Hindu Time Measuring Units
Traditionally Hindu calendar time is measured using units different from Hours and Minutes. Typically a day is divided into Dina (day) and Ratri (Night). Roughly 10 Muhurtas (8 hours) is one Dina and 7 Muhurtas (equivalent to 6 hours) is one Ratri. Ahoratra is a Day, a Night and in between – together making 30 Muhurtas – 24 hours. One Muhurtha is roughly 48 mnts. One half of Muhurtha is called Ghatika or Jhamu or Danda – 24 mnts. Vikala is 6 minutes. Pala or Vighati or Pal is 24 seconds. Lipta is 0.4 secs. Truti is 308 micro secs which is the base of Time.
A Tithi is typically one day, and 15 such Tithis is a Paksha and 2 Pakshas form a masa. 2 Masas form a Rutu. 3 rutus make one Ayanam. And 2 Ayanams (Dakshnayanam and Uttarayanam) make one Varsha. This whole concept of 6 Rutus is very Indian, and those are six major changes in nature across in India. I wonder if there is any other country with similar weather patterns and Rutus? Indian Calendar is very much all about these Rutus, their arrival and related festivities or events. Most of the Indian festivals are related to these Rutus.
There are many more units of Time based on local languages or dialects. For example time taken by Soul to travel for next birth, Time taken by our Forefathers in their journey and their current status, scale of Time for Devas vs Gods in Heaven, etc. But it is important to note that Hindu Calendars are published based on these units of measure of Time, not Hours and Minutes. However, the modern Hindu Calendars finally covert these numbers into Universal language of Hours and Minutes, and Months and Dates for convenience of everyone.
Worldwide religions and cultures similarly have varying units of Time measurement and intricate beliefs & practices. That once again proves that religious and cultural practices played critical role in Time measuring units. Today Time has been standardized through scientific methods and less defined by religion.
Similarly Hindu philosophy extends units of Time measurement to very large values, at Cosmic scale.
Religious Philosophy of Time
All religions have Time tightly integrated into their Philosophy, and Theology, from origination to end of Time. And almost all religions consider God created Time and not bounded by Time, and has no past or future. To understand Philosophy of Time, we also need to get into the realm of human’s post-death existence as the Philosophy of Time contemplates that aspect, as our existence in current life is minuscule compared to Time’s grandeur.
Christianity buries the bodies of individuals in graves. The philosophy is, on the Final Judgement Day the individuals are brought out of their graves. God will give final judgement based on which the individuals who did righteous deeds, will permanently go to Heaven (New Earth) and wicked will eternally be separated from God and will go to Hell (Lake of Fire). In the time between individual’s death until the Final Judgement Day, some believe Souls will be in sleeping state but some believe they may go to Paradise or Hades, while some believe the Souls will be purified in this period so that all souls will finally enter New Earth on the Final Judgement Day. Hope that now clarifies why they say “rest in peace!” for the dead in Christianity.
Islam almost the same as in Christianity, with few variations. Pre-destination of all individuals is highly believed in Islam. They also agree that Humans have Free Will, and their deeds are considered on the Judgement Day to determine if one goes to Heaven (Jannah) or Hell (Jahannam). On the day of final Judgement Day, every individual is resurrected from graves and stand before Allah for the final Judgement and eternally moved to Heaven or Hell. Between the day of death and the final Day of Judgement, again there are different believes in Islam too.
Judaism or Jewish is also very similar while there are variations with one of them believing Judgement is right after death while others believe intermediate wait for the Final Judgement. Post Final Judgement Day the righteous souls will go to Olan HaBa (like Heaven) while the wicked will go to Kereth where highest punishment is given to cut off the soul from rest.
All three philosophies apply the Judgement Day and after-life scenarios are only for Human beings. Other living being, including animals, do not have freewill thus they seem to be not part of the final judgement day. And no one has count of how many years away is the Final Judgement Day – thus wait is indefinite. As you can see Time is linear in all three Philosophies. Of course, each philosophy is much more complex than what is presented, and am limiting here in relation to Time.
Hindu philosophy has different take on Time, its creation, its property and what holds for future. God has created Time along with Universe, and he is not bound by Time. Time is Cyclic, which means Time and Universe are created, sustained, destroyed, and recreated. This cycle repeats. Souls take rebirth to purify themselves and attain Moksham through several birth & death cycle. Moksham is liberation or enlightenment after which the Soul merges with God and will have no more rebirths. Because all Souls are going through millions of births and deaths, will be tired and to give them sufficient rest – God destroys the whole universe thus Souls will remain in unmanifested form for that period in time before taking next birth. In a way – we can say a Soul travels through birth, death, and rebirth until it attains Moksham. Everyone has to go through this birth and death cycle, that includes all in Universe – Earth, planets, Gods in Heaven, Heaven & Hell itself, animals, trees, mountains, etc. There are many variations within this philosophy depending on the school of philosophy within Hindu philosophy, but otherwise the essence is same.
Hindu philosophy defines universe creation (manifestation, how it got into existence), its sustenance and its dissolution (when and how), with Time. Critical aspect of Hindu philosophy is Cyclic nature of Time. God, or Eeswara, is responsible for creation, sustenance and dissolution of this universe. Without getting into the whole concept, , lets understand that philosophy relating to Time. There is a systemic structure of Time through these cycles of creation & destructions occur, such units of time are called Yugas. After God creates the Universe, it goes through 4 Yugas, Krita Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga, and Kali yuga – together called Maha-yuga. All these 4 Yugas together form 4,320,000 human years. That is called MahaYuga and 1000 such Mahayugas form a Kalpa. One Kalpa is 1 Divine Day for God Brahma, the God of Creation. The world is dissolved at the end of a Kalpa or 100 such Kalpas – either or both depending on cosmic reasons. After dissolution, Universe comes back starting again with Krita Yuga.
Lord Krishna was born in Dvapara Yuga, while Lord Rama lived in Treta Yuga, and currently we are living in Kali Yuga. Each Soul takes birth after birth, through these Yugas. Per philosophy, after death Human may be taking rebirth as another Human, or as insect or as tree or as mountain. It is based on deeds of the individual. Thus, length of life in the next birth can be few hours if born as insect, few hundred years if born as Tree, or Millions of years if born as a Mountain. One can as well take birth as God in next birth, and live in Heaven with longer life. Thus, every human need to put in their best effort to do enough right deeds to seek better form of birth in next rebirth or to attain Moksham.
Based on different schools of Hindu Philosophy there are variations to this, and most of these systems have come through Purana texts. Advaitha Philosophy takes more simpler approach that this Universe/Time is Maya, which is not Real but projected as reality – like you’re in your dream world. You need to attain knowledge of Self, and of God, to overcome this Maya(or Avidya), to attain Moksham. It also clearly states that until you attain that knowledge you cannot escape the cycle of Birth and Death, called Samsara.
To conclude – it is overwhelming at the complexity and vastness of Time, and what the Philosophy preaches. Can this be real? if that’s what Religion is telling us – it need to be believed as we consider Religion as Faith. Each human believes in one or the other school of teaching and believe in it. Remember Atheism is also a belief – atleast that’s what Hindu philosophy calls as “Chaarvaaka Darsanam”. Before we assume any, lets try to see what the rational intellectual school of philosophy, Science, is predicting future of the Time.
Scientific Philosophy of Time
As we initially discussed, Science explains that Universe and Time have come into existence at the Big Bang. Events that occurred at that instant of Time, and immediately after, have influenced the formation of the universe that we see today, and Time is travelling since then. But per science how long will this Time continue? Will there be an end to the Time as it had a start? Will both end together or will Universe continue without Time? How long from now? What happens to Life? If humans disappear, is there any meaning of Time? None of these questions have right answer but only postulations and possibilities.
One of scientific narrative is – Moon is drifting away from Earth as of today, though very slow. So, in few billion years from now, due to reduced gravity, it can impact our environment on Earth. At same time or before, Sun will be transitioning from current phase into a “Red Giant phase” star, which will cause Sun to engulf all close-by planets like Mercury, Venus and possibly earth in fire – destroying them instantly. After that, Sun will become a “white dwarf” – and overall impacting energy source for planets in Solar system. Thus, support for life forms on earth, or in our Solar system, will cease even if we survive until them. Science also predicts that over a time Solar system will disintegrate and undergoes radioactive decay. So future is destruction or dissolution per science too? At least that’s one model of understanding. We do not know if its cyclic though. Who knows, that’s all up for anybody’s guess!
Punctuality is the Thief of Time – Oscar Wilde
Swamy Podila 