Time
Time has long been an important subject of study in religion, philosophy, and science. According to science, time is one of the seven fundamental physical quantities. Time is often referred to as a fourth dimension. Read on to understand what Jainism have to say about time.
Samay
The smallest unit of time which cannot be further divided into 2 parts even by the mind of a person who has attained purest spiritual knowledge is called as Samay.
Units of Time
Aggregation of different quantities of samays gives various unit of time.
Avalika
Innumerable samays make an avalika
Muhurta
1 Muhurta is 48 minutes. It consists of more than 1,67,77,216 samays. 1 Muhurta consists of 2 ghadis.
Antar Muhurta
Any amount of time less than 48 minutes is known as Antar muhurta. Antar muhurta are of three types:
1. Small Antar Muhurta — Time between 2 to 9 samay.
2. Medium Antar Muhurta — Larger than 9 samays upto sayams less than a Muhurat.
3. Large Antar Muhurta — 1 samay less than a muhurta
Other Quantities
See the table below for other quantities
Larger units of time
Larger units of time are measured through analogies. For example, see palyopam below:
Palyopam
Imagine a pit which is 1 yojana tall, 1 yojana broad and 1 yojana deep. Imagine filling this pit with the hair of new born child in Uttarkuru and Devkuru — after cutting into 8 pieces, 7 times (according to 1 Angul if we take 1 hair then each hair is broken into 20,97,152 pieces) the pit should be filled densely with such minute hairs that air cannot make it fly, water cannot enter into it and fire cannot burn it. Even if 12 Yojana long army walks on it, it does not get suppressed. The time taken to empty such whole densely filled pit when 1 hair is removed in 100 years is known as Baadar Addha Palyopam.
As pit described above, make innumerable pieces of one hair and fill the pit and removes single hair in every 100 years. The time taken to empty this pit is known as Sukhsham Addha Palyopam.
Total number of Dweep and Ocean are equal to the Samay of 25 Koda Kodi Sukshma Addha Palyopam. When living beings attain Samyaktva then the remaining sansaar is maximum of Addha Pudal Paravarta Kaal which is known with the expectation of Sukshama Kshetra Pudgal Paravarta.
Kaal Chakra — Utsarpinni and Avsarpinni
The Kaal (time) in which strength, intellect, life span all goes on increasing such Kaal is called as Utsarpinni Kaal. The Kaal (time) in which strength, intellect, life span all goes on decreasing such Kaal is called as Avsarpinni Kaal.
When the total of any era of Avsarpinni and any one era of Utsarpinni is equal to 7 then they are equal era. For example 3rd era of Avsarpinni is same as 4th era of Utsarpinni. The description of Mahvideh Kshetra should be always known as 4th era of Avsarpinni Kaal.
Details of Era of Avsarpinni (in the era of Utsarpinni, understand in the reverse way).
Conclusion
