Introduction
Time and tide wait for no man is an old saying. The wheel of time is constantly moving ahead and waits for no one. The days are passing us by, one after another and the days that have gone by never return. We all know it, don’t we? However how do we do spend our time every day? Here is an interesting statistics:
Across the world, we spend the most time working and sleeping; and paid work, housework, leisure, eating and sleeping take together 80-90% of the 1440 minutes that we all have available every day. We hardly have any time for our own self. What a pity!
Here is a time lapse video tailored to depict this state of us.
We do not know how the whole day passes. We are desperate to wait for the week end, the month end, the year end and the holidays. This goes on and on and on that we do not even heed the passing of each year until suddenly the realisation of “What have I done” comes down like a thunder when the designated time ( Sloka 1 - samprapte sannihite kaale) arrives. Even at that time our desires don’t end. We stil have items to be ticked off in our bucket list.
This is what Adi Sankara brings out in this beautiful Sloka 12. Let us examine this Sloka.
Sanskrit Verse
दिनयामिन्यौ सायं प्रात:
Adi Sankara
शिशिरवसन्तौ पुनरायात: ।
काल: क्रीडति गछत्यायु
स्तदपि न मुञ्चत्याशावायु: ॥
English Transliteration
dinayāminyou sāyam prāta:
shishiravasantou punarāyāta:
kālakrīdati gachatyāyu:
tadapi na munchatyāshāvāyu:
Meaning of the Sanskrit Words
दिनयामिन्यौ= dina+yAminI=day + night;
सायं= saayam - evening;
प्रातः= praatah - morning;
शिशिर= shishira - frosty season;
वसन्तौ= (and) vasantau - Spring season;
पुनः= punah - again;
आयातः= aayaatah - have arrived;
कालः= kaalah - Master Time;क्
रीडति= kridathi - plays;
गच्छति= gachhathi - goes (away); ebbs away
आयुः= aayuh - life/age;
तदपि= tadapi - tat.h+api, then even;
न= na - not;
मुञ्चति= mun chatthi - releases;
आशा= aasha - desire;
वायुः= vayuh - air (the wind of desire does not let off its hold)
Meaning in English
Day and night, dawn and dusk, winter and spring come and depart again and again. Time thus frolics and plays and life ebbs away. Yet, one does not give up the gusts of desires.
Explanation
Swami Chinmayananda’s eloquent explanation
“The day decays to end itself in the night. The night dies only to blossom forth into the following day. The dawn grows in vigour and heat to be the noon, but soon wanes away to be the mellow dusk. On the wheel of happenings, the months steadily glide along and, in its soft-footed silent march, the irresistible floods of time roll up in waves of years, sweeping everything in front of its relentless might. Hushed in the silence of its own wonderment, age slips unperceived into its slushy grave.
Time moves on. That which was future becomes the present, and itself rolls away to join the endless ocean of the past. Time never stops, on no condition, for no person! It is ever on the march! Man, gathering memories from his own 'past', barricades his ‘present’, sets them ablaze with his excitements in his day-to-day life, and the rising fumes of his bosom blur his vision to make his life rigged with his anxieties for the ‘future’. As we thus waste ourselves with our endless manoeuvres, in the irresistible stride of time all our hopes and plans get defeated and routed.
Life is at Time's mercy ... In not recognising this, man desires to enjoy the sense-objects, strives, sweats and toils endlessly to acquire, to possess and to aggrandise - to hope, to spend ... And death snatches away everything from him ... He is compelled to leave everything here - and with painful bundles of impressions (vdsands) acquired in his desire-ridden selfish life, the miserable creature departs. How sad! Indeed, how tragic!
Desire for the fleeting, delusory golden-deer is, for the time being, seemingly more powerful for Sita than her infinite love for Rama, her divine beloved. This is delusion at play - maya with a vengeance.
Life steadily ebbs away, but desire fed by the sense gratifications only grows the more by them. Body decays and becomes infirm; it has grown to have no more strength to enjoy, but the man hungers all the more for sense-enjoyments. Death crawls behind; disease and decay accompany him. Piloted by worries and anxieties, this mournful procession reaches the edge of the grave ... Still man wants the joys of the pain-ridden objects.”
Swami Chinmayananda used to quote a beautiful simile. A man is chased by a tiger in the forest. He falls into a well. He is stuck in the well on a branch midway down. If he slips by a fraction of an inch he will plunge into the water below where water snakes are swimming about. The tiger peers threateningly at him from the top. Just then the man is stung by bees. Soon rats are busy gnawing at the creeper on which the man is being supported. A bear comes and claws into the honeycomb on the tree overhanging the well. In this perilous position, with danger at every turn, a drop of honey drips on his face from the honeycomb above. The man, forgetting all his perils, sticks out his tongue to lick it!
This typifies the kind of satisfaction we are seeking in worldly life.
The serpents are one’s binds and bonds or attachments to objects , the well itself represents family life. The rats represent TIME. And the honey in the midst of all these dangers represents the momentary pleasures of sensual life.
Therefore, be wise. Give up desires. Seek the all-satisfying Reality that lies behind the mental show of change and sorrow. The Infinite alone will satisfy you. Seek it with a mind withdrawn from the fever of all passions”.
Conclusion
In Bhagwad Gita, Lord Sri Krishna explains:
All those who are lured to the sense objects and desire them are not awake but asleep to their nature of completeness which is Self contained and needs no perfection. The Jnani who is the knower of Truth, by the power of renunciation bestowed through Grace is able to restrain the outward going senses and is therefore fully awake to the consequences of allowing the sense organs a free play. As such, the Sage is asleep to the temptations of the world which attract the ignorant ones.
We have to understand that none of the objects of the world can give permanent happiness because of its temporary nature. Only that which is permanent alone can give permanent happiness. Self alone is permanent and hence it alone can give permanent happiness. If this is understood and there by if we have constant thought of the Self, that is only way to over come the delusion with the objects of the world.
The Time cycle is unavoidable; it is a law of Nature. But the cycle of joy and sorrow can be overcome by living in the light of knowledge and discovery of our true nature of spirit. This Sloka is cautioning us and telling us to lead our life intelligently. We should enjoy our life in such a manner that we retain our freedom and, in course of time, discover an inner self-sufficiency so that we become free from the dependence upon the world for our enjoyment.
“For that, in our day to day life we need ABCD, says Swami Paramarthananda - what we need is Appropriate Balanced Clean Desire”
Prabhu's Ponder 