Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Time and again

Time is on my mind for quite a while. When I was pondering over the apparent lack of time in my workaday, I came across this article by Dave pollard. He argues that time is just a concept, a figment of imagination. Could it be so? How do animals and plants calculate time? Do they get stressed over the lack of it or feel relaxed and lazy about its abundance?

Spiritual texts tell us about different worlds and dimensions of existence in which time moves at different speeds. Thus time moves incredibly faster in our human world when compared to a higher plane. What it means is that, in a matter of one day in a higher plane, thousands (or millions) of years could've elapsed on this earth. Since we're sceptical of such knowledge unless it comes from the science community, here's an article that describes a similar phenomenon of time shifts.

I suspect that this time-gap exists even in this earth, for different living beings. Thus a mosquito which takes birth, completes a life-span and dies(within days of human time) could actually be viewing time differently--what a day is for us could be decades for a mosquito. Many organisms take birth and die almost immediately--as seen from our angle. But from their view-point? Maybe they're leading a life of a hundred years or so--and we see it as only a few moments.

Thirty two years ago, I came here, as if from nowhere. I grew up, learnt a hundred things, got schooled, got lost, found myself, got a job, married, kissed my child, read hundreds of books, watched countless movies, quarrelled, loved, learned, ate, slept, dreamt, fell and climbed, thought about a million useless things and a few worthy ones---and when I'm thinking what a long life this has been and what a long life stretches ahead of me--someone looking down at me from a higher level of existence remarks to his friend--'Look what this guy's been doing for the past 32 seconds. Let's see what he does for another minute'.

The enormity of time and space is overwhelming. We're stuck within their confines. How would it be to stand outside both time and space? I wonder, what would that experience be like? Is it possible and if so, what does it take to get there?

7 comments:

  1. Nice one. I can expect that and more from you!

    But what bowls me over is how the hell does 'Time' work!
    I look at the clock and only wonder...

    Waiting for more such articles

    ReplyDelete
  2. How the hell does time work?

    Maybe it can be taken up for scrutiny by the 'Study group'.

    And here's another point that I read recently--Why does time move forward and not backwards? Why should it move at all? Why can't it stay at one place?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Haha...

    On a serious note - I agree.

    Time is an interesting topic...

    Perhaps once you understand time you are capable of going beyond it and vice versa... or something to that effect.

    ReplyDelete
  4. A world without a clock would be like now that we know what time can do, will be chaos I feel, But we will adapt, like we have.......

    "'Look what this guy's been doing for the past 32 seconds. Let's see what he does for another minute'."

    I like that ........... eheee

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ash...We're too much obsessed with the clock--we tend to construct our lives around it.

    Even in the daily routine, when I consciously attempt to forget the clock and immerse myself in the activity at hand, it's a joyful experience.

    Getting rid of the concept of time is really fascinating. Maybe we need to attempt it in ways other than just forgetting time or thinking that time is an illusion, etc.

    Karan...I look forward to read your blog....any plans?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Philosophers and theologians, following the concept of time of the ancient Greeks had two words for time: chronos and kairos. Chronos refers to chronological or sequential time and Kairos signifies "a time in between", a moment of undetermined period of time in which "something" special happens. What the special something is depends on who is using the word. While chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative nature.

    For us theologians, chronos is normal “human time” while kairos is God’s time. Vishwa, when you ask “How would it be to stand outside both time and space?” I believe that you are speaking of kairos. And I believe that it is possible for us humans to experience kairos—being beyond time and space—during very special spiritual moments.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Nick...I remember reading about chronos and kairos in 'The Magus of stovolus' but hadn't paid attention. Thanks for sharing this.

    ReplyDelete