but those sufferings and ordeals have created in us an unfailing willpower, to help us to meet what He expects from us as good abhyasis. In this exciting quest leading us toward His divine feet, how could we impose limits on our practice, our obedience, and our devotion? It is His inspiration that makes the actualization of these unspoken messages possible, for the thoughts are His. The inspiration is His. By His will alone are we able to be participants in this Divine drama unfolding before our wondering eyes.

The Babuji Memorial Ashram here in Kolkata is a newly consecrated ashram. It is like a flame, a point of light lighting up the world. The world needs such points of light very much. By the grace of my Divine Master, our way of Sahaj Marg is successfully carrying on with the work assigned to us. Our task is to work, leaving the results to Him for, as my Master repeated so often, we shall be judged by the effort we make, for the results are always in His hands.

Let us love Him, without any restraint in a jubilant and sacred state, and thank Him for His sublime presence in our lives.