Bhagavad Gita Chapter 8

REBIRTH

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One year for us is one day for the devatas, demigods. for Brahma, a thousand ages are taken as one day. Only when we achieve the consciousness of nirvāṇa — thoughtless awareness, will we not take rebirth.

At the time of death, our soul has three kṣaṇa to take another body. Three kṣaṇas can be three microseconds, three seconds or three minutes or three hundred years according to the person's frequency of thoughts. It depends on his state of mind. If we have lived a restless life, our kṣaṇas will be in microseconds. If we have lived a peaceful, blissful life and achieved at least one glimpse of thoughtless awareness, our kṣaṇa can be even two or three hundred years. If we can stop the next thought from happening within our inner space, our kṣaṇas can be increased to any extent. It can extend to eternity. So, kṣaṇas is relative and not absolute.

Time is actually not
chronological, but psychological.
If we sit with a friend with
whom we are comfortable and
joyful, after three or four hours,
we suddenly notice the time and
say, ‘Oh! I don’t know how the
time has passed by so quickly!’
At the same time, if we sit with
somebody with whom we don’t
feel comfortable, we will look at
the watch and think, ‘Why is the
watch not moving? Is there a
problem with it? The time is
simply dragging on.’ The
number of thoughts that happen
in our mind decides the time
consciousness. If thoughts are
less, even after ten hours, we
will not feel that ten hours have
passed. If the number of
thoughts is more, two or three
minutes will seem like years.