An Interview with 2021

"I am Time. I have no beginning, no end. I am boundless. Except God, nothing is beyond my reach"

By Mukesh Sharma

 

While enjoying a deep dive in the flowing river of thoughts, this blogger, suddenly, had a weird wish to meet 2021 in human form, and have talks with him. No sooner had the idea flickered than a floating two dimensional transparent image appeared in human form before the eyes sending a tingling sensation down the spine. "Don’t be afraid son" a sonorous voice echoed. “I am Time”. In no time, this blogger summoned his courage to get into conversation with the Time. Here are excerpts of thoughtful and interesting talks:

The Boundless Time

Blogger

Pranam 2021! I am blessed to have divine glimpse of Your Gracious Self.

 2021

God bless you son! The most of the writers worth their salt are, instinctively, blessed to see invisible and are able to explain even inexplicable. And you belong to the same clan.

 

Blogger

It’s your blessings and greatness Sir. I am at my wits' end to observe that Your Honor is supposed to be a few days old, but surprisingly enough, you look grown up with awesome sheen and serenity.

2021

Ha, Ha, …. Son, I am Time. I have no beginning, no end. I am boundless. Except God, nothing is beyond my reach. I was there at the moment of creation of this universe. I shall also bear witness to the destruction of this cosmos including your home so called earth. In fact, the clever man has divided, ridiculously, the indivisible time into tiny units – second, minutes, hours, day, week, month, years. decade, century, millennium, ages and so on according to his conceptualized understanding of the earth’s atmosphere and celestial position in relation to a small star what you call the sun – just to ascertain or fix the age of materials things or objects around for the convenience of his understanding.

 

Blogger

You mean to say that you have no age.

2021

Right, I don’t have age. I am beyond birth and death. I am immortal. I have no motion or movement. I just exist through whole universe. It is the pre-destined age of all the material things present within me (time) which gives the man an illusion of my continuity. I am perennial. I am countless. I am immeasurable. I have no shape or size. I am simply suffused inseparably in nature.

 

Blogger

Hold your horses Sir . . . I am confused. Would you please spell this out further?

2021

You can understand it in this way. What is a man? Man is a union of soul and body. The neutral soul remains a mute onlooker of all the actions and reactions in or outside the body. The body ages and dies. The day it breathes to last, the soul abandons the body. The soul is ageless and immortal. Lord Krishna beautifully unfolds this secret in the Gita in Sloka 20, Chapter II:

He (soul) is never born, nor does he dies at anytime, nor have (once) come to be, will he again cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, permanent and primeval. He is not slain when body is slain.

Furthermore, as wind is not divisible, as water of the ocean is not divisible, I am also not divisible.

 

Blogger

It means that New Year is an illusion; it is new only in almanac. Then why new year is celebrated across the globe?

2021

You see, human mind is obsessed with duality – two opposing aspects of everything – positive and negative that results in paranoia or phobia. Thus human life hinges on hope for the desired‘success’ to overcome the fear. New Year celebration is the celebration of wishful thinking about ensuing events. It has nothing to do with the New Year. Ever fidgeting human mind keeps shuttling from Past through Present to Future and back. It is the duality that creates Past – what has happened and Future – what will happen. It is all about happenings of events in the short span of life of the man. It is not concerned with time.

 

Blogger

In other words, there is nothing like Past or Future, right.

2021

Of course, there is no Past or Future. There is only Present. Man is born in Present; he lives in Present; and he dies in Present.

 

Blogger

Sir, would you please elucidate this arcane revelation for the benefit of mankind.

2021

Sure son, time is stagnant. Unlike matter, it has no motion or movement. It’s a hushed observer of happenings or events that keep occurring within it. Each spent-moment in Present, becomes Past, and each unspent moment, is Future. It is the Present that gives birth to Past and the hope in present that creates Future. Try to understand this way. Suppose you take a handful of water from a flowing river, will you call it Present water, Past water or Future water. It’s simple water. Obviously, it would not be just to divide water into Past, Present or Future. On the endless streak of time, there is Past beyond Past; there is Future beyond Future and so on. With constricted knowledge which is usually based on ontology, it is an arduous task for the man to understand the complicated Laws of Nature depending on varied variants in different celestial circumstances, in totality. What seems impossible is based on the principle of Possibility in Nature.

 

Blogger

It proves that man is essentially a creature of Present?

2021

Right, there is no time like present. Good Karmas in Present make good Past and good Future. The best, the brightest and the wisest work hard in Present and reach the pinnacle of human society. What you call future is very much in the hands of the man. Time is a silent spectator. It is karma in present that makes or mar the life of the man.

This blogger closed his eyes and folded his hand out of reverence, and when he opened his eyes back, the so named 2021 had disappeared. Time waits for none.

Fullness of Time

Man must learn the lesson of discipline from the heavenly bodies

By Mukesh Sharma

 

Be it animate or inanimate, life is fixed. Nothing can exist beyond time. Things are born in fullness of time in the universe and meet their end after the completion of assigned time-span.

Full moon making preparation to sink in the western horizon

All the galaxies in the universe follow time. All the stars follow time. All the planets follow time. The sun follows time; it rises at the right time and sets in at the right time at different places on the earth.  The moon follows time. Even our mother earth follows time; it revolves around the sun in the right orbit, at the right place and at the right time.

 

Full moon shinning in the western horizon in front of rising sun. 

Sun rays are seen falling on the houses

During morning walk a few days ago, this blogger clicked a few pics of full moon making preparation to sink in the western horizon and at the same time the sun was on its way to rise in eastern horizon. While watching the mesmerizing sight, I realized that all the celestial bodies follow very strict discipline of time. Nothing can go beyond time.

Sun on its way to rise in eastern horizon

Evidently enough, the discipline of time applies to man too. A baby is born in fullness of time. Physically and mentally, man grows up with the time. Those who waste the time, time wastes them. Everyone must respect time. Right action, at the right place and at the right time gets success in life.

Man must learn lesson of discipline from the heavenly bodies.

RIVER OF TIME

Poem

RIVER OF TIME 

Time goverens this universe and also the life of each thing or object within it.  Nothing exits out of time. A unique poem on time

By Mukesh Sharma

Flowing from time,

Beyond past.

Towards endless,

End so fast.

Having no beginning,

And no mortal end.

It mellows in circle,

With no circumference.

It’s fathomless depth,

Measureless breadth.

Home of countless galaxies,

Innumerable stars and planets.

 River of Time

Our yellow dwarf,

Moon like a dot.

Tiny earth all wallowing,

In ceaseless spate.

Lovely blue planet,

Home of all and one.

From virus, bacteria,

To all humans.

Mother nature,

On earth sires life.

Nurtures all beings,

With no strife.

Mountains and rivulets,

Oceans, seas and all.

Lolling in lap,

Of mother earth withal.

Mortal moron man,

Divides earth.

Into countries,

With all egoist mirth.

Man ever squabbling,

Over mine and yours.

Oblivious of fact,

Not he a landlord.

My house, wife and kids,

My dignity and dime.

All go down,

When comes Time.

Childhood leads to youth,

And ends up in old age.

With death,

Life reaches final stage.

One comes up,

In fullness of time.

On completion of age,

Just goes down.

Up and down,

Up and down.

All floating in,

River of time.

Living Beyond Time

Living Beyond Time

They live by hours and day. Their day begins with rising sun and ends with setting sun. To these hopeless and hapless millions, no month or year exists beyond the devil day

By Mukesh Sharma

The millions die unborn in India. Lucky few come out in fullness of time. Out of this flock, only a few blessed are able to live in time. The majority of unblessed ‘breathing’ human beings are caught in time-warp. To these teeming millions, the time doesn’t move; the time doesn’t exist. The miserable millions are born out of circumstances; they survive in circumstances; their days are numbered in circumstances. To these children of poverty, roti is a luxury; a sound sleep is a celebration. They live by hours and day. Their day begins with rising sun and ends with setting sun. To these hopeless and hapless millions, no month or year exists beyond the devil day. As the stream of the Ganga can’t be divided into time, there is no old or new year in their lives. These calander-less people live beyond time.

Living Beyond Time

According to the Lancet, a global health medical journal, 15.6 million abortions take place every year in India, and 81 per cent of it at home. Of course, unofficial figures are enormously high. Though the unfortunate mothers of these unborn children are mere victims, their fathers are poverty, disease, and illicit relations. Each abortion brings a death to the unborn and the mother is reborn again for another onslaught. No new year exists between a death and rebirth.

The International Children Charity reveals that there are over 20 millions street children in India; these orphans, children of single mother ‘penury’ fight for every crumb of roti (bread) on the busy roads of cities and at railway stations where they wait for the trains for the leftover food. Always busy in roti-hunt, these forlorn kids have no time to look back to old year or look forward to New Year. They continue to wriggle between old year and New Year; the old year never ends and the New Year never sets in.

As per Ministry of Women and Child Development report, there are 3 millions female sex workers in India; 36 per cent of them are yet to attain the age of 18. Since this ancient ‘business’ of flesh trade has gone hi-tech with the advent of internet, the unofficial figure may be four times high. The reported and unreported alleged cases of sexual abuse of minor girls in shelter homes and other ‘centre’s so called Nari Niketan etc. are not being counted here. To these daily ‘wage’ earners, the day begin with the setting sun and ends with the rising sun; it is difficult to distinguish between the rising sun and setting sun. These unfortunate women live on night-to-night basis. Their ‘dayless’ life has no year.

Going by the international poverty line yardstick, 60 per cent populace in India i.e. 763 million live on $3.30 per day or in other words, is below the poverty line. Reported deaths due to starvations and suicides across the country, are the tell-tale sign of crushing poverty in India. These miserable millions can’t see life beyond ‘roti. They are destined to live on day-to-day basis. They can’t think of life in terms of years.

Now the pertinent question is who is responsible for this sorry state of affair. People allege it is grasping netas. The most of the netas are getting richer and richer. The politics is the most lucrative business in India. The Corruption has become a business culture.

In his write up entitled Equal Distribution, published in Harijan Bandhu, Mahtma Gandhi says:

“The rich cannot accumulate wealth without the co-operation of the poor in the society.”

Needless to say, New Year may be matter of celebration for the handful of ‘children’ of Power and Pelf only. To the vast number of ‘kids’ of Hunger and Penury not only in India but across the world, NEW YEAR is just a phrase. They live beyond time. Robert Burns rightly says:

“Man’s inhumanity to man,

 Makes countless mourn”