Time flows beyond measurement. In Hindu thought, time is neither born nor destroyed, nor bound by beginning or end. It is the very essence of Brahman, the unchanging reality that underlies the universe. While humans have devised clocks and calendars to mark seconds and centuries, these are but pragmatic tools that cannot capture the vast, cyclic expanse of cosmic time envisaged in ancient teachings.
Time as Brahman
In the Upanishads and the Bhagavata Purana, time is elevated to the status of a divine principle. It is not merely a backdrop for change; it is the agent of change itself. Called Kala, time is worshipped as one of the forms of Shiva or Vishnu, depending on the tradition. In this view, the past, present, and future coexist eternally in the transcendent realm of Brahman. There is no true “before” creation or “after” dissolution, because creation and dissolution are mere phases in an endless cycle. Just as the ocean remains constant while waves rise and fall, so too does Brahman persist through the cycles of birth, preservation, and destruction.Cosmic Cycles and Human Measurement
Hindu cosmology describes vast epochs called yugas, lasting millions of human years, and even grander cycles called kalpas, equating to billions of years. A day of Brahma, the creator god, spans a thousand mahayugas, a span of time so immense it dwarfs all human history. Yet even this span is temporary. At the end of Brahma’s life, time itself collapses, only to re-emerge with the next cycle of creation. Against this backdrop, human inventions—solar years, lunar months, atomic clocks—seem like flickers of measurement carved out of an ocean of eternity. They serve our practical needs, but they do not define time itself.Time as Illusion and Reality
Hindu philosophy often emphasizes that the world of names and forms is maya, an illusion. Time too is part of this illusion when perceived through the mind and senses. In the Advaita Vedanta school, true reality is timeless and changeless. What we call “time” is simply the mind’s way of ordering sensory impressions. From the standpoint of absolute reality, the Self is ever present, neither moving nor growing old. Only in the relative world of experience does change unfold in a succession we call time.Parallels in Modern Science
Modern physics has shifted away from viewing time as a universal, uniform flow. In Einstein’s relativity, time is intertwined with space to form a four-dimensional continuum. Time dilates depending on speed and gravitational fields. There is no single cosmic clock ticking the same for all observers. This resonates with Hindu insights that time is relative and not an absolute backdrop. Moreover, the idea of a block universe, in which past, present, and future exist equally, mirrors the notion of all moments coexisting in Brahman.Yet science also presents time as having an arrow, driven by the growth of entropy in thermodynamics. This gives a direction to time, from low to high disorder, giving rise to our experience of past and future. Hindu thought, in contrast, sees no fundamental arrow—cosmic cycles repeat endlessly. Some modern cosmologists have speculated on cyclical universes or oscillating cosmologies that expand and contract in endless succession. Though still speculative, these models echo the age-old Hindu vision of cosmic cycles.
Unknown Aspects and Deeper Mysteries
Despite millennia of reflection, time remains mysterious. Hindu sages describe states of consciousness—dreamless sleep or deep meditation—where ordinary time seems suspended. In those states, practitioners report a sense of unity with the timeless Self. Such experiences suggest that time, as ordinarily understood, may be a construct of waking awareness. In parallel, neuroscientists are exploring how the brain constructs a sense of temporal flow and how our perception of duration can vary dramatically with attention or emotion.In cosmology, the question of what preceded the Big Bang or what lies beyond the observable universe remains open. Hindu teachings that posit an endless sequence of creations and dissolutions offer a perspective that space-time itself may be cyclic, beyond the reach of definitive scientific measurement. When scientists seek a theory of quantum gravity that unifies relativity and quantum mechanics, they confront the deep puzzle of how time emerges from fundamental processes. Perhaps the ultimate resolution lies in a synthesis of insight from ancient wisdom and modern inquiry.
Final Reflections
Time in Hindu teachings transcends measurement and defies the notion of a beginning or end. It is Brahman itself, infinite and formless, manifesting in rhythmic cycles of creation and dissolution. Human tools—calendars and clocks—translate a fragment of this cosmic flow into practical units, but they cannot encompass the boundless realms of kala. Modern physics, with its relative time and speculative cyclic universes, offers resonances with these ancient insights. Yet both science and spirituality agree on one point: time, as we ordinarily know it, is but a shadow cast by deeper, timeless reality.