Yogananda's The Garden of the New Year

Resolving to Improve Life

Dec 28, 2008 Linda Sue Grimes

In Paramahansa Yogananda's "The Garden of the New Year," the speaker celebrates the prospect of looking forward with enthusiastic preparation to live "life ideally!"

The poem from Songs of the Soul features five free verse paragraphs. It dramatizes the theme of welcoming the New Year, using the metaphor of the garden where the devotee is instructed to pull out “weeds of old worries” and plant “only seeds of joys and achievements.”

First Verse Paragraph: “The echoes of the last year, its sorrow and laughter”

The speaker addresses his listener by asserting that the old year is gone, and the New Year is beginning. The old year had its “sorrow and laughter,” and the New Year promises encouragement and hope, and its “song-voice” graces the senses with the command, “Refashion life ideally!”

The sentiment is universally grasped with many folks making New Year’s resolutions. Most people want to improve their lives, so they determine how to do so and resolve that they will follow a new path that will lead to a better place.

Second Verse Paragraph: “Abandon the weeds of old worries”

In the second verse paragraph, the speaker employs the garden metaphor to liken the old problematic ways that to weeds that must be eliminated so that the new ways can prosper. The speaker instructs the metaphoric gardener to pull out the weeds of “old worries” and in their place plant “seeds of joys and achievements.” Instead of allowing the weeds of doubt and wrong actions to continue growing, the spiritual gardener must plant seeds of “good actions and thoughts, all noble desires.”

Third Verse Paragraph: “Sow in the fresh soil of each new day”

Continuing the garden metaphor, the speaker advises the spiritual aspirant to “sow in the fresh soil of each new day / Those valiant seeds.” After having sown those worthy seeds, the spiritual gardener must “water and tend them.” By careful attention to the worthy, good seeds of attitudes and habits, the devotee’s life will become “fragrant / With rare flowering qualities.”

Fourth Verse Paragraph: “The New Year whispers”

The speaker then personifies the New Year as a spiritual guide who gives sage advice through whispers: “Awaken your habit-dulled spirit / To zestful new effort. / Rest not till th’ eternal freedom is won / And ever-pursuing karma outwitted!” The beckoning New Year always promises a new chance to change old ways.

Fifth Verse Paragraph: “With joy-enlivened, unendingly united mind”

The speaker then offers a benediction of encouragement, giving the uplifting nudge to all those spiritual aspirants who wish to improve their lives, especially their ability to follow their spiritual paths. The speaker invites all devotees to “dance forward” together “With joy-enlivened, unendingly united mind.”

The speaker reminds his listeners that their goal is “To reach the Halcyon Home / Whence we shall wander no more.” The New Year always holds the promise, but the spiritual aspirant must do the heavy lifting to achieve the lofty goal of self-realization.

Other Yogananda Articles

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Paramahansa Yogananda

Songs of the Soul