Despite having so many time-saving devices, why do we not have time?

Transcription by Bhaktin Andreea Chelu
Why do we not have time despite having advanced technologies which are meant to save time?

At the start of the 20th century, there’s a famous essay written by one philosopher. He said: ‘Within 20 years the biggest problem that humanity is going to face is that with all machines coming up, all out work will be done for us by the machines, the biggest problem for the humanity will be what to do with all the time that is behind us.’

Now, what happened is the machines came up, but time is not available, time seems to have gone. Where does the time go?

First is that along with machines, along with gadgets, comes a worldview. The world view is that the more I have, the more I want. we have lots of machines and then those machines might do some of our work, but the whole culture along with the material machines coming, time-saving machines coming, has come to a culture which makes our worldview more and more materialistic. When the worldview becomes more and more materialistic, then our material engagements, out material distractions, our material infatuations, they become more and more and they suck our time.

So the problem is not that there are time-saving machines or not, the problem is whether we have discipline over our thoughts and desires all the time. If we don’t have discipline over our desires, no matter how much we have, the mind always finds something we don’t have and receive that.
One of my friend is a Finance Manager in a big company. He gives out the paychecks. And when people get the pay check they don’t look at how much salary they take, they look at what is above them. The problem with this is that no matter how high I am , I find someone is above me and at the level of material conception of life there is no end to this upward mobility. When we talk of upward mobility, is not bad, but when upward mobility itself becomes the only goal of life, then that mobility leads to tremendous mental agitation, perpetual dissatisfaction.

So the problem with time-saving devices is not that they don’t save time, but that they come with a culture that fuels our desires and distractions so much, that whatever time we get that is sucked away. That’s why we need spirituality by which we will be able to regulate our thoughts and desires and prioritizing our life. We will be able to utilize our time much more effective.
Thank you very much.