The Connection Between Emotions & Our Understanding Of Time

In this 1981 talk outside of Chicago, Gururaj Ananda Yogi responds to a question about how fear seems to change how we perceive time. He gives insight into both the nature of time and how emotions cloud our perceptions of reality.

Transcript

Fear and time have no real relationship.

Fear and time have no real relationship,

And that relationship is just because of the illusion the mind goes through.

Time for example,

When you stand to watch the kettle boil,

It always seems that the kettle takes longer to boil.

Why?

Because the mind has a certain expectation that the water must boil now.

And with that expectation,

You have impatience.

And because impatience is there,

The water seems to take longer to boil.

A boy and girl is in love with each other.

Two hours pass,

And they think it was only two minutes that had gone by.

Fear is an emotion.

The relationship with boy and girl is also an emotion,

Which we call love.

Impatience is also an emotion.

So where emotions are concerned,

We have a distortion of time.

Four,

What we are going through at that moment determines our sense of time.

Yet,

If we do go beyond the realms of time,

Then we are in an area called timelessness.

How do we reach that area of timelessness?

As we explained in the love affair,

You enter a state of timelessness where two hours seems to be two minutes.

You'd find that in meditation,

With time,

If you're really meditating properly,

The time just flies and you do not notice the passage of time.

So love is something which is beyond emotion.

Affection is an emotion,

But real,

Supreme love is not an emotion,

But it becomes a meditation.

Therefore,

Time is not noticed.

Now,

What is the reality of time?

Does time really exist?

Time only exists in man's mind.

Now,

Fear can trigger off the length of time,

Or it can shorten time,

Because fear,

Being an emotion,

Is related to various other emotions.

So the measurement of time is related to a person's feelings and emotions,

Which is governed by the limitations of our mind.

So when we transcend or go beyond the limitations of the mind,

We are in an area of timelessness.

Now,

Time itself is an illusion.

Time is made by man because man is fashioned to think in a linear fashion,

In a linear way.

It proceeds from A,

B,

To C,

To D.

Now,

Wherever time is concerned,

There has to be space,

For time is also a kind of spacing out,

And that spacing out is a quality of the mind,

Wherein all these emotions are contained.

So if man transcends time,

He also automatically transcends space.

When you are in a hurry to reach somewhere with your car,

It seems to take so much longer,

Yet the distance traveled is the same as that has to be traveled.

If Chicago is 40 miles away from here,

It is not going to be 41 miles,

And yet in that impatience,

We are in a hurry,

It seems so far away,

When are we going to reach there?

So with that emotion,

The other emotion that comes into play is desire.

We desire to be there quickly.

So impatience also produces desire.

If you want to meet someone that you love,

And the journey seems so far,

You become so impatient within yourself,

That when am I going to see my beloved?

Why is this journey taking so long?

And yet the journey is the same.

Now these are various examples.

What I am trying to say is that not only fear,

But all the other emotions that are in man's mind determines time for him.

Now,

Worldly time,

To repeat again,

Is in a linear fashion.

But when we reach timelessness,

We operate in a vertical fashion.

Not a horizontal,

But a vertical,

Where all events are happening here and now in that one moment.

I was here four months ago,

Came back,

And to me it feels that if I was not even gone,

The dear friend of mine sitting here in the audience tells me when he comes and picks me up at the airport,

He says,

Guruji,

When I come and pick you up at the airport,

I don't feel that I've really come and fetch you,

Because you've never been away.

So how can I come and fetch you?

Hmm?

And here it is.

So time is a fixture of the mind,

And time has caused plenty of problems in man's mind.

Because the very fear that Phyllis has spoken about has one basis only.

All fear has one basis,

And that is the fear of death.

All of the fears come from the root fear of death,

And therefore we become so conscious of time.

How when we fear death,

We immediately think how long are we going to live?

When we reach 50,

Which I'm reaching this Saturday,

One would think that how many more years to go?

But if I turn my attention to my inner self,

Then I know and experience that I'm eternal.

What are these 50 years in the entire scheme of things?

I had no beginning and I shall have no end,

For I am beginless and endless.

And so it's each and every one of you.

Ah,

So fear brings about the quality of attachment.

So you are attached to this body,

And you say,

Well,

I've lived 50,

I'm not going to live 50,

Another 50 again.

So with the attachment,

The fear becomes greater and greater and more powerful.

Now the question remains,

How do we get rid of the fear?

How do we get rid of our conception of linear time,

Horizontal time,

To the area of vertical time?

Now that is the question.

Now we have seen that time is based on the mind,

Of the little conscious mind.

And the conscious mind is forever conscious of time,

Because society is so regulated that you have to be the opposite of the state.

You watch the clock,

And it's nearly quarter to five,

Twenty to five,

Nineteen minutes to five,

And then quarter to five,

The clock,

And then you're off again,

You're waiting for time.

And when you wait for that quarter to five to leave the office,

How much have you not thought of time before?

You've been worrying about the time since four o'clock already.

And by worrying about time since four o'clock,

What productivity was there?

Because your mind is occupied with the conception of time,

When is it going to be quarter to five?

So three-quarters of an hour has been wasted by yourself and also wasting your employer's money,

Because you have not given full attention.

You see,

Like that,

We lose efficiency.

And when we lose efficiency in our work,

More fear comes about.

When we start fearing,

I've been less efficient and more inefficient,

And fear grows more and more.

So fear is not a quality or an emotion that stands on its own.

It has so many relatives that we have just described.

So now how to get rid of the entire Bangalot fear and all its relatives?

That is our problem.

Now,

As we get more and more established in spiritual practices,

We will lose the sense of time.

For in that expansion,

We approach the vertical layer of time,

Where everything happens here and now.

Everything happens here and now,

And that experience is gained because we have gone beyond mind,

Or rather to the super-conscious level of the mind.

Now when we reach the super-conscious level of the mind and lose the sense of time as two lovers do,

Then fear vanishes,

Impatience vanishes,

Intolerance vanishes,

Inefficiency goes.

And they are automatically substituted by the opposites of these negative qualities.

Now the greatest thing to fear in practical life is fear.

The greatest thing to fear is fear,

Nothing else.

Why fear losing your job?

Why?

There is another one available.

If you are efficient enough and you know your job,

You will find another one.

Why fear it?

Easy.

So when we lose fear,

When we lose the sense of inefficiency,

When we lose the chains that bind us,

The shackles of time,

When we lose that,

Life assumes a different quality.

And then slowly you start experiencing the meaning of what eternity is.

For each and every one of us is eternal.

There is no death.

Life has no opposite.

Life has no opposite.

Emotions have opposites.

Emotions are governed by the law of opposites.

But not life.

Life is eternal.

There is no death.

It goes on and on and on.

And when this cycle,

The cycle of this present universe ends,

Another cycle begins.

And yet that force of life,

That is you,

Will be continuously there.

Death,

Which is the root of fear,

Is a great,

Great blessing.

It's a great blessing.

Your old suit gets worn and tattered,

So you shed it,

Put on a new suit.

That's all that it is.

Just a transformation,

Going out of the satsang room into the dining room.

That's all.

You're still in technitours.

You have not moved away out of technitours.

You have not moved away from the structure or the entirety of this universe.

What has happened?

That energies have been shifted around.

The energy,

Which you call your body now,

Has been transformed or transmuted into a finer energy.

So,

It all remains.

He is indestructible.

And because it is indestructible,

It is eternal.

And because it is eternal,

It cannot have a beginning.

And that which has no beginning can have no end.

So on we go.

Now with these thoughts of the immortality,

Which is you,

Why should there be any fear?

Why?

What do you fear?

There is no death.

It's a transformation.

Once that fear goes away,

You will find that all the other fears go away.

You fear walking down a dark street.

Why?

Because you are attached to the idea of death.

That some hoodlums will attack me and I'll get mugged or killed.

But if you have that understanding that there is no death,

You'll walk down the darkest street.

You'll sleep in the darkest room and you'd have no fear because that life force is there all the time.

So if we get rid of the fear of death,

Then all fears automatically disappear.

And then,

If fear is such an illusory thing,

It brings about with it so many different kinds of imaginations.

So a mother loses a daughter,

She passes over.

She's transformed into another being,

Another entity.

And she fears for the daughter.

How would she be on the other side?

What is she doing?

Why should that fear be there of her well-being?

She is always well because she is not dead.

Life is immortal and shall always be so.

As I said,

It's like changing clothes.

So one day I want to put on a white shirt,

Tomorrow I'll put on a blue shirt,

Day after a yellow shirt,

Or a green shirt,

Or whatever.

It's also in time.

This time here,

This limited conception of time,

Which is not real.

So time assumes reality only in your mind.

Otherwise,

You are timeless.

Now if we approach it from that angle,

And as I said,

All fear vanishes.

The greatest enemy of man,

Which he has created himself in the form of fear,

Vanishes.

Then life becomes tranquil.

Life starts enjoying the joy which it really is.

Your life's own nature is none else but joy.

Reviews

I liked the speed of your voice. Gives you a moment to reflect on the concept of what you are teaching.

We are timeless, truly, for time is nothing but illusion! <3

Odd little talk but very appropriate for me on this day as I was sat outside with my husband earlier this evening and I said I had no idea what time it is and I had no need to know! Thank you for sharing! 😊

Fascinating talk on time perception

Very wise teachings,

Beautiful as always ❤️🙏

Great reminder that we have nothing to really be afraid of 🤷🏽‍♀️

"Time is an illuuuusion"- Guru Pateek from Avatar Last Air Bender. Lol a thorough contemplation. Thank you

That was amazing, and so true. I jokingly refer to it as my “meatsuit.” Nothing permanent. So many great things to think about. 🙏🏻 Thank you.

Profound. Thank you 🙏🏻

Brilliant 💫masterclass 💫for all of us! Thanks 🙏 💫

Very enlightening 🤔

Love this. Was talking about fear with a networking group a couple of weeks ago and again with my class at church this morning. l love Guru's explanation of the fear of death and how that relates to all fear. Good stuff! It's amazing the amount of fear children have but even more amazing is the fear adults carry around!!

Very nice. 🙏🏽🐾🌺💕💐🦋💔

Very Interesting.

Always enlightening. 🌺🙏🏻

Very enlightening..?