Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academ-advaita.com
The Netherlands
22 November 2019
Many Actors (10)
“In life”
The ego, which is the actor, always wants. The want may be an object or a particular behaviour from another. That is what the ego does, that is its job. This is a great revelation for you. When you have understood it. That is it. Nothing to be done about it.
When you have understood it, you will be relaxed about it, because you cannot change it. You cannot change it because you neither make the moment in life nor what is within any moment in life.
You cannot say, oh, I don’t want my ego to want. No. You are trying to do the impossible. The ego only wants. Want is the ego’s inherent characteristic manifested by the intelligence in life and not by you.
Couples, whether married or not, say we cannot get along with each other. It is a wonderful revelation! Because now couples know they cannot get along with each other. Couples must be relaxed with it, because couples cannot change what is within any moment in life. In it lies freedom.
Now couples know they cannot get along with each other and yet, they want to get along with each other. How is it possible? It is possible when couples understand that not getting along with each other is getting along with each other. That is a revelation too.
That is why life has brought you both to be couples, so that you can understand that you cannot get along with each other. That very understanding will make you get along with each other in every moment. That is when you become enlightened.
Whoever is in front of you, by simply understanding that he or she is as they are and cannot be other than as they are, you are relaxed with this understanding. You are not relaxed in your understanding of who others are because you want who is in front of you to be someone besides who they are. This is impossible.
Let me be happy with myself. And once you find your real self, when you meet yourself for the first time, you will be happy with yourself. We are not happy with ourselves and we want to make others happy. Others too are not happy with themselves. Nobody is happy. So how can anybody make anyone happy?
The enlightened never want to make anybody happy. The enlightened wait patiently for realisation to happen to everyone as to who they really are.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V.S. Shankar 2019
Editor’s Note:
Dr Shankar has gifted mankind this remarkable series of articles in which deep understanding of the evolution of man is revealed with precision and compassion.
Each one of us may approach enlightenment with patience and trust, if it is meant to be so. Enlightenment is not a fortress to be taken by storm. It is a realisation that whatever is experienced in daily life is perfect. It is so by the intelligence of life. It cannot be other than it is in any moment. The way of man is illusory; the way of the wise never fails. Man may come to this realisation and find real happiness.
Julian Capper. UK