Often people who are celebrating cannot appreciate silence. And those who enjoy silence don't celebrate. They don't look that joyful and celebrative. People who are in silence are very morose and melancholic. But our speciality is, we can be in silence and yet celebrate. This is so beautiful. A great way to welcome the new year!
The past year with all its events has brought us together. It has posed many challenges which made us strong in some ways, and with many of its gifts, it has made us happy in many ways.
No year passes without some wisdom. So like every year, the year which has just passed, has also given us some wisdom; has made us wiser. Now we need to move on.
Time is like a flowing river. Even with a river you can put a dam, but you can't stop it totally. If the river is gushing, it will overflow the dam as well. So you have to leave it. You can only store a certain amount of water, but with time, that is not possible.
Time is like a fast flowing river. Time is like the wind which nobody can stop. Time is like the Sun around which the Earth revolves. Time is like our mind, ancient, yet very fresh and very new. Our mind is very ancient, yet very fresh and new.
So the celebration of New Year is to honour time. Honouring time means honoring the mind, and honoring the mind means honouring yourself. And the way to honour yourself, is to know that you are neither a culprit, nor a victim.
What stops you from honoring yourself? When you think you are a culprit, you did something wrong. You carry guilt in you and think you are a sinner. If you are a sinner you can never celebrate yourself. You can never be at peace with yourself. It will always eat you up deep inside. Only when you get out of the culprit consciousness, the guilt consciousness, there is peace and there is spiritual light within you.
You should know that there is light inside of you; you are part of the light, and part of Universal Love. Yes, you are a spark of Universal Love.
Every individual wants to experience this universal love; to be a part of it, a spark of it, and that can only happen when you are out of culprit consciousness.
The other thing is victim consciousness. If you feel you are a victim, you can never express truth, you can never express the Divinity. The purpose of being here is to express all facets of life, i.e., love, joy and wisdom. And to fully express life is celebration. These are all the different facets of life and you are here to express that. But if you feel that you are a victim of situations, of time and of other people, you can never do that.
So how to get over the victim consciousness? Know that all the unpleasant experiences in life has given some depth to you and thank them. And the pleasant experiences have a given you an opportunity to do more service for people, and thank them too.
Life is always a mixture. We must thank the unpleasant days, because it has centered us. Nobody gets more centered than one in unpleasant situations. Unpleasant things take you out of the external and puts you with yourself; so that gives you depth, and it adds to your personality.
So instead of saying, 'Oh I wasted 20 years of my life', or, 'That person created some problem for me', drop all that and say, 'I thank all those bitter days cause they gave me strength, and I thank all the pleasant days that made me realize my true potential, and helped me express my true nature which is joy'. By thanking the pleasant and the unpleasant, we get over the victim consciousness.