Many people will agree that it’s nice to think of 2023 as a thing of the past. It’s done with and over. There is a sort of magic to new beginnings. But always remember that it is you and me who create that Magic. In fact, we are the Magic.

If you look at it objectively, nothing really has changed from 31st December 2023 to 1st January 2024 – has it? The sun will rise one more time over the horizon. It has been doing that for more than four and a half billion years. Then it will set, and the stars will come out. That’s been happening even before the Earth was formed.

It is we who celebrate the end of a year and the beginning of a new one. It’s something we have constructed to give each other a sense of time passing… otherwise what is there to really differentiate one day from another?

January 1st is just as special as March 19th or September 7th – or just as ordinary. The sooner we realise that it is you and me that make a day special – or mundane, the more wondrous life becomes. Because then we don’t need to wait for January 1st or our birthday or some anniversary or Holi – each day can be made special, sacred and turned into a celebration. 

Simply because we decided it.

Then it can be New Year’s Eve or Christmas or Deepawali every day or any day you choose it to be. There is no law that says it cannot be so. I guess this is what Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar means when He says Make life a Celebration!

Even so, it is January 1st today. And in a few hours it will be time for January 2nd. All too soon, it will be January 1st all over again. Meanwhile, have a wonderful New Year – may we all be blessed with Wellness on all levels of our existence, and Wealth in all its different aspects. May we smile more, and make the people around us even happier. May we Laugh, Sing Dance and Meditate. May we find the glimmers of magic in the mundane that make it extraordinary.

May we become the Magic that we are.

Happy New Year 2024!

Jai Gurudeva!

Love

Bawa (& Dinesh)