Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.

Published on www.acadun.com

The Netherlands

14th February 2013

 

 

“Real”

 

For a religious man, the real is what he experiences through the five senses in time and space. For a man of science, what he experiences through the five senses in time and space is real too. The experiences of the five senses, including time and space, is known only as thoughts. Without thoughts, experiences, including time and space, would not be known as real.

 

The five senses:

A newborn child neither knows it has five senses nor is an individual. As the child grows, it comes to know it is an individual with five senses. The five senses are a phenomenon in life and their functions are not dependent on the individual. If the five senses were dependent on the individual, they would not function until the child knows it is an individual. The five senses do function irrespective whether the child knows it is an individual or not. If the five senses were dependent on the individual, a grown-up individual could easily turn on or switch off the five senses by will or choice, but the individual cannot do that. The five senses function from birth till death every moment as a phenomenon of life, and the belief that their functions are dependent on the individual is an assumption and not real.

 

Experience and Time and space:

Man is certain that he always does something in time and space, for example, walking. His mind informs that walking would require time with some duration and also adequate space to complete it. If man walks, for example, for five minutes, he believes he can time his walk. As walking happens every moment, a watch cannot time this moment precisely, because a moment is a period of time that cannot be recorded by a watch or known to man, science or religion. Therefore, the moment the walk starts or ends cannot be timed by a watch precisely. To think it can be is an assumption of thought and not real. The duration of walk, i.e. five minutes of time, is made up of moments. Since the start and end of a walk is an assumption, so too would be the start and end of five minutes’ duration. As the start of the walk or time cannot be known or seen, what could man see in a moment? In a moment man sees only a point of whatever he sees. The point is the size of the pupil his eye has at any moment. What could be the nature of the point? The nature of the point is colour, which is seen every moment. The collection of points of colour every moment manifests an optical illusion of the seen in the mind. Hence, man walking and five minutes have illusory existence and not real existence. Life is a play of light.

 

Known and Word:

A word is made up of letters. The letters that make up a word would require some duration of time, however small, to appear as a word in thought or speech. Only a single letter or part of it occupies a moment. A single or part of a letter within a moment would be just sound. A word cannot appear as a thought or speech within a moment for lack of time. So what man can think or speak in every moment of life is just subtle or gross sound. The known is made up of words, which is a collection of subtle or gross sounds made every moment. The collection of sound manifests an auditory illusion of word and the known in the mind. Hence, a word and the known have illusory existence and not real existence. Life is a play of sound.

The human mind has evolved to believe that a word and experience are real in time and space. Man will evolve to understand that a word and an experience in time and space are illusory and cannot be real. Therefore, the real cannot be experienced or known by man, religion or science. What man sees is an optical illusion of light. What man hears is an auditory illusion of sound. Life is a play of light and sound.


Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2013

 

 

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