Question
I understand that consciousness always exists and perceives reality in the present moment. The past is related only to
material objects/matter and the same is true of the future.In the spiritual world, there is no past or future; everything exists eternally in the present. This phenomenon is very difficult to grasp. I would be extremely grateful for any explanations that could help me better understand this topic.
Answer
1. We have to distinguish between a larger spiritual sense of past-present-future, and way it functions in this world.
2. In this world, the past has literally passed. It doesn’t exist anymore. Sanskrit atīta (ati-ita). Thus the body I had yesterday doesn’t exist anymore, nor the French Revolution, nor the last Dvāparā-yuga. In contrast, in the spiritual world there is a sense of yesterday or days before that, but nothing is lost. No one’s body decayed, no one died, no beautiful relationships were broken by death or misunderstanding.
3. The same for the future, Sanskrit bhaviṣyat, literally, “that which will exist (but doesn’t exist now.) In this world, for things of the future simply don’t exist now. But in the spiritual world, again, there is passing of days and nights, everything that will be already is.
4. Someone may find this unsatisfying, but when I was young and happy I didn’t “need” to become older. When a person is happy in a loving relationship, they don’t “need” for their partner to die, or turn against them, or just age into ugliness.
Conclusion: the sense of past, present, and future are not intrinsically material, and do not necessarily entail loss of things that were, or gain of things that don’t yet exist. That is the spiritual world.
