Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Bhakti and Time Management

I hope the following realisations I have had may be of some use to the devotees - please forgive me if there are any mistakes:

  • Time is the most obvious representation of Krishna within our direct experience (pratyaksha). Time cannot be seen but we definitely agree that it exists because we directly experience it's effects, namely growth and deterioration of all things. In the same way, we cannot see God with our material eyes but we see the symptoms of God's existence in His creation - one such symptom is time.
  • Therefore managing time effectively is effectively bhakti.
  • Krishna says He is time, the destroyer in Bhagavad-gita.
  • To manage our time in the best way is one way to make sure we don't waste Krishna's energy.
  • One of the symptoms of an advanced devotee according to Nectar of Devotion is that he doesn't like to waste one second engaging in anything other than Krishna's service.
  • In this regard, Prabhupada gives the example of a drunkard. He spends every second trying to find alcohol, he'll even pick bottles off the floor and drink the last drop, whenever he talks to someone, he'll ask them for money to buy a drink with. In the same way, we should spend all our time trying to serve Krishna. Not a second should go where we are engaged in maya's service.
  • When we plan our time, we should leave a slack time just in case we experience some unexpected delay.
  • But if we leave too much slack, we may do things too slowly thinking we have extra time, so we must work as if we don't have much time - after all in Krishna Consciousness, we try and remember that death can come at any moment.
  • In this regard efficiency is important. For example, when cleaning pots, we try and get them as clean as possible, but we don't waste excessive time trying to get them 100% shiny if it is going to leave less time for other important activities also.
  • Similarly, the saying goes that we should work as if everything depends on us but know that everything depends on Krishna. In terms of time this means to make the best use of the time we have, but know that ultimately although time seems fixed, Krishna can make arrangements to give us time to do more service if we endeavour and that is our sincere desire.
  • There is also a saying "Prepare for the worst but expect the best" - plan our time as if we will take longer than normal to do our activities, but pray to Krishna and expect that He will empower us to complete our duties quickly and efficiently for His pleasure.

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