A living being is controlled in every respect. At least, in his conditioned life he is controlled. So in this Bhagavad-gita the subject matter comprehends about the īśvara, the supreme controller, and about the controlled living entities and prakṛti, the nature, the material nature. And next, the time, or duration of existence of the whole universe, or this manifestation of the material nature, and the duration of time, or the eternal time, and karma. Karma means activity. Everything, the whole universe, whole cosmic manifestation is full of different activities. The living beings especially, they are all engaged in different activities. So we have to study from the Bhagavad-gītā, īśvara, what is God, jīva, what are these living entities, and prakṛti, what is this cosmic manifestation, and how it is controlled by time, and what are these activities?
Eternal time (Lectures)
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
So this prakṛti, the constitution of this prakṛti is constituted by three qualities: the mode of goodness, the mode of passion, and mode of ignorance. And above these modes, three different kinds of modes, goodness, passion, and, I mean to say, ignorance, there is eternal time. There is eternal time. And by combination of these modes of nature and under the control, under the purview of this eternal time, there are activities. There are activities, which is called karma. These activities are being done from time immemorial and we are suffering or enjoying the fruits of our activities.
So these things, īśvara, jīva, prakṛti, or the Supreme Lord, or the living entity, the material nature, the eternal time, and our different activities, these things are explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Now out of these five, the Lord, the living entities, and the material nature and time, these four items are eternal. Now manifestation, manifestation of prakṛti may be temporary, but it is not false. Some philosophers say that this manifestation of material nature is false, but according to the philosophy of Bhagavad-gītā or according to the philosophy of the Vaiṣṇavas, they do not accept the manifestation of the world as false. They accept that the manifestation is real, but it is temporary. It is just like a cloud takes place in the sky and the rainy season begins, and after the rainy season there are so many new green vegetation all over the field, we can see. And as soon as the rainy season is finished, then the cloud is vanquished.
Therefore we shall find in this Bhagavad-gītā that the complete whole, comprising the supreme controller, the controlled living entities, the cosmic manifestation, the eternal time, and the activities, all of them are completely explained. So the whole thing taking together completely is called the Absolute Truth. The complete whole, or the Supreme Absolute Truth, is therefore the complete Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa. As I have explained, that the manifestation are due to His different energies, and He is the complete whole.
Pradyumna: What kind of manifestation is time, of Kṛṣṇa, kāla? Kāla, time. How is time a feature of Kṛṣṇa?
Prabhupāda: Time has no influence over Kṛṣṇa.
Pradyumna: But time is a feature of Kṛṣṇa, a manifestation of Kṛṣṇa?
Prabhupāda: Everything is feature of Kṛṣṇa, so time is naturally a feature of Kṛṣṇa.
Pradyumna: If we measure time in this world by our material bodies and yet there is no time in the spiritual sky, but there is difference of type.
Prabhupāda: No. The time influence is not there. Time is eternal. But here the influence of time is acting. Just like this table is new, but by the influence of time it will gradually become old. Therefore there is no influence of time. Every potency of Kṛṣṇa is there, but their activities, as we find here in this material world, they are not there.
Pradyumna: Different time is when the spirit, place, different time and place.
Prabhupāda: No. No. That is the difference between spiritual world and material world. Practically the all variegatedness are there but without any inebriety. That is the difference.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda? You mentioned that we must know..., if we know Kṛṣṇa, then we will know these other five things. And if we know those five things, then our lives will become perfect. Can you explain to us what time is?
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Explain time?
Prabhupāda: That I have already explained. Time is relative. (break) Time is eternal. Eternal. But it is... Just like Brahmā's duration of time. That is... According to our calculation, that is eternal, many, many millions of years. But Brahmā is also subjected to birth and death. Although time is eternal, but within this material world we are not eternal on account of material contamination. But time is eternal. Time is eternal; God is eternal; you are also eternal, living entity. Simply our work is not eternal. That can be changed. That we are... Changing our work... Suppose in this life you are American. Your work is different from the China. But next time, when you change your body to something else, your work changes. In this body you are human being. Next time, if you become a dog or a demigod, then your work changes. So we are changing our work according to the change of the body. Therefore work is not eternal. So our whole material existence is due to different kinds of work. So if we make the work also eternal, that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness activities. Then we come to the eternal. But in the material existence our work is not eternal. We have understood that "I am not this body." Theoretically. If not practically, theoretically because we have heard from Bhagavad-gītā that dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā: (BG 2.13) "As the soul is changing the body every moment..." And I am not this body. The body is changing.
There are five things: God; the living entities; the prakṛti, the nature; the time; and combined together, there is work. So the work is not permanent; it is temporary. But this prakṛti is eternal, nature is eternal, God is eternal, you are eternal, and time is eternal. Out of four things—God, living entities, nature, time, and the work—these four material manifestation, whatever you are seeing, they are composed of these five things: God, living entity, nature, time, and work. Out of that, four things—God, we living entities, time and nature—they are permanent. This nature is nonpermanent, but there is another part of this nature. That is permanent. And I am permanent, you are permanent, God is permanent, and there is a permanent nature also. So our whole problems will be solved if we can transfer into that permanent nature. Now we are struggling hard because we are put into this nonpermanent nature, but there is a permanent nature. That information we get from Bhagavad-gītā. Paras tasmāt tu bhāvaḥ anyaḥ avyaktaḥ avyaktāt sanātanaḥ (BG 8.20). Sanātana means eternal.
Everyone will have to die. Even you accept this place of suffering and if you are assured that you will live here permanently, still, you become happy, "All right, I will not die." But that is also not possible. Therefore aśāśvatam. Even if you make your arrangement very nicely that you will not suffer, but you will not be allowed to stay. Now just like in Tokyo city we are making very big, big buildings, everywhere, all over the world, to live very comfortably. But that comfortable life is also not assured because you will have to die. You will have to die. Therefore it is called aśāśvatam, not permanent. Even if you are under the impression that "I am very happy," that happiness also will not be allowed you for eternal time, it will be finished.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Kṛṣṇa is ready to accept you as soon as you surrender. Samaṁ carantam. There is no restriction. Kṛṣṇa says: māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ (BG 9.32). They make distinction that this is lower class, this is higher class. So Kṛṣṇa says, "Even lower class, so-called lower class, it doesn't matter, if he takes to Me, then he's also eligible to go, come back to home, back to Godhead." Samaṁ carantam. And He's the eternal time. Everything is going on within the time. The time... Our time calculation is past present, and future. This is relative. The other day we were discussing. This past, present, future is relative term. The, for a small insect, the past, present and future is different from my past, present and future. Relative term. Similarly Brahmā's past, present and future is different from my past, present and future. But Kṛṣṇa has no past, present and future. Therefore He's eternal.
So these universes, they have also developed on account of Kṛṣṇa's presence. Therefore Brahma-saṁhitā says: aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-s... They are studying now atoms. So many things are going on, electrons, protons, Why? Because the Kṛṣṇa is there. This is really science. So Kṛṣṇa has no past, present and future. He is eternal time. He has no beginning. He has no end. And He is equal to everyone. Samaṁ carantam (SB 1.8.28). Simply we have to prepare ourself to see Kṛṣṇa, to understand Kṛṣṇa. That is the business of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
So Kṛṣṇa, manye tvāṁ kālam īśānam. Eternal time. We are calculating past, present and future, but actually in the spiritual world, there is no such thing as past, present and future. We therefore sometimes question that "Wherefrom God came?" So many odd questions they say. But God is eternally existing. That is the fact. We cannot understand that. Because we are in the material world, we have no experience of the eternity, what is eternity. We have no experience. We see everything as generated, and then it stays for some time, then it is finished. That is our experience. Janma, mṛtyu, vṛddhi. They have... They have made past, present and future, but it is divided into six development. One takes birth, then it develops, then it stays for some time, then it produces some by-product, then diminishes, and then, I mean to say, finished. Ṣaḍ-vikāra. Ṣaḍ-vikāra. This body, ṣaḍ-vikāra. So eternity, eternity means there is no ṣaḍ-vikāra, the six kinds of changes. There is no birth. There is no death. There is no diminishing. There is no by-product. Everything eternal, eternally existing.
So that kālam, that eternal time, is Kṛṣṇa. Tvām. Manye: "I think that eternal time, You are, Kṛṣṇa." That's the fact. And īśānam. Īśānam means the Supreme Controller. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Controller means īśvara; īśvara means controller. He's the Supreme Controller. He's controlling the whole creation. Īśānam. Kālam īśānam. But who is controlling Him? No, He is not controlled. Anādi-beginningless. Neither endless or beginningless, anādi or nidhanam. And vibhum, the Supreme. This is the understanding of Kṛṣṇa.
Therefore Devahūti proposes, "Sir,..." Yaḥ avagrahaḥ. This false conception of life, ahaṁ mameti... (SB 5.5.8). "I am American,""I am Indian," "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am Christian..." Or "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am kṣatriya..." This avagraha... It is called upādhi, designation: "For the time being." Just like you become minister for five years or three years. Or president. Just like Nixon was president; now he's not president. So this is an upādhi. You are Indian, American, this, that—they are all upādhis. Therefore if we are attached, if we are attached to the upādhi, that is called avagraha. Ahaṁ mameti (SB 5.5.8). And according to the upādhi, I become attached to "me" and "mine"—"I am this," "I am that," and "It is mine, it is..." But actually, they are all illusion. Fact it is. If you suppose... Just like the president was five years very powerful. Now he's dragged down. Then what is the value? What is the value? So it may be for five years or fifty years or utmost hundred years. Or a million years. Just like Brahmā. But they are all temporary. In the eternal time, five years or ten years or hundred years or five million years, they are all limited. They are not eternal. But we are eternal. We living entities, we are eternal. So why we should be illusioned by the noneternal?
Here Kapiladeva says, mayā proktaḥ: "I have described it." He knows everything. Mayā proktaḥ. We have to take knowledge from Bhagavān, not from any saguṇa Brahman. We have to take knowledge from nirguṇa Brahman. Nirguṇa Brahman is Kṛṣṇa, Bhagavān, Kapiladeva. Mayā proktaḥ. Yaḥ kālaḥ pañca-viṁśakaḥ. And now He gives another element, kāla, because everything is going on under the influence of kāla. The past, present, and future, the kāla, is eternal. Time is eternal, but we are creating our past and present and future according to our existence. The past, present, future of an ant is not the past, present of an elephant. The past present of our is not the past present of Brahmā. It is relative. This kāla is working relatively. Therefore this is called relative world. So this prime factor of relativity is kāla. That is the twenty-fifth element. And beyond that, there is the soul, there is the Supersoul, and above everything, Puruṣottama, the Supreme Person, Kṛṣṇa.
So this kāla, past, present, and future, tri-kāla... Kāla is exhibited in three features: past, present, and future. That is in the material existence. And if one becomes above the three kālas, in the eternal time... Time is eternal, but in the material existence there is past, present, and future. In the spiritual existence there is no past, no future, only present. Only present. Everything are fresh, present, nitya-navayamāna, only feelings, new, new. That is spiritual existence, ānandāmbudhi-vardhanam, only present—no future, no past. That we cannot realize now, but we can get the knowledge from Vedic literature. The time factor... In the material world there is past, present, and future. Otherwise, time factor is eternal.
So there are three phases of time: past, present and future. Time is eternal; I am also eternal. But because I am in the material world, the time is relatively divided into past, present and future. Relativity, the law of relativity—I have explained several times. Brahmā's past, present, future and the ant's past, present, future are not the same.
Similarly, our past, present, future or the ant's past, present, future are not the same. Time is eternal, but according to the quality of the body, the past, present, future is calculated. So it is said in the Bhagavad-gītā... Kṛṣṇa says vedāhaṁ samatītāni (BG 7.26). Because Kṛṣṇa is not changing body, therefore He has no past, present, future. Those who are changing body, they have got past, present, future. I had my childhood. I have changed the body in this old age. Therefore I think, "In the past I was like this, or future, I will be like this." So this is relative.
Time is eternal, we are eternal, but because we have accepted this temporary body, therefore we have to calculate past, present and future. So future means... Just like there is ordinary word in English, "Child is the father of man," future. The same child will be father or grandfather in future.
General Lectures
Similarly, all this nature's work is going on so wonderfully due to the presence of God, the Supersoul. This is understanding of the material nature. Then God, living entity, material nature, and then time. Time is eternal. There is no past, present, and future. It is my calculation, according to... That is relativity. That is the modern scientific proposition by Professor Einstein. Your time and my time, he has also stated that the time factor in the higher planets are different. In the higher planet the time factor—our six months makes their one day. Just like our so many yugas makes twelve hours of Brahmā. So time is according to the different object.
But time is eternal. Actually, there is no past, present, future, or limitation. This is understanding of time. So God, living entity, material nature, time, and the activities. What are these activities? The activities are not eternal; they are temporary. You have got this temporary American body. You are thinking American. You are busy twenty-four hours as American. I am Indian. Or these boys... The boy's activities are different, the woman's activities are different, man's activities are different, the Russian's activities are different, and American's activities, different. All different activities. So therefore activities are temporary. Temporary, according to the time, according to the atmosphere, according to the body, the activities are... Just like the dog, unnecessarily running this side, this side. He thinks that "I am very busy." He is very busy. He is businessman. But you are calling, "A nonsense dog is running here and there."
Yes, past, future, present is according to the different kinds of relativity. That is a scientific proof. Professor Einstein has proved it. Just like your past is not past of Brahmā. Your present is not the present of an ant. So past, present, future-time is eternal. It is according to the different dimension of body relativity. Time is eternal. Just like a small ant. In twenty-four hours he has twenty-four times past, present and future. In the sputnik, in the Russian sputnik, circumambulated round this earth in one hour, twenty-five minutes, or something like that. They, I mean to say, went round the earth for twenty-five times. That means within one hour, twenty-five minutes, the sputnik man saw twenty-five times day and night. So in the higher atmosphere the past end present is different. So this past, present, future is relative according to your body, according to circumstances.
Philosophy Discussions
Prabhupāda: That means that the sum and substance, that is supremely experienced, past, present and future. Unless He is supremely experienced, how He can know future? Past and present..., past, present and future for us, because of the time, eternal time... I am a fragmental production of this time; therefore there is a beginning of my appearance, date. And when I disappear, there is a date of my disappearance. And within this date of appearance and disappearance, there is past, present and future. So my past, present and future and an ant's past, present and future and Brahmā's past, present... They are all different.
Prabhupāda: Time is eternal. There is no past, present, future. We perceive past, present, future due to this body. Just like Kṛṣṇa has no past, present, future.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Time is... We take it reality, time. That we accept also. Time is eternal. Reality. And therefore we take time as another feature of God.
Prabhupāda: Our philosophy... We see that one ultimate creator, Bhagavān. And jīvātmā, subsequent creator. God has created wood; I create a table and chair. I am subsequent. I am not ultimate creator. So jīvātmā is subsequent creator. Both the creators are eternal. And because the creation has got time connection, past, present, and future, so time is eternal. Time is eternal and jīva is eternal and prakṛti.
Prabhupāda: Our philosophy... We see that one ultimate creator, Bhagavān. And jīvātmā, subsequent creator. God has created wood; I create a table and chair. I am subsequent. I am not ultimate creator. So jīvātmā is subsequent creator. Both the creators are eternal. And because the creation has got time connection, past, present, and future, so time is eternal. Time is eternal and jīva is eternal and prakṛti.
Hayagrīva: He also states that time began with the creation of the material world. And how does this comply with the Vedic statement that time is eternal?
Prabhupāda: Yes, time is eternal. The present, past, present, the three features of time, it is relative. What is your past or your future, that is not past, future, of Brahmā. Brahmā lives for millions of years. So within millions of years I had many past, present and future. Present..., past, present and future is relative according to the person, but the time is eternal. That is the point. It is clear? The past, present, future is relative according to the body. Otherwise time is eternal. Time has no past, present, future.
| Page Title: | Eternal time (Lectures) |
| Compiler: | Labangalatika, Kumari, Visnu Murti |
| Created: | 07 of May, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=27, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 27 |