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Re: Present
Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian (rbalasub@ecn.purdue.edu) wrote:
: How do you know that time is independent of the mind? Consider for example a
: dream. Time certainly exists for you. It certainly is your own creation in
: the dream. Other people in your dream confirm the existence of time for
: you in your dream (not after waking up). Time as in "the waking state"
: has no meaning in a dream. In deep sleep there is no time, still the
: consciousness "I" exists. Thus time is certainly a creation of the mind
: and nothing else.
Dear Ramakrishnanji:
Thank you for your response. I do not think I understood your point. You
mentioned the three stages of consciousness, jagrata, svapna and
sushhupti. These three do not actually refer to a person who is awake or
dreaming in sleep or in deep sleep. They are symbolic, refering to a
person's consciousness as if he were 'awake' or 'dreaming' or 'in deep
sleep'. Srimad Bhagavad has a verse (11th or 12th skanda, I have to look
for the exact reference) that plainly describes these three as buddhi. The
consciousness of 'I' is the Self in human beings. In the SBG, God said,
"Ishvarah sarvabhutAnam hR^iddesherjuna tishhThati.
bhramayam sarvabhutAni yantrArUDAni mAyayA" (ch.18).
This 'I' is the God in man, it always exists, whether our
consciousness uses the tamoguni, rajoguni or sattvaguni buddhis.
In the SBG, there is another verse that is pertinent to this issue.
yA nishA sarvabhutAnAm tasyAm jAgarti samyamI.
yasyAm jAgrati bhutani sa nishA pashyato muneH. (ch.2)
The jAgrata stage is connected to the material world (vishva), and this
verse simply says that a muni may not be aware of the happenings in the
vishva around him or her.
: How can time not be subject to sense perception? Otherwise how will you know
: that something such as time exists? Some one must be there to perceive both
: time and events. How can time exist by itself?
: Everything is a concoction of time, space and energy only and all else is
: the trite talk of people who dislike the effort of sadhana which takes
: them to the Self. This talk is based on their dense ignorance of the
: Self. Only by persistent practice and experience of sadhana can one arrive
: at the truth that all concepts of souls, world and the cause thereof
: are just evanescent shadows in the screen of Siva-Self-Brahman.
: Ribhu Gita 24.31, Translated by N.R.K. Aiyer.
Ramakrishnanji, the way time is talked about in the Scriptures is as kAla
or mahAkAla. In a sense, these are like the sushhupti stage of
consciousness, but really dependent on God's action of taking the
creation back. We associate the passage of time with sunrise and sunset,
the changes in R^itu, birth and death of people etc. We associate these
to measure the passage of time. We have not yet figured out a way to
measure mahAkAla, in the SBG, it is recognized as God (kAlosmi
lokakshayokrit prabR^iddho lokAn samAhartumiha pravR^ittaH. ch 11). Time
Itself is God, we do not measure it, we measure a little fragment
of the passage of time.
With best regards,
Dhruba.
