Part 3 - On time-sense

Q. 174. Bhante! Do the infernal beings living in the hells have a sense of samaya, āvalikā,... till of the up-phase and the down-phase of the time-cycle?

A. 174. No, they do not have it.

Q. 175. Why so,... till of samaya, of āvalikā... up and down phases?

A. 175. Gautama! Here, (on this earth) living beings have a standard and a proof of these,³⁷ a sense of these,...till the down-phase. But not so in the hells. So the infernal beings living in the hells have no sense of samaya, of āvalikā,... till the up-phase and the down-phase. And this is to be repeated,... till the five-organ animals.

Q. 176. Bhante! Do human beings living on this earth have a sense of time,... till down-phase?

A. 176. Yes, they have it.

Q. 177. Wḥy is it so?

A. 177. Gautama! Here they have a standard and a proof of these, and they have a sense of samaya,... till the down-phase. It is for this so....

The Vāṇavyantaras, Jyotiṣkas and Vaimānikas are similar to the infernal beings.

Notes (based on commentary of Abhayadeva Sūri):

37. The words māna and pramāṇa signify the relativity of different units of time. Compared to the smaller units of time, the bigger units are māna, and compared to the bigger units, the smaller ones are pramāṇa. For instance, compared to a muhūrta, lava is a pramāṇa whereas compared to lava, muhūrta is a māna; likewise, when lava is māna, stoka is pramāṇa; and so on.

In the entire universe, time and time-sense are restricted to man and his world. Neither gods nor infernal beings have a time-sense. Even animals inhabiting the world of men, and some species of gods who visit this world have no time-sense.