value

5 VALUING TIME

We are very young now and we should only spend our time in playing and enjoying
ourselves. We can learn about God when we are older.

But, as we grow older, it becomes difficult to change our habits. We need to learn good habits now. One
should learn to pray to the Lord and control one’s senses from the very beginning of life.

Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by
medicine, but lost time is gone forever.

Let’s T H I N K About It

1. Why should we learn to love God from the very beginning of our lives?

2. How can we make the most out of our time?

Let’s R E A D and Learn

Lost Time Is Never Found Again

Of all commodities, time is the most valuable. It is said that even a slight fraction of
time cannot be purchased for millions of dollars, and therefore even a moment of
time lost without profit must be calculated as the greatest loss in life. Time can be
neither bought nor sold; it is irreplaceable, and therefore, priceless. The Lord Himself
is the creator and provider of time.

We sometimes foolishly think that there is no life after death, i.e., that our lifespan
of a maximum of one hundred years is everything. Time is eternal, and in this world
we pass through different phases of our eternal life; after all, we are spiritual beings
having human experience.

Let’s analyse our life in human body. Every human being has a maximum duration
of life of around one hundred years, but for one who cannot control his senses,
half of those years are completely lost by sleeping for twelve hours every night.
Therefore, such a person has an effective lifetime of only fifty years. In the tender
age of childhood, when everyone is bewildered, one passes ten years. Similarly, one
passes another ten years in youth, engaged in sports and games. In this way, twenty
years are wasted. Similarly, one passes another twenty years in old age when one is
an invalid and often unable to perform routine activities.

Next 10 years speed Last 20 years are In the remaining 60

First 10 years used years, if one sleeps 12
past while engrossed spent troubled by
up in childish pranks hours a day, then only
in sports and games old age and disease
30 years are left
The remaining years are also wasted for one whose mind and senses are
not controlled. This because even during those years he/she is not engaged
in the service of God, the prime goal of human life.

Every living being is allocated a certain amount of time. Even the greatest
scientist “Professor Einstein” could not find any means to prolong his
lifetime even by a day.
This time period begins with birth and ends at the moment of death.
If we waste the time we are given in this life, we will have to take birth
again. This is explained in the Bhagavad Gita (2.27):

One who has taken his birth is sure to die, and after death one is sure to
take birth again. Therefore, in the unavoidable discharge of your duty,
you should not lament.

However, there is no guarantee that one will take birth in the human form of life.
There are a total of 8,400,000 different types of bodies, i.e., species of humans,
beasts, birds, aquatic animals, and plants,. According to our mentality at the time of
death, we may very well receive the body of an animal or a demigod in our next life.

Material nature may award the body of a tiger to

those who want to eat meat, the body of a bear to
those who love sleeping excessively, and the body of
a tree to those who want to expose their body.
In this way, material nature gives us bodies just appropriate for our desires
and activities. Fortunately, one can break this repeated succession of births
and deaths by utilizing this valuable time to understand the Lord Himself.

The purpose of human life is to get rid of the cycle of birth

and death by knowing, loving, and serving the Supreme Lord.
This facility in not available to animals.

Our time is meant to be spent in God realization. When one is engaged in the service
of God with love and devotion, he will automatically realize the value of time.

Story Time
The Story Of My Suffering,
A Genuine Prayer To My Lord
My dear Lord, I have come to this world by forgetting You and since then I have
suffered so many troubles going through different species of life.

The soul transmigrates through various species in different

types of bodies such as trees, aquatics, insects, birds and
animals to finally attain the human form of life.
 There are 84 lakh species of life. This includes 4 lakh species of humans.

10 lakhs

11 lakhs
20 lakhs
9 lakhs 30 lakhs
Trees Aquatics Insects & reptiles Birds Animals

The level of consciousness increases from trees to animals.

Therefore, I have come to surrender unto You and submit to You the story of my
sufferings.

Firstly, I had to live within the womb of my mother in a

compact, packed up air–tight bag. At that time, I had a
glimpse of You for a very short period of time and I thought
that after my birth this time, I would surely serve You and
worship You with undivided attention as I did not want
this troublesome repetition of birth and death. Child in the womb of the mother

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me
together in my mother’s womb.
— Bible, Psalm 139:13

But unfortunately, immediately after my birth, the illusory energy captured me and I
forgot my precarious condition in which I had been crying to the Lord that this time
I would surely engage myself with full devotion in His service.

Then in my next stage as a child, I passed my time smiling and

laughing in the laps of my parents and relatives. The affection
of my loving family members helped me forget You even more,
and I began to think that this world is a very nice place.
 This world (material world) is a temporary and miserable place
where people are forgetful of God, and controlled by the laws of
nature, they undergo birth, old age, death, and disease.

Day by day, I was gradually growing up, and soon

began playing with my childhood friends. Soon
my powers of understanding developed, and then
I was sent to school to study seriously.

Proud of my accomplished education, I

earned much wealth. Thereby, maintaining
my family became my only aim and objective
in life. I continued to forget You, O my Lord!

Now, in my old age, I weep very sadly as death approaches, I will have to go away and
take another body. I do not know what kind of body I am
going to get. Therefore, I am in great anxiety.

I have simply wasted my time in this way, without

worshiping You, without serving You. I do not know what
to do. Now I surrender to You my Lord. Please guide me.

MORAL OF THE STORY

Learn to love God, from the age of five [beginning of life]. Human body is
rare; utilize it with care. Live a pure life according to God’s instructions given
in the holy scriptures and become free from all suffering.
 We should never forget that our studies are only for the
pleasure of the Lord. It means that we offer the results of our
hard work to God. “Do your best and leave the rest to God.”

Save Your Precious Time

Improve your concentration

An easy way to do well in your studies is to concentrate in class. Some of
the benefits of staying focused in the class are:
1. When you concentrate in the class, what the teacher
says enters your “memory bank” and stays there. Then
half of your work is done because when you go home,
you have to revise for only a short while to know the
lesson well. You are left with more time to play and do
for positive spiritual activities.

2. It saves a lot of time as you understand most of the lesson in the class-
room through attentive hearing.

Tigers and lions stand still with their

head down and ears flat, in complete
concentration, before they jump on their
prey. If they did not concentrate, they
would not be able to catch even a small FOCUS
rabbit to eat.

Safeguard oneself against wasting valuable time

1. Sleeping more than 8 hours and day-dreaming.
 If you sleep for three more hours everyday, you can waste 12.5 years
of your life. 3 hours per day=21 hours per week= 90 hours per month=
1095 hours per year. If you live for 100 years, you can waste 109500
hours of your life. That is exactly 12.5 years of your life.

2. Complaining about things which you do not have.

3. Comparing ourselves with those who get more marks, or who

are stronger, supposedly better looking, or have things that
we do not.
4. Thinking of ways to play tricks on others or to take revenge.

5. Travelling long distances to eat some favourite dish or ice-cream.

6. Worrying about the remarks passed by others, about what others think of us.

7. Watching too many programmes on TV, online, etc.

Chanting the holy names of God with proper attention and a

prayerful attitude immediately makes the mind calm and peaceful
and this helps us save our time and concentrate better.

4 Simple steps to manage time (learning to make a list)

1. At the end of each day, make a list of the top 6 things you
want to accomplish the next day.

2. Prioritize the list.

3. The next day, start working on task number one, and keep working on it until
you complete it. Do not move on to the next task until you complete this one.

4. If any tasks are left at the end of the day, move them to the top of next day’s list.
For example, if you finish tasks 1-4 today, tasks 5 and 6 become tasks 1 and 2
on tomorrow’s list.
Let’s A N S W E R

1. Fill in the blanks by choosing the appropriate word from within the brackets.

a. To realize the value of ONE __________ (year/month), ask a student

who failed a grade.

b. To realize the value of ONE __________ (month/week), ask a mother

who gave birth to a premature baby.

c. To realize the value of ONE __________ (week/hour), ask the editor of

a weekly newspaper.

d. To realize the value of ONE __________ (hour/minute), ask two lovers

who are waiting to meet.

e. To realize the value of ONE __________ (minute/second), ask a person

who missed the plane.

f. To realize the value of ONE __________ (second/millisecond), ask a

person who just avoided an accident.

g. To realize the value of ONE __________ (millisecond/nanosecond),

ask the person who won a silver medal in the Olympics.

h. To realize the value of ONE __________ (nanosecond/second), ask

someone just about to die… who wanted to live a little longer.

2. Read the short story below and answer the following question.

Anthony was a very lazy boy and always used to postpone

things. One day, he came to know that he had won the
first prize in a singing competition that had been held
the previous month. He was asked to collect the
prize the same day. He didn’t care and went to col-
lect the prize the next day. But the prize became
 useless for him, as it was a ticket to a circus show, which was held the previous day.
Anthony learnt many lessons from this incident. Tick mark () the correct option(s).
One should always do things on time without postponing them.
‰‰ Lost time is never found again.
‰‰ One should obey the elders and parents, who are our well wishers.
‰‰ Always pray to God for good intelligence, by chanting His holy names.
‰‰ All of the above.

3. Study the pictures below and fill in the blanks.

Driving down to some place early in Driving down again to the same place in the
the morning takes only 10 mins. peak traffic hours takes about 2 hours.

Similar is the case with our brain. As the day progresses, the neural highways of
the brain become clogged by the traffic of distracting thoughts. So, it is rightly
said that “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

Fill in the blanks by choosing the appropriate word from within the brackets.

The time early in the morning, one and a half hours __________ (before/after)
sunrise, is called brahma-muhurta. It is the __________ (worst/best) period to do
things that are important in one’s life, especially spiritual activities.
 The __________ (late/early) morning hours are so peaceful and quite. Waking
up early __________ (increases/decreases) productivity; hence one can accom-
plish more during the day. Developing the habit of getting up early contributes
to wealth, __________, (fitness/health) and wisdom.

4. Fill in the blanks by choosing an appropriate word from the box.

human Life birth five temporary God

1. We should offer the results of our hard work to __________.

2. The purpose of __________ is to get rid of the cycle of birth and death by
knowing, loving, and serving the Supreme Lord, Krishna. This facility is not
available to animals.

3. This world (material world) is a miserable and __________ place where

people are forgetful of God, and controlled by the laws of nature they
undergo like birth, old age, death, and disease.

4. One who has taken his birth is sure to die, and after death one is sure to take
__________ again.

5. Learn to love God from the age of __________.

5. Read and answer

What is the most wonderful thing in this world?
When King Yudhisthira (one of the five Pandavas) was asked this question, he
replied, “The most wonderful thing is that every day, every moment, people are
dying, and yet everyone thinks that death will not come to them.”

Every minute and every second we experience that living entities are going
to the temple of death. Men, insects, animals, birds—everyone is going. This
world, therefore, is called mrtyuloka—the planet of death.
If we bother to go the cemetery or crematorium grounds, or
read the obituaries section in the newspaper, we can easily
validate this fact. Everyone is subject to the law of death, and
yet no one takes it seriously. Everyone is thinking, “Somehow
or other, I’ll live.” This is illusion. Thinking that we will live
forever, we go on doing whatever we like, feeling that we will
never be held responsible. This is a very risky way of life,
and it is the densest part of illusion. We should become very
serious and understand that death is waiting. We have heard the
expression, “as sure as death.”

State whether the following statements are true or false.

a. One who has taken birth is sure to die, and after death one is sure
to take birth again.

b. One can break this repeated succession of births and deaths by

utilizing his valuable time to understand God and his loving
relationship with Him.

c. It is the ignorance of death and life that distinguishes an

animal from a man.

d. The greatest illusion is to think that we will live

forever in this body.

e. Everyone is the master of eternal time.

f. In the Bhagavad-gita, Lord Krishna says, “Time I am, the great

destroyer of the worlds.”

g. King Yudhisthira said that the greatest wonder of all is that each
man thinks he’ll keep on living, although everyone else is dying.