…अव्यर्थकालत्वम्…
…avyartha-kālatvam…
Chaitanya Charitamrit: Madhya 23.18 (partial)
If you have to waste even one minute without remembering God, then you feel like,
“I lost a lot today!”
Like, if you lost even one month’s pay, then you think,
“Oh no! I lost a lot! How will I survive now?”
In the same way, if we are bound to waste one minute without remembrance of God, we feel like,
“I have lost everything.”
And then, virakti (natural detachment). Virakti means,
विरक्तिरिन्द्रियार्थानां स्यादरोचकता स्वयम्।
Viraktir indriyārthānāṁ syād arohcakatā svayam.
- Bhakti Rasāmṛit Sindhu 1.3.30.
It means ‘natural detachment from everything’.
When we have virakti, natural detachment, then if you are given very delicious food, a variety of food, or you are given just roti (flatbread) without any dal (lentils) or vegetable, etc., you are equally happy. You enjoy the variety of food in the same way as you enjoy roti alone, without any vegetable or dal, etc., because you are not eating food. You are eating the prasad (sanctified food offering). It is the prasad of Shree Krishna, the prasad of your Guru.
That’s why everything makes you equally happy. If any problem comes, if any calamity comes in your family, even then you are happy because you are thinking that this is the grace of God.
“He wants to snatch all those things from me to which I am attached! Probably He did it for this reason!”
If you are given a lottery of one billion dollars, even then you are the same way. You are not very happy. You are normal. This is virakti.
Mān-śhūnyatā (absence of pride), when you give respect to everyone without any desire to have respect in return from anyone.
Āśhā-bandh (steadfast hope), meaning your hope to see God is increasing by leaps and bounds.
Samutkaṇṭhā (intense longing), vyākulatā (eagerness),
“I have to see God! I have to see God! When will I see God? I cannot live without Him!”
All these symptoms are bhāv-bhakti (devotion at the stage of spiritual emotion). So we have to check ourselves. Where are we? What are we doing? Where are we? This is the time when the end of the year comes. In fact, according to the philosophy of Shree Maharaj Ji, it is not the time for enjoying. It is the time for thinking and evaluating.
“What is our condition? What did I get? And what do I have to get? If I did not achieve this, if I resolved that I have to achieve all these virtues, all these conditions of devotion, and I could not do so, then repent for it! And resolve again that this year I have to be like that. I have to create these qualities in me as a devotee. I must realize God in this life!”
We have to firmly resolve. This is not the time for laughing.
But here, we are still lucky that we came over here to laugh, dance, or sing only for the service of God. If you are remembering God when you are dancing, when you are singing, when you are eating, if you are doing all that while keeping Shree Maharaj Ji in your mind, keeping Shree Krishna in your mind, then you are increasing your devotion anyway. Then it is good. This is what we have to do.
Lord Krishna said in the Bhagavad Gita,
यत्करोषि यदश्नासि यज्जुहोषि ददासि यत्।
यत्तपस्यसि कौन्तेय तत्कुरुष्व मदर्पणम्।Yat karoṣhi yad aśhnāsi yaj juhoṣhi dadāsi yat.
Yat tapasyasi kaunteya tat kuruṣhva madarpaṇam.- Gita 9.27.
Whatever you do (remember God), this is the practice of devotion. This is what we have to do.
