Introduction

What is time? You may ask what a useless question? Time is Time! What do you mean by “What is time”? Some of us try to answer: Time is money. Well, that is a crude comparison and not a definition of time. Time is something which is so basic and obvious in our lives that all of us take time phenomenon for granted. In this article, I am trying to explain the problems related to our understanding of time, how we can perceive it and what are the philosophical implications of this understanding.

Problem

Lets try to define time with our current perception and check if we are able to define it properly. How do we perceive time? Lets understand it in terms of events because this is the most fundamental way in which we deal with time in our lives (types of time are discussed later in this article). From this perspective, it has three fundamental elements: past, present and future. If we analyze our understanding of these elements then we may be able to define time as well.

Past: Events which we have already experienced.

Present: Events happening NOW.

Future: Events which may occur.

Let me propose a hypothesis first and see if it sustains till the end.

“Time may be a phenomenon which enables events to happen in a sequential order i.e. one after the other.”

But who creates this perception of sequentiality? It is a universal phenomenon or it is an illusion created by our mind? Imagine what would happen if we stop thinking about past and future and fully concentrate on present? Would this sequentiality of time vanish? Read on to see if it is really true. In coming paragraphs, I would take the three time elements and try to analyze them one by one.

Past:

It is nothing but a bunch of experiences which we recall and try to correlate with. Our left brain is responsible for all this correlationand if somehow our left brain stops working, there would not be any past for us. We would not be able to correlate to anything¹. Past can also be compared to reading a dictionary. It is just an act of referring to a bunch of information and nothing else. Would there be any concept of past in a new born baby or a person who has lost his memory?

It is easy to explain this concept to an IT professional dealing with databases. When a software program is executed and it access data stored in the computer and processes it, should we say that the program has a past? Certainly the answer would be NO. So, we can compare ourselves with the software program which accesses stored information in our brain and calls it past!

So essentially there is no past as we know it. It is just an illusion created by our brain.^*1

Present:

How do we come to know about what is happening out there in the world? We are completely dependent on our sensory organs and brain. But these body parts take some time in processing this information, try to relate to it with memory and we finally perceive what is happening. This processing adds a certain delay and the information which we perceive had already happened meanwhile. There must be something else ongoing outside while we sense, process and perceive this information. Our present is actually past already! The Sun which we see is what it ‘was’ approximately eight minutes ago because information flow in our lives happens at the speed of light.. Even though suppose we are able to perceive this information instantaneously, how reliable is this data¹²?

Also, how granular the concept of present should be? Should we take the event of one second in one go, consider it as ‘present’ and process it or we should take only 1 millisecond of events considering it as present? I mean how to put a needle on a timescale which indicates ‘present’ time. We can put this needle on a timescale which measures in milliseconds, microseconds, nanoseconds and so on. Scientists have been able to put this needle at an accuracy of Plank’s time (10^-43 seconds)¹³. If we go below this time granularity, time ceases to exist according to latest findings.

So, in a nutshell the exact present is not knowable at least with the current scientific progress.

Future:

Similar to past, future is a creation of our brain. Based on present data, and past experiences, brain tries to predict the most probable outcome. This outcome is completely based on personal experiences and it has nothing to do with what we might actually experience in future. This is the best possible outcome which our brain predicts out of infinite possibilities. Again this feeling of what is going to come is actually happening in present and is a part of present data processing. This probabilistic prediction of our brain gives forward direction to time. We feel something is going to come our way but in a way it just an illusion.

It looks like if we have to analyze and define time in terms of past, present and future, we have many questions unanswered and direction or feeling of passing time is only an illusion created by our brain.

Investigations till Now

Einstein once said: “time is something which prevents everything from happing at once”. It is a very important ingredient for keeping the creation in the way it is.

I would try to cover few important properties of time which we know as of now and few points where investigations are still ongoing. I shall not be able to cover everything related to time here and hence I would cover only those topics which are important for understanding my view of time.

Direction of Time

For our universe, the direction of time is set in such a way that the total entropy of the universe always keeps increasing^*2. A cup is always meant to be broken^*3. So, everything is disintegrating continuously. The construction which is happening is at the cost of higher destruction.

Types of Time

Does a person in deep sleep have sense of time? When we are in deep sleep, are we aware of time? Certainly not. It may indicate that time comes into picture for us only after we get up from deep sleep state. This should be a good assumption. But why do we see the world around us changed once we get up? This means at the same time, time is not there and is also there. Does this mean that we have two types of time? One which stops when we sleep and the other independent one which goes on. In fact scientists believe that there are three different types of time: relative (according to theory of relativity), psychological (slowing down of time when we are bored and time flies by when we are busy) and universal or absolute (proposed by Newton). Out of these three types two are observer dependent (relative and psychological) and universal time operates at a different level.

Time Dilation⁴

The concept of relative time came into picture after theory of relativity was proposed. Before this theory was proposed, there was only one type of time and it was considered absolute time. This theory tells us that if an object is travelling at a speed comparable to speed of light, time starts to slow down. That means if we are in a spaceship which travels near speed of light, we would be able live a lot longer than we staying on earth. This is a very good example of relativity of time with respect to an observer.

My View and Philosophical Implications

For the observer dependent time which we are concerned about in this article, it is my view that it is nothing but events which we experience. Whatever phenomenon time is, it has to come to us in terms of events and we get to know about these events if we choose to experience them. This world is something like watching a holographic movie. You stop watching it and it is gone for you. Movie still is played in absolute time for the remaining viewers. So:

Time = experience

Here by time I strictly mean the relative or psychological time (To be honest I am not very sure how does universal time work. It may be a relative time in a multiverse J).

From the above equality, it can be deduced that if experience = 0; time = 0. It means if there is no experience, there is no time. Time ceases to exist if there is no experience of anything. Before going any further, lets analyze what does experience = 0 mean? This means no processing of events at any level of being. In Indian philosophy we have many levels of being. What we perceive with our physical body is not the end of it. Beyond this we have pranic, astral, mental and spiritual/causal bodies. We have to stop experiencing at all these levels.

But the biggest question is how to make experience = 0?

Before getting into understanding it, lets analyze two points.

What Einstein meant?

What Einstein was trying to convey when he said: “time is something which prevents everything from happing at once”? This means if the concept of time is not there, everything shall happen at once. We can deduce from this understanding that whatever is there to experience, it is right here and can be seen in one go. Time only prevents us from seeing everything in one shot and keeps events sequential and we are bound to see things in slow and sequential way.

Total Experience

If we take a slice of all the events experienced by all beings at any moment of time in this creation, this could be the sum total of all individual experiences and we can call it ‘total experience’. In this total experience nothing is excluded. Individual experiences are like seeing a picture from different holes made in a sheet of paper¹⁶. But if we have to see the whole picture using these holes in the paper, we need to see through all the holes one by one to guess the whole picture. If we remove the sheet of paper, whole picture is there in front of us in one shot. In our case, the sheet of paper with holes is nothing but time. Time opens infinite windows for infinite beings to experience the partial views of this creation. If God is the ultimate experiencer, God has the capability of experiencing everything at once. There is no sheet of paper for God. This also means there is nothing left for him/her to experience. God can look at the picture from all the holes simultaneously. And this is called total experience. This is the reason God is called omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent.

Considering the two points above, we have three choices to make experience = 0.

Become one with God

As there is nothing left for God to experience, things to be experienced for God is zero i.e. experience = 0. So, if we become one with God, time shall stop for us. We would be able to experience everything at once. We would be able to see through all the holes in the sheet of paper in one go. So, start working towards realizing God. Guide all your future experiences towards God realization.

Out of the infinite events left to be experienced, there is a shortest path which is to guide your experience of all events towards realizing the ultimate reality which is God himself. No wonder Indian scriptures suggest us to get rid of this sense of doership and devote everything, every thought to God. It goes on saying that realize the fact that we are just a tool in God’s hands or a puppet in the big drama of life. Today we are playing a different role and tomorrow or in another life it may be something else.

At the same time if we have to become one with God, we have to start thinking like God. The universal compassion; indifference in heat-cold, pleasure-pain etc; thinking at universal level and not at individualistic level could be some of the behaviors which we can guess God might have.

Stop Desiring

What could happen if we choose not to experience the events of this world? In this case also the remaining events left to be experienced could become zero. Having unfulfilled desires always brings us back to this world and we are bound to get all our desires fulfilled.

So, we have to stop desiring if we want to get out of this world.

But it is not possible to have no desire (and hence no action) if we are alive in any plane of existence. So, we can choose to desire God realization and nothing else. All our actions should be towards this desire only. We can choose to experience God (‘s will) in every event which we perceive.

Experience Everything

If you do not believe in God or desire the worldly experiences a lot then you are left with only one choice: experience everything with time. This you are doing anyways. This way of getting to the end is also absolutely fine but you have to be ready for painful experiences as well because everything in this world is not according to our wish. Even if you do not desire to realize God, you have to return to the source once your time comes. This is bound to happen to all of us ultimately.

If this looks too gloomy to you, great seers come to our rescue and proclaim that the speed of experiencing events increases many folds through meditation. So, through meditative experiences we can live many lives in a single life. Thuis way we can experience everything as well and reach our destiny faster.

Final Note

Probably all the scriptures, holy books, painful experiences, avatars always try to point us towards the ultimate truth which is God realization. They always give us a hint that there is a shorter path to salvation/nirvana or in other words of becoming God. Holy books are guides to the souls who have woken up and do not want to take the longest path.

Now coming to the point that what is the proof of whatever I have claimed in this article? Firstly, whatever I have written here seems very logical (at least) to me and on top of that it comes out of my experiences and realizations till now. As this whole article talks in terms of relative time and how to stop it, nobody else can prove these things for you. You have to prove it for yourself and see if my conclusions are correct. This is the biggest problem with any spiritual theory, it has to be proven for every individual separately and by their own actions and methods. These theories cannot be proven on a sheet of paper and published in a journal with a verifiable proof. ‘Realization’ of a truth is always individualistic and not universal as any scientific theory is. We all know that we should not tell lies but how many of us really ‘realize’ it? At least I cannot realize it for you :)

Index

*1. What we call past is actually recalled and experienced in present. We do not start living in the past. So, this is not something already happened but that ‘past’ happens in present.

*2. This raises a possibility that there could be a universe somewhere where time is set in opposite direction i.e. entropy of that universe would always decrease. In that universe a broken cup is always meant to be reassembled. It is also clear from theory of relativity that in this universe everything travels at a speed that is higher than the speed of light¹⁵.

*3. You may argue that making a cup is actually reducing the entropy as it is some kind of construction. But consider the process of making the cup it requires raw material which comes from nature, it needs heat energy for molding which comes again from nature. This way the total entropy of the universe actually increases.