Time Is Running Out — Will You Make This Year Count for Your Eternal Self?

साल साल बीता जाये, गोविन्द राधे अब तो हठीलो मन, हरी में लगा दे ॥
sāla sāla bītā jāyē, gōvinda rādhē aba tō haṭhīlō mana, harī mēṁ lagā dē .

December 31st is the last day of the year. Jan 1st is celebrated the world over with great cheer and happiness, as the beginning of the New Year. Let us however, introspect to see if going of the previous year and coming of the next year is a great cause of celebration or grief.

For example you have $100,000 in your bank and you have spent $60,000 then do you celebrate or do you get concerned that you have only $40,000 more left in your account. You keep counting only $30,000 is left! Now only $20,000 is left and now only $2,000 is left. 

Likewise, God has given us this human body to attain our ultimate goal. At the end of each year, we must introspect - throughout the past year, how closer we got to the aim (God) of our life. The Hindi word for worship is upaasna. It means "To get closer".

How much closer are we to God now than before? For example someone is feeling cold and someone else lights a fire. The closer one gets to the fire, the more the feeling of cold will diminish. How far have we moved from the world and how close are we to God?

We do not introspect / think. We celebrate the fact that 20 years of our life have passed, 50 years have passed, 80 years have passed. We tell our kids, "My life has passed by... Now you should worry about yours".

Is this human life a burden that you are saying "Life has passed"? If someone has been sentenced to jail for 10 years and 9 years have passed, then 9.5 have passed and finally tomorrow the term of the sentence will be over, celebrating for that reason can be understood. What are you celebrating?

Are you going to get freedom from the cycle of birth and death, from 8.4 million forms of life? What have you done to attain freedom from this cycle? You have not even given it a good thought! If you had realized the futility of this world barely a moment before death and resolved to attach your mind to God, then your future would have been made. So, coming of the New Year is not a reason to celebrate. We have to think, why are we celebrating, what is there to celebrate about? We have to perform self-retrospection. 

 After election, all parties do a retrospective meeting, to analyze why they lost, what were the shortcomings that need to be overcome the next time. We should do a serious retrospection once a year, also every month and if possible every day before sleeping.

We should review all the actions performed during the day - good and bad and think - How much did we attach our mind to this world and how much to God today. If every day we think like that, then our wrong deeds will reduce with each passing day.

Next month they'll be even lesser and one fine day, they will be completely eliminated. However, we don't think about it even as we grow old. We are fearless. O! We are not going to die yet. We are only 90.

What is your idea; you will live for 100 years? Even if you were to live for 200 years, what will happen after that? 

So in self-retrospection, you will find that we are careless. A District Magistrate was once telling me, his story. He once appeared for an exam. During the exam, while trying to think hard for an answer, he fell asleep. He slept for an hour when he woke up he had only 30 minutes left. He tried to finish the paper quickly but couldn't and failed. He at least got 30 minutes, before the end of the exam. We on the other hand, do not realize the importance of this human life, even till the last moment of death. 

We think a lot about this world-our wife, sons, wealth, health etc. But we do not think about "Ourselves". You are the Soul. Think about making "Your" future. You will have to leave this body. At the time of death, if you don't leave everything willingly then you will be forced to leave it. So every year do a self-retrospection.

Feel that the sand of time is slipping away from your hands moment by moment. Resolve to make your future brighter. Think - What if we don't get a whole year, we might have only 6 months left of our life, or may be only a month.

An engineer, who helped construct this Satsang Bhavan in Mangarh, slept one night and did not wake up the next morning. No body knew what happened. While sleeping his heart failed.

Death does not wait even for a second. King, beggar, saint all have to go. In Iraq Saddam Hussein was worshipped. After bowing down to Khuda, everybody used to bow down to him. Recently, he was executed. All have to go.

Some go happily and some go begrudgingly. God too has to go. After 11,000 years, Yamraj went to Lord Ram to remind him saying, "Lord Your time has come, if You wish to stay longer You can, I am not objecting to it. This is Your world. My job is to remind. I am fulfilling my duty". 

​Celebrate the New Year only if you resolve to use your unwavering intellect, to subdue your stubborn mind and attach it to God. The mind won’t align itself with God. It’s your move now. You have to make an effort to attach it.

You have been wishfully hoping it will attach itself one day. Why will it attach itself? You put in effort to attach it to world and it will get attached to God!

Whichever area you try to attach it that is where it will get attached. Shri Krishn has said in Gita, "If you ponder about the happiness in the material world then your mind will get attached to the world and if you think about happiness in Me then it will get attached to Me".

It is all about your thought process. The more you think about something the more your attachment grows. This year we have to make a firm resolve to increase thinking about God. 

A single resolve today can shape your eternal tomorrow.