1991: Time is God

1991. Time is God

1 January 1991

The word Kaalam (Time) is derived from Kaa+alam. This means that God, embodiment of Time, is the One who rewards people according to their deserts. All things in the Cosmos, moving and unmoving, are permeated by God. Hence, God is characterised as Kaalagarbha (the One who holds Time in the womb). 

Time is the very form of God. Birth and death are encompassed by Time. Time wasted is life wasted. All your experiences are the results of your actions, whether it is happiness or sorrow, affluence or poverty. The fruits of your actions are determined by Time. The way you utilise your time determines the outcome.

Neither Sadhana (spiritual endeavour) nor Sadhyam (fulfilment) exists independently and apart from each other. It is a trick of the mind to make Sadhana as the means to Sadhyam (the Goal). True Sadhana consists in giving up the anaatma bhava (the idea that one is not the Spirit but the physical body). To turn the vision from the physical to the spiritual constitutes real Sadhana.

Bhakti and Jnana are the beginning and the end of the same process.  The sun's light can be compared to Jnana and the moon's light to Bhakti. The light from the sun is warm and effulgent. When the same light is radiated by the moon, it is cool and soothing. It is the same light that is present in the sun and the moon. Jnana is effulgent, while Bhakti (Devotion) is blissful. The whiteness of day represents Jnana (the higher knowledge). The darkness of night represents Ajnana (ignorance). Divinity transcends both knowledge and ignorance. Forgetting the Divine, people are immersed in the experience of the things of the world. The Divine can be experienced only through the Divine.

Valmiki, Nanda, Kuchela, Sabari, Vidura, and Hanuman are examples of devotees who realised God, but who could boast of no great lineage, wealth or scholarship. Their supreme quality was freedom from ego. All the accomplishments and acquisitions in this world are transient and impermanent; lured by them, men get inflated and ultimately court ruin. Hence, giving up the notions of one's own doership, man must regard God alone as the doer. Persons filled with conceit can never realise God.

Once upon a time all the deer in a forest met together in a conference. They arrived at a consensus that they were superior to the dogs in several respects; they could run faster and jump higher than dogs; they ate satwic food unlike the dogs, which ate Rajasic food. Therefore they passed a unanimous resolution amidst loud cheers that thereafter they should never be afraid of the dogs. They had hardly finished passing the resolution when they heard the loud barking of a dog in the forest. They lost no time in running away for their lives; their resolution was gone with the wind; not a single deer remained at the site of the conference.

If you want to experience God, you have to do it through your duties and actions. In the absence of any change for the better in your daily conduct, all your so- called sadhana (spiritual practices) will be futile. We should try to seek fulfillment in our day-to-day life by basing our mundane activities on spiritual values.

As I have been telling you off and on, you must have your hands in the society and head in the forest. As far as possible, avoid causing harm or pain to others. As you sow, so you reap. Whenever you feel disturbed by a sense of anger, envy, pride, jealousy and the like, be alert and resort to the contemplation of the Lord.

Points to Ponder

How should one use the time available each day in the journey along a two-lane road of devotion and knowledge towards the spiritual goal of "realizing the divinity"?