(Excerpted from Journey to Self Realization - Paramahansa Yogananda)

"Heavenly Father, as we enter the New Year, may we behold through its open portals Thy Glory, Thine ideals. May we feel with us always Thy Power, Thy vitality, and Thy guidance to follow of our own accord, by continuous right activity, the direct path that leads to Thee."

Make new determinations a to what you are going to do and what you are going to be in this next year. Set a program for yourself, carry it through, and you will find how much happier you will be. Failure to keep to your schedule of improvement means you have paralyzed your will. You have no greater friend and no greater enemy than yourself. If you befriend yourself, you will find accomplishment. There is no law of God preventing you from being what you want to be and accomplishing what you want to accomplish. Nothing detrimental that happens can affect you unless you sanction it. 

It is your will power that is going to determine what you are able to do - nothing else: not your past habits, not your past karma, not your horoscope. Consulting astrological charts gives authority and strength to your past karma. It weakens your will. God is your will. You must absolutely let no prejudice of doubt or despondency come between the power of your will and your life. Doubt is disastrous. It paralyzes the motive power of hope and destroys the will. If will power is impaired, you have ruined your engine of accomplishment. Faith can accomplish anything; doubt can destroy everything. Under no circumstances allow yourself to become the victim of doubt.

Let nothing weaken your conviction that you can be whatever you want to be. There is no one obstructing you unless it be yourself. Though my master Swami Sri Yukteswarji again and again told me that, it was hard to believe at first. But as I used the God-given gift of will power in my life, I found it to be my savior. Not to use the will is to be inert like a stone, an inanimate object - an ineffectual human being. 

The Power of Thought

So many people are not only physically lazy but mentally idle as well. Constructive thought will absolutely, like a great hidden searchlight, show you the pathway to success. There is always a way to be found if you think hard enough. People who give up after a little while bedim their power of thought. In order to gain your end, you must do your utmost to use thought until it is luminous to reveal to you the way to your goal. 

The power of suggestion is very strong. The ability to accomplish is all in the mind. Your body itself is virtually sustained by thought. Food is only incidental; the main power sustaining is your mind, your consciousness. It is thought that brings energy into your body. When thought is neutralized, the body feels weak and begins to decay.

God's thought is the essence of everything. It is living, it is infinite; Out of the Infinite Vastness, everything has been drawn. God pulls a thought out of His consciousness and that thought becomes a living being. He pulls our another thought and tells it to become a flower, and it becomes a certain kind of blossom; other thoughts become mountains, or gems, or stars.

Cast away all negative thoughts and fears. Remember that as a child of God you are endowed with the same potentialities as the most excellent among men. As souls, none is greater than another. Attune your will to be guided by the wisdom of God as expressed in the wisdom of the sages. If your will is yoked to wisdom, you can achieve anything. Fear inhibits progress. Whatever shall come, be prepared to face it; have the mental preparedness to go through any change without succumbing to the inertia caused by suffering. To face death itself should not daunt you. Fear of death is ridiculous, because as long as you are not dead you are alive, and when you are dead there is nothing more to worry about! It is something we all have to go through, so it couldn't be so bad. We are waves on the surface of the sea, and for a time in death our consciousness becomes enwrapped in the Infinite Oneness whence you came. It is nothing to regret, but rather a rest, a pension, from the travails of life - a promotion to a greater freedom.  

Retain evenness of mind under all circumstances. In every situation be calmly active and actively calm. Banish all disillusionment, all disappointments you might have found in losses and suffering. These constraints on the power of thought and will must absolutely be done away with. Your trials did not come to punish you, but to awaken you - to make you realized that you are a part of Spirit and that just behind the spark of your life is the Flame of Infinity; just behind your discriminative reason is the omniscience of Spirit; just behind your love is the all-fulfilling love of God. If you would just realize that! Do not disconnect yourself from God. He did not make anyone more privileged than another. All are made alike in His image; but not all reflect equally His Divine Light, due to their desires and bad habits. Your fulfillment lies not in obtaining the objects of your desire, but in the unfoldment of your soul qualities in making the effort to succeed in worthwhile endeavors. There is nothing to prevent you from feeling that great Power behind your life. It is your bad thoughts that tell you otherwise. 

Bad Habits Are Your Worst Enemies

Bad habits are the worst enemies you can have. You are punished by those habits. They make you do things you do not want to do, and leave you to suffer the consequences. You must drop bad habits and leave them behind you as you move forward. Every day should be a transition from old habits to better habits. In this coming year make a solemn resolution to keep only those habits that are for your highest good.

The best way to get rid of your undesirable tendencies is not to think about them; do not acknowledge them. Never concede that a habit has a hold on you. "How can I be made to do what I don't like to do?" That very thought keeps you going ahead in spite of habits that try to hold you back. Your conscious mind has been conditioned to think that it is self-hypnotized by bad habits. When the thought comes that you are used to smoking or overeating, you feel immediately that you have to smoke or to eat. But when you refuse to acknowledge that habit, that is the end of it. You must develop "won't" habits. And stay away from those things that stimulate bad habits. Do not test yourself with temptations.

Bad habits are constantly telling you that you cannot succeed in conquering them; but you can do it. Deny completely your wrong habits. Make up your mind to succeed. The mind is everything; it is all-powerful. Mind can control life and death. 

So let this New Year be one of determination. We have no right to bring the dead happenings of the past year into the new year. You are the child of God. What of post evils that have been done? You are awakened; nothing can hold you back unless you give it permission to do so. You are the master of your own fate. You are fortunate because God has no partiality; He loves you just as much as He loves Jesus and the great saints. He is Unconditional Love, because He Himself is in everything. Wherever He is, there is His Love and devotion. Be like those who reflect His presence more than others. As soon as you develop the transparency of receptivity, He will sparkle in you. 

Life Makes a Mockery of Self-imposed Duties

Do not be bound by this earth. This is just a place where for a time you are to act your part. Do not give undue importance to it. Balance material and spiritual duties in your life; that will bring you supreme happiness. Be ambitious for God, which will help you to play your part well. God would not have given you a brain if He didn't want you to think and reason. He would not have given you a will if He didn't expect you to use it. But while you perform your dutiful actions, do not create new desires. Become a perfect actor, seeking just to do God's bidding. Only in perfecting your portrayal in God's drama do you earn the right to retire to your Divine Home.

Life is absolutely so ruthless; it makes a mockery of your self-imposed duties. Your engagements and striving to satisfy desires, even worthy ones, are canceled instantly when death comes. Why should you give so much importance to life? Nevertheless, you do have to keep busy just the same; but do not forget that this life is just a play. You must play well, but with the thought of God. Do your duties because you want to please God. Flying away from your dutiful activities will not save you, because that is not His plan. He Himself is eternally busy running His universe for our benefit. Nothing could be created or accomplished by anybody unless it was first born in the mind of God. We are only His instruments empowered to innovate changes and modifications for the betterment of ourselves and others. Use your God-given creative ability; that is the basis of success. Whatever has been done, try to improve upon it. The man of creative ability is among God's best instruments. He makes improvements on himself and on what evolution has thus far given to his earthly environment. God moves through such willing innovators. 

Be active and use your will power and reason, all the time thinking that just behind your life is God's life, just behind your will is God's will. To find out what the Lord's will is, use your reason; don't just sit by and wait for things to come your way. Use your will, but ask God to guide you, and believe in His guidance. All around you, in so many ways, you will find consciousness guidance. You won't have to worry anymore. Whatever part is given to you, if you do your best, that is all that matters. 

All Roles Are Necessary in God's Drama

Be satisfied with your part. Do not bemoan your fate. In this life everyone has troubles which he thinks nobody else has. Never wish to be in the shoes of someone else who you think is better off than you are. It is best to wish for nothing, but to ask the Lord to give you what is your highest good. You are a part of the Lord's creation; He needs everybody to carry on this drama. Never compare yourself with anybody else. You are what you are. Nobody is like you. Nobody can act your part as you can. Similarly, you should not try to play somebody else's part. What is important is to do the will of Him who sent you; that is what you want. While you do your part, think all the time that God is working through you. 

Do not limit yourself with the narrowness of selfishness. Include others in your achievements and happiness, then you are doing the will of God. Whenever you think of yourself, think also of others. When you think of seeking peace, think of others who are in need of peace. If you do your utmost to make others happy, you will find that you are pleasing the Father. 

To live in harmony, to live with strong will power to do the will of Him who sent you, is all you should be interested in. Never lose courage, and always be smiling. Have the smile of the heart and the smile of the face completely in harmony. If your body, mind and soul register the smile of the inner consciousness of God, you can scatter smiles about you wherever you go. 

The joy of Meditation Is Your Best Company

Be always with people who inspire you; surround yourself with people who life you up. Do not let your resolutions and positive thinking be poisoned by bad company. Even if you cannot find good company to inspire you, you can find it in meditation. The best company you can have is the joy meditation. You sleep six or eight hours, and you don't feel that is difficult to do; you enjoy it because you are partially conscious of inner peace and joy. But when you are in meditation, you feel consciously the joy glimpsed in sleep. That joy is so much greater; hours slip away and you don't know it. That land of joy is just behind the subconsciousness of dreamland. In that state you realize: "I am not the ego, I have feeling, but I am not the feelings, I reason, but I am not the intellect, I have a body, but I am the spirit."

Your devotion, like a plummet, must go deeper and deeper into the sea of divine perception. Those whose eyes of inner sight are opened in meditation will perceive the Presence of God right here, in the heart. As long as there will be a demon dance of restlessness and desires in the temple of the body, the Father will be away. But when there is persistence in devotion in calling to Him, He will come, just as a mother responds to the insistent crying of her infant. First, in the temple of silence He comes as peace. If you go deeper, then in the temple of samadhi or Oneness, you meet Him, and tough Him, and feel His bliss within you and in omnipresence. Without the internal perception of God, it is very difficult to love Him. But when that Supreme Happiness permeates your thoughts and your whole being, you cannot help loving Him. 

Life is Filled with the Unseen Divine Presence

Your cup of life within and without is filled with the Divine Presence, but because of lack of attention you do not perceive God's immanence. When you are in tune, as one tunes in a radio, then you receive the Spirit. It is as if you take a bottle of sea water, cork it, and put it in ocean; although the bottle floats in waters, it contents do not mix with its oceanic surroundings. But open the bottle, and the water inside merges with the sea. We must remove the cork of ignorance before we can come in contact with Spirit.

Infinity is our Home. We are just sojourning awhile in the caravanserai of the body. Those who are drunk with delusion have forgotten how to follow the trail that leads to God. But when in meditation the Divine gets hold of the prodigal child, there is no dallying anymore. 

Enter the ports of the New Year with new hope. Remember you are a child of God. It lies with you as to what you are going to be. Be proud that you are a child of God. What have to fear? No matter what comes, believe it is the Lord who is sending that to you; and you must succeed in conquering those daily challenges. Therein lies your victory. Do His will; nothing can hurt you then. He loves you everlastingly. Think that. Believe that. Know that. And suddenly one day you will find you are immortality alive in God.

Meditate more and believe in that strong consciousness that God is always with you regardless of what happens. Then you will see that the veil of delusion will be taken away and you will be one with That which is God. That is how I found my greatest happiness in life. I am not looking for anything now because I have everything in Him. Never would I part with That which is the richest of all possessions.

This is my message to you for the New Year.

Paramahamsa Yogananda (December 31, 1934)

Jai Sriram, Jai Hanuman

November 2001