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

18 April 2020

Gifts of Life 

“Everything”


A witnesser of life with wisdom asks a question just once, not twice, not many times. The ego with knowledge repeats a question many times. A witnesser of life with wisdom does not repeat his question. He or she observes. He or she waits and watches the outcome of the question. 

A witnesser of life understands that he or she does not make any moment in life. A witnesser of life understands that the moment and the question in it happen to him and he or she neither asks a question nor makes the moment. 

A witnesser understands that the answer to his question will come if it is meant to come. A witnesser understands the response to his question will not be other than what the response is.

If an answer comes, the witnesser is okay. If an answer does not come, that is the answer for the witnesser of life. The witnesser waits in patience. He or she as a witnesser in life does not wait in duration of time; he waits in life. That is patience; waiting in patience. 

Waiting in patience, meaning, not for anything in particular - he or she just waits for what will happen. A witnesser is not perturbed. He or she is not worried as to what is going to happen. He or she watches what will happen in life. 

A witnesser realises that life flows and he or she watches it flowing. Watch the mind commenting, after life flows, what is happening. A witnesser is very well aware that that is the job the mind has to do. 

A witnesser understands that the mind will not do any other job than the job it is meant to do in any particular moment in life. A witnesser understands that this is the gift of life.

A witnesser understands that light, sound, colour, sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch and everything that is in any moment is a gift from life, including the moment, with or without content.

A witnesser understands that questions and answers are gifts of life. A witnesser will never ask the question why. A witnesser understands that the question why opens the door to fear, to doubt, to anxiousness, to want more.

A witnesser understands that what is in the moment in his hands cannot be other than what is. A witnesser of life accepts the gift of life which is in the moment. A witnesser just observes, he listens and he waits for life to flow by. He is grateful that he is alive, can see, can hear, can smell, can taste and can touch. A witnesser understands that these are the gifts of life.

A witnesser understands that life will go on the way it is meant to go. There are no questions in life. There is just life. A witnesser understands that the way life is meant to go is the gift of life, including himself, knowledge and wisdom.

The enlightened realise that whatever is in any moment is a precious gift of life.

Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar 
© Copyright V.S. Shankar, 2020

Editor’s Note:
‘He or she just waits for what will happen.’ Some may mourn; some may rejoice. What will happen will happen. There is no other play in this play of light and sound. No matter the appearance, no matter the grief nor the joy, life attends upon every detail in its creation with precision and love. The precious gift of life cannot be taken away for life is beyond the ken of mankind. It is beginningless and endless. Understanding this is the door to realising who you really are.
Julian Capper. UK

Note from the German translator: 
The momentary gifts of life, everything that is in the moment, seem to be of varying value to the mind. The function of the mind is to compare. If the comparison is positive, the ego is happy, if it is negative, one becomes sad. The witnesser does not compare, he or she understands that the comparison is not the reality of the moment, but the illusory relation of what apparently is, compared to what, according to thoughts, once was or could be. Dr. Shankar's article on the gifts of life directs the observer's gaze to the timeless here and thoughtless now, to incomparable life as it is. Unconditional gratitude does not compare. This is the gift of the wise to humanity. 
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany. 

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