“With the opening of the New Year, all the closed portals of limitations will be thrown open and I shall move through them to vaster fields, where my worthwhile dreams of life will be fulfilled.”

— Paramahansa Yogananda

As we enter a new year, we in Gurudeva Paramahansa Yogananda’s ashrams send loving thoughts to you and all of our spiritual family and friends, in heartfelt appreciation for your expressions of divine friendship at Christmas and throughout the year. In our New Year’s meditations, we are sending out special prayers that in the coming year God help you to fulfill the worthy goals closest to your heart.

Take deep within you our Guru’s wonderful affirmation given above, and let your concentrated absorption of the divine power flowing through his words help you to start afresh. Let it energize your will and bring forth your soul’s confidence that with God’s help you can overcome all obstacles. I hope that during the Christmas meditations just past, you felt anew the limitless potential within yourself to become the kind of person you want to be. Now is an auspicious time to act upon that inspiration — infusing with new vigor your determination to convert your cherished dreams and spiritual potentials into manifested realities.

There is definite power in New Year’s resolutions made in meditation or deep prayer, for they are enlivened by divine help from the superconscious mind. Paramahansaji advised focusing on one or a few worthy goals or soul qualities you especially wish to cultivate — such as calmness and even-mindedness, or kindness and understanding toward others. During your meditations in the months ahead, hold the vision of that achievement before your inner gaze and feeling in the calm receptivity produced by practice of the SRF techniques; and repeat a simple, straightforward affirmation that what you wish to achieve has become part of your being. Whenever you manifest, even in little ways, what you want to be, that visualized potential will take on increasing tangibility. And the more you cast off obstructive thoughts, replacing self-doubt with calm faith that you can succeed, the more quickly you will progress. Practice living consciously, being aware of what is deciding the course of your life: your habits, your associates and external environment, or the real you — your soul. Remember that you have the power every day, every moment, to decide what you will think and do. Choose your thoughts and actions by your soul’s discrimination and power of free will; then nothing can hinder your journey to freedom.

The best resolution to make in this new year is to achieve a more constant immersion of your heart and mind in the Divine. With God’s supporting omnipotence you can do anything. In the light of that inner communion, unwanted habit patterns can be dissolved; and by the transforming touch of God’s love, maya’s influence over you will ultimately be broken. You will become ruler of your thoughts and actions, and therefore of your destiny. Guruji has told us, “To be a conqueror of self is to be truly victorious — to conquer your circumscribed consciousness and expand your spiritual powers without limit. You can go as far as you want to go, past all limitations, and live a supremely victorious existence.” May your efforts in this new year bring you ever closer to that supreme victory.

A blessed New Year to you and your loved ones,
Swami Chidananda Giri