'Time' as seen in Indian and Western Cosmologies

Historical Perspectives and Philosophical Reflections

- Ryan Savio Rodrigues, SJ

Introduction

Arādhya is now eight years old. She was born as the first child to her parents on the
auspicious occasion of Ganeśa Caturthi. Ever since, her birthday is celebrated on this
feast day every year.

Consider another example: An old woman (Ajji) in a devout Hindu family passed
away on the next day of Diwāli. Ever since the following day after the ‘festival of lights,’
is commemorated as her memorial.

Time is ‘sacred’ in an Indian household. The Indian ethos believes in the ‘practical
sense’ of the usage of time. There were people who pondered over time. Such persons
were known as ‘kālacintakas.’

What is time? Is it relative? Is it man made? Is it a mental construct? Is it the first

cause? It is meaningful to associate it with life cycle rituals and festivals? Can we not
understand it from a cyclic perspective? This essay looks at answers to these questions
from the Indian perspective. It also brings in the western viewpoint and offers a few
critical reflections.

Indian Perspectives

The Vedas are oldest known books of our times. Rgveda in its composition consists
of 1028 hymns with no direct reference to ‘time’ par se. It however does mention time as
a ‘manifestation of divinity.’ Yāska, a 6 c BCE scholar of the Vedas claims that ‘every
being exists in time.’ There is a certain kālasukta in the Atharvaveda which considers
time as Brahman - the ‘creator and sustainer of the universe.’ Here everything earth,
space, heaven, mind, breathe etc are considered as the creations of time itself.

The Upaniṣads are the commentaries on the Vedas. The Maitrāyaniya Upaniṣads
understands time in the context of ‘self awareness’ and associate it with ‘purification of

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all beings.’ In the Śvetaśvetar Upaniṣad time is considered as the ‘originator of the
universe.’ It is associated with the ‘ātma śakti’ of God who is the first cause. Brahman
who is often contemplated through śravaṅa, manana and nidhidhyāsana in the Upaniṣads
is beyond space and time. These texts invite us to do away with all manmade constructs
and categories as we contemplate upon the true nature of ‘the ultimate being.’

In the Puraṅas we find references to time in as small quantities as ‘atoms’ as well as

big as ‘one day in the life of Brahman.’ Hence we see time can be periodic, time can be
divisible and indivisible. Time can also be transcendental and empirical. These Puranic
literatures also define time in the context of the distribution of the three ‘Guṅas’ – ‘sattva,
rajas and tamas.’

In practical life, time was associated with the past, the present and the future
especially with regard to events. Time was also manifested based on an action (Karma)
done in the past, the present or the future. It was also associated with an activity. Eg:
fallen, is falling, will fall etc. this corresponded to something that has already happened,
is happening or is going to happen.’ This is how the nyāya-veśeśikas articulated
metaphysically their views of time. They perceived the present, did not worry too much
about the unperceivable past or the future.

Sāmkhya-Yoga schools of thought saw time as something dynamic, not associated

with prakriti and puruśa. They allotted ‘time’ to the realm of the infinite.

Some Indian thinkers associated time with something pragmatic – eg: journey
between life and death, yet others proposed time to be transcendental like that in the case
of a ‘jivan-mukta’ who was beyond all constructs and categories.

The Advaitins who look only at Brahman as the ultimate reality and consider
everything else as Māya i.e. ignorance, time was one among many other realities that did
not really matter. It was classified under the category of ‘unreal.’ Some other Advaitins
saw time as different aspects or states of Brahman itself. Among them the jagrit –
awakened – state was physical, the svapna – dream – state was mental and the other two

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 states of Suśupti and Turia – which are one and not dual – were considered as being
‘timeless.’

The Buddhists, the sarvāstivadins understood time in a variety of ways. Those who
believed in the existence of the past were the Sautrantikas and the Vaibhaśikas were more
of the instantaneous or momentary believers. There was a school in the Buddhist era who
balanced their views of time and they were known as the Vibhajyavādins.

In the Jaina tradition they gave time the status of a ‘Real Substance.’ They connected
time with the transformation and change of objects. They associated time with
origination, annihilation and persistence.

Patanjali the grammarian said that time was the ‘ultimate substratum.’ For him time
was responsible for the growth and decay of all things.

One of the limbs of the Vedas among six were known as Vedaṇga-Jyotiṣa. These deal
with the astronomical and astrological associations of time in the Indian ethos. Rituals,
muhuratas etc are still determined according to them and life cycles carried out
accordingly even today.

Indians connect time with the four yugās and the doctrine of Karma and unlike its
western counterparts believe that time is not linear rather cyclic.

Thus we have seen time from different view points from the Indian perspective.

Western Cosmologies

‘Time’ has been in the thought of the western philosophers from the beginnings of
philosophy. I shall briefly highlight the views of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Galilio,
Newton, the Idealists, the Realists and Legrange in this section. We shall also understand
how time has been understood in the context of Relativity, the uncertainty principle and later
the Big Bang Theory.

Plato always spoke about the world of ideas and forms. He believed in what is called
as the ‘tensed time.’ Ideas were stored in terms of memories and recalled in the present
moment when needed. They were also there when something was to be implied in the future.

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 Aristotle was a person who believed in change. He understood that change was
caused by something and everything that moved was moved by something. For Aristotle
time was considered as an ‘unlimited’ entity. He believed that there is a soul and that it is
moving freely, without any constraints of time at all.

Augustine was a mystic in some sense of the word when it came to defining what he
meant by ‘time.’ He said, ‘if no one were to ask me about time, I would seem to know much
about it, but if you ask me to explain about time, I know not.’

For the idealists ‘time’ was an important entity for it was the creative principle of
reality. For the realists on the other hand, time was just one among many other quantities just
like we see in a democracy.

Galileo was the one who put foundations to mechanics. Newton regarded time as
something that was ‘measurable.’

Legrange, a great mathematician understood time as the 4 th dimension to space.

Einstein understood time in context of ‘relativity.’

The uncertainty principle brought in great philosophical insights. It stated that it was
impossible to determine the position and momentum of a particle precisely at a given point in
time.

The Big Bang theory made time as an inseparable part of the universe.

Thus time has been treated through various viewpoints and perspectives as we see in
the schools of western philosophy as well.

Philosophical Reflections

Time is so logically organized in the western context. If we do not look at it as

something that is objective say for example in its linearity the whole of western physics
which is dependent on it will have to be reworked or reconstructed.

The universe is built on the constructs of time, if we do not except ‘time’ as

something that is real, the whole of mechanics will lead to a collapse. Hence it won’t be
wrong to say that time is ‘sacred’ for those in the West.

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 In the Indian pantheon we see that time assumes another type of ‘sacredness.’ With
time comes that which is auspicious and belief systems are attached to it. Life cycle rituals of
birth, marriage and death are all connected with this sense of the sacredness of time.

Conclusion

For an Arādhya or an Ajji, time is indeed much more than just ‘real.’ It has feelings,
sentiments and emotions all part and parcel of ‘time.’ It is indeed ‘Sacred.’ For Newton or
Hawking time is no less ‘Sacred’ as the whole of physics is dependent on it. This has been
the point of my essay.

Bibliography

Chattopadhyaya D P. Ed. History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilizations.

Vol IV. Part III. Indian Perspectives on the Physical world. Ed. B V Subbarayappa.
New Delhi: Pauls Press, 2004.

Vol III. Part V. Philosophical Concepts Relevant to Sciences in Indian Tradition. Ed.
Pranab Kumar Sen. New Delhi: Pauls Press, 2004.