So, another year of our life passed! Everyday we are living, in another words everyday every living thing is dying too. The only uncertain thing in life is – “which would be my last breath?” This thought of uncertainty must make us feel that every moment we are living is a gift. Every moment, the time in itself should be a welcome moment. Here I am to help you read a section of Yoga Vasistha The Supreme Yoga (a discussion between Lord Rama and Sage vasistha). What better day to write this to you and make you too think about welcoming the 2020 thoughtfully?
Yoga Vasistha starts with Dispassion of Rama and his long speech / question regarding life. I am yet to complete reading the book, however I could not stop posting this part of the book for two reasons – appropriate time (end of this year / beginning of new year) and just read this chapter.
Vairagya Prakaran (Dispassion)
Rama:
…All the hopes of man in this world are consistently destroyed by Time. Time alone, O sage, wears everything out in this world; there is nothing in creation which is beyond its reach. Time alone creates innumerable universes, and in a very short time. Time destroys everything.
Time allows a glimpse of itself through its partial manifestation as the year, the age and the epoch; but its essential nature is hidden. This Time overpowers everything. Time is merciless, inexorable, cruel, greedy and insatiable. It is the greatest magician, full of deceptive tricks. This Time cannot be analysed; for however much it is divided it still survives, indestructible. It has an insatiable appetite for everything – it consumes the smallest insects, the biggest mountains and even the king of heaven!
Even as a young boy plays with a ball for his pastime, Time uses the two balls known as the sun and the moon for its pastime. It is indeed Time alone that appears as the destroyer of the universe [Rudra], the creator of the world [Brahma], the king of heaven [Indra], the lord of wealth [Kubera] and the nothingness of cosmic dissolution. It is indeed this Time that successively creates and dissolves the universe again and again. Just as even the great and mighty mountain is rooted on earth, this mighty Time is also established in the Absolute being [Brahman].
Even though Time creates endless universes, it is not wearied, nor does it rejoice; it does not come, nor does it go; it does not rise, nor does it set. Time the gourmet sees that the objects of this world have been ripened by the fire of the sun, and when he finds them fully ripe he consumes them! Each epoch of Time is decked, as it were, by the lovely jewels of colorful beings for the pleasure of Time that playfully wipes them all out.
To the lotus of youthfulness, Time is the nightfall; to the elephant of life-span, Time is the lion. In this world there is nothing, high or low, that Time does not destroy. Even when all these are destroyed, Time is not destroyed. Just as a man after a day’s activity rests in sleep as if in ignorance, even so Time, after the cosmic dissolution, sleeps or rests with the creation-potential hidden in it. No one really knows what this Time is.
Time – thoughtful Welcome 2020
We have become slaves of time. We rush to office seeing 7:30 AM, have lunch at 1:30 PM (at times when not hungry too) and so on. I remember writing recently – this too shall pass. Yes, we shall be consumed by time as Rama says in his dispassion. It is an opportunity that when you are celebrating the new year, think about some serious thoughts in life regarding work, fun and spirituality.
Source: The Supreme Yoga, Yoga Vasistha