Jan. 1, 2025
I send my warmest New Year’s wishes to all of you throughout the world. Although time flows from one day to the next, one week to the next, and one month to the next, New Year’s serves as a marker for our lives. It gives us a chance to pause, spend time reflecting on where our lives have taken us so far, and make choices on where we want it to go in the year ahead.
If we look back on our goals and resolutions from the previous year, did we accomplish what we set out to achieve? What goals did we meet? Which ones are still unfinished? We can then consider which of last year’s goals we want to carry over for the coming year, which ones are no longer important to us, and what new resolutions we wish to make.
Many of us have physical goals to take better care of our body, exercise more, or eat healthier. Many of us have intellectual goals to develop our mind whether for academics, our jobs and careers, or hobbies. We may have goals for improving our relationships with others, whether family, friends, neighbors, or co-workers. We can evaluate what we have achieved in these different aspects of our lives and make new resolutions for the year ahead.
We should also reflect on our spiritual goals, which are to realize ourselves as soul and experience God within us. Spiritual goals include spending time in meditation to connect with the inner Light and Sound within us, a stream that can help us take a spiritual journey of peace, joy, and love and ultimately reunite with God. Meditation has many side benefits because it not only awakens us spiritually, but it helps our body and mind reach states of peace and calm, which can improve our physical and mental health. Carrying the happiness and stability we experience in meditation can result in better relationships. It also increases our concentration and focus so we can be successful in all spheres of life.
We can evaluate the spiritual goals we made last year and see how many of them we have accomplished. As we think about our spiritual goals for this year ahead, we can choose those we want to carry over or set new goals for our spiritual development.
A slogan that can help guide our choices for a spiritual goal for this New Year is:
Spiritually Rise
In 2025.
We can spiritually rise through meditation on the inner Light and Sound. If we make meditation one of our goals for the year to come, it can help us reach not only our physical, intellectual, and relationship goals, but will help us rise spiritually to achieve the highest purpose of our human life, which is attaining self-knowledge and God-realization and bask in all the bliss, peace, and divine love it brings.
Yours affectionately,
RAJINDER SINGH
