Learn to Value Time

“Time is money” is a famous everyday expression. Time is important because it is in limited supply—there are only 24 hours in a day, and once lost, can never be regained. Time is not a commodity that can be recycled and while time may go on, our body does not.

Time is of essence because we have no idea how long we will live. We may not be here to see the next year, next month, tomorrow or even the next hour. Even astrologers, who are good at predicting the future, shy away from predicting the date/time of one’s death. If we knew exactly how many years or days we had left to live, they could be planned. And it is precisely this uncertainty of not knowing how long we will live, that makes time so valuable.

Here is an interesting story from the Mahabharat (quoted in verse 2.27 of the Bhagavad Gita) about the value of time and our limited life span. During the exile, one day, the Pandav brothers, spotted a lake. Yudhistir sent his brothers to get some water. They went one by one but none of them returned. Finally, when Yudhistir got there, a yakshas watching over the lake stopped and asked him 60 questions, the first one being, “What surprises you most?” He replied, “People are dying every day. It surprises me that those who are alive do not think that they too will die one day.”

It is true. We do not think this will happen to me too. We do not think that one day we will grow old and die—our body will not function as well as it does today, disease will dominate, and death is certain. Swamiji explains that there are six stages in the life cycle of the human body – asti (existence in the womb), jāyate (birth), vardhate (growth), vipariṇamate (procreation), apakṣhīyate (diminution), and vinaśhyati (death). In other words, souls that are granted this human form undergo the cycle of birth, disease, old age, and death—the material afflictions.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Shree Krishna explains to Arjun, to not lament for the body, for one that is born must die—it is his law. If we all have to die one day, then it seems logical that we should make the most of the time we have. Each day has 24 hours; each hour has 60 minutes; and each minute has 60 seconds. This results in 86,400 seconds per day! Out of all these seconds, stop to think about how many seconds we actually spend nourishing the soul i.e. contemplating on the divine names, forms, pastimes, abodes, and saints of Radha Krishna. 5 percent translates to 4,320 seconds which equates to 72 minutes or slightly over an hour.

So do we spend a minimum of an hour per day meditating upon Radha Krishna? It is easier to do than we think – this is because we do not have to be at the temple to do this; if fact, we do not even have to be sitting in front of a deity to do this. We can do this while at the gym or while taking a shower or while driving or playing golf or watching TV or cooking or eating or any number of activities. It can be done while we perform our everyday tasks. After all, the activity/task must be performed by the body and mediation of Guru and God must be done by the mind/intellect.

As Ravan lay on his deathbed, his primary teaching to Laxman was also to behave in a manner that values time. He guided Laxman to do good now but to wait before acting in a negative manner. This explains a very popular Indian saying, “What you have to do tomorrow, do it today. What you have to do today, do it now!”

Of all the lost things that can be regained, time is something that once lost, can never be gained back. It only moves forward, never backward. So let’s value the time we do have and engage in constant (nirantar) roopdhyan of Guru and God.