Q. Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita that He is Kala (Kalosmi). So time is eternal. But when we practically speak (“In due course of time, time will answer” etc) it apparently looks as though time changes. Please clarify how to understand this?
Answer by Romapada Swami: Time is indeed eternal and is not subject to the relativities of this world. Yet, it acts as the instrument (as His energy, or kala-sakti) of the Supreme Lord in moving material nature. When Maha Vishnu casts His glance upon material nature, for example, material nature is agitated by this Time energy and thus the cycle of creation, maintenance and annihilation is set into motion. Thus, by the influence of time, material nature appears to produce many wonderful manifestations.
We tend to calculate time in terms of the movements or changes within nature, but actually Eternal Time is unaffected by these relative changes. Although Time itself is unchanging, yet all activities in this world is measured by time, by which everything seems to be changing and there appears to be past, present and future.
It is not quite easy to comprehend the nature of Time, as much as it is not easy to understand the Supreme Lord Himself. But we can understand this much that Time has supreme influence over everything and every being in this world, and knowing it to be a manifestation of the Lord and thus identical with Him, we should cooperate with the plan of the Lord as revealed to us by His agents, without begrudging the unavoidable influence of time – this is Bhishmadev’s advice.
