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might see a dream from your childhood right up to your old age, with all the events, incidents. But in the waking state it will be hard to believe that such a long dream lasted not more than a minute. Actually, the time dimension in the dream state is very different. Dream time is capable of having many, many incidents in a very short span; hence, the illusion.
Now, there are insects that are born in the morning and are dead by the evening. We say, "The poor creatures!" -- but we do not know that in that span of time such an insect lives out life in its entirety, and it experiences all that we experience in seventy years. There is no difference: such an insect builds a house, finds a wife, has children, fights with others, and even reaches the state of sannyas -- all within twelve hours. But their perception of time is different. We pity them for the short life granted to them, and they must be pitying us that we take seventy years to do all that they can do within a period of twelve hours. How dull we must be according to them!
Time is dependent on mind; it is a mental entity. The length of time fluctuates according to the states of our mind. When you are happy, time becomes short. When you are in trouble or pain, time becomes very long. When you are sitting at the deathbed of some relative, the night never seems to end; it seems as if the sun will never rise. It seems as if it is the last night of the world and it will never end, the sun will never rise. Sorrow prolongs time. In sorrow you want time to pass quickly. The keener you expect the time to pass the slower it seems to creep, because this is a relative experience, though time is actually moving at its normal speed. When a lover awaits his beloved he feels she is taking too long to come, when actually she is walking at her normal pace. He wants her to have the speed of an airplane.
So time appears slow in sorrow. When you are happy, when you meet your friends or loved ones, you spend the night talking and at daybreak you wonder how the night passed so quickly. Perception of time is different in moments of happiness and of sorrow.
Time is dependent on mind; therefore, changes
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