Story from the scripture Devi Bhagavatham
The scriptures talk about Time-space.
I admire the ancestors who could explain the concept of time-space encapsulation of life of different entities in Universe through the following story:
The story:
Lord vishnu a celestial divine entity perhaps several trillion times our own SPACE-TIME body. Naradha is yet another Celestial entity.
A sage from our plane who is capable of transcending to three distinct planes.
Human, celestial and Vishnu’s abode.
One day, the sage asked Vishnu to explain to him all about Maya.
Lord Vishnu offers the Sage Narada, instead of any explanation, a live demonstration.
As a part of the demonstration, both descend to our plane. The place where they land is a desert and both take a long walk. At some point, Vishnu says he is very tired and thirsty. He asks the sage Naradha to find out a water source and fetch a pitcher filled with water.After quenching his thirst they could walk further.
Sage Naradha walks for a long time. Finally he finds a small hamlet. He was sure he would get water from nearby lake or an oasis. Sage approaches the hut of the chieftain.
There he meets the young and beautiful daughter of the chieftain and instantly falls in love with her.
Then, he is led to the chieftain who was then currently on his death bed. The chieftain while solemnizing the marriage of his daughter with the sage, takes a promise from Sage Naradha (Who is supposed to be a Bachelor, for ever) that he would take care of his family and the community as well.
The old man dies. Naradha, the lone male member of the family performs the funeral and related rituals.
Now he has several tasks before him. work in the fields and feed the large family of his father-in-law.
Also Get his sisters-in-law married. Years roll-by and now he has his own children to care for.
After Several years , a natural calamity hits Naradha. There is heavy rain for several days followed by flood. Right before his eyes, his wife children the hut and everything is washed away by the gushing water. Sage Naradha was depressed. He walks along struck with grief, just then he hears a familiar voice. It was that of Lord Vishnu.
He asked Sage Naradha, why did he not bring water for him.. Further, he adds that I am waiting for several minutes for water.
Just then Sage Naradha started explaining the water source he found, the hamlet and its chieftain, the family of Chieftain, his own marriage,his children, the flood.
Maha vishnu asked Naradha, “You were away from me only for few minutes”, how can all that you said could have happened in a few minutes!
Lord Vishnu explains to Naradha that, this is the trick played by Maya!
An explanation, for some one who did not catch the key lesson, follows:
Now that both Lord Vishnu and Sage Naradha descended from Vaikunta, the abode of or the Plane of Lord Vishnu, “ Lord Vishnu retains his Space-Time aspect specific to his abode, even after he arrived at our Human Plane.
Whereas, Sage Naradha was entrapped into the Space-Time of Humans. Several years of Human Space-Time is just a few minutes of the celestial plane, which is Lord Vishnu’s natural abode.