Living Twenty Four Hours a Day

Living Twenty Four Hours a Daytc "Living Twenty Four Hours a Day"

Living 24 hours a day implies to make the best use of available time through proper co-ordination of work, rest and leisure. It often ensures greatness in pages of history.  Those unable to extend their routine beyond eating, roaming and sleeping become either a source of nuisance or a burden on society.

The qualities which make one’s work productive, the rest recuperative and the leisure fruitful are regular habits, methodical nature, imaginative mind, clear head and co-operative attitude. The antitheses get inflicted through indolence, casualness, unsteadfastness and narrow mindedness.  Let us illustrate these observations.

A boy was given to grumbling that he did not have enough time to attend to various assignments.  His father advised,
“Make your day longer.”
The son shot ,
“The day consists of twenty four hours only.
It can’t be stretched like a rubber band.”
The experienced elder observed,
“If you get up early, the day will get longer correspondingly.”

The son learnt a valuable lesson.  He gave up lolling in bed.  He would start his work with a fresh mind.  He was able to attend to his studies with a sense of achievement.  This earned a pat from his parents and a smiling nod from teachers.  The self-confidence lent him steadfastness.  He could spare time to take part in extra-curricular activities also and, thus, learnt the value of team-spirit.  What a change in his growing up!  From a lad doomed to become a delinquent, he rose to be a promising offspring.

Hence the first moral of a full life: ‘Idleness retards, earnestness rewards’.

Many people waste a lot of time in offering excuses that they could not do this or that for paucity of time, unfavourable weather, indisposition, etc.  Methodical approach to work saves a lot of time.  Where there is a will, there is a way.  Hence, it does not hold that inclement weather or a slight indisposition could stand in the way of attending to an obligation.  It had been mainly due to casual attitude or the habit of putting off till next day what could be done on that very day, rather that very moment, which resulted in cutting a sorry figure before friends.  Stray actions constitute irregular habits, which develop into an unsteady character.  As time and tide wait for none, persons given to indolence and casualness seldom rise to the occasion.  They are looked down upon as men of straw.  Those who catch time by the forelock keep rising high on the ladder to success with a sense of gratification for themselves and also become a source of inspiration for others.

Hence the second moral: ‘The opportunities not availed of reflect a wasted life’.

Nature has blessed every creature with certain innate qualities.  Strive to discover those inborn gifts and leave no stone unturned to develop them into excellence.  Once, a clear idea gets formed about the goal, the imaginative mind acts like a fountainhead of energy, patience and fortitude. H.G. Wells lost his father during infancy.  His mother, who supported him by working as a house maid, could only think of getting him trained as a shop assistant with a cloth merchant.  Wells aspired to become a science teacher.  He weighed the pros and cons.  His mother had deposited her hard earned money for his apprenticeship charges.  In case he did not pursue the training, the fees aid would go waste to her bitter disappointment.  If he abided by her wishes, an uneasy feeling would continue to gnaw his mind that he was destined for some other position in life.  On receiving encouragement from one of his teachers, he gave up that training for pursuing education.  Sobs of the windowed mother did not weaken his resolve.  Poverty did not deter him, because God helps those who help themselves. He rose to be a distinguished man of letters who innovated science fiction.  As a founder member of Fabian Society, he popularised scientific temper, which shows the path to people at large for discarding superstitions, re-evaluating the myths and re-appraising the old beliefs for enriching human life. Abraham Lincoln, another benefactor of humanity, by dint of qualities mentioned afore, rose from Log Cabin to White House.  The world would have been poorer in thought and deeds, had persons like Abraham Lincoln and Wells not heeded to their inner voice and been lulled, instead, to a life of ease by ordinary achievements.

The third moral:‘Resolve to leave the world nobler and richer than the one in which you were born by developing your innate qualities through precept and practice’.

The Indian society would have been still stagnant and slave had there not been reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi, gifted with the qualities of head and heart.

‘Work is worship’ is a golden saying.  But worship must have a purpose; lofty and noble. Lord Buddha preached that ignorance was the worst sin.  Louis Pasteur exclaimed that selfless service of mankind was a sublime form of worship.  Bhagat Puran Singh, Mother Teresa and Baba Amte, the conscience keepers of resurging India, have upheld this gospel.  Strive to lead a full life, but learn to share its fruit with the needy through social service by helping the cause of education, health-care rehabilitation of the displaced, etc. Even if you are leading a retired life, find time to counsel the wayward, cheer the gloomy and comfort the distressed.  This mode of service is more redeeming than seeking renunciation for individual salvation.  The concept of a welfare state calls for the collective improvement of present. Never let the feeling enter your mind that a single swallow cannot make the summer.  It is likely that a few people may ridicule your sense of service.  The greatest quality of a social reformer is his faith that talent and experience, when shared increase in quantity and improve in quality.  Hence the last moral in this context:

‘If nobody responds to your call,
Keep marching alone on your path of duty.
Your own people may ridicule you.
Do not worry about that’.
Remember that the scientific age would not have set in, if a few fearless research workers had not braved the wrath of Roman Catholic Church and consequent ridicule by the mob.  Stick to your tryst with destiny with faith and hope for imparting glory to human life.