Bliss Beyond Time: The Philosophy of Being

 Bliss Beyond Time: The Philosophy of Being

As Vijay sipped his whiskey in the dimly lit corner of his study, the room bathed in the warm glow of a single lamp, he gazed at the lines in his weathered palm. Each crease seemed to him like a fragment of time—fixed, immovable, yet etched with stories of laughter, despair, and fleeting triumphs. The glass in his hand reflected his face faintly, much like his own musings on the nature of existence—blurred, fractured, yet undeniably real.

To Vijay, the universe was a tapestry of events woven into the unyielding structure of a block—a cosmic stage where all moments, past and future, stood simultaneously in perfect harmony. He had once grappled with the idea during a lecture on relativity, but now, it had become a lens through which he understood not just physics but the essence of life itself.

Happiness and Misery as Eternal Points

Vijay smiled as he remembered the sun setting over Radha Nagar Beach, the orange-red hues dissolving into the horizon like a melody fading into silence. That moment, immortalized through his Nikon, was a point on his worldline—a jewel in the block universe. Yet, he also remembered the piercing loneliness he had felt one winter night, staring into the cracked mirror of his bungalow after Asha had left for Brussels without him.

In the block universe, both moments coexisted, as real and eternal as the stars in the night sky. Happiness and misery were not fleeting; they were etched into the fabric of time. Vijay found solace in this realization. He no longer chased happiness nor fled from misery. Both were permanent companions, neither more real than the other.

Suffering and Illness as Fixed Coordinates

He thought of his time in the hospital, lying on a sterile bed, the doctor’s voice echoing: “Your liver has seen better days, Professor.” Pain had gripped him then, an all-consuming agony that seemed endless. But in the block universe, that moment of suffering was as fixed as the day he received his first teaching award or the time he held his newborn daughter.

Suffering, he realized, was not something to be feared but understood as a chapter in the grand narrative of existence. It was a coordinate on his worldline—neither to be glorified nor dismissed, simply to be acknowledged.

Life as a Complete, Unchanging Entity

To Vijay, life was no longer a journey but a sculpture—carved, complete, and immutable. He envisioned his worldline stretching across the block universe, from the cries of his infant self in a small Calcutta hospital to the inevitable silence of his last breath. The illusion of movement, of progress, was just that—an illusion.

As he reflected, he felt no despair in this revelation. The block universe, with its timeless structure, offered him a new way of seeing life. Every moment he had lived, every decision he had made, was already part of the whole. Regret and anticipation lost their meaning. What was there to regret when every action was eternally preserved?

Bliss in the Eternal Present

Meditating on the Shiv Ghat in Banaras at 3:30 AM, Vijay had once experienced what he could only describe as bliss—a moment of absolute stillness where boundaries dissolved, and he felt one with the infinite. That moment, too, was fixed in the block universe, accessible to him at any time if he chose to dwell on it.

Bliss, he realized, was not a reward at the end of a long struggle but a state eternally present within the block. It was not something to chase but something to recognize as already existing, alongside every other experience.

Philosophy of Acceptance

The block universe did not rob Vijay of agency; it freed him. Knowing that his life was a complete and unalterable entity, he stopped striving to change the unchangeable. Instead, he focused on appreciating the beauty in the chaos, the order in the disorder. He marveled at how entropy itself was a part of the cosmic dance—an artist shaping the universe.

“Perhaps,” he thought, “life is not about controlling the narrative but learning to read it as it is—every page already written, every word perfectly placed.”

Legacy and Purpose

As a teacher, Vijay often spoke to his students about the interplay between chaos and order, reminding them that their lives, too, were worldlines in the block universe. He encouraged them to see their struggles, joys, and even failures as eternal markers of their existence.

His legacy, he decided, would not be in what he achieved but in how he lived—fully aware of the timeless nature of existence, embracing every moment as a permanent piece of the infinite puzzle.

In the end, Vijay’s view of the block universe became his philosophy of life: a tapestry where every thread, no matter how dark or bright, was essential to the whole. Life was not a fleeting journey but a masterpiece, already complete, waiting to be admired.