Is the New Year Real and Objective?
This is the first blog of the New Year 2022. What is new about the New Year? Nothing, except for the fact that we start counting from the first day of the month of January. TheChinese count their year from the new moon that appears between 21 January and 20 February. In India, in the regions that follow the solar calendar, the New Year falls on Baisakhiin Punjab, Rongali Bihu in Assam, Puthandu in Tamil Nadu, Vishu in Kerala, Pana Sankranti in Odisha and PohelaBoishakh in Bengal, on the 14th or 15th of the month of April.For those following the lunar calendar, the New Year starts with the first day of the month of Chaitra, corresponding to March-April and is called Ugadi in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, and Gudhi Padwa in Maharashtra.In Gujarat, the New Year begins with the first bright day of Kartik, which is the next day of the Diwali festival. So, every day is a New Year and your birthday as the start of your New Year is, perhaps, the most realistic event.
Change is the hallmark of existence. Nothing that exists is stationary. The entire world of substance, including stones and clay, are composed of atoms that are buzzing with electrons flying around the nucleus eternally. The sunlight is protons raining over the earth. The river changes every moment as the water keeps moving downstream. The gas flame in the kitchen is burning of new gas coming every moment from the cylinder. The 5-litre blood inside the human body gets renewed every 120 days. Lord Buddha was the first person to observe this dynamism 2,500 years ago and it was later recreated by the discoveries of modern science. The Electromagnetic Theory of Matter has established that all matter is radiant energy. All objects are transitory and are ceaselessly mutating and transforming. What is life but a series of manifestations of becoming and extinction? We are living as a stream, forever changing its coordinates in time and space.
The English poet Shelley (1792 –1822) writes in his last published poem, Hellas:
Worlds on worlds are rolling over,
From creation to decay,
Like the bubbles on a river,
Sparkling, bursting, borne away.
It is impossible for any process that starts to not end, anything that is originated to not be destroyed, and anybody who is born to not die. The difference is only in the degree of duration. A bacterium lives for a few hours, a flower for a day, a mosquito for a week, an ant for a few months, a mouse for afew years, a for cat for 10 years, a dog for 15 years, a horse for 40 years, a camel for 50 years, elephants for 70 years and a tortoise for over a hundred years. Human beings live for a wide range of years and identification keeps changing, from a child to a boy to a youth to an old man, for one life. The seed, plant, tree, flower, and fruit are all one. Any identity is a succession of change. A thing is only a series of states in a cause-effect chain; what came earlier, caused the later. The world is a sequence of events, ever–changing and being renewed at every moment. They appear, replacing the earlier set, only to be replaced by another set.
We must not deceive ourselves into the belief of living forever with the people we have around us owning the things we have accumulated as our property. When we whirl a glowing stick,it produces the appearance of a disc. When we say it is raining, a very large number of water drops are falling in quick succession. There is nothing which is rain. There is nothing but movement, no doer but deed, nothing else but becoming. So, be alarmed when you find yourself stuck up, feeling pride in doing this or that and clinging to your honours and titles. Everything, our own life included, exists because of an origination (the parents), staying (community and family), and growth (education and livelihood). Know yourself in these terms and without losing sight of the inevitable end of all this.
It is pity to see the dance of stupidity in our public discourse. People are sticking to primordial identities which only exist in their minds and nowhere else. Leaders are talking about ideologies that are as fossil and obsolete as bloodletting is to medicine today and a steam engine is for pulling a train. The world is changing and those who do not change with it will perish as laggards and die destitute after running their appointed times here. There is no mechanical succession of movements in the right direction. Each one of us must feel the change, align ourselves with the change and move forward with the change. Lord Buddha identified 24 conditioning forces as causal energy, paccayasatti, which is forever creating the future. Those who are in harmony with these forces, flourish, and those who are at cross-purposes with them, perish.
So, what are the operational forces in 2022? I would like to share what I see.
At the macro level, the era of the West–dominated world is over. The Western civilization is decaying and their power,weaning. At the general level, technology singularity is taking grip over the state of world affairs. All leaders and political parties are haplessly dependent on social media. On the microlevel, people have turned materialists, out to acquireriches by whatever means.
Let me take another vantage point. At the macro level, there is a serious threat of climate change and the end of the world of an economy based on fossil fuels has begun. Virtual organizations are the new power structure. The real power moves through the Internet. At the micro level, there is a pandemic of despair and substance abuse. Anything which is done ignoring these forces would be superfluous and ineffective.
So, what do we do? Anchor yourself in the immortal Self that is embedded in you. While the wheel moves, axel remains stationary. We must cease to live in the world of shadows before we can lay hold of eternal life. Sit quietly for a while every day and feel the Infinite outside (the sun and blue sky in the day and stars in the night) and the Infinite inside (by being conscious of your breath and other body sensations, your thoughts, and your feelings, rising and falling like ocean waves). Practice to connect to them. Even if you don’t succeed initially, the effort itself will bring immediate benefit.
Finally, stop intellectualizing things. Avoid news channels, if possible. The 24 forces are going to decide the future, and these are bigger than all man-made entities. By being anchored in the eternal and infinite, you will become a part of these forces and act upon the world, rather than the world acting upon you. These forces will ensure that you are part of the solutions and not the problems.
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Your Gregorian New Year blog highlighting the forever changing coordinates of Life in time and space is brilliant, Prof Tiwariji !
Your suggestion to anchor in the embedded immortal self to be part of solution rather than problem is excellent !!
Mindfullness! न कंचित् शाश्वतम्.
Respected Arun Sir , Thank you very much for gifting such an enlightening wisdom full blog to your readers in New year. In your previous blog you also talked about Thick Nhat-Hanh, Buddhist from Vietnam, A great proponent of peace. I have watched his many talks in which he explains MINDFULLNESS, He often talks how one can be Conscious while doing one’s duty .The way you explains things in this blogs, arouses the feeling of mindfullness, Encourages in accessing higher self from lower self & Do help in eliminating “I” So that the harmony can be achieved.
My take as you talked ,Every things exist to replace earlier one & get replaced by other one in near future So Nothing Is Permanent (न कंचित् शाश्वतम्.In Cause & Effect chain , “each cause is effect of earlier effect that was effect of one more earlier effect and so on or Each effect is cause for next cause and it is again cause for next cause”… means Each cause is effect & Vice Versa ,Like you along with Dr Kalam very beautifully explained book “Transcendence” about electron’s nature of particle & wave What is Time ? no one knows … Just like ray of light I think This cause & Effect chain is unidirectional … So to give a sincere, honest & meaningful direction for wellbeing of our contemporary & next generation, One must first understand & realise in best possible way about this subtle aspect of life ,And then reflect in all available medium like you are doing it by your blogs, Aricles on SAKAL Publications ,Inforanjan & Your Books,To become the meaningful cause for bringing meaningful effect in life .
Your blogs on this day can became new opportunity to put effort to understand reality & objectivity of existence.
Thank you for making us think in a critical way. Even before the momentous events of 2020 and 2021 shook up the planet, the tectonic plates of culture, society and technology were already shifting and reshaping the world. The pandemic took those changes and accelerated them, exacerbated them, and in some cases, threw them into chaos. As we speed into 2022, the question remains: Where are we headed next?
In tech, health, money, transportation, home, and family life, we can be confident of one fact: Things are changing, fast. As an HR professional, I feel many employers have become infatuated with the productivity gains of remote work and the ability to scale down their commercial real estate holdings for significant cost savings. The most surprising trend that’s likely to continue to gain steam in 2022 is the Great Resignation. More people are quitting their jobs and reprioritizing their lives than ever.
Tiwari Bhaisab Jai Swaminarayan
What a wonderful blog with true assessment of current day situation and human mind.
As said the worldly and materialistic attachments makes the human mind to start believing in immortality.
HDH Pramukhswami Maharaj often use to quote Brahman Satya Jagst Muthya. He always use to say stop believing in materialistic world, detach yourself from every thing and everybody as what ever has born is to die.
One has to adopt the changes. For survival.
Your quotes from Bhagvat Gita and Lord Buddha well quoted.
Once again thank you for writing wonderful blog.
As Socrates said, “An unexamined life is not worth living,” new year throws up an occasion to examine where we are going? I feel money and personal finance is going to take a different direction. The stock market’s bull run looks likely to continue with interest rates at such low levels, but its volatile swings are getting more pronounced. There’s a big question about whether tech and other growth stocks have run out of steam or are getting ready for another run.
Cryptocurrencies have been breaking new highs and attracting more interest. The crypto exchange app Coinbase has become the most downloaded app in Apple’s App Store. Some view the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, as a hedge against inflation. Politicians, athletes, and others have already started taking their paychecks in Bitcoin, which was $30,000 in January 2021, climbed up to $68,000 in November and is stalled below $50,000 as of now. Will it touch 100,000 in 2022? Or, bite the dust.
Making New Year’s resolutions is indeed a tradition. People resolve to continue good practises, change an undesired trait or behaviour, to accomplish a personal goal, or otherwise improve their life. As you rightly observed, this tradition takes place in different parts of the world in many forms. Also, New Year’s resolutions need not be limited to private. Families, working groups, communities, and even nations can make resolutions.
I feel re-evaluating last year’s resolutions is even more important, while making the new ones. It can show me that, even if some of my goals were not met, I may have achieved some of the steps necessary to move forward. Perhaps I may even find out that there is a new goal or direction I would like to take. Those types of discoveries are always positive! We are always learning and building on ourselves! Thank you for provoking these thoughts.
A very different perspective of reality! Everything is a process of becoming. “There is nothing which is rain. There is nothing but movement, no doer but deed, nothing else but becoming.” Michelle Obama writes in her book “Becoming”, “For me, becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self.” We must move forward every single day of our lives.
Brilliant piece of writing. I was trying to classify your writing. Came closest to: Essayist:
“Essayists write essays, which are original pieces of writing of moderate length in which the author makes a case in support of an opinion.”
But then you never form or support an opinion.
So I will let you remain ” unclassified” type of writer.
Totally agreeing with you, that our birthday is our new year, I too believe that. I want my new year to objectives and real and yes, Change is the only things which remains constant. Living in life of delusion is no life. First we need to realise our true self, where we are , what we are really doing? Being in touch with your inner-self is the outmost requirement. Spend some time alone and do self thinking, this act give us clarity. Dnt take decision in haste or under influence of someone. Maximum issues are resolved if we are enchored with our true self.
Thanks for beginning the new year with nice thoughts and takeaways.
This positivity is infectious and a good start indeed – cross my heart. That said, ‘ we live in deeds and not in years’. All of us have known Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, Dr. Seuss, Emerson, Gandhiji, Tony Robbins and more to take inspiration from. And it’s totally upon us as to how we live life, love life, find happiness, and live our version of the good life.
We are not our stuff; we are more than our possessions. Same way, our worth is within us, not within our things. Being mindful of what we are doing each moment as the day passes is the key. Consciously nurturing our ability to share love, warmth and joy with friends, colleagues, family and in fact with the entire human race is essential for moving ahead in life with zest. In everything we attempt, may we remember that we all possess a higher purpose.
This article is sure to motivate/help many to discover their north star and keep it close to their hearts.
Dear Arun Tiwari Sir. Thank you for taking us on the journey to becoming wiser, more peaceful in this ever-changing world. The new year may not be real or objective—the path you took us on for now since mid 2019 was. Extending your analogy on the reality of a birthday, the decision of following your blog is real and much appreciated.
“There is nothing but movement, no doer but deed, nothing else but becoming.” is too profound yet simple. Thank you for reminding us to sit quietly as a daily practice.
Quoting Lord Tennyson ” … the old order changeth yielding place to new ….”
We should accept change as a way of life and meditate upon the inner self to realise the ultimate.
That alone is permanent..for that we should detach ourselves from the happenings around us. King Janaka was a rishi in the right sense. Though a rishi, he carried out all his his kingly duties with detachment.
With best wishes for a happy, healthy, prosperous New Year to you, your family, your well wishers and all …,”Sarve Janaha sukhina..,…”
Dear sir, Wish you a very happy and healthy new year 2022. The best advice of the blog is “STOP SEEING NEWS CHANNELS”. These channels are doing more harm than any help. Every channel would like to carry the most negative news first. Your micro and macro level assessment of the present day or situation is fantastic. Rightly said sir, we need to keep pace with the change otherwise get ready to perish. The best way forward suggested is to feel the infinite power outside and within. Meditation will definately help. But we need to be patient to reap the benifits of meditation and appreciate the infinite both within and outside. Thank you once again for an eye opening blog with appropriate suggestions to get along the change.
Arun ji, Happy new year. Excellent blog on CHANGE. Good advice to stop seeing news channels. Anticipating change, Adapting to change and enjoying change are very important.
Dear Sir, Wishing you a Very Happy New Year, thanks for sharing the insights. With all the action happening around , the suggestion to sit quietly – feel the infinite both internal, and external is very prudent and probably only way to manage the signal to noise ratio. Look forward to reading many more of your blogs in 2022 and beyond.
Dear Prof,
Best Wishes for 2022!!
May the year bring you good heath and strength so that your good works continue to inspire the world around you.
‘Like a bubble on the flowing river ready to be borne away – Shelley, (In your blog) is the outcome of the year on year calendar on the move. Men may come and men may go… but I go on forever – Wordsworth, is similar. Life moves and dates advance, the New Year is heralded and celebrated with gusto in whatever form or whichever date in whichever country it is observed. Glasses tinkle, Hopes sparkle, resolutions are made and New Year is welcomed, every after year.
Nothing changes physically – It’s all in the mind. Humans have the ability and power of the magical brain so new and yet bewildering ideas keep churning out – the celebration is the outcome of the required change, the push, the motivation required to keep on moving, exploring and venturing into new fields. It is required to revitalize, motivate, invigorate and rejuvenate to refresh mind body and soul to move on. Like stopping on a road side petrol pump, refueling and moving on, in your life’s journey.
Challenges of life to live on, to produce, to invent, to change and to upgrade life – is the power of human magical box. Else other living and breathing things and existing creatures be it plants and trees, animals, mammals, on earth in sea or in the solar system are like dead stones, life less, no brain like in humans so no development or change. What matters is the power of the brain, to invent and create new wonders, be it technological, physical or soul lifting. The humans are drivers, responsible to guide the entire universe the share existence.
Very true – It is impossible to not to die, what varies is only the number of breaths. Also it is true one doesn’t carry any materialistic things collected through life along with him/her. It’s also crystal clear one is born naked with no accompaniments and has to die also naked without any accompaniments. So why get attached, why be mad after, why earn wrath, why create hurdles, why and why is endless…. Just for those few minutes, standing close to the pyre in a crematorium one tends to think – this is the end then why be a collectors den, accumulating and piling which all has to be left behind, but then few minutes out of the gate and one is back into the rat race – No doubt it’s easy to preach.
While things are changing at a phenomenal pace, be it politically – Rightly pointed for the West to lose power or Technological – with new strides in the ever evolving Internet, the cosmos or the fuel, it is very correct when you state ‘The world is changing and those who do not change with it will perish as laggards and die destitute after running their appointed times here.’ So follow the change if one cannot be the change. What Darwin said – Survival of the fittest, years earlier…. In fact is the bugle of the day, though the end is inevitable but what is in our hands is to live, to adopt and exist in peace till we reach our destined milestone of life.
Our best wishes for a happy andd prosperous new year 2022. Undoubtedly, change is the way of life and continuous adaptation makes one agile. I remember in my childhood days, Atlas cycle was a household name, which we do not see now. Probably, the company did not change with time and so we found in several international firms too. The concept of aligning with the mentioned 24 conditioning forces by lord Buddha in Paccaya Sutta, would be the key. Thank you Prof Tiwari ji for sharing such a brilliant concept.
To be or not be in the being is a conflict as an observer of vast landscape of self realization, which the seeker should anchor in one’s self to be a solution. Very well written New Year blog sir!!