A sincere new year wish

New-year time – the time of joy and freshness; the time to celebrate and welcome the new year with a lots of hope, optimism and enthusiasm; time to be with friends and family; time to make new resolutions; time to thank God for all the blessings and pray for more. Yes, once again it’s that time of the year which brightens us all.

A true seeker of inner happiness also remembers that along with the festivities and celebrations, it’s the time for some calibration – the time to review and grade ourselves against the true goals of human life – the goal of realizing the Truth; the goal of Self realization; the goal of achieving inner peace and true happiness.

Shri Yoga Vashistha Maharamayan

One of the jewels in the ocean of holy scriptures of true spiritual wisdom and Vedanta is Shri Yoga Vashistha MahaRamayana. This is one of the longest texts in Sanskrit, after the Mahabharata. It consists of about 32,000 shlokas, including numerous short stories and anecdotes used to help illustrate its content. The content of this holy scripture summarizes Sage Vasistha's teaching to Rama on the subject of Advaita Vedanta, the illusory nature of the manifest world and the principle of non-duality.

The scene setting of Shri Yoga Vashistha MahaRamayana  is like this. At the young age of sixteen, Prince Rama returns from touring the country, and becomes utterly disillusioned after experiencing the apparent reality of the world. A serious dispassion arose in his heart and he became totally uninterested in the worldly affairs up to an extent that he even left eating. This worries his father, King Dasaratha, who expresses his concern to Sage Vashistha. Sage Vashistha consoles the king by telling him that Rama's dis-passion (vairagya) is a sign that the prince is now ready for spiritual enlightenment.