The echo of the sorrow and laughter of last year
Has died away.
Now the encouraging, hope-imparting song-voice of the
New Year
Is resounding through us..
To remodel our life in a new way
As we enter the portal of the New Year.
All weeds of worries of the past year must be left behind
And never brought back.
The seeds of all joys and achievements, all hopes,
All good habits and thoughts, all noble desires,
We must garner from the forsaken garden of the past year
And sow them on the soil of new effort
Of every day in the New Year,
Watering those good seeds of last year’s experiences
Until our life becomes a fragrant garden
Of rare flowering qualities.
Each New Year comes
To awaken our habit-driven Spirit
To make new effort
Until the Eternal Freedom
Is usurped from the hands
Of ever-pursuing Karma.
Let us all, hand-in-hand,
With ever-enlivened, unending, united mind,
Walk and dance forward
Until we reach the Home of complete fulfillment
From whence we return no more.
By Paramhansa Yogananda, January 1939, Inner Culture Magazine
