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Posted on: Oct 18, 2014

NATURAL CALAMITIES: WHO'S RESPONSIBLE?

- A Panel Discussion

PART 06

Time Waste is Life Waste

KSM: Let us talk about wastage of time. Swami says time is God. As a student and as an academician, what do you know about Baba's advice regarding wastage of time?

DA: Swami is very particular that not a moment should be wasted. In fact He is so particular that we should follow His advice. There was a veteran devotee who was serving Bhagawan in Trayee Brindavan for a long time. Swami called him from His room. At that time, this devotee was going down with a flask of coffee to keep it on the table and thought, “Swami has called me but let me just go and keep this flask. Then I will have free hands to serve Swami.”

When he went up after a minute, Swami asked him, “Why have you come?” He said, “Swami you called me.” Swami said “I called you one minute earlier. I did not call you now. You can go, the work is done.”

KSM: I believe Swami also reminded him, “When you or any of my devotees are in trouble and you call me for rescue, for example you are in a traffic accident and there is a car coming straight on to you and you say ‘Swami save me’ and if I say ‘Ok, let me put My flask away and go a minute later to save you’, things can end up very ugly. So when I respond to your prayers at that very moment regardless of where you are, I also expect you to respond to My command at that time.”

DA: But I think if we really surrender to Bhagawan, He will come even before we call Him.

There was an instance when Dr. Hislop was going from here to Brindavan and Swami had already left. They hired a cab and while they were overtaking a truck, they did not see a bus coming from the opposite direction. They had a head-on collision but did not have it because the bus and the car passed through each other in a fraction of a second. When they reached Brindavan, Swami called Dr. Hislop and told him, “When that moment of crisis arrived, you did not even remember to call My name. But even then I came to protect and save you.”

So I think it is always important for us to value time because Swami says time is God. Time once gone will never come back again. That is why whatever we have to do in this life, we have to do it right here and now – live in the present and make the best of it. Swami says the best way is to spend our present moment well.

One of the students who was from a Brahmin family came to Bhagawan and asked on his birthday, “Swami give me a mantra. I want to chant a mantra.” Swami said, “Why do you need a mantra? I have already given the mantra and that is ‘Love all, Serve all. Help ever hurt never.’”

He said, “No Swami I want a personal special mantra for myself. My father told me to get it from Swami.” Swami said, “There is nothing special and secret. If Arjuna were to say, ‘The whole Bhagavad Gita is privately and personally given to me and I will not share it’, it doesn't make sense because society has to benefit, but I will give you a mantra.”

The mantra which Swami gave him really tells us the value of time. Swami said, “The mantra I will give you is this and you must practice it – Lavvu, Navvu, ‘Now’vu.” It means love – arouse that spring of love in your heart, navvu – smile and laugh and spread joy to everybody, and now – in the present moment.

Live in the present moment, arouse love in your heart and bring a smile on your face - that is the best way to live life on this earth.

KSM: As opposed to what He often told us not to maintain – a castor oil face.

One Must Keep Oneself Constructively Occupied

GS: I am here from 1979 ever since He started the college, Swami was always insisting about one thing – “Keep the boys busy from morning till evening. You have to keep them busy in a positive manner with something or the other all the time.”

Every minute give them some work or the other so that there is no time for them to think of things which can really harm them. That is how you pack the entire schedule from morning till evening. Bhagawan Baba was insisting from day one, that we have Omkaram and Suprabhatam in the early hours, immediately go for jogging, yogasanas and running and then come back and take bath, then go for breakfast, and immediately rush to college. Swami said there should not be a single free period in college. He said that all the periods should be occupied with one lecture or the other.

In the beginning from 1979 to 1981 it was a degree college and teachers sometimes went on leave. When a teacher was on leave, during the period that the teacher was supposed to take, what were the boys expected to do? He called the Principal in those days, Mr. Amarendra and told him to ask some other teacher to engage that period.

Generally we don't do this in degree colleges. We do it in high schools but Swami said, “How does it make any difference? Even in the degree college you should do it.” On most occasions, I was asked to go and engage the free periods. I teach B. A. students but when a teacher teaching B. Com. students was on leave, I was asked to go there. I gave them lectures on the First and Second World Wars to keep them engaged – to give them some general knowledge also.

Lunch time is just sufficient for them to finish lunch and rush back to college. Immediately after college you have sports and some students come to Mandir, batch by batch regularly. After bhajans are over they immediately get into their routine and study hours are there. Till 10 o' clock in the night the students' schedule is totally packed.

KSM: It is so well-regulated that by the time they hit their beds they would just sleep off because they have been so constructively engaged. It goes against this new age idea of ‘downtime’ and ‘me time’. You just keep them constructively engaged.

Before we conclude today's discussion, I would like to hear your final thoughts.

GS: Swami said, “The time schedule is so well packed. Don't think it is going to be strenuous with the students because they are very energetic. Their energy is to be positively utilised and channelised perfectly. You should give them good health, good body and a good mind. This is very very important. You put them on the right track by utilising all the time.”

Swami tries to convince us and tell us one very interesting thing – “I am reminding you of this fact, which is there in India through the spiritual texts given to the entire world. TIME IS GOD – ‘Kaalaya Namah, Kaala Kaalaya Namah, Kaalaateetaya Namah, Kaala Swaroopaya Namah.’ God is the very embodiment of time. If you waste time, you are wasting something very significant in your life because you can never get back in life a second which is gone; impossible. Time is the most sacred thing in one's life and is to be worshipped. Every second of your life you should be conscious and use time to sanctify your life. If you are wasting time, you are committing a big sin.”

You never know when people may come to you. At 12 o' clock in the night when you are sleeping if they come and say, “I need your help” you can't say, “No, I am sleeping now.” That is the right time to help somebody because that time is going to be sanctified and utilized in the best manner. Time is God is the concept to be taught to students and even elderly people.

Swami said that every teacher, every wife or husband, and every person should understand that whatever we are doing at the back of our mind we should always chant the name of God. Even while cooking it is possible for you to say ‘Sairam Sairam’. If you are reading, you can still think ‘Sairam Sairam’ and have the picture of God in your mind. You can slowly get used to this.

It becomes a part of your routine, your thinking, your psyche and a part of your body that you become a spiritual being because you are rightly utilising time. Though you are involved in some work, you are actually chanting the mantra at the back of your mind. The most important thing is to use time for a spiritual purpose while being in the world. You are doing a worldly thing and also spiritualising it. The result is going to be spiritualised. The output is going to be something very significant which is going to help you and also society.

That is why Bhagawan Baba said, “First of all train your mind. That is possible by utilising time properly.” That is why we must remember the sutra, ‘Kaalaya Namah, Kaala Kaalaaya Namah, Kaalateetaya Namah, Kaala Swaroopaya Namah’ – ‘Time is God.’

KSM: We should revere it, worship it and utilise it well.

GS: We better remember this point. From childhood if we teach children all these things, they will imbibe it because they are innocent. According to Swami, the mistake lies with the parents and the teachers. Children are very good always. They are ready to take what we give them but we are not giving them the right things. We should not blame them. Parents and teachers are to be properly trained. Swami said, “Pack their time from morning till evening.” As you said, they sleep when they hit the bed because they are so tired; early to bed and early to get up is very important.

KSM: And they have no mind space for distractions and negative thoughts because they are constructively engaged.

DA: I think we had a beautiful discussion but I would like to summarise our thoughts. Mahatma Gandhi once said that the earth provides enough to satisfy everyone's need, but not everyone's greed – not even one person's greed.

KSM: Never mind the greed of nine billion of us collectively! We need many more planets to satisfy our greed.

DA: Corporates today must understand this.

GS: But pardon me, we won't spare other planets also.

DA: In our enlightened self-interest, corporates should really understand that if we really want to sustain our businesses and have a long-term view, we have to take care of the environment because this spaceship Earth is the only one we have. Once we destroy it, we have nowhere to go in the whole universe.

KSM: We are all going down together!

DA: For that, we have to master the mind. The individual has to master the mind and corporate leadership must also create circumstances and master the minds of not only themselves but also all the corporate employees and their stakeholders and tell them that it is for our own selves, investing in our own future, that we must take care of the environment.

As I said we must always remember that the goal of life is self-enlightenment and self-realization – merging and going back to the source. In fact, we do not know whether we will live tomorrow or not. There is a story in Mahabharata. When everything was done and Yudhishthira was giving away lots of alms to people, some sages were still left little late in the night. He told Bheema to send them away and call them the next morning and that he would give them the requisite alms.

He also made an announcement and put a big bell outside the palace. He declared that if anybody saw a very strange or unusual thing, they must ring the bell and he would immediately attend. After some time, Yudhisthira hears the bell ring very loudly. He comes out and sees Bheema himself. He says, “Bheema what is wrong with you? Did I not tell you that we are getting very late for the palace proceedings and we send those particular sages off? Why did you ring the bell?”

Bheema said, “Today I have seen a man who knows tomorrow perfectly.” Yudhishthira asked, “Who is that man?” Bheema said, “It is you, oh king.” Yudhishthira says, “How can I know about tomorrow?” Bheema then said, “You just now sent those sages back. That means you are hundred percent sure that you will live till tomorrow, those sages will live till tomorrow, and you will have the kingdom and you will have the ability to give them alms tomorrow. That means you have perfectly seen tomorrow.” Yudhishthira realised his mistake and said, “Immediately call those sages. I will not go to bed until I give them alms.”

We do not know about tomorrow. Today is the time that we have to live in true Lavvu, Navvu and Now-vu - in the present moment, with love and smile. Swami says we have to move forward. Swami says we have the four continuums. Vyakti - we love ourselves very much but we have to expand this love to Vyashti, to society, and then expand it further on to Prakriti, nature, and only then we will be able to go back to the source that is Parameshti. That is the realization and the summum bonum of our lives.

If we don't have that focus and live in a narrow-minded fashion, we have not lived a life at all. We should not call ourselves devotees of Bhagawan because Bhagawan always says that expansion is life and contraction is death. We have to always keep in mind in life the principle that Bhagawan lived by and taught us.

KSM: Very powerful words. Prof. Gangadhar Sastry and Dr. Deepak Anand, Thank you so very much for joining us. Sai Ram.

Sairam Sir.

GS: Sairam.

DA: Sairam.