The older you get the faster time goes. When I was a kid, it
was different. I remember sitting in my third grade class watching the clock.
It was just after one o’clock and school let out at three. I thought that was
an awfully long time to wait. And the summer breaks seemed joyously
forever. The whole summer was mine. No morning rush to school. No home work. No
anxiety ridden tests. Just my time! And who could even think about high school
graduation? That was eons away.
And suddenly I found myself graduating from college. And
soon after, getting married. And next came kids. Still, age 40 seemed long
away. And when I reached 40, 50 was like being old. But when I got to 50 it
wasn’t so bad at all. I recalibrated 60 as old. Now I’m way past 60, and 70
doesn’t seem so bad.
One year uncreasingly tumbles into the next. Soon decades
and centuries become insignificant. Millenniums are but a drop in eternal time.
Events, generations, and history itself unfolds like some bizarre, fast forward
film. We are powerless to stop it. Our health and fortunes and all we hold dear
can evaporate in an instant. And I am reminded of the story of the ‘hairy
sage.’
There once was a sage who lived by the banks of the Ganges
River. He spent much of his time in meditation and he understood the difference
between that which is ‘sat’ (eternal) and that which is ‘asat’ (temporary). He
had been destined to live until all the hairs on his chest fell off. He is
described as a ‘hairy’ sage. The thing is - only a single hair fell off during
a day of Brahma (which is millions upon millions of years). So this sage was
going to live for an awfully long time. One day he was asked, “Why don’t you
build yourself a nice home?” The sage replied, “Why should I bother? I’m only
here temporarily.”
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