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INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
Grammarians' View : According to Patañjali, Time is the substratum of the world; it is an eternal (nitya), indivisible (akhanda), all-pervading ruling (vibhu) principle (padārtha). We cannot trace its origin. Nor can we divide it into parts. The principle by which trees, grass, creepers and other corporeal (mürtimat) substances (dravya) are seen sometimes to grow, sometimes to decline is called Time. In short, change is due to Time."' How partless Time possibly came to be divided ? Patañjali replies that although it knows no real differentiation yet through the difference of attributes, its differentiation is supposed (kalpanā) as is also the case with allpervading Ether (ākāśa). Fractioness unitary time, when all the forms of action (kriyā) are associated with it, seems to take different shapes. Associated to a particular form of action Time becomes, day; associated to another form of action it beomes night and so on. Associated to different motions of the sun, Time takes different shapes of day, night, etc.So
Bharthari considers Eternal Verbum or Logos as the Absoute. He maintains that this Absolute has the fundamental Power, Time. The notion of temporal order could not be accounted for without this Power. According to him, thus, Time is not an independent and supersensible substance. It is a Power of the Absolute. But it is to be noted that the Power and the Powerful are essentially identical. This Power has two aspects-pratibandha (also called jarā) and abhyanujñā (also called krama). The first is the preventive aspect and the second is the permissive aspect. But for the first there would result chaos, all actions or effects being simultaneous. Thus a seed, a sprout, a stem and a stalk - all would emerge and exist simultaneously. The second makes possible the projection of the sequenceless Absolute into phenomenal sequence of priority and posteriority.S? These two aspects, namely, pratibandha and abhyanujñā correspond more or less to the two aspects, namely viksepa and avarana ascribed to Avidyā by the later writers on Advaita. Time (kālasakti) is looked upon as the efficient cause (nimitta-kārana) or the causal agent (prayojaka-kartr) of the phenomenal world in its manifold phases of creation, preservation and dissolution. As Time, with the help of its two aspects, makes possible the temporal sequence in phenomenal world, we superimpose on the Time itself the temporal sequence. Succession or simultaneity are the attributes of actions or objects and not of Time
