To begin an inquiry into time, we must first look at where it hurts. We do not study time as a scientist studies an atomic clock, with detached curiosity. We study it because we feel haunted by it. For the individual (jīva), time is not a sequence of numbers; it is a relentless pressure, a ticking clock that reminds us of our own expiration.

In the Vedāntic tradition, we start by acknowledging this “Time-Boundness” (saṃsāra) as the primary human problem.

1. The Sauce of the Universe: Time as the Great Consumer

There is a startling verse in the Kaṭhopaniṣad (1.2.25) that sets the stage for our investigation:

yasya brahma ca kṣatraṁ ca ubhe bhavata odanaḥ |

mṛtyuryasyopasecanaṃ ka itthā veda yatra saḥ ||

The Upaniṣad describes the entire universe, symbolised by the two pillars of society, the thinkers (Brahma) and the protectors (Kṣatra) – as a plate of cooked rice (odanaḥ). This rice is the “food” for the Lord. But dry rice is difficult to swallow. To make it palatable, the Lord uses a condiment: Mṛtyu (Death or Time) is the pickle or the sauce (upasecanam).

Just as you might mix a spicy pickle with rice to swallow it more easily, the Lord mixes Time with Matter. Why this metaphor? Because matter, in its raw state, is just energy and potential. But once it is mixed with Time, it becomes perishable. It becomes “swallowable.”

From the standpoint of the universe, Time is the ingredient that ensures everything that begins also ends. It is the mouth of the Lord (Kālo’smi lokakṣayakṛt) that devours galaxies, stars, and bodies alike. We are not just living in time; we are being digested by it.

2. The Six-Fold Shadow: The Journey of “Growing, Greying, and Going”

We feel the “teeth” of time through what the tradition calls the Ṣaḍ-bhāva-vikāras-the six-fold modifications that govern every object in the phenomenal world.

The body you inhabit follows this rigid script:

1. Asti: Potential existence (in the womb).
2. Jāyate: Birth.
3. Vardhate: Growth.
4. Vipariṇamate: Metamorphosis (the body changes its form, from child to adult).
5. Apakṣīyate: Decay (the gradual loss of faculty).
6. Vinaśyati: Total destruction.

The “terror of time” arises from a catastrophic error in identification. We look at this six-step process and say, “I am growing, I am graying, I am going.” Vedānta does not try to stop the body from graying. That would be like trying to stop a river from flowing. Instead, it asks: Is the one who witnesses the graying hair also gray? —

3. The Obituary Column and the Psychological “Anujvara”

Consider the Obituary Column. We read it every morning with a strange sense of immunity. We see names, ages, and causes of death. We acknowledge the fact of death, yet we are shocked when it enters our own home.

This shock reveals a split in our understanding. The physical fact of the body’s end is called Jvara (a natural condition). But the psychological resistance-the “Why me?” or “I am dying”-is called Anujvara (a secondary, psychological illness).

We are like people sitting in a Revolving Restaurant. The scenery-the mountains, the city, the sunset-is constantly moving. If we try to “hold” a sunset by grabbing the window frame, we suffer, because the floor beneath us is turning. Time is that revolving floor. We struggle because we want the stability of the “Now” while identified with a body that is part of the “Flow.”

4. The 12-Year Body: Who Is the “I” that Stays?

To expose the error of our identification, we can look at a modern medical fact used as a structural example (dṛṣṭānta). Every seven to twelve years, nearly every cell in your body is replaced. The “you” that sat in a primary school classroom is physically, molecularly, 100% gone.

If you were the body, you should have died and been reborn several times over by now. You should have no memory of “your” childhood because the “owner” of those memories-those specific brain cells-has been devoured by time.

Yet, you say, “When I was a child…”

This “I” acts as a stationary observer of a moving train. The train (the body) is moving through the stations of birth, growth, and decay. But the observer on the platform doesn’t move with the train.

5. The Carpet and the Spectacles (Adhyāropa)

At this stage, we must introduce a provisional explanation (Adhyāropa). Think of Time as a Carpet.

The entire universe-the Sun, the Moon, your house, your family-sits on this carpet. We feel that we, too, are objects sitting on this carpet. Therefore, when the “Time-Carpet” is pulled by the hand of the Lord, we feel we are falling into non-existence.

Or think of Time as Spectacles. We are born with these “Time-Goggles” permanently fixed to our eyes. Because the lenses are tinted with “Succession,” everything we see appears as “Before” and “After.” We cannot imagine a reality without these goggles.

However, Vedānta points to a daily miracle: Deep Sleep. In sleep, you remove the goggles. You pull up the carpet. In deep sleep, there is no “before,” no “after,” and no “waiting.” There is no time in sleep, yet you do not cease to exist. You return from sleep saying, “I slept well.”

The Measurement of Change: Is Time an Object?

Having seen how time “devours” the physical body, we must now ask a more fundamental question: What is time? Is it a box that the universe sits inside? Or is it something else entirely?

In Vedānta, we shift the focus from the “experience” of time to its “definition.” We discover that time is not an independent object, but a mental construct generated by the perception of change.

1. The Technical Definition: The Relationship (Sambandha)

The tradition provides a precise technical definition in the Vicāra Sāgara:

Caitanya avidyā sambandhaḥ kālaḥ

“Time is the relationship between Consciousness and Ignorance.”

This definition is revolutionary. It suggests that time is not a “thing” in itself. Rather, it is the result of a connection. Think of it like a “shadow.” A shadow is not an object you can pick up; it is a relationship between a light source, an object, and a surface.

Similarly, Time is what happens when the Changeless (Caitanya) appears to be connected to the Changing (Avidyā/Māyā). When you look at the non-dual Truth through the lens of ignorance, it appears as a sequence of events. This sequence is what we call “Time.”

2. Time is not a Container, but an Interval

We often imagine time as a vast, empty “hallway” in which objects move. Vedānta negates this. Time is not a container; it is the interval between two events or two thoughts.

• The Film Reel Metaphor: Consider a movie projected on a screen. If you look at the film strip, you’ll see thousands of discrete, static frames. When those frames move rapidly, we see “motion” and “time.” Time is the gap between frame A and frame B. Without the frames (the events), there is no “movie time.”

If you remove all thoughts and all objects-as occurs in Deep Sleep-the interval disappears. This is why you can sleep for eight hours and feel as though only a second has passed. Because there were no “dual events” (thoughts) to measure, time simply did not exist for you.

3. The River (Pravāha-Nitya) vs. The Anvil (Kūṭastha-Nitya)

To understand the nature of change, we must distinguish between two types of “eternity”:

1. Pravāha-Nitya (Changing Eternity): Think of a river like the Ganga. You say, “The Ganga has existed for thousands of years.” But the water you see now is not the same as the water that was there a second ago. The river is a flow-a continuous succession of changing parts that creates the illusion of a solid entity.
2. Kūṭastha-Nitya (Changeless Eternity): Think of the riverbed or an anvil. The anvil stays still while the hammer strikes and the iron changes shape.

The world is Pravāha-nitya. It is a “Succession of Flickers.” Like a firefly in the dark, the world is “born-gone, born-gone” so fast that it looks like a steady light. We mistake the continuity of the flow for the continuity of a thing.

4. The Measurement Requirement: The Stationary Platform

Logic dictates that to measure change, the observer must be changeless. If you are on a train moving at 60 mph, and another train next to you is also moving at 60 mph, you cannot perceive the motion. You look “stationary” to each other. To see the speed of the train, you must be standing on the platform.

Similarly, if you were part of the “flow” of time, you could never know that time is passing. The fact that you can say, “I am getting older,” or “The day is ending,” proves that there is a part of you-the Witness (Sākṣī)-that is standing on the stationary platform, outside the flow.

• The “Spare Parts” Body: At 70, your body is made of “spare parts”-entirely different cells than those you had at 10. If you were the body, you would be a different “I.” The fact that you claim “I am the same person” proves that the “I” is the changeless standard against which the changing body is measured.

5. Hunting the Present: The Mathematical Point

We talk about the “Present” as if it has a duration. But let us analyse it:

• Is the “Present” this year? No, part of it is past, part is future.
• Is it this hour? No, some minutes are gone, some are yet to come.
• Is it this microsecond?

As you keep dividing, the “Present” reduces to a mathematical point with zero dimension. A point with no width or length cannot contain any “time.”

“Bhūtaṃ bhaviṣyacca bhavat svakāle…”

Past and future exist only as the “present” in their own time.

When time is thinned out to its limit, it disappears. What is left? Only Consciousness. The “Now” is not a slice of time; the “Now” is the name we give to the light of Consciousness in which events appear to happen.

6. Subjective Relativity: Einstein and the Beloved

Even our worldly experience tells us time is a mental construct (Kalpita). As the anecdote goes:

• Sit on a hot stove for a minute, and it feels like an hour.
• Sit with a beloved for an hour, and it feels like a minute.

If time were an “objective reality,” it would not stretch or shrink based on your mood. This relativity proves that time “hangs” on the mind. It is a projection of your mental state.

The Spectacles of Māyā: Time as a Projection

In the previous sections, we established that time is a “devourer” and a measurement of change. Now, we must look at the mechanics of the error. How does the infinite, non-dual Reality appear as a “before” and “after”?

Vedānta explains this through the power of Māyā-the creative power of ignorance.

1. The Goggles of Space and Time

The Dakṣiṇāmūrti Stotra provides a profound verse to describe our predicament:

Māyākalpitadeśakālakalanā vaicitryacitrīkṛtam

“The universe is a wonder, painted by the diversification of space and time, which are projected by Māyā.”

Imagine you are born wearing a pair of highly sophisticated electronic goggles. These goggles have two primary settings: Space (which creates the illusion of “here” and “there”) and Time (which creates the illusion of “then” and “now”). Because you have never taken them off, you assume the world is inherently divided into coordinates.

Vedānta calls these goggles Māyā. When the Māyā-śakti (power) is activated, the non-dual Brahman appears “vaicitrya”-variegated or pluralistic. You are not in time; you are looking through time.

2. The 90-Second Lifetime: The Relativity of Dream

To prove that time is a mental projection (kalpita), we look at the internal evidence of our own lives: the Dream State.

Modern sleep studies show that a dream-no matter how epic-often occurs during a brief window of REM sleep, perhaps only 90 seconds of “waking time.” Yet, within those 90 seconds, you can experience a journey to Kashi, a ten-year marriage, and the growth of children.

• The Dreamer’s Travel: If you dream you traveled to Kashi and had darshan (sight) of the Lord, where did that time come from? You didn’t leave your bed. The “time” it took to travel from your house to Kashi was a projection of the dream-mind.
• The Mandukya Karika (2.24): This text points out that dream time is “short” (adīrghatvācca). It is spatially and temporally impossible from the waker’s perspective, yet perfectly “real” to the dreamer.

This proves that time is Mithyā-a dependent reality. The dreamer’s 20 years and the waker’s 90 seconds are both relative to the mind that observes them. If time were an absolute “box,” these two timelines could not coexist.

3. The Sleeper’s Testimony: The Daily Removal of Goggles

Every night, you perform a “timelessness experiment.” In Deep Sleep (suṣupti), the mind resolves. Because the mind is inactive, the “Time Goggles” are removed.

Think about your experience of sleep. Do you ever feel “two hours have passed” while you are sleeping? No. You only conclude that time passed after you wake up and look at a clock.

• The Carpet Metaphor: Time is the carpet on which the stars and your body sit. In deep sleep, the “time-carpet” is rolled up. Because the carpet is gone, the objects on it (the world) disappear too.
• The Witness Remains: You return from sleep and say, “I didn’t know anything.” To report the absence of things and the absence of time, you must have been there to witness that absence.

This confirms that the “I” (the Witness) is the locus in which time appears and disappears. You are the Singularity-the state of potential before the “Big Bang” of the waking mind.

4. Space-Time as “Coordinates” (Mithyā)

In the waking world, we define existence by coordinates. To meet someone, you need a “Space coordinate” (Where?) and a “Time coordinate” (When?).

Vedānta teaches that these coordinates are part of the Prapañca (the created world). They are products of the Self, not containers of the Self.

Tasmād vā etasmādātmana ākāśaḥ sambhūtaḥ

“From this Atman, space (and time) was born.”

If you are the parent of time, how can you be a victim of it? A mother is not “inside” her child; the child came from her. Similarly, the “When” and “Where” are born from the “I.”

5. The Distance of Ignorance vs. The Distance of Time

This understanding shifts our spiritual pursuit. Usually, we think of “Enlightenment” as a future event. We think, “I am a seeker now; in ten years, I will be a Master.”

• Horizontal Distance (Time): The distance between a child and an adult is a time-wise distance. You must wait for the clock to tick.
• Vertical Distance (Ignorance): The distance between the “Jīva” (the limited person) and “Brahman” (the Infinite) is not time-wise. It is like the distance between a dreamer and the waker. You don’t need time to wake up; you need a shift in knowledge.

To discuss the “Future” of your spiritual growth is to remain trapped in the goggles. Vedānta insists that the past and future are only “Present” thoughts.

Bhūtaṃ bhaviṣyacca bhavat svakāle…

“Past and future exist only as the ‘now’ when they are thought of.”

To talk about a “past” without the “now” is like trying to count to ten while skipping the number one. The “Now” is the only content time ever has.

The Anatomy of “Now”: Hunting the Present

In our journey so far, we have seen time as a devourer and as a mental projection. Now, we use the “scalpel of logic” to perform a surgical strike on the very concept of the “Present.” We often speak of the “Now” as a slice of time, but through the Vedāntic method, we discover that the “Now” is not a part of time at all-it is the name we give to Consciousness itself.

1. The Mathematical Point: Thinning Out the “Now”

We believe we live “in” the present. But if we try to measure the duration of this present, it begins to evaporate. This is the primary structural example (dṛṣṭānta) used to dissolve the reality of time.

• The Inquiry: Ask yourself, “How long is the present?”
• The Deconstruction: * Is it this year? No, because most of the year is “past” and the rest is “future.”
  • Is it this hour? No, the first thirty minutes are gone; the last thirty are yet to be.
  • Is it this second? Even a second can be divided into a million microseconds. Each microsecond has a beginning (past) and an end (future).

As you continue this division infinitely, you reach a dimensionless point. In geometry, a point has no length, width, or depth. Similarly, the “Actual Now” has no duration. If it has no duration, it cannot be “time,” because time, by definition, requires a period or an interval.

When time is thinned out to its limit, the “Present” ceases to be a unit of time and reveals itself as Presence-the “Is-ness” or Consciousness (Cit) that remains when the concepts of past and future are stripped away.

2. The Logic of Sat Darshanam: Counting Without the “One”

The great sage Ramana Maharshi, in Sat Darshanam, highlights the absurdity of our usual preoccupation with time:

Bhūtaṃ bhaviṣyacca bhavat svakāle…

“The past and future exist only as the ‘present’ when they are thought of.”

To worry about the past or plan for the future without understanding the “Now” is compared to a mathematician trying to count “two, three, four…” while having no concept of the number One.

• The Foundation: “One” is the basis of all numbers. Without “one,” “two” has no meaning.
• The Application: The “Now” is the fundamental Reality. The past is nothing but a memory-thought occurring now. The future is nothing but a projection-thought occurring now.

You have never experienced a “past” while it was the past; you experienced it as a “now.” You will never experience the “future” in the future; you will experience it as a “now.” Therefore, time is a mental calculation performed upon the steady, eternal platform of the Present.

3. The Movie Screen and the Film Reel

To understand why we miss this “Now,” we look at the metaphor of the Movie Screen.

• The Screen (Ātmā): The screen is always present, unchanging and untouched.
• The Movie (Time): The movie consists of thousands of static frames moving so fast they create the illusion of time and motion. The characters on the screen grow old, they travel across continents, and they die.

Does the screen age along with the hero? Does the screen get wet when it rains in the movie? No. You are so fascinated by the “Succession of Flickers” (the kṣaṇika mind-frames) that you ignore the continuous light of the screen. The “Now” is the screen; “Time” is the flickering movie projected upon it.

4. Definition of Reality: The Three Periods of Time

Vedānta defines Reality (Sat) with a strict criterion:

Kālatraye’pi tiṣṭhati iti sat

“That which remains unchanged in all three periods of time (past, present, and future) is Real.”

If something is here now but was not here a hundred years ago, it is called Mithyā (a dependent reality).

• The Body: Was not here before birth, will not be here after death. It is “in time.”
• The Witness: You were the witness of your childhood (past), you are the witness of your adulthood (present), and you will be the witness of your old age (future).

The Witness (Sākṣī) is the “Constant Factor” in a “Variable Universe.” Because you are the one who knows the passage of time, you cannot be part of that passage. The knower of the flood must be on higher ground.

5. The “10th Man” and the Search for the Present

There is a famous story of ten men who crossed a river. Upon reaching the other side, the leader counted them to ensure everyone survived. He counted only nine, forgetting to count himself. Each man did the same, and they all began to weep for the “lost” tenth man. A passerby came, tapped the leader on the chest, and said, “You are the tenth man.”

Similarly, we search for “peace” or “reality” in time-waiting for the right time to be happy or the right time to be free. We look for the “Now” as if it were a destination we can reach in the future.

Vedānta taps us on the chest and reveals: You are the Timeless Presence. You are not in the Now; the Now is another name for You. The search for the “Present” in the future is the ultimate logical error.

Beyond the Flow: Kūṭastha-Nitya (The Changeless)

We have deconstructed time into a mental construct, a set of goggles, and a mathematical point that dissolves into Consciousness. Now, we must address the ultimate shift in the Vedāntic teaching: the transition from seeing yourself as an object in time to recognising yourself as the timeless witness of time.

1. The Anvil (Kūṭastha): Supporting Change Without Changing

In the Vedāntic tradition, the Self is often called Kūṭastha. The word Kūṭa refers to an anvil used by a blacksmith.

• The Iron (The World): The blacksmith places a piece of hot iron on the anvil and hammers it. The iron changes shape constantly-it becomes a sword, then a needle, then a horseshoe. This represents the world of time and its six-fold modifications (ṣad-bhāva-vikāra).
• The Anvil (The Self): The anvil receives every blow of the hammer. It supports every change of the iron, yet the anvil itself never changes shape. It is motionless and changeless.

Without the stationary anvil, the hammering of the iron would be impossible. Similarly, without the Changeless Witness (Avikāryupalakṣitā), the perception of a changing world would be impossible. You are the anvil. The “years” of your life are the hammer blows; they change the “iron” of your body and mind, but they leave the “Anvil-I” untouched.

2. The Markandeya Embrace: Shifting the Format

The story of the boy-sage Markandeya provides a profound structural example of how to “conquer” time. Markandeya was destined to die at the age of sixteen. When Yama, the Lord of Death (who is also Kāla, or Time), arrived to take his life, Markandeya did not run away. Instead, he tightly embraced the Śiva Liṅga-the symbol of the Eternal Reality.

• The Triangular Format: Ordinarily, we live in a triangle: “I” (the limited devotee), “The World” (the source of problems), and “God” (a third entity who might save me). In this format, I am a small dot in a vast universe, and Time (Yama) can easily throw its noose around me.
• The Binary Format (Aikyam): By embracing the Liṅga, Markandeya signaled that his identity was no longer “the sixteen-year-old boy,” but the Eternal Śiva himself.

When you identify with the body, you are “Markandeya the boy” and subject to the calendar. When you identify with Consciousness, you become the Eternal Now. Yama’s noose cannot bind the Infinite. To “conquer” time is not to live forever in a body, but to recognize that you are the witness of the body’s arrival and departure.

3. The Two Eternities: Pravāha vs. Kūṭastha

Vedānta makes a vital distinction between two types of “forever” to ensure we don’t replace one error with another:

1. Pravāha-Nitya (Changing Eternity): This is the eternity of the cosmos. Like a river (Pravāha), the universe is a continuous flow. Matter is recycled; energy is transformed; the cycle of creation and destruction goes on “forever.” This is still within the realm of Time.
2. Kūṭastha-Nitya (Changeless Eternity): This is the eternity of the Self. It is not “a long time”; it is timelessness. It is the state where “before” and “after” have no meaning.

We often mistakenly seek Pravāha-Nitya (long life, legacy, or heavens) because we haven’t recognized our nature as Kūṭastha-Nitya. The goal is not to survive through time, but to realise you are the locus in which time appears.

4. Adhyāropa-Apavāda: Withdrawing the Superimposition

The final step in this inquiry is the “Resolution” (Laya). We have previously used “Time” as a tool to explain the world. Now, we withdraw that explanation.

• Superimposition (Adhyāropa): We say, “I was born in 1980,” or “I am forty years old.” This is a superimposition of the body’s attributes onto the Self. It’s like saying the movie screen is “burning” because there is a fire in the movie.
• Negation (Apavāda): We realise that the “I” who saw 1980 is the same “I” seeing 2026. If “I” were subject to time, I would have changed along with the years. The fact that I can claim ownership of memories from forty years ago proves that I am the constant thread upon which the “beads” of years are strung.

5. Living as the Timeless: The Trichur Pooram Elephant

If time is a construct, how do we live in a world governed by clocks? We use the anecdote of the Trichur Pooram Elephant.

In the crowded festival of Trichur Pooram, there is no room for a single human to move. However, when the great elephant enters the crowd, a path is naturally cleared. The elephant doesn’t ask for permission; its sheer presence creates space.

Similarly, when you value Atma-jñāna (Self-knowledge), “time” appears for it. We often complain, “I don’t have time for meditation or study.” This is an error. Time is not something you “have” or “don’t have.” Time is a priority. When the “Elephant of Truth” enters your life, the “crowd” of worldly anxieties and time pressures clears away. You realise that you aren’t “busy”-the mind is busy, but the “I” is the silent observer of that business.

Walking Out of the Clock

We began this inquiry as individuals hunted by the clock, feeling the pressure of “growing, greying, and going.” We have dissected time as a mental construct, a set of goggles, and a mathematical point that dissolves into Consciousness. Now, we reach the final destination: the total shift in identity where we no longer live “in” time, but realise that time lives “in” us.

1. The Locus Shift: From Content to Container

The most significant conceptual shift in Vedānta, which resolves the dilemma of time’s reality, is the change in “location.” Ordinarily, we think, “I am a small person located in a vast world, living through a long stretch of time.”

• The Hall and Space Metaphor: We often say, “There is space inside this hall.” But if you think clearly, the hall is built in space. When the walls are demolished, the space does not break. The space was there before the hall, during the hall, and after the hall.
• The Conclusion: Similarly, you are not in time. Time-the perception of succession and change-is a “hall” built within the vastness of your own Consciousness. When the “walls” of the body and mind resolve (as in deep sleep), the “Time-Hall” disappears, but the “Space-I” remains. As the Dakṣiṇāmūrti Stotra suggests, you are kāladēśāvadhibhyāṃ nirmuktaṃ-completely free from the boundaries of time and space.

2. The Unread Obituary: Witnessing the End of Change

The fear of time is the fear of its final action: death, the ultimate change. Vedānta poses a startling logic: No one can experience their own death. To say “I died,” you would have to be there to witness the event. If you are there to witness it, you haven’t died; you are the survivor of the event.

• The Garment Swap: The Gītā (2.22) explains the non-reality of the Self’s change: Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya. Just as you don’t weep when you throw away a tattered shirt to put on a new one, the Self casts off a time-worn body.
• The Green Room: An actor dies on stage as “Hamlet.” But before and after the play, he remains the actor in the “Green Room.” The “Time-bound drama” of Hamlet’s life does not affect the actor.

The obituary is a record of the “costume” being discarded. The “I” is the one reading the paper, the immutable Witness to the body’s temporal change.

3. The Light and the Hand: The Source of the Clock. How can Consciousness exist independently of the body/mind, the very mechanism that registers time?

• The Light on the Hand: If you hold your hand under a lamp, the light permeates it, making it visible. If you remove the hand, the light does not die; it is simply no longer manifest by the hand.
• The Application: Consciousness (the light) pervades the body/mind (the hand), allowing “Time” to be experienced as change. When the body/mind is removed by death, Consciousness does not cease; it simply becomes unmanifest (Avyakta). It is kālasya api kālaḥ-the “Time of time,” the destroyer of the very principle of destruction, proving time is a temporary condition, not an inherent reality.

4. The End of the Carpet: Standing on the Floor

We recall the “Carpet” metaphor. We were afraid that if the carpet of Time (change) was pulled, we would fall. Now we realise: You are the floor. The carpet of time is spread out upon You. Whether the carpet is rolled up (as in sleep, where time perception collapses) or spread out (as in the waking state), the floor remains unmoved. You are the supporter of time, not the one supported by it.

5. Dropping the “Timeless”: The Final Negation

The final step is to withdraw even the word “Timeless.” As long as you use “Timeless” or “Eternal,” you are still using “Time” as a reference point-as the opposite of time. Freedom is not a future event that occurs at a specific point on the clock. If liberation (Mokṣa) were a “product” of time, it would eventually be destroyed by time.

Freedom is the recognition of your current nature as the non-temporal Sat-Pure “Is-ness,” in which the division of “past, present, and future” has no more reality than the coordinates of a dream.

6. Walking Out of the Clock

To walk out of the clock is to live with the understanding: I am the Witness of the mental construct called Time. The body will follow the six-fold modifications (ṣad-bhāva-vikāra). The mind will experience the “ticking” of thoughts. But “I,” the Witness, am the ancient one (Purāṇa), who is na jāyate mriyate vā kadācit-never born and never dying. The old error, the “I am the victim of the clock” error, has lost its sting. The clock continues to tick, but you have stepped off the gears.