“Mind, why are you not worshiping Shri Rama, whose bow is like time, with weapons of arrows representing the different units of time, such as paramanu, lava, nimesha, barasa, yuga, and kalpa?” (Dohavali, 130)

Download this episode (right click and save)

लव निमेष परमानु जुग बरस कलप सर चंड
भजसि न मम तेहि राम कहँ कालु जासु कोदंड

lava nimeṣa paramānu juga barasa kalapa sara caṃḍa
bhajasi na mama tehi rāma kaha~ kālu jāsu kodaṃḍa

“Everyone is so focused on the temporary. Getting a new job. Fixing this thing or that which is broken in the house. Making sure the children wake up on time. Cooking meals. I could go on and on. The responsibilities are endless. They cover the entirety of the life experience for the adult. There is no break. It is almost as if people want it that way. The past generations could never imagine the level of stress in simply making it through a day now.

“But what impact does any of that make? We are all going to leave this world. We watch home videos from our childhood and realize that many of the people in them are no longer here. It is like they mysteriously vanish. There is not a trace of their presence remaining.

“They certainly made an impact. They live on through their family and friends. But that is only short-term, as well. At least that is how I see it. What is the best way to make an impact at the largest scale imaginable? Is that even possible? Am I foolish to think in this way?”

One of the principal topics covered in Bhagavad-gita is time. We cannot help but notice how the foundation of the work, which beautifully represents the culture with timeless relevance known as sanatana-dharma, is not dogmatic insistence. There is indeed a recommendation towards the conclusion for the disciple named Arjuna to surrender, to set aside fears and doubts over following this kind of dharma and that, but the entire appeal is based on intelligence. The decision incorporates a proper understanding of how the universe works.

सर्व-धर्मान् परित्यज्य
माम् एकं शरणं व्रज
अहं त्वां सर्व-पापेभ्यो
मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः

sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

“Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 18.66)

Shri Krishna describes that the people who actually know time, vidah janah, do so in terms of a kalpa. This is one of the units of time, for our understanding, which is always limited. We are more familiar with singular digits, such as one and two, and adding and subtracting them. We work in smaller units when shopping at the supermarket. For instance, for this week each avocado will be priced at only one dollar, but we must purchase at least four avocadoes.

“The duration of the material universe is limited. It is manifested in cycles of kalpas. A kalpa is a day of Brahma, and one day of Brahma consists of a thousand cycles of four yugas or ages: Satya, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Bhagavad-gita, 8.17 Purport)

If I want to think big, if I have a desire to go long, so to speak, then the impact I make in this single lifetime should extend out to at least one kalpa. That length of time is practically unimaginable, but it is factual, nonetheless. The entire universe is too vast to put into a single image, but Shri Krishna can do so when humbly requested by His devotee.

एवमेतद्यथात्थ त्वमात्मानं परमेश्वर
द्रष्टुमिच्छामि ते रूपमैश्वरं पुरुषोत्तम

evametadyathāttha tvamātmānaṃ parameśvara
draṣṭumicchāmi te rūpamaiśvaraṃ puruṣottama

“O greatest of all personalities, O supreme form, though I see here before me Your actual position, I yet wish to see how You have entered into this cosmic manifestation. I want to see that form of Yours.” (Arjuna, Bhagavad-gita, 11.3)

The quest for liberation leaves an impact to last beyond a kalpa. This is because the boon of liberation is for eternity. It continues beyond the cycles of the yugas. The impact also benefits others. The honor of reaching that highest destination ascends and expands. The forefathers and the spiritual guides, the ones in the continuous thread of teachers known as parampara, receive a benefit.

We see from our own experiences how someone can leave an impact to last hundreds and thousands of years. We have the works of Vyasadeva available to us because they were written down. Saintly people create mechanisms whereby the eternally relevant message of the Divine can propagate to reach even those who would otherwise have no chance of coming across that timeless culture.

बिगरी जनम अनेक की सुधरै अबहीं आजु
होहि राम को नाम जपु तुलसी तजि कुसमाजु

bigarī janama aneka kī sudharai abahīṃ āju
hohi rāma ko nāma japu tulasī taji kusamāju

“The many past births you spoiled can be rectified right now, today, if you start chanting Shri Rama’s holy name and renounce bad association, says Tulsi.” (Dohavali, 22)

If we should happen to regret our many wasted days, if we feel sorrow over the past lives that were left unfulfilled, we can take confidence from the assurance of Goswami Tulsidas. He says that those past births can be rectified. The purification can be as soon as right now, in a moment, should we turn in the proper direction and always stay in the association of the one who controls time itself.

In Closing:

Impact wanting to make,
This initiative to take.

That not simply for a year,
Or an entire century to clear.

For a full kalpa to expand,
Time’s real meaning to understand.

But liberation in devotion to last,
The entirety of yugas to surpass.

Categories: questions, the bow of time

Tags: dailyprompt, dohavali, life, poem, poems, poetry, time, tulsidas