A Brief Story of Time

It is getting chillier each day in New Delhi.  A few days back, a single quilt was enough to beat the coldness but things have slightly changed—we have unpacked additional heavy clothes and like the socks know we are impossible without them anymore. The weather-people predict we are edging towards colder direction, as the year draws towards its fag end. We can wait for the warm surprises in the days to come. Indeed this is the last day of the year.

Time freezes when we talk about the New Year. In its statue we have been given the chance to reflect upon the days, over the weeks and months, some of which have slipped into memories and the others into the obvious black hole in the back of our mind for good.

Now is the time to live—this is the wisdom from a spiritual perspective. However, neither the frozen moments nor the unearthly ideas can define the concept of time—rather it is as mysterious as the universe itself. At its best, we can understand only the almost negligible linear moment in the infinite line of progression along with other consciousness like life.

...but the bus do arrive for those who wait!

Our lives would show a moment clearly, even clearer if we take a couple of steps behind and ponder. But then, there are more questions than we have answers about the utility of time in our lives particularly and existence as a whole. Science and religion are merely offering a few reasons in some sort of consolations—and these have never been timely enough to offer us the absolute, because while the former keeps digging, the latter has full stopped with god as if we can never find the ultimate.

We have an indigenous perspective of space and time. However, the sheer lack of number, or our population, coupled with the pathetic sociopolitical and economical condition has always put our faith system in some footnotes of others’ narratives. That is another story. Read the Space–Time Entity According to Puya at Paochel Kangleipak (http://www.paochelkangleipak.net/index.php/en/space-time-entity-according-to-puya).

Time, Man and Society

Do you believe, one day, we will know why we are here in this universe? We will be able to know what time is all about and what kind of entity is its partner: space. We will be able to see the futility of war. We will able to understand the hopelessness of religion. We will be able to articulate the nuances of birth and death logically. We will be able to identify ourselves without nose-diving into complex and abstract rendition of the universe.

Today, we are only as good as how much we can express the relativity and expression through abstract mathematical equations and funny godly narrations like it is in the various scriptures. On other occasions, we would rely on spiritual reflection. And we know it is never enough, redefining the endless nature of our desire.  

The élite nature of science is concentrated around the self-proclaimed best minds of the world. Religion is no less, because only a few bigots can understand or proclaim to understand the spiritual necessity while most of us are mostly just followers. Sometimes science would complement with religion; and in others, these are just like fishes and bicycles.

We live in a linear world as far as time is concerned. In this context, only the present continues the natural flow and it is the only entity we can comprehend. The most remarkable factor is that the situation will change at the slightest change of moment. This contradiction of being linear and nonlinear only adds mystery to the concept of time.

A fatalist view of time is that the future is unavoidable. Coming back to the present, is it possible that time exists independently? If we are inclined to affirm it, we do get rid of the human selfish thought that it can be known only if we exist and if not, not. Alternatively, objective reality exists side by side with time, as is believed by some physicists and philosophers, without relating the entities to each other. As always we can know it, only when we know why we exists and it will never be surprising to keep finding new connotations and denotations; or so to say, we know the relativity will prevail.

• “Tengo knew that time could become deformed as it moved forward. Time itself was uniform in composition, but once consumed, it took on a deformed shape. One period of time might be terribly heavy and long, while another could be light and short. Occasionally the order of things would be reversed, and in the worst cases order itself could vanish entirely. Sometimes things that should not be there at all might be added onto time. By adjusting time this way to suit their own purposes, people probably adjusted the meaning of their existences. In other words, by adding such operations to time, they were able—but just barely—to preserve their own sanity. Surely, if a person had to accept the time through which he had just passed uniformly in the given order, his nerves could not bear the strain. Such a life, Tengo felt, would be sheer torture.”
  
  – いちきゅうはちよん, 1Q84, Haruki Murakami

Time Ordinary

In our everyday life, time exists on totally different levels. The animal in us is too fragile that we need order; and time plays a crucial role in it. We have built up such motivational thoughts like time is money and punctuality is a virtue. It is sometimes no wrong to say it is overrated.

In school, we have to be punctual; in college it is no different; and when we are adults we achieve excellence by the ability to manage time. At least this is how we are taught in a conforming society to maintain the monotonous order, in which a small group of little more intelligent people exploit the mass for their own good. Take, for examples, the government and the big corporate hotshots.

Time is related to the individual, which we have seen in the previous paragraph. It is as well the same to the society, with history and civilisation being the living examples.

In the next couple of weeks in the new year, never the coldest day has been able to freeze the time—neither the hottest day could expand.

The best thing we can do is to indulge in the luxuries the season has to offer. We can realise how time waits for no one, literally. If we find the absolute meaning some day, we might be able to conclude with a fine finishing touch but as it is not the case, we will have to wait for the better or the worse, in the centuries and millenniums to come. It’s about time!

Happy New Year!