Let Me Live My Time Aright

Zrvan Akarana, ‘Boundless Time’, ever was with Ahura Mazda. Infinite alone is time in this finite world. Time knows no birth. It ever was and it ever shall be. Time rolls its incessant course. The caravan of Time is ever on the forward move. Never does it turn backward. Countless are its stages on the endless path of the life of the universe. Immeasurable itself, Time measures all earthly movements.

Time of limited duration is allotted to man’s life. Short is his life upon earth. His time is ever aflying. It is fast adying. There is no recalling the past time. It is irreclaimable. None can bid time to return. Misspent time cannot be redeemed.

Omnivorous is Time. The tooth of Time gnaws everything. Time wears away the mightiest monuments. It devours all and knows no satiation. The hero of a hundred battles triumphs over his foes, but the all-conquering Time vanquishes him in the end. Silent and stealthy is the footfall of Time. With light and short steps does Time walk in man’s joy and happiness. Slowly and heavily it moves in his sorrow and misery. A day then seems a year to the man of sorrow.

At dawn does Parodarsh, the Heavenly Cock, upbraid man for the late hours he sleeps. Short is man’s life, he reminds him and urges him to lengthen it by saving time. Time has no meaning for birds that fly in the sky and the beasts that roam in the fields and the fishes that swim in the waters. But it has all the meaning for man. Life, not animal but human, has man to live. Animal exists, when man lives.

Time is man’s most precious possession. He celebrates his birthday and counts his years. Let him as well keep count of his months and weeks, days and hours of every passing year. Never can man say that he has time enough. Time takes away man’s vigor and beauty and health. It leaves furrows on his face and makes him gray of hair. When the fleeting time of his youth passes away, his old age mirrors his youthful past and gives him back the reflection of what he has been in his youth. Time well-lived in youth gives man sweet memories to look back upon, when he grows old.

The time of my youthful past is beyond recall. The present is mine. I have lived my past well, hence it overshadows not my present. Let me have the sound sense of the value of time. Let me be solicitous about my time. Let me not trifle with my time, nor be lavish of it. Let me remember at all hours of the day that every passing day brings me nearer to the time when my journey upon earth will end and its heavenward move will begin.

Thou dost live in eternity, Ahura Mazda. I live in time. Time is nothing unto Thee. It is everything to me. When I have time, I have everything. When I waste my time, I waste my life. Time best employed is life best lived!