Time is one of the great mysteries of life. It is the best storyteller and there is no witness like time. It is an objective truth in the outside world, running uniformly for everyone but depending on one’s state of mind, it can fly or drag on. Time is the distance between two happenings. At one level, everything is changing every moment and at another, nothing really changes. Linear logic dictates that only one of these two contradicting views must hold good but the reality is that they are both undeniably true.
There is a very intricate connection between time, the mind and events. Like events, time too impacts the mind. Liberation is freeing the mind from time and events. While you cannot ignore all that is happening around you, you cannot afford to get consumed by it either.
Often it is past events and mistakes that occupy the mind, causing pain and regret. Reviewing events in time with the right perspective frees your mind from them and also provides valuable lessons to learn. The New Year is a good time to contemplate the events of the past year, learn from them and move on with celebration.
When the new year turns, there is hype about what the latest trends and fashion are. While fashion changes every year, wisdom will never go out of fashion; qualities like genuineness, depth and sensitivity will always remain trendy. Wisdom is recognizing the timeless in the unceasing movement of time, the changeless amidst the changing events and the space of no-mind that pervades all the mindless chatter. This recognition adds a context to everything that you see happening around you which would otherwise seem to be random events. You cannot separate time from an event, but you can separate the mind from both, events and time, and the way to do that is meditation.
There is one kind of joy and thrill in getting engrossed in events and activities and there is another kind of joy in reposing within one’s Self. Life is not complete until you savour both and this requires one to be totally centered. Who says spirituality is boring? Spirituality is a dance on the edge of a sword between the opposites of life. If you can comprehend this space where both yes and no can simultaneously be right, a new dimension opens up within, a field of infinite possibilities.
Billions of years have come and gone. Countless events and innumerable people have come and gone and you who have come now, will also be gone. Wake up! One who is asleep cannot celebrate. It is said that time does not stop for anyone but for one who has woken up to Eternity, time does not move at all.
Wish you a timeless New Year this time!