Time and Space do not have an existence independent of your mind

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Acharya Prashant (AP): Time and Space are nothing but the mind. They do not have an existence independent of your mind. So, whenever a question arises concerning something which is reducible to time and space, then just know that it is nothing but a process of the mind.

What all is time and space:

– ‘Why’- Because why implies cause and effect. Effect means that which comes after cause. So, ‘time’ comes in. Hence, no question concerning ‘why’ is a REAL question. Do you understand? The moment you ask ‘why’, you have assumed time to be real. And time is just your mind.

– ‘Where’ — Space

– ‘When’- Time again

The only real question is then ‘WHAT’. To ask for ‘what is’ is to ask for Reality.

But there is a catch.

One can ask ‘What is time’, ‘What is the world’ etc. etc. Now time and world are in the mind. So they take away the potency of the what. Hence, you see the best question that can be asked is ‘What is mind?’ This is the utmost that the mind can ask.

This same question gets rephrased as ‘Who am I?’, this, and ‘What is Mind?’ are just the same questions.

So, when a scientist observes the various physical phenomenon, all he is observing is the motion of the vast mind. His ego will make him feel that ‘he’ is observing the ‘world’. But the fact is that it’s a witness observing the universal mind. The universal mind, which is both the projector and the screen, the subject, and the object. The ego would, however, make the scientist forget the subject part of his observation. When observing the pendulum, he would be so occupied with the pendulum that he would forget the observer, the subject.

All that which happens in the realm of this mind is called unreal. You would have understood the reason. It’s a world of duality. You see matter because the mind is configured to see matter. Could the configuration of the mind be changed, the world would altogether change.

So, there is nothing ‘fundamental’ in the world of mind. Does that answer your question? Because the…