When time becomes unfavorable, don’t become unfavorable to Krishna

[Bhagavatam class at ISKCON, New Govardhan, Murwillumbah, Australia]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. So, I am grateful to be here amongst all of you today.
And today, tomorrow and possibly day after. Am I audible outside also? Okay, good. So, I will speak on this broad topic which every religious person faces questions about and even non-religious people face.
Why do bad things happen to good people? And we will look at three different explanations or rather there are multiple explanations given here. But we will focus on three of them or two depending on the time goes. Today, we will look at the explanation of time.
Tomorrow, I will talk about karma and tomorrow we will talk about Krishna’s will a little bit. If it works out. So now, I will speak today on the time theme of when time becomes unfavourable, don’t become unfavourable to the lord of time.
That means, when our time turns bad, we don’t have to develop a bad attitude, resentful attitude, a faithless attitude towards Krishna. So, when time becomes unfavourable, don’t become unfavourable to the lord of time. I will speak three main points.
The first point is that time is simply an agent that gives us reactions to our own actions. Second point is we can’t avoid being pushed by time but we can choose where we are pushed by time. And last point will be time destroys the temporary to make way for the eternal.
So, here, it’s interesting the first point which I will speak is that that time is simply an agent that gives us reactions to our own actions. So, when it is said that here it is said, the context is that Bhishma Pitamaha is lying on his arrow bed and while he is lying there, Yudhishthir has come before him and Yudhishthir is disconsolate because he feels that it was his greed for gaining the kingdom that caused the death of thousands and thousands of soldiers. All the bloodshed of the Kurukshetra war happened because of because of his own greed for power.
Now, this is a complete misunderstanding because it was not his greed for power but it was rather the greed for power of Duryodhana which made all peaceful reconciliation impossible. But a person who is humble is ready to acknowledge false even when there are no false. A person who is proud does not acknowledge false even when there are false.
A proud person when there is something wrong instead of accepting responsibility they will try to shirk it. Because of this they will try to find excuses. But Yudhishthir is so humble that even when there is no fault, he is actually accepting fault.
Now, of course, every virtue if taken to an excess can become a vice. So, we want to accept responsibility so that we can do something constructive. We can be a part of the solution.
But if accepting responsibility for something wrong burdens and crushes us, then that becomes unhealthy guilt. And Yudhishthir is being crippled by such unhealthy guilt. Wherein he is thinking that because of my greed I fought for this kingdom and caused so much death.
So, better now that I just give up this kingdom. Otherwise when I enjoy the spoils of this bloodshed I will be doing further bad karma. I did one bad karma by fighting the war.
But let me not do any further bad karma by enjoying the fruits of that war. It’s like say somebody steals, somebody robs from a bank. After robbing from a bank, they suddenly feel it’s a terrible thing.
Somehow they did that. Then they decide they voluntarily go and decide to give whatever they have stolen to the police. And they hand themselves over to the police.
Then what happens? They are still culpable but their culpability goes down substantially. Because it’s seen that okay, you accepted your fault and you didn’t enjoy the fruits of your wrongdoing. So Yudhishthira is thinking like that.
Let me renounce the kingdom. So that way I will go to the forest and perform atonement. So atonement is like going to the prison and giving up the kingdom is like returning the wealth.
I won’t use the wealth. But he’s got a completely distorted picture of reality. And he will not be enjoying the kingdom.
Yes, he will become the king. But he is going to use the kingdom. He is going to rule the kingdom dharmically for everyone’s good.
But somehow he is not able to understand this. His sense of guilt is distorting his vision. And then at that time Vishmadev is speaking to him.
Before this, Krishna, Vyasa, the other Pandavas, many great sages, that priest Dhaumya, all of them have spoken to try to dissuade Yudhishthira from his determination of going to the forest. But he is not listening. And finally they bring him before Bhishma.
At one level it can seem like a very counterintuitive thing to do. Because if Yudhishthira goes before Bhishma, he will see Bhishma lying on that arrow bed with all the arrows piercing his body. And he may feel even worse.
Because, you know, my grandsire Bhishma is in this condition because of me. And how brutal I have been. And that may increase his remorse, increase his guilt.
But Krishna still does this. Because Krishna knows that Bhishma will speak words of wisdom. And those words of wisdom will be so great that whatever distortion, whatever discouragement might happen because of seeing Bhishma will be overcome by hearing Bhishma.
It is said that saintly people are not so much to be seen as to be heard. When we say we want to have darshan with somebody saintly, a darshan is important. But darshan is not just seeing.
The word darshan means, it means at one level sight, being in the audience of someone. But darshan also means philosophy. So ādhyātma-jñāna-nityatvam tattva-jñānārtha-darshanam jñānārtha-darshanam Darshanam means how can we see truly, that is what philosophy helps us to see.
In fact, the word philosophy originally means philly comes from love and so forth is knowledge. So philosophy is love of knowledge or love of truth. So darshan, so he is confident that Bhishmadev will give him the eyes give this to the eyes by which his misconceived guilt and remorse will go away.
And how does Bhishmadev begin his discussion? Normally if somebody is sick in a hospital on a deathbed we would go and speak some words of consolation, solace, encouragement. Somebody suddenly got some disease on a deathbed we will speak some words of consolation. Normally those people, the person who is in that situation will be filled with their own grief and their own pain.
But as soon as Bhishma comes over there, Yudhishthira comes before Bhishma the first thing that Bhishma speaks that is two verses earlier So he says He says, he doesn’t say oh how much suffering I am going through. He expands the frame and he shows, he thinks Oh you Pandavas how much suffering have you gone through? Now he sees that he knows that he is himself going through physical suffering but when we know somebody closely we can just look at them and know what they are going through to some extent, not entirely just by looking at their eyes, looking at their face you can know what emotions they are going through. And Bhishma understands this is Yudhishthira and just by seeing Yudhishthira standing in front of him disconsolate and burdened by guilt Bhishma understands what he is thinking and therefore instead of letting Yudhishthira even talk about oh you must be in great pain how are you feeling he starts, completely turns it around how much you had to suffer throughout your life Dharmanandanaha Dharmanandanaha you were the son of Dharma, you were Dharma personified you always lived virtuously and so much kashta, kashta means distress so much distress you had to face and anyayam nyaya is justice how unfair it was how unfair that you had to suffer so much now what was it that you had to suffer when they were young their father passed away when they came back to the kingdom at that time they suddenly found themselves in the midst of a evil cousin who while a teenager tried to poison one of them then they attempted to burn the life while they were sent to some other place some other forest in Varanavarth and then they lost everything their wife was dishonoured in public and although they were kings they had to live like beggars in the forest so he is remembering all that suffering that they went through and he is saying how unfair was the suffering and just by turning the focus from himself to Yudhishthir he just draws Yudhishthir out of his out of his self induced stupor stupor of grief and guilt and all that he just draws him out and then he starts speaking in the previous verse he said actually how now not only did you suffer it is your mother also who suffered because she had to take care of all of you and she had no husband to support her and in one sense you could fight but she didn’t even know in the fights whether you survived or you succumbed or what so when we are able to do something to deal with our problems at least we feel we are doing something but if we are not able to do anything then it is even more painful I was with a friend whose family in his family one of his relatives had suddenly got a attack and he had to undergo surgery an open heart surgery for the heart attack so now this devotee is one of his relatives was a doctor so the doctor was also involved in the surgery so he was telling that actually afterwards we were discussing the doctor was involved in the surgery he was busy because he was doing something but actually when some surgery is going on all the other relatives are waiting outside and they are doing nothing that’s when the mind makes us more miserable so when we have a problem and especially when it’s a loud one is facing a problem and if we feel we are doing something then the mind doesn’t trouble us so much but when we feel that we can do nothing at that time the mind troubles us all the more so it’s not only you suffered even your mother suffered now Yudhishthira might say okay my suffering is no big deal okay I suffered he is already suffering he might because of his saintliness not consider his suffering not only you suffered your mother also suffered he naturally has a loving service attitude towards his mother and then from there he is now expanding the vision to the bigger question of why is there suffering in the world and especially now the next verse after this we will talk about how karma is simply karma is not an adequate explanation we will talk about how the Pandavas were so virtuous that karma would not be an adequate explanation but first he is giving one explanation over here how could such terrible things have happened to you sarvam kaalakrtam manye he says I consider all this happened because of time so this was the till now what I spoke was the background context of why this discussion is happening and I will see how many points we can take till now so now time is a very interesting concept why because at one level does time exist separate from our measurement of time say right now it is say 757 so now when we measure time ok 757 is the time but what is time independent of our measurement of the time so I may say it is 757 now but in some other part of the world in America it might be 757 at night in India it might be 1 o’clock at night so when we measure time we may measure time differently but what exactly is time so the bhagavad gita explains that time kaalosmi lokakshay krutpravuddho time I am the destroyer of the worlds 11.32 he says that time I am so Krishna says I am time and in that particular context he says that I am the destroyer of the worlds but time broadly speaking is nothing but an agent of change the change the material world is constantly characterised by change so time leads to things growing time leads to things deteriorating time leads to things getting destroyed so creation maintenance and destruction these are three phases of material existence and time is the agent that stimulates these changes in the world so everything that exists is going through all these changes constantly now these changes happen at the level of matter say we construct a big say child constructs a sand castle on a beach now the child puts a lot of effort and thought and energy in constructing it so now what is happening say at 6 am 6 pm the child came to play over there and then started constructing by 6 20 pm the child has constructed a small castle by 7 the castle is nicely constructed big castle and then till 8 the child is happy seeing the castle and then after that at 8 o’clock a wave comes a wave hits the castle and the castle is swept away so now what happened over here is the child created it, it stayed for some time, it got destroyed now this change is caused by time so now in the case of the castle we can see all three phases acting very quickly, we can see the creation we can see the maintenance, we can see the destruction but in many other cases that becomes expanded so for our own lives we may want to build a big house and we work for years to build that house and then we maintain that house and then eventually even the best of houses will get deteriorated and they will get destroyed so when this happens over decades or sometimes centuries then we may not perceive it when these changes happen, they happen in the arena of material nature but depending on how much our consciousness is invested in them we will feel joy or pain in 13.21 Bhagavad Gita Krishna says that action and reaction happen in the arena of material nature but happiness and distress are experienced in the consciousness of the observer, of the soul so now the child because the consciousness is invested in the sand castle that’s why the child feels distressed anger shattered when that sand castle is swept away but some other child who might be playing something else, we just look at the sand castle and see it swept away or an adult we see the sand castle being swept away, there is no emotional investment so then there is no distress over there so basically time is the agent that causes change and as a part of the change, I will not get into karma right now, we will talk about it tomorrow as a part of the changing nature of the world things are sometimes created, sometimes things are maintained, sometimes things are destroyed, so this just happens by the movement of time and this we see with respect to seasons that sometimes the weather is pleasant, sometimes it is unpleasant too hot, too cold or sometimes it just might be pleasant in between so time keeps changing things and say when the weather becomes very cold at that time bhavatam jeda priyam it’s uncomfortable but we have to live with it so when the weather becomes cold at that time we don’t blame anyone why is the weather cold we just say the weather is cold now let’s live with it, so Yudhishthir is being given this kind of this kind of objective view of his suffering by saying right now you are going through an unfavourable time the weather in your life is bad right now so just live with it just live with it so time is an agent which brings change in our lives and now that was the first point I made and when the changes are unfavourable you just have to live with it so sarvam all this has happened simply because of time so that was the first point any reflections on this, any questions ok nowadays there is a big movement of the law of attraction and self manifesting things so you say now if you have some period in your life where things are not going so well by the observer then the modern idea is that no you can change that by by the law of attraction by the law of what would you say yeah so say by the law of attraction can we change can we change if you are going through a bad phase by the law of attraction can we change what is happening and get something positive yes our thoughts do shape our situations and if a person has a habitually negative attitude oh life is terrible everything is going wrong in my life everything will keep going wrong in my life that negativity can deter them from doing anything positive and in a sense that negative thought process can create further negativity in their lives so the same way positivity can also have a positive effect that we think positive that can enable us to endeavour better, that can enable us to think more clearly get some ideas, get into situations where things work out more positively for us so there is no denying the power of our thinking in shaping our reality the question is how much is that power no how much is that power that our thinking shapes our reality is definitely a reality but how much it shapes so that is something which many books like say the secret or other law of attraction often that they don’t get it right because they tend to make Hare Krishna they tend to make our thinking as almighty so our thinking is mighty but it is not almighty there is a lot of power in the way we think but is it that if somebody has got a terminal disease can just by thinking I am not going to die, they will not die well sometimes some diseases people will be diagnosed that they are going to die but they may not die but can we per se prevent death itself no we can’t so to some extent our thinking can change our reality for the better but our thinking is not omnipotent so the way we could put it from our perspective is that Krishna has given us free will and free will involves not just how we act but also we think so if we are using our free will positively both in terms of our actions and of our thinking then we are doing our endeavour better and our endeavour better can attract better results for us so definitely thinking positive is good but we can’t make positive thinking as almighty there will be times when despite our best efforts we can’t change things and we need to accept them at that so time may be unfavourable and we can’t change the unfavourable nature of time but we can maybe change our resentful attitude towards that time so we can change that to a significant extent thank you that the sun has some say in how time and other things change could you say something that I didn’t fully digest the whole concept if I would find something like an energy that’s moving around and changing things it’s something to do with the sun across all our atoms that’s just a way to measure time a way to measure time that’s just the way Bhagavatam has said there is a particular way to measure time the celestial bodies the way they move and the pace at which they move that is used to measure time Bhagavatam was spoken at a very different culture and they had different frames of reference the specifics may be different but the principle remains the same say in one school in one gurukul the teacher may use apples to teach maths 3 apples plus 5 apples is 8 apples in another school, the teacher might use mangoes 3 apples plus 5 mangoes is 8 mangoes so how something is not measured, measurement is important so how time is measured is not as important as the fact that there is a metric for time what is that force, is the sun got something to do with that force of change the sun itself does the sun or the celestial bodies are they a part of the force of change do they cause the change what is time I was going to come to that in the next class so till what time do we have the class 8.30 so now this the second point I was going to make was that time is we can’t avoid being pushed by time but we can choose where we are pushed by time so the example here given is that just as a cloud is pushed by the wind now this is a very striking metaphor for 3 reasons the cloud is visible whereas the wind pushing the cloud is invisible the cloud appears to be much huge and the wind we can’t even see it so like that time we can’t even see it but time is pushing us time is pushing giant skyscrapers giant mountains even towards destruction and time is pushing us also time is pushing all of us time is invisible but it pushes the visible second is that not only is the pusher invisible but even the pushing is almost invisible that means if you are looking at the clouds actually unless the cloud is moving very fast we don’t even see the cloud being moved but if you look at the cloud once and then after 1 hour or 2 hours we come and look oh the cloud is moved here and so similarly that not only is the pusher time invisible but the pushing by the time is also invisible on a day to day basis we are all being pushed by time but we don’t realise that we are being pushed by time so both the pusher and the pushing are not easily visible and in a sense Prabhupada says in the paraphroto of in 2.27 Bhagavad Gita he says that the verse says that for Anu has born death is certain so he says that it is not that we will die at one moment it says we are dying at every moment it’s like say somebody who has fallen from a huge cliff now they are falling for every moment they are falling now the moment when they crash on the ground that’s the moment actually they will die but during the transit when they are falling actually they are just moving towards death so like that from the moment of birth we are moving towards death and as the person is falling this can’t do anything so imagine somebody is falling as they are falling from a high cliff they are just playing some video game on their phone so we become like that we we dumb ourselves to the predicament of our situation through frivolous entertainment through frivolous engagements so even the pushing is not so visible because it is not that easily seen and third point is it’s invisible, the pusher is invisible the pushing is invisible and third the pushing is irresistible that we just can’t stop we just can’t stop it, there is a whole field in medical science called gerontology that the study of old age and they try to avoid the harmful effects of old age so there are many cures that are promised you eat this, you do this, you will become young again so the international gerontological association issued a declaration in public interest a few years ago and they said and that holds true even now, they said that there is no technology no therapy no method at all that can either reverse stop or slow the ageing process can’t reverse stop or slow that means we can’t if somebody is old we can’t make them young if somebody is becoming old we can’t stop them from becoming old nor can we slow it down then what can you do all that they can do is cover up the effects of old age, so the times flow is invisible and irresistible so we can’t avoid being pushed by time but we can choose where we are pushed by time we can be pushed towards death or we can be pushed towards Krishna we can be pushed towards the repetition cycle of birth and death or we can be pushed towards the Lord who is beyond birth and death and that is our free will, how we use our free will so now that brings us to second point that we can’t stop being pushed by time but we can choose where we are pushed by time, now what does it mean how can we choose we are all going to die it is like the death of the body is ordained is unavoidable but the soul’s destination is not ordained it’s like say if a person is in a car and that car has no brakes and a car is hurtling to the edge of a cliff and as it’s hurtling to the edge of a cliff the car is going to go off the cliff and it’s going to crash and it’s going to be destroyed now as that car is hurtling to the edge of the cliff now if somebody from above throws a rope and the person in the car catches the rope and pulls themselves out of the car then the car will be destroyed but the person will not be killed so similarly for us the body is like our car and we as souls are like the person present in the car so if we stay attached to the body then we will go with the body to destruction that means we will experience the immense pain of death and then we will also meet with the destruction that fate of the body but now how do we catch hold of the rope to catch hold of the rope means to actually turn towards Krishna to shift our vision to the eternal so by the force of time we could say that the car is moving and the car can’t be stopped but we can get off the car brake and that process of getting off the car brake is the process of bhakti so that is the second point last point is the second point was that we can’t avoid being pushed by time but we can choose where we are pushed by time and the last point broadly speaking is that by using time properly we can move towards Krishna we can change our trajectory by using time wisely so this point can be phrased differently but the whole point of bhakti when we try what is the essence of bhakti it’s not actually just doing some rituals they are important but the important thing through that is means our mind is to be attached to Krishna if by the time our death comes if our desire for Krishna has become stronger than our desire for worldly things then that’s how we can catch hold of that rope if our desire for worldly enjoyment, worldly pleasure is still strong we may not become fully free from that desire if we can that’s wonderful but if at least our desire for Krishna becomes stronger than our desire for worldly things then it’s like we catch hold of that rope and then we are pulled out of the car brake otherwise we go with the car brake and we suffer the trauma of death and we continue on cycle of birth and death so bhakti is the process of shifting our attachment from the world to Krishna and this is where it’s important that we learn to see unfavourable times favourably so the point which I made was that time destroys the temporary to make way for the eternal so what do I mean by this that certainly temporary things will be destroyed we can’t avoid that even the best constructed temporary things will be destroyed but when time destroys things is it cruelty no it’s not cruelty at one level it’s just the nature of material nature that everything is temporary but the very temporariness of material things forces us to think what is eternal what lasts Srila Prabhupada says in a Isopanishad purport that the the miseries of material existence indirectly point to our incompatibility with material nature that when we face distress we face destruction something which we absolutely don’t want when we face it that’s what forces us to think why is this happening I want happiness I am getting distress I want life and I am getting death why is this happening and that makes us think is there some other level of reality where there is happiness where there is life eternal and that brings that brings about the spiritual enquiry there are four kinds of people who come to Krishna those who are distressed those who are distressed those who are distressed and those who are distressed actually that’s not exactly what Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita but you see practically even if somebody is inquisitive even somebody is needing wealth even if somebody is seeking knowledge if you see at some level there has to be some distress because if somebody is inquisitive they can be inquisitive of millions of things why will they be inquisitive of something spiritual why would somebody seek spiritual knowledge so now the distress can be in two broad ways one is that our material life itself becomes so unbearable how do I there must be something higher in life or the second is that we have some very deeply cherished material dreams and we work very hard to fulfil those dreams and we fulfil them and then we find that it is unfulfilling that after fulfilling our dreams if we find the dreams are that it’s unfulfilling then we ask what’s more in life isn’t there something more isn’t there something better so either way that is a distress one distress is that life itself is unbearable the other is life is unfulfilling then we start looking for something higher so the time brings about brings us face to face with the nature of the world time destroys our illusions one illusion could be that oh I can be happy in this world another illusion is the happiness of this world will make me happy the two are different things that ok I get this get this I’ll become happy but you just don’t get it we try try try we don’t get it and that’s one way time brings about a change in our life time destroys the temporary and by that our attachment to the temporary we question it this is just a stage should I be looking for something else so time destroys the temporary to make way for the eternal to the extent when the temporary is destroyed we look we look elsewhere is there something eternal that’s when we grow with time unfortunately when one temporary thing is destroyed we immediately shift to another temporary thing another temporary thing and that’s how we stay in illusion but ultimately time is not cruel time is broadly speaking reciprocal if we are attached to matter we will be devastated and frustrated by that but if we want to be open and enquiring then time can redirect us so time can be a fire in which we burn or time can be a teacher from whom we learn if we stay attached to material things then time becomes a fire in which we keep burning again and again and again our attachments whatever we are attached to is destroyed and we suffer terribly but if we see time as a teacher these things are temporary they are not going to last let me not obsess over them it’s not that we don’t seek them because in the material world we need certain things to live but we don’t make them as our life’s primary purpose so then we see time’s destructive potency and we see that as a teacher the temporary things what is eternal time is a teacher from whom we can learn then if we have then time can direct us towards Krishna time can direct us towards the supreme spiritual reality and as we become attached to Krishna by the practise of bhakti we will go beyond the influence of time so here Yudhishthira is being told by Bhishma that don’t blame yourself this terrible thing happened but it was the power of time it was by the power of time that all these things unfolded and now you focus on this implication which will be told in the next verses you focus on that which will take you towards the eternal that which will take you towards the eternal and ultimately will conclude that practising bhakti diligently is what will take him towards the eternal so I’ll summarise I spoke today on the topic of why bad things happen to good people the first part and I spoke on this theme of when time becomes unfavourable don’t become unfavourable to the lord of time and I spoke first the context of this discussion that Yudhishthira is feeling extremely guilty thinking himself to be the cause of the bloodshed but every virtue taking responsibility and feeling guilty is good if you have done something wrong but every virtue when taken to an excess can become a vice that’s what has happened for Yudhishthira and he is brought to Bhishma and Bhishma turns the whole thing around rather than wallowing in self-pity I am in so much pain he turns around and says how much you have suffered and then from there he goes to the metaphysical discussion of why suffering occurs and in this verse he says it’s time so we talked about first that time is the agent that brings about change in the world so creation, maintenance, destruction these are happening and time is a subtle force that pushes things to these changes and to the extent we are attached to the changing like a child is attached to the sand castle to that extent we suffer when the changes occur so time is simply an agent bringing about changes but it is our attachments that cause suffering because of those changes and then second point I discussed was that time we can’t stop, we can’t avoid being pushed by time but we can choose where we are pushed by time so just like the cloud is being pushed by the wind so the pusher is invisible, the pushing is invisible and the pushing is irresistible.
Similarly for us we are all being pushed by time. We can’t see time and we can’t see ourselves being pushed by time also because it happens gradually, we are ageing everyday it’s like we have fallen from a cliff but till we reach the ground, till we reach the floor we won’t crash we won’t experience injury so like that from the moment of birth we have fallen from the cliff but because we are distracted by worldly things we don’t realise that we are dying at every moment. Now how can we change, we can choose where we are pushed that means we are like in a car that is going off the cliff but we can’t stop the car from going off the cliff but we can get out of the car we can catch hold of the rescue rope coming from parachute and our body is destined to die but we are souls and the soul turns towards the hole, towards Krishna and if our desire for Krishna becomes stronger than our desire for worldly things before death then we catch hold of that rope and we get out of this car wreck and bhakti yoga is a process by which we shift our attachment from the world to Krishna that was the second point, the third point was that time that time destroys the temporary to make way for the eternal if we use time properly we can go towards eternal that means that when time destroys temporary things that’s not cruelty that’s just the nature of material nature but through that destruction if questions rise in our mind what is real, what counts what lasts forever I want happiness I want life but I get distress and I get death that enquiry makes us realise that there must be something beyond this temporary material world and when that enquiry is guided by the Bhagavad Gita’s wisdom, by the spiritual wisdom then we turn towards ultimately Krishna so most people turn towards the spiritual either because the material is unbearable because there’s so much distress or the material is unfulfilling they get what they want but fulfilling their desires doesn’t fulfil them.
Either way that distress which is caused by the changes of time it impels them to look at the spiritual. So whenever there’s a destruction happening when the difficulty or destruction is happening in our life if we stay attached to the material then time will be like a fire in which we burn but if we see that perishability as an impetus to shift our attachment from the material to the spiritual then time can be a teacher from whom we learn and time can take us with every movement closer and closer to Krishna and to life eternal with him. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna One question quickly quickly yes No, no, no how did I say the time seems to speed up, appears to speed up as you get older is that what you meant by that? Sorry? Time appears to speed up as you get older and young people are now a thousand times more frustrated as you get older that’s true so why does time appear to speed up as we grow older it’s also at one level because we get more entangled in the world because we have so many emotional attachments and entanglements in the world that we don’t notice the passage of time it’s not always that time tends to move faster especially if somebody is old and lonely and living in a retirement home for them also time seems to be creeping along it’s when we are caught in the busyness of the world it’s something like say if we are watching a sports match and say we are not very familiar with the sport say if we are watching ice hockey, if we say we go to Canada and we start watching ice hockey we are not much interested in it we watch it, what is this not very entertaining not very interesting because we are not connected with it, we are not emotionally entangled in it but if we keep watching that match and we start watching it with others who are entangled in it then what happens we also get entangled, oh this move was like this oh this person should have done like this oh you know they should win now what a good move so as we get more and more entangled in it, then we don’t even notice that the time is passing so similarly as it applies to the game sports game, same applies to life, initially when we are children at one level we are learning from life we are, children are curious but children are not emotionally entangled in things but as we grow older we start getting more and more emotionally entangled, I want to do this, this should work out like this, this is how it should happen, why is this not happening and as we become more emotionally entangled not just in, life is not just a game that we are watching it is also a game we are playing it is like an interactive video game so some things in the game are in our control, some things are not in our control so we get more we could say children are more like watching a passive game they don’t do much, they want to play but much of their life is structured, within that structure they have some movement they have some freedom, it’s limited but for us as we grow up, what happens is we have to take more and more responsibility for our life so we sometimes can get more entangled that’s why, because we get more obsessed with watching the movie that’s why the movie seems to be moving faster that’s how time appears to be moving faster as we grow older so thank you very much Ishita Prabhupada Ki Gaur Bhakta Vrinda Ki Gitai Gaur Premanam