What is Kala (Time)?

What is Kala (Time) – The Bhagavad Gita deals with five subject matters which are as follows:
Isvara (God), Jiva (living entity), Kala (time), Prakriti (nature), Karma (action). It is important to understand the subject matter of time (kāla). In order to give up our mundane attachments, and be fixed on the path of perfection, one must understand how the dynamics of this world are governed by time.

Time- The Invincible Potency of Lord

Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita (11.32):

śrī-bhagavān uvāca
kālo ’smi loka-kṣaya-kṛt pravṛddho
lokān samāhartum iha pravṛttaḥ
ṛte ’pi tvāṁ na bhaviṣyanti sarve
ye ’vasthitāḥ praty-anīkeṣu yodhāḥ

Translation- The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Time I am, the great destroyer of the worlds, and I have come here to destroy all people. With the exception of you [the Pāṇḍavas], all the soldiers here on both sides will be slain

Time devours everything. It is in the womb of time, even greatest civilizations have disappeared. Rama Rajya is now a historical event, so also is the great empire of Kurus. In our recent history, the great British Empire has also vanished. Being ignorant, we are all making plans for a bright future. But all our dreams, plans and achievements are either foiled by the inevitable time, or are snatched away from us at the time of death. Therefore, the wise look for divine perfection.

A real yogi is always situated in the eternal plane beyond the influence of time and space. Our experiential world is continuously subjected to repeated annihilation by the time potency of the Lord

The 2 Notions of Time

There are two notions of time – one is that of our experience, and the other is that setting up the events

The Experiential Time

Each one of us may live around hundred years according to earthly time-cycle. That is a very short duration if we introspect on the many timelines of Vedic history. While our individual life cycle is so short, we learn from Bhagavad Gita that Lord Brahma lives for 311 trillion and 40 billion years.

In our traditional society if someone has lived for 100 years with many achievements, we pay a focused attention when he speaks. When
Lord Brahma speaks, we must know that he is speaking from an incomprehensible experiential time zone from our perspective, hence his message must hold very dear to all those who want to transcend the temporariness. Lord Brahma’s experiential time cycle only lasts for one exhale of Mahavishnu, Who is non-different from Lord Krishna. In this sense, we must introspect the timeless impact of His instructions as enumerated in the pages of Bhagavad Gita. The message of Bhagavad Gita can thus take us into the realm of eternal time.

Setting up of Events

There is another aspect to time which is setting up events. All events are set up by time. Time as an internal potency of the Lord creates situations for all seekers of Truth to perfect their lives while destroys plans of all those who want to establish their own empires based on anti-Truth. Most of the times we are asked to learn how to manage time. But anybody who has studied Bhagavad Gita will understand that it is time that manages each one of us not that we manage time.