Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands

31 December 2017

New Year

“Happy new year”


Every New Year is greeted in as a happy new year every year. Every year is greeted happily with a fireworks display, which keeps increasing in splendour. The duration of a fireworks display also happily keeps increasing every year.

The happiness of the New Year is, however, short-lived. The happiness exists until the display of fireworks exists and lingers in the memory. The memory of a new year lingers for a day or two or perhaps a few days.

As soon as the memory of the fireworks display fades away, happiness or sadness fills the year. Similarly, as soon as the memory of a new year fades away, happiness or sadness fills the year as well.

Therefore, the happiness of every New Year lasts perhaps for a few days at the most, because it is obvious that every moment of every day of any new year is not filled with happiness.

The New Year becomes just a year as all the previous years, filled with either happiness or sadness. When happiness is present the mind is excited because of the absence of sadness. This is why the mind longs for happiness.

If every moment of every day is filled with happiness, the mind is not excited, it is contented. So what could the understanding of a new year be that would make the human mind contented is the question?

The fireworks display of a new year gives a clue to contentment in daily life. The fireworks are yet another opportunity in daily life, among others, gifted by life to a man or to a woman.

The fireworks, when ignited, give a display of various colours of light and intensities of brightness in light. They also give a display of various intensities and qualities of sound.

Fireworks give a clue that, since every atom of a man or a woman is light, he or she gives a display of movements of light and a display of words as sound to indicate an action, feeling or a conclusion.

This signifies that a man or a woman is a human firework manifested by the intelligence in life to make daily life lively. When this wisdom is understood by a man or woman, he or she will be content every moment of every day in a year.

By this understanding, he or she will begin to talk softly and with love no matter what happens in daily life. This understanding makes every day of the year a new year.

The enlightened have rightly proclaimed that life is a play of light and sound. Life includes daily life and a new year as well.

Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2017

Editor’s Note:
Man has a glimpse of contentment and happiness on special occasions every year. For a while these special occasions lift him or her out the concerns that are regular companions. These are the gifts of the intelligence of life; they are very important.
As important are the words of the wise that are shared with each one of us in this article. This wisdom never fades and declares that in every moment of a human life, as the understanding deepens, there is contentment.  
Julian Capper, UK.

German Translator’s Note: 
New Year’s resolutions are very popular. The resolutions are made because we are unhappy with what has happened last year. What makes the resolutions a source of disappointment is that they are not oftenly took into action the whole year. Therefore the next New Year is filled with resolutions again. The cycle of unhappiness is only paused the moment of the New Year celebration and due to the hope that everything will become better in the new Year. Life, as the Dr. Shankar wisely points out, is not under man’s control. Life is a play of light and sound. And resolutions are a play of sound in the mind. Life makes the resolutions happen and makes man take action according to the resolutions if it is meant to happen. This understanding makes the whole year free of hope for the next year, even for the next moment, and unconditional contentment reveals itself during every moment of the old as well as the new year. 
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany. 

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