One notices that people sometimes settle into a sort of lethargy, and lose their focus and energy a bit. I am worried about losing that feeling of being focused. Could you speak to that sense of urgency that seems to be so necessary in spiritual practice?

Ans : The life of the spirit was brought home with full force by an admonition from Jesus, "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his spiritual life?" It places before each human individual a criterion to measure things. Similarly, Sankaracharya in a very descriptive manner brings out more or less the same truth in his 'Guru Pakuka Stotra:' "You may have the wealth of the whole world, everything that can ever be desired, but of what use is it if your entire mind and heart are not totally absorbed in God and in following your spiritual teacher?"

This indeed is something that one should seriously consider. What are we engaged in? Gurudev said, "Life is short, time is fleeting." With each incoming and outgoing breath, the allotted life span of each soul's residence in this earthly body is fast being depleted. Therefore, the Upanishadic call: "Arise, awake, having reached the wise ones, become enlightened." This call should be ringing in the ear of every true aspirant. Then alone some achievement is possible-not in indifference, not in heedlessness. The saints have given us sufficient admonitions: "Day and night, morning and evening, autumn and spring, come and go, again and again. Our life ebbs away, yet man's vain desires don not cease but continue unabated." Every day this verse must be sounding again and again in your heart. If your house were on fire, how daringly you would plunge into the house and rescue what is precious. And here what you have to rescue is your own true nature from the clutches of desire and maya.

These great teachings should not go to waste. They will all be in vain if our mind is only intent upon petty sense pleasures. We could compare this sense life to children playing on the seashore building sandcastles, and never thinking of the invaluable pearls that lie in the depths just behind them. Will your life be like that? Answer! Are you responding? When you hear the clock toll one more hour passed, do you ponder over the meaning? So much is our heedlessness that we do not know that days are passing, that with each sunset one more day has gone. We do not perceive the inner implications of things. Life bypasses us; its meaning is lost on us. Who will be to blame if we throw away what God has given to us for petty trifles? Jesus drove the moneychangers from the temple. Are you doing similarly-taking a strong stand and driving out from this moving temple of the living God all that is unworthy of His presence?

God forgive us if we reject the great gift that He has given to us out of His infinite love and compassion. Let it not be our fate-that we live in folly and regret to the end. Therefore, heed the call to "arise, awake, and become enlightened." If we call ourselves spiritual people, then the doing should prove it-by our living-not just with our lips. Understand this very clearly, then alone you will be the builder of a glorious future for yourself. May God help you do it!