Practicing spiritual sadhana is just as important as exercising every day. But we all know how much people struggle to stick to their exercise regimens. A sudden bout of inspiration to become fit and healthy is followed by a few days of excited visits to the gym and then both the energy and inspiration plummet. People experience the same with spiritual sadhana, they practice it for a few days and then start finding excuses about how difficult it is for them to find the time. Lack of time is undoubtedly the biggest excuse quoted by everyone.
Office hours, household chores, social commitments, etc. are so high on priority on our daily to-do lists that it's almost impossible to squeeze in even a few minutes for sadhana. Most of us in such a scenario would simply leave the matter to God's grace, "We will do sadhana when God will grace us". But the fact of the matter is that we don't need God's grace here. He has already graced us with a human form and an opportunity to associate with a Guru and do satsang. All that is left to be done now is that we grace ourselves with some time to do sadhana.
God has given us 24 hours, now we need to utilize a portion of those 24 hours for the elevation of our own soul. For the sake of the body, we run around 24 hrs. a day. This body has no value when the soul departs, it is worthy of being devoured by jackals and vultures.
For the sake of that body we have 24 hours but for the elevation of our own soul, we find it difficult to take out time. So the truth is that any person who says that he/she doesn't have time to do sadhana is judging wrongly. It is not that we don't have time; we have simply not made spiritual sadhana a priority in our lives. When we will decide that spirituality is a top priority in life, we will automatically take out time.
Let us look at how we spend our time through a popular management tool called the Action Priority Matrix (or Time Management Matrix). This tool uses 4 quadrants to determine the tasks you need to do and then deciding what should be made a priority.
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| Time Management Matrix |
According to the tool, there are some issues in our life that are both urgent and important like an unplanned business meeting (See quadrant 1). Then there are some things that need not be done urgently but they are important. Some common examples are exercising, reading books, and spiritual sadhana (See quadrant 2). Then there are activities that are urgent but not really important like a phone call or somebody dropping by, etc. (See quadrant 3). Finally, there are activities that are neither important nor urgent, they are simple time wasters and should be immediately eliminated. Examples are net surfing, watching T.V, gossiping, etc. (See quadrant 4).
This tool can be used to organize your priorities on an everyday basis. Make a list of all the things you do in a day and on the basis of priority put them in their respective quadrants. Now calculate the total time you are spending in each of the quadrants. You will realize that you may be spending maximum part of your day in quadrant 1, 3 or 4. This means you are foregoing things that will ultimately matter to you, things that are important but don't seem urgent. You are so busy dealing with urgent or unimportant issues that you have no time for spiritual sadhana.
Stephen Covey in his book 'First Things First' popularized this concept of 'Time Management Matrix' and emphasized that if people want to lead fulfilling lives in the long-term, they must invest more time in quadrant 2. People must look at ways to expand quadrant 2, so that they can achieve their long-term goals and do things that really matter. And what is our long-term goal?
Our goal is to purify our mind and attain the goal of God-realization. And we will attain that goal by making spiritual sadhana a top priority in our lives. We may feel spending some time exclusively with God is not urgent, but remember, it is certainly the most important. Irrespective of the other urgent issues in life which will come and go, take out at least 1 hour every day for spiritual sadhana. Without wasting any more time, firmly resolve that in the year 2018 you will make spiritual sadhana your top priority.
