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On the Value of Time

A year had passed since the young men started living in the Master’s house.

A typical day there was carried out as follows:

They got up at dawn. After hygienic procedures and a light breakfast, they then spent time on spiritual work. Sometimes this work included lessons from the Master or from one of the older disciples. For the remainder of the morning, the disciples would then practice on their own, repeating the tasks which had previously been received from the Master.

In the afternoon, they usually worked in the garden, or read and rewrote books.

Some of the disciples, who had come to the Master from other countries, would translate the texts into their native languages.

Our young men, at first, liked this life in the Master’s house very much. They were filled with rapture from the first touches of Divine Love, Which they could sense from the simple initial exercises for opening the spiritual hearts.

... In the beginning, they followed everything with inspiration! But then... they started to become lazy.

After all, people quickly get used to good things... And sometimes it happens that the good things in life... become ordinary — and then people stop appreciating them.

When all the other disciples went to their rooms to perform daily meditations, our young men sometimes preferred to sleep. And no one scolded them for it or checked up on how they were performing the exercises!

And sometimes, one of them would boast about imaginary achievements in meditations, in order to show the others how successful he is!...

When everyone worked in the garden or in the kitchen, it sometimes happened that this work did not seem “spiritual enough” to them. And so, they often only pretended that they tried but got tired, and, if possible, they avoided this work. To them, such “dirty work” was not needed for “spiritual ascetics”!...

They took it for granted that they had nutritious food and shelter. And, they forgot about gratitude...

The Master watched them sadly, but did not hurry to admonish them. After all, he understood that the good that is done under duress is unlikely to benefit the soul!

The Master sometimes washed the dishes himself after a common meal or undertook to feed and dig the vegetable beds when the young men pretended to be very busy with more important matters...

The Master was waiting for the right moment to explain how sad is the fate of those who stopped in their spiritual development due to laziness and narcissism and of those who ceased to make efforts to transform themselves into souls that shine with love.

And, after all, if a person does not perform the normal good tasks of everyday life or performs them with unwillingness and disgust, then what spiritual work is there to be talked about?

The young men were sometimes embarrassed by the Master’s disapproving glances, but did not rush to look inside themselves for the cause of His discontent.

Boredom began to appear in their lives from the satiety with their well-being and from the extinction of their love...

* * *

On a certain day, when the young men were especially lazy, an old man came to the Master’s house.

He walked hunched over, heavily moving his legs, as if the heavy burden of his many years and of life’s problems and disappointments, weighed him down to the ground.

This man had not achieved much in life and, what he managed to find, became just a load of new worries, which did not bring him happiness.

Looking at this man, one of the Master’s disciples said to the young men:

“Yes, usually only when one’s life is almost over, do many people start to think about the fact that they did not live it the way that they should have. But, by then, it’s already too late... Today, this old man has come to our Master for advice and help, but what can one do when death is already ‘knocking at the door’? Try to see how sad this is — and rejoice that you still have strength and time!”

... And the Master spoke with this old man for a long time, and when the guest left after the conversation, his eyes were shining with hope. Even his gait became easier, and he straightened up, as if he had managed to lose that load, which had been bending him down to the ground — to that same ground in which his body was soon to rest...

“Tell us, what did You tell that old man?” — the disciples asked the Master, being surprised by the change that happened in the visitor.

The Master invited everyone who was interested in this conversation to discuss this topic:

“Despondency is often inherent in old age. In old age, a person cannot console oneself with hopes for the future, because this ‘future’ has already come close, and it has already been predetermined by the way this person has led his or her life. And people usually do not know what awaits them after the death of their bodies; and this frightens them.

“In old age, a person can no longer console oneself with dreams: ‘I will have time to accomplish this later, I will make it, I will reach it!’. And, to make matter worse, usually diseases and bodily infirmities are also present...”

“We thought that such a person could no longer be helped. But You — as if resurrected the youth and hope in him! What did You say to him, Master?”

“The fear of the unknowability of posthumous existence makes many people — young and even old — try to not think about the inevitability of the death of the body. When the death of the body occurs to someone else whom they know, then people try to drive away the thought that death also awaits their own bodies. ‘It will not happen to me soon!’ They try so to console themselves.

“And, having lost all hope for the future, people begin to indulge themselves in regrets about the past, blaming themselves and others for ‘everything being so bad’...

“Sadness and despondency are the best ways to vainly squander even the little time that remains, thereby losing even the last of one’s strength in negative emotions...

“For every person — young or old — the following principle should be relevant: there is no spare time in life, there is no time for idleness, laziness, and meaningless vain cares!

“The death of the body does not always come in late old age. Therefore, every day should be ‘precious’, filled with joy from the spiritual transformation of oneself and from the good deeds that one has done for others.

“Such deeds can be small and simple, at first glance. And they do not always have to be meditations. If a deed that helps people is done with love, then this is already a great blessing for the favorable formation of one’s fate! In such cases, such a person also creates a space of love, peace, joy, and harmony around himself or herself. All surrounding beings feel this, even if they do not understand the reason why they feel good! And all the fruits of the work of such a person carry particles of the energy of love inside of themselves. They can be likened to the fruits of plants, saturated with sunlight!

“There are always feasible opportunities to transform oneself-soul.

“That’s what I tried to tell that old man. I also told him that beyond the threshold of the death of the body — a soul does not die; and that righteous intentions and the desire not to harm anyone and to do only good deeds — even in the last days of one’s life — change one’s posthumous existence and one’s fate in the next earthly life.

“We have had many conversations together about the formation of destinies.

“And here, we should understand that the conscious aspiration to God, to Good, and Light — even at the end of one’s life — can be very significant, helping a person to gain an understanding of how to build his or her life now!

“You can always start living in the ‘present moment’ and try to use every moment of life productively, regardless of how many of such moments are ahead: whether many or few.

“It is important for each of us: to do the best that we can — right now! We should do this with joy and full dedication, investing love and soul power in the creation of harmony, peace, beauty, purity, kindness, and wisdom!

“This is appropriate in large cases and even in those which appear to be the smallest, at first glance! Even with our emotions — which are the states of us as souls — we create what we give to this world, to all beings around. We create and give away either a space of joy and harmony — or anguish, discontentment with everything, condemnation, and jealousy...

“And it always depends on us!

“And all of this is always known to God!

“Have you ever paid attention to the fact that senility, depression, laziness, lack of will, and other manifestations of extinction can start even before the matter of our bodies grow old?

“Sometimes, even at a very early age, there is a halt in the development of a soul. After having completed one’s studies at school, having created a family, having gained a certain ‘position in society’, or having imagined oneself as a ‘successful spiritual ascetic’ — people very often cease to develop themselves intensively, they lose purpose in life and live only ‘by inertia’... This is the beginning of old-age.

“When the speed of the development of the soul fades away — then the body also grows old before its due time.

“There are also opposite examples, in which the intensity of spiritual life does not stop even when the time of death of the body has come. There were scientists and physicians who, even as their bodies were dying, monitored what was happening, and tried to give this experience to other people.

“It is worthy before God: to share one’s wisdom and love with others! If life is lived this way, then old age and the death of the body do not make one afraid!

“It makes sense to accumulate precisely these treasures of the soul that cannot be destroyed by death! Because then, a human soul becomes composed of these qualities — Love, Wisdom, Purity, and Power!”

... That evening, the young men came to the Master and with repentance told of everything that they had understood about their vices that day.

“Forgive us!

“It seems that we quickly got used to the good things here and stopped appreciating what we get from You!

“How easily we forgot about the joy of labor for the sake of others!

“How inconspicuously the usual execution of exercises was deprived of emotions of love for God!

“How imperceptibly to ourselves, we began to perform meditations only in order... to be proud of our skills!

“We will try to improve!”

“Yes, it’s good that you understood this yourselves, without waiting for My reproaches or the ‘blows of fate’, with which God reminds us of the value of incarnate life and of the importance of heart love, without which even the most ‘prosperous life’ is empty and has not much meaning... For, in such cases, even the most correct techniques of meditation are not useful, but only nurture egocentrism and self-conceit!”