Seeing Time Through Divine Eyes

We always measure time by our small human duration; but naturally the divine forces do not have the same measure as ours, and what may seem to us long or uncertain is for them the most direct way, in spite of everything, to reach there. In the given set of circumstances it is the most direct way to reach the goal: this goal is the expression of the divine Will, whatever it may be. So what seems to us, for instance, a long, tortuous, uncertain road seems so because we do not see the whole picture because we see only a very tiny part which is in our proportion. Our vision is very very short, very short behind, very short in front. I mean the ordinary human vision. For example, there isn’t one man in a million who can say what is going to happen to him ten years hence, though he may make many plans and projects and try to organise his life; but he can’t say with certitude what will happen, because his vision is very short. The divine vision is not like that.

It [human vision] is very short, very limited in space, very linear; this means that things follow one after another; while the vision of the Divine is a global vision which sees the problem in all its totality, not only on the surface but in the depths also, and contains all the elements of the problem and resolves it without neglecting any points. But man follows a straight line and all that escapes his straight line and which he does not care for would not be done if it were he who decided things; whereas the march of the Divine is a global march which takes in the whole universe in its entirety and goes forward on the most direct road in relation to this universe and this set of circumstances. And the most direct road may be circular, it is not necessarily a straight line.

Ref : Questions and Answers 1954