The urgency of self-realisation

Jagadguru Adi Shankaracharya illuminated us through his teachings the righteous path extolled in our sastras – realise your true self in this human life and attain moksha–freedom from the cycle of birth and rebirth. A sense of urgency is called for in a short mortal journey – cleanse ourselves, find a guru, learn sastras under him to progress along the spiritual path.

Are we committed in the first place and what about the intensity of this quest? A human life with emphasis during the initial years on learning and throughout one’s life meeting the daily quota of sleep for rejuvenation is already riddled with reduced time. 

To know our true nature, we have 2.5 billion seconds. Seems a lot, but the initial step into a spiritual path is the first obstacle.  Mind hankers for unwanted pursuits which make us feel rejuvenated, temporarily though. Or 42.5 million minutes to wobble around in activities that lend no substance to our life.  Or a further nudge reveals that there is only seven lakh hours, but we tend to scream “only one life, so let me enjoy to the extent that I create many joyous moments.”

Or upon further analysis it’s 30,000 days which appears ‘not many.’  The justification now is from another angle – “there is only so much time; allow me to drift in pursuit of my passion.”  Once again fleeting, to say the least!

Turning to the weeks, where and how do I spend those 4,200 weeks?!  Is it by living the life as we know now:  week-after-week passes by fast – a Monday through Friday, with two weekend days marked for cooling off from an arduous week?  The results are we become weak in our knees!

Or this mortal body is earmarked for 1,000 months.  When we jog down the memory lane there are moments of triumphs and tribulations.  Can there not be one satsang-related or self-introspection based momentous day which lends a sparkle, termed progress along the spiritual path?

Or finally, it is down to some 80 years which appears long enough but then would fly by fast.  Life expectancy in India is at 78-80 years.  Here is an earnest attempt to become aware that there is little time to achieve our one purpose in life!

Can we enhance our spiritual urge to progress in available shelf-life towards our one purpose – Who Am I?