Today is a sacred day which has to be spent in sacred thoughts and deeds and not in cheap debilitating sensual pleasures and pastimes. Of course, people in their ignorance resort to these hollow hilarities, urged by their innate and inescapable urge for Ananda (supreme bliss). The Ananda within seeks Ananda pure and undefiled. It can be secured only through the satisfaction of higher and more sublime desires like realizing the Ultimate. Each festival has been designed by the sages as a step in the progress of man towards this goal. Nevertheless, we are casting many a New Year Day behind us, unmindful of its significance. Year after year is wasted in misdirected effort at attaining Ananda, and in the consequent misery and despair.

BABA