The rabbits are not celebrating the new year. Neither are the eagles. We pity them, for they neither celebrate our calendar nor do they have one of their own. How wonderful it would be to stand in the midst of a delirious crowd and shout 'happy new year'. Will they ever know that? Will they ever know the feeling of standing with great expectation for the new year? I guess not! The rabbit is contended to merely run between the bushes avoiding dogs and the eagle is happy to find a hot air column so that it can soar up and fly at great heights!
But, what we miss in the lives of the rabbit and eagle is that they always live in the NOW. An eternal NOW where the case for a psychological time does not exist. The past, future all condensed into the current moment. Is there anything worthwhile in that state? Perhaps. They do not have to worry about 'career growth' for starters. Can we even imagine such a state? A state where we do not seek some form of fulfillment of ourselves, or salvation, or enlightenment etc in the future, which the rabbits and the eagles can seem to pull off so easily! Of course, their case is helped by the absence of a mind. But, the presence of a mind, as in our cases, does not imply that we need to constantly look forward to the future to be happy.
Wishes for happy new year keep coming relentlessly on sms, phone, email, orkut / facebook, instant messenger etc. Some people even use many of these simultaneously. This could very well be a symptom of a desperation to have a better than previous year and thus find fulfillment! Each person has to investigate their own mind to find the truth of this for themselves. May be, for a change, we could try to live the way of the rabbit and the eagle for a year. May be, just may be, that millions of years of evolution that perfected their ways of lives might also have some wisdom that the human mind, which has evolved only for a few thousand years may not yet have stumbled upon! In that case, like the rabbit and the eagle, we will simply celebrate the moment- each and every moment!
Of course, nothing wrong per se in celebrating a mind made event, but we might gain something if we understand the workings of our mind that almost madly pushes us to celebrate it. Once we clearly see it, we can enjoy the mind made event but still have our feet firmly in the NOW!
Happy New Year! More importantly, Happy NOW - the eternal NOW!
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