Introduction
Time is the one truth no one can escape. Civilizations rise and fall, lives unfold and dissolve, and change transforms everything. Humans across history have grappled with this force, searching for meaning in the face of impermanence. Ancient Indian texts—the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita—placed time at the center of their reflections, offering a perspective that remains strikingly relevant today.
God as Time in the Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad Gita is a dialogue within the Mahabharata, one of the world’s great epics of kings, kingdoms, and war. In its most famous moment, Krishna reveals his cosmic form and declares: “I am Time, destroyer of worlds.” Time is not just a backdrop to human life; it is God in action: terrifying, divine, and absolute. Just as fire produces heat but is more than heat, the divine expresses itself as time but also transcends it. But the Gita doesn’t leave us with despair; it also offers a way to live in the face of this truth.
The Path the Gita Offers
If time consumes all forms, how does one live without being consumed? The Gita’s answer is alignment with the timeless aspect of Krishna—the eternal Self and the source beyond change.
It lays out practical paths for this alignment:
- Karma Yoga: act fully but release attachment to results.
- Jnana (wisdom): realize that the Self is unborn, undying, and beyond time.
- Bhakti (devotion): surrender to Krishna, anchoring in the divine beyond impermanence.
- Yoga (balance): cultivate steadiness in gain and loss, pleasure and pain.
Through these practices, the Gita shifts perspective: you cannot stop time, but you can stop being bound by it. By anchoring in the eternal, you move from being a temporary form swept away by time to awareness that stands beyond it.
Conclusion
The Gita begins with a stark truth—God is time, the destroyer of all. Time will continue its flow, dissolving everything in its path. Yet the one who acts without attachment, sees the eternal Self, and surrenders to the divine stands free.
To live this way is to live fully in time but rooted in what is beyond it—freedom is not in escaping time’s clock, but in realizing you were never bound by it.