A New Year has begun. Does it bring any novelty for us? There should be something new in our lives besides the date on the calendar. Does it bring any external or internal change? External novelty refers to changes outside such as painting the house, buying a new car and so on. Internal novelty refers to a change in our viewpoint. If our vision of life does not improve, we keep living the way we always did.

Now a days, everyone receives many text messages or email wishes for a happy New year. How do we make our new year happy? Here are a few formulae.

Good health

For a happy life, it is necessary to have good health. If our body is not healthy, we can neither sit for discourses nor watch a movie or hear music. We cannot enjoy anything. Therefore, we must ensure that we keep our body healthy.

Wealth

The second requirement is that of wealth. For our worldly life, money is required. To have money does not mean one should be a millionaire. But there must be enough wealth in our homes. Even for serving others, we must have sufficient money.

Discrimination

The third requirement is a discriminative intellect. Discrimination helps us to understand what is right and what is wrong. It also inspires us to hold on to the right.

Goodness of heart

The fourth is goodness of heart – goodness, purity of emotion and feeling, truthfulness of the heart. All parents want their children to be educated, intelligent and smart. But the main desire is to have a ‘good’ child.

Thus if all the four are present, then there is happiness all around. But how does one gain them?

A Total Vision

In the Bhagwad-gita, Sri Krishna symbolizes a holistic vision of life. Arjuna represents ‘a person ready to put efforts in accordance with that vision or knowledge.’ Thus, where there is both right vision and right action, there is success. As a result of the knowledge imparted by the Lord, Arjuna who was in deep sorrow, came out of it, took up arms and became victorious.

Clearly, we should gain the knowledge contained in the Gita and the Upanishads. This knowledge enables us to see the oneness in all beings. It creates true love in our mind and because of that love we take an interest in performing our duties. Love and knowledge leads to bliss and peace. Sorrow and delusion are removed by Self-knowledge.

May we attain all these things in this birth. May we all attain infinite bliss.

May every year be a Very Happy New Year

The Author is the Head of Chinmaya Mission Worldwide.