If I were to accept ‘change’ or the concept of it…say ‘You cannot step into the same river twice’ or ‘The world is in constant flux’ or as one of the Buddhist said ‘You cannot step into the river even once’, it would mean accepting the concept of TIME. As I said in an earlier article, time does not exist. It appears to exist for those who see the past, present and future separately…distinct from each other.
Osho went up to the brilliant and unimaginable extent of dividing the time only into the Past & Future. He came up with the theory that there cannot be ‘present’. Present can never be, because what you call ‘Present’ becomes past even before you can utter the word! By removing the ‘Present’ from time, Osho gave a new meaning for the concept of ‘Time’. Thus, he also agreed to the concept of ‘Change’.
In his Theory of Relatively Albert Einstein asserts the co-existence of space and Time… spatio-temporal. For him space and time are intertwined. Inseparable. One without the other cannot exist. He tried to add yet another dimension to the non-existent time!
All religious viz Hinduism, Mohammadism, Christianity & Judaism & all philosophies of the world viz. Indian, European, Chinese, Japanese and American including the Materialistic philosophies acknowledge the existence of Time. Many have written ‘brilliant’ theories of time! What they did not ask is whether the ‘Time’ exist at all?
Heaven and Hell. God and Evil, Near & Far, Now and Then, Man and Women… and so-on… the polarities subtly acknowledge the existence of both space and Time. Theories were propounded espousing the Epistemological & Metaphysical Nature of time!
The Hindu Vedic concept of creation or the Christian concept of “In the Beginning…” acknowledge tacitly that it was not the God but time that existed first. This makes even the God in to a product. God, the product of time! Imagine Time giving birth to God! The Buddha remained silent on many questions including ‘Is there a God? or ‘Is there no God’? etc. Buddha has not given any answer. He remained silent. And I do not wish to interpret the Buddha’s silence.
The present-day science too commits the same mistake as that religion & philosophy. They admit the existence of ‘Time’ without any questions or enquiry! Allow me to tell you all… Time does not exist. It does not exist to any person who can see the past, present & the future together. Grand Father, Father & Grand Son. They all exist together. When there is no Time, what is there that can change?
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.
What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
