The Impact of Time on Creation

A concise summary of Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 3 Chapter 10

Sage Maitreya describes the concept of time to Vidura and how time is the instrumental cause of creation.

Time by itself has no special property but it is one of the properties of the Supreme Spirit. The Supreme God, Narayana uses his property of time as his instrument to enact material creation. Time is unchangeable and limitless because it is the energy of the eternal Supreme Lord. It only appears to become limited in relation to matter.

The first aspect of creation is Pradhan, the unmanifested matter. The matter inherently possesses three fundamental qualities or forces commonly known as gunas. These forces are in the state of equilibrium in the unmanifested matter. The source of the unmanifest matter is the Supreme Spirit (Brahman) which is produced by the effect of the Supreme Lord’s illusory energy (Maya). Just like how a conductor can become an insulator by adding a change agent, similarly a portion of the Supreme Spirit becomes matter through the effect of Lord’s illusory energy.

The Supreme Lord injects time property into the unmanifested matter to disturb the equilibrium of the gunas. The unmanifested matter then transforms into the manifested matter known as Prakriti; the material nature.

There are 10 different kinds of creation that take place within material nature due to the interactions of the fundamental qualities of matter (gunas).

Creations of the Supreme Lord:

1. Mahat: The ecosystem comprises conscious living beings and unconscious material elements.

2. Ahamkara: The energy that channels the living being towards false identification and subjective consciousness.

3. Tatmatrah: Mind and Intelligence, which are the sources of Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Space.

4. The foundations of sense organs.

5. The celestial gods that preside and control various sense organs. This gives an indication some of the celestial gods are the products of material energy (prakriti). The controller of Prakriti is commonly known as Durga Devi.

6. Ignorance of infallible spiritual dimension

Creations of Lord Brahma:

1. Immovable entities which are of six kinds: the fruit trees without flowers, trees and plants which exist until the fruit is ripe, creepers, pipe plants, creepers which have no support, and trees with flowers and fruits.

2. Lower species of life such as animals and birds. They live for the present moment and their knowledge is limited to acquiring food. They perceive mostly by smell and have limited memory.

3. Human beings who are dominant with passion, full of activities and take pleasure in things that lead to miseries.

4. Supernatural beings who influence various activities of material creation. There are 8 categories of supernatural beings:

   1. Gods, who are highly elevated beings

   2. Forefathers

   3. Demons

   4. Angels

   5. Benevolent Spirits

   6. The Mystics or Perfected Yogic Beings such as Adi-Yogi, Patanjali etc.

   7. Goblins

   8. Celestial Singers

As everything is manifested by the interactions of the fundamental qualities of matter, the above creations don’t happen in a serial order just as in a whirlpool in a river.