Every year when the calendar changes, we all wish each other a Happy New Year. Let's see what these words really mean.
Happiness changes with the perspective of the Person. A baby sees a glowing fire as attractive and thinks that touching and playing with it is happiness for her. But her mother knows the real nature of the fire and the consequences of touching it and quickly pulls the baby away from the fire. The mother is now happy that the baby is safe, but the baby is unhappy that her wish was not fulfilled. But if the baby's wish was really fulfilled will she remain happy? We all know that it would have led to immense sorrow.
Just like the baby, we only see the outer attractiveness of things and long for them thinking that they make us happy. But, like the mother, God knows the true nature of the things and withholds them from being presented to us. This may make us sorry temporarily, but He knows that it is for our own safety.
On my birthday last month, on one hand I was spending my whole day receiving and replying to wishes from friends, family and colleagues and on the other hand I was running between hospital and lab to get my Covid related tests done. By the end of the day I was into isolation. Was I happy about the birthday and the wishes? Yes. Was I happy about the Covid tests being positive? In a way, yes. I was happy that I took the right decision of getting tested and isolated in the very early stage itself instead of spreading the virus to others. Our real happiness lies in accepting whatever comes our way as a present from God.
The happiness, in the pursuit of which we spend our lives, is all temporary and relative. Only God experiences permanent happiness and He is always eager to bestow it upon us.
Coming to the word new, what we call new is always transient. On January second the year becomes old. If you wear new clothes, by the evening they become old. If you buy a new bike for, say ₹50,000, by the time it comes out of the showroom it becomes old. If you take it back saying I don't like it, they will only party you like ₹30,000 saying it is a second hand bike now. So, the newness of the worldly things just lasts for a moment. Only God is permanently new as he is changeless.
Now let's see year. What we call a year is just one day for the people living near the poles, as for them the Son rises and sets only once per our year. Similarity all the worldly concepts that we believe as ultimate truths are relative and bound by time and place. We learn that the Son rising in the East and setting in the West is a permanent truth. But, if you go to the north pole, the Sun both rises and sets in the South only. There is no other direction than South there. If you go to the outer space, there is no concept of the four directions as we know.
Year is just a measure of time. Our Gurudev Sri Babuji Maharaj used to say, "Only the time you spend in God's service or in His thoughts or for Him is counted as permanent time. Rest all is transient and wasted."
So, a real Happy New Year is the one which we spend completely for our own spiritual advancement and in finding and following a path to reach God.
