Of the 8.4 million life forms, human form is the rarest. God graces us with the human body after countless births in other life forms, so says the Mahabharat. This is why we need to understand the true value of human life.

1. The human body is the only body where we can perform fruit-bearing actions. Every action that we perform in the human body has a consequence in the future. In other life forms, the actions of the soul don’t bear any fruits. Good actions in the human body takes the soul to heaven, bad actions to hell and devotional actions to God. It’s only in the human life that we have the golden opportunity to practice devotion and reach our ultimate goal of God-Realization.
2. It’s only the human life where we have the ability to discriminate between good and bad. Animals, birds and plants don’t have this ability. So, we must understand clearly from saints and scriptures what our ultimate goal is, how it can be achieved and then practice it.
3. The human life is so precious that even heavenly gods and goddesses, whom we worship, desire to be born as humans so that they can practice devotion.

In spite of these wonderful values of the human life, there is one very big negative about it. We don’t know when we will die and leave this human body. It may happen any moment, no matter how old we are. The length of the human life is very uncertain. We are fine one moment and the very next moment we may have a heart attack and die. There is no way to know how much more time we have in this human body.

But not realizing the value of this human life, we squander it away in the pursuit of fleeting worldly pleasures. And even if we come to know that it is only through devotional practice that we can attain our ultimate goal, we procrastinate devotion and keep it for the last phase of our life, not realizing that we may or may not be alive to see that phase.

We will attain God only through devotional practice. It is wrong to just relax and rely on God’s grace, destiny and Guru. We must practice devotion, and realize the grace of God and Guru while practicing it. But we must practice. We shouldn’t waste time. We should give only as much time to the world as is necessary to get the basic necessities of life. We must use the remaining time wisely. Use it in the area of God. By doing this, we will move towards purification of the heart very fast. And if we die while leading a devotional life, God will grace us with a human birth again so that we can carry on devotion where we left off in the previous life.

Below are Shri Maharaj Ji’s direct words about utilizing every moment of our life in devotion.

Most dearest and beloved Shri Krishna is yours, do not believe Him to be even a little bit far from you. He is waiting with His arms wide open for you. He is very pleased when He sees your tears for Him. This is not just a feeling, but the truth. Otherwise He is always making note of every thought of yours at every moment, but your tears are most dear to Him.

He has a slightly naughtly nature. He is constantly watching you in a hidden, low profile manner. And when you become a little careless by letting worldly attachments take you in its grip, then Shyamsundar feels pained to see this person, doing wrong actions and thinking wrong thoughts. After having gifted the mind to Shyamsundar, one should not let the world enter. It pains Him a lot.

You should reduce the wasteful contemplation about your worldly future and not feel happiness or sorrow in the gains and losses.

Take full advantage of every available moment with great caution by doing ‘roopdhyan’ (remembrance). Idle time and an idle mind are very dangerous. Therefore, one must remain alert at all times, and keep in mind that He is always watching everything we think or do.

Put special emphasis on divine feelings, divine form and divine qualities like ’causelessly merciful’ while doing Roopdhyan. When you commit a sin, deeply repent and be cautious about trying to avoid repeating it.

I am forever yours,

Kripalu