Is the notion of time – of past, present, future – an illusion?

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so Hare Krishna is time an illusion do the past, present, future actually exist or are they conceptions of the mind answer in some philosophies the concept of time is considered an illusion but if you consider the Vedic philosophy it’s quite clear that time is not just real, time is a manifestation of the supreme reality that is God, Krishna says and the Bhagavatam also many times talks about time as a manifestation of the divine Kunti says in her prayers 1.8.28 so now sometimes it may be said that the concept of time is an illusion now what that means has to be carefully understood so for example sometimes it may be said that this world is like a dream and within the world being a dream then everything that happens within the dream can also be called an illusion so past, present, future in that sense being a being phases in a dream can be said to be illusion but that does not mean that they don’t exist, they are illusion in the sense that they are temporary so more precise word would be not illusion but illusory so time is something which is which is the energy of the lord which is his manifestation and that is the activating principle so if you look at the process of creation as described in the Bhagavatam time is the activating principle so now the activating principle which which is the agency for creation that is definitely real because after all the creation also is real, the material elements are real they are the energies of the lord as Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita in 7.4 and 5 so time is definitely real now the conception of past present and future is that illusory no not exactly because the past is something which cannot be changed and if it were illusion then it would not have consequences on us our past actions come back as consequences on us and the future is something which is not yet manifest so the way we live now will affect the future so the past was real and the reality of the past can be seen by the real consequences that we experience now and the reality of the present will also be seen by the real consequences that it will have on us in future so Bhaktivedya Bhushan explains that in the Vedanta Sutra that time is real that time is energy of the lord and time is the means by which those who are materialistic people they are separated from their material assets and they continue on the cycle of birth and death moving towards realization gradually and time is the agency by which Krishna manifesting his time if one practices devotional service then Krishna manifesting his time pushes us towards Krishna manifesting his twofold shamsandar threefold bendy two handed shamsandar form and in that way one manifestation of Krishna as a devotee who lives a life of devotion the devotee moves onwards towards Krishna so in that sense time is definitely real and it takes us towards the supreme reality but our obsession with time in terms of giving becoming obsessed with the past too much about things that cannot be changed or worrying too much about the future about things that may never happen that sort of obsession is an illusion so sometimes we may say that the past has gone and the future is not there so the only reality is the present so in that sense in terms of our capacity to do something real that lies only in the present and in that context the past and the future can be said to be non-existent non-existent in the sense not that they are imaginary that they are no longer accessible for us to do anything so the present is the only reality now is the only reality that is sometimes said as a motivational statement for inspiring us to not worry too much about the future or lament about the past but focus on the present which is the only available thing for us to make any real transformation in our lives and our contribution to the world and ultimately in our devotional growth to return back to the supreme reality Krishna thank you is the opposite of gratitude