Chapter 68New Year Messages

Messages

NEW YEAR MESSAGES1 Let the birth of the new year be the new birth of our consciousness. Leaving the past far behind us, let us run towards a luminous future.

* Lord, the year is dying and our gratitude bows down to Thee. Lord, the year is reborn, our prayer rises up to Thee. Let it be for us also the dawn of a new life.

* We surrender to Thee this evening all that is artificial and false, all that pretends and imitates. Let it disappear with the year that is at an end. May only what is perfectly true, sincere, straight and pure subsist in the year that is beginning.

* 1 Messages given annually on New Year’s Day (January 1).

O Lord! Grant that this year may be the year of Thy Victory. We aspire for a perfect faithfulness which would make us worthy of it.

* Glory to Thee, O Lord, who triumphest over every obstacle! Grant that nothing in us may be an impediment to Thy work.

* Lord, grant that everything in us may be ready for Thy Realisa-tion. On the threshold of the new year we bow down to Thee, O Lord, Supreme Realiser.

* Will be the year of purification. O Lord, all those who take part in the divine work implore Thee that by a supreme purification they may be liberated from the domination of the ego.

* A year of silence and expectation... Let us find, O Lord, our entire support in Thy Grace alone.

* The world is fighting for its spiritual life menaced by the rush of hostile and undivine forces. Lord, we aspire to be Thy valiant warriors so that Thy glory may manifest upon the earth.

* Glory to Thee, O Lord, conqueror of every foe! Give us the power to endure and share in Thy victory.

* The hour has come when a choice has to be made, radical and definitive. Lord, give us the strength to reject falsehood and emerge in Thy truth, pure and worthy of Thy victory.

* O Lord, the world implores Thee to prevent it from falling back always into the same stupidities. Grant that the mistakes recognised may never be renewed. Grant lastly that its actions may be the exact and sincere expression of its proclaimed ideals.

* The earth will enjoy a lasting and living peace only when men understand that they must be truthful even in their international dealings. O Lord, it is for this perfect truthfulness that we aspire.

* Lord, it is Thy Peace we would have and not a vain semblance of peace, Thy Freedom and not a semblance of freedom, Thy Unity and not a semblance of unity. For it is only Thy Peace, Thy Freedom and Thy Unity that can triumph over the blind violence and the hypocrisy and falsehood that still reign upon earth. Grant that those who so valiantly struggled and suffered for Thy Victory, may see the true and genuine results of that victory realised in the world.

*

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At the very moment when everything seems to go from bad to worse, it is then that we must make a supreme act of faith and know that the Grace will never fail us.

*

Forward, for ever forward! At the end of the tunnel is the light... At the end of the fight is the victory!

* Lord, on the eve of the new year I asked Thee what I must say. Thou hast made me see two extreme possibilities and given me the command to keep silent.

*

Don’t speak. Act. Don’t announce. Realise.

* Lord, we are upon earth to accomplish Thy work of transformation. It is our sole will, our sole preoccupation. Grant that it may be also our sole occupation and that all our actions may help us towards this single goal.

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* O Lord, Thou hast decided to test the quality of our faith and to pass our sincerity on Thy touchstone. Grant that we come out greater and purer from the ordeal.

* Lord, Thou hast told us: Do not give way, hold tight. It is when everything seems lost that all is saved.

* My Lord, here is Thy advice to all, for this year: “Never boast about anything, let your acts speak for you.”

*

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No human will can finally prevail against the Divine’s Will. Let us put ourselves deliberately and exclusively on the side of the Divine, and the Victory is ultimately certain.

* The greatest victories are the least noisy. The manifestation of a new world is not proclaimed by beat of drum.

*

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A Power greater than that of Evil can alone win the victory. It is not a crucified but a glorified body that will save the world.

*

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O Nature, Material Mother, thou hast said that thou wilt collaborate and there can be no limit to the splendour of this collaboration.

* At the very bottom of the inconscience most hard and rigid and narrow and stifling I struck upon an almighty spring that cast me up forthwith into a formless limitless Vast vibrating with the seeds of a new world.

*

To know is good, to live is better, to be, that is perfect.

* This wonderful world of delight waiting at our gates for our call, to come down upon earth...

* We thirst for perfection. Not this human perfection which is a perfection of the ego and bars the way to the divine perfection. But that one perfection which has the power to manifest upon earth the Eternal Truth.

Let us prepare for the Hour of God.

*

Are you ready?

*

Salute to the advent of Truth.

* *

Let us serve the Truth.

*

Men, countries, continents! The choice is imperative: Truth or the abyss.

* Remain young, never stop striving towards perfection.

*

No words — acts.

*

The world is preparing for a big change.

Will you help?

* Blessed are those who take a leap towards the Future.

* Let us all try to be worthy of Sri Aurobindo’s centenary.

* When you are conscious of the whole world at the same time, then you can become conscious of the Divine.

*

COMMENTS ON NEW YEAR MESSAGES2 The hour has come when a choice has to be made, radical and definitive.

Lord, give us the strength to reject falsehood and emerge in Thy truth, pure and worthy of Thy victory.

This is no question of general theory; it belongs to the actuality of things. The Asura is the force of falsehood, antidivine, which reigns as sovereign over the physical world; his influence is felt everywhere, it is in everything in Matter. But the time has now come when the separation, the purification, can be made, the falsehood, the Asuric influence, rejected and there can be an exclusive living in the Divine Truth.

3 January 1943

* 2 Additional comments on New Year Messages may be found in CWM Volume 12 in the section on the New Age Association.

This is not a prayer, but an encouragement. Here is the encouragement and a comment upon it: “At the very moment when everything seems to go from bad to worse, it is then that we must make a supreme act of faith and know that the Grace will never fail us.” The hours before the dawn are always the darkest. The servitude just before freedom comes is the most painful of all. But in the heart endowed with faith burns the eternal flame of hope which leaves no room for discouragement.

* This wonderful world of delight waiting at our gates for our call, to come down upon earth...

Is “this wonderful world of delight” the same as the Supramental New World that was born on 29 February 1956, or is it different? Since You have spoken of it as the “world of delight” it cannot be merely the Delight or Ananda of the Supramental World already born. Does it mean that, after the manifestation of the Supramental World, now one more new world is “waiting at our gates for our call” to manifest on earth?

It has always been waiting, since the beginning of the creation.

Is this world the world of Ananda which, in the hierarchical gradation of the planes of existence, is situated above the world of Supermind? If so, does it mean that after six years of its birth the Supramental World is now sufficiently well-established on earth to make the manifestation of a still higher world possible?

Not necessarily.

The above question arises because, according to Sri Aurobindo, the Ananda plane cannot manifest in the earthly evolution until the Supramental is well-established in it.

This is absolutely evident.

What is meant by “waiting at our gates”? Does it mean that it has come down up to the subtle physical plane?

I did not specify what gates they are.

“Waiting at our gates for our call, to come down upon earth...” — does this mean that it will not come down upon earth until it is called?

Certainly not.

What is the best way of calling down this world of delight?

Understand and be sincere.

Have the printed copies of Your five photographs, with a significance given to each, which You distributed on 21 January 1961, anything to do with the calling down of the world of delight? If they are given as an aid to call, how best to make use of them for the purpose?

Each one must find that for himself.

Will it be helpful to call down this world if Your Message itself is converted into an invocation and repeated in silent concentration as follows: “O wonderful world of delight waiting at our gates for our call, come down upon earth...”

For those who spontaneously feel like doing it, it will be helpful.

Unlike every year, You read the Message this time first in English and then in French. Why this change of procedure?

Because I received it in English first.

The dots at the end of the Message give an impression as if something is left unsaid. Is it so?

There is always something — many things — left unsaid.

5 March 1961

*

Are you ready?

The question means: Are you ready for the Hour of God?

*

Let us serve the Truth What is the Truth?

He who wants sincerely to serve the Truth, will know the Truth.

*

Men, countries, continents! The choice is imperative: Truth or the abyss.

About the New Year Message of 1967, you say that the choice is between truth or the abyss. The abyss seems to be gaping just in front, yet there is a confidence that it will be removed from the way.

The confidence is quite legitimate. The message is only for those who are still asleep and quite satisfied with their sleep.

* What is the meaning of “abyss” in your New Year’s Message or, put another way, what should a sadhak fear?

Right now there is a great tension. They have all taken positions as if to start war. It is the blind passion that men put into their international relations. At the base of all there is fear, general distrust, and what they believe to be their “interests” (money, business) — a combination of these three things. When these three lowest passions of humanity are brought into play, that is what I call “the abyss”. When someone has decided to consecrate his life to the seeking for the Divine, if he is sincere, that is to say, if the resolution is sincere and carried out sincerely, there is absolutely nothing to fear, because all that happens or will happen to him will lead him by the shortest way to this realisation. That is the response of the Grace. People believe that the Grace means making everything smooth for all your life. It is not true.

The Grace works for the realisation of your aspiration and everything is arranged to gain the most prompt, the quickest realisation — so there is nothing to fear. Fear comes with insincerity. If you want a comfortable life, agreeable circumstances, etc., you are putting conditions and restrictions, and then you can fear. But it has no business in the sadhana!

26 May 1967

*

The world is preparing for a big change.

Will you help?

How should we help the big change in the world, about which your New Year’s Message speaks?

The best way of helping is to let the Consciousness that has come down upon earth work in you for transformation.

9 January 1970

* What is it “to work for the Future”?

To begin with, not to stick to the old habits individual and national.

*

* * May this year be a year of luminous peace in the joy that comes from true kindness — the human child of Divine Compassion.

Let us hope also that this year will not pass without bringing us together once more.

*

* *

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Let the dawn of the New Year be for us also the dawn of a new and better life.

* Mother, dispel all my ignorance and egoism with the first ray of sunlight of the New Year.

Make Your Light shine out in me and may this Light give birth in me to a consciousness full of Your supreme delight.

Yes, the New Year must dispel the smoke of ignorance and make the Light shine forth. My blessings are with you.

*