History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.16

v6.c82.16

The Maitrī Upanisad⁶⁵⁸ has a long but somewhat rambling disquisition on time (VI. 14-16). It first says "Then it has been said elsewhere 'Food is indeed the source of this whole world, and time of food; the Sun is the source of time'. Then a little later on it proceeds "Thus one has said 'From Time flow beings, from Time they reach growth, and in Time they come to disappear; Time is a form (i. e has definite shape or limits) and is (also) formless" Then it propounds 'There are indeed two forms of *brahma*, Time and Timeless. That which is prior to the Sun is Timeless (form of Brahma) and it is without parts. But that which begins with the Sun is Time that has parts, year is the form of the Time that has parts All these beings are produced from the year, through the year these beings when born grow, and they disappear in the year Therefore the year is Prajāpati, is time, is food, is Brahma nest (or abode) and is Ātman And it has been said 'Time cooks (ripens or digests) all beings in the Great Self, that man knows the (real import of) Veda who knows that in which Time is cooked". Here the Maitrī Up speaks of Time in its two senses, contains the germ of the later conception of the experience of Time as due to the actions or movements of the Sun, and refers to Time in the same terms in which the Tai. Up (III 1) speaks of *brahma* It is unnecessary to set out passages from other Upaniṣads such as the Mahānārāyaṇa (XI 14 aham-eva kālo nāham kālasya) where Kāla is identified with God (Nārāyaṇa)⁶⁵⁹