Einstein’s ‘Theory of Relativity’ has pricked the bubble and it has been accepted even in the West that the concepts of time and space depend upon individual factors governing their measurements. Time hangs heavily and moves at a snail’s pace when one is in agitation, as when one is anxiously waiting for something; while, to the same individual, time flies when he is quite at ease with himself, under circumstances happy, pleasant, and entertaining. One playing cards knows not when the night was spent and he is surprised when he notices the early dawn peeping through the windows. The same person will complain that each moment has lengthened itself to become hours, when he is at some unpleasant work, or is suffering some pain. He who is enjoying the homogeneous experience of sleep, has no concept of time at all while he is sleeping.
From the above, it has been logically concluded in the philosophy of the Hindus, that time is truly the measure of the interval between two different experiences. The greater the number of experiences that flood the mind to agitate it, the slower will the time move; while the longer the same experience continues, the faster moves the time. In a single given experience there is no perception of time just as there is no concept of distance when there is only one point; distances can be measured only between two or more points. Basing their calculations upon this theory, the Pauranic-poets rightly conceived that their gods had a larger dial for their divine clocks! In the Upanishads also, we find a scale of relative intensity of Bliss-experience, from a mortal, healthy, young man, living in conducive environments, upto the very Creator Himself. This ascending scale of joy, experienced in different realms of Consciousness, is showing the relative mental equipoise and tranquillity at those different levels of existence. It is said here that a thousand “cycles” constitute the day-time of the Creator; and an equally long thousand “cycles” constitute the night-time of the Creator. This declaration of those, “WHO KNOW THE TRUE MEASURE OF THE DAY AND THE NIGHT,” calculated in terms of “cycles” has been translated in terms of our 365-day years. Each “cycle” consists of aeons (Yugas). Four aeons (Yugas) together constitute one “cycle,” and a thousand “cycles” are conceived of as constituting the daytime of the Creator!
As the individual units, so is the sum total of the assembly. The individual mind projects, creates and sustains what its fancies dictate, and without any regret scraps the whole lot, only to create afresh. This constant function does take place in each individual only during the day time, as representing the waking state. In the same fashion the Total Mind — the Cosmic Creator — also is conceived as creating the gross world of dense objects and intelligent beings only during His waking hours.
