We don’t usher in, or step into, the new year. It dawns upon us, come Jan, come what may. Time and tide wait for none and are not certainly heralded by a mere flip of a new calendar. No profound realisation, this. But a reminder, all the same, of the utter irrelevance of us individuals in the cosmic scheme unless one is in sync with that higher power.
Still, the onset of a new year is a significant signpost in human cognisance. For we are all time-bound. And I am not just referring to the inevitable self-destruct programme called Lifespan that our Maker embeds us with. Almost every minor chore of our everyday life is in terms of time. The clock and calendar are our constant companions as we sprint from one deadline to another. The pace may have seemingly risen with the generations, but I believe it had never been a laidback life all along, if you get the drift. If you don’t, don’t try. The point is it has always been a race against time. May be its abundant physical representation all around and the compaction of too many things in short time frames are makeing things appear a bit too tight these days. Unfortunately, having more clocks does not mean more time at our disposal. On the contrary, they have shrunk life.
So, obviously something so basic to human existence must be absolute. But is it? We glibly talk of changing with the times, but the very idea of time itself is subject to change and challenge. That no two watches agree is but a very elementary version of this dispute. No two calendars agree either and neither do two cultures. India alone has about thirty calendars pertaining to different periods and regions, besides the Gregorian calendar introduced by the British. With festivals and rituals galore relying on these different calendars, it was a nightmare of sorts for newly independent India. Within a decade, a National Calendar Committee was formed which came out with a unified calendar and synchronised it with the Gregorian. Rather, two unified ones: Vikram and Saka, commencing with 57AD and 78 AD respectively. That said, those thirty odd continue to prevail. Really, in Bharath it’s happy new year round the year.
So, while Vikram says we are actually in 1964, Saka puts us in 1943. And not certainly in the corresponding months or dates in the Gregorian year. But then, the G calendar itself is a construct of convenience, having gone through many confusions, conversions and consolidations over the centuries. So, someone born on, say, Jan 1, 5 AD by current records, may actually have arrived earlier or later, in real historical time. The West’s obsession with standardisation and categorisation without regard to non-material vagaries and its tendency to fit things into a period pattern with retrospective effect has ensured that we have a very organised chronology which may not actually be the true flow of events. Such dating, while serving its own political and colonial designs however, has caused havoc all over the world by destroying conventional wisdom vis-a-vis time. Another proof of this is the Standard Time based on longitudinal ‘bands’ while in reality the time is not the same even on two close vertical lines on Earth. The watches of two persons sitting next to each other and facing north should actually not agree! That Mumbai and Meghalaya should share the same 7 AM on the pretext of IST is a permanent perversion.
So, 7 AM it is even if it be really 6.45. Instead of a clock indicating the time, time is made to fit the clock. At the level of a calendar too, the world’s time keepers regularly adjust the odd seconds and minutes so that life goes on with ‘clockwork precision’. This absoluteness, albeit imposed, of time has come to stay. But from a larger perspective such tinkering with time does not really matter. The concept of time has engaged philosophers, thinkers and scientists of all times. And theories abound. There are those who aver that the very idea of time is a myth and nothing exists other than this instant which itself vanishes. To them time is really unreal and is wholly a human construct, an intellectual tool of measure, at best. Many others believe in all credulity that time is contained in seamless capsules on a time line and the past and future can be accessed through time machines. There are others, who owing probably to lack of time-travel visas or advance bookings, however, claim to see through time into past and future events. Some even promise to change them!
The popular scientific construct is that time is a linear sequence and open ended, till it actually ends, that is. And there is equally less clarity and lesser consensus on when it all started. Bing bang advocates now say there might have been bigger bangs, prior. In Indian traditions, time is cyclical. The past, present and future reside in the Absolute that is eternal. Like all life, the phenomenal world, which is only a projection, too goes through the ceaseless cycles of creation and dissolution, with every end leading to a beginning. This syncs perfectly with the revolutionary and rotational characteristics of celestial objects. That history repeats itself is probably divine deja vu. The scientific and the spiritual, however, seem to converge on the fact that time is contained in space which is the only thing real, whatever real is. Indeed, time as we construe it, ceases beyond the earth’s atmosphere and aura. ‘Light years’ actually is a measure of space in earthly terms. Thus, time which is such a fixation in our minds, is a relative concept even on the earth and actually does not exist beyond it. ‘Once upon a time’ and ‘ever after’ mean nothing out there in space.
Now, let’s get down to earth. To the material minded, time is money, while for the spiritually inclined, time is a simple sample of eternity, the ultimate goal. To a commoner, time is a box sealed by fate; to the philosopher it is a Pandora’s box full of possibilities. To the astronomer, time is a viewing glass into infinite space, while to the astrologer, time is a finite quantum that can be fitted into a matrix. For the ordinary mortal, time is an overhanging sword while for the elite scamster, time is a vindication of his viles. When good things happen, time flies; come misfortune, time stands still. Time is a constant witness and the ultimate judge.
So let’s welcome the new year even though it has arrived without our formal invitation. Now, I cannot vouch if it is the real one but I know it is there in the calendar. So happy 2024. Have a great Time.