AS TIME GOES BY

The Atman, our true self, is awareness, according to Sri Ramana Maharshi.  But what is this awareness aware of?  One thing that it is aware of is time.  It is aware of time, experiences time, but is itself timeless.

Shankara, in his Crest Jewel of Discrimination, teaches us to differentiate between that which is eternal, i.e. timeless, and that which is non-eternal, i.e. time bound.

The eternal is real because it is abiding, and therefore reliable, whereas the non-eternal is unreal because it is transient, fleeting, and therefore unreliable.  By unreal is not meant that the non-eternal does not exist, only that it is illusory, leaving the question, why would one put his store in something that only appears to be something?