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

5 January 2020

Adventure (6)

“Life”

 

A rich man wants to be rich because he wants to be secure in life. But, if a rich man recognises that the richness has come to him and he did not make it, he is a different kind of rich man. 

But, if a rich man wants to secure richness, he will be in fear. What will happen if my bank gets bankrupt? All my richness will go. I will be bankrupt too. A rich man will be in fear of the very security which he wanted.  

Furthermore, if you look around very generally – the rich cannot sleep. But a poor man is so rich that he can sleep. You see the paradox? But, if a rich man understands that richness has come by to him, he will understand: security creates fear in him! 

Understand that nothing can be secured in life because what is meant to come will come and what is meant to go will go. Then you will come to understand that you want to secure the picture of life which you have in your mind.

You want to secure the picture of life which you cannot see. Is it worthwhile to secure life which you cannot see or is it worthwhile to understand that life, which you can see, is as secure as it meant to be? 

Understand that you cannot secure life because it may come or it may not come. 

Then you will understand, oh my goodness, this life, which I want to secure, is secure by itself. This is because every moment comes by itself along with what is meant to be in that moment. 

Everything comes in the moment if it is meant to come and will not come in any moment if it is not meant to come. Life is paradoxical. Rain, how does it come? Where does it come from? We just say, oh my goodness, rain.

So much of paradox is out there for you to see, to live and to understand. Then you are fine. Then you become secure the moment you have stopped trying to be secure. 

You become secure the moment you see that life is as secure as it is meant to be. You will be secure the moment you understand that life’s security appears as insecurity to you in your mind. 

When you understand that life will go the way it is meant to go, life will become an adventure to discover for you.

The enlightened realise that every moment in life is an adventure.

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

Editor’s Note:
Every animate being needs security. This is observable in creatures that fly, walk, crawl, swim, creep, slither and even hop. They flee from, avoid or attack whatever arouses insecurity in them in order to establish their sense of security.This is instinct and not a thought in the mind of the animate. Life may or may not provide what animate needs through instinct. Man employs many ways for establishihg his sense of security, supported by the belief that he is the doer. He does not dare to trust in life itself for security, for it is a life that may or may not deliver what he believes he needs.Through his gradual understanding of what the wise are proclaiming, that each moment contains what it is meant to, man may join the adventure of life’s security, albeit paradoxical.
Julian Capper.UK

German Translator‘s Note: 
Confusing dependence with love causes fear of abandonment. If you love your partner, you will not demand that the other never leaves you. Love means having no conditions and always wishing the other the best. In the same way you can be dependent on your work. You say to yourself, hopefully I will never lose my job, I don't want it to end. This does not mean that you love your work, but you think your happiness depends on your work. Understand that if your partner leaves, it is meant to happen that your time together will end. Understand, if you lose your work, this was the moment when it was meant to happen that you would take up another occupation. This openness and unconditionality towards everything that happens to you in life frees you from dependence and fear of losing something. It is the beginning of a love relationship with life as it happens to you, whether you like it or not. Dr. Shankar's article explains this aspect of unconditionality in this article using the example of wealth and points to the inner richness that everyone carries within themselves, usually without being aware of it. 
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany. 

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