The Power of Time

The Power of Time

When my friends rang me up and reminded me that a visit to the club was long overdue, I did not respond as enthusiastically as I would have done some three decades back. I am a septuagenarian and the most sought after role model for the medical profession. I have a bit of every conceivable ailment, the latest being neuropathy that is causing an uncomfortable numbness in my legs. You know what I mean; the kind of feeling that you are using someone else’s legs for moving around! The worst thing that makes me avoid a visit to the club is the prospect of some 50 year old lady bending with great difficulty and touching my feet when I can’t even feel anything in my feet! So I tried to wriggle out of this invite from old friends but they were insistent that my presence was essential. Since I have given up driving as I can’t make out if my foot is on the accelerator or the brake, I hailed the popular Ola Taxi and reached my Club. We were about 8 of us and most of us sported a flowing white beard making our gathering appear like a meeting of distinguished religious leaders!

After the initial exchange of pleasantries, our meeting slowly got transformed into a geriatric conference. We compared our aches and pains, sprains and immobility of limbs, indigestion and constipation. We expressed our sympathy for Big B in the movie ‘Piku’ and a friend wryly remarked that Big B became motionless in the movie after the most satisfying motion of his life! All of us were of the unanimous view that old age had a lot of nuisance value. Someone mentioned that scientific research was in an advanced stage to restore youthful vitality to the likes of us with some elixir or whatever such things were called. By the time it comes to the market, we won’t be in a position even to swallow them, someone added. What we need is not any such elixir but a son like Puru, another friend suggested and went on to narrate the story of Yayati and how his son Puru swapped his youth with his old father so that the old man could continue to indulge in worldly pleasures for a thousand years. As if on a cue, another friend remarked that a thousand years was like a speck of dust considering that the age of the Universe was over 8 billion years!

I was indeed amazed. It was not as if I was hearing of the age of the Universe for the first time but that being expressed in conjunction with our life span was new. I started calculating my 70 odd years as a fraction of the age of the Universe and only ended up in tying my brain into some irreversible knots. If seventy odd years could transform me from a bonny baby to a wrinkled old man, how was it that the Universe could run through 8 billion years and still look fresh and growing, I thought. May be I thought aloud. A retired IIT Professor who was part of our motley group volunteered an explanation that confounded me more than before he opened his mouth. My dear Sir, he said, we measure our life time on a linear scale but the time span of the Universe is on a cyclical scale. If you expected our look of consternation would dampen his enthusiasm to continue with his lecture, you are sadly mistaken. He went on and on.

As I sat there listening to him, my mind tried to gather the essence of time in this timeless cosmos. Our mind is deeply grooved in linear time while people with a greater perspective of time talk of cyclical time. We seek to make much of the difference where there is none. I suddenly became aware of the Professor waving a book at my face. It was titled Disorienting Dharma- Ethics and Aesthetics of Suffering in the Mahabharatha by Emily T.Hudson. ‘You guys must read this book to understand the role of time in our lives’, he said. I grabbed it from him and browsed through it. My eyes got riveted on one sentence: ‘If one undergoes a radical orientation to the world based on an enlightened acceptance and acknowledgement of time’s power, then one can psychologically move beyond time and hence, beyond suffering’

Radical orientation based on an enlightened acceptance of time’s power? It was simply fascinating. I realized that I could pass my own difficult days without much hassle riding on the premise of time’s power. How many times have I told myself that time healed everything? It was such a soothing feeling! My mum would talk about it often. She would tell us that time would bring about a lot of changes, some to our liking and some to our dismay. She would tell us to accept both with equanimity if we wished to live in peace with ourselves. Aesthetics of suffering simplified for you!

 

My dear Satchi
The 'Iyerviji' in the making! Thank you for your first response to my new Ramble.
'Don't bother, it will go away' is the same as Bobby Mcferrin's song "Don't worry, be happy'. Both are uttered to lessen our trouble. When such positive words are spoken, we endeavour to smile and that smile takes the sting out of our trouble. But I do concede that the longer is the period of suffering, the greater are the chances of a person turning cynical and saying, 'Yeah, yeah it will go away, with me of course!'

I found another fascinating passage in the book that I have quoted and this is attributed to Sanjaya: 'Time ripens the creatures and time rots them. Time again extinguishes the time that burns the creatures. Time alters all beings in the world, virtuous or not. Time destroys them and creates them. Time moves in all creatures, unchecked and impartial. Those beings who were in the past and those beings yet to come and those that exist now they are all fashioned by time. Knowing the changes brought about by time, do not allow your mind to grieve'
Sri

 

Dear Vani
Thank you for your early visit to my ramble! I am hearing of this children living with the parents for only 18 summers for the first time. So out of curiosity I googled for it and found over sixteen million sites on the subject! Can there be better proof for my colossal ignorance than this? Time has no wings to fly. It is our perception that it seems like flying at times when we long for time to hasten slowly! Time has been passing at a constant pace since the Big Bang and even God had no power to interfere with its march.

In order to help Arjuna fulfil his vow of killing Jayadrada before sunset, Krishna hid the Sun with His Chakra making it appear as though it had set. The jubilant Jayadrada thinking that the battle had ended for the day, put down his weapons and the ring of Kings protecting him dispersed. At the moment, Krishna withdrew His Chakra and made the day light appear again. Arjuna instantly killed Jayadrada.

No time is indeed better than the present. Listen to Jiddu Krishnamurthy:
'We think that changes in ourselves can come about in time, that order in ourselves can be built up little by little, added to day by day. But time doesn't bring order or peace, so we must stop thinking in terms of gradualness. This means that there is no tomorrow for us to be peaceful in. We have to be orderly on the instant.'
Sri

 

Dear Aria
At the mention of 'Diogenes Club' as the one that Sherlock Holmes frequents, my excitement soared sky-high! Diogenes is my all-time favourite cynic. See how he looks:

He carried that lamp in broad daylight in his cynical search for an honest man. His favourite quote:
"I am Diogenes the Dog. I nuzzle the kind, bark at the greedy and bite scoundrels."
Never knew that Sherlock Holmes frequented the club bearing the great man's name. I must start reading all his stories. He writes crime thrillers, doesn't he?:biggrin2:

The Drones is a second home to me. I have witnessed British aristocrats in pecuniary difficulties trying to touch Oofy Prosser in that Club. They never knew that King George in Oofy's wallet always blinked at the glare of sunlight whenever Oofy opened his wallet!

Druids Club sounds interesting too. Do you think I'll make a good member there or will I be black-balled merely because I have a couple of dark hairs streaking through my white beard?

That documentary that you are talking about reminds me of the Zen saying 'If you meet Buddha on the road, kill him'! This simply implies that we must kill the temptation of simply following another's path, no matter how beautiful it may be. It is like Oscar Wilde saying 'Be yourself; everyone else is already taken'!

Septuagenarian means someone in his 70's? Goodness gracious! I thought it was someone who was prone to suffer sepsis at the drop of a hat! Will be careful when I have to use the word again!
Sri

 

My dear Viji
This FB of yours certainly matches the mood of my rambling. Have no doubt about it.
But that Sophia Lore's quote is not the prescription for what you enjoy doing. Your eating in hotels, consuming ice creams all the time and riding in cars seated in front seats are all the kind of stuff that people like Whoopi Goldberg of The Sister Act fame enjoy doing. Sophia Lore talks about youthful creativity in ageing minds and making use of it in enriching the lives of others.

Having said that, I love your childlike approach to life. That's what endears you to others. Keep that childlike nature tight with you and enjoy all the love that people shower on you!
Sri