DO YOU HAVE A SENSE OF URGENCY

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

36. DO YOU HAVE A SENSE OF URGENCY?
The life of the Spirit, the life of sadhana, the life of laying by eternal treasures as distinct
from perishable trifles, was brought home with full force and significance by the admonition of
Jesus, the divine teacher of the Middle East, in the form of a query: “What does it profit a man if he
gains the whole world but loses his spiritual life?” This was one of the great questions put before
global mankind for all times. It places before each human individual a criterion to measure things, a
measuring rod.
Similarly, Adi Sankaracharya in a very descriptive manner brings out more or less the same
truth in the last line of each verse of his Guru Paduka Stotra: “You may have the wealth of the whole
world, everything that can ever be desired, but of what use is it if your entire mind and heart is not
totally absorbed in God and in following your spiritual teacher?”
This, indeed, is something that one should seriously consider. What are we engaged in? Are
we engaged in laying by eternal treasures, or are we engaged in gathering trifles as life hurries past
like a fast flowing river? Gurudev put it in his way: “Life is short, time is fleeting.” With each
incoming and outgoing breath, the allotted life span of each jivatman’s residence in this earthly
body is fast being depleted.

Therefore, the Upanishadic call: uttishthata jagrata prapya varan nibodhata (Arise, awake,
having reached the wise become enlightened). This call should be ringing in the ear of every true
aspiring soul, every real seeker, every sadhaka worth the name of sadhaka. Then alone some
achievement is possible—not in indifference, not in pramada (heedlessness).
Admonitions are not lacking. Saints, sages, siddhas, mahapurushas, scriptures, srutis,
smritis, puranas all sound this call. They all give this caution; they all warn us: Before you know it,
time will fly away. “Dinamapi rajani sayam pratah sisiravasantau punarayatah; kalah kridati
gacchatyayus tadapi na munchatyasavayuh (Day and night, morning and evening, autumn and
spring, come and go again and again. While time plays, our life ebbs away. Yet, alas, the wind of
man’s vain desires does not cease but continues to blow unsatiated).” Every day this sloka must be
sounding again and again in your heart.
Many years ago, to make us understand with what keenness, with what great sense of
urgency one should engage in practical spiritual life, Gurudev wrote: “When your house is on fire,
how courageously, how daringly, without caring for anything, you will plunge into the house and
rescue that which is precious.” And here what you have to rescue is your own nija svarupa (true
nature) from the clutches of desire and maya.
These great teachings should not go to waste. Are they all to be cries in the wilderness? Are
they to be in vain? They will all be in vain if our mind is only intent upon petty sense pleasures. In
his Gitanjali, Rabindranath Tagore compares this to children playing upon the shores of the sea of
life, gathering shells, building sandcastles, and never thinking of the invaluable pearls that lie in the
depth. And what will happen at the end of the day? The shells will be left and the sandcastles swept
away by the tide.
Will your life be like that? Will you spend your whole life in puerility, childishness, running
after petty things? Consider this! Answer! What is your response to the great question: “What does
it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his spiritual life?” What is your answer? Are we
responding?
When someone strikes the hour in the Bhajan Hall verandah, does your heart tremble? One
more hour has gone; my life has become depleted. Do you even hear the bells, let alone ponder over
it, reflect over it? So much is our pramada, so much is our preoccupation with little things that we
do not know what is happening. We are not aware. We do not know that days are passing, that with
each sunset one more day has gone.
Our perception is gross, full of tamas and useless rajas. It is so gross that we do not perceive
that which is right in front of us. We do not perceive the inner implication of things. Life bypasses
us, its meaning lost on us. Could there be a greater tragedy, greater blunder, greater loss, greater
folly than to neglect this golden opportunity, this rare chance that God has offered us? Who will be
to blame if we throw away what God has given to us for petty trifles?
The one time Jesus demonstrated anger was when He entered the temple and saw traders
and money-changers there. He made a whip and drove them out saying: “My Father’s house is
meant to be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.” Are you doing that to your

own body-temple where the Father is enshrined? Are you doing similarly—taking a strong stand
and driving out from this moving temple of the living God all that is unworthy of His presence?
Are you doing that? Are you doing this cleansing? Have you got that spirit within you? God
forgive us if we reject the great gift that He has given to us out of His infinite love and compassion.
Regret will be of no avail if we allow life to pass away not understanding its value, not caring to
utilise this gift of God.
Let that not be your fate: to live in folly and regret at the end. Therefore, heed the call to
“Arise, awake, become enlightened.” There is no other way of proving your worth, proving your
mettle, proving what stuff you are made of. Are you made of steel or made of straw?
If we call ourselves sadhakas, spiritual people, if we really believe that we are children of
Immortality, amritasya putrah, then it should be proved by the doing— by our living—not just with
our lips.
Life does not stand still. If you grasp time by the forelock and utilise it, it is yours.
Otherwise, it is not yours; it is finished. Life is not a thing to be idled away, to be allowed to go by in
daydreaming and fanciful imaginations. It is something to be grasped with both hands and utilised.
Understand this very clearly. Then alone you will be the builder of a glorious future for
yourself. Then alone you will be the designer of your highest welfare. May God help you do it! May
Gurudev’s perennial inspiration enable you to progress higher, upward and Godward day by day!