1. Introduction:

‘Time’ is always fascinating – The concept of time, in a fast moving world, is ever changing. We were accustomed to write letters to our friends (in good ‘old days’ which is just a few years ago) – We used to wait patiently for the reply (for many days and even for many weeks, at times even for months). But now, thanks to the internet and e-mail, we receive information instantaneously. We are able to do much (due to the information-explosion) within a short interval of time. And time is becoming a rare commodity. Very often we do not have time for others (at times even for ourselves)! As we are moving into yet another millennium it would be interesting to reflect on time especially how far time would go and whether the present time would ever come back. The reflection is mainly on whether time is linear or cyclic or a combination of both. The reflection is based on a scientific analysis of time combined with the religious experience of time. It is a reflection on whether ‘time’ is ‘being’ or ‘becoming’.

A discussion of time brings in a duality, namely, whether time is objective (that can be concretely determined) or subjective (which can be experienced differently based on one’s social background, cultural heritage, religious affiliation etc). As Fagg would put it, “We tend to objectify the outer world and tend to intuit and feel our inner world” (Fagg, p.1).  This implies that understanding time would bring in both objective as well as subjective views.

2. What is time?:

St Augustine remarked about time:

What, then, is time? I know well enough what it is, provided that nobody asks me; but if I am asked what it is and try to explain, I am baffled (Confessions).

Well, each one of us could say the same since our concept, understanding and experience of time would be unique which can not be expressed in mere words. The two extreme positions held by many philosophers are that the experience of time is either is a denial of it as a reality altogether or it is the assertion that time is a fundamental and irreducible property. And each one of us might hold a position within the spectrum between these extremes. But it is obvious to see that time is related to motion (whether we observe a particular object that moves or stays at rest), thereby bringing order into the universe. Thus time seems to be fundamental and dynamic that not only synchronizes the interactive motions in the world but also brings to fruition the moving objects/lives in the world. Physics, through relativity and quantum theories, has revealed the intricacies and subtleties of time but a meaningful understanding of time would come about in the words of Fagg through ‘incorporating a spiritual perspective with the physical view in a harmonious union of faith and reason’ – in other words through religion and science (Fagg p.249-254).

All major religions refer to time. Time is often depicted as that which effects motion and change but which might transcend and survive all events in the universe (a notion and implication of divinity/eternity). It is like the flow of a river (with respect to its banks) without requiring the flow of the banks themselves! As time flows, as Heraclitus said, one cannot step into the same river twice. But one of the commentaries says that one cannot step into the same river even once if the stepping takes time (Neville, p.95). In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna, as he revealed himself to Arjuna, says: “Know that I am Time, that makes the worlds to perish, when ripe, and brings on them destruction”. The Egyptian Book of the Dead, dating back over three thousand years, indicate the merging of time and the resurrection of the body after death as: “I am Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, and I have the power to be born a second time” (Nahin p.98). This brings in the concept, which is basically religious, that time is transcendent. Transcendence is a concept which ushers in the notion that there is reality even beyond this world. The result is the notion of two worlds. However, the concept of time in this world may not apply in the world beyond (Motzkin, p.21f). That is time-now and time-beyond may be applicable in their respective worlds (namely, world-here-and-now and world-beyond-present-time). Time is multidimensional.

2.1 Problem of Time:

Time flows in and through space but we perceive time and space differently (or rather, distinctly). Space is where things are (exist) and events take place but time is related to the happening of events. In this context Mills raises a few problems regarding time. Only the present moment seems immediately real to us (We have memories of the past but not of the future. On the other hand our present decisions and actions affect only the future but not the past!). We feel the sense of flow in the universe – But we cannot stop it or make it go backward!  Our perception of time-flow is subjective but does this subjective time come to a stop when we become unconscious? Why are the ordinary events of everyday life so completely irreversible? (Mills, p.221-223). Time is, thus, very complex.

Things and events seem to change in time. But does time itself change? There is duality regarding the concept of time, namely, time-as-is and time-as-experienced. Time-as-is, mainly contemplated in science, has no intrinsic direction, that is, there is no distinction between ‘forward’ and ‘reverse’ (or backward) time.  Time-as-experienced involves one’s consciousness. But we are always in the ‘present’ and our ‘time’, in this context, is a moment separating the past and the future which are non-existent. But our conscious awareness of time indicates that time is that entity in which the sequence of events are irreversible (Denbigh, p.3-6). Thus there is, in general, the subjective-objective duality. At the same time there should be a unified view of time. And this is the principle of complementarity. This can be explained based on the Chinese yin-yang principle, the two complementary realities, as the basis of operation of all events in the universe. (Yin represents passive, feminine and intuitive aspects, that is subjective, while yang corresponds to active, masculine and rational aspects, that is objective, of reality.) Thus, according to Fagg, the subjective and objective modes are in continual mutual interplay in characterizing the evolution of time.  Thus the two kinds of time, one of physical theory represented with mathematical equation and experimental measurements and the other of human consciousness with access to the living present, are complementary to each other (Fagg, p.237-246).

2.2 Measurement of Time:

The measurement of time also creates a problem. Since time creates a condition of additivity (as events take place one after another in sequence) we require a rule of congruence which specifies an event clearly and distinctly. This depends on our choice of a unit of time which is periodic in nature. For example, we could take ‘day’ as the unit of time. Here the period of one rotation of the earth relative to a fixed star (normally, the sun) was taken to be the unit of time and all other temporal events would be measured in terms of multiples or fractions of this unit of time (Denbigh p.23-26). (Now the atomic clock is used as the standard in the measurement of conventional time, especially to define the second. The practical unit, then, is second and we find 24×36000 second defines the day).

Can we absolutely define time? Time is multifaceted. ‘Time’ is commonly measured by an instrument known as ‘clock’. But Proper time is the ideal time. This is supposed to be measured by an ideal clock at rest (with respect to the observer) without being affected by gravity. But scientists employ another term for time, known as physical time, when referring to events undergoing changes. This is the time that normally we are familiar with. Proper time, according to cosmologists, began about fifteen thousand million years ago, but time, in physical sense, might have been an infinitely long time ago.  For example, according to proper time, the universe has a finite past but an infinite future (Shallis, p.105-106). This brings in the notion of psychological time (Shallis, p.26). Newton defined absolute time that is independent of the motions of celestial bodies (According to Newton: Absolute, true and mathematical time, of itself and from its own nature, flows equably without regard to anything external). It could be called ‘intelligible’ time and space in contradistinction to be ‘sensible’ (Koyre, p.161). That is, absolute time is a fixed standard by which all activities in the universe can be measured. But Einstein brought in the concept of relative time, according to which an observer travelling in a moving frame would perceive (measure) time to flow at a different rate from that of one in a static frame with respect to the earth (Halpern, p. 12 and 92). Thus time can be broadly categorized as absolute time and subjective time. Actually it depends on one’s frame of reference, that is, time is relative depending on one’s state of motion.

2.3 Characteristics/Modes of Time:

Consider an ‘event’ – Let us consider an object moving in space. It can move, from the observer, left or right; forward or backward; up or down. But this event, necessarily, takes place in time. Hence in order to ‘define’ (or describe the instantaneous position of) an event we need not only the three spatial dimensions but a complete description of its trajectory must include time. Einstein showed that time and space are inter-related. If we consider two events, for example, they cannot be clearly defined by spatial separation alone, neither can they be uniquely determined by separation of time alone. It has to be defined based on the four-dimensional space-time continuum depending on the motion of the observer (Rees, p.209). Thus both space and time are related/relative.

Today most of the physicists and cosmologists agree that the universe might have evolved from a fiery ball of matter with an initial explosion (Big Bang) and ever since the universe has been expanding outward. And hence, it is assumed, time began with this Big Bang (thus defining a ‘zero’ of time for the age of the universe). It is also proposed that the expansion of the universe may not go on for ever – At some point the universe might start shrinking (implosion) and would become a very condensed sphere with immense heat called a ‘black-hole’ which does not allow matter and even light to escape from it. Then once again there is expected another big bang to take place. This is the oscillatory model of the universe in which the universe recontracts to a point (Big Crunch) after its initial expansion phase. Then what happens to time? In the oscillatory universe, if time begins at the big bang, it should become reversed at the onset of big crunch. That is, time becomes cyclic. But the other possibility that the universe had a beginning and it might continue to expand for ever implies that time may be linear (Halpern, p.42-46). This is called the arrow of time which indicates the direction of flow of time.

But according to thermodynamics (2^nd law) the available energy in the universe constantly decreases. That is, there is loss of energy and hence matter (since mass and energy are equivalent). The conclusion is that even if there is the cycle of big-bang and big-crunch, the universe might contain less and less amount of matter and correspondingly less and less energy. Further the loss of energy originates even from black-hole due to quantum mechanical tunneling. Thus it might be possible that the universe is heading ultimately for a cold death, even though the cycle of big-bang and big-crunch might go on a few times, unless something else intervenes the set of physical parameters either to save the universe or to transform it (Halpern, p.46-47). Based on observation and experience one can assert that time flows forward. Further, on experience level, time is neither observed nor experienced to be flowing backward (Shallis, p.63).

But we are living in the present and the flow of time has to be experienced from the present since our ‘present’ is our reference point and it is the key to understand time’s flow and time-flow always effects change. Any change requires reference to two units of time, namely, ‘before’ and ‘after’ (‘earlier’ or ‘later’) and change is the difference between the two (Halpern, p.96). The present is necessary for any change to take place; the past is essential for that change to be actual; and the future is a must for that change to be possible. (Time- flow means the flowing character – changing aspects – of temporal things).  Thus flow of time involves three modes, namely, the present, the past and the future. But it is the present that actualizes future possibilities and puts that actuality into the past with a smooth flow of time (Halpern, p.104-105).

The next question is whether the flow of time is isotropic (symmetric) or anisotropic. It depends on the state of the observer, that is, whether the observer is static or in motion. In other words time is ‘relative’. Einstein showed (in his Special theory of relativity) that time perceived by an observer could appear to flow more slowly in systems that are in relative motion when compared to the static observer himself/herself. Further, the faster a system moves/travels (in comparison with a static reference frame), relatively, the slower time would appear to run in that moving system – In the limit, if the system could move at the speed of light, then time in it would stop still! Thus speeds and times are all relative to an observer in the stationary reference frame. If you were in a ‘stationary’ space station and watched a spaceship zooming away from you, you would be surprised to see the clock in the spaceship running slower than yours. But at the same time, the person in the spaceship would see your clock running slower than his/her because the effect is completely symmetrical.  To the person in the spaceship you would be moving away from him/her and your time would be dilated (known as time dilation). This is so as the time is relative to the observer, and the only thing discerned is what the observer ‘sees’, not what absolutely is. This can be illustrated by the so called ‘twin paradox’. Let us assume that one twin takes off in a spaceship while the other stays at home. When the space-twin returns home after sometime (say, after a few years), he/she would eventually discover that his/her stay-at-home twin has aged much more than he/she. This is the time due to relative motion. Time, thus, depends on one’s relative motion, on one’s acceleration and on where one is in the universe (Shallis, p.38-62).

2.4 Objective and subjective Time:

Depending on the view point, time can be objective or subjective – In other words, time can be described as a quantity (measureable) or as a quality (experience).

Objective time is related to the reality of the concrete universe and the objective world of reality comes into existence by relating objects with one another. The mutually interacting objective substances are represented as if each had its private and characteristic temporality. In this context, both the past and the future no longer exist and only the homogeneous present pervades. In such a present which is homogeneous and equalized, otherness and the inter-relationship can be found only in terms of spatiality. In this context, there is no direction of time in the strict sense – In other words, there is no irreversibility of time, that is, all changes and movements can be restored again as the fundamental rules of physics are quite unconcerned with the direction of time (that is, we do not apply vector characteristics to time but only to time dependent quantities). But now that the inner structure of time in its strict sense, that is, the rhythmic movement of the past and the future, has already gone and is not retrievable, the flow and transition of time may be only a continuation of the present, that is, now. Thus as a continuity of points of time or now’s (presents), it is represented as a line which is extended in a certain direction. The relation between the points of time is only external and spatial. In objective time which is simply spatialized time, its inner structure is, just as in the case of space, sheer continuity or repetition of homogeneous identical content. In short, there is only the present in objective time and objective time is not a time to be lived, but a time to be contemplated (Hatano, p.43-55).

The experience of time, on the other hand, cannot be quantified and it cannot be subjected to numerical comparison that makes it something of quality. This quality of time which is subjective stands in contrast to the concept of objective or quantifiable time divided nicely up into its succession of days, minutes, seconds and even micro-seconds. Our experience of time at different times (for example, various seasons with their own characteristics) and ages (childhood through adulthood to old-age) is not the same and such qualities are not absolute. This is the another type of relativity of time based on the experience of time, since different seasons and ages have their own quality so also do different places. Subjective time could even transcend time. Quoting Krishnamurti, Shallis writes:

It is only when the mind transcends time that truth ceases to be an abstraction. Then bliss is not an idea derived from pleasure but an actuality that is not verbal. The emptying of the mind of time is the silence of truth, and the seeing of this is the doing: so there is no division between the seeing and the doing.

Thus time is interpenetrating and is being interpenetrated through the fabric of normal reality (Shallis, p.153-164).

Thus there is a paradox of time. Philosophers, such as Krishnamurti, hold the view that time is the distance travelled by our thought, whereas scientists may measure distance by the time a beam of light travels. Thus time may be related to light. So time and light are interpenetrative and both connect everything in the universe. However, light is timeless (and time is eternal). As Shallis puts it:

Light is in this world of manifestation and yet it is not in the world of time. Time derives from light. Without light there would be no time, and yet light itself is timeless. Light touches us in time, connects us with all other time, and in its touch both ties us to time and frees us from it.…. Time has shown the limitation of science, of language, the limits of the world. Yet time has shown us beyond the world, for, like all creations, time acts as a pointer to a greater reality than the one we have drawn around ourselves. Time is a pointer to the symbolic nature of reality. Time is symbolic itself and makes sense of itself and all phenomena in a symbolic reality. Beyond time is light and everything that light itself symbolizes. Light floods us with illumination so that we can see. Seeing is itself a symbol, a pointer, for we see in order to see the origin of light and the origin of time (Shallis, p.193-199).

As we see there is a gap between the knowledge of time and the experience of it – Knowledge of time presumes that time is extensional in nature whereas the experience of it, due to its subjectivity, does not hold any of it. The experience of time is normally expressed within the framework of religion as the experience of transcendence, though the experience of the absolute is not the central experience common to all world religions (Motzkin, p.17 & 23).

Time is ultimately what we are conscious of.  Davies reports of an experiment with volunteers who were shut in a room in which the wall clock had been craftily adjusted to run either at twice the speed or half the speed, without informing the volunteers under observation. Amazingly, the mental functions of the volunteers adapted automatically to the accelerated or retarded pace. For example, when memory was tested, it was found to decay faster for subjects in the speeded-up group than the slowed-down group. As Davies comments:

Galileo, Newton and Einstein all chose time as the central conceptual pillar around which to build a scientific picture of physical reality, and yet, when we stare into our own minds to find the foundation of temporal experience, it seems to crumble away, leaving only mystery and paradox (Davies, p.273-274).

The knowledge of time and the experience of time are united in one’s consciousness which contains the inner sense of time within one’s moment as the ‘present’. The merging of present with past during a finite duration is a continuing unity taking place in one’s memory. Thus the knowledge of time which is due to sensory perception in the present, due to one’s experience, merge with the remembrance of the past due to memory and flows forward into the vision of the future in one’s consciousness. There is consciousness at every point in time, and to that consciousness that moment of time is a ‘now’. All moments of consciousness are equally real, equally immediate, and equally aware of time’s flow. They are all now’s (Mills, p.233).

3. Origin of Time:

In the physical world it is mandatory that everything or event should have a beginning or a source from which it originates. What is the origin of time? Did time begin at all?

Many of the religious traditions express the notion of the beginning of time to be intimately linked with that of the beginning of the universe.  Even though the world had a beginning, the question is whether time was created with the world or was time preexistent so that the world was created in time? Many of the world religious traditions (creation myths) describe creation, in a nutshell, as follows: 1. There was a beginning (of the universe); 2. This beginning was accompanied with light; and 3. Creation was done in stages (evolution). For example, the Bible opens up with the sentence:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light (Gen 1:1-3).

And God created the universe in “six days” with the human being as the culmination and crown of his creation. The stages of physical and/or biological evolution actually involve millions/billions of years.

What do the physical cosmologists say about the beginning of the universe/time? Hubble established that the galaxies that form our universe are receding from each other at great speeds and the further away a galaxy is the faster is its recession. Wherever we are in this vast universe, the galaxies are receding from us and from each other in a roughly similar fashion. He proved that there is a direct linear proportionality between a galaxy’s distance and its recession velocity. This behaviour, having the characteristics of an initial explosion, prompted Lemaitre (considered to be the ‘father of the big bang theory’) to propose that the universe resulted from the explosion of a ‘primeval atom’. Upto about 10^-43 sec after the big bang the basic four forces, namely, gravity, weak, electromagnetic, and nuclear, coexisted (unified). But at this moment gravity got separated from the unified force leaving the other three as the Grand Unified Force. At about 10^-35 sec after the big bang nuclear force broke away from the other two, namely, electromagnetic and weak forces. This pair finally got separated at about 10^-10 sec. And evolution began from the most elementary particles, quarks and electrons, which existed even earlier than 10^-35 sec. As the temperature began to cool down (from 10³¹ Kelvin) quarks combined to form protons and neutrons – Then protons and neutrons combined to form deuterium and helium. And after many billions of years life began to appear on the face of the universe. Thus religious creation myths as well as physical cosmological observation come up with the concept that there was indeed a beginning attendant with light and/or evolution in stages. And the beginning of time, for our universe, corresponds to the beginning of the universe (Fagg, p.95-114).

Augustine clearly states that antecedent to creation there is no time (However, God preceded creation and time but not in any temporal sense). So according to Augustine God created the world and time along with it, that is, time is part of the physical universe/creation. Thus the origin of the universe means the origin of space and time as well as matter and energy (Davies, p.186).

3.1 Space and Time:

An event is totally and clearly specified with respect to where it takes place in space and when it takes place in time. Conventionally any point in space (at which an event takes place) may be specified with three orthogonal axes (distances along x, y and z directions – length, width and height – with respect to an orbitrary or assumed origin) called a spatial reference frame. Now the event has to be further specified as to ‘when’ it takes place (Here ‘when’ is relative to an arbitrary t=0, thus defining an interval of time – But time flows from no local origin but goes on encompassing all t=0’s). This is the time coordinate represented by ‘t’. Thus when x, y, z and t are specified one has the coordinates of an event. The spatial origin at the time t=0 constitutes a singlular point in space-time and is called the spacetime origin (Mills, p.50). Thus time becomes the fourth dimesion of the space-time reality – Thus time and space are linked as one entity. While characterizing the universe as a whole, however, a few questions arise related to its spatial and temporal dimensions. Some of the questions are: Taking the spatial aspects, is the universe finite or infinite? Taking the temporal aspects, did the universe have a beginning or did it always exist? Whether the universe, as a whole, will come to end or will it be there forever without any change or destruction (Munitz, p.34) (or deconstruction or reconstruction).

Nature contains the space and time. But nature is being and simultaneously it is becoming just as we are beings but at the same time we are constantly becoming. The moment when ‘being’ turns into ‘becoming’ is in the present. Thus the ‘now’ is a wondrous confluence of being and becoming – for spacetime. As Schroedinger says: ‘For eternally and always there is only now, one and the same now; the present is the only thing that has no end’ (Fagg, p.178). Thus the space and time are beings ‘now’ which ‘become’ as time flows eternally.

3.2 Flow of Time:

In our consciousness we feel a sense of time flow and the flow of time in fact seems to be forward but never backward. Einstein has shown that time does not flow at the same rate for all. That is, time seems to flow differently under different circumstances (For the young time seems to flow faster than for the old). Time flow is linked to a human internal mechanism, namely, consciousness. The direction of time-flow is related to entropy in nature. According to Hawking psychological time must take place in the same direction as entropic time. Entropy always increases (that is disorder increases or available energy goes on decreasing) in nature (Halpern, p.105-108). For example, a cup that broke on falling from a table cannot gather itself together off the floor and jump back onto the table. The flow of event could be from the cup on the table in the past to the broken cup on the floor into the future but not the other way around – This is the arrow of time that indicates the singular direction of the flow of time.

According to Hawking there are at least three different arrows of time:

First, there is the thermodynamic arrow of time, the direction of time in which disorder or entropy increases. Then, there is the psychological arrow of time. This is the direction in which we feel time passes, the direction in which we remember the past but not the future. Finally, there is the cosmological arrow of time. This is the direction of time in which the universe is expanding rather than contracting (Hawking, p.145).

And all arrows of time flow only forward into the future. Now what would happen if and when the universe stopped expanding and began contracting? The contracting phase may resemble the time reversal of the expanding phase. This implies that people in the contracting phase would live their lives backward: one would die before one was born and get younger as the universe contracted! As the entropic disorder would in fact continue to increase even during such contraction, the arrow of time would not reverse. The contracting phase will be, thus, unsuitable for life because intelligent beings can exist only in the expanding phase of the universe (Hawking, p.149-152).

Considering time’s arrow, we can say that the laws governing the microworld are reversible in time. For example, a movie showing atomic particles colliding with each other would generally look no different when run backward. But the macroworld, in contrast, manifests a definite arrow of time, set by increasing disorder, that is, increasing entropy (Rees, p.211). Though we are confined, as far as time is concerned, to the present moment, time is transient since the actual content of our perception is continually changing. For example, an event which is (now) anticipated as a possible future event may a little later be experienced as a (then) present event but only transiently for it subsequently takes on the peculiar status of a past event (Denbigh, p.18). Time transcends the changes that are currently taking place in the universe. This is the transformation of non-time into time (from past to present) and of time into non-time (from present to future), that is, into eternity (Motzkin, p.13). The consciousness of time ultimately takes us on into an inner religious experience of time.

4. Religious Views of Time:

So far we have been discussing scientific views of time. The scientific views can be grouped under two categories that time is objective or subjective (as discussed above). Time as a process of becoming is very much considered in most of the world major religions. Thus time is a two-fold mystery: that of subjective, intuitive experience and that of rational, measurable observation. This dual experience of objectively observing the measured precision of a timepiece and subjectively sensing the living moments with no clear markers to separate them, capsulizes one of the apparent paradoxes characterizing contemplation about time. As Eddington would say: In any attempt to bridge the domains of experience belonging to the spiritual and physical sides of our nature, time occupies the key position (Fagg, p.3-11).

Normally scientific disciplines do not take notice of becoming or temporal process, since in science not only the laws, but the experiments which test the laws and theories of science are generally intended to be universal and repeatable. Hence science usually tends to ignore the ‘passage’ of events from past, to the present, to future (Padgett, p.82-85).

4.1 Eastern religious Interpretation:

Periodicity played a vital role in early religious traditions. In early Indian Vedic thought, annual sacrifices and daily fire offerings were integrally linked to the continuation of the world. A repetitive, ritualistic lifestyle became linked to cosmic regularity, which in turn was associated with immortality and perfect truth. According to early religious thought sacred time is cyclical and therefore lacks any temporal direction, unlike the one-way time corresponding to ordinary mortal existence.  Thus the sacred reversible circular time could replace profane irreversible linear time. In Hinduism daily and seasonal rhythms became incorporated into the notion of the wheel of samsara, that is, periodicity of natural being. Everything exhibits birth, life, death and rebirth. Hence a human lifetime is considered to be an immeasurably small part of an endless chain of reincarnation.  Human history and the changing of patterns of the cosmos were also seen as circular.  According to the Hindu writings in every 4,320,000,000 years, a period known as a kalpa (world cycle), the universe is destroyed and recreated. Hence, all of human history represents but a small and insignificant part of cyclic eternity. These views were shared by Jains. In Jainism the world cycle is pictured as a serpent (sarpin) devouring its own tail. For the Jains, as well as for the Hindus, this ceaseless circular flow of the cosmos goes on forever. But in contrast, the view of the Buddhists is that the cycle of creation and destruction is seen as continuous but through meditation, one realizes the ever-changing nature of one’s thoughts, which in turn leads one to contemplate the impermanence of all things.  As Halpern puts it:

In its adherence to a belief in the sacredness of repetition, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism shared a similar belief in cyclic time. In fact, cyclic time, with its strong links to nature and to immortality, had an enormous appeal to almost every civilization in the ancient world; it represented the common hope of ancient peoples to connect their destiny to the eternal. Even in ancient Greece, where there were many divergence and conflicting views of temporal progression, the notion of periodic time exerted a strong pull (Halpern, p.4-6).

In Vedas, time (kala) is depicted as the first god existing in many forms. Time creates the universe, sets in motion the past, the present and the future and sustains everything in the universe. Time controls all events like the wire-puller in a puppet-show.  Just as a small bird tied at the end of a long string can fly over a limited distance, so the objects of the created world are controlled by the ‘string of time’. And time remains eternal although the actions of growth and decay come and go.

The Greek also believed in cyclic time, since for the Greeks the divine presence is eternal and the universe is unchanging. For Aristotle, for instance, the world had existed for eternity, and the circularity of time was a central and powerful image (Nahin, p.104).

4.3 Biblical Understanding of Time:

It is interesting to note that Biblical Hebrew contains only two tenses, namely, the perfect tense to denote completed action and the imperfect tense to describe the incomplete action. And in general there is no Hebrew word for time. The word used for time (‘et) means the moment or period during which something happens. Human life is a series of many times, for example, ‘there is time to be born and a time to die’, etc (Eccl 3:1-8). Neither does the New Testament contain any treatise or speculative analysis of time. The words used in the New Testament to denote time are three, namely, aion (wider sweep of time), chronos (quantitative calendar time), and kairos (qualitative psychological moment or opportunity). The new testament view of time, however, is centred on Christ. The era of the Old Testament waited in expectation for the coming of the Messiah but the Christians, in contrast, look forward to the parousia, the second coming of Christ (Stuhlmueller, p.997-1002).

Thus the Jewish, Christian and Moslem religions bring out, in contrast to the cyclic concept of Hinduism, the aspects of linear time.  According to the Bible the first human beings lived in an iddyllic existence free from suffering and disease. They could not eat the fruit of two trees in the Garden of Eden, namely, the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. The tree of life would provide immortality. But the serpent tempted them to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge (Interestingly, serpents are symbols of circular or everlasting time in many ancient eastern religion, for example in Jainism with the serpent devouring its own tail). The ‘fall’ of the first human being is in some sense the beginning of time and of history. With the knowledge of death comes the awareness of passing or linear time. Thus one could interpret that the story of the fall as a chronicle of the passing from a circular to a linear, temporal perspective. Thus the concept of time in the Bible is a linear, historical approach. And most of the biblical events have dates of occurrence documenting a unidirectional world scheme. This stands in contrast to Indian (and Greek) visions of the universe, which presents a cyclic approach to time, one without direction. Further, according to Christianity the story of humanity (or time) is divided into four periods: the age of natural law, the age of Mosaic law, the age of grace (Christ’s incarnation), and the age of glory (which is yet to come). And hence Christian time is linear and it can be very well characterized by an arrow pointing from the past to the future. Thus as Augustine would argue that time began at the instant of creation and it will end only when the kingdom of God is restored on earth and there can never be any repetition or recurrence of these events in the history of human salvation. For the Christians the universe is developing and progressing towards a goal (Halpern, p.23-26), namely, God himself.

The danger in the circular concept of time is that there is no need for God because in circular time there is no first event and hence no need for a First Cause, namely, God (Nahin, p.104). In the linear concept of time, the events are in sequence (past – present – future) and it becomes something meaningful and effective.

5. Understanding of Time:

In space we can move up or down, forward or backward, right or left but in time we proceed only from past to future. While time is indeed coupled with space in human consciousness, it is fundamentally different from space in that it is a kinetic dimension, not fixed in space, that is, a given space can be coupled to many different times.  Time needs to be rationally and sensibly understood as a unified becoming, which is generally comprised of a synchronous assembly of becomings, and which can be measured by another regularly paced becoming (Fagg, p.158). Indeed, time and mind, with its consciousness, somehow go hand in hand. The brain occupies space and is describable in considerable part in spatial terms. However, mind and consciousness localize in no particular space, and so are essentially temporal in nature. And hence according to Fagg:

The domain of time as a meaningful descriptive and universal property of our world extends from primitive material phenomena to the human mind, and even to the ensemble of minds, often called the collective consciousness. Indeed it extends further; from a spiritual perspective it projects beyond the human mind to merge and interface with the timeless eternity of the God or whatever Reality that generated and sustains this universe. It is with a spiritual perspective that the full scope, richness, and dynamism of time that is available to us can be perceived, and its timeless groundings sensed.

Thus time has been granted us to understand our being in it and our true relation to its Origin (Fagg, p. 252-253).

The question now arises whether we live, at present, in time or eternity or both? In a sense, we live both in time and eternity! Of course, while we are living, with some future to be realized, we are not fully eternal at any present moment. There is always a gap between our existential reality fixed by the proper date of the present and our eternal identity that will not be fixed in time until death. Eternity is not over until temporal life has been lived through. Without the fullness of time, we are incomplete as temporal beings, and our eternal identity is only as temporal beings (Neville, p. 189). Thus in time we change over from mere ‘beings’ to ‘becoming’ as the time flows into eternity.

5.1 Time and Eternity:

Oscillating cosmological models offer the reassuring view that nothing is lost in the end. Everything will return to its original state again and again, ad infinitum. And the Indian concept of reincarnation allows for the soul to return in various guises. So there is hope that renewal and recovery will follow periods of destruction and hopelessness. This is the circular concept of time. In the linear model, on the other hand, the commonality of experience such as birth, life and death is looked upon as a necessary process towards becoming.  In this process death and destruction are seen as inevitable and irreversible (Halpern, p. 145-146) as time reaches its temporal end and flows further into eternity where everything will be transformed in glory.

Thus even if ‘physical’ time seems to run on forever, an infinite amount of subjective time lies ahead (Rees, p.200), since true reality is vested in a realm that transcends time (which is called by the Christians as ‘eternity’, by the Hindus as ‘moksha’ and by Buddhists as ‘nirvana’).  Time itself, as concluded by Plato, is the moving image of Eternity. And according to the Christian thinkers, such as Augsutine, God is outside of time. God is in the realm of eternity – He is supreme above time because eternity is a never-ending present (Davies, p.23-24). In other words, time, as it tends to flow into eternity, becomes liberated to take on the position of timelessness. This implies that time gets transformed from temporal into transcendental (Motzkin, p.62). Thus eternity is experienced even in this world!

Thus the western view (primarily that of Christianity) is of a linear, progressive, once-for-all temporal sequence which humans traverse as they progress. On the contrary, the eastern view (primarily that of Hinduism) envisions long eras of time, patterns of ‘gradual and relentless deterioration, disintegration, and decay’, culminating in a final dissolution which however is followed by yet another time, as ‘the universe reappears in perfection, pristine, beautiful, and reborn’ (Clooney).

Although eternity and time are contradictory in nature and the eternal being remains always in a superior position to the natural-cultural life, yet the former is immanent in the latter. Eternity contains the present, the past and the future. Since eternity is never independent of time, eternity can be mentioned as ‘imperishable present’. Further, a perfect deliverance from the past should be the second essential character of eternity.  Finally, the future also is preserved in eternity. In original temporality, the future indicates the really existing other.  Eternity is also a pure and perfect unity of the future and the present. Thereby the present and the future entirely change their appearances, since future is the about-to-come-ness which is a state where that which is about to come has not yet come. In this sense, eternity is an overcoming of time, but, at the same time, it enters into an immanent relationship with time. Therefore, time may be a yearning toward the eternal, or, contrariwise, the eternal is an accomplishment of time and at the same time it is that which transcends all theoretical inquiries as well. In eternity, the relationship between the future and the present, between the other and the subject always takes the form of fellowship and, accordingly, it is an immanent relationship. And perfect immanence achieves deliverance from spatiality (Hatano, p.148-151).

5.2 Biblical View of Eternity:

Both in the old testament as well as in the new testament of the Bible one often finds mention of ‘eternal’ things.  When Ps 90:4 (Cf. 2Pt 3:8) says, ‘for a thousand years in Your eyes are like yesterday when it passes, or a watch of the night’, it implies a radical distinction between human time and divine time or eternity. In other words, the Psalm indicates that God’s eternity is a very different kind of time. Further, reading Second Isaiah one understands that the transcendence of God over all time was probably first fully recognized and expressed by Deutero-Isaiah (40:28, 41:4, 44:6 and 48:3). Rev 10:6 proclaims that ‘time shall be no more’ implying  that at the consummation of the divine mysteries time will cease to exist. Passages such as Jn 8:58 (before Abraham was, I AM), Jn 14;16 (the Spirit will be with you for ever), Heb 13:8 (Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever) etc could imply a timeless eternity or eternity that is ‘post-temporal’ (Padgett, p.23-37). Thus the time that began in creation will be transformed into timeless eternity which is post-temporal. This transformation takes place in and through the Spirit who was hovering over the void in the beginning of time and who would be at work even as the temporal time comes to an end taking it further into the transformation of eternity.

5.3 Christ and Time:

Christ is like the fulcrum of time – the ‘middle of time’. In him the figuration (creation of universe), disfiguration (fall of human beings) and transfiguration (redemption) converge (Lafont, p.251).  In him is the creation is renewed (He is the first born of the new creation) and in him the past, the present and the future become an ‘eternal present’. From the beginning of the temporal phase, events have taken on linearity through the redeeming act of Christ and his expected second coming (parousia). Christ is not only the mid-point of the flow of time but he is the end as well. He not only points to an end to come and to a beginning that has been but he is the beginning and the end, as Rev 1:17 says, ‘the first and the last, and the living one’ (Marsh, p.177). As the time further proceeds we, along with the universe, approach the endpoint (Omega point) in and through Christ in whom once again the lost identity of the creation’s image and likeness of God is found, nay, convolute into the source of space and time. Thus time that leads us into the future will become transformed into eternity, a different scale of our present time.

5.4 Eschatology in Time:

Salvation ultimately is redemption of time. We are our time, individually and collectively, and we are that eternally. Salvation starts with enlightenment which is, as in the case of redemption, compassion to liberate people from the sufferings of temporal ‘now’ since temporal reality is part of larger reality, the eternal life of God (Neville, p.207-209). And this life of eschatology, an ongoing process of time-flow into eternity, begins ‘here’ and ‘now’ with oneself.

As Hinduism claims the individual is not different from Brahma (God). Each individual is an infinitesimal point within the immensity of God. As Shankara claims,

The self  is not born, nor does it die.

It has not come from anywhere, nor has it become anyone.

Unborn, constant, eternal, primeval, this one

Is not slain when the body is slain (Clooney).

And the concept that the flow of our ‘present’ time into eternity is already happening here and now is vividly brought out in the new testament especially in the Gospel according to John. The samaritan woman at the well of Jacob (Jn 4:25f) is looking for the messiah to arrive at sometime in the future without realizing that Jesus is there now with his living water right in front of her. The blind man (Jn 9:36f) is hoping to find Jesus once again (perhaps after a few days) but Jesus is there at his ‘present’ saying, “You have seen him, it is he who is speaking to you”.  Martha believes that there would be a resurrection from the dead at some distant future (Jn 11:24) but her brother actually rises ‘right now’. At Cana, Jesus himself is surprised that his hour has already come now (Jn 2:4). Our salvation or transformation is not somewhere in space and at some time along the time-arrow but it is here and now (Clooney). God is not the God of the dead but of the living (Mk 12:27). He is there with us all the time as in the case of the disciples of Emmaus (Lk 24). But it is up to us to open our eyes and see that the space is ‘here’ and feel that time is ‘now’ and to realize that we are on our way towards the Omega point (of Teilhard) in and through Jesus.

6. Conclusion:

Time is viewed differently in science and in religions. It is generally accepted that ‘time’ has had a beginning when the creation process started. Both science and religion are not able to define time exactly. Between the physically objective time (defined as seconds, minutes etc) and the psychologically experienced subjective time, time has come to be perceived as relative depending on the speed with which the observer moves with respect to what he/she observes. In this process ‘space’ and ‘time’ are seen as a unity and time becomes the fourth dimension of spacetime.

The transition in understanding of time has been brought in by the commonly accepted Big Bang theory. In this theory, though the Big Bang and the Big Crunch are proposed as cyclic, due to entropy, the law of mass/energy conversion will not hold good even in the black holes (due to quantum mechanical tunneling).  In this process the universe will be ultimately heading to a cold death unless a higher power intervenes. Thus the linear flow of time is widely accepted.  The understanding of time (namely cyclic or linear) in the religious circle takes on another dimension. In general the eastern religions (represented by Hinduism) considers time to be cyclic (a repetition of creation/destruction of the universe). On the other hand the western religions (represented by Christianity) seem to be convinced of linear aspect of time, that is, time has a beginning but it is forever progressing forward. In this context as the present time flows into the future transcending the temporality and further merges with eternity the universe gets merged/convoluted into the Omega point, the origin (first born of all creation – Col 1:15) and end of creative dynamic force. The universe as a whole, even right at this present moment, is getting transformed into eternity with Christ as the fulcrum of time. His parousia is the turning point for eternity but for each of us the parousia could be any moment and it is ‘here’ and ‘now’. Thus time flow has eternity as the undercurrent.

In a space-time process human individuals are invited to take part in the divine life, as Neville puts it, in three ways: as participants in cosmic process, as bearers of divine creativity, and as contingent pointers to divine infinity and freedom (Neville, p.197).  But in our approach to God very often we wander away, like the Lost Son, from God but his grace, as depicted in Francis Thompson’s ‘Hound of Heaven’, brings us back to His fold/abode. This process of God’s grace in our individual life is cyclic. But as the universal time is linear, from our spiritual point of view, our individual inner/spiritual time is helical, a combination of circular as well as linear time, but proceeding in the forward direction till we become one with God in whose image and likeness we have been created! We have been created as human ‘beings’ in time but as time flows progressively forward we ‘become’ unto God, our beginning and end of life and meaning.

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