Five Use Cases For A Timelapse Video

“Mind, why are you not worshiping Shri Rama, whose bow is like time, with weapons of arrows representing the different units of time, such as paramanu, lava, nimesha, barasa, yuga, and kalpa?” (Dohavali, 130)

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लव निमेष परमानु जुग बरस कलप सर चंड।
भजसि न मम तेहि राम कहँ कालु जासु कोदंड।

lava nimeṣa paramānu juga barasa kalapa sara caṃḍa।
bhajasi na mama tehi rāma kaha~ kālu jāsu kodaṃḍa।

1. Arena setup for a concert

“Are you as amazed as I am as to how these multi-purpose venues get set up for different events? Take a rock concert, for instance. The roadcrew for the specific performing artist shows up to the venue in the morning. They get the entire stage put together. Even more amazing is how quickly they take everything apart when the show is over.”

2. Cooking sweets on the stove

“Have you ever visited a shop which sells Indian sweets? The variety is stunning. There are so many different preparations. Have you ever wondered how those sweets are made? I have tried myself a few times. It is a ton of effort. At least with how I went about it. You have to give constant attention to the stove. You are stirring and stirring until the milk-sugar mixture reaches the proper consistency.”

3. Home improvement

“Have you ever witnessed a home improvement project take place? Something like finishing a basement or putting up a new door. I am amazed at how the builders can progress through the different stages without messing up. They have to be so accurate. Measure twice and cut once is the saying.”

4. Drastic weather changes

“It was such a strange day that I had to take pictures. I snapped one in the morning. Complete white outside. There was so much snow. It was the time of the year that should not have had snow. The weather was otherwise warming up. Well, later in the same day the snow was entirely gone. If you were not awake in the morning, you would not have believed that it snowed that day.”

5. Growth of a child

“I really can’t believe it. The child in the picture is mine. That was only a year ago. She was so small. I would have to carry her around each night so that she would fall asleep. Today, she is too big for me to carry. She can communicate. She can voice her desires. She is like a totally different person. How did she change so quickly, without me noticing?”

…

In the above mentioned situations, something significant takes place over an extended period of time. There is marked change. There is a starting position. The ending position is drastically different. If a person didn’t see the change with their own eyes, they might not believe it.

They would think that someone is playing a trick. An optical illusion. Part of the magician’s bag of tricks. They would speculate that the transformation did not really take place. The end state might have really been the starting position, and so forth.

The timelapse video is a way for not only believing through seeing, but also appreciating the extended time necessary for such transformations to take place. As the saying goes, Rome was not built in a day. Good things come to those who wait. Time heals all wounds.

Goswami Tulsidas compares the different measurements of time to weapons. They are like arrows released from a bow, which is time itself. The person holding that bow, the one who is in control, who releases the weapons, is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Outside perspective does not have an impact on the reality. Whether we believe that the weather changed from cold to hot does not alter the reality. The change takes place. We might understand things better through a video presentation which condenses the actual time to something much smaller. We might accept the information on the word of others, extending faith to figures we deem to be authority.

Time still operates. In the shortest unit of measure, the atom is the point of reference. The time the sun takes to travel across a single atom, paramanu, is itself known as paramanu. From this paramanu we get greater units of measure. Like working up from milliseconds, to seconds, to minutes, to hours, to days, and to months, we get to the macro level of the lifetime of Lord Brahma, who is the creator.

सहस्र-युग-पर्यन्तम्
अहर् यद् ब्रह्मणो विदुः
रात्रिं युग-सहस्रान्तां
ते ऽहो-रात्र-विदो जनाः

sahasra-yuga-paryantam
ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ
rātriṁ yuga-sahasrāntāṁ
te ‘ho-rātra-vido janāḥ

“By human calculation, a thousand ages taken together is the duration of Brahma’s one day. And such also is the duration of his night.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 8.17)

Since the Supreme Personality of Godhead is in control of time, He can condense the time required to accomplish something all by Himself. He does not need to manipulate recorded video. He does not need to condense footage so that others can think that something took place much quicker than it actually did.

Nimesha is one of the aforementioned units of time presented in Sanskrit culture. It is one of the arrows released by the bow of time. Nimesha is also the amount of time it took for Shri Rama to lift the mighty bow of Lord Shiva. This was in the contest held in the city ruled by King Janaka. This contest was for winning the hand in marriage of Sita Devi, who is Janaka’s daughter.

इत्युक्तस्तेन विप्रेण तद्धनुस्समुपानयत्।।
निमेषान्तरमात्रेण तदाऽनम्य महाबलः।
ज्यां समारोप्य झडिति पूरयामास वीर्यवान्।।

ityuktastena vipreṇa taddhanussamupānayat।।
nimeṣāntaramātreṇa tadā’namya mahābalaḥ।
jyāṃ samāropya jhaḍiti pūrayāmāsa vīryavān।।

“Hearing the words of the vipra, my father brought the bow forward. Bending the bow in the twinkling of an eye and applying string to it, the mighty prince Rama, who was full of valor, quickly drew the bow at full length.” (Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhya Kand, 118.47-48)

If we think of the event in terms of a timelapse video, different princes rushed to the arena and then departed. People coming and going. No one is successful. When we bring the video back to normal speed, the eldest son of King Dasharatha is able to lift the bow and string it in the twinkling of an eye. The nimesha which is under His control became auspicious in measuring the duration for Rama to show His Divine nature to the many fortunate witnesses at the contest.

In Closing:

Nimesha the time elapsed,
That sturdy bow collapsed.

Because Rama in hand taking,
For victory in contest making.

Not a timelapse video shown,
As husband of Sita now known.

Because time like bow in His possession,
Working at His discretion.