Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academ-advaita.com
The Netherlands
13 November 2019
Many Actors (2)
‘’In life’’
When you have become the witnesser, then you have become the illusory actor. The witnesser is separate from the ego. The ego is a reflection of the illusory actor.
As long as the ego says, ‘I’, you understand it is just the attention of the illusory actor on the illusory character of the role.
Attention is on the appearance of the illusory roles played by the illusory actor. When the witnessing and the attention are on the real actor, the witnesser will never say who he is.
The witnesser will never say, I am enlightened. He will never say, I am a father. He will never say, I am this or that. The witnesser understands and knows: I appear as a father. I appear as a mother etc.
When you really become the real actor, you will simply watch the role-playing in front of you. And you will be watching so alertly; you will be watching others saying so many things about the role player and not you the real actor.
You will know that all the words, which are coming outside to you, are meant to the role player and not to the real actor inside you. The real actor will simply be watching. He will be always steady in every moment of daily life, merely watching.
The witnesser understands the whole drama. That the mind is not addressing him. That the mind is only addressing the role player. That the ego of the role player is talking, which is impossible, because the witnesser understands that the actor does not talk and that talking happens to the illusory actor.
But if your attention is on the role-playing, there will be reaction. But if you have become the witnesser, you have become the real actor. There will be reaction from the other. There will only be a response, which is acceptance of life, from your side and not a reaction.
The response will be nothing but an expression of your unconditional love and compassion that the other still does not know the real actor; that the other is still identified with the role-playing.
You will wait patiently, for the day the other will realise who the real actor is. The witnesser understands that the understanding will come if it is meant to come.
A wise man or woman understands that to react to another will only bring about a reaction, but not acceptance of life as it is.
The enlightened understand that many roles react, but do not accept life as it is.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2019
Editor’s Note:
It has been said that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. Yet, it is revealed in the breath-taking understanding gifted in this article that it is so with the enlightened, who have passed through the eye of illusory life into light, invisible and unknowable light – they are the real actors. In this light, there are no shadows of the ego, bound by identification with its own illusion; no striving to know who I am; no knowledge honouring the past; no expectation awaiting the future. The witnesser understands and watches. It is as it is.
Julian Capper.UK
German Translator’s Note:
Dr. Shankar brings light into the darkness of human existence. The theatre metaphor is further explained in the second article of the series „Many Actors“: Man mistakenly considers himself to be a real actor until he understands that he is in reality an illusory actor. This realization also reveals to man the real actor, which is life. The search for one's own identity thus comes to an end. The search came about because in the course of one's life everyone appears from one moment to the next as something different. Hence the confusion about one's own identity, which is constantly changing, making it completely illusory. The ego wants to become and remain something in the transient - what a hopeless undertaking. To be in the constantly changing flow of life that is the life of the enlightened as witnessers or pure observers.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.