(My article about ‘Time’ was published in The Tribune dated April 27, 1997, under the heading ‘Life is of time and time is of life’. In the present write-up, I have added more material, relevant to the subject, for the readers’ interest.)
To conquer and transcend the boundaries of time and space has been the constant endeavour of the human mind. Men of God, who attained spiritual perfection, enjoyed the spaceless and timeless realm. Throughout the ages, the mankind has been facing the problem of what St. Paul called ‘redeeming the time.’
The following reference by Sir Robert Howard about his friend’s death evoked a great interest in me about the concept and phenomenology of time at both macro and micro levels:
“Twas but just now he went away;
I have not since had time to shed a tear;
And yet the distance does the same appear
As if he had been a thousand years from me.
Time takes no measure in Eternity.”
Guru Gobind Singh, the Tenth Master of the Sikhs, visioned that in the world phenomenon, everything is controlled and governed by the ‘knife time’, and people tend to lean on strong arms
Ya kal me sabh kaal kirpan ke
Bhari Bhujan Ke Bhari Bharose.
The metaphor or analogy of ‘Knife’ in respect of time is quite significant as it continuously moves ahead instead of being stationary.
Buddhism compares time to a circle which has no beginning and no end. Moreover, the very nature of momentariness/transience is the essence of the Buddhist doctrine. Meaningfully, the Tathagata ends his teaching at Kusinagar with the words:
“I instruct you, Oh monks. All the compounded things are impermanent. Work out with diligence your own deliverance”.
Buddha began his first discourse at Sarnath that everything which is originated is subject to decay and destruction. Change is the greatest reality of time everything is in a flux. Dr. Iqbal is also of the opinion that it is impossible to accept anything static or permanent. Nothing is permanent in nature but change. His conception of time is unique in history and philosophy as he regards time as an instrument o conquering finitude and attaining immortality.
According to Waheed Akhtar, Iqbal appreciates he life-force to time. Dr. Iqbal criticized the approach of Muslim philosophers from Kindi (b. 9th century to Averroes (1126-1198) who conceived time mrely as a serial order of before and after and thus made it unreal.
“Thou has sown the seed of darkness in the clay.
Thou has imagined time as a line.
With the measure of night and day.
Thy thought measures length of time.
Thou mak’st this line a girdle of thine infidel waist.
Thou art an advertiser of falsehood, like idols.”
……….
“From eternity to eternity there is but one moment.
Only if time is not measured in months and years.”
……….
“Life is of Time, and Time is of Life.
‘Do not abuse Time’, was the command of the Prophet. While adverting to the all-embracing phenomenon of the bite of time, Dr. Mohan Singh Diwana once referred to the poem which was composed in Germany in the 2nd world war: -
“Where are the flowers of the
Last year gone?
They have all been plucked
Away by the young girls.
Where have the young girls
Of the last year gone?
They have all been married
Off to young soldiers.
Where have the soliers of
The last year gone?
They have all been
Buried in their graves.
Where have the graves of the
Last year gone?
They have all been ploughed over.
Oh! When will man ever learn?”
To Thomas Carlyle, time is a cruel dilemma, a great mystery or a miracle: -
“The great mystery of time, were there no other; the illimitable, silent, never-resting thing called time, rolling, rushing on, swift, silent, like an all-embracing ocean tide on which we and all the universe swim like exhalations, like apparitions which are, and then are not; this is forever very literally a miracle; a thing to strike us dump; - for we have no word to speak about it.”
As regards concept of time, it is one’s perception or intuition which gives it meaning, form and substance:
“Is it the flag that moves?
Or is it the wind that moves?
“No”, answers the Zen master? “It is the mind that moves”.
Bhai Vir Singh beautifully refers to the fragile nature of time in his poetry:
“Rahi waste ghatt, somen ne ik na manni,
Phad phad rahi dhreek, samen khiskai kanni,
Kiven na sakki rok, atak jo pae bhanni,
Tikhkhe apne veg, gia tap banne banni,
Ho! aje sanbhal iss samen noon, kar saphal udanda janwada,
Eh thehran janchna, langh gia na mudke aanwda.”
(To all my entreaties, the time didn’t accede. I held and tugged, but its opron it freed. No way to halt it, it went on indeed. Crossing all barriers at its fast speed. Of halting, alas, it knows not the knack. Having flown past once, it never comes back.)
Like Dr. Iqbal, according to whom it is only the present which is in the man’s grip (Faqat imroz hai tera zamana), Dandemis also emphasizes the importance of present:
So is the case with Lord Byron who opines that:
Devika Rani, the doyen of Indian Cinema and the international celebrity, in her youth and old age. With the passage of time, everything perishes.
Time-Clock
“Time that is past thou never can’t recall; of time to come thou art not sure at all; the present, only, is within thy power, so, therefore, now improve thy present hour.”
Devika Rani, the doyen of Indian Cinema and the international celebrity, in her youth and old age. With the passage of time, everything perishes.
“Time that is past thou never can’t recall; of time to come thou art not sure at all; the present, only, is within thy power, so, therefore, now improve thy present hour.”
What is time? – the shadow on the dial, - the striking of the clock, - the running of the send, - day and night, - summer and winter, - months, years, centuries? These are but arbitrary and outwards signs, - the measure of time, not time itself. Time is the life of the soul. If not this, then tell me what is time?
(Henry W Longfellow)
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