We all have very little time.
Yesterday we were in school, today we are working, earning money, having and maintaining a family. Tomorrow we will be old, we will retire from work and one day – die. We definitely have very little time. If you look back it will be as if it was only yesterday that we were in school. The time fled like frightened birds.
The question is why time is so short? What makes time short? Why do we have so little time? Why do we always say to others that we have little time and we have to hurry up? You must have noticed, we are always in a hurry. When we are walking, eating, driving, working, we are always in a hurry.
We have 70-80 years of life and we have a million goals, millions of things to achieve, all small and big in these 70-80 years of life. So the time required for each goal is hardly anything. And our goals increase everyday. If you divide the time of 70-80 years of life with the number of goals that we have we have an average time to achieve every goal – less than a minute and we invariably have to hurry, whether we achieve the goals or not. In the pursuit of our millions of goals we go mad. The goals are big, each and every goal is very bid indeed. They are gigantic. To achieve them takes time, definitely not less than a minute. So, this makes time so short. This makes us run around like fanatics. We do not have time to breath, to relax and have fun. It is most of the time a do or die situation.
Time comes into the picture because there is a limit – the fact that we will die one day, which is not very far puts a limit and brings time into the picture. For us everything has to be done in time, otherwise we will miss it, we will be late and death is approaching. So we run, we fight, we kill, only to achieve our goals.
This is not only with you, it is with all the people in the planet. Starting from the beggar in the street to the highest of emperors – everybody is running after their goals. The goals may differ in magnitude – but the struggle to achieve them is same, humans have limitations and the struggle and the strive to achieve is the same for all human beings. Humans cannot be strained beyond a certain limit. Even while striving, the maximum effort that we can put is the same for all, the maximum human effort is the same for all, the goal may be different – different in magnitude, different in what we want to achieve. But the strain we go through is same for all. And all of us have a time limit. The same limit. Death limits us. One day we all will die. This makes us all same, whether we are an emperor, or whether we are a beggar in the street, we are same.
The question is whether these goals are utmost necessary? Will we not live without these goals? What will happen to us if we do not have or run after goals? From where do these goals arise? Why do we chase our goals like mad people and would go any extent to achieve them? What will happen when we achieve these goals?
Let us see from where these goals come and are they utterly necessary:
You must understand that we are internally strained and there is a lump of energy inside us – we were born with it and this energy needs to be released; this is our objective. We know that a baby cries the moment he or she is born – this proves the fact that we were born with some uneasiness. From where this uneasiness has come. A new born baby need not be strained at all – mentally or physically. But the baby cries the moment he or she is born. There must be some uneasiness. We have been taught not to cry, we have been taught that only cowards cry so now we have stopped crying, but no one has taught this new born baby not to cry but still the baby cries.Crying is the only way to express this uneasiness for the baby. This itself proves that there was previous birth. It proves that the baby carried this uneasiness or excess energy from its previous life. This proves that there was life before birth and there will be life after death. The uneasiness that is there will be carried to your next life, if not mitigated in this life.
Our objective is to bring this stress or energy we were born with to a null. But we don’t know how to, so we blame the external conditions for this state of us. Since we are strained inside, we have an uneasiness inside and this uneasiness we call unhappiness. And because of this uneasiness we are constantly looking for happiness – all around we are looking for happiness. If we were not unhappy, why would we look for happiness, it is very simple. Whoever we see happy, we tend to follow them. We see a rich man, we see a apparently happy couple, we see someone driving a good car, we see someone doing good business, we ASSUME that they are happy and we make what they have today into our goal tomorrow ASSUMING THAT WE WILL BE HAPPY WHEN WE HAVE WHAT THEY HAVE TODAY. We are so much into our search for happiness that we fail to see that they are also strained inside and no matter what they have today will not make them stop.They were also born with the same unhappiness. This is how we decide our goals. Our search for happiness, because we are strained inside, leads us to look for happiness outside and imitate what we see, hoping that we will be happy tomorrow, if we follow others. Our goal is nothing but imitation of others. We are so ignorant that we do not know that they are also under the same strain inside, they are not free either and are looking for happiness around.
You must have seen that we are making or chasing goals at all points of our lives .This is because we are not happy with with what we are doing or having now. There is still to achieve because we are not yet satisfied. But the truth is that we will not be satisfied unless the uneasiness is completely done away with. If we look back, it is not that we have not achieved anything – we have – but are not satisfied yet. We have till date achieved a lot, but it is not enough. We want to have more. We are not satisfied, there is an uneasiness always present within always and all the time. If the uneasiness would not have been there, we would not have had goals at all. Then we would not have been looking for happiness. But it is not the case. No matter how much we achieve, there is need for more. We just do not want to stop, ever. These goals are our driving force. This uneasiness inside makes the world around. Without these, what would we do. But it is also a fact that no matter how much we achieve, there is need for even more. After achieving one goal, the uneasiness goes for some time, but soon the uneasiness comes again and again we start running. And at the same time, time is running out. This strains us more. Very little time and so much to achieve.
Lets say, suddenly you have achieved all your goals that you have had till date – what after that? Will we stop or we will again start running? Will ever a day come when we will have nothing to achieve?
It is a fact that we will die one day, but what is there for the rush? Why are we rushing, fighting and straining ourselves so much? What will happen if we know that we will die tomorrow? Where will the goals be at that time? We will invariable give them up? It would be foolishness to try and achieve those goals in a day’s time and at the same time impossible. One day before our death, we will still remain who we are. The rush and the fight will be foolishness.
We assume that we will live till 70 or 80, but it is just and assumption. The 70-80 years of life is an assumption based on observation, and this gives us some time to pursue our goals and make all achievements. But death can come anytime.
So all our goals are based on assumption that we still have time to be happy – but very little time. We may die the next moment. Since our goals are based on assumption, the time we would take to achieve the goal is also assumption – But the question is still not answered.The question is why a goal at all? – whether we have time or no time at all – why is there a question of a goal?
This, like I said before, is because we are uneasy inside and in the process to do away with the uneasiness, we create goals by looking at others, which creates further uneasiness. We are constantly falling into a trap.
When things go wrong in our lives, we are sad not because of the event, we are tense because we don’t know when will it get over and we will be back to normal again. The question is again of time. We are tensed because we are running out of time. For us normal means chasing goals and aiming a good life. For us even normal is also not without time. Time is always a factor.
To have goals we need time – because whenever we have a goal, we will have to achieve them and will consume time. So Time is required for goals.
We will not have goals under two conditions 1) If we have infinite time 2) If we have no time at all.
If we have infinite time, even if we have goals, we will not hurry – we would stop. Everything would stop. All the hurry and running in our lives will immediately stop. We have experienced that whenever a deadline is postponed, we immediately relax. We slow down. We then do whatever we want to do, we play around, watch a movie, go for a holiday – If the deadline is extended till infinity – you would stop working because the goal will no longer exist. The presence of limited time brings the goal into the picture.
So infinite time gives to complete FREEDOM. Time makes you a prisoner. So, if the time we have is increased till infinity – we would completely relax and would be completely free. Or if we make ourselves completely free – it would mean we have infinite time – we would become deathless.
If we have no time at all – then there would be no goal – even if there is goal, there is not time to achieve it – so having a goal becomes meaningless.
If you live in this moment, you have infinite time and if we have infinite time – we come back to this moment, we start living in this moment. Actually, both having no time at all, and having infinite time are one and the same, because in both cases, a goal or a target to achieve is meaningless.The way to infinite time is having no goal at all.
Only a BUDDHA lives in infinite time or no time at all. Both these situations are same. A Buddha is immortal.
We mortals live in between. We live in time. Neither do we live in this moment nor in infinite time. This makes us mortals. Living in time brings us immense misery.
I agree that we will live for 80 years. But what is the need of having a goal? All our goals are for happiness. We think that if we achieve our goals, we will be happy, but we have witnessed that we are never contented – there is always an uneasiness inside. One goal after the other, this and that, this place or that, but we are never contented. We always feel that we need more time but there is always lack of time. We need to be free to do what we want. What is the need to do what we like? We think that doing what we like to do, will make us happy. But this never happens, there is no end to it.
The question always is to be happy – but unfortunately whatever we do, wherever we go, we are never happy – we are continuously, without fail, night and day, in pursuit of happiness – why this pursuit does not end? We are constantly in pursuit of happiness because we are continuously unhappiness inside. This is because of the constant uneasiness inside. And we were born with this uneasiness. This has to be understood.
We see that all of us are pursuing happiness. There is a great need for all of us to be happy.
Happiness is the goal of us mortals because we have little time. This little time leads us to setting goals and increase our internal strain that we were born with; and in that short time he or she has to be happy. The Day you stop pursuing happiness, you become immortal, because then you are not bound by time.
Actually the problem is not with the outside, the problem is the strain inside of all of us. The constant uneasiness is our problem. And we keep blaming the outside, whoever or whatever it may be, for our problems. We blame the outside because we do not know from where this uneasiness comes. We are ignorant. It has to come from somewhere. So we blame others for this uneasiness. The outside cannot solve our problems no matter what we do. No matter how much success we achieve or no matter how much we gain, this uneasiness is to remain unless it is understood and mitigated. This is independent of our achievements or failures in this world.
This is with all of us starting from the greatest of Kings to the beggar on the street. The need to be happy all the time, no matter how much we achieve success the strain and uneasiness remains and we never stop our pursuit for happiness no matter how much success we achieve – suggests that there is tension or uneasiness constantly present inside us and this tension we have inside has nothing to do with the success or failure we come across in our lives.
This tension or uneasiness has nothing to do with success or failure in the material world. This has nothing to do with what work we do – it does not matter what we achieve or not achieve, it is not dependent on whether we aim big or we aim small. This strain will go away when we go beyond the chains of time. when we become infinity, the day we realize that we have no death. This will go the day we become a BUDDHA.
This is nothing personal with the uneasiness inside – you were born with it. Every baby is born with it. Otherwise you would not have cried the moment you were born. And the mother and the father of the child starts covering the uneasiness to stop the child cry. They give the baby every comfort, every toy as per their capacity to stop the baby cry – they cannot help it because they are connected with the baby with so much love. The child grows up and becomes a man, then he starts covering his own uneasiness with things – sometimes he wants money, sometimes a car and sometimes a girlfriend or boyfriend.
This uneasiness is the driving force – due to this uneasiness we work to cover up our inner turmoil – we work to keep ourselves engaged all day, we work to earn money so that we can give ourselves the toys we love and cover up the uneasiness.But the uneasiness does not go. We keep buying toys for ourselves but the uneasiness or energy does not get mitigated.
We mistakenly think that this uneasiness will go if achieve success in the material world. We think that when we achieve this or that, this uneasiness will go, but the happiness that will come with the this success will be just a very small cover for the ever existing uneasiness inside. THIS UNEASINESS IS INDEPENDENT OF THE SUCCESS OR FAILURE IN THIS MATERIAL WORLD. But we add fuel to this uneasiness. We strain ourselves. We are strained already, but we,instead of relieving ourselves, strain ourselves more and more.
We fall in a trap. We know that our time is limited. It is true as long as we not realize that we are timeless. The strain that we carry with ourselves from our birth till date is there and we add further strain to it. Since there is a strain, we are always uneasy inside and in order to do away with this strain. We do not understand that the strain is not ours, it is carried from our previous birth and with this strain we are always sad, depressed and uneasy. In order to mitigate this uneasiness, we create goals and think that we would be happy when we achieve our goals. And our goals have to be time bound, because we have little time.This strains us even more and adds to the strain. When we fail to achieve our goals, we add to the strain further because we have lost precious time. The point is not about failing to achieving the goal, the strain is about loosing time and having lesser and lesser time. Our all fears are about loosing time, that is why we do not try anything that is time consuming – because we fear that all the time will be gone and there will be no time to be happy. And whenever we try we put a time limit – it has to be because we mortals are not infinite yet. If we would have had infinite time, the failure would not have made any difference to us. This loosing of time leaves us with more strain because everyday, as time passes, we are left with lesser and lesser time and more and more strain. strain because the goals and the achievements remain the same only time decreases. The number of goals and targets always increase in number and the time decreases leading to more strain.
So the existing strain that we have been carrying from our previous birth, makes us set more goals towards happiness and this leads to further strain. So our goals add fuel to fire.
We have to understand that we have not yet realized our ultimate potential – that is to be a BUDDHA. This will happen the day we have completely done away with the strain inside that we are carrying. Though we have the potential to be a Buddha. Every human being has this potential in him or her. On that day, the strain that we have been carrying for centuries will be completely done away with, and simultaneously all goals will be done away with. We would become timeless and deathless. We would become a Buddha. But this has to happen in its own accord. Whenever the time comes it will happen, but we have to prepare the ground for it to happen. It will happen when the ground is ready. But we misunderstand and think that to mitigate this ever existing stress inside, we need to be happy and set goals for ourselves. We set more and more goals and strain ourselves further with decreasing time.
What we need to do:
1. Stop Pursuing Happiness – Pursue something tough, something you have never done before – something out of the world – Delete the word happiness from your dictionary – Because happiness is not your goal – Understand your goal.
2. Understand that our ultimate goal is to do away with this ever existing internal stress completely and be a Buddha, this is our ultimate goal, no matter how many goals we have on the way.
3. Understand that we are still not a Buddha,still not timeless and infinite but at the same time we have the potential to be a Buddha. Every human being has.
4. We are still mortals, we have to live in this world with others. So instead of having millions of goals and trying to mitigate the stress by having more and more goals, have ONLY ONE goal in this life. And slowly do away with all other goals. Whatever ONE goal you have, make it timeless by keeping the deadline at INFINITY. Lesser the goals, more the time. Remember that the day we have no goal, we become immortals. We become free. The Goal is in INFINITY because, to completely rule out the possibility of being happy after achievement of the goal. And we have one goal, so no question of any happiness.
5. We have to be brave, because in the process towards to out goal placed at infinity, lot of people will come an go, lot of connections will break, there will be a lot of pain and misery, but you should not get distracted. This will lead to non-attachment (This is the message of the Bhagwad Gita).
6. Always remember that whatever stress is there in the form of emotions, we have inside, has nothing to do with what happens outside and whatever action we do, will not mitigate the stress. But we should not add more energy to it.
7. Understand that the all our problems are because of the stress inside, which we have been carrying from our previous birth – not to involve the external situation for our emotions.
8. Be impersonal to the stress in the form of emotions that we have inside.
This way we prepare the ground. And then one day when the time is perfect, the stress and uneasiness inside will completely vanish leaving you TIMELESS and INFINITE. You will be a BUDDHA.
Onami 