Self-Realization Fellowship Blog

“A Better Life Through the Portals of the New Year” — a Guided Meditation From Paramahansa Yogananda

December 29, 2022

Paramahansa Yogananda in Mysore SRF blog

This is an excerpt from the talk “Controlling Your Destiny.” The full talk can be read in The Divine Romance, volume 2 of Paramahansa Yogananda’s Collected Talks and Essays.


With the beginning of the New Year, let us with concentrated resolve and spiritual determination enter into a new era of our lives.

Please pray with me: “We are entering a better life, O Father, through the portals of the New Year. May it be a year of greatest communion with Thee, the Giver of all gifts. Be Thou the only King sitting on the throne of all our desires, directing our lives through our intelligence.

“In the past year desires often led us astray. Bless us that henceforth all our aspirations be in consonance and harmony with Thy will. Bless us that every day be a new awakening in Thy consciousness, physically, mentally, morally, and spiritually.

“We thank Thee, O Father, and the Great Ones who are all blessing us and coaxing us to Thy kingdom. Aum. Aum. Amen.

This is my New Year’s wish for you: that you all reach the land beyond your dreams, where there is peace and joy eternal. May you realize the fulfillment of whatever strong good wish you release in the ether.

Let us meditate: Think of the beautiful happenings of the last year. Forget the dark experiences. Sow the good you did in the past on the fresh soil of the New Year, that those vital seeds may grow in an even better way.

All past sorrows are gone. All past deficiencies are forgotten. Loved ones who have died are living immortally in God. We are in Eternal Life now. If we realize this we shall never know death. Waves rise and fall in the ocean; when they disappear, they are still one with the ocean. Even so, all things are in the ocean of God’s presence.

There is nothing to fear. Link every state of the mind with God. It is only when the wave separates itself from the ocean that it feels isolated and lost. Think constantly of your connection with Eternal Life, and you shall know your identity with the Supreme Eternal One.

Life and death are but different phases of being. You are a part of the Eternal Life. Awaken and expand your consciousness in God so that your concept of yourself ceases to be limited to the little body. Meditate on this. Realize it.

Your consciousness has no circumference. Look ahead millions of miles: there is no end. Look to the left, above, and below: there is no end. Your mind is omnipresent, your consciousness unlimited.

Pray with me: “Heavenly Father, I am no longer bound by the consciousness of the past year. I am free from the cramped consciousness of the body. I am eternal. I am omnipresent in the chasm of eternity above and below me, on the left, on the right, in front, behind, and all around. Thou and I are one.

“We bow to Thee, O God, to Guru, and to the saints of all religions. And we bow to all souls in every nation, for they are made in Thine image. In the new year we wish peace for all nations of the globe. May they realize their common brotherhood under Thy Fatherhood.

“Bless them with this understanding, that they forsake fighting and live peacefully with one another to make a heaven of this earth. And bless us all, that we may help to build Thy heaven here by remodeling our lives spiritually, and by example inspiring others to do likewise.

“We love Thee, our Father, and we love all races as our brothers. We love all creatures, for they reflect Thy life. We bow to Thee, templed in everything.

“Heavenly Father, make us strong in this new year, ever guided by Thy constant presence, that in body, mind, and soul we may reflect Thy life, health, prosperity, and happiness. As Thy children, may we become perfect even as Thou art perfect. Aum, Peace, Aum.

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