Time Cannot Be Owned Reflections on the Most Precious Thing We Never Possess By Dr B.S. Chakravarthy

Time Cannot Be Owned

Reflections on the Most Precious Thing We Never Possess

By Dr B.S. Chakravarthy 

Time is free, but it is priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it, you can never get it back.

There is something extraordinary about time. We wake up inside it, live through it, fear it, celebrate it, waste it, remember it, and finally surrender to it. Yet no one has ever touched time. No one has held it in the palm. No one has stored it in a bank. No king, scientist, saint, or billionaire has owned even one second of yesterday.

And still, time shapes everything. A child becomes an adult. A student becomes a doctor. Parents grow old. Institutions rise and fade. Relationships deepen or disappear. Dreams either become work or remain regret. Time is invisible, yet it leaves marks on every face, every memory, every hospital ward, every classroom, every family photograph.

The world often sees time as a resource. Something to manage, optimize, schedule, and divide. We speak of saving time, killing time, wasting time, spending time. But these expressions hide a deeper truth. Time is not merely something outside us. Time is also how life is experienced inside us.

Childhood: When Time Was Vast

In childhood, time feels endless. Summer holidays feel like a separate universe. A single festival fills the heart for weeks. One evening of play seems complete in itself. Why? Because the child lives with full attention. Every experience is fresh. Every small thing is new. The mind records deeply.

As adults, years sometimes pass like weeks. We cannot remember what we did last month. Routine compresses memory. Distraction fragments experience. When attention is shallow, life feels short. When attention is deep, even a small moment expands.

This may be one of the secrets of time. The clock measures duration, but awareness measures life.

The World Measures Time by Clocks

Modern civilization is built around the clock. School time. Office time. Hospital rounds. OPD timings. Examination schedules. Deadlines. Meetings. Flights. Appointments. The clock has helped humanity organize itself. Without it, society would collapse into confusion.

But the clock also creates pressure. A child is rushed to school. A parent is rushed to work. A doctor is rushed through patients. A student is rushed toward examinations. Everyone is moving. Everyone is busy. Yet many remain strangely empty.

Because movement is not meaning. Activity is not awareness. Speed is not wisdom.

Ten minutes outside an ICU may feel like an hour to a worried parent. Three hours with family may pass like a few minutes. One minute of fear stretches endlessly. One hour of meditation may feel timeless. The clock remains the same, but human experience changes completely.

The Gap

The world says, “Use time efficiently.” Wisdom says, “Live time deeply.” Society says, “Do more.” Inner life says, “Be present.” Society rewards productivity. Life rewards meaning.

This is the gap. We master schedules but lose presence. We achieve goals but miss conversations. We build careers but postpone affection. We secure the future but sometimes forget to live today.

Many people do not suffer because they lack time. They suffer because their time is scattered. Their body is in one place, mind in another, heart somewhere else.

Lessons from Pediatrics

As a pediatrician, I have seen time in its most delicate form. A premature baby in NICU teaches the sacredness of minutes. One breath matters. One feed matters. One gram of weight gain matters. Parents waiting outside do not think in months or years. They live hour by hour, sometimes minute by minute.

Then the same child returns months later, smiling, growing, moving, sometimes running. Suddenly time feels miraculous. What was once fragile becomes playful. What was once uncertain becomes life.

Hospitals teach that time is not abstract. Time is oxygen. Time is diagnosis. Time is intervention. Time is recovery. Time is also presence, compassion, and reassurance.

Parents Understand Time Late

Many parents say, “I was busy earning for my children.” It is true. Responsibility matters. Work matters. Stability matters. But one day, the child who held our finger leaves for college. The house becomes quiet. The room remains, but childhood has moved on.

Then we realize that children do not grow once a year. They grow every day. A missed story, a postponed walk, an avoided conversation, a forgotten hug — these are not small losses. They are fragments of life that never return.

Time first teaches gently. Later it teaches permanently.

The Student and the Illusion of Tomorrow

Students often believe there is always time. Tomorrow becomes next week. Next week becomes examination season. Suddenly stress arrives. But time did not move suddenly. It was moving silently all along. Only awareness arrived late.

Knowledge grows slowly. Character grows slowly. Health grows slowly. Institutions grow slowly. Trust grows slowly. Nothing meaningful is built in panic. Time rewards those who respect it early.

Technology and the Theft of Attention

Today the greatest competition is not merely for money. It is for attention. Every notification wants a piece of our life. Every screen asks for our time. Algorithms do not simply entertain us; they quietly occupy our consciousness.

Where attention goes, life goes. If we spend hours in anger, life becomes anger. If we spend hours learning, life becomes wisdom. If we spend hours serving, life becomes compassion. If we spend hours comparing, life becomes dissatisfaction.

Time shapes identity because repeated attention becomes personality.

The Spiritual Meaning of Time

Indian wisdom repeatedly reminds us that truth is not elsewhere. It is not only in the past or future. It is revealed through awareness in the present.

Asato ma sadgamaya — from untruth to truth. Tamaso ma jyotirgamaya — from darkness to light. This journey is not only through calendar time. It is through clarity.

When the mind is lost in regret, it lives in the past. When it trembles with fear, it lives in the future. When it becomes silent and aware, it touches the present. And in that present, there is peace.

The River of Life

Time is like a river. We cannot hold the water. We cannot step into the same river twice. The flow continues. Yesterday has already dissolved. Tomorrow has not yet arrived. Only this moment touches us directly.

Yet human beings live mostly elsewhere. The mind revisits yesterday. It imagines tomorrow. Meanwhile today quietly disappears. This is the silent tragedy of life.

We possess only the present, but spend most of our energy outside it.

What Time Finally Teaches

Time teaches impermanence. Parents age. Children grow. Students become teachers. Teachers retire. Positions change. Bodies change. Success changes. Sorrow changes. Nothing remains fixed.

At first this feels painful. Later it becomes wisdom. If everything remained forever, would love have urgency? Would birthdays matter? Would reunions matter? Would gratitude matter?

Impermanence does not reduce the value of life. It gives life its value.

How Should We Live?

Perhaps life does not ask us to become perfect. It asks us to become aware.

Call parents. Listen to children. Teach sincerely. Serve honestly. Read deeply. Rest without guilt. Work with attention. Pray with feeling. Walk slowly sometimes. Watch the sky. Sit with silence. Speak kindly. Forgive earlier. Begin important work today.

Because ordinary moments become extraordinary only after they are gone.

My Understanding

As I grow older, I feel time is not merely clock movement. Time is life expressing itself. A child growing. A student learning. A patient recovering. A mother smiling. A department evolving. A thought becoming an article. A life becoming service.

We cannot keep life. We can only live it. Beautifully. Consciously. Fully.

One day all roles will change — doctor, teacher, father, student, administrator. They will pass like seasons. But something silently witnesses all change. That witnessing awareness gives depth to time. Perhaps this is why sages spoke of timelessness. Not because clocks stop, but because awareness discovers something deeper than clocks.

There is a still point inside movement. A silence inside sound. A timeless presence inside change.

Time is free, yet priceless. We never own it. We merely receive it for a while. What we do with that gift becomes our life.

— Dr B.S. Chakravarthy