The book could not have come to me at a better time. Accurately aware of the age-old proverb “time and tide’ wait for none, I had been trying my best to cope with mounting tasks that had to be completed within the frame that I had set for myself. A sense of anxiety about the many distractions that left me attending to mundane but inevitable chores that took away precious time gnawed at me as I tried to look outwardly composed. It was then that a friend who visited me recently and with whom I have had many interesting discussions about various topics in the past touched upon the subject of time. He graciously gifted me a book that had interesting perspectives on time management called “Four Thousand Weeks’ written by Oliver Burkeman. The book talks about the brevity of life and the problem of human existence where we’ve been granted the mental abilities to make almost infinitely ambitious plans, yet practically no time to put them into action. Assuming you live to be eighty you’ll have 4000 weeks to make the most of it, the author tells us. The world is bursting with wonder, and yet it’s the rare productivity guru who seems to have considered the possibility that the ultimate point of all our frenetic “doing” is to experience more of that wonder. The beauty of this book is the attempt by the author to show us ways to do justice to the outrageous brevity and shimmering possibilities of our four thousand weeks. Accordingly, building the most meaningful life we can, in whatever situation we are in, with our limited life and limited control over time comes with certain tools, one of which is ‘doing nothing’ every once in a while. To be in a state of ‘being’ rather than ‘doing’ helps us make better choices with our brief allotment of time, the author tells us. It is the best way to face our finitude.
This reminded me of the Vedic definition of time that is multi-dimensional. Among the many aspects mentioned in the Vedas is the comparison of a river that shapes the landscapes it touches, to time that moulds our life in different stages. Time is a great teacher, a reminder of the impermanence of life which many take for granted. For some, time seems to stand still, yet others feel that it is moving ahead with lightning speed, yet none can deny that it is a resource that is depleting every day. The great Indian Vedic scholar, philosopher and teacher of Advaita Vedanta, Adi Shankaracharya in his popular devotional poem “Bhaja Govindam” says “Do not take pride in wealth, friends and youth which are all taken away by time in the blink of an eye and move closer to knowing your true self” (Maa kuru, djana jana yauvana garvam.. harathi nimeshat kala sarvam). “This space that has been granted to us rushes by so speedily and so swiftly that all save a very few, find life at an end, just when they are getting ready to live” lamented the Roman philosopher Seneca. When we become more aware of the finitude of human life, each moment, each experience becomes more real. One is freed from the anxiety of time- frame and the productivity trap as one enjoys both the process of doing and sometimes just being. Valuing each moment is the only way of making time timeless.