New Year – New Hopes

Bhagavad Gita frankly analyses all our thinking & experiences and surprisingly puts everything into just four categories: Eating, Sleeping, Mating and Defending. If our thinking, experiences and activities are all centered around these four, where is the question of a 'New' Year? It is just old wine in a new bottle!

By Sri Satya Gaura Chandra Dasa Prabhu,
President, Hare Krishna Movement, Hyderabad, and Regional President, Akshaya Patra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh

Everyone is waiting for the New Year. They hope that the calendar change will bring something new to their lives. Some take the initiative to define the changes that they want to see in their lives. They make commitments and plans to bring positive changes to their lives. They seek God’s blessings and hope to receive unlimited gifts and happiness in their lives.

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New Year is old wine in a new bottle?

Days and years become old and monotonous if our subject matter in each day and year is the same! If you can’t change your thinking to a new subject, how can you ever expect to have a new experience? Actually, New Year is a state of consciousness. It comes by revolutionising our thoughts.

Bhagavad Gita frankly analyses all our thinking & experiences and surprisingly puts everything into just four categories: Eating, Sleeping, Mating and Defending. If our thinking, experiences and activities are all centered around these four, where is the question of a ‘New’ Year? It is just old wine in a new bottle!

Change thoughts for a higher life — Bring Bhagavad Gita

Bhagavad Gita urges all humans to seek permanent happiness beyond flickering gratifications, something better, something more, and something permanent. Five thousand years ago, when Arjuna was on the brink of an emotional break-down, Lord Sri Krishna explained the Bhagavad Gita to inspire him to do his duty of fighting as a military commander.

After listening to the Bhagavad Gita, he understood the position of Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and decided to follow His thoughts and instructions. This is the key. Follow Krishna’s instructions and this change will bring a massive transformation in the internal world just like Arjuna, fueling a new experience in the outside world.

Accept a parampara Acharya this year to add great value to your life

Srila Prabhupada, who is the current Acharya of the worldwide Hare Krishna Movement, gave us the opportunity to read Bhagavad-Gita As It Is. One of the foremost instructions of SrilaPrabhupada to change our consciousness to an exciting state of being in touch with All Blissful Lord Sri Krishna and make everyday a new year is to chant Hare Krishna Maha Mantra every day regularly:
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna KrishnaKrishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama RamaRama Hare Hare

New Year and New Commitments

● Make this year’s celebrations Divine!

● Eat and Drink more and more but that which is offered to Lord Krishna! Krishna loves cow milk!

● Avoid alcohol, drugs, and other intoxicants. Do you want to get up on the first day of New Year (on Jan 1) with a lousy consciousness? Just boring!

● Read two slokas of Bhagavad Gita every day, and you will complete it by the next new year!

● Chant Hare Krishna Mantra at least 108 times every day.