Happy New Year 2020 !

As we have entered into a new year, new decade, new day, I and my family wish all of you a Very Happy New Year.

In one way if we think about it, it is just another day- another morning. Should we not feel excited about waking up every day to early morning sun? or should we reserve special days for celebrations? If we think about everyday as new and “exciting” will it really be that “exciting”? Maybe that is why there are certain reserved days where we get to “celebrate.”

We make new year resolutions, we create goals, plans, budgets, strategies for ourselves/ business. As days, months, quarters pass, we slowly settle into our defaults. We let go of our diets that we strictly followed for a week, we slowly drift away from our new resolutions, we go back to old patterns and strategies. At the end of the year we think why we are still caught up in the same old rut- why not much was different this past year from other past years.

For the past several years I have been doing the above as well. I fall into the same pattern of creating these plans during the first week of January, then following some of it, dropping quite some, falling into same old schedule as past year.

Last week or so, I wrote about all the “First-s” in 2019. Then when I myself opened and read it as an email it almost felt like I was bragging ! It looked like 2019 was full of achievements – full of exciting new things that I proudly wrote about. I am sure we all saw and read dozens of social media posts similar to my bragging email – about achievements, wins etc. Nothing wrong with being proud about what we perceive as success- we should certainly be proud about our efforts paying off.

However what gets lost in many of these post and in my case, my email was the fact that the 10 or so “WINS” that we write about, there are 1000s of “not wins.” I say “Not wins” instead of “loss” because in my opinion when things don’t go as planned, or when we don’t “WIN” – it is not always a “lost/loss.” Lot of these “not wins” prepare us for future “wins” and lot of these “not wins” are lessons learned.

One lesson that I learned in all these decades is the fact that we all need to be kinder towards ourselves. It is okay to “not win” everything. It is ok to not complete resolutions. It is ok to settle into our defaults and more importantly to me personally, trying is more important than “winning.”

That being said, since I already shared my “wins” I also wanted to share with all of you what I had initially planned for 2019 vs what I actually did 🙂

1) Record Chants for Meditation Vol 2- JAN 2019 (this is still in works in Jan 2020 !)

2) Create Harmonium and Sanskrit videos / ebook – JAN 2019 and ongoing (Did not even start !)

3) Write Indian Ragas for Kirtans Ebook part 2 and publish – FEB 2019 (Still in Edits !)

4) do 2 Kirtan camps – SEPTEMBER, MARCH -(Did only 1)

5) Podcast – START FEB, (Did not start)

6) Publish already recorded EDM music album – (Did not even start thinking about this)

7) Do 6 Kirtans (Did more)

8) Gigs with World Music Band- Atmasandhi 6 times in a YEAR (Did 4)

9) Make a list of projects that you have in hand and see if they are really serving a purpose / how to improve on them. (Did this half heartedly and still have lot of work to do)

Maybe this above list was over ambitious taking into consideration that I work a 9-5 job, 5 days a week, teach music, learn music, have a family to take care of etc- or maybe I am just making an excuse – I don’t know. I do know that with years passing by I have become a bit kinder towards myself as well as with others. I have more patience. I know my limitations a bit better and have been learning to work with it.

On this first day of 2020 I make one resolution – to do my best. To do all that I can to bring more happiness, peace and love in our community.

Lokah Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu !

My prayer for 2020:

ॐ सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः
सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः ।
सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु मा कश्चिद्दुःखभाग्भवेत् ।
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

Om Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah
Sarve Santu Nir-Aamayaah |
Sarve Bhadraanni Pashyantu Maa Kashcid-Duhkha-Bhaag-Bhavet |
Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||

Meaning:
Om, May All become Happy,
May All be Free from Illness.
May All See what is Auspicious,
May No One Suffer
Om Peace, Peace, Peace.