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The value of time

Last Updated 05 May 2016, 04:42 IST

There are a lot of things in this world that can be found again it they happen to be lost. If a person happens to lose money, there is always the possibility of making up that loss through hard work in future. Similarly if we suffer from blemishes in our character, it is possible to reform them through self effort. But there is one thing that we can never regain and that is time.

This is why spiritual masters teach us the inestimable value of time and exhort spiritual seekers to be vigilant and aware of the value of time. Time that is spent in selfless service or meditation becomes eternal. Viewed in larger terms, time is detached and remains supremely unaffected by the dualities of life. It maintains the same speed throughout. It is the human mind that persuades itself that time passes quickly in times of joy and slowly in times of sorrow but this is a mental construction.

As the late Hanumat Kali Vara Prasada Maharaj expressed it: “We have a lot to learn from time. Just as time remains unaffected by either heat or coolness, by loss or gain, by day or night, by sorrow or happiness, so also must man be spiritually trained to face the ordeals of life with patience and remain unaffected by the dualities of life.”

Time is also a great equaliser. It treats all like and makes no exceptions. It is like a bank. It credits us with twenty four hours every day. We can earn interest on this deposit by utilizing it in the pursuit of our spiritual objectives. It is also a great teacher because it teaches us the profound indisputable truth that nothing is ours.

While it is freely available on the one hand, it is priceless on the other.
Time also teaches us patience. It consistently gives us the message that what happened in the past is history and what will happen in the future is a mystery. Steering clear of both, it urges us to live in the gift of the present.

There is deep meaning in this teaching.

The human mind is so conditioned that it always contemplates the past or dreams about the future that it fails to recognize the divinity of the present.

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(Published 05 May 2016, 04:42 IST)

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