Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands

6 October 2019

Absolute Understanding 

“Intelligent understanding”


Neither a child nor an adult can experience the absolute. The absolute cannot be experienced by anyone. The Self-Realised have an intelligent understanding of the absolute.

He or she who is awake from the dream of the waking state is Self-Realised. Whatever he experiences in daily life is realised as illusory, meaning not real, but it still exists as real. 

Absolute understanding (intelligent understanding) has no reference point; only relative understanding (intellectual understanding) has many reference points, which is the entire duality, for example, right and wrong etc.

Absolute understanding happens to man if it is meant to and so does relative understanding as well. Man cannot make either of them or recognise them, even if he wants to or wishes to, but he believes he can. Understanding is relative as long as duality appears to be real and not illusory.

Every philosophy, no matter how popular, is illusory and not real. Absolute understanding is not a philosophy as it has no usual reference points of philosophy, such as duality, time, action and man as the doer, speaker and thinker.

God has not made anything real. If God had made anything real, that real would never change, as it is real. Everything, including man, changes every moment, meaning everything ages every moment.  God has made everything illusory for they change every moment. The illusory is reflected light.

To the Self-Realised there is only unity; this is absolute understanding. Inner is unity is a belief of the intellectual or one with relative understanding. Inner and illusory outer is unity is absolute understanding.

Observe everything that is relative. The relative give clues to the absolute. The absolute has no need to give clues to itself, as it has no needs. For example, light is information and this is evident when we observe the TV, DVD and CD. 

They all contain electromagnetic signals, which are basically light and not shape, size, figure, colour or words. Yet the human mind sees and thinks reality of shape, size, colour and words, when the TV is switched on or the DVD or CD is played. 

The same is with God, Brahman, ‘That’ or Pure light. Pure light as reflected light projects the world, man and mind. Form, shape, size, colour and word is an illusory show of light and sound, which appears real to man. 

When everything is understood to be illusory, the absolute reveals itself. It cannot be seen, known or experienced, but only lived.

The enlightened live every moment of life as it is.

Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar.
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2019

Editor’s Note:
Human beings of any age are always eager to debate issues that prevailed or currently prevail in daily life. Social conditioning and temperament tend to shape both the uniting and the dividing ideas. The ideas may be knowledge-based, i.e. intellectual or scholarly, or determined by personal status in a community. The common feature of ideas, albeit illusory, is that they are all believed to be a real part of life, a reality. It is written in this article that there are no reference points for Intelligent Understanding, which implies that there is no way by which it may be recognised. Therefore, there cannot be any points by which a realised man may be recognised. Castle-walls, be they ever so thick and heavily guarded, are vulnerable to penetration, albeit illusory. The absolute, in the words of the wise, may reveal itself, if it is meant to. 
Julian Capper, UK

German Translator‘s Note: 
When people hear that they have not understood something, it usually makes them angry. It is seen as a sign of stupidity to be dull. The understanding presented here can be understood either superficially, with the mind, or deeply. The absolute understanding includes the clarity that it happens to man when it is determined and cannot or must not be generated by the intellect and will. Therefore it is wise to be relaxed while reading these articles and not to have any expectations of yourself. 
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.

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