You just now bid farewell to last year (2016) and welcomed a New Year (2017). There is an intimate relationship between the two. We give farewell to one and welcome the other. In the same spirit, bid farewell to your bad qualities and welcome good and divine qualities. Offer all your bad qualities to God; it is nothing wrong. Only God can accept them and bestow His grace on you to foster good qualities. For example, if you have a soiled, torn and defaced hundred rupee currency note, no one will accept it. But, if the number is intact, the Reserve Bank will accept it and replace it with a valid currency of same value. Similarly God alone will accept the bad qualities, provided they are offered with sincere devotion and repentance, and will then shower His Grace on you.

- Divine Discourse, Jan 1, 1994.