The nature of material time

Due to time, everything is created due to certain transformations, and these transformations continue until death or destruction. Because of time, everything material comes to an end.

Time is the energy that puts the whole material manifestation in motion. The influence of time leads to the transformations that both create and destroy all living beings and material objects. Due to the influence of time, everything is created at a certain point due to certain transformations, and these transformations continue until death or destruction. Because of time, everything material has a beginning and also an end, just like the universe itself. Everything spiritual, however, passes through no transformations and thus has no beginning and no end.

Krsna explains this in the Bhagavad-Gita (2.16) with the words nāsato vidyate bhāvo nābhāvo vidyate sataḥ. "Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the non-existent there is no endurance and of the eternal, there is no change."

By non-existent (asat), Krsna refers to everything that is material, and by eternal (sat), Krsna refers to everything spiritual. Srila Prabhupada explains that non-existent or "asat" in this context doesn't mean false, but temporary or illusory.

Prabhupada explains more about time in his purport:

"The complete universe is a manifestation of varieties of entities, beginning from the atoms up to the gigantic universe itself, and all is under the control of the Supreme Lord in His form of kāla, or eternal time. The controlling time has different dimensions in relation to particular physical embodiments. There is a time for atomic dissolution and a time for the universal dissolution. There is a time for the annihilation of the body of the human being, and there is a time for the annihilation of the universal body. Also, growth, development and resultant actions all depend on the time factor. Vidura wanted to know in detail the different physical manifestations and their times of annihilation."

Although the universe exists for a limited amount of time, which we can calculate (311.04 trillion years), the cycles of creation and destruction of the material universes go on following the breath of Maha-Vishnu. Time is thus eternal in the sense that these cycles of creation and destruction have been going on since time immemorial, and it is not possible to trace when it all began. Time is also eternal as an energy, being one of the divine spiritual energies of the Lord. That's why material time is also called "eternal time". However, although time is eternal as an energy, its effect on matter, generating the material universes, has a beginning. Similarly, the soul is "eternally conditioned" in the sense that it is not possible to trace the beginning, but not literally in the sense that we were never out.

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In his purport, Prabhupada explains that time, as an energy, is impersonal, although it also has a personification in the form of Kala, just like all other energies of the Lord have their predominating deities. Time has thus both aspects simultaneously.

As he explains: "The impersonal time factor is the background of the material manifestation as the instrument of the Supreme Lord. It is the ingredient of assistance offered to material nature. No one knows where time began and where it ends, and it is time only which can keep a record of the creation, maintenance and destruction of the material manifestation. This time factor is the material cause of creation and is therefore a self-expansion of the Personality of Godhead. Time is considered the impersonal feature of the Lord."

Apart from the material time, or eternal time, there is the absolute time of the spiritual planets. This absolute time is continuous, without past and future. Everything spiritual simply exists, without a beginning and an end, without past and future. There is time in the spiritual world in the sense that the inhabitants live one day after the other, but there is no time in the sense of an oppressive force that makes everything change and eventually be destroyed. Time as past, present, and future is something that exists only in the material world. In the spiritual world, there is just an eternal present.

Apart from being characterized by past, present, and future, material time is also cyclical. The material creation goes through cycles of creation and destruction, and in each cycle, the same basic events repeat. This happens on each cycle of four eras (Satya, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali-yugas), in a day of Brahma, and in each complete cycle of creation.

The perception of time is also relative, being different in different regions of the cosmos. This brings the possibility of traveling to the future by going to a higher planet, where time is perceived as going faster than here. One example of this, narrated in the Mahabharata, is the story of King Kakudmi, who once went to Brahmaloka with his daughter Revati to ask Lord Brahma about a suitable husband for her. After spending just what seemed to be a few minutes in Brahmaloka, Brahma explained to him that millions of years had passed on Earth, and all the suitors he was considering were already dead. The story has a happy ending, however, because Balarama was on the planet at the time, and Brahma told him to give Revati in marriage to Him.

Many books and movies speculate about the possibility of traveling to the past, but the Vedas explain that this is impossible. Time is the divine energy of the Lord, and we can't go against it. It's possible, however, to travel to the "past" by going to the future to a point where the events of the past repeat. One can go from Treta-yuga to Satya-yuga by going to Brahmaloka and waiting for a few seconds there until the next Satya-yuga starts.

The effects of time

What about the effects of time? Maitreya describes nine kinds of creations and the three kinds of annihilation.

The nine types of creations are divided into two groups: the creations of the Lord and the creations of Brahma. The creations of the Lord compose the first six:

1) The mahat-tattva, the sum of all material elements and the material modes, that interact, creating the other elements.

2) The false ego, which leads to the creation of the other material elements, material knowledge, and activities.

3) The sense perception (hearing, touch, vision, etc.) and from there the material elements.

4) Knowledge and the possibility of performing material activities.

5) The creation of the demigods and the mind.

6) The creation of avidya, the material illusion that covers all living beings. Due to this ignorance, a soul forgets his relationship with the Supreme Lord and is overwhelmed by attachment, pride, hatred, and so on.

The other three are the creations of Brahma:

7) The immovable entities, which include different types of trees, creepers, and other plants.

8) The lower species of life, including all the different species of animals, which are divided into species that have only one hoof (horse, mule, ass, etc.) species with split hooves (cow, goat, buffalo, etc.) with five nails in their claws (dog, jackal, tiger, etc.), and birds.

9) The human beings, who have superior intelligence and can thus choose between developing the animal propensities of just eating, sleeping, mating, and defending, or developing spiritual realization.

Brahma also creates the demigods, which are sometimes counted as the 10th creation, and sometimes not. The reason is that the creation of the original demigods is already counted as part of the creation of the Lord, and the demigods created by Brahma are just partial manifestations of them.

The term "demigod" (deva) in this context includes all the beings that are superior to human beings, including (1) the demigods, (2) the forefathers (the inhabitants of Pitṛloka), (3) the asuras (who live in the lower planetary systems) (4) the Gandharvas and Apsarās (5) the Yakṣas and Rākṣasas (the followers of Kuvera who live in Bhuvarloka), (6) the Siddhas, Cāraṇas, and Vidyādharas (inhabitants of the celestial system), (7) the Bhūtas, Pretas, and Piśācas (evil spirits who are considered superior to human beings for not processing gross bodies), (8) the Kinnaras (superhuman beings from other parts of Bhu-mandala, which often act as celestial singers and artists).

All these different types of beings have refined bodies and can't normally be seen by human beings, but they interact with each other. Asuras, for example, are considered lower in the sense of being atheists, but have bodies similar to the demigods and can fight with them for control of the universe.

Not all Asuras are atheists, though. Sometimes pure devotees take birth as asuras, like in the case of Prahlada Maharaja, Bali Maharaja, and Vrtrasura. The demigods come from Aditi, while the asuras originate from Diti. Both are sisters and wives of Kasyapa Muni. They are thus more like two separate families than two separate species in this sense. There are even some cases of asuras begetting children with demigods, like in the case of Viśvarūpa.

Apart from the nine kinds of creations, there are three kinds of annihilation. These are:

1) The final annihilation, due to the scheduled time of the annihilation of the entire universe.

2) The annihilation at the end of each day of Brahma, in which a fire emanates from the mouth of Lord Ananta and destroys all the planetary systems up to Swargaloka.

3) One's own death, due to the karma originating from his activities.