Ours is a clock-driven society. We have so many things to do and so little time to do it in that we frequently feel pressured to beat the clock – or to at least meet the clock. The clock controls our life much more than we do.
Our clock-controlled condition demonstrates a fundamental spiritual truth: we cannot get away from the control of Krishna. The Bhagavad-gita (11.32) states that time is a manifestation of Krishna. When we don’t submit willingly to him, then we have to submit unwillingly to his kala-rupa (form as time).
Due to our unwillingness to submit to Krishna, our awareness of reality becomes trickily distorted. We become acutely conscious of the ticking of the clock – the passing of minutes and hours. But we remain abjectly unconscious of the ticking of time – the passing of years and decades. We become obsessed with our short-term and medium-term interests of succeeding materially in the world, but stay oblivious to our long-term interest of developing a relationship with Krishna. If we don’t correct our perception disorder before our time runs out, we may sadly discover that the ticking of time has become the tricking by time.
Fortunately, correcting our perception disorder is not difficult. We begin by reminding ourselves regularly that time is a manifestation of Krishna. We proceed by cultivating the awareness that our time is not ours; it is Krishna appearing to gift us an opportunity for attaining eternal happiness by remembering and serving him. This sacred vision of time empowers us to stop material exigencies from stealing away the time meant for our spiritual enrichment. When we thus offer Krishna as time to Krishna as the Lord of our heart, then we can be assured that time by its ticking is taking us towards existence’s ultimate treasure: Krishna.
Bhagavad Gita Chapter 11 Text 32
“The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Time I am, the great destroyer of the worlds, and I have come here to destroy all people. With the exception of you [the Pandavas], all the soldiers here on both sides will be slain.”
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