Time, The Ultimate Thief

Time is a thief who steals physical health, mental health and spiritual well-being from us.

At the physical level, as we grow older, we all believe that our health deteriorates. At the mental level, when we are continuously aware of it, time steals our peace of mind and creates stress in us.

Time can be perceived in two ways: chronological time and psychological time. We are all aware of chronological time; it is what we see on our clocks and is measured in seconds, minutes, days, etc. In Bharat, we have a psychological concept of time which is measured by kshana, or the gap between one thought and another. All our stress is the result of internalizing chronological time, which is required in the outer world, and using it in our inner world, where it cannot be applied. If we understand this one idea, we can liberate ourselves from stress, without any technique. We may feel

Time, the Ultimate Thief

that being stress-free is too good to be true but it is possible. All our stress is the result of misunderstanding and confusing these two different concepts of time.

Chronological time is the time that we use for our daily activities and we all know it very well. For example, if you have to pick up someone at the airport at 11 pm, you say to yourself, 'I will come home after the office at 7 pm, have a shower and be ready by 8 pm, have dinner by 9 pm and leave for the airport. I will reach the airport by 10:45 pm. This is chronological planning and is perfectly alright.

Now, let us analyze psychological time, which is the gap between two thoughts. Have you ever noticed that when you are with a friend whom you really like, you don't realize how quickly time passes? On the other hand, if you are sitting with someone who is boring, you will check your watch every ten minutes and feel like time isn't moving fast enough! This is because, when you are joyful with a person whom you like, there are not so many thoughts that pass through your mind. The kshana, or time gap between two thoughts, is large. And when this happens, a lot of time passes without your knowledge but, when you are with a person who makes you bored, your mind starts chewing on a lot of other thoughts and the gap, or kshana, between thoughts becomes very small, and you get the feeling a lot of time has gone past. The larger the number of thoughts you have, the more slowly time seems to move; the smaller the number of thoughts, the more relaxed you are and time flies.

The more you think of time, the higher your stress level will become, the less efficient you will become, and the less likely you will be to meet your target, and this will result in more stress. Thus, we travel in a vicious circle, reducing our intelligence, skills and capacity, because we remember time, again and again. Stress not only affects your mind, it also affects your body. For instance, if you sit in your office and worry, even if you don't do any work, you will develop shoulder pain! How many of you have experienced it? Come on, raise your hands. [Many raise their hands].

Stress is not just a mental problem; it becomes a physical problem, too. People often tell me, 'I know it's wrong but I get stressed all the time.' The main reason for that is the large number of thoughts that continuously remind us of time and create stress. If our thoughts are reduced, we won't notice time moving and we will be less stressed.

In ancient Bharat, there was a practice called kayakalpa, to reverse the aging process. According to the philosophy, as you age, you become healthier, because your body and mind are better trained to live in the world. If you are trained in driving and become a good driver, you can drive without any effort. In the same way, as the years pass, you should master the art of living in this world and live better every passing day. They say, as you grow older, you are not supposed to fall sick or have stress, because you should know the logic of the world and, therefore, be more intelligent, healthy and spontaneous. However, that is not true from our experience! We don't experience it this way. We experience more pain

and more misery as we grow older. We complain more as we grow older.

An old couple moved into the neighbouring city of their daughter in the USA. One day, there was a hurricane warning announced in the daughter's city, so she sent her two children to the grandparents' place to keep them safe. Two days passed and the hurricane did not happen but she got a telegram back, 'Take children, send hurricane.'

The older we grow, the more difficult we find managing things. Everything bothers us. Anything is a cause for complaint. What has happened? Where are we missing it? The missing link is our idea of time, and continuously being reminded of chronological time, because of the increased number of thoughts.

If we change two things, we can make it a reality: first, the perception of our body. We always think, as we age, our body gets old and diseased. It is not necessarily true but that is our perception. We may question it by saying, when we get old, we really do feel tired and it's not our imagination but you don't know the power of your mind. Your mind can simply make you old or young; it can make you tired or energetic, in just a few seconds. When you are in the peak of tiredness, it can make you energetic with just a passing thought.

During my days of wandering in my pre-enlightenment period, I went to a place in Tibet where the Lamas live. I was told that people there live very long lives. I saw an elderly man working in the fields. I asked him, 'Do people here live long? Please tell me about it.' He laughed and said, 'Yes, it is true. People here live very long. I am 136 years old.' I was shocked. That man was considered to be middle-aged there. And there were others who were 200 or more! There were medical records to show he was actually 136 years of age. And he was working on the farm at 136. I couldn't believe it, just like you all now! They showed me a report by researchers from Wisconsin University, who worked with them to study their bodies and understand why they live longer.

According to the scientists, their bodies work just like ours; they are no different, even genetically. They conclude there is something beyond the body that makes them live longer. None of the Lamas could give any reason for their long lives but they all had a strong belief that human beings are supposed to live up to 300 years! That was the key to the whole thing! You need to understand this deeply. If someone died at 200, it was considered an unnatural death! Just the belief that humans are supposed to live till 300, actually made them live till 300! I later read a report by scientists that said our bodies continuously rejuvenate and replace themselves and can do so for 300 years.

So our perception about our bodies must change. Our mind has such tremendous power that, whatever we believe, we have the capacity to make a reality. That is why people who see horror movies, continuously, start imagining and seeing ghosts. If we watch one horror movie every night for ten days in a row, on the eleventh day we will see a ghost, or think we are seeing ghosts when a curtain moves. Our mind has the capacity to make anything a reality. The first basic idea or our perception of time at the physical level is incorrect. Our thinking that the more we age, the more we fall sick, is wrong.

Next, at the psychological level, again and again remembering time will stress us out and disturb our whole being. The more thoughts we have, the more they remind us that time is ticking and that we have less time. That is why we call hell, 'eternal hell'. There is a wonderful Zen saying, 'If you want to delay anything, do it as fast as possible.'

When we have too many thoughts, we do not have the satisfaction that we have lived our lives. Whatever products we deliver, even if we do it on time, will be of much higher quality if we are less stressed. If the concept of chronological time is not internalized, our unleashed potential will be much higher.

By nature, the concept of time is negative. Especially in the West, the passage of time indicates you are moving towards the negative aspects of your life. The other day, an old lady came late for the meditation program in the U.S. I asked her why she was late. She explained she had to do her hair and make up. I asked her why she would bother with it at her age, when she knows the chemicals are harmful for her body. I was shocked to hear her say that in this society, you need to look young and compete with youngsters! The more time passes, the more you face the negative aspects of life.

When we remember time, again and again, we unconsciously infuse dullness into our being; the very remembrance of time is enough to pull our energy level down and increase our stress. We are just pulled and pushed; we never live in the present. Psychological time steals our peace. That is why I call it the ultimate thief.

When we come to the present, our number of thoughts reduces; we don't realize how time rolls, and automatically, the idea of time disappears. When we are in the present moment, a tremendous potential will be unleashed and we will be rejuvenated. When we are like this, our productivity will amaze us. So much will get done without our knowledge of the passing of time. Also, the quality of work will baffle us. When we look back, we will wonder if it was really us who did all that in that short span of time. It is a liberating experience to work in this zone. If we get a glimpse of this, we will know how to slip into it at all times.

In Zen, they say, 'Whatever is, is energy.' We are in energy and we are inhaling energy. The Hindu scriptures also say the same, isa vasyam idam sarvam: 'Whatever exists is energy.' Mystics claim the older you get, the more energetic you get. That's why in the East, youth is not worshipped; elders are worshipped; we turn to them for guidance. When rishis say everything is energy, why can't we experience it? What is the missing link? It is because we are caught up with the past and the future, which are not reality, only imaginary.

What we perceive as past or future is not reality. Whatever we remember as our past is only our idea of it; it's not really our past. We always feel, 'My childhood days were golden and my college days were heaven'. Be honest. Was it great when you actually lived it? No! You would have been grumbling about each and every thing you had to do at that time but our mind projects it and makes us think it was great. Whatever we remember about the past is only our perception of it, not reality, because we never remember the past in its entirety; we only remember bits and pieces of it as it suits us, as we choose to remember.

-A small story:

One lady was walking with her three grandchildren. A passerby looked at them and told her, 'What beautiful grandchildren you have!' The lady smiled at her and said, 'You should see their photographs. They are dolls!'

Everything, except reality, is beautiful for us! Likewise, the whole of the past up to the point of present is beautiful for us! That is the problem.

All our ideas about the future, our worries, fears and insecurities, are only our perceptions, not the real future. I have seen so many people who worry continuously. Initially, we worry because of some reason but, after some time, we master the art of worrying. Then, even if we don't find any reason, we start worrying because we become habituated to do it.

I did a small study with a group of fifty people. I asked them to write whatever worries, fears and insecurities they had about the next six months of their lives. Even according to psychologists, you can't visualize more than six months of your life. And that time period is reducing now because social, political, and economic changes are happening at a faster rate these days. Anyhow, I collected their list of worries. After six months we all met again. I asked them to mark all their worries that had become a reality. You would be surprised that a maximum of only 3% of their worries had come true! The remaining ninety-seven percent of their worries never came true! Can you imagine how much of your mental energy is wasted in worrying?

One man visited his doctor who told him this same logic about worries. He asked him, 'Now, out of the 10 worries that you had yesterday about today, how many actually turned out to be true?' The man replied, 'None.' The doctor asked, 'Then why are you still worrying?' The man said, 'But I am worried about why they did not happen.'

This is what I mean when I say worry has become a part of you. The more you worry, the less you create, the more you are stressed, the less you are expressing. All your concepts about the future are only your concepts; they do not really make your future.

Only the present moment, which is in our hands, is reality; all else, is only our perception. The moment we relax into the present moment, our body and mind will have a new energy that will circulate with renewed vigour every moment.

Try this small exercise for a few minutes: go into a room, close the door, sit down and say, 'I accept my life as it is: my life, my relationships, my body and mind,' and come to the present moment. As you do this, feel every word that you say deeply, from within. The moment you make a conscious decision, a sankalpa, and start relaxing, you will be amazed to see the energy that happens to your being. As long as you are bothered about the future or thinking about the past, you will be away from the source of energy, your inner being. The moment you come to the present, realizing that that is all there is, there will be a gush of energy in your being. Then every moment will become a potential moment for you to experience in totality.

Physically, the concept of time makes us old, sick and uneasy. Mentally, the concept of time gives us stress and boredom. Boredom is mainly due to the notion of time.

• -A small Zen story: Agreat Zen Master had some problem in his stomach. His physician advised him to eat a certain food with herbs everyday. He ate it for ten years. One day, the disciple who cooked for him asked, 'Master, are you not bored of eating the same food everyday? I'm bored of cooking the same food everyday!'

The Master was surprised. He replied beautifully, 'Who told you I am eating the same food everyday? No, it is not the same food. Once I eat it, it's over; it is new food everyday. I never eat the same food everyday!'

It is only when you have a concept of time, do you think, 'Oh God! Same office, same house, same wife and same life!'

-Another small story:

Anational football champion was visiting his hometown and decided to pay a visit to his college. The college authorities felt honored to have him, so there was a grand reception for him. After the reception, he told the principal he would like to visit the dormitory where he had stayed as a student. When he reached the dorm, he looked at it and said, 'Same old building!' One student ran ahead to make sure the room was presentable. He found his roommate having an affair with a girl. Since girls were not allowed in the men's dorm, they quickly hid the girl in the closet, hoping no one would open it.

When the champion arrived at the room, he said, 'Same old room.' He looked at the furniture in the room and commented, 'Same old bed and same old table!' He then opened the closet, saw the girl inside and said, 'Same old girl!'

To this, her boyfriend replied angrily, 'No, she's not the same old girl; she is my girl!'

The champ replied, 'Same old lie!'

This is how our mind works. We tend to think 'same old… same old…' even when things have changed. With such an attitude, we fail to notice the subtle changes that are constantly happening in and around us. As a result, we lose our taste for life itself. We miss the beauty of the everchanging Existence. A child, on the other hand, does not have this attitude and explores every moment as fresh and everyday as a new beginning!

When we are caught in the emotional attachment to the samskara (unfulfilled desires) of the past, we feel that the same past is repeating itself again and again. It is just our conscious choice to liberate ourselves from the past and future and come to the present. The concept of psychological time gives us stress, takes away our peace, reduces our efficiency and creates the idea of boredom, the attitude of 'the same old…'

The concept of time disturbs us physically and mentally. If you can, open yourself to a new way of thinking and

perceiving time. First, don't believe that you have to fall sick when you get old, because, as you age, you can master the techniques of living in this body and in this world in a better and better way. Next, try to live in the present moment, instead of being pulled and pushed by past and future. These two things will automatically help you in your spiritual growth and well-being.

I pray to the Ultimate Energy to guide us all to understand the concept of time, kshana and go beyond kshanika (slowly disappearing from this existence) and give us real health, peace and eternal bliss, nithyananda.

Q) We all have to work with deadlines and time pressure. When you say, 'Don't think of time,' please explain how we can manage our tasks. When you have time consciousness, are you able to manage?

A) Yes

If you can manage your tasks with time consciousness and stress, then you can definitely manage your tasks without the stress of time consciousness, also. You will be more creative without stress. A person who is stressed cannot create anything new; instead he will work in a programmed way. Just be aware that the task needs to be completed within a particular time and then don't be continuously aware of the time alone. Shift to the job in totality. That way, you will find the job gets done quickly, creatively and without stress.

If you scan your life, you will notice that in your own house, you won't use many rooms. When you leave work and go home, you will go and sit on the same couch in the same room everyday, eat dinner in the same place, go to the same spot on your bed and go to sleep! Even your vacations are clearly programmed. This is because of your unconscious awareness of time.

There are two kinds of people: those who can manage with time pressures and deadlines, and those who cannot. If you're in the first group, if you can manage your activities with stress, you can surely manage without stress. If you belong to the other group who are unable to manage deadlines, can you really manage better with stress? Then why have stress? Either way, whether you can manage it or not, stress is not going to help you. We sometimes think that stress can make us handle things better. That's not true. Only creativity and unleashing your potential can help you handle things in the best possible way. Stress stalls the whole process. Understand that clearly.

If you drop your stress and manage without it, you will be more creative and produce much better results. Stress can only make you less efficient. Becoming more efficient can happen only by clarity, creativity, and dropping stress. You may say, 'This stress management is all just theory. I have tried it a lot. I have read a lot about it. I don't think it really works. I remember all the concepts for two days. It's nice but after that I'm back to the same routine and lifestyle.' If it fails again and again, it means your understanding is not deep enough; it means you have not taken in these words fully.

Someone told me, 'In the last one year alone, eleven times I stopped smoking!' It means eleven times he started again! That means his decision to stop smoking was not strong; his understanding was not deep enough. It is your own mind after all! If you can understand and penetrate your being and decide consciously to drop the stress, it will work for you. Make it very clear to yourself by telling yourself, 'I hereby decide to live without stress, the way I want to.'

Understand that stress cannot help you become more efficient; it can only make you inefficient. Again and again, you are taught to remember time and pressure yourself. Just observe yourself. The moment you think about people who add pressure to your life, when you remember their faces or words, your energy is drained. Then, how can you be successful based on stress? If you can come down to the present moment, reducing worries, minimizing the number of thoughts, reducing your frequency of thinking, it can unleash your potential energy and you will see a different dimension of your life. It needs some courage to experiment. Try this: for the next eleven days, tell yourself, 'I will not bother about my past or future. I will live in just this moment.'

One more thing, when you remember your past, you will remember only your failures. It is like measuring the strength of a chain by its weakest link. For a chain, it is the right thing to do but that logic cannot be applied to yourself. If you consider your life as a chain of incidents, and you measure yourself with your greatest failure, it is a wrong calculation, because you have touched peaks of success. Then, how can you measure yourself with failures? Be a little loving toward yourself and take an average, but you never do this. Everyone will have valleys and peaks. If you have to measure yourself, take the average, if not the peaks, but our mental setup is such that we measure ourselves only with the valleys.

Neither remembering the past nor worrying about the future will transform you. Come to the present and become one with your energy. The Gita says, 'You have the authority to work but don't bother about the results.' Krishna doesn't mean, 'Don't take your salary.' No! It means you can always have your salary but don't keep thinking about it and visualizing it all the time. Continuously visualizing the fruits, or results, will paralyze you; you won't be able to walk on the path. When you choose the right road, just walk the path and you will reach the goal.

• -A small story: One guy was in a ferry to cross a river. Once the boatman started rowing, he started walking up and down. The boatman said to the man, 'Please be seated. I can't row if you walk around.' The man replied, 'I have no time to sit. I have to reach the other side urgently.' All your stress is like walking inside the boat. It can never help you; at the most, it can disturb you and hinder the growth. Look into it and be more intelligent.