can a common man afford to waste time in meditation?

Nowadays in modern society, I see my peers and friends and life seems so perpetually hectic all the time. Morning to afternoon to evening, there’s just one thing after the other that has to be got done almost immediately! Even weekends are hectic with all the pending household chores, with maybe a little bit of entertainment as well squeezed in here and there. There’s absolutely no time to waste! And in terms of entertainment there are TONS of things to do, so many movies to watch, places to go to, etc.

So its perfectly understandable why I look like such an odd guy and a total misfit in society when I spend over an hour on many weekdays, or an entire day on a Sunday – just sitting in silence – apparently dozing off (and sometimes really 😉 ) Obviously talking – forget it – just happening to even mention about it – instantly alienates me from society. Because although the foundation of Indian culture is meditation, generally its looked down upon as something for some unworldly ascetic saint. At the most there are some for whom its just a hobby or a stress-reliever.

Whenever I even mention the word, or someone happens to find out by casual conversation, my subsequent clarifications that I’m just a common man fall on deaf ears! But really the last thing I want to do is renounce the world and shut myself into some ashram!

Over the past years, I’ve travelled around the world. Very little is on this site yet. I’ve explored mountains and forests and lakes and rivers. Have tried different adventure sports and activites like cycling, canoeing, martial arts, yoga, etc. Also out of curiosity have visited topless cabarets in US, Red Light Areas in Amsterdam, and some sex museums in Europe, with some pornography on the internet and video. I’ve had my trysts with alcohol as well, and even when alcohol left me, I hardly had any holier-than-thou puritan attitude towards it. Have courted plenty of girls in a quest to get married – and finally married one victim. And of course as is the evidence in my recent parenting posts, one of my exploits has also been to then indulge in sex. I can attest by experience that an orgasm is undoubtably the greatest pleasure I’ve ever experienced. Over the past decade, have been employed in my engineering profession of software application development, with a fairly good reputation. Somewhere along the way ended up constructing a house and made several financial investments including acquiring property. I’ve used plenty of hi-tech electronic gizmos, most recent one being a Canon DSLR camera. One of my greatest blessings is that I’ve been lucky enough to be loved by a well knit formerly joint family, and a good number of really cool friends! Its all been good fun, with plenty of difficulties and challenges as well – some which I managed pretty well, and some others I could’ve handled much better!

I fully acknowledge that I’m still a young man who’s hardly seen life and whatever I’ve said so far hardly matters – there’s so much more to learn! However the retrospective was just to give an idea of my life so far, which substantiates my emphasis that I’m just a common man leading a common life, and the last thing I want to do is renounce the world! 😀 (I loved this statement made by Nityanandaji that “if at all there’s any renouncement to be done, its enough to renounce what you don’t have!”)

So having had a good idea about so much of entertainment in the world, why would anyone in their right mind – instead of persuing and indulging in them – possibly want to to waste time in meditation of all things??

First of all let me clear any misconception that I might’ve taken to meditation to solve any problem. I believe in taking responsibility for, facing and solving any problems. Sitting with closed eyes is definitely not a magical solution.

So… is there a real need for it at all?