The Calamity of Time

Sri Rāma

1. -2. People with mean mind and little intelligence rattle and babble about their meaningless fancies and imaginations. Thus causing unrestrained division, and differentiation (of the Supreme), they get dragged into the cave of "samsara". How can virtuous and men of knowledge enter into such a cave? Only children crave for fruits reflected in a mirror.

3. -4. Time itself tears away those who look for happiness in this world alone, like a rat which nibbles at the threads. There is nothing in this world which is not a prey for Time. Time is a devourer of everything. It is like the ocean fire devouring a rising ocean.

5. -7. By his very nature, Lord Time, is fierce. He preserves in swallowing everything of this phenomenal world. This god does not protect even the greatest even for a moment. By swallowing all things in the world, he attains the Supreme Selfhood. Manifesting as years, yugas, and kalpas and insignificant forms, Time ceases bit by bit, everything in the world.

8. -12. By this time, all things beautiful, big like "Meru" , and great initiatives are attacked and swallowed like snakes by "Garuda".There is no one who is not devoured by Time. The merciless, the cruel, the harsh, the lowly , the deceitful - name anyone - all are devoured by Time. Lord Time can swallow things simultaneously. This great devourer is not satisfied even with the swallowing of the infinite universes. Time siezes, destroys, creates and swallows. He performs the dance of "Samsara" wearing myriad forms, Time is nibbling at the seeds of beings in the worlds, like a parrot which nibbles at the seeds of a pomegranate.

13. -16. The elephant of Time thunders and shakes blue lotuses of people. The tender leaf-like people are shaken by the tusks called auspicious and inauspicious deeds. This universe conceived and created by Brahma, is a huge fruit bearing tree. The forest of Brahman is spread over extensively by a repetition and satiation of such trees. Lord Time has designed years and kalpas, filled with flowers of days and bees of night. He is never sorry for his designs. He never breaks down even when torn. He is never burnt even though burnt. He is seen through when he has vanished. He is a king od deceit.

17. -22. As in the kingdom of mind, Time also destroys and restores a thing in a minute through elegant, ineligant, difficult and cruel actions, Time whirls people around. Selfishly, time appropriates everything from straw , dust, mountain and full seas to itself. Time is full of cruelty, avarice, and all such unfortunate charectersitics and properties which are intolerable and fickle. Time plays ball with sun and moon in the sky like children in the backyard of their house. Lord Time destroys all beings at the time of dissolution, wears their bones and sports around.

23. -27. The great turbulence that emerges out of Time at the instant of dissolution, blows and sweeps off even "Meru" into the sky like dry leaves which are blown out by air. This Lord Time becomes, at times, "Rudra", "Mahendra", "Pitamaha" and "Indra". Other times, he does not have any form. Time relentlessly creates and destroys, with great resplendance, from great trees called "mahakalpas", Time drops ripe fruits called "Devas" and "Asuras". From the "Udumbara" tree called Time, the fruits of universes are dropping. Beings are the mosquitoes on this tree of Time.

28. -31. The one, the Supreme, plays with the body together with his dearest friend, the Action, the way the consciousness-moonlight brings to bloom, the lotus of existence. The configuration of Time, is infinite and shoreless in extent. It stands tall like a huge mountain. By nature, Time is at times, the darkest of the dark. At times, it is effulgent and at times it is empty and void. Time moves along constrained and restrained paths with its huge earth-like weight, with its own power, and as the essence of the inumerable universes submerged in it.

32. -36. Time neither grieves for, nor welcomes anything that comes or goes. It neither sets nor rises even when hundreds of "kalpas" elapse. Time fosters itself by itself, without any ego, playing the sport of creation. Time is like a lake with red lotuses of days with bees of clouds hovering about. The miser of Time collects with the broom of night the golden dust off the mountains. Time, the miserly one, peeps and combs every corner of this world-house with the hand-lamp of sunlight.

37. -41. Time devours the decaying forests of worlds, opening its eye of sun. Time keeps in the casket of death, the pearls of men in the house of the dilapidated world.Time wears these pearls as necklaces, and in no time, pulls them out and scatters around. Time wears a garland of lotuses called night which is followed by swans called day. Stars are the filaments of these lotuses. Time is the butcher of the ram of the world with horns of mountains, oceans, earth and peaks. It drinks the blood of the ram, drop by drop, seeing through the eyes called stars.

42. -45. Time is like moon for lotuses. It is a lion for the elephant of life. It is the most contemptible and meanest of thieves. Indulging in the sport of dissolution, Time crushes and casts people down. It enjoys within itself, its sense of void and emptiness. Time is the actor, enjoyer, destroyer and the memoriser of this universe. Time manifests and hides in many ways and forms of the auspicious and inauspicious kind. This tyrant sports and delights in its mind.