Q 9) Can awareness be located in time or space?

When knowing or noticing something happens, awareness of that object occurs. Right now I am writing these words, thinking, and breathing, and I am also aware that this is happening. This knowing ability is awareness. Now the question is: Can awareness be located in time or space? Let us understand this slowly.

a) When we talk about space, we talk about locations like a room, city, or even the body. Right now I am sitting inside a room. I can see my laptop, different chairs, a table, walls, a water bottle, etc. My eyes, through my mind, are noticing all these things. In other words, awareness is observing all these things. Now this awareness is not something inside my room. My awareness is not an object. It is not like a chair or table inside a room. Even if we look at our body, we know about it. It is awareness which knows the body. I can notice my body parts like hands, legs, heartbeat, etc. The knowledge of this body is through awareness. This awareness cannot be located in some space as an object, as it is the cause of knowing objects. The very existence of space is because of this awareness.

b) We know that time is nothing but the total of past, present, and future. For the last 2–3 days I had many experiences:

i) I was feeling compassionate towards my maid when my mother and wife were getting angry with her.
ii) Some relative wanted to visit our home, and I truthfully said that I was busy. That made the relative a little sad, and that created guilt inside me.
iii) I was chanting divine names for a few minutes, and that released stress from deep layers of my mind.
iv) I was studying Srila Prabhupada’s commentary on Srimad Bhagavatam, and I was thinking about it.

Now notice something interesting. All these experiences happened in different time periods: morning, afternoon, evening, and night. During all these time periods, something remained the same throughout, and that is the awareness of all these experiences. I was aware when I was thinking, feeling compassionate, chanting, or feeling stress. The experiences kept on changing, but the silent observer of everything remained the same. Awareness is something that is aware of time passing; it cannot be inside time. Just like a clock shows the passage of time, similarly awareness knows the happening of different experiences in different time periods. That is possible only if time is inside awareness, not awareness inside time.

c) My awareness is like the screen of a television. Different movies may play on the screen: action, sadness, comedy. But the screen remains the same. In the same way, in awareness different things appear—stress, peace, thoughts, different memories—but awareness remains the unchanging background. Awareness is not something that can be found like an object. It knows space, time, and experiences; it is the knower of everything. Since awareness is the one which knows time and space, it cannot be located in time or space. Awareness is the silent knower of all experiences, which appear and disappear inside it.