Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
4th May 2016
Duality
“Opposites and meanings”
Significant means that it is important and has a particular meaning that indicates a deeper meaning having lustre other than the meaning stated by a word. That word is duality.
Duality is understood superficially by man but not its significance. The significant meaning of duality is only revealed when it is deeply understood in relation with opposites.
Every word is known and has a meaning only because of opposites. For example, the word ‘good’ is known and has a meaning because of its opposite word ‘bad’ and vice versa. Without opposites, a word can neither be known nor its meaning.
Duality is a word that only indicates whatever is present in life but not its meaning.
Without dualities life would neither be known nor experienced. Also dualities are a must if daily life is to be recognised and experienced.
But the dualities known as words which man uses to recognise and experience require the words to have a meaning. If the words that indicate duality did not have a meaning man would neither know nor experience the duality.
Opposites provide meaning to the words that indicate duality. How do opposites provide meaning is to be understood by man.
Now, only one letter or a word could be present in a moment and neither two letters nor two words could be present in the same moment. Now, opposites are known in the moment, though opposites are made up of a word and its opposite, which makes opposites to be two words.
This means that it is impossible for opposites to be present in a moment, yet opposites as two words do exist in a moment together. If opposite words do not exist together, then no word will either be known or will have a meaning. Therefore, opposites exist as oneness, but they appear as two separate words and the separateness is illusory.
The significance of duality with relation to opposites is that duality is non-dual but appears dual, which is illusory. The significance of duality with relation to opposites is that understanding of duality leads to non-duality and the understanding of non-duality is impossible. The significance of duality with relation to opposites is that every word in duality does not have a meaning by itself, yet it gives a meaning to its opposite from which it derives a meaning for itself. The significance of duality with relation to opposites is that it reveals wisdom and not non-duality.
The lustre of wisdom is that duality, opposites and meanings are illusions of sound, and life is a play of light and sound (Bindu and Naada), just as the enlightened have declared life to be.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2016
Editor’s Note:
The extraordinary and unique thing about this article is that it shows that words are spoken and read, without any particular difficulty, in daily life at their face value by scholars and non-scholars alike. Careful reflection on the words read in this article, however, words which are in common usage and are spoken and read by scholars and non-scholars alike, reveals an entirely new level of life. Lustre, indicative of radiance or brilliance of light, is experienced – no! more than that - lustre is life itself. It is eternity. This cannot be borrowed or copied or tutored. It is a mystery; a blessed gift from the wise.
Julian Capper, UK