Once you came here as a human being, life got a little complicated. If you came here like any other creature on this planet, stomach full, life settled. Once you come here as a human being, stomach empty – only one problem, stomach full – 100 problems.
What we’re calling as life here, is just a certain combination of time and energy
So what we’re calling as life here, is just a certain combination of time and energy. This combo of time and energy, unfortunately, majority of the people never learn to handle it seamlessly and wonderfully. Hitch after hitch, everything is a problem. If you’re a toddler, you have diaper problems. If you become an adolescent, you have hormonal problems. If you become middle aged, there is a crisis. Old age is horrible. Every phase of life, people are seeing it as some kind of a problem. Of course, death is a serious problem.
So this combination of time and energy – we must understand the nature of what we’re handling. Time, by its own nature, is such – you do something it rolls. If you don’t do something, it rolls. You don’t have to push it, I’m saying. Hello? As you’re sitting here, it’s rolling away. You’re doing a lot of things, it’s rolling away. You do nothing, it rolls away. You’re awake, it rolls away. You’re asleep, it rolls away.
But without having mastery over time, nobody can determine the nature of their destiny in their lives. How to grab time? People are talking about time management. Have you ever managed time? As you sit here, it’s ticking away. And what’s sticking away is not a clock, what’s sticking away is our life itself. Hello? Since I walked in, you’re two minutes closer to your grave. Yes you are. Me too. This is the nature of time. Whatever you do, do not do, do anything you want – but you’re not able to roll it back. It is only rolling forward.
Time, how to manage? It’s too big a thing to manage. Not in your hands
It is just that if you are happy, it seems to tick away very fast. If you are miserable, it goes very slowly for you. On a particular day, you are very happy – 24 hours … [pass very quickly]. Now you are depressed – 24 hours feel like an eon for you! Yes or no? So, only miserable people have a long life. If you are a joyful person, it’s a brief life. If you are an ecstatic person, it’s just a moment – puff! It’s gone, before you know what’s happening.
Life has gone so fast, that even my body has not realised time has gone by, and it’s still… I have not realised time has gone by. This is the 30th year of Isha. 20th anniversary of Isha Foundation, and I can’t believe – 30 years! It feels like 3 days in my experience. And in these 3 days, or 30 years – my schedules are… Singapore is a holiday for me. I just come to golf, and… Otherwise my schedules are insane, ok. Everyday, 20 hours, minimum – we are on. I never missed a single airplane till now. In a day sometimes, I have been in 6 airports. But, I’ve never missed an airplane. I never missed an appointment. I never been late to an appointment, in 30 years. But I don’t manage time, I manage myself.
Time, how to manage? It’s too big a thing to manage. Not in your hands. Whether you like it or not, it’s ticking away, isn’t it? Yes? If you sit here, it’s ticking away. If you jump around, it’ll tick away. Do whatever you want, it’ll tick away, isn’t it? But what you can do with yourself, that you can manage. There is nothing to do with the time. So self-management, not time management.
There is nothing to do with the time. So self-management, not time management
Just a few days ago, I was flying in from India. Normally, it used to be 13 and a half, 14 hours, but now there is some issue that Pakistan is not allowing airplanes to fly over their airspace. So it’s taking 16 hours. Because I know all the pilots and I’m a licensed pilot myself, so they let me sit in the cockpit. And I’m interested in what’s happening there. So I was talking to them and they said, Sadhguru… I said 14 hours, isn’t it guys? And they said, no Sadhguru, 16 hours – it’s so long. Then I said, see I’m not complaining, because just a century ago if I had to go to United States, it was 60 days. 16 hours, I’m not complaining. I’m okay. I’ll sit down, lie down, read something, do something, or talk to you. But I’m not complaining about 16 hours. How did 60 days become 16 hours? Simply because, from a chugging steam engine to a jet engine. Hello? Suddenly, 60 days became 16 hours.
The only way you can take charge of time is by mastering your energies, how they function
So the only way you can take charge of time is by mastering your energies, how they function. If you are functioning like a steam engine, it’s a long time. If you’re functioning like a jet engine, boom! Right now they’re saying the Chinese have developed an airplane where Beijing to New York, you can do it in two hours. They’re saying by 2028, they’ll have it commercially ready. Two hours. So this is not mastery of time, but consequentially it is mastery of time. If what somebody does in 10 years, if you can do it in one year. If both of you live for 100 years, in terms of impact and profoundness of experience, you lived for a thousand years. Hello? That is the only way you can take charge of time. And one who’s taken charge of time, for him the entire universe is a sweetness of compassion. That will be his experience of life once he’s taken charge of time.
