I must never ignore or neglect the present tense. That is, I must always remember where I am and what I am to do just at present. But what is the present?

We know that there are three tenses – past, present and future. What is the present tense? What is the future tense? Actually there is no such thing as the present tense. When I say something, you do not then hear it. You hear it after a small gap. What is the gap? The time taken by the air to carry the sound to your ear. And when you hear, it is past for [me]. So when I say it, just when I am saying it, it is future for you, because you hear after a short gap, and when you hear it is past for [me].

Then what is necessary? You see even a very sensitive organ takes some time to adjust or to digest very long and very short waves, that is, [inferences]. So when we find a little difference between past and future we say it is present. Here between my saying and your hearing there is a very little gap and human organs fail to differentiate that gap from saying and actual hearing. We say it is present tense, actually there is no present tense. But Lord Shiva said, you should [live in] the present tense. The actual meaning of this sentence is you should always be mentally present in the present tense. That is, you should never ignore or neglect the present tense.

What is the import? Human existence [is] physical, human existence [is] psychic, human existence [is] spiritual. Amongst these three, the physical one is very crude; the psychic one is less crude, you may say more subtle; and the spiritual one is the subtlest. So this existence of the present tense is more prominent in the physical stratum than in the psychic, and more prominent in the psychic than in the spiritual. Actually in the spiritual there is no difference amongst present, past and future, and that is why one who has established oneself in the aspects of spirituality finds no difference amongst past, present and future, and becomes sarvajiṋá – omniscient. One sees everything, knows everything. But on the psychic level there are differences, and on the physical level the differences are still more prominent.

Here Lord Shiva says that in the sphere of crude physicality you should pay due respect to the physical world. I said it is objective adjustment, but whatever you are doing or whatever you will be doing in the physical sphere you should have proper adjustment. You should maintain proper equilibrium. This adjustment or equilibrium should be with your psychic stratum. In the psychic stratum the existence is less crude and more subtle, and because it is more subtle the time gap is less prominent. Physically it will take much time, because one’s psychic structure, one’s psychic body, is more subtle than one’s physical body, and that is why the time gap is less prominent. And our spiritual movement, our spiritual progress, starts from the psychic world, the psychic level – starting from the psychic arena and culminating in the supreme spiritual point. So here the time gap is very unimportant. Movement is towards the Supreme Entity, towards the spiritual goal where there is no importance of the temporal factor and no importance of the tempus.

A person must move from the psychic towards the Supreme Entity, where there is no importance of time, but in one’s physical structure one is to do so many worldly deeds, so many worldly duties. One has duties concerning food, duties concerning shelter, duties concerning medical needs, duties concerning education, and so many things. And in all these duties, all these activities, in the crude physical stratum, there is the value of space and person and so on, if a person wants proper advancement. If a person wants proper utilization of all his or her mind, there must be a proper adjustment, a proper equilibrium, between one’s physical movement and physical activities and one’s psycho-spiritual movement, psycho-spiritual advancement, and psycho-spiritual progress; and that’s why I said in human life there should be – what? Subjective approach through objective adjustment. If only the subjective approach is there and there is no objective adjustment, there equilibrium will be lost. The entire human society will become degraded and destroyed. And if there is only physical activity and no spiritual advancement, human existence will be rendered to the status of brutes or plants, which is not at all desirable. So a spiritual aspirant must always remember the subjective approach through objective adjustment. There is no alternative.