Use your leisure time in a meaningful way

Leisure time? Sorry, I have no leisure time. From morning till night I have to work hard for my family. The load of samsara is increasing day by day. My leisure time will come when I will go to the burning ghat – This is our general conception regarding leisure time. But this is not the real picture. Man is not a machine. From morning till night, a man (generally) cannot work hard at a stretch. There must be some leisure time. But the burning question is how we can spend our leisure time? Because upon the effective utilization of our leisure time, the shape of our life depends.

Let us look at a glance, generally how we spend the twenty four hours.

Sleep & Rest	± 7 hours
Own preparation & for 2Tiffin, 2Meal	± 2 hours
Office time/ School & Colleges	± 8 hours
Journey to office/  School & Colleges  (up and down)	±2 hours
Family duties and marketing etc./ Play in the playground	± 3 hours
	± 22 hours
Leisure time	± 2 hours
Total	24 hours

If our leisure time in a day is ± 2 hours, that means we are getting ± 60 hours in a month and ± 730 hours in a year! 730 hours means more than 30 days extra in a year.

We must remember that the shape of our future life will depend on this leisure time and its effective utilization. There are two roads and we are standing in a junction. Now we have to take decision solely regarding our life. If we want to make our life beautiful, want to make our character perfect, then we have to utilize effectively and positively our leisure time in a meaningful way.

Leisure time

Road 1	Road 2
Idle leisure time	Leisure time used in positive and meaningful way
Idle thinking	Construction and positive thinking
Idle work	Positive work
Idle habits	Positive habits
Formation of idle character	Formation of positive and constructive character
Idle pattern of life	Beautiful and meaningful pattern of life

Use your leisure time in a meaningful way. Try to use every opportunity. Time is going on. Learning is a continuous process. There is no end of learning. Enrich yourself. Our character is the bundle of habits. We can make our character as per our habits. We are the makers of our own life. Our future is uncertain, but we can control our future by controlling the present time, which we are passing. Make a routine of your daily life and try utmost to follow it. If we use our leisure time in a meaningful way, we can enrich ourselves. Start from today to utilize your leisure time for a better tomorrow.

Some may ask, yes, I have some leisure time, but what I will do? The summer is going on. Especially the students of school and colleges are enjoying the summer vacation. My humble suggestion is, please read the following books during this vacation.

1. The Life of Swami Vivekananda by His Eastern and Western Disciples (Vol.I & II)
2. Lectures from Colombo to Almorah
3. Letters of Swami Vivekananda