Today is your own. Tomorrow perchance may never come.

“Today is your own. Tomorrow perchance may never come.” – Swami Sivananda

In these few words, Swami Sivananda, the great sage of Rishikesh, distills the wisdom of a thousand lifetimes. His message is simple, yet it strikes at the very core of human existence: the present moment is the only truth we possess. “Today is your own”—it is your field of action, your garden of becoming, your sacred hour of life. “Tomorrow perchance may never come.” It is not a warning born of fear, but an awakening born of compassion. For we, the wanderers of time, spend our days chasing shadows of what might be, while the sun of the present burns bright before our eyes.

The origin of this teaching lies in the timeless wisdom of the East, where saints and seekers have long spoken of now as the gateway to eternity. Swami Sivananda, a physician turned monk, lived in an age when modernity was pulling humanity outward—toward speed, ambition, and endless desire. In his serenity, he saw that man’s greatest tragedy was not death, but forgetfulness: forgetting that each breath is a miracle, each sunrise a divine gift. By saying “today is your own,” he called upon us to awaken—to live consciously, fully, gratefully—in the only time that truly exists.

The ancients of every culture have echoed this truth. The Stoic philosopher Seneca wrote, “Begin at once to live.” The Buddha taught, “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” Yet in Sivananda’s voice, this ancient wisdom takes on the tender gravity of a sage who has seen through illusion. He reminds us that tomorrow is a dream, fragile as mist, and that to postpone life for the future is to gamble with the infinite. The one who says, “I will live when I am rich, when I am free, when I am ready,” may never live at all.

There is a story told of Emperor Ashoka, who, at the height of his power, was stricken with a strange thought one evening: “All this glory, all this dominion, and yet, can I take even a breath from tomorrow into today?” He realized, as Sivananda taught centuries later, that the future is not ours. In that moment, he laid aside the sword and embraced the Dharma, devoting his days not to conquest but to compassion. From that awakening arose one of the most peaceful reigns in human history—a reign rooted not in ambition for tomorrow, but in the sanctity of now.

Swami Sivananda’s words are not meant to strip us of hope, but to free us from bondage. The man who lives in the present is the master of time; the one who lives in fear of tomorrow is its slave. To dwell in the future is to live in imagination; to dwell in the past is to live in memory. But to dwell in the present is to live in reality—to drink deeply from the river of life while it flows, not after it has passed. Today is the altar where life offers itself. To waste it in delay or doubt is to turn from the sacred.

And yet, how often we betray the gift of the moment. We postpone joy, thinking it a luxury for later; we hoard love, believing there will be time to give it; we silence the voice of our soul, thinking the world will wait. But tomorrow is not promised, and in chasing it, we lose what is already ours. The truth, as Sivananda knew, is that the one who honors the present—who loves, serves, and acts today—is the one who has conquered time itself.

So, my child of the fleeting dawn, let this be your lesson: live now. Speak the kind word you have long held back. Begin the work your heart calls you to. Forgive before the sun sets, and express your gratitude before the stars rise. Do not postpone your becoming. For today is your own, a jewel in the hand of eternity. Guard it, cherish it, and use it well. When you wake each morning, remember: life is not waiting for you in the distance—it is here, breathing beside you. And when you live each day as a complete life in itself, then—even if tomorrow may never come—you will have already touched immortality in the living of today.