Few thoughts on time, and ushering in 2022

Time comes into existence when we attempt to measure it: seconds, days, years, centuries. Otherwise, it is ungraspable, there is nothing tangible about time. Take away the clock and the calendar, only the circadian rhythms of nature exist; the instinctive, innate constitution of the organisms to adapt to changes in the environment and respond. Each chronological year, at the stroke of midnight, on the 31st of December, we are euphoric. We welcome a new number in the scale of measurement, in the assumption, the time has moved forward, in a linear direction, never to return. Deep down, we know nothing has changed between midnight and the next moment; yet, we like to assume, that the new number is a resetting of the clock, of the calendar, is a new beginning, a tabula rasa, on which we can write experiences afresh, or refine some of the older ones. In short, we like to believe there is an objective reality to time that we can rely on, measure, harness, and control. It is this myth-making, symbolic ability of the human species that has given Man the power to rise about the natural limitations imposed on him. Yuval Noah Harari is his book Sapiens: A brief history of mankind writes: “Large numbers of strangers can cooperate successfully by believing in common myths. Any large-scale human cooperation – whether a modern state, a medieval church, an ancient city, or an archaic tribe – is rooted in common myths that exist only in people’s collective imagination.” We can add time as one more myth to this list.

Philosophers and quantum physicists have always had a problem with time. The former often speak of timelessness and the latter about the relativity of time. Both are equally confusing to the common man. The mystics are perhaps more vocal and emphatic about their timeless state as a sure sign of enlightenment than the physicists are about the role of time. Einstein shook the foundations of Newtonian time, the linearity of the cause of effects through his thought experiments on how time will be perceived by someone traveling at the speed of light – which is the absolute speed possible. The microcosmic world of the atom confirms Einstein’s predictions – time is indeed wobbly and relative at the subatomic level. The mystics, on the other hand, have spoken the abolishment of time altogether. In deep meditative states, or with union with God-head ( whatever that means in different traditions), an individual loses consciousness, hence time. Time doesn’t slow down or stop, it simply disappears. This is the testimony of those who claim to have been in that state – a Ramana, a Ramakrishna, an Eckhart, a Rumi, a Chuang Tzu speak of this dissolution of time.

J Krishnamurti ( JK), the great Indian philosopher and thinker broke down time into two modes: The chronological and the psychological. The chronological time is the Newtonian measurable time, the time it takes to get from point A to B, the time scheduled for a meeting, the time one sets to meet your girlfriend or boyfriend at the cinemas, the planned calendar vacation, the time it takes for a seed to grow into a tree, etc. We operate at well below the speed of light, so these times don’t vary. They are stable, measurable, and predictable in the context of our bodily existence. On the other hand, psychological time is the inner time we independently and individually perceive as a sense of becoming. I am jealous today, I will become more magnanimous tomorrow; I am bad today, will become better tomorrow; I am lazy today, will become active tomorrow. This inner sense of postponement of action, of change, has no basis in reality. It is an illusion – the true meaning of the word. If I cannot change right now, the moment I see the truth of what I am, then the change in the future will be only a subtle modification of the past, which essentially means, we haven’t changed. That is the reason new year resolutions often fizzle out in less than two weeks and why AAA ( Alchohol anonymous) groups don’t work for many. The desire isn’t strong or clear enough to make a quantum leap to that new state. Sub-atomic physics has revealed that electrons make quantum leaps when they change their structure. They are either in one orbit or in the other. There is no smooth transition. It’s a quantum leap.

I don’t want this short meditation to grow into a longish essay. I will leave it for another chronological day. Yes, from tomorrow, we will count ourselves in 2022. Our collective prayer and hope is that this new year will mark an end to the struggle against the Covid’19 pandemic. I think, our scientific community knows enough about this virus, and we can now produce the necessary vaccines in quick time. The fatality rates from the virus and its variants have dropped, and now it is only a question of getting enough vaccinations done to halt the spread further. For a few more months, it will be better to stay masked, especially in crowded places. 2022 also will be a testing time for the Work from home philosophy, and managing the expectations of the workforce. The pandemic, it is true, has changed priorities, and I must admit, the change is for the good. There is a renewed reorientation towards well-being, family, and the community. The period of great resignation, which started earlier in 2021, will continue for some more time. I wish my favorite economist and anthropologist David Graeber were alive today. He died just before the pandemic took off. David strongly believed that many of the jobs we have created in the modern economy, and the number of hours people worked per week, were both against the promises of Keynesian economics and the benefits capitalism was supposed to usher in. It took a pandemic and several million tragic lives for us to rethink the way we work, and the levels of productivity we should achieve. Better late than never, I guess.

For me personally, 2021 has been a good 12 months of work, thinking, study, and writing. I thank all of you for your support and presence in my life, and I wish you a wonderful 2022. May all your existing dreams come true, and may many more dreams find their way into your lives.

God bless…

yours in mortality,

Bala