Vartamana: The Present Moment as True Living
Summary: Hindu philosophy uses the Sanskrit word "vartamana" for both living and the present moment, revealing their inseparable connection. While we physically exist only now, mentally we time-travel through memories and future projections, creating suffering through attachment to non-existent past and future. True living requires mindful presence, though knowledge, relationships, and habits constantly pull awareness away from the immediate moment. By becoming a conscious observer of mental movements rather than losing ourselves in them, we transform even memory and anticipation into present-moment experiences, recognizing that existence unfolds only in the eternal now.
True living is living in the present. This is affirmed in Hinduism by the use of the same Sanskrit word, "vartamana," to signify both living and the present moment. In Sanskrit, vartamana means living. Vartamana also means the present, in contrast to the past (bhuta) and future (bhavisyat). Living is synonymous with the present because you always live in the present. The present alone is real because it alone can be lived and experienced consciously.
Presence signifies living, and you live only when you are present in your body and your mind, not in relation to others but in relation to yourself. If you have not understood this clearly, let me restate this. You do not live in the past or in your future. Why? Because you have lived your past already, and your future is yet to be lived. Therefore, living is always in the context of the present moment and should rightly be so because only the present moment is real.
Unfortunately, while we may physically live in the present, mentally we do not always do so. This is a state of delusion. Mentally, we are habitual time travelers. We frequently travel back and forth in time on the backs of our frivolous memories, feelings, and emotions. We are constantly driven by various thoughts associated with our past or our future. We are driven by memories, desires, and habits. In the process, we suffer from various emotions and feelings. Practically, it is also not possible to remain always in the present because even if you want to, your knowledge, relationships, and circumstances do not allow you to remain in the present. Our knowledge is essentially an accumulation of memories, perceptions, learned intelligence, and imagination arising from them.
Most of your actions are repetitions or reenactments of your past actions. In seeing things, you superimpose upon our current perceptions what you have seen before. A larger part of your life, you live mechanically and routinely, because rightly so, it would be an enormous waste of time if you want to live your life anew each moment as if you never existed before and as if you never learned from your experiences before. Therefore, even in present moment awareness, the past plays a significant role. In many ways, we are prisoners of our past.
However, if you can manage to focus on living, on your actions, and on your perceptions, feelings, and emotions through mindful and insightful observation, you can resolve this problem to a great extent. If you succeed in this effort, then even if your mind is drawn to the past or to the future, you become a mindful observer of that in your present moment, rather than becoming involved with the movements of your mind and lost in them.
Living is always a present moment activity. If you want to make the most out of your living, stay in the present to the extent possible and enjoy life as it happens. We are like the walking pens on the canvas of infinity, in which we unite the past with the future through the present moment. The past and the future are non-existent. The present alone is the existent. The three come together in the beingness of each individual. These divisions of time exist, but in our minds in wakeful consciousness. In the dream state, their boundaries blur, and in deep sleep, they disappear altogether.