A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga | Page 5

when we are interested Time seems to
pass rapidly, and when we are bored it drags along in a shameful
manner. We know that when we are happy, Time develops the speed of
a meteor, while when we are unhappy it crawls like a tortoise. When
we are interested or happy our attention is largely diverted from the
changes occurring in things--because we do not notice the Things so
closely. And while we are miserable or bored, we notice the details in
Things, and their changes, until the length of time seems interminable.
A tiny insect mite may, and does, live a lifetime of birth, growth,
marriage, reproduction, old age, and death, in a few minutes, and no
doubt its life seems as full as does that of the elephant with his hundred
years. Why? _Because so many things haze happened!_ When we are
conscious of many things happening, we get the impression and
sensation of the length of time. The greater the consciousness of things,
the greater the sensation of Time. When we are so interested in talking
to a loved one that we forget all that is occurring about us, then the
hours fly by unheeded, while the same hours seem like days to one in
the same place who is not interested or occupied with some task.
Men have nodded, and in the second before awakening they have
dreamed of events that seemed to have required the passage of years.
Many of you have had experiences of this kind, and many such cases
have been recorded by science. On the other hand, one may fall asleep
and remain unconscious, but without dreams, for hours, and upon
awakening will insist that he has merely nodded. Time belongs to the
relative mind, and has no place in the Eternal or Absolute.

Next, the Intellect informs us that it must think of the Absolute as
Infinite in Space--present everywhere--Omnipresent. It cannot be
limited, for there is nothing outside of itself to limit it. There is no such
place as Nowhere. Every place is in the Everywhere. And Everywhere
is filled with the All--the Infinite Reality--the Absolute.
And, just as was the case with the idea of Time, we find it most
difficult--if not indeed impossible--to form an idea of an
Omnipresent--of That which occupies Infinite Space. This because
everything that our minds have experienced has had dimensions and
limits. The secret lies in the fact that Space, like Time, has no real
existence outside of our perception of consciousness of the relative
position of Things--material objects. We see this thing here, and that
thing there. Between them is Nothingness. We take another object, say
a yard-stick, and measure off this Nothingness between the two objects,
and we call this measure of Nothingness by the term Distance. And yet
we cannot have measured Nothingness--that is impossible. What have
we really done? Simply this, determined how many lengths of
yard-stick could be laid between the other two objects.
We call this process measuring Space, but Space is Nothing, and we
have merely determined the relative position of objects. To "measure
Space" we must have three Things or objects, _i.e._, (l) The object
from which we start the measure; (2) The object with which we
measure; and (3) The object with which we end our measurement. We
are unable to conceive of Infinite Space, because we lack the third
object in the measuring process--the ending object. We may use
ourselves as a starting point, and the mental yard-stick is always at
hand, but where is the object at the other side of Infinity of Space by
which the measurement may be ended? It is not there, and we cannot
think of the end without it.
Let us start with ourselves, and try to imagine a million million miles,
and then multiply them by another million million miles, a million
million times. What have we done? Simply extended our mental
yard-stick a certain number of times to an imaginary point in the
Nothingness that we call Space. So far so good, but the mind intuitively
recognizes that beyond that imaginary point at the end of the last
yard-stick, there is a capacity for an infinite extension of
yard-sticks--an infinite capacity for such extension. Extension of what?

Space? No! Yard-sticks! Objects! Things! Without material objects
Space is unthinkable. It has no existence outside of our consciousness
of Things. There is no such thing as Real Space. Space is merely an
infinite capacity for extending objects. Space itself is merely a name for
Nothingness. If you can form an idea of an object swept out of
existence, and nothing to take its place, that Nothing would be called
Space, the term implying the possibility of placing something there
without displacing anything else.
Size, of course, is but another