God has created this beautiful world and placed man on this planet earth. Human life span is said to be one hundred years (Sataayurvai Purushah). Man is supposed to live a happy life managing his time in fact life and time are inseparable. That is why we call it lifetime. Time is precious. If a second of time is wasted, it cannot be bought back even by paying billions of dollars. Time wasted is life wasted. Therefore one should always be careful while spending Time on what one does. He should consider seriously if what he does is worth the time spent on it. There are countless things in the world tempting his attention. All the things tempting him are not good. While certain things are good and beneficial, many other are evil, enervating and negative. Man should seriously consider whether he should indulge in them at all because what one does determines his character and quality of life. Kathopanishad says that there are two categories of things in life Preya (pleasant) and Sreya (good).
Man is advised to shun tempting pleasant (Preya) things. He is urged to opt for Sreya things because they are life enhancing, noble and beneficial. The work one does defines one’s character. Evil-minded men do cheap, pleasant and ignoble things while the good people do noble and life-affirming ones. Hitopadesha, a Sanskrit poetic work, says:
Kalo gacchati dheemataam
Vyasanenacha murkhaanaam,
Nidraya kalahenavaa
The sloka defines two types of people in the world. The wise people spend their time delighting in intellectual discussions. The stupid and the lazy people while away Time in useless pursuits like indulging in evil practices or sleeping or quarreling. Therefore, the person who wants to live a noble life should always make it a point to cultivate desirable habits. He should keep away life-consuming, debilitating and bad practices like lethargy, bad habits and needless discussions or quarrels.
Source – Saptagiri August 2021 Issue an article by Prof. S. Laxmana Murthy