Carpe Diem

I  was listening to Rajendra Dasji the other day speaking with Binode Bihari Baba. He said that the one-word definition of a Vaishnava is avyartha-kālatvam: He does not waste time, but gives every moment to service. This is what it means to "get serious." Isn't now the time?

Actually, a few years ago when I was in Rishikesh, I was occasionally visiting the Madhuvan temple not far from Ramjhula. This was one of the few places in the world where Kirtanananda Maharaj was still honored as a guru with all the trappings--a vyasasan, a book table selling his books, his picture on the altar, a private residential suite, and so on.

I happened to be there one day when he came for a visit when he was greeted by a mostly Indian audience of devotees. At the time he was in a pitiable physical state, in a wheelchair with one leg in a brace and stretched out embarrassingly in front of him.

Nevertheless, he delivered a short lecture on arrival, no doubt his ready to hand stump speech. His spiel was: "Surrender right now. Now is the time, this very instant, in the here and now! This is the very moment when Krishna wants you to surrender. Don't delay. Do it right now." And he repeated this in different ways, with great vigor.

Although at the time I took the speech as a gimmick, I was nevertheless stirred. Certainly the message is not to be scoffed at, whatever one thinks of the messenger and his motivation.

And now I am thinking: What am I doing wasting so many precious moments indulging my mind's constant thirst for distractions? Have I not heard a million times that this human body is a rare opportunity to attain glory? Even if it were only material glory I was searching for, could I afford to waste another second? But I know the futility of every variety of material glory -- at least in theory -- and yet I permit my moments to be stolen by trivial distractions.

Is it not stated a hundred times in the Bhāgavatam? It is the first thing that Shukadeva says:

śrotavyādīni rājendra nṛṇāṁ santi sahasraśaḥ

apaśyatām ātma-tattvaṁ gṛheṣu gṛha-medhinām

O King, there are thousands of topics to be heard, spoken and discussed in the homes of those human beings who are ignorant of the reality of the Self and are attached to household affairs.

dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣv ātma-sainyeṣv asatsv api

teṣāṁ pramatto nidhanaṁ paśyann api na paśyati

In their attached illusion that the impermanent family members, children and wife will always protect them, they do not see the real inevitability of their own oncoming death, even though it is happening right in front of their eyes.

nidrayā hriyate naktaṁ vyavāyena ca vā vayaḥ

divā cārthehayā rājan kuṭumba-bharaṇena vā

O King! Their nights are wasted in sleeping or in sex indulgence and their days in either chasing after wealth or in maintaining their family members. (SB 2.1.2-4)

tasmād bhārata sarvātmā bhagavān īśvaro hariḥ

śrotavyaḥ kīrtitavyaś ca smartavyaś cecchatābhayam

Therefore, O scion of the Bharata dynasty! One who desires fearlessness should hear about, glorify and also remember the Supreme Lord Hari, the soul of all beings and supreme controller, for he alone steals away all their miseries. (2.1.5)