Time Wasted!

The Baba recollected something very interesting, and said: ‘I remember having read an interesting statistics about the time wasted in India because of the filing system that existed, and still exist in our Government offices. Files were tied with a ribbon and kept in cupboards. Only the peon or clerk concerned could get you the required file. For getting the file, of course, they would need a bit of ‘speed money’…. 

‘The concerned officer took 10 seconds to untie the file. After seeing the contents and writing his ‘note’ he tied the ribbon back. This tying back also took another 10 seconds. It means 20 seconds wasted on untying and tying the ribbon of a file. If the officer concerned deal with 10 files a day, he wasted 200 seconds, which was more than 3 minutes a day… 

‘If there were 500,000 Central and State Governments officials in the country dealing with files, it would still mean more than 25,000 hours wasted every day in the country, just for untying and tying the ribbons of files! A very revealing statistics, indeed….

‘As we have seen, time is the most precious gift of God, my son. We cannot regain even a minute of the time that is lost, whatever we do. Everything else can be regained, but not time….

‘We in India have not understood the value of time. The Government departments have no value for time. The citizens often will have to wait for hours together, or come again and again, for getting any small thing done from a Government department, though the salaries of the Government servants are paid from the various taxes that the citizens of India pay to the Government.…….

‘Even with computerization, the untying and tying of files go on in India. The Naxal movement also has something to do with the difficulties encountered by the poor citizens to get their files out of the cupboards and to get the government officials take action on them.…..

‘Corruption in the Government is a crime against the nation. It is an offence against God and people. It needs to be dealt with severely. Making the citizens waste their time in Government offices is also a serious form of corruption in India….. 

‘Hence, ‘hunger-free, caste-free and corruption-free India’ has to be the basic goal of the Second Freedom Struggle…..

‘Hunger, caste and corruption in India are also external expressions of the inner evils of selfishness, pride and greed that are lurking in the hearts and minds of ‘We the People of India’. Hence, the solutions for the crises facing India today are to be found not only through economic and political reforms but also through a spiritual awakening and moral regeneration of the Indian people. This spiritual awakening and moral regeneration of the Indian people is a religious and spiritual mission. For this we need enlightened religious and spiritual leadership….

‘An Integral Revolution in which politics and economics in the country are rebuilt on the strong foundation of the spiritual and moral values common to religions in India is the crying need of the era. That is the only way for realizing the vision of ‘Purna Swaraj’ for India as envisaged by Mahatma Gandhi and other freedom fighters…... 

‘That is also the reason why enlightened religious and spiritual leaders in India must join hands with enlightened political and economic forces in the country for the Second Freedom Struggle to build a hunger-free, caste-free and corruption-free India. This is also what I mean by ‘Integral Revolution’. It is a revolution in which enlightened religious, spiritual, economic and political forces in India will work together to build a hunger-free, caste-free and corruption-free India which in turn will lead us to the Purna Swaraj of our dream. Do you agree with me, my son?’ The Baba stopped with a question.

‘Guruji I have gone through some books on our freedom struggle. I am fully in agreement with all that you have said so far.’ Atma Prakash replied.

Excerpts from Integral Revolution