It is natural to feel that ‘new year’ is a very minor belief in front of the lifespan of the earth, the lifespan of the solar system, and the universe. But for the living beings living in a specific time and dimensions, it is also natural that it feels like a significant milestone of that same dimension.
The day of the ‘new year’ is different according to various calendars. Various religious and cultural backgrounds are the reason for this. The use of calendars in the world is not such a simple thing. There is no rule that everyone must use the same calendar system prepared by one person. Everyone should feel that this is very useful. Here, social and religious factors also come in. Conflicts and dialogues have taken place in history keeping these matters. Various administrations have brought various types of calendars into use.
According to the old calendar of Europe, the new year used to start on March 25. Later, this changed to April 5. Now January 1 is mostly being celebrated. In 1800, Britain celebrated the new year on April 6. Even now in Britain, government tax accounts start on April 6. In the Government of India, it starts on April 1.
Time can be measured in various ways. Whether our measurement is scientific or not is important. But for ‘new year’, social, national, and cultural dimensions are added along with the scientific factor. For Hindus, ‘Yugadi’ is the new year.
This ancient Indian calendar is scientific. Yudhishthira Shaka, Vikrama Shaka, Shalivahana Shaka based on kings and prophets, the Christians’ AD, the Muslims’ Hijri —all these are contemporary, worldly, and temporary systems.
Bharat’s original time-concept is beyond all these. It is based on long astronomical and natural phenomena (in the model of the ‘Cosmic Calendar’ mentioned by Carl Sagan) as long as Yuga, Manvantara, Kalpa, and Mahakalpa. The only ancient time-calculation system in the world that has taken the starting point of time like the ‘Big Bang’ into account (notice the Maha Sankalpa: Adya Brahmanah Dvitiya Parardhe…) is found only in Bharat.
According to the Sanatan calendar, the day the sun enters the Dwadasha Rashichakra again from the beginning as seen from the earth (Mesha Sankramana); that is, the day the earth, having completed one round around the sun, starts another round at the starting point of the imaginary rashi (place) called Mesha, is ‘Sauramana’ Yugadi. The day the moon completes twelve masa-cycles and starts the first month again (Chaitra Shukla Prathama) is ‘Chandramana’ Yugadi. Both these are celebrated as the new year.
As soon as ‘Yugadi’ is mentioned, the line of the great Kannada poet D. R. Bendre, ‘Yuga Yugadi Kaledaru Yugadi Marali Barutide’, comes to the mind of Kannadigas. Similarly, D. V. Gundappa’s line ‘Hosa Chiguru Hale Beru…’ also fits this occasion. What is found in both these poems is infinite zest for life and desires for renewal.
‘As the entire nature seems to get new energy once a year, why is there only one childhood and only one youth in one birth for humans alone?’ Bendre questions. His desire was how nice it would have been if humans also had the opportunity to sprout again like trees. His question is why nature has not bestowed such a facility upon us.
As if providing an answer to this, D.V.G. provides consolation on a philosophical level. ‘Hosa Chiguru Hale Beru Kudiralu Mara Sobagu. Hosa Yukti Hale Tattva Odagude Dharma’ is his ideal. Only the sprout should be renewed. But the root must be the old one. His stand is that ‘Jasavu Jivanakke’ (success to life) only when the new emerges on the old foundation.
Even if these poems look simple on the surface, there is the sweetness of experience (anubhava) and the bitterness of life-realities in them.
Renewal is nature’s boon. It is the way to live for a long time. When that is not possible, it is the end. Even if the root is old, the tree sprouting anew and looking beautiful is a process of renewal at one level. The mention of ‘Kayakalpha Vidya’, which makes such renewal possible for humans too, is found in ancient Hindu texts. There are references that many Sadhus used to increase their lifespan and youthful strength with its help and engage in penance (Tapasya) for a long time. In the 19th-20th century, details are found that Sri Tapasviji Maharaj of Punjab had done Kayakalpha three times and lived for 180 years (he was at the foothills of Nandi Hills near Bangalore for many years). ‘Until drinking Amrita, even the Devas were mortals; after drinking Amrita, they became immortals’—is the explanation given by the Puranas. Similarly, the hope of the ‘Fountain of Youth’ is found in Western literature too.
Scientists are now saying the words of Bendre that ‘human birth should not be limited to only one childhood and one youth’. Current aging-research is saying that there is no natural rule that humans must have only one childhood and one youth. Research at the level of Nanotechnology, Stem cells, and DNA has given the hope that the average lifespan of humans will increase two-fold very soon (in another 25 years). Famous scientist Michio Kaku opines in his book, ‘The Future of the Mind’ that within another 100 years, the ‘mind power’ of humans will increase. Based on the direction in which current research is going and the progress being seen, as he has estimated, methods of uploading and downloading your mind are likely to come! In an even later stage of time, methods of installing your consciousness called ‘I’, and all our memories into another body might also come! Then even if one body is destroyed, one’s consciousness and their existential knowledge called ‘I’ will continue in another body. That is, this is like a new kind of rebirth. Man becomes immortal by getting a new body along with old memories!
All these are mere beliefs science is creating now. If Bendre were alive now, he would have been happy knowing that humanity is turning towards the age of renewal.
Plants sprouting, the earth completing one round around the sun and starting another round—‘Yugadi’ symbolizes this natural renewal process. That is the true meaning of the new year.
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