A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

THE ABSOLUTE AND MANIFESTATION. 223question is what is this time, spaceand causation. TheAdvaita means Don-duality ;there are no two, but one.Now we see that here is a propositionthat the Absolutei^ manifesting itself as many through the veil of time,space and causation. Therefore, it seems that there aretwo, this Absolute, and Maya (the sum-total of time,spaceand causation). It seems apparently a very convincinganswer that there are two. To which the Advaitist repliesthat it cannot be called two. To have two we must have twoindependent existences, just as that of the Absolute whichcannot be caused. In the first place, this time, space andcausation cannot be said to be an independent existence.Time isentirelyevery changera dependent existence it ; changes withof our mind. Sometimes in a dream oneimagines that he has lived several years ; at other timesseveral months were passed as one second. So that timehas entire dependence on the state you are in. Secondly,the idea of time vanishes altogether sometimes, andcomes at others. So with space, we cannot know whatspaceis. Yet it is there, indefinable, and cannotlive separate from anythingelse. So with causation.One peculiar attribute we find in all this time, spaceand causation, is that they cannot live separate fromother things. Try to think of space which has neithercolour, nor limits, nor any connection with the thingsaround, just abstract space.You cannot think of it ; youhave to think of it as the space between two limits, or between three objects. It has to cling on to some object tohave its existence. So with time ; you cannot have anyidea of abstract time, but you have to take two events, onepreceding, and the other succeeding, and join the two eventsby the idea of time. Time depends on two events, just asspace is always clinging on to two objects outside. And