From Time to the Timeless Now

“Mighty Time am I, wreaking destruction of the world”

What comes into existence is inevitably eaten up by Time and goes out of existence. It may be a few seconds or a few millennia, but that hardly matters as Time works in its own way to destroy anything and everything. So what we consider the subject of perception I — which is the body, the mind comprised of thoughts, feelings, opinions, interests etc. — will be finished off by Time in due course. And what we consider the objects of perception — relations, friends, money, politics, culture, music, art — will all be finished off by Time in due course.

That which was not, comes into existence momentarily and goes out, as that which will not be. It is not there even now. It is just an appearance of light and sound that is processed by memory to give it an apparent existence of name and form.

For instance, what we call music is just sound with some spacing in between that is processed by the cultural memory to be something great or awful. A dog barking and a classical exponent of music singing are no different from the standpoint of the physical expression which is just sound. What makes one pleasing and the other repulsive or the other way round depending on one’s cultural background is just the memory cultivated from the past. After all, the dog’s barking is full of life while the great music one likes may be just borrowed second hand expression with no originality. This is also why the same person who greatly appreciates one genre of music finds another genre utterly joyless and vice versa.

Music is after all only a pleasure movement based on memory like anything else. That’s why the word in Sanskrit for music is raaga which also means attachment. It is said that whenever anyone sang or played music in front of Ramana Maharshi, he would always say ‘I don’t hear any music as I am only focused on the base note that remains the same’. Similarly, it is reported that once when a famous music composer met with Yogi Ramsuratkumar, he rendered a devotional song and the Yogi responded saying ‘Aha! Beautiful !’ and after some time, a crow made long caws and the Yogi remarked ‘Aha! Beautiful!’. Because there is no other inherent value to sound other than the subjective memory that ascribes value to it.

This is true with all ideas of art, beauty, taste etc. Anything done for pleasure or appreciation is inherently binding. On a side note, there is an alternate way to engage in art just as a flower blooms and withers, simply as a natural expression of the creative energy where there is no conception of being the doer or the enjoyer but there is only the doing.

In any case, everything is just memory that brings them into apparent existence. It is like a child imagining various shapes of animals and people among the clouds in the sky that gather and disperse of their own accord. The imagined name and form which was not there and which will not be there is present apparently only in memory and never as an objective reality. And this appearance manifested by memory which is Time will be unmanifested by the same Time as it constantly makes forms appear and disappear.

Therefore every single goal that seems worth achieving, however great it might be, will be destroyed by Time. Great empires, personalities, ideologies, civilizations etc. that once reigned supreme have all bitten the dust as a matter of course. The one pursuing the goal and the goal itself are both transient.

Everything in the world is rushing toward destruction. This is described vividly in Bhagavad Gita when Krishna shows his terrifying Cosmic form (vishwaroopam). Arjuna trembles upon seeing this form and says “Everybody is rushing forward unto You entering Your terrifying mouths; some with smashed heads sticking between Your teeth. As moths with great speed enter into blazing fire to perish, so these men are entering Your mouth only to perish. You are lapping up and devouring all these people from all directions. Please reveal who You are.”
Krishna answers:
“Mighty Time am I, wreaking destruction of the world.
Ever active, dissolving the world unto Me.” — (Bhagavad Gita 11.32)

This is also the iconography of the terrible Kaali Ma who is dark, blood dripping, skulls around Her neck, severed head in Her hand. She represents Time (Kaala) that devours all.

The great poet Rabindranath Tagore evocatively brings out this terrible aspect of Time that is at once beautiful to behold too, if one sees it all as the dance of the Divine:

“Beautiful is thy wristlet, decked with stars and cunningly wrought in myriad-colored jewels.

But more beautiful to me thy sword with its curve of lightning like the outspread wings of the divine bird of Vishnu, perfectly poised in the angry red light of the sunset.

It quivers like the one last response of life in ecstasy of pain at the final stroke of death; it shines like the pure flame of being burning up earthly sense with one fierce flash.

Beautiful is thy wristlet, decked with starry gems; but thy sword, O lord of thunder, is wrought with uttermost beauty, terrible to behold or to think of.”

To contemplate upon the impermanence of everything that one holds dear may seem dark and hopeless but by confronting this darkness alone do we come into Light. Instead if we cling to any false hope or projected future heaven or utopia upon which so many false ideologies have been built and caused immense harm, we will not realize the sacredness of the timeless Now.

Hope and desire are always for the future. Truth is Now. Any projection of hope denies the Now. Even if we project a future state of unchanging bliss, ultimate compassion etc., that is just turned by thought into another concept and thereby the false I sustains itself. If we deny all desires and hopes that take the mind into the future, what remains is the timeless Now.

Therefore, with the clarity of the impermanence of any future pursuit whatsoever emerges the clarity of the perfection of what already is. The pure Awareness of Being, in which the myriad goals put together by thought, feelings and emotions, interests, likes and dislikes etc. appear and disappear, remains itself untouched and unmoved by the coming and going of anything in Time. For the eternal Being, there is nothing to be gained, nothing to be attained, nothing to be achieved, nothing to be understood. Until this certainty awakens, the pointless pursuit of pleasures — material or spiritual — will keep the imaginary I in the merry-go-round of seeking something or the other and alternating between pleasure and pain.

To see the futility of any pursuit in Time is to wake up to that which is always out of Time. One certainly ought to do what is necessary to discharge the responsibilities of life as determined by one’s swadharma which of course is purely subjective. But beyond satisfying the responsibilities of living, any other pursuit — materially or spiritually — will only create more food for Time to destroy.

So what is needed is not understanding any great philosophy about the Timeless but to deeply recognize the impermanence of all pursuits in Time.

Any spiritual practice to achieve something in Time — be it mystical experiences or powers, altered states of consciousness, gaining more knowledge — will all disappear in due course. And attempts to achieve the Timeless state of being still is another trap of the ego as it is not a future state to be achieved. The ego projects stillness, thoughtless-ness, transformation, liberation as all future states and thus sustains itself. But beneath these movements in Time is the ever present background within as pure Awareness, naturally still as the timeless Now.

True spiritual wisdom is thus to surrender all that comes and goes to Time as the Divine energy of Becoming and thereby realize our true essence as the Timeless Now of Being.