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| Saturday, 01 January 2005 |
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The New Year - time to reflect seriously by Anton J. Jesuthasan (Sajj) "Happy New Year" is a salutation that usually resonates in almost every home, every office, and street corner at this time of the year, but this year it will be very muted, with people grieving or saddened by the tidal-wave disaster that has struck the Nation. The festive Christmas spirit which extends into the New Year and stimulates a feeling of well-being in the minds of most people, even the poor and the disadvantaged who forget their woes and concerns for a time, helping them celebrate the New Year in a happy frame of mind, has this time been dulled. However, 'New Year' is still a time for joy, for it is also a time of 'hope', hope for better things to come, of 'resolutions', to make things better than before, a time of reflection, time to count our blessings, a time to 'look forward', to see the tumbler half full, not half empty. "Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true." - Alfred Lord Tennyson Different cultures celebrate New Year at different times, as with our Sinhala and Tamil New Years falling in April, and the Chinese New Year falling in late January or February. However, whether it's Sri Lanka or China, the 1st of January, which is the Western world's New Year, is also for all practical purposes the New Year for most people. The Roman Emperor Julius Caesar is said to have established the 1st of January as the beginning of the New Year, in 46 B.C., not long before the birth of Christ. Traditions and superstitions As with Christmas, New Year also has its own traditions, and some superstition. Festivities apart, the strongest tradition associated with the New Year is the making of 'resolutions', born of another New Year tradition, 'reflection'. Most people of all ages reflect on the year past - one does not always sit down in a meditative mood to 'reflect', but reflects in an automatic, on-going manner, as the year ends. The ones that reflect, realise, and resolve to fair as well or better in the New Year, move on to maintain their success or achieve greater success. Some waddle in their past failures or miseries, and continue so, unless 'Madam Good Fortune' or 'Luck', which is a New Year 'superstition' smiles on them, and turns them in new directions. Some people believe that the company you keep as the New Year dawns, the food that you eat on that day, the visitor who greets you first thing that morning, bring you good or bad luck. Some families wait for the New Year bells to peal, or to hear 'Auld Lang Syne', to begin the day with a prayer. Others crave the company of friends and associates, with New Year's Eve parties dragging past midnight, ironically risking drunken and rowdy offensives that spoil the whole year for them. Positivity Superstition is not the sole preserve, prerogative, or privilege of us in the East. The Americans are said to eat black-eyed beans and ham on New Year's Day, and the Dutch, doughnuts, to bring them luck, just as the Chinese do with oranges galore. Back to resolves and resolutions - New Year resolutions may be simple or serious: not to engage in idle or malicious gossip, to show greater concern for the less fortunate. Many resolutions fall by the wayside. Some take strong root. Successful resolutions result from a strong resolve, and a conscious, positive, attitude of mind. Yogis and other spiritual masters tell us that our thoughts fill the cosmos in the form of vibrations, just like our spoken words float around as invisible, inaudible, sound waves. When positive thoughts and prayers, which is what resolutions are in the ultimate analysis, collectively predominate over negativities, good prevails over the world; and harnessed through our conscious wishes and efforts, like those sound waves, becomes perceivable to our senses and benefits us immensely. In Sri Lanka, as also, sadly, in some other parts of the world, negativity seems to be on the rise. Drugs, drinks, smoking, are a growing menace. Individual resolutions, prayers, and yogic practices, to rid the world of these evils, should collectively work towards removing the menace. Individual resolutions embrace the determination of persons in places of authority to achieve fruitful results. Discrimination When the Pope sends his encyclicals to his Bishops exhorting collective prayers, encyclicals which are read at every church throughout the world, it is the anticipated force of universal collective spiritual effort that must underlie this basic exercise; we perceive the results of the exercise often enough, though to be reminded of it is itself a grace. Talking about some of the evils that we see around us in the country, I have noticed some intelligent people with mature minds commenting that it is society as a whole, from the lowly to the mighty, that must take the blame, though we generally choose to vilify the politicians, the Police and the bureaucrats as our first targets. We sometimes forget that our much-maligned first targets are also our first resort, in times of great difficulty such as the present, when, with scant regard for their own lives and safety, they serve us to safeguard our lives and property. True, there are the blameworthy bad hats among these ranks, but we must admit that they are a minority, who bring disrepute on their blameless colleagues; we must recognise that there are the majority in all these sectors, as elsewhere, who are above board, who take great pride in their honesty, integrity and capability. Painting everyone with a broad black brush is the greatest disincentive that stifles the spirit of the non-vocal majority. But some from these ranks are now beginning to speak out. New Year is a time of hope, as much as it is a time of resolve, and for us Sri Lankans, hope, primarily, for achieving lasting peace in the country, and ensuring the safety, security and well-being of each and every individual. It is something that we must achieve, for our own survival. My hungry neighbour next door isn't my guarantee of my safety. The year 2004 has not been too kind to us, not that it has been much kinder to the rest of the world. The anxiety in the minds of almost everyone about the stalled peace process; the agony of the dispossessed and the disabled awaiting endlessly to return to their homes and hearth, compounded by Nature's recent inclemency in the form of devastating floods; the spiralling cost of living hitting the most vulnerable particularly hard all over the country - much of it, admittedly, due to forces beyond this country's control; and now this cruel tidal wave that has caused a terrible National Disaster, - these are some of 2004's unkindest cuts. Are the Gods angry that they should visit all these misfortunes upon us? Or are they trying to teach us something? Time to reflect seriously, and not to be dismissive. However, is there also some light at the end of the tunnel, some positive signals flashing at the year-end ? When one door closes, another opens, they say, as we recently witnessed, when big businesses, and men and women, great and small, from the country's Capital, rallied round to help the hundreds of thousands of flood victims in the North and East, in what way they could. And now, further private, public and international effort, to alleviate the miseries caused by the latest disaster. While all is not well as yet, and we have only continued to pay lip service to lasting peace thus far, Peace is still holding despite near-break-downs, politicians are generally toning down their fierce rhetoric, which at one point seemed to have become the fashion of the day with even the usually mild-mannered and the respectable, and beginning to show a kindlier face; the Police are demonstrating their mettle again; other bureaucrats, no doubt, will follow, and society perforce will begin to discriminate. Could we stop dwelling on the past, and make firm resolutions at all levels to be better men and women (and children) than we have been so far, and create the positive vibrations required to predominate over the negatives? "Look not mournfully into the past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the present. It is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future, without fear, and with a manly heart". Wise words to remember, from the pen of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. |
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