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Sri Chinmoy’s New Year’s Message for 1971

1971 will be the year of divine, supreme, manifestation.

Those who have divine obedience will offer their divine obedience to the Supreme.

Those who have divine love will offer their divine love to the Supreme.

Those who have divine devotion will offer their divine devotion to the Supreme.

Those who have divine surrender will offer their divine surrender to the Supreme.

While offering obedience, love, devotion and surrender, the seeker will manifest these divine qualities on earth.

1971 is the year of divine manifestation.

Those who do not have any of these divine qualities — obedience, love, devotion and surrender — must feel that they are total failures in the spiritual life; absolute failures on the spiritual path. In the outer life they may succeed, the outer success they may achieve but, in God's Eyes, they are zero, they are simply failures.

Those who have only obedience can feel that they are babies. Those who have love can feel that they are grown children. Those who have devotion can feel that they are now at the adolescent stage. And those who have surrender can feel that they are strong, stout, determined youth.

Now in surrender, we always say that unconditional surrender and constant surrender are needed. Unconditionally surrendered and constantly surrendered seekers are the seekers who can sit, who can stay on the top of the tree; and those who have just surrendered or surrendered for a day or two or for a few minutes, they are at the foot of the tree.

Others who have devotion, love and obedience, you can say they are running towards the tree and among them obedience — so called obedience — comes third. First devotion, second love, third obedience. But they are running. They will one day reach the tree, then they will stay at the foot of the tree and become surrendered and then gradually, if it is God's Will, they will become unconditionally and constantly surrendered seekers, devotees.

This is the year of manifestation. For those who have faith in God-Realisation, this is the year for them to expedite their inner seeking. The year of manifestation is for those who want the Supreme for the Supreme; who want the Supreme for His Sake and not for their sake. Again I wish to say, this year of manifestation for our disciples, sincere disciples, will be the year of inner glory in God, in the Supreme's highest and transcendental Pride. For the Supreme needs, as we need, many things. He needs totally, unreservedly, unconditionally and constantly surrendered disciples. It is they who will be the torch-bearers of the Supreme, the Supreme Truth. The Supreme is inwardly crying for these constantly, unconditionally surrendered disciples.

— Sri Chinmoy 

Notes:

On 31 December 1970, Sri Chinmoy holds a New Year’s meditation at his home and offers the message for the year 1971. At midnight he meditates once more with all the disciples for three minutes.

On 13 January 1971, Sri Chinmoy gives a talk about the New Year’s Message to his students at the Sri Chinmoy Centre in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

This message appears for the first time in print in the January 1971 edition  of AUM Magazine. A later version, with editorial changes, is published in New Year’s Messages from Sri Chinmoy, 1966-1994.

Sri Chinmoy’s New Year’s Message for 1970

Whence comes man, whither goes he?

He comes forth from God's Aspiration and journeys into God's Perfection.

— Sri Chinmoy

Notes:

This message for January 1, 1970, appears for the first time in print in Sri Chinmoy’s 23rd book, God’s Hour, published in 1973.

One difference between this version and a later version published in New Year’s Messages from Sri Chinmoy, 1966-1994, appears in the last sentence, where the word ‘journeys’ is changed to the word ‘enters’. Whether this is a typographical error or an intended editorial change is unclear.

Sri Chinmoy’s New Year’s Message for 1969

Three hundred and sixty-five opportunities to realise the Supreme, to reveal the Supreme and to fulfil the Supreme.

— Sri Chinmoy

Notes:

On December 31, 1968, at midnight, all of Sri Chinmoy’s students in their various homes around the world begin the New Year by reading this special message. It is published by Aum Centre, New York, in Sri Chinmoy’s first book in the West, Mediation: Food for the Soul, in 1970. A second edition of the book is published by Harper and Row in 1971.

Sri Chinmoy’s Comments:

Many of you have asked me how to meditate on a sentence or an aphorism. When you study these aphorisms, please read them very slowly and soulfully three times and then concentrate on each individual word. Let us take the first aphorism in Food for the Soul, the aphorism for January first: “Three hundred and sixty-five opportunities to realise the Supreme, to reveal the Supreme and to fulfil the Supreme.”

The word ‘Supreme’ is the main word. Do not try to see the Supreme in a human form or in the form of the sea or a cloud or a star or anything like that. No, do not try to imagine anything; only repeat the word ‘Supreme’ and try to feel the word vibrating in your ear.

Next try to concentrate on the word ‘realise’. You know what Realisation means. It is not just seeing something, it is not a feeling; it is something more tangible. When you realise something, that means you have become one with it. Realisation means oneness; total oneness is realisation.

Then comes the word ‘reveal’. When you have realised something, you have to reveal it, not for name and fame but just because you have become the instrument of the Supreme. When the Supreme makes you realise what He is, when you become one with Him, then you have to reveal Him. What you have inside, you have to show to the world; and what you have inside is the Supreme. After you have revealed Him, He is not only inside you but all around you as well.

First you realise the Supreme, then you reveal Him to the world and finally you have to fulfil Him. How to fulfil Him? This is very complicated because you have to fulfil the Supreme in the way He wants to be fulfilled, not in the way you want Him to be fulfilled. You want to please everybody and you want to be pleased in your own way. But in the case of the Supreme, it is different. The Supreme has to be fulfilled in His own way. When you concentrate on the word ‘fulfil’ you have to pray to the Supreme, “I wish to fulfil You, but please tell me how I can fulfil You the way You want to be fulfilled.”

Then comes the phrase ‘three hundred and sixty-five opportunities’. This means that each day you are getting an opportunity to make your promise or your prayer afresh. Every day you can consider yourself a new, fresh flower ready for dedication. When this day ends, the following day you grow into another flower of absolute dedication.

Food for the Soul was originally entitled Flame-Stars and Flame-Worlds. Now I would like to explain the original title. ‘Flame-stars’ comes from particles of divinity that are entering into each aspiring soul. ‘Flame-worlds’ means that in the message of each meditation you will see a different world. If you soulfully read these aphorisms three or four or six times, I wish to tell you that you will see something more meaningful and more significant than if you just read them once. It is not that you will have different ideas or different thoughts. No, you will see that one truth is being expressed powerfully, more powerfully and most powerfully. So this is how you can concentrate on an aphorism.

Published in Dependence and Assurance

Sri Chinmoy’s New Year’s Message for 1968

A New Year dawns. A New Year, a new aspiration, a new dedication and a new realisation enter into us. Let us enter into the Supreme with a new joy, a new achievement and a new, constantly surrendering attitude. We are always fond of the new. Tomorrow, on New Year’s Day, that new newness will enter into us. What can we expect from tomorrow? We expect that which we do not have right now: freedom from bondage, freedom from limitation, freedom from disease, freedom from death. Our expectation is not enough. In addition to our expectation, we must cultivate deep within us the firm determination that we shall have it, that we are bound to have all these divine qualities.

I always say, “The past is dust.” Once again I repeat, “The past is dust.” Why? The past has not given us what we have been striving for. So the past is of no use. It is the present, and the golden future which enters into the present, which make us feel what we are going to be — nay, what we truly are. We are not children of the past, but children of the glorious future.

There are many things that we want to do, that we want to achieve. But unfortunately we have not been able to achieve them. Why? Because our aspiration is not intense, our determination is not firm, our cry, our inner cry, is not genuine. Yet there is no end to the progress we can make, and each New Year comes and stands in front of us to remind us of that very fact: that there is no end to our progress, both inner progress and outer progress.

How can we transcend ourselves? We can transcend ourselves the moment we feel that self-realisation or the conquest of the self is our birthright, our divine heritage. It is not that somebody has to come and thrust upon us this divine heritage.

We have to leave aside, cast aside, throw aside doubt, one of our greatest enemies. Doubt does not allow us to go one inch forward or one inch backward. When we want to look forward, doubt Says, “No, you are not so good.” And when we want to look back, a kind of subtle doubt again tells us, “No, you cannot be so bad.” Doubt never, never allows us to see the truth, to know where we actually stand. We stand right in front of God. And where are we seated? We are seated in the Lap of the Supreme.

Let us cry. The world needs seekers who will cry like a child for the Mother. We have forgotten how to cry. We know how to talk, how to impose truth on others, how to convince others of what we have acquired or what we have learned. From today on, let us cry from the inmost recesses of our hearts, Him to possess and Him to reveal. Without the Supreme, we do not exist. It is an unpardonable foolishness on our part when we say that we exist without Him. No, we do not exist, we can never exist even for a second without Him. If you really, sincerely, whole-heartedly care for the truth, then my fervent request to you is to go deep within and try to discover your own divinity.

I am here to be your eternal slave. I shall wash the very dust of your feet the moment you feel that you are prepared to cry, cry wholeheartedly for the Supreme.

All of us present here, all the true members of our spiritual family, must, once and for all, cast aside doubt. We must always feel that we are children of the Supreme. We are growing together, we are fulfilling the Supreme together. The Supreme is entering into us to inspire us to dive into the deepest, to fly into the highest, to run towards the farthest.

In the Name of the Supreme, I bless each and every one present here and all those who are in my boat, who need my help, my guidance, my assistance. It is not just for a year but forever, for Eternity. I shall be a loving, dedicated servant, a slave, to all of you who care for the Supreme and for the Supreme alone. If one says or feels that the Supreme is his or hers, then at that very moment that person can rest assured that I am here to be of immediate service to him.

For me there can be no greater joy, no greater pride, than to serve the seekers of truth. And this is my soul’s promise to each of you on the eve of the New Year.

— Sri Chinmoy

Notes:

This message for 1968 is delivered in person by Sri Chinmoy to the disciples of the Aum Centre in Puerto Rico on December 31, 1967, and is later published in the January issue of AUM Magazine in 1969.

Sri Chinmoy’s New Year’s Message for 1967

Arise! 
Your Lord Supreme is crying for you.
Awake!
Your Lord Supreme is waiting for you in the Sea of Transcendental Consciousness.
Walk!
Your Lord Supreme is expecting your sure and safe arrival.
March!
It is you who will realise your Lord Supreme in this very life.
Run!
It is you who will fulfil your Lord Supreme in this life of yours here on earth.
Fly!
Yours is the Goal of the ever-transcending Beyond.

— Sri Chinmoy

Notes:

This message for 1967 is first offered to the AUM Centre in San Juan, Puerto Rico and later appeared in Sri Chinmoy’s book, Arise! Awake! Thoughts of a Yogi, published by Frederick Fell in 1972.

Sri Chinmoy’s New Year’s Message for 1966

May humanity climb one rung up in the ladder of Divine Growth, and realise in its soul the Sweetness, Joy, Light, and Peace of the Supreme.

May, out of the pure fulness of the heart, the lips of Truth speak and the hands of Truth act in the year 1966.

The New Year — what can it teach us? It can teach us the secret of spiritual self-reliance. It can teach us how we ourselves can be our Masters and Saviours. From the New Year we can learn that God is God only when God is OUR God and not MY God. From the New Year we can learn that Truth is Truth only when Truth is OUR Truth and not MY Truth. At every moment it is we who can make ourselves a blessing to ourselves and the world at large.

May the universal embrace of the New Year flower into a permanent smile of Victory on the Face of the Supreme.

 — Sri Chinmoy

Notes:

Sri Chinmoy’s first New Year’s Message was published in the December issue of AUM Magazine in 1965.

Sri Chinmoy’s New Year’s Message for 1972

The New Year is the year of battle between man's inner faith and his outer doubts. Man's sincerity will determine the victory.

The New Year is the year of war between human insecurity and divine confidence. Man's real need of God will determine the victory.

The New Year knows no compromise. Either the divine in us will gain the supreme victory or the animal in us will lord it over us. Needless to say, those who want to be God-Lovers, God-Discoverers and God-Fulfillers will receive from God constant Concern, constant Protection, constant Guidance and constant Assurance.

The New Year is the year of both destruction and perfection. Those who cherish destruction in the depths of their hearts and glorify themselves in it will be embraced and devoured by total destruction. This is the Will of the Transcendental Lord decreed. Those who cry for divine Illumination and Perfection in their inner and outer lives will be inspired, blessed, illumined, perfected and fulfilled by the Lord Supreme's Supreme Perfection.

The Boat of the Supreme is ready.
The Supreme Boatman is ready.
The Golden Shore is ready.

The Boatman, with His transcendental Smile, beckons,
"Welcome, O God-Lover!
Welcome, O God-Discoverer!
Welcome, O God-Fulfiller!"

— Sri Chinmoy

Notes:

On 17 December 1971, Sri Chinmoy offered his first New Year’s meditation, and delivered his New Year’s Message, at Columbia University in New York, NY, USA. 

This message appears for the first time in print in the January 1972 edition of AUM Magazine. A later version, with slight editorial changes, is published in New Year’s Messages from Sri Chinmoy, 1966-1994.

A few days before the New Year began, Sri Chinmoy gives a general talk about ‘The soul of a year’, in which he describes the qualities of 1971 and 1972.