Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
21 February 2018
Birth of Present
“Gross and Subtle”
Every man and woman is convinced that the present is happening and is right in front of them. They also believe that what happens to them in the present goes into the past.
This implies that the present that happens moves to the past. This implies that the birth of the present happens in the present. Firstly, what could the understanding of birth of present be is the question?
The moment in daily life gives a clue to this understanding, because every moment in daily life is in the present moment. Secondly, what could the understanding of the moment in daily life be is the question?
For the first question, it is obvious that the present is known only as words and only through words. Now, a word is made up of letters in the alphabet and a letter is an illusion of a particular sound.
Similarly, letters in the alphabet are a collection of particular sounds. This implies that a word is a collection of sounds as illusory letters in the alphabet. The moment when man recognised a word in the mind, it was the birth of a word.
This is evident because the child recognises one letter at a time and speaks one letter at a time as the child grows. The recognition of a letter is the birth of a letter as an illusion of subtle sound. Similarly, speaking a word is the birth of a word as an illusion of gross sound.
Therefore, the moment a primitive man recognised a letter and spoke a letter in the moment, it was the birth of subtle and gross present respectively. This is because words evolve in the present in modern man and woman’s mind.
For the second question, the understanding of the moment in daily life is: The primitive man was without a letter in the moment and, so too, the modern child is without a letter in the moment. To both the primitive man and the modern child letters have evolved as words in the present moment.
Next, a moment is followed by the next moment. Wisdom reveals that, if there are many moments, there would be in between a moment and the next a moment as well. Wisdom signifies that a moment in daily life is eternal and a division between moments is not an actuality.
The moment in daily life also signifies that the present is an illusion of the moment, because the moment was without a letter in primitive man and also in the modern child. A moment has evolved in daily life of modern man and woman with illusory letters as the illusory present.
The enlightened have rightly proclaimed that the present is illusory in the moment of daily life, because the moment in daily life is without a thought in primitive man and also in the modern child. An illusory thought as the illusory present is present only intermittently in the moment in daily life and not in every moment in daily life.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2018
Editor’s Note:
The daily life of man, whether it assumes the countenance of being the present, has assumed the countenance of having moved to the past or even the anticipated countenance of the future, nonetheless is revealed by the wise to be an illusion. Not so the moment. The poet Shakespeare wrote: ‘our little life is rounded with a sleep.’ How intelligent is this illusion of life, so too this guidance of the enlightened on our journey in life.
Julian Capper, UK.
German Translator‘s Note:
The present is what we try to enjoy. Therefore we are permanently searching for the pleasant and try to avoid the unpleasant. So real the present moment has become in the course of evolution that the timeless Here and the thoughtless Now have lost their present in man’s life. The wise, as in this article, explain how the replacement happens of the moment which is by the moment which is not but only appears to be, called present. To understand that fact of life frees from restlessness in the present which is not and reveals the peace in the present which is.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.