By now most of us would have had a great celebration welcoming the new year albeit a bit subdued or private. But, when does the old year-end and the new year start? Well, according to the Gregorian calendar, it is 1st of Jan. This does not really mean much except that the earth has gone around the sun once and returned to its position. No big deal! It happens all the time whether we market it or not. I think we let go of the old year, symbolically burning the old year effigies when we have junked old problematic ways of thinking, our old conditionings and our old destructive patterns.
When we have done this and let go of the hurt, pain and guilt of the past then we have really let go of the old year. We certainly carry forward our learning as learning in the form of principles cannot be dated as old or new.
When does the new year start? When we gain a fresh perspective of life – when we have better insights into ourselves, our motivations, our desires, when one decides to be more proactive and responsible in dealing with our life, when we have given ourselves a new and better direction of what we were doing up to now, then the new year really starts. We cannot keep doing the same things over and over again and expect new results. That does not happen. In fact, it might qualify as insanity.
If you are looking at life differently in a healthier way as well as looking at yourself differently with fresh eyes, only then we can say that we have started a new year. According to this framework, some of us would have lived a long time while some of us may be much younger than we think because we have never celebrated the new year in this manner. It is up to each of us to take charge and control of our life. For that, fresh insights and perspectives matter. That is when we celebrate the new year!
(The writer is the founder of Aarsha Vidya Foundation. You can write to him at aarshavidyaf@gmail.com)
