TIME AND SPACE

 

SANJIVA DEV

 

Now, here

Then, there

When, where

Whenever, wherever

Ever, everywhere

Are the symbols

Of time and space:

‘Now’ is the temporal counterpart

Of the spatial ‘here’.

 

A mile

Is a spatial year

An year

Is a temporal mile;

Infinity

Is spatial eternity

Eternity

Is temporal infinity.

 

Time moves

Space stays

Time is dynamic space

Space is static time;

Static space

Is mere an appearance

Dynamic space is reality;

Mere surface of space

Seems not to move

The interior of space

Does always move.

 

Moves

The surface of time

The interior of time

Does not move

The interior of time

Is static,

Surface of space

Is static,

Interior or space

Is dynamic,

Surface of time

Is dynamic.

 

Movement

And stillness

Are never absolute

They are ever relative;

Movement

And stillness

Interpenetrate each other;

Movement

Is dynamic stillness

Stillness

Is static movement

Both are mere passing phases.

 

Time is abstract

Space is concrete

Space

Is tactile

Visual and auditory;

Time could not be touched

Could not be seen and heard,

Time is perceived

Only through

The disguise of space;

Time relies on space

For its revelation

Space depends on time

For its evolution;

Evolution is revelation.

 

In space

One could move

To the front

To the middle

To the back;

But in time

One could move

To the front, the future

To the middle, the present

But not to the back, the past

It is only the memory

That could go to the back.

 

In space

Are visible

The foreground

The middleground

And the background

 

But in time

The present alone

Is visible,

The future and the past

Are obscure,

The past

Is invisible and yet known

The future

Is both invisible and unknown.

 

Space is ‘being’

Time is ‘becoming’

‘Being’ exists

‘Becoming’ lives

Space exists

Time lives;

In space

Creatures have their being

In time

They have their becoming;

‘Existing’

Is a bud;

‘Living’

Is a flower.

 

The origins

Of time and space

Remain in obscurity;

When the time emanated

Where the space originated

Is still unknown;

Space is a great mystery

Time a greater mystery;

Time is the vehicle of eternity

Space is that of infinity.

 

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