Everything that has been created shall be destroyed one day and everything that has been destroyed shall be recreated. This creation and destruction are like two sides of a coin and one cannot exist without the other, as in the case of all other dualities. This process of creation and destruction is a continuous process which follows a set pattern or definite set of rules. The human mind is capable of predicting or foreseeing this change or pattern and calculate the speed or rate at which this change will take place. ‘Time’ is this speed or rate at which this change takes place. It is relative and differs according to the person, object or situation. For example, a billion years for you may be just a moment for somebody, and vice-versa.

Also, you may experience a life of a 100 years in a dream that lasts just a few hours or a 100 years of your real life may appear to you just like a dream of a few hours. Time is the greatest creator and destroyer. Without time, this whole universe will collapse into non-duality, i.e. it will become neither alive nor dead, neither light nor darkness, neither good nor evil, and so on. It is the force/dimension or space that keeps two sides of the dualities which are equal to each other – away. Without it, both will collide and annihilate or destroy each other and become non-dual. Time has fascinated mankind since time immemorial. Such is the importance of time that Lord Krishna has, at several places, including the Bhagavad Gita, stated that, “I am Time”.

Another name of Lord Shiva is Mahakaal or ‘Great Time’, a fact known to everybody. Now the question arises in our mind: If ‘Time’ is ‘God’ himself, then what is the best form of devotion or worship that we can offer? One answer is that all living beings are already worshipping Time or God relentlessly through their work or actions. No living being can remain without work even for a moment. Even when you are sleeping, you are converting oxygen into carbon dioxide through breathing, which is food for plants and trees in the same way as oxygen is food for you. In similar manner, all other plants and animals are also working relentlessly all the time and offering their prayers to ‘Time’ or ‘God’. Every living being starts working relentlessly from the day it is born to the day it dies and even its dead body becomes an offering or food for some other organism.

There is no need for any other form of worship physically, apart from what you are already doing and neither is it expected by ‘God’ or ‘Time’. But the said worship is not a true worship because it has not been offered to God or Time out of your own sweet will. You offer this worship only out of fear of death or punishment. True worship or devotion to God is when you offer the same worship selflessly, that is, without any fear or expectation and not under compulsion of nature. A person can become selfless and fearless only when he realizes that there is nothing to achieve or lose in this world. Such a realization can only be attained when you understand that all the dualities, including creation and destruction, are equal to each other like two sides of a coin.

In other words, whatever has been created shall be destroyed and whatever has been destroyed shall be recreated. Similar is the case of all other dualities, like life-death, happiness-sorrow, good-evil, light-darkness, and so on, as one side of duality cannot exist without an equal amount of the other. A person who does not understand the above Truth, keeps moving restlessly like waves between the dualities of life-death, good-evil, happiness-sorrow, light-darkness, and so on, while the person who understands the above Truth, becomes peaceful and calm like an ocean, as he understands that there is nothing to achieve or lose in this world. Such a person makes all his offerings to ‘God’ or ‘Time’ without any expectation or fear, and in turn, is given the ultimate reward by God, in the form of ultimate peace.