Timepass

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Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra

Mahadesikaya nama:

 

Timepass

 

“Time and Tide wait for no man” says the adage.

Time moves on inexorably, whether or not we wish it to. No one,

however powerful, can make a second stand still, nor can he make it

move faster. When we are engaged in an extremely absorbing endeavour,

we find that Time just flies. On the other hand, when we are

imapatiently awaiting the outcome of some event or the other, the

very same Time appears to crawl. For young lovers engaged in

exchanging sweet nothings, the passage of Time appears extremely

rapid and an hour spent in each other’s company passes like

mere minutes. On the other hand, to the anxious husband pacing

restlessly outside the delivery ward at the hospital, awaiting news

of his first progeny, the hands of the clock seem stuck and unmoving.

Thus, the pace of passage of Time may appear fast or slow, depending

upon our perception: however, Time neither flies nor crawls—it

moves at its own unvarying, sedate and uniform speed.

 

Most of us have regular occupations, which account for the major

portion of our waking hours. And to fill the hours of leisure, we

have varied ways. Some spend all their spare time in front of the

Television, as “Couch Potatoes”. Some others, being

votaries of physical fitness, spend their leisure at Gyms, toning up

their bodies and building their biceps. Yet others, interested in the

fine arts, patronise music concerts and art galleries, deriving a lot

of pleasure from these aesthetic pursuits. Cinemas too attract their

share of votaries, who forget themselves once they enter the theatre

and the lights go off. Gambling in its various forms (ranging from

Cards, Casinos, Racing, Speculation in Stocks, etc.), perusing pulp

fiction etc. take up the time of some of our brethren. Urged by our

teachers to take up some hobby or the other, many of us have become

addicts to philately, numismatics, voracious reading etc. to fill our

spare time. Others like me resort to writing to spend time,

irrespective of whether or not their words attract anyone’s

attention and interest. Yet others simply sleep—there were

several people who spent entire lifetimes in sleep—Muchukundan,

Rip-van-vinkle and KumbhakarNa are examples. For some others, idle

gossip with kindred spirits occupies all their waking moments. This

is brought out by the following sloka, which sets out the various

ways in which people spend time—

’KAvya ShAstra vinOdEna kAlO gacchati dheematAm

anyEshAm tu manushyANAm nidrayA kalahEna va”

 

We hear a lot of people complaining about time being difficult to

pass. “Pozhudu pOgalai” is a complaint we hear often. For

these complainants, Time just stands still and has to be practically

pushed on. What a pity indeed, for, little do they realise that every

passing second second brings us that much nearer to the end of our

lives. Each hour that passes without anything useful having been

done, is a wasted hour indeed. And before we realise, these idle

hours add up to days, months and years of ill-spent time, with

absolutely nothing to show for the part of life that has slipped away

unnoticed, except perhaps gray hairs.

 

That brings us to the brass tacks and the million-dollar

question—how to spend our time? This may appear to be a silly

question, for there are any number of pursuits one could adopt, as

enumerated above. However, to qualify the question further, how to

spend our spare time productively? The productivity meant here is not

related to conversion of our precious time into cents and dollars, but

to something else, which might even be intangible, which would result

in self-improvement. Again, by “self”, we refer here to

the soul inside us and not to the physical shell.

 

There is a beautiful word in our

SampradAya—“KAlakshEpam”. Though it literally means

passing of time, its popular purport is that of listening to eminent

Acharyas or scholars propounding the intricacies of one or the other

of the great works that have been bequeathed to us by merciful

poorvAchAryAs. The term has thus come to mean the spending of time

listening to uplifting utterances, whether of the Lord or of

Acharyas. It is thus that we hear of “Bhagavat Vishaya

KalakshEpam”, “SrI BhAshya KAlakshEpam”

“Srimad RahasyatrayasAra KalakshEpam” etc., alluding to

the productive passage of hours in the pursuit of enlightenment. This

usage, in turn, appears to have originated from the sree sookti of Sri

Tirumazhisai Piran, in Nanmukhan TiruvandAdi—

 

“taritthu irundEn AgavE tArA gaNa pOr

viritthu uraittha ven nAgatthu unnai—teritthu ezhudi

vAsitthum kEttum vaNangi vazhipattum

poositthum pOkkinEn pOdu”

 

Azhwar shares with us his own experiences in passing time and lists

the seven different ways in which his lifetime was spent—

 

1. “Teritthu”—refers to the blissful

contemplation of the Lord and His glorious attributes, with

overwhelming devotion and love. This makes the hours pass in a jiffy.

 

2 “ezhudi”—Among the numerous ways of

enjoying the rare delight that is Emperuman, is to write His names.

Even today, we find several people continuing this hallowed tradition

by writing Rama nAma. It is the practical experience of these worthies

that putting the Rama nAma to paper affords them great inner peace.

Just as the infatuated lover finds joy in penning his beloved’s

name, for the devotee, writing the Lord’s names gives infinite

pleasure. Azhwar thus tells us to spend time in writing down the

Lord’s names. This would also refer to composing paens of

praise, in prose and verse, on Emperuman and His glory, so that it

would benefit oneself and others.

 

3. “VAsitthum”—Another admirable way to spend

our waking moments is to read—not of worldly affairs or pulp

fiction which are of negligible value, but of spiritual matters,

especially tales of the Lord, stotras on Him composed by His admiring

votaries and so on. Veda PArAyaNam, Sriamd Ramayana ParAyaNam, Srimad

BhAgavata ParAyaNam, aruliccheyal anusandhAnam etc. fall under this

head.

 

4. “KEttum”—Delightful stories of the Lord and

His exploits, enthralling descriptions of His innumerable auspicious

attributes, the glories of His devotees, etc. form nectarine inputs

for the audio faculty. “KarNAbhyAm bhoori vishruvam”

“Bhadram karNEbhi: shruNuyAma dEvA:” are some of the

prayers enshrined in the Upanishads, praying to the almighty that

only the best of sounds, viz., Bhagavat BhAgavata kathA, fall on our

ears. Ipso facto, this calls for eschewing lending our ears to idle

gossip and accounts of mundane matters. It is to enable the unimpeded

flow of such sacred sounds that our ears have not been provided with

shutters, unlike our eyes which have eyelids.

 

 

5. “VaNangi”—This might be construed as a

physical expression of devotion, with all the symptoms of

enthrallment that affect a devotee in the throes of Bhakti, as

described by Sri Kulasekhara Perumal in Sri Mukunda MAlA—

 

“ baddhEna anjalinA natEna sirasA gAtraischa rOmOdgamai:

kanthEna svara gadgadEna nayanEna utkeerNa bAshpAmbunA”

 

This “vaNakkam” is thus an act involving almost

all parts of the body, with the head bent in devotion, the hands

folded in supplication in the “anjali mudrA” which floors

Emperuman, eyes filling with tears of joy at the sight of the Lord or

His devotees, each individual hair on the skin erect with delight,

the voice aquiver with emotion and each individual part of the body

vying with the other to express its devotion separately.

 

6. “Vazhipattum”—This refers to performing

worship, various ways of which have been described by poorvAchAryas

beginning with Sri Ramanuja (in his “nityam”). Performing

TiruvAradhanam to the Lord is such a delightful experience as to be a

pursuit par excellence, filled with overwhelming joy. This Bhagavat

ArAdhanam is only a daily practice session, to remind us constantly

of the indescribable bliss of Kainkaryam that awaits us, as

PrapannAs, at the end of this birth.

7. “Poositthum”—This we may take to be a

variant or a component of Bhagavat ArAdhanam, involving the worship

of the Lord with garlands of fresh blooms or of verses. And this type

of worship is to be offered only to Emperuman Sriman Narayanan, as Sri

Nammazhwar avers—“dEvan emperumAnukku allAl poovum

poosanayum tagumE!”

 

This, then, is how time is to be spent.

 

Sri Nammazhwar too, whose entire life, every waking moment of it, was

spent in the contemplation of the Lord and His glory, wonders how it

is posssible for mortals to pass time except through the blissful

perusal, utterance and propagation of sacred words full of the

Lord’s magnificence and grandeur, His innumerable auspicious

attributes, etc.—

 

“KAr kalanda mEniyAn kai kalanda AzhiyAn

PAr kalanda val avayittrAn—seer kalanda sol

ninaindu pOkkArEl soozh vinayin Azh tuyarai

en ninaindu pOkkuvar ip pOdu?”

 

For those who are at their wits’ end as to how to

“kill” time, the aforesaid prescriptions should come in

useful.

 

Srimate Sri LakshmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka Srivan Satakopa Sri

Narayana Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

dasan, sadagopan