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Prayers for the new year

A New Year's spiritual address on purification, self-reflection, and a cultural initiative.

"At the end of the Mahābhārata... Bhīṣma said one word... 'ahiṃsā paramo dharmaḥ.' Non-violence is the highest principle."

"From the beginning of this year to the end of this year, we pray to God, merciful Lord, forgive me. Forgive my mistakes, whatever I did through my body, my emotion, my mind, my thoughts, my words, my actions, and my being."

A spiritual teacher delivers a New Year's message, weaving teachings from the Mahābhārata—including Bhīṣma's final realization on non-violence and Arjuna's surrender—with a call for personal and karmic purification. He prescribes specific practices like Śiva abhiṣeka and the Gāyatrī Mantra. He concludes by launching a project for the coming year, urging people to support village life and small shops to preserve culture and community.

Filming location: Wellington, New Zealand

Happiness, peace, love, harmony. Oṃ. Oṃ. Oṃ. Oṃ Śāntiḥ, Śāntiḥ, Śāntiḥ. Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī, Śrī Śrī Devī Īśvara Mahādeva Kī, Dharma Samrāṭ Satguru Svāmī Mādhvānandjī Bhagavān Kī, Satya Sanātana Dharma Kī. Oṃ Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinaḥ, Sarve Santu Nirāmayāḥ, Sarve Bhadrāṇi Paśyantu, Mā Kaścid Duḥkha Bhāg Bhavet. Oṃ Tryambakaṃ Yajāmahe Sugandhiṃ Puṣṭivardhanam, Urvārukamiva Bandhanān Mṛtyormukṣīya Mā’mṛtāt. Oṃ Śāntiḥ, Śāntiḥ, Śāntiḥ. Blessed Self, all dear ones, sisters, and brothers around the globe, blessings are coming to you. I am very happy that this year, Christmas as well as the New Year, will be spent here with all of you, and I will share my thoughts with all of you around the world, those who are with us through the webcast. You know the story of the Mahābhārata. It was a very big battle, a battle between dharma and adharma, righteousness and injustice. Dharma-kṣetre, Kuru-kṣetre—that Kuru-kṣetra where the battlefield took place, about two or three hundred kilometers from New Delhi. Dharma-kṣetra, that was for the dharma, to protect the dharma, to remove and destroy the āsurī śaktis, the devilish or satanic powers. But that battle has not been completed; unfortunately, it is still going on. Sometimes in this country, that country, it is moving. At the end of the Mahābhārata, one of the very well-known figures was Bhīṣma. Pitāmaha Bhīṣma, son of the Gaṅgā, Gaṅgā-putra Bhīṣma. I will not tell you the whole story of his life, but Gaṅgā, his mother, gave him a blessing that he would live as long as he wished. It doesn’t matter what happens to his body; still, he would live. There was a big struggle for him his whole life. At the end of the Mahābhārata, in that battle, he was attacked with arrows. At that time, it was mostly arrows, no guns. Arjuna shot the arrows, and they went through his body numerous times. In one arm, there were about twenty. He fell down and was lying on a bed of arrows, about forty centimeters high from the ground. Blood was running. But his mother had said, "You will die only when you say, ‘Now I want to die.’" He was lying in the jungle, on the battlefield, alone. Thousands and thousands of soldiers were killed. Vultures, foxes, and many other animals were eating the bodies. The five Pāṇḍavas came to make their praṇāma to Bhīṣma. Bhīṣma was lying alone, looking at the sky and remembering his mother. He said, "My God, what have I done in my life? For what was I born, and how did this ku-saṅga, this bad society, push me to the wrong way? God, forgive me." He looked back from his birth till that minute. At that time, he gained that knowledge, ātma-jñāna. "Oh my God, how much I played tricks, how much I humiliated others, and how could I join the negative people?" At that time, the five brothers, the Pāṇḍavas, came and one after the other made praṇāma. Yudhiṣṭhira, the eldest Pāṇḍava, came and bowed down. Arjuna also called him "Father," because in some way he was a grandfather. But he was on the other side, the wrong side. Arjuna had said to Kṛṣṇa, "I will not fight. I don’t want to kill them, those sinners." Kṛṣṇa said, "To remove sin is not a sin; it is a duty." Similarly, we should consciously remove those doubts and those negative energies within us. Otherwise, they will also take you with them. It is like one who can’t swim, and you jump in to save his life. He will catch you, and you will also go down. Kṛṣṇa said, "Arjuna, they have killed themselves." Who are you to kill them? What does it mean, they have killed themselves? Through their sin, their negative thoughts, their negative words, their negative activities. But in the end, they still came to him and made salutation, praṇāma. And Yudhiṣṭhira asked, "Grandfather, do you have any blessings, any wish for us? What should we do now?" At that time, Bhīṣma said one word which is repeated now many times in the world. For the first time, Pitāmaha Bhīṣma said, "Dharmarāja Yudhiṣṭhira, the king of dharmas." Dharma means justice, justice in the heaven. Dharmarāja, who has all the records of our destinies. You remember, day before yesterday, our Indian brother Parveen very nicely taught what it means to get the tilaka here, not on the forehead. It means our destiny is written here, not here on the stomach. What is written in our karma? What is written in our destiny? Our destiny, my destiny, my faith—where is it written? Here. So we say, do you have something in your brain or not? So when you put the tilaka here, you change your destiny. Yes. That time is a blessing. If your mother, father, brother, sister, or master gives you the mark of color, they are blessings; they are positive energies coming to your body. This is like electricity. Bhīṣma said to Yudhiṣṭhira, "O Yudhiṣṭhira, ahiṃsā paramo dharmaḥ. Non-violence is the highest principle. Non-violence is the highest dharma, O Yudhiṣṭhira. I did so many things in my life, but now I realize what it means to kill people with words, with blackmail, with backbiting." And that word is repeated now everywhere in the world. Mahātmā Gāndhī had this saṅkalpa in his life that he would not commit any violence. Therefore, the United Nations has declared the 2nd of October, the anniversary of Mahātmā Gāndhī's birthday, as the International Day of Non-Violence. At the same time, Arjuna went to Kṛṣṇa. "I have no one. I have no armies." And Duryodhana also went. Kṛṣṇa was resting and told Duryodhana and Arjuna, "Whoever will come tomorrow first to me, I will be on their side." Duryodhana, when the time was given, went half an hour earlier. Kṛṣṇa was resting. Duryodhana had ego. "Why should I sit near Kṛṣṇa’s feet? I will sit behind." After that, Arjuna came five minutes late or two minutes late. Kṛṣṇa opened his eyes and saw Arjuna first. But before Kṛṣṇa could open his eyes, Arjuna said, "Oh Lord, you are my mother, you are my father. You are my friend, and you are my relative. You are my wealth, and you are my happiness. You are everything, O my Lord. I surrender to Thee." That’s why I am telling this. Kṛṣṇa opened his eyes and saw Arjuna. And Kṛṣṇa said, "I will be by your side." Duryodhana was sitting and said, "Kṛṣṇa, this is injustice. That’s not correct. I’ve been here for half an hour already." So, Kṛṣṇa says, "Oh, you are here also now. But I saw first, Arjuna." So, when we open our eyes, where do our eyes go? Deep down. There is a surrendering. If you can’t open your eyes like this, that is ego. So, my dear, many years and many New Year's Eves we have celebrated. Let’s recall the memories of your being, completely—physically, mentally, emotionally, intellectually, socially, politically, etc. Through your presence, your soul in this body, what have you done? Something which is justice or injustice? Each and every step will be counted. Secondly, if we think of the past year, from the 1st of January 2014 till the 31st of December 2014, what happened in this world? How many airplanes crashed? How many airplanes just disappeared? How many wars, civil wars? How many people were killed? How many children were killed? Innocent children in schools were killed. How many innocent animals are killed? O human, where do you want to take this world? Where do you want to take us humans, in which direction? Whatever has happened, it’s happened. It’s too late. To cry for that is too late. But only one thing we can say: now we pray to the Almighty. Finally, someone there said, "I’m doing nothing. Even your prayer, it is your energy that will help you. And if you are doing bad things, your energy is destroying you. I’m just there to see you and try to protect you, human. I gave you everything. Nothing is missing. In the Āryan tradition, human, you can become God. I gave you the techniques: energy in your body, chakras, etc. But you don’t listen, you don’t follow that. So be prayerful." First of all, for the whole world, wherever our dear brothers and sisters, and our children, and our parents, our partners who lost their dear ones through accidents, through wars, through illnesses, etc., we pray for their souls, that God guides these souls towards light, eternal light, and peace. Because we are here, still alive, we remain for what? To support them, help them. That is the first thing. If you think negatively, it darkens your consciousness, and it will come quickly back to you. If we don’t like the sun, we throw dust at the sun. The sun will get nothing, but it will fall on our head. What have you done? Why do these things appear and awaken in the thoughts of the human? Ku-saṅga, bad society. Sat-saṅga, good society. What can we do? Yes, it is a blanket over us, that blanket of negativity. There is a mantra, a prayer, asking for forgiveness. And you are the wise one. Now realize, human, that this will not happen anymore from this minute onwards, and in this new year which is coming very soon, in a few hours. For the whole year, we have to pray to wash away all our karmas. Many, many lives we have to wash clean that layer of negative energy in our consciousness. One after another layer, one after another layer. And positive thoughts, on the other side, are getting brighter and brighter, cleaner and cleaner. So, measure what was before. For that, we can do only one thing. In the morning, see Śiva, or if you have a Śiva Liṅga, a temple. Make five times abhiṣeka on Śivajī with water. Take water and drop it on the Śiva Liṅga. Śiva Liṅga means the entire universe, the entire creation. All, everything is within the space. And that space is within all, merging into the oneness, śakti, the light, the energy. Try. One month, every day, you will feel inner purification. One month only. Abhiṣeka. You take the water and pour it on the śivaliṅga. "Oṃ tryambakaṃ yajāmahe sugandhiṃ puṣṭivardhanam urvārukam iva bandhanān..." Five times. It will hardly take five minutes. This is called purification, karmic purification. I gave it into your hands. Now you have to be in the bathroom alone. I can’t go with you in the bathroom. How to wash karmas? These mantras come from the Vedas. They are very beautiful. Then you come out of your sādhana and try to see the sun. Sometimes it’s not visible for a whole week, and sometimes more. Have at home a beautiful plant, tulasī. Tulasī is a plant which has very, very good, many, many qualities in the herbal world. And it’s spiritual, gentle. Be sure, while giving water, if you think negative, Tulasī will die. You need pure thoughts; otherwise, don’t go near her. She is very gentle, very pure. So when you come near pure water and you jump into pure, clean water, you will be cleaned. But if it is dirty, you will jump in, and you will come out again with the dirt. That is it. Satsaṅga is that pure, the Tulasī. And there is a very beautiful mantra, scientifically proven. That’s called the Gāyatrī Mantra, so you have to do the Gāyatrī Yajña, Gāyatrī Anuṣṭhāna. Gāyatrī means what? Five times. Take the water. Tulasī doesn’t like too much water. Don’t put the whole bucket on it. Drops, a little. "Yonāḥ pracodayāt." The whole atmosphere will change. Try one month. Don’t miss one day. You will see how much you will feel purification in your heart. This point, and this point, and this point, all will purify. Automatically, when the upper chakra is purified, automatically the lower chakra will let energy go back to the darkness, to that ku-saṅga. But if you wash yourself in very pure, clean water, and then you go to the dirty pond, that is ku-saṅga. It has no interest, no sense to do. So from the beginning of this year to the end of this year, we pray to God, merciful Lord, forgive me. Forgive my mistakes, whatever I did through my body, my emotion, my mind, my thoughts, my words, my actions, and my being. Bless me. Let me be Thy instrument. I surrender to Thee my body, mind, and soul. Let me be Thy instrument of love and light. Wherever I come, may I bring this light to enlighten the heart, and so forth. This is a beautiful technique to get rid of past karmas. But I tell you once, it will not go 100%. If it were so easy, everyone could do it. But it will be lighter. The thousand kilos will have only a few grams. But a few grams is still something. If you go on the wrong way again, these grams will grow so quickly, not 1,000 but 10,000 kilos. This is the condition in this purification. This is called ku-saṅga; it’s an infectious disease. And when you are in ku-saṅga and you come to the satsaṅg somewhere, you bring the infections. That becomes a double karmic punishment for us. So Śiva, he can clean, purify. Śiva’s triśūla, Śiva’s ḍamaru, Śiva’s vibhūti, Śiva’s jaṭā, Śiva Gaṅgādhārī, Gaṅgā-jala, and the universe as his Śiva language. And there is this life, the Gāyatrī Mantra. All divine energies dwell in your heart by God. Then darkness cannot come to the light. But first we have to become the light. I pray with you and for you and for me that our Ālāgapurījī, Siddha Pīṭha, Paramparā, all holy saints, and all the holy saints of the world bless us, forgive us, and guide us. After this, my dear, I wish you a very pleasant, very healthy, happy, harmonious, prosperous New Year. And for the New Year, we had very nice prayers, very, very nice prayers that we learned in our school when we were small. Unfortunately, unluckily, these prayers were removed from the school. Where there is no ethic and no spirituality, that is not education. Even in India, they removed it from the schools. Many don’t want their children to pray. You have no right to block the children’s education and spirituality until they become 20 years old. Then they can decide if they don’t want it. But as a parent, you have no right to take them away from the light to the darkness. O Lord, give me sadbuddhi, give me good thoughts. Dhyāna, dhyāna, vairāgya, sadācārī, brahmacārī. This is for this beautiful prayer. So we enter into the divine time, the New Year. Gurujī said, "Enter the kingdom of the Lord through the gate of sacrifice." If you want to enter into the kingdom of the Lord, then there is only one gate, one door: sacrifice. Sacrifice all your doubts, all your negative thoughts, all your negative qualities. Come. This new year will be very, very divine and beautiful. Otherwise, I can’t tell you more. You know, sometimes disciples are very naughty. To keep them together is not easy. You know what I mean? For example, take the scale to measure something. A scale. And there are two plates. Yes? So we have one side kilograms, and now I bring you one basket full of frogs. All together, measure them, please. You can’t measure them, because as soon as it comes, one jumps out. You catch and bring him in, then he jumps out three times. So to educate the disciples is like weighing the frogs. That’s it. But still, try, try. Suddenly, one frog will say, "Quack, quack." The other will say, "Oh, quack, quack." Every frog on that plate will look at it and quack, quack, singing. That’s it. Means, oṃ, oṃ, mantra, mantra. It’s very quick, doesn’t take even five minutes, doesn’t take a long time, but don’t do it in a hurry. When we chant the mantra, the nāda, the ḍamaru of Śiva, goes through the whole body. "Oṃ tryambakaṃ yajāmahe sugandhiṃ..." Oh, my God. Each and every cell of the body is vibrating with the positive resonance, positive light, and it purifies all negatives. Take a few minutes for your life to be healthy, wealthy, spiritual, and good. Be careful. Don’t go to the satsaṅg of the ku-saṅgas. You have negative thoughts, and you are giving satsaṅg? It doesn’t accept the supreme? So be humble, be kind. Who are we to judge someone? Mantra. For the beginning of this new year, my dear ones, I have a new project which I give to you. I have my thoughts, visions, and disciples have to fulfill. That is very, very simple, very easy. It is not difficult for me to create and establish a project. All Bhaktas around the world, this project is not only for the Kiwis, for New Zealand people, but for all of us. I was thinking a lot that every country has a beautiful culture, beautiful traditions, beautiful festivals, but it is disappearing. Where there is a culture, there is a human, and where there is a human, either culture is preserved or culture disappears. Is there some place where the culture will not disappear, and where a human goes, he brings the culture with him? They came from Hungary and they brought nice Hungarian paprika. This Hungarian paprika is so good, it is Hungarian culture. They began to cook something very good. Oh, it’s a very good specialty of Hungary called lecsó. And when he cooks the lecsó, we say, "What is that? Is it Hungarian?" You see, the culture has come here. Slovakians, they will come and they will also bring something. Very nice Slovakian food, they call it halušky. And when the Indians come, oh my God, they bring something, I don’t know what. Culture is preserved with ancestors, grandparents, and the family. That’s called a family culture. In the cities, culture disappears. In cities, people are not aware of that. And if then they try to speak about their culture and do something, therefore, the culture is preserved. Culture has a place in the villages. Therefore, we make a new project, and that project is to move to the village, be happy, and protect or preserve the culture. Move to the village, protect the culture, and be happy. You know, my dear, many villages die. Now only old people remain. When you go to the villages, I see, before 44 years, when I was... now this is 45 years I am in Europe. In the villages, the church was full of people. And now, hardly anyone goes there except people who are 80, 90, or 95. So you can see how tired the culture is now. The culture is walking with a stick, slowly, towards the church. And other negative energy says, "How long will you survive? Very soon, you will fall down." So, I would like to help and make a beautiful project. Move to the village, preserve the culture, and be happy. Number one. Number two: beautiful shops, beautiful art, beautiful things from the villages are disappearing because of such big supermarkets. Third, all the highways have made humans away from the culture and from the villages. Now, very soon, you don’t know which village is there when you are driving from here to Rotorua. After ten kilometers, which village is there? Nobody knows, except for those who are living there. If we drive by the land road, we go from one village to another village. In one village, we buy nice apples. In another village, they have nice cherries. In another village, we have nice milk. Every village has its specialties. There are some villages that make very good shoes. Some make a very nice hat. They all are living together in a beautiful life. You move to town, you don’t know what you should eat. Junk food, and small shops are dying. Challenges. So try to support small shops. This is our project. Go and buy there where there are small shops. Buy milk, buy fruit, buy juice, buy from this small shop that this family has to survive. This family has a right to be there, and in their culture. Try, even if it costs you five cents more or one dollar more, but this is your support to that cultural, traditional way of that village, that country, and these people. Families, inspire the people to open their company’s office in a small village. The land is cheaper, there is more space, and all these village people will be happy to work for you. They are very intelligent people. You think village people are not intelligent? Who is living in this big city? This big city did not give birth to all of them. They came from the countryside. What did they learn in the big city? Drugs. What did they learn in very negative societies? All crazy things are happening, and no one cares about others? In a village, the whole village cares about you, my dear. The whole village knows you. They will support you. So, back to the village. Preserve the culture and be happy. This is our new project. Don’t forget. So, everyone, go shopping where the small shop is. Protect it, please. Otherwise, very soon you will not know what to get, and learn cooking. The future of the human is learning cooking. For the last 10 years, I’ve been constantly saying in my lectures, you will be surprised, 85% of the people cannot cook. So very soon, after half a century or one century, people can’t cook, and they will not know how to eat. So they will walk on the floor to go and eat something. Learn cooking, village life, and go shopping at the small shops. They are good friends. They will all say, "How are you?" If you’ve forgotten to take money with you, there is no problem. Next time when you can come, and in the supermarket, they will not say, "Okay, you can pay tomorrow." No. Santoṣa-purī. Santoṣānanda. Do you agree with my thoughts? Yes. That’s good. So you agree? You accept my project? Do you accept my project? If yes, then raise your hands up. Thank you. All raise your hands up. No one there to... Because everyone is for the beautiful projects. So it means we help our brothers and sisters of the villages or big cities, but small shops. Let them be happy, and let us be good friends with them. So this is our one project for this new year. On the 15th of August, my birthday, I made one project: Save the Birds. And now, this is another one. So, back to the village, save the culture, and be happy. Happy life. Thank you. I wish you a very happy, prosperous, and healthy new year. Whatever happened with someone or something last year, we forgive it. Still, you have a few hours more to do stupid things and put also there in that garbage, and pray, "Lord, forget it. I did this mistake." So, do good things. In the last minutes, do good things. Yes, that will be counted very much. A real businessman who has a small family and a small shop doesn’t count the time with a watch. Always stay 10 minutes longer in the shop because of two things you don’t know when they come: the customer and the date. You don’t know when the date will come suddenly, and you don’t know when the customer will come. Five minutes before you close the shop, and two minutes after, someone came who wanted to make a big business with you, and you lost it. And that’s why the business owner of that business always comes late. Now you can understand. In Kali Yuga, money is God. So, for these last few hours that remain, we pray for forgiveness. If I did something wrong to someone, if I spoke harsh words to someone, please, Lord, free me from this. And if you were offended, if you were hurt, if something—pray to God, my Lord, forgive the person who made these mistakes and remove my fear, my confusions. And make me capable so that I can stand through with this. My dears, I wish you once more a very happy and good new year. If you are scared of anything, listen every day to the Hanumān Chālīsā. Hanumān means strength, the protector, the guide. Hanumān is like a solid rock. No negative energy can attack. And for that Hanumān Chālīsā, you can have a CD. I hope somewhere. Otherwise, you can find it on the internet, and it takes seven minutes. You play it in the morning. The fear will disappear. And if someone has thoughts, negative thoughts and anxieties, phobias, this Hanumān Chālīsā will remove it. There are some people who have thoughts sometimes, because there are certain problems they can’t master. Suicidal thoughts. Those will be removed through the Hanumān Chālīsā. Try, my dear. You will see what power the Vedic mantras have. Try. It is there. Use it or lose it. Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Nāham Karatā Prabhu Mahāprabhu Dīpa Kartā Mahā Prabhu Dīpa Kartā Hi Kevalam. Oṃ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ... Dīpnār Bhagavān Kī, Deveśvara Mahādeva Kī. Let us go to the village, preserve the culture, and be happy. Thank you.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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