In English
The New Year, which you have called in today with the exit of the old year, has an auspicious name, . Your arranging this festival in honour of Saint on this day is indeed an auspicious way of welcoming the auspiciously named New Year. I congratulate you. I am coming often to inaugurate the festival, for I feel it is part of the task for which I have come. I may tell you that I am coming today straight from the very region where lived out his life. I find that you in this holy town of are not all imbued with devotion to the deity who has made it His home, . Most of the people here live on the Lord’s bounty or ‘property’ or ‘charity’. The income from the shrine of the Lord is utilised in running colleges and hospitals and in various other ways. That is to say, it is making the lives of many thousands happy and contented. I do not blame them for living upon the income of the Lord, for what does He want it for, if not for the needy and the hungry? But let Me add a warning. If it is eaten in excess, calamity will intervene. Eat as much as you deserve for the toil you have put in, for the hunger you have acquired by your exertions in a good cause. What is the toil that entitles you to consume the property of this shrine? What is the exertion that the Lord approves? Only spiritual toil and spiritual exertion can entitle you to the sacred share; only meditation and remembrance of God’s name, steeped in the thrill of devotion!