Management of time

The question now arises about time. I like to do so many things but I do not seem to have the time. When we go to people and say why don’t you come for Bhajan or Nagasankeertan – people don’t seem to have the time. Baba has made a million dollar statement “A person who says he has no time is the biggest fool on this earth” – Why? Let us analyse it carefully. What do I mean when I say I do not have time? Has my watch stopped and therefore I do not have time? No – What I really mean is that I do not have any more mental space to do anything more than what I am doing at this moment. Please note, what is not there is mental space. So the solution lies in creating mental space and not in blaming time.

Take the example of an attaché case. If I wish to pack in 20 shirts and 10 sarees. Supposing I crumple them I will not be able to put in more than 7 shirts and 4 sarees. If they are folded neatly then I suddently find space for all the clothes. The case suddenly seems to take on more capacity it can take in much more than when everything was ruffled. The same with MIND and THOUGHTS they should be neatly set in order to take more and then even the breath will be under control. Never say you have no TIME, because Mental space will be created if we are practising management of Thougths and if we are following the 9 point code of conduct then automatically mental space will be created to do more work.

Not only question of workout increases but quality of work also. Because we have a new vision, perception, which is not available to us;

Therefore Baba tells us in order to create more mental space we have to ensure that there are limited desires. If we have unlimited desires we will have no mental space. Limited desires – do we understand the term? Baba has simplified it for us – Baba says desires are basically of 4 kinds – If one can put a ceiling on these 4 aspects, the other desires will take care of themselves.

1. Ceiling on desire:

a. Do not misuse food – ceiling on food. The famous American Economist John Kenneth Galbraith has said – “More people in this world die of overeating than of starvation”. It’s true. If we have control over our food intake – if our mind is controlled, our food intake will also go down.

If our breath is rhythmic then we get our calories strength from the environment. It is not that we have to stop eating – But we must eat only the right amount – not overeat, we will get the right amount of energy required for the active use of body and mind.

b. Ceiling on Money – “Money is God. It is placed with us as a trust – you can give it and take it back also. Hold in good trust.

c. Ceiling on energy.

d. Ceiling on Knowledge – that is misuse of knowledge. If I am a competent Doctor with a patient in front of me telling him to give me Rs.10000/- and then only I can do the operation, it is misuse of knowledge. If I am a scientist and I am using all my knowledge to produce atom bomb, it is misuse of knowledge.

Whatever skill God has given us should be used for the sake of mankind. Once we can capture these 4 aspects the result will be Management of TIME.

2. Very important technique Baba says is 6 x 4 – a size of paper not 24. This technique was evolved by John Hislop and it was explained to Baba and Baba said everyone can use it

We read or hear several good things and we note them and then we forget where we put them.

Baba says whenever you read a good thing note it down on a paper of a fixed size and put them together. Whenever we are upset or whenever things don’t go the way we want them to go or we are confused and troubled – pick up one paper from the pack and we will find a solution right there. We have all found that when troubled we have picked a volume of Satyam Sivam Sundaram and found a healing for the troubled affected mind we have. It is not the size of paper – but the fact that we should keep – a note of all these good things we read and hear and read them every day – 9 point code of conduct – “Everday Study of Sai Literature”.

3. Next salient point is Study circles. For the parents of Balvikas children – for members of the audience we invite them to join the study circle – Study in a Circle – we give them the opportunity to understand a statement – that is the objective. Unity – Divinity – and other aspects of life productivity, happiness, how we interact.

4. Finally, Baba tells us, enemy number one of time is anger. The greater our anger the more mismanagement of time, the lesser our anger, the greater is the management of time.

If we regularly practice Management of thoughts, i.e., self audit and silent sitting – if you regularly practice Management of Breath i.e., Namasmarana, music and prayer – there is every possiblility ,that you will not lose your temper – because there are psychological forces acting with our body to control anger. But Baba Says that even at the end if you loose your temper – there are two things.

1) The situation that one should not lose temper

2) Having lost it, one must know how to come out of it. Baba has given the methods.

1. Drink a glass of water at room temperature and not cold water. This has a scientific reason.
When we are angry the secretion of adrenaline, which is a toxic chemical beyond a point of time starts filling the body which is dangerous.

Baba gives an example, a mother feeding her child had put her bucket at the public tap, someone removed it and put theirs instead and she got into such a vicious bout of temper. After fighting when she put the child back after feeding the child died because her milk had turned to poison. Baba says one bout of anger destroys good food one has taken for 3 months – 90 days of good food can be destroyed by just about of anger – spiritual progress goes backwards. Vishwamitra worshiped for one million years and then suddenly someone made him angry and he had to start all over again. We have only a short span of life, when angry, drink a glass of water – dilute the impact of toxic chemicals and secretions created in system, take down the toxins and there is a possibility that anger will be diluted, and we will come out of the viciousness of our anger.

2. Leave the place where we have lost our temper, physically walk away from there. Why? Because at the spot at which I have lost my temper – I have created negative ionized field of energy and when I walk away from it – I come into contact with a better vibration or at least one not as bad as the one I had created for myself and therefore I get away from my anger. When two people are fighting on the road – what do the elders do? They pull the two apart away from negative charge – quite unconsciously and perhaps as a result the anger subsides.

However, how much distance to walk away perhaps depends on how much temper we have lost.

3. Whenever you lose your temper Baba says lie down. Why? Negative energy (like anger) can travel only on a vertical plane and not on a horizontal plane e.g. if I am lying down and I suddenly want to express my anger what do I do – I sit up and then scold – if I lie down I cannot seem to get angry. To express anger one must be vertical and to remove anger one must be horizontal. Here again there is a word of caution – you must practice this technique at home – not at a public place. Suppose you lose your temper at the bus stop and lie down on the road – please do not blame Baba for the consequence.

4. If at any part of time if one is angry, if he looks at his face in the mirror – never does he will get anger next time. The face resembles more to a monkey. Ears are red, face disfigured and no one likes to see himself ugly.

To sum up – Excellence is an objective of life. Excellence is the, essence of Swami’s message – Excellence is competition with our own self- excellence is achieved by managing the three primary inputs – Thought, Breath and Time. Only then, we are on the pathway of excellence. This subject is to be dealt discreetly – because it is an experience that this message summarises Swami’s message in a vocabulary and terminology that is easily understood today. This is essentially Satya Sai Technique for living, Satya Sai Technique of Management. Therefore, what is important is the banner – the name of Satya Sai must come. All that is told in the name of Baba connot remain in the back ground. Each description – each such presentation that we make to the parents, to an audience, it must not mince the words that this is the message of Baba – it is not the individual contribution of anyone but the essence of Baba as per his discourses and commandments.