Happiness, peace and prosperity are wished for by everybody on the New Year. Peace lies within us. As we enter the New Year, let us all take a resolution to become aware of this peace inside and allow our smiles to reflect the true sign of the prosperity that lies inside. Our time on this planet is a gift to us. The past year has also offered you many gifts. With its thorns it has made you strong, with its petals it has given you joy. Every event has something good in it and something not-so-good in it. The not-so-good part makes you stronger and the good part gives you peace and tranquility.
Reflect how the past year took you by hand and swept you through different events and brought you to a new shore of a new year. Take out some time & go to the most beautiful place which is within you. When you come to this place, then everything is beautiful. Then wherever you go, you add beauty.
Make meditation a part of life. Often our pursuit of goals in life can lead to stress & restlessness. However, the higher goals in life can only be realised through a few minutes of meditation & introspection. Meditation gives you deep rest. The deeper you are able to rest, the more dynamic you will be in activity.
If you are engaged the whole day and do not take out time for yourself to think and reflect, you feel dull & tired. A few quiet moments are sources for creativity. Silence heals and rejuvenates and gives you depth and stability. Some time during the day, sit for a few minutes with eyes closed, get into the cave of your heart and kick the world away like a ball. Taking out some time for yourself improves the quality of your life.
Keeping silence is very useful. Silence purifies our speech. Deep silence is the mother of creativity. No creativity can come out of one who is too busy, worried, over-ambitious or lethargic. There is an old Sanskrit proverb that says, "Distortion is the root of speech." The moment you start speaking, you have distorted. Words cannot capture existence, but silence can.
There is no need to maintain silence in our daily routine, but there is also no need to speak too much. If you maintain some silence, you will think before you speak. When getting into silence ask for forgiveness – “By my thought, word or deed if I have done anything or caused any hurt to someone, may I be forgiven.” That completely uplifts us from being bogged down.
Silence is the goal of all answers. Space and silence are synonymous. Desire brings noise. Look at the noise in your mind. What is it about? More money, more fame, more recognition, fulfillment, relationships- the noise is about something. Silence is about nothing. Silence is the basis; the source of life, and is the cure for diseases. A thousand hours of speech cannot equal one glance of fullness and a hundred glances cannot equal a minute of silence. Prayer within breath is silence. Love within infinity is silence. Wisdom without words is silence. Compassion without aim is silence. Action without doer is silence. Smiling with all Existence is silence. And God is nothing but solidified silence.
Wish you all a very happy and peaceful New Year.
The author is a humanitarian leader and the founder of The Art of Living organization. He can be followed on @srisri (on Twitter) & facebook.com/SriSriRaviShankar (Facebook)