Dear Editor,
Time plays a vital role in the life of nearly all the major religious traditions of the world. Sacred events of each of these religions are all located in sacred versus profane time and have their specific moments of time when they are enacted, observed, or celebrated. The telling of a sacred myth or katha, the performance of rites of worship, life crisis rites, and the observance of festivals cannot happen arbitrarily at any time or in any manner one chooses.
Lest we give way to cynicism, ridicule and trivialization as we are now witnessing with several persons recommending multiple days for the observance of Divali, for example, in Guyana, let it be remembered that Hanuman Jayanti is observed on full moon, not on new moon. Lord Rama’s birth is celebrated on naumi (ninth) tithi and even more specifically at noon and Lord Krishna’s appearance is on ashtami (eight) tithi during the night. Ekadashi (eleventh) fasting and prayer cannot be done on dwadashi (twelfth). Sankranti, when the sun moves into a new zodiac, has to be observed at the appointed time, and at no other time.
For Hindus there is a designated time to mark every significant aspect of life. After all, Krishna himself declares in the Bhagavad Gita, “I am Time.” For us there is to time to procreate, a time to be born, a time to be named, a time to be initiated, a time to marry, and, even more importantly, a time to die. For example, Bhagavad Gita 8.24 tells us that, among other things, in dying during the bright lunar night or the bright fortnight and during the northern solstice or the sun’s six-month northern source is more auspicious, one who meditates on supreme Brahman reaches infinite bliss.
To be sure we have compromised almost every step of the way, and with every compromise there has been an inevitable degradation and loss of sacredness. As the cliché goes nothing seems sacred anymore. Market forces rule everything and life has lost its meaning and in the absence of an orienting force we have become more spiritually disintegrated. Convenience is the new mantra and economic concerns the priority.
With the hundreds of sacred events that punctuate the Hindu calendar, Hindus do not treat time as homogeneous or continuous. It is broken up into segments with some sections and portions of time more auspicious and conducive to specific activities. For example, we have the time known as brahma muhurta, about an hour or so before dawn, which we hold is best conducive for meditation.
We also know of those two segments of time in the course of the day, the morning and evening sandhya, one that comes at the end/beginning of the day and the other at dead centre. In the morning the sun is not yet above the horizon but the night is virtually over, and in the evening the sun disappears below the horizon, but darkness has not yet stepped in. These are special moments endowed with power and sacredness and as such are recommended for prayer and meditation.
Similarly, with respect to the moon phases there are at least two in-between periods of time that are held to be extremely powerful. As we know that moon has two cyclical phases with the full moon (purnima) and new moon (amavasya) as the periods of time that separate the waning and waxing cycles. For example, looking at the Hindu full moon calendar we find that on each occasion there is a major event that we observe, and similarly a significant event for every new moon. While we all look forward to the beauty of the full moon, its power and influence lie in the fact that it stands at a juncture of the waxing and waning moon. This is exactly the case also with the new moon.
Apart from the mystic power that derives from moments like sandhyas, sankrantis, amavasyas, and purnimas, all of which are experienced as “time within time” in that each represents a moment at the juncture between larger portions of time, all “juncture” times derive their significance from their homology with cosmic time, sacred time, or great time. This in effect is a transcendence of profane time that is equivalent to a revelation of ultimate reality. Through this homology historical time is abolished and with it the veil it creates is pierced. This transcendence of historical or profane time is achieved through the power the logos, in Sanskrit the mantra which occurs in the larger context of katha or myth, festivals, rites such as life crisis rites and rituals such as worship or puja.
The sankalpa rite performed to announce the intention and resolution of the worshipper is one of the ritual strategies used to connect our local and historical time to cosmic time. When the local time in which the worshipper is located merges with cosmic or mythic time, a process of regeneration and renewal ensues. The individual is transformed being projected into sacred time and for a moment symbolically transcends and abolishes the profane and historical time.
This aspect of the sankalpa begins with the reciter identifying the day of Brahma, as the beginning time, the primordial origin. The time corresponds to the beginning of the second half of the life of Brahma.
It should be noted according to Hindu cosmology one day in the life of Brahma is equivalent to 4.32 billion years. A full life time of Brahma is 100 years, or 311,400,000,000,000 years. According to the sankalpa we are now in the second half of the life of Brahma, that is, in the 51st year. The reciter then gradually and systematically mentions durations of time in descending order of magnitude until he arrives at the lunar month, the paksha (bright or dark half) and tithi, the phase of the moon. In some instances even the muhurta, a fragment of time within the tithi is mentioned.
In this way the sankalpa, a mandatory aspect of any ritual, serves as a conduit to connect the present moment of historical time to the great time, the time of Brahma and as such achieves a correspondence between these two times. In what may appear to us as a brief moment of time, transcendence is reached, for in that moment the worshipper is reintegrated in time at the beginning. Present time is established in cosmic time, and time in its everyday historical sense is abolished.
Yours faithfully,
Swami Aksharananda
