BEYOND TIME
The ancient rishis, seers of Truth, did in-depth research. What they fully experienced they later pronounced in statements as in the Upanishads. When they declared that, time is unreal and an illusion, it was not just their opinion. It was derived after deeply pondering over time. They experienced and measured the shortest as well as the longest unit of time. And with the minutest precision!
💧︎
A yuga is one of the longer divisions of time. There are four yugas, the Krita, Treta, Dwapara and Kali. All the four together are known as a chaturyuga, the duration of which is twelve thousand divine years. A divine year is equivalent to three hundred and sixty human years.
Krita is four times as long as the Kali age, Treta is three times as long and Dwapara twice as long. Thirteen thousand human years form a Kali yuga. Of these, five thousand years are still left.
Seventy one chaturyugas make one manvantara. Fourteen such manvantaras, with their twilight period, make a kalpa of four hundred and thirty two million years. A kalpa is one day of Lord Brahma, the creator. A night of Lord Brahma is also one kalpa. He lives for one hundred such years. Brahma’s life span is one day for Lord Vishnu. He too, lives for one hundred years. After that, pralaya, dissolution of the entire creation, is brought about. Then, fresh creation begins once again!
💧︎
The rishis also meticulously measured the shortest unit of time. For us now, a second according to our clock is the smallest unit. The ancients had divided such a unit into one hundred mini–units. And further divided this mini-unit into hundred micro-units. Such minutest divisions go on. Yet, each such mini and micro unit has an individual name. This means, that the rishis had actually measured and experienced the shortest unit of time. Their derivations are thus, not imaginary, but a scientific marvel indeed!
💧︎
After experiencing time, by way of measuring both its extremes, the rishis arrived at the deeper truth, that time as such, totally disappears in deep sleep, thereby nullifying the validity of time itself. Their finding, “Time is unreal”, is truly a scientific revelation. When Bhagavan was once confronted with the question, whether his teaching of Self-enquiry was scientific, he replied, “What can be more scientific than affirming the real and rejecting the unreal!”
“The seer, the Self, is real. Time is unreal,” So declare the scriptures and the sages. How true it is!
💧︎