It is all a matter of time, or is it?🔗

It was a hot sunny day and we were getting late for lunch. ‘Master, it’s going to be 4 pm. shouldn’t we go for lunch now,’ I enquired.

Master looked at me and said, ‘Drop it. Drop the very idea of time. Drop the idea of being bound by time.’

I was amazed and intrigued. I asked Him in total disbelief, ‘Master, I do not understand. Am I not supposed to do things at the designated time like taking meals at proper time?’

He smiled and asked me, ‘What will happen to you if you eat at 5 o’ clock and not at 1 o’ clock? Will you die of hunger?’

‘No. You will not die. You will surely not die if you miss one meal, not even miss, just have the meat at a later time. Your body is intelligent enough to use the extra calories that you have stored in your belly. If you are so particular about having lunch at a particular time, then why do happily munch all those snacks at some odd hours?’ he questioned.

I looked blank. He continued, ‘See, all this eating at a particular time, having three meals a day, everything is conditioning of your body and mind. Your body is conditioned like that. At 8 in the morning, one alarm rings and says – breakfast time. Eat 5 idlis (rice cakes). At 1 in the noon, another alarm buzzes saying – lunch time. Eat 5 chapatis (Indian bread) and again another alarm sets off at 8 in the night shouting – its dinner time.’

‘Most of the time, you won’t even feel hungry. You eat because you have to eat, because others are eating and because it is said by everyone that it is dinner time, it is lunch time, it is breakfast time. All this is conditioning done by you to your body which makes us time bound.’

I was trying to digest this food that Master was giving but I checked, ‘I understand not being time bound with respect to having meals. But I do not understand Your first statement about dropping the idea of time.’

He laughed and explained, ‘We are always running to do things at the right time. We think if we do not do something at so and so time, something wrong might happen. So we keep on looking at our watch and see the time, see if we have missed the deadline. In this process of constant worrying, all you are doing is raising your blood pressure and being totally out of focus. All your concentration is on time and not on what you are doing.’ He looked at my puzzled face expecting me to pour out my doubt. I said, ‘But Master does that mean it is okay to be late, to reach some place or office? I mean, how does punctuality fit into this?’

He looked at me and replied immediately as if He was expecting me to ask that very question. He clarified, ‘Being punctual has nothing to do with not being time bound. For all business transactions, for all your meetings, for all your presentations, you have to be punctual. You have to reach that place at the correct time. That is because you live in a society and you are interacting with others. If each one comes at one's own time, then you can imagine how it will be.'

'I do not understand Master...,' I said in a confused tone.

My Master smiled and continued, 'Punctuality is a social etiquette. You are a part of society; you, in order to interact with others, have to follow a standard and that standard is your watch. But that is it. That is where the story of your watch ends.'

I listened to my Master with full attention as he continued, 'Be very clear, time that a watch shows is just a standard for you to interact with others. It should not become something that rules you that governs you, which keeps you on your toes every moment to do your work. Just release yourself from its clutches. You do whatever you want to do. Do everything that you want to do but do not keep looking at your watch to check how much time you have.'

'Understand that you are reducing your own efficiency by being bound by time. You are so caught up doing things at the right moment that you do not live the current moment. You miss the current moment. All you think of is what will happen in the next moment. You do not enjoy what you are doing at this point in time. You do not give your 100% to what you have with you at this point in time.'

He continued in the same flow, 'When you are on your own, just remove your watch and keep it aside. Do whatever you want to do without thinking about what time it is. You will see that by doing so you enjoy every moment of your work more. You will enjoy every single second. Calling 'every single second' is again making it time bound. So let us say, you will enjoy every single moment. You will see that you are meditating every single moment and you are enjoying the work process that much more. It is only when you are in the present moment that you really do exist, that you really live life. It is only then you experience bliss.'