Like a weatherman mapping out the advancing highs and lows of the outer weather, astrologers and spiritual masters could often describe in detail the New Year’s unique theme energies and incoming possibilities. The spiritual master Sri Chinmoy has commented:
“Each year has a soul of its own. Even the astrologers can tell something about the soul of a year, just as they can very often tell about the soul of a country…. Each new year is like a new rung on the ladder of consciousness which we have to climb up. When the new year dawns, we have to make ourselves conscious of the fact that we have to transcend our present capacity and present achievement. The new year energises us, encourages us and inspires us to run towards a higher Reality….

‘Tomorrow, on New Year’s day, that new newness will enter into us. What can we expect from tomorrow? We expect that which we do not have right now: freedom from bondage, freedom from limitation, freedom from disease, freedom from death…..
The past is of no use. It is the present, and the golden future which enters into the present, which make us feel what we are going to be—nay, what we truly are. We are not children of the past, but children of the glorious future…..

‘The New Year is entering into us to inspire us to dive into the deepest, to fly into the highest, to run towards the farthest. We must always feel that we are children of the Supreme, that self-realisation or the conquest of the self is our birthright, our divine heritage.”

In a modern world marred by conflict, war, poverty and widespread suffering, the wisdom-teachings of the great teachers offer beacons of consolation and hope, reminding us firstly of our task of self-perfecting and of the power this has to better the world around us; and informing us of the great and dormant power of love, one of the primary gifts of the human heart. For when the heart’s power of love replaces the love of power, and self-interest is replaced by a widening oneness and concern for others, all of the world’s problems will quickly disappear. Sri Chinmoy writes:

“The world exists just because love still exists on earth. No other divine quality can create, sustain and fulfil us here on earth like the quality of love. How can we help our sisters and brothers of the world? We can help them if we become all love for the One who is all Love. Let us love the One, the root of the tree. Then we shall see that the branches, the leaves and the foliage of the tree will also feel our love.

‘Right now fear, doubt, anxiety, tension and disharmony are reigning supreme. But there shall come a time when this world of ours will be flooded with peace. Who is going to bring about that radical change? It will be you: you and your sisters and brothers, who are an extension of your reality-existence. It will be you and your oneness-heart, which is spread throughout the length and breadth of the world.’