By Gurudevi Swami Nirmalananda 

The word “holiday” comes from “holy day,” meaning it is a sacred time, a time outside of time.  Especially at the end of our year and as our days grow short, we slow down.  Taking advantage of three special days in only six weeks, the days in-between are busy.  You barely have time to clean up from one celebration and get ready for the next.

Yet there is an undercurrent.  You can spot it if you pay attention.  From November’s gratitude to December’s generosity, you are being readied for the celebration of a fresh start for a new year.  The mystical flow of Divine Grace becomes easier to perceive with each event.  What is happening?

Most people focus on family for these special days, using that connection to soften and warm their heart.  Looking to others for a connection is a way of finding your own mystical essence, yoga says – that when they see you, really see you, you become aware of your own Self.  How great it is when it works.  For most people, that is rare and special, unfortunately infrequent.

Yoga is about finding your own mystical essence all the time, all twelve months of the year.  To find, to know and to be that Divine Being which you already are — this is yoga’s goal as described by the ancient sages.  For this, you need to slow down and stop, another wonderful thing about these sweet weeks that close the year.

But you don’t have to wait for holidays, for every day is a holy day.  Every day is a day “which the Lord hath made,” as the Psalm says.  The whole point is to recognize the sacred when you see it.  And every moment is sacred, every being is sacred, every thing is sacred, including you.  This is mysticism.  This is tantra.