Kala
Kāla (IAST)Translation: "time / death"
A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy
Sanskrit: काल
Transliteration: Kāla
Translation: "time; death; fate; black"
Definition:
- According to Jainism, it is a non-individual category (Ajīva-Dravya). It has no parts (Anasti-Kāya), is beginningless, and is immaterial. It is real and the auxiliary cause of change. It is of two types: absolute time (Dravya-Kāla) and relative time (Vyāvahāra-Kāla or Samaya).
- According to Sāṅkhya, the existence of any real time is denied. Sāṅkhya considers time as the duration taken by an atom to traverse its own unit of space. Time has no existence separate from atoms and their movements.
- According to Nyāya and Vaiśeṣika schools, time is an all-pervading, part-less substance which exists by itself. It appears as many due to its association with changes which are related to it.
- According to Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta, time is an inert substance devoid of the three qualities (Guṇa). It is essential and all-pervasive. It is divided into past, present, and future. It is designated as simultaneous, immediate, long, the winking of an eye, etc. It is coordinate of Prakṛti and is comprised in Brahman, and dependent thereon.
- According to Dvaita Vedānta, it is one of the substances (Dravya). It always has a beginning and it is subject to destruction. It consists of ever-flowing time units.
- According to Śaiva schools, it is one of the fundamental categories (Tattva).
- According to Advaita Vedānta, time is the relation between the real Absolute (Brahman) and the non-real appearance of name and form (Māyā). Thus, time is phenomenal.
- According to Śaivism, it is the power that limits the universal condition of omnipotence; therefore, it is the cause of the limited agency of the individual soul.
The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
Kāla, in Indian thought, time. The universe frequently is seen as forever oscillating between order and chaos. Thus the goal of human existence, religiously conceived, tends to involve escape from time. Jainism views time as immaterial, beginning-less, and continuous (without parts), distinguishing between time as perceived (in divisions of units of our temporal measurement) and time as it inherently is (unit-less). For Sāṅkhya-Yoga, there is no time distinct from atoms, and the minimum temporal unit is the duration of an atom’s transverse of its own spatial unit. For Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika, time is a particular substance that exists independently and appears to have parts only because we perceive it through noticing distinct changes. Advaita Vedānta takes time to be only phenomenal and apparent. Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta takes time to be an inert substance dependent on Brahman, coordinate with Prakṛti (material stuff), and beginning-less.
Reference:
- Grimes, John (1996). A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English. Albany: State University of New York Press
- Audi, Robert (1999). The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Second Edition. New York: Cambridge University Press
