The Mystery of Time

We cannot see time; we cannot hear it, or smell it, or taste it; we cannot touch it! And yet no one doubts that time is and that it dominates our lives. Our every move is dictated by this most elusive and illusive factor—the time element. Its mystery has haunted human minds down the ages, and yet even today our modern scientist must accept the fact that he has not yet penetrated it. Time changes man; yet man cannot change time.

We speak of saving time and also of wasting it. We say time flies or time drags. And yet we cannot say what time itself is! Our age is one of speed. We are constantly inventing mechanical devices to hasten all tasks and to traverse distances in space with ever-increasing speed. We want to go faster and faster because we want to "save" time. The story is told of an old man who failed to respond enthusiastically to the glowing accounts of the speed of air travelling. He listened unmoved, and then asked: "But what will you do with the time so 'saved'?" It is not merely saving time that makes for progress, but how we utilize it.

However, while time is imperceptible to our sensorium, we can measure it. From the remotest antiquity men have sought ways and means of measuring time and found in Nature the basis for such measurements. Because astronomical events ever recur cyclically they were chosen to measure that unknown factor, time. We really measure the interval betweeen the occurrence of an event and its recurrence. And so we have come to regard time as the interval between events.

For us mortals time is measured by the journey of our earth through space. Our planet's trip around the Sun, the monthly orbit of the moon, and the daily rotation of the earth on its axis have given us our year, our month, our day. But while we measure the passage of time, time itself remains unknown.

What lies behind the passing flow of time? When we say this day has passed away, what do we really mean? Where has it gone to? We speak of the past, the present, and the future, but these exist only in reference to the consciousness of the one who experiences them on this plane. Madame Blavatsky offers this definition in the form of a question: "What is Time, but the panoramic succession of our states of consciousness?" The above gives us the metaphysical key to solve our problem: Behind time, lies Eternity. Time belongs to the world of conditioned existence, the world of constant change. It begins at any given moment in reference to a particular event or a particular phenomenon. But behind that beginning, Time which is infinite and measureless already was because it ever is. Thus, conditioned time, which can be measured, which begins and ends, arises out of Timelessness or Eternal Duration. And that is why the present, the past, and the future have validity only in this world of relativity. They cease to be valid when we transcend that which pertains to the world of changing phenomena.The cry of the world is for Light, more Light. As we approach the Summer Solstice, let us determine to draw nearer to the Light within our own hearts that we may reflect its golden radiance in our daily lives, and thus help brighten the lives of our fellow men.