Gurudev’s message for New Year 2023 - Will you be serious or playful in 2023?

 

Gurudev's message for New Year 2023 as he addresses the gathering at The Art of Living’s European Center in Bad Antogast, Germany.

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The previous year saw the world coping with and emerging out of the coronavirus pandemic. It turned out to be an opportunity for people to slow down, wake up to reality and become more considerate of their mental health, physical health, the power of community, and the power of hope.

Here’s a quick recap of Gurudev’s message for New Year 2023. Gurudev addressed the gathering at The Art of Living’s European Center in Bad Antogast, Germany.

Are you taking life seriously?

If you feel you are wasting time and are resolving again and again that you don’t want to waste time, it means that you are more aware. It means you are now taking life too seriously. You should take life seriously because if you don’t, you will be wasting time.

If you’ve taken the first step to realizing you’ve wasted too much time then pat yourself. The next step is you have to take it easy.

You have to be both serious and playful. Only being playful all the time, you’ll be wasting your time and it’s too flaky. Unless there is some seriousness in life, playfulness has no meaning.

When you are serious, you acquire wisdom, when you are playful you are using the wisdom. You cannot only use it without acquiring it.

When you say that ‘I don’t want to waste time on trivial things’, it means you are looking for something bigger, your vision is opening up, and you’re committed to something bigger.

Flow in the river of time

Time is like a river and you are sitting on the banks with your feet in the water, watching time flow. Time is moving and it has made you swim in its tough times and unpleasant times. Sometimes you have jumped into the water, sometimes water has gone above your nose but somehow you managed to come up.

As long as you don’t forget that there is a shore to hold on to whenever you have to, it’s okay to be in the water. But if there’s a flood or a fast current is flowing, then at that time get onto the shore.

Similarly in life, too, sometimes you have to be cent percent in life; be cent percent with time. And at times, you have to sit on the banks and watch.

How to handle success and failure?

When you fail, don’t take it too seriously. See it as a play, it’s just another game, and then move on. When you succeed, take it seriously, and don’t waste time on what you have achieved. Your potential is so big and you have achieved some little things and you’re beating some drums the whole time. You have to then take life seriously.

Strike the balance

Wake up! There’s a balance that you need to keep in life. You have got to be serious to be playful. Frivolousness is not playfulness. There are only two categories of people who do not feel they are wasting time: those who are in deep slumber and the enlightened ones.

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