Time creates the sky and the earth. Time creates that past and the future. By Time the sun burns, through Time all beings exist, in Time the eyes see. Time is the lord of all. - Atharva Véda

Events in Prakriti or nature, follow a cyclic pattern - day and night, seasons, circle of life from birth to death, seeds from dying trees give birth to new ones etc. The concept of eternal and cyclical time lies at the heart of the Dharmic world view and is closely related to the concept of Ātman. The Rishis considered the real Self to be ever-existing, not only in the future but also from the past. This notion of two-way eternity, however, is not reserved solely for the realm of spirit Bráhman but extends to this temporal world. Within Sanatana Dhamra, we find no "year dot," nor a final cataclysm. Destruction of the cosmos only portends its re-creation. The entire material world is thus subject to everlasting cycles of creation, sustenance and destruction.

The Vedic calendar in particular recognizes time cycles from the smaller scales (Truti - 1/33,750th of a second) to much larger (Mahayuga - 4.32 million years) ones. A cosmic big-bang therefore would only indicate the start of yet another cycle of creation and destruction of matter and not the beginning of an "absolute time".

Time is personified as Yama, the god of death, because death is a limiting factor of life.