Chapter 6

One life one mission: Dynamics

of Time and Energy
Life is combination of Given Time and Given Energy
We have been discussing goal of life, mission of life, but
what is life? How can we define life? If it is to be put in more
understandable term, we may say life is combination of time
and energy. This explains the whole life. After all, we have
been gifted with one thing known as time. Everybody comes
here with some span of definite time, not a moment more, not
a moment less. Time is the one ingredient everybody brings
with him. Life may be for 60 years, 70 years, 100 years, but
not more than that. There may be some exceptions. These
100 years too is not the life in full bloom. Even if one may
live for 90 years, it is not that he is active for 90 years! After
some time say 70 years, 80 years if one maintains his health,
then he may just survive, but would not be in a position to
lead active life. So whatever; active or inactive life but some
definite span of time is there for each person.
The other ingredient is energy. We bring energy. Not in the
form of direct energy but we bring with us a machine which
creates energy. This machine is the human body with ten
Indriyas - Karmendriyas and Jnanendriyas for both physical
energy and mental energy. If we analyze this body, ultimately
what is it? What is its function? It produces energy. This
energy what you do with hands and feet and other limbs
and all the mental work is perceived in the instruments of
understanding. The instruments of understanding are ears,
eyes, skin, mouth, and nose for Sabda, Rupa, sparsh, rasa,
gandha. All these five Jnanendriyas have perception and

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through that, you can get knowledge. All five Indriyas of
action - Karmendriyas - produce mental energy and physical
energy. Therefore, this body is a dynamo, an apparatus, which
produces energy. Through it, the energy has been given to us.
Body-mind may be producing other things quite naturally.
It may produce desires, which serve as the motive force for
the production of this energy. When you have some desire
then your hands and feet work. If for a particular thing
there is no desire then for that particular thing no energy
is produced. Only if there is some urge then to satisfy that
urge automatically there is an inbuilt arrangement when the
energy is produced. Thus, life may be considered as time plus
energy. God has given us time and this machine with which
we produce energy. We bring these two things with us when
we come on this earth. We are different from this machine that
is so obvious. Time is given; this energy-producing machine
is given and we are sent here for showing some performance.
We have to give an account of ourselves and in fact, we use
this human machine for doing things that means for giving
some performance for a certain period of time.
For maximum output: Plug the leakage in Time and
Energy
The time cannot be produced or cannot be increased. If
anyone wants the time to be increased, he cannot increase the
time. You can plug the leakage of time. Waste of time may
be stopped. By that way, you can gain time. Just as there is,
a saying that what is saved that is gained. What we save is
positive gain. A salaried person cannot increase his income
unless he takes to unfair means. His income is definite and
cannot be increased. His wife is not able to meet both ends.
What a good housewife does? Stop the wastage. Where ever

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there is wastage she stops it and gains something. Money
saved is money gained. Similarly, you would be able to gain
time by saving. Time saved is time gained. There cannot be
augmentation of time, only method to augment time is by
saving it. Thus, if you are habituated to while away your time
and energy, you stop it then you may get it.
Just as you can save time and thus, gain time in the same way
the energy also can be multiplied. This generator like human
body produces energy. It has potentiality to produce more
energy. If you use methods like say Yoga then sharpening
of the instruments takes place and thus more energy is
produced! Whatever is given to you intelligently, judiciously
enhance them. Enhance the instruments producing energy;
you can then increase the capacity to produce. A person may
be lethargic, may get tired soon so cannot work properly.
However, by certain methods if he takes proper precautions,
if he practices certain thing then he may not be tired. That is
how he may produce more energy.
We gain this energy not because of difference of apparatus but
because we use these apparatuses judiciously. There are dos
and don’ts. Know the art of living, Yoga, Pranayama. There
are so many things, which are used for this augmentation. In
that way, you may augment your energy. You can sharpen
your intellect, if you have a will, if you have determination. If
you apply your mind to sharpen your intellect then you may
be able to augment intellectual energy. Man has tremendous
potentiality to work mentally, physically. If you take to some
particular work for which you have intense desire then for the
fulfillment of the desire you work late hours and still you are
not tired. If there is an interesting book, then you do not get
tired of reading. Your eyes won’t get tired. It does not mean
that eyes that you have, have somehow gained more energy.

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It is not that. The energy is already there. You had not used it
because you had no interest. You have not used it until now.
Not that your eyes had less power before and only today you
have discovered that your eyes can read for three hours. They
could have read for three hours even before. However, your
mind was not tuned to use them properly.
Augment Time and Energy
The physical energy and mental energy is potentially
tremendous. In fact, the stamina that we generally exhibit or
manifest is not even a fraction of what we possess. It is like
an iceberg; to eyes, only small portion is visible but the whole
volume is inside. In the same way, what energy we use is very
small. Much of the physical and mental energy we do not
use. We are not accustomed to use it. We have allowed it to
fall fallow. The same framework, same human machine can
produce, appear to produce more energy at times. That more
energy does not come from outside but from inside, it was
there before and it is tremendous. You do not know about it.
Anyway, the energy and time can be augmented though it
looks like it is limited. For example, this six feet or five and
half feet framework you have brought. You cannot make it
twenty feet high. That may not be. You have not it in your
power to change the dimensions. It is there as it is. But from
that you can produce lot of energy, which you generally don’t
produce though you have an ability to do so. Now for example
you have come here; you get up- early in the morning at 4.30
are awake up to 10.30 in the night. You have Asana’s class,
lecture sessions, library, games etc. You apply your body and
mind. You must have experienced that, ‘here I am working
more and I am not getting tired.’ Why? That means your body
was capable of doing it before. You have never given it a trial.

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Here you got an opportunity to give it a trial. Here you have a
mind to give it a trial. Therefore, you could do it.
This human machine has another peculiar characteristic. You
can commission an ordinary machine immediately when you
bring it from the shop. You just get a motorcar from the market
and immediately you can come home driving it. Immediately
it can be put to use. It can be commissioned. However, the
human machine is not like that. It comes upon earth. All
the parts, the limbs, faculties they are not fully developed
immediately. They take 20 - 21 years to fully develop. Mental
faculties are not developed as soon as the child is born. Then
the muscles, brain, even the physical limbs do not function
properly in the beginning. It functions only as you reach
adulthood. So out of the total life available 21 years are to
be reduced because the limbs are not fully developed. We
cannot put these to proper use. Thus, 21 years straight away
go off life.
Then there is one handicap in the case of human machine. In
the case of other machines if the machine gets worn out, you
can scrap it and put it in the melting pot, so that the iron and
whatever metal is there that can be used in another machine
in another form. However, you cannot just declare human
body as scrap after 50 years, 80 years until you live. Then
neither can you sell it as a scrap because it is not usable. You
cannot hear properly. You cannot see properly, you are not
able to do so many things. You cannot walk. Your mind also
cannot think so sharply as before. Memory fails. The body
starts aging but mind is alert only with very few people. In
case of many before the body starts aging, the mind starts
aging and then not even mentally they are alert. Not even
intellectually, they can be put to use.

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When human machine deteriorates, we have to put up with
it and we have to maintain it. Just as any machine requires
maintenance in the same way, the human machine also
requires maintenance. Any machine, you know, it requires
feeding, oiling and cleaning. In the same way, the human
machine also requires cleaning, feeding, resting, clothing,
protecting from cold and sun. Thus, this human body requires
maintenance. Just because for the first 21 years the body is
not fully developed, you cannot avoid maintaining. You
cannot say, well, let the body develop, fully develop, then we
shall start maintaining. You have to maintain it, all the more
maintain it. You cannot ignore fully developed body. You
cannot ignore the under developed body of 5 years or 15 years
you cannot ignore the maintenance of a deteriorated old body.
The result is that for first 21 years human life is a liability
because ordinarily it does not produce. It has to receive
the maintenance from outside. Later years are still liability
because then the old age starts so the maintenance will be
more. No doubt, old people require more maintenance. Their
maintenance is a costly affair though their living becomes
unyielding. Thus, old age is also a liability.
Therefore, every judicious person will think that, ‘I shall
put in such work in the intervening period that I shall be
compensating for my invalidity in the beginning and invalidity
in the end.’ The human machine has these handicaps, which
the other machines ordinarily do not have. Ordinarily a man
is written off at the age of 60. Just as you write off machines.
When a machine is purchased, for say 20 lakhs then what is
the life of the machine? Manufacturer says, it can continue
to work for 40 years. Life of the machine is 40 years and we
have purchased it for 20 lakhs. It means within this 40 years
depreciation starts. Every year the depreciated value, we put in

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the account book. In the beginning 4, 5 years the depreciation
is not so high, because the machine is new; deterioration is
not there and wear and tear is not in that order. Later on, it
begins fast. Over 40 years the value is zero. If the machine still
works, well, that is luck. As per accounts book, the machine
is non-existent after 40 years. You have depreciated every
year few thousand rupees and if you have collected those
money, you can have another new machine. You have already
money with you. In accounts book, depreciated money is to
be deposited so that new machine can be purchased.
Just as machine is written off, building is written off, the
same way ordinarily at the age of 60 a human being is also
written off. Do you know the newspapers have a practice?
The obituary for all the leaders who have reached 60 is ready
with them. For example Jayaprakash Narayan, who died only
few days before but the article, which has been published
next day of his death, was ready 20 years before! The article
is kept ready as soon as a leader reaches the age of 60. Every
year they add only that year’s information. Thus, after the
death, the article will be out within 24 hours. That way they
do not have to search that what day he was born and what
was the condition then, what school he studied and at what
age he married and what was the name of his wife, how many
children. Because he may leave this world any moment, all
those things are kept ready since 60 years of age and are
updated every year. In the eyes of the world, they are written
off. If they live, they live on borrowed time, a sort of grace
time. Nobody is taken up on a serious job after 60 years. That
means first 20 years gone; after 60, the years gone. Only 40
years of life is the working time. That is available life. That
is the period given to you for performance. In that, you can
do something as you have the stamina and the right mental
apparatus.
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Maintain Well: But keep needs to the bare minimum
Taking into consideration this hard fact of life, this unpalatable
reality of life, everybody has to be alert because he has to
give account. Somebody has sent you and you came here.
You come from somewhere, go somewhere. The body is ours.
We have brought it. Time, we have brought it. What you have
done in this time with all that is given? Of that, you have to
give account. We have to put to judicious use the time and
energy which is finite. To make the best of it, how to organize
energy, how to save time and gain time, efforts must be made.
In this given time and given energy we have to make best
of it, we have to give best performance. By saving energy,
you have more energy to spend and by saving time you have
gained more time to spend. Naturally, there must be better
performance.
Just as machine requires cleaning, oiling the same way body
also requires maintenance. It requires food, rest, clothing etc.
The body has to work for its maintenance also. Maintenance
is not taken care of by God who has sent you with it. You are
sent with this time and body, still you have to maintain the
body and do the performance. So first step of performance is
to maintain yourself. If you do not maintain yourself; if you
do not keep your body and mind fit then you will not be able
to show any performance. When you maintain yourself then
you will be able to do something for others or you can have
some performance.
If you are not very careful, then you will find that later this
body will demand much of your time and much of your
energy in maintaining itself. One should know what proper
maintenance is. Because this body generates desires, very
wonderful desires and tends to think that ‘these desires are

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to be fulfilled; that is also my maintenance’. The person is
prone to calculate the fulfillment of these desires generated
by the body as part of maintenance. You just find out how
much food you require, you require. What you eat is different
from what you require. You require very less. It is said that
what you eat is four times what you need. To keep your body
fit, you do not require much. To protect yourself from heat
and cold you do not require much. But for clothing you may
think, ‘I must have ten shirts, I must have 20 pairs of sandals,
one for morning, one for evening, one for lunch, one for
dinner, one for going to party’. Therefore, you multiply your
wants thinking it is for your maintenance. That is the general
weakness or general trend.
You cry halt to it, keeping to the bare minimum. I would not
take more because if I want more then that much energy and
time will be spent for getting those things and that means that
much time and energy will be minus from the time I have to
use for my performance. What I use for my maintenance is
not performance. This will go in to maintenance. You have
survived, you have lived, you have not died - That is no
performance! You cannot go and say, ‘well, I have kept myself
alive for 60 - 70 years’. That cannot be the argument! You
cannot be saying this! What you do for maintaining yourself,
upkeep yourself, that is no performance. You should attend to
your basic needs so that minimum time is spent and minimum
energy is spent on it and maximum energy and maximum
time is saved for actually showing performance. That should
be the timetable. That should be the pattern of life. If you
multiply desires and run after the fulfillment of these desires
then whole life will be nothing but story of the maintenance
of your life. A sad story of how you are maintaining yourself!

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‘Early 21 years are to be taken off. After 60 years if I live that
is also liability who knows in what condition I would live.
So, these 40 years I get. In these 40 years only for my basic
needs, I will spend time and energy. Every time when any
extraneous things come before me, I should have the guts to
reject them, out right.’ Therefore, this fact of life is to be taken
into consideration that when we come upon this earth we are
not exempted from maintaining our body and mind. We have
to look to it, we have to carefully attend to it, because these
are the instruments. The body and mind if it is fit then only
you can work. It is to be kept fit. But one should not make a
fuss of it.
Heart pumps blood and circulate it. It is the function of the
heart to see that every pore, every muscle, every cell, every
fiber in the body gets blood. The blood circulation is the
work of the heart. At the same time, heart also requires blood.
Heart sends blood throughout the body, that is its function,
but it is so arranged that heart is not exempted from blood
requirement. Heart also requires blood. Without blood, it
cannot function. The same way when human being is sent
to this world to do something for others, he has to see that
he also does something for the maintenance of his body and
mind the instruments for doing work in the world.
Ruthlessly we have to analyze life what it is, what we get,
which part of it is likely to be wasted. Where are the loopholes
How much of our time and energy flows through these
leakages. In a day’s time, you just imagine how much time
we have spent only in blinking at the sky – that is thinking
about no particular work, no problem, and no particular
theme. While we go in the bus, or come in the train, our
mind is vacant. Why should it be vacant, how much energy is
spent on useless things? These are the leakages. Can you plug

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them? If you plug them, if the leakages are avoided that much
energy and time you have gained.
Streamline your daily work to gain time and energy
The life is to be so arranged, so planned that at least leakages
are not there. Suppose you are habituated to sleep for 10
hours or 12 hours. If 6 hours are enough for sleep and you
take 12 hours then these 6 hours is a leakage. You allow six
hours to go in the drain. Who is responsible for it? Thus,
many leakages are there, like this particular habit of getting
up late and going to bed early. You introspect. It is a good
exercise. You have 24 hours before you; you scrupulously try
to find out what you have done. Your day started at this time
and you went to bed for this time and now account for every
minute, see what you have done, how much time you have
spent truthfully, how much time you have spent at random
without any specific work and it is not put to any use.
Regarding time and energy if you very judiciously think about
it, you will find that there is a lot of scope to streamline your
daily operations. By that you will be able to go to bed in the
night with this satisfaction that, ‘Well, nicely I have spent the
day, lot of work I have done, I got up at 4.00 in the morning
and now I want to go to bed. I have done good amount of
work - a very nice day I had! I am satisfied.’ You will have a
sound sleep feeling of having lived significantly and not in a
futile manner. I placed the subject before you because we are
discussing about purpose of life, mission of life, goal of life.
I have brought to you only just guidelines, you think about it
and you will get much more light than what I have been able
to give you in this one hour.

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