Waste of Time

Prabhupada: Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu is quoting one verse from Srimad-Bhagavatam in which it is said that simply for understanding but if you do not practically apply yourself, then it is simply a waste of time. There is a very nice story. In our college days in logic class of Professor Purnachandra Sen, he cited a very nice example, that a student approached his teacher, and the contract was that he wanted to become a law student, lawyer, and the contracts were that when the student will appear in the court after being duly qualified as lawyer, then he will pay the remuneration of the teacher, so that the teacher may very quickly make him qualified. So teacher agreed, “Yes. I shall make you qualified within one year. So you have to pay me five million dollars,” like that.

So when he was qualified, passed his law examination, he said, “Now you come. You practice in the court.” So he said, “No. I am not going to practice.” “Then pay me.” “How can I pay? If I practice, then I’ll pay, but I am not going to practice.” So this kind of law student, that he has learned all laws and he has become lawyer officially by his degree, but he’s not going to practice. So similarly, if we simply know what is Brahman and what is not Brahman but do not practice, it is just like that. It is useless waste of time. If you become a medical man but if you don’t practice as a medical man, then why should you take so much trouble? Similarly, those jnanis and yogis, they do not take to the devotional service, or Krishna consciousness, which is practical.

So far we are trying to be practically employed in Krishna’s service. That is our business. We may not be hatha-yogi or dhyana-yogi or this yogi or that yogi or a very learned scholar that we can distinguish and interpret that, “Not to Krishna but to myself.” In this way I can waste my time. But if I do not apply myself to the purpose, then what is the use of? That is stated: ye ‘nye ‘ravindaksha vimukta-maninas / tvayy asta-bhavad avisuddha-buddhayah / aruhya kricchrena param padam tatah / anadrita-yushmad… [SB 10.2.32]

Such class of men simply trying to understand what is Brahman, what is not Brahman, but practically, he will simply be engaged in material sense enjoyment. He’ll not give up anything, even not smoking. Anything he will not give up. Everything he’ll keep in contact, but he’ll discuss very scholarly, “This is not Brahman, this is Brahman.” This is simply waste of time. Tesham klesala eva sishyate. Therefore such persons who are simply wasting their time in that way, if they think that, “I have become liberated,” so Bhagavata says that their intelligence is not purified. They are less intelligent still, because the result of his being qualified is not being utilized. He’s not engaged in Krishna consciousness.