A Bird's Eye View Of Time-Keeping Poem by Varanasi Ramabrahmam

Same date extends over two days
After the moment it dawns in the east
Before it sets in the west;

Date in the east changes
West still the same date follows;

Time keeping is
Relative to geographical location
And is not general or common to every where on globe;

At the Oval, England and Australia play
Pre-lunch session cricket;
At the same instant Sri Lanka and New Zealand play
Post-tea session cricket in Sri Lanka
We in various countries view both at different time schedules;

We must here note that spaceships and space-missions follow
Local times of respective earth stations
As there is no universal time to be kept or being kept

The same instant is not the same time
When we simultaneously observe having bird’s eye view
And our time-keeping has no relevance, use or significance
Outside our planet earth;


What is the actual or exact time of an instant?
Same instant is differently kept in various places on the globe;
Time-keeping is unique to humans
And is a ritual followed religiously;

The counting of time is
Religion-, Culture-, region-specific
Almanacs, calendars, follow respective faiths and traditions;

What we are measuring when we are keeping time?

Is it the revolutions of earth round the sun,
Or, the period since the big-bang took place?
Are we measuring anything real at all?

All counting is human creation and invention
Disappears with human civilization

The myth of existence of time
Separate from the process, event, happening, has
Pervaded our psyche;

Illusion is time’s physical existence
Influencing our lives and activities;
Non-reality is measured as reality
Non-existing thing is counted and kept ceremoniously
Celebrating events accordingly
Creating our past, present and future
From which whirlpool we come out never;

Time-keeping is civilized human activity
Imprisoning them in past, present and future;
And timelessness,
The state of bliss, peace, silence and unoccupied awareness,
When the ego, related and other mental activities abstain themselves,
Is never allowed to be experienced

Time-keeping and adhering to it is stressful and strain-causing activity,
Transcending time sense is calmness

To wriggle out of this quagmire
Is difficult and confusing;

Sense and passage of time is absent for infants, kids and other animals;
Let us be infant- or kid- like sans of ego;
Of course transcending animal nature but not the instincts;

A bird’s eye view of time-keeping thus
Makes us understand time sense and timelessness;