Seeking Inner Light, Not Outer Noise

On New Year’s Eve,

The streets bloom with restless noise,

hotels overflow with delicacies,

the midnight sky breaks into fire and thunder,

music shouts against silence,

while restless hearts chase fleeting pleasures.

Thousands are spent for moments of outer joy,

for glittering nights that vanish by dawn,

while inner peace fades beneath the weight of noise,

and health is traded for sleepless celebration;

the body grows weary, the spirit grows hollow,

longing for a moment of silence and light.

Every New Year’s Eve, no crackers burn in my hands,

no desire rises for thunderous festivities;

shutting out the noisy night, I play 

“Sri Aurobindo’s Gayatri Mantra”,

and open the luminous pages of “Savitri”,

where transformation begins,

and the Eternal whispers through stillness and silence.

- Dr. Sudevi Basu (India)