New Year's Eve is almost here and you might have so many things to do during this eve. Many of you might have new year's resolution plan and most of you have many desires piled up in your mind that needs to be fulfilled in order to experience happiness. However, all desires cannot be fulfilled during one life time. It requires multiple life time in order to fulfill our uncountable desires. Wherever you are today, it is because of your desires. It is your desires alone that puts you in different circumstances in life. Therefore, one must understand how desire operate if s/he wants to live a happy life. From our childhood we are sent to schools to learn different things, to achieve different things and be something in life. We go on from school to school getting our high school degree, bachelors degree, masters degree, phd, and so on. And yet we are not satisfied with our knowledge. No school teaches you about your own desires. Why do we have desires at all?

Wherever there is an effect, there is a cause. This is the law of nature. If we take desire as an effect then there must be a cause for it. What is the cause of desire? Why we keep hankering after this and that as if we are shallow and empty persons? What is causing all these desires to pop up in our mind and we are blown away by our desires like dry leaf is blown away in the direction of wind? If one wants to be happy in life, one must understand what desires are and how to manage it.

Managing desires starts with introspection. You start observing yourself. Begin with your bodily sensation. Be aware of your sensory reactions, then slowly move towards your own mind. Through regular practice, you can observe your own mind! Until and unless you understand and observe your own mind, you will never understand others, not even your wife or husband. Yogis usually experiment things on themselves first not because they are selfish, but because they want to understand how it feels on them so that they can be cautious on applying to others. We also need to focus on what we eat because our mind is directly affected by the quality of our food. Therefore, bring a habit of conscious eating as well in order to manage your desires. In Bhagavad Gita, the body, mind, and all the observable universe is called "Kshetra." Kshetra means Field. And there is a witness intelligence called "Kshetragya." This Kshetragya is also known as the Knower of the Field. Once you slowly start observing yourself, you will understand the inner operation of your desires and why they are there. Then removing the cause becomes easy. Once there is no cause, there will be no effect. May this New Year bring peace in your life.

Hari Om Tat Sat. Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.