Do not waste the duration of life even by a second
After greeting Sri Sri Radha-Vrindavanacandra, who were bedecked with the natural opulence of fresh wild flowers from the pastures, Srila Prabhupada received guru-puja. The temple room was packed, with a large contingent of young, saffron-clad gurukula boys all crowded around the front of the vyasasana. The sun was just coming up and its strengthening rays shone through the window behind Srila Prabhupada, highlighting His Divine Grace in a splendorous orange-gold effulgence.
Prabhupada played the gong and the devotees jumped and shouted excitedly when he threw flowers high into the air and over their heads. After singing Jaya radha-madhava, Prabhupada spoke on Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.6.6. Prahlada Maharaja makes the calculation in this verse that out of one hundred years duration of his human form, a person who cannot control his senses only has fifty years. This is because he sleeps twelve hours per day due to ignorance, and he thereby loses this time for the real business of spiritual development. Noting the good fortune of the young brahmacaris at his feet in beginning their devotional service at the start of their lives, Prabhupada explained that bhagavata-dharma means to keep always engaged in the service of the Lord, without a second's loss. He listed the nine different items by which one can serve the Lord. He especially focused on arcana, Deity worship. As he explained the value of it, he coupled it with a warning. "If you can contact Vishnu or His devotee, Vaishnava, that is all right. Otherwise, you are simply wasting time. The Lord is called arca-vigraha. He is also incarnation. Another incarnation, arca-avatara. He's giving facility to the devotees to handle Him. If you do not get the opportunity to serve the Lord, how you can be perfect? So this arca-vigraha is the Lord's incarnation to give facilities to people like us who cannot see God everywhere. For the neophyte devotees, it is essential to worship the Deity. But if we simply worship the Deity without hearing about the Lord, sravanam kirtanam these things are essential, then the Deity worship will be a burden. At a certain point, it will be a burden, and gradually it will be neglected, and the whole thing will be spoiled. "So both things should continue: bhagavata-marga and pancaratriki-marga. Deity worship is pancaratriki-viddhi, and bhagavata-marga is hearing, chanting, like that. Both of them should be accepted, parallel line. Otherwise, one without the other will be later on troublesome. So you must continue. This temple means not only we shall decorate the Deity very nicely, cleanse the temple; at the same time, sravanam kirtanam of Vishnu must go on. Two things, parallel. Then it will be done very nicely. So actually this life is meant for this purpose."
Our experience in Kali-yuga shows that we do not even have one hundred years. Even then, he said, people are not serious about utilizing their time properly. "In our temple in New York, in the beginning when I was having classes in the morning at seven o'clock, still people from here and there they would come and protest and go to the police because we were disturbing their sleep. Yes. They want to sleep as much possible hours. I think that is very great gain in the Western country, to sleep. "So to sleep means simply waste of time. You must know it. The valuable life which you have got, immediately so many hours minus. Sleep is not good. Sleep, if we can do without sleep, that is perfection. Not that let me enjoy sleep twelve hours, fourteen hours, whole life. No. That is waste of time." He cited the six Gosvamis of Vrindavana as examples of perfection in the use of time. "So we should be very, very careful not to waste the duration of life even by a second. We shall eat less, then we shall sleep also less. Nidrahara-viharakadi: then our sex appetite also will be less. Unnecessarily eating, unnecessarily sleeping is not required at all. That is the practice by the Gosvamis. They conquered over eating, sleeping. Mating, there was no question, they were sannyasis, renounced order of life, and defense also, there was no question because they depended on Krishna, the most powerful defender. Simply two things, eating and sleeping. And that they also conquered. So spiritual life means you have to control, that is called gosvami." He told us that this level of control is not possible to achieve by artificially supressing our senses, but can be had by attaining a higher spiritual taste. "There is another happiness. That is transcendental bliss. That we perceive a little bit while we are chanting. By chanting, chanting, chanting, when you'll be purified, then you will have the opportunity of tasting that transcendental bliss. Otherwise, the so-called happiness derived from the senses, that is not happiness. That is crude, that is for the fools and rascals. That is not happiness. So we should utilize our time very carefully. You have taken to Krishna consciousness, take it a little more seriously and practice, follow the rules and regulations, chant regularly, then your life will be successful. Thank you very much."
Reference: Transcendental Diary Volume 3 by Hari Sauri Dasa
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