#162 Karma Yoga and Time Management
Tick-tick-tick
As the river of time flows,
try managing it.
Try..You cannot.
Nobody can manage time because it ebbs and flows
What we can manage is what we do in the time that we all have.
The question is – How do we decide what to do in the time that we have?
Let’s say it is a Tuesday 22nd February 2022 6 am in India.
Your system of managing what you do, your karma has to be able to answer the question – What are you doing and what do you want to do next? Why are you doing what you are doing? Is what you are doing contributing to lasting happiness?
It is likely that you would be doing something on that Tuesday which has been decided on the basis of a system you have developed for yourself. Books and apps on productivity have certainly helped us get more done on the ever growing to-do list, made us more efficient but also made us more anxious because of the limited time we have. And there seems to be no respite from it all, if we also add the cacophony of social media to it.
Time is the one thing we cannot earn once spent, no matter how intelligent or rich we are. Rather than face this inherent limitation of time we distract ourselves with binge watching. We chase the fantasy of a perfect work-life balance but if we don’t have a life in the first place, what balance are we talking of? We procrastinate and yet plan compulsively. We avoid having the leisure so that we can see the bigger picture.
Then, what is the best use of our limited time on this planet? Your system of managing what you do with your time is related to decisions, processes and roles based on what you think the purpose of your life is and hence what your life priorities are.
If it is not clear then what wisdom does the Bhagavad Gita offer about the priorities for a karma yogi?
vyavasaayaatmikaa buddhirekeha kurunandana
bahushaakha hyanantaascha buddhayo’vyavasaayinaam (2.41)
With reference to this (moksha), Arjuna, the descendant of Kurus!
There is a single, well-ascertained understanding.
The notions of those who lack discrimination are many branched and innumerable indeed
A Karma yogi is not a different creature but a person who is pursuing the ultimate pursuit of moksha. He or she has vyavasaayatmika buddhi – a clear ascertained understanding about what he/she seeks from life and how it can be gained. The buddhi, mind, therefore, is said to be ekä, single-pointed. For the karma yogi, there is only one goal, moksha, in the form of jnana, knowledge.
The person clearly sees that through all the pursuits of pleasure, wealth and reaching out actions, ‘What I am really seeking is freedom from seeking’. I am tired of chasing after the next new shiny thing. Despite all my success, at the end of life, people will say – ram naam satya hai, the name of Ram is the only truth..a sentence uttered when the dead body is taken to the cremation grounds. Everyone is going to be met with old age, disease and death, limitation in other words.
If that indeed was our reality, we might as well reconcile with it. But it is not.
Vedanta says that one is already the limitless and ever free of any limitation.
But my experience says that I do not call all the shots. All my experiences have 3 characteristics –
The experience of having an icecream or a vacation or a psychedelic experience begins and ends in time.
The same experience does not give me the happiness it once did.
One becomes dependent on the experience for one’s happiness which is frustrating especially when you cannot control it. For instance, as the weekend approaches you anxiously wait for the video call of your 20 year old studying in the US. It your spot of happiness in the entire week.
For those who are avyavasaayinaam, confused about the purpose of life and hence life priorities, everything offered in the area of wellness appears attractive. Reiki and energy work is attractive. So is body work and past life regression analysis and so are the different healing modalities. All these modailities are bahushakha and anantah..many branched and countless but they only help to heal the experiencer in all of us. They are important and we need it to help ourselves but much like a crutch, but you don’t hold on to it for dear life, especially if you are functioning well without the crutch.
We have already seen that a few more experiences, spiritual or otherwise are not going to help, given the limitation of every experience.
The Karma yogi appreciates the possibility that Vedanta reveals – You are already free.
If one was really bound, one could never be free.
If one was already free, then one needs to know it to own it.
Earlier the seeker was seeking experiences. Now the seeker has a direction. The seeker wants to know the very nature of the experiencer and takes to Atma vichaara, a systematic study of oneself in the light of Vedanta.
Along the journey, the karma yogi recognises that there is no perfect relationship. Every relationship however close has its limitations. Only the relationship with Bhagavan is unconditional leading to the knowledge of oneness.
There is no perfect karma either, religious or secular. You offer your best karma given your knowledge and experience at the altar of Bhagavan. The results of your karma are sanctified by the sacred altar. The results are yours to accept, reject or resist.
Any karma that you undertake has numerous obstacles, but karma-yoga has no obstacles. It is purely prayer. All the karmas that you do form a prayer. Prayer itself is the result because, to the extent that you are able to pray and surrender, your antah karana shuddhi is taken care of.
There is no perfect experience either. However perfect it seems, the fact that it is going to end sooner or later breaks through the illusion of perfection. But Karma Yoga can turn every experience into an opportunity for equanimity such that the mind slows down in being colored and reactive. Difficult experiences are seen as clouds that as though cover your dazzling glory.
There is no perfect karma phala or the outcome of your karma. Why? The fructifying time for karma differs. A baby will take about 36 weeks to be born. The mutual fund will yield returns of more than 20% in atleast two years. But for Karma Yoga the result is not later. It is here and now. The abiding peace that descends with a quiet hush in one’s heart is before karma and not after the karma is done.
There is no perfect life plan or annual plan of events. In Karma Yoga the plan is of self mastery, what we become as the year unfolds.
There is no perfect annual review. In Karma Yoga, we review how we have grown, how much compassion we have developed for oneself and the other, how happy and cheerful we are despite all kinds of situations, how we can grow in our surrender to the cosmic order that is Bhagavan. Growing in our self-mastery and self discovery is more important than the events that unfold.
In a plan the different events seem to be bigger than us. In Karma Yoga, you are bigger than any event. Your response frees you from the seeming limitation that the situation imposes on you.
Karma-yoga is an attitude; it is not just action. If it were an undertaking, it would be a problem because it might not end properly. Certain omissions and commissions may be there in the jobs we perform. Hurt and guilt may be there in our relationships. Therefore, in karma the desired goal may not be achieved. But in karma-yoga because of your objectivity, the result no longer has any hold on you. You are interested only in antah-karana shuddhi, so that you can gain moksha
Karma-yoga being an attitude, if it is with you, it is with you. With this attitude, you continue to do karma. Previously you did karma and now also you do karma.
It is the change in attitude that brings about the result and makes it yoga
Since your goal is clear you uphold dharma in your many roles.
Your life priorities are to live your dharma in the different relationships you have.
Since Dharma is at the centre of your life, it being a manifestation of Bhagavan, you do what you can in your different roles.
You see what needs to be done and you do your karma in your role as a daughter, son, sister, brother, partner, mother, father
You do what you can in your role as a friend, professional, relative, colleague, a citizen, a Vedanta student, a shishya to a guru perhaps.
When I utter these roles it may seem overwhelming but with the attitude of Karma Yoga and your ever growing love for Bhagavan, you move from one role to another seamlessly doing your best.
Yes, you can definitely use the many productivity apps and read books on productivity and time management. But the purpose is not to do more for the sake of perfect karma or perfect relationship or the perfect experience because you know that perfection was just a mirage. All these apps can be used to be proactive and make plans such that you do justice and live your dharma in your many roles.
And so as the clock continues to tick away, you stop managing time and start managing what you do in the time. Your time matters.
