Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
9 January 2018
Meant to happen 2
“Will happen”
The enlightened have proclaimed “What is meant to happen will happen and no force on earth can stop it from happening”. This is difficult for the conditioned human mind to understand because man is conditioned to believe that he can speak and think what he wishes.
So how could man understand the proclamation of the enlightened? The proclamation requires deep pondering to enable man to understand that he or she is neither a speaker nor a thinker in daily life.
A moment in daily life offers a clue that would decondition the conviction that man can speak and think what he or she wishes.
In life, anything known about life is known within a moment and in a moment.
Now, a moment in life is not made by man because a moment in life has always been there ever since the moment life began on earth. Man was not present in the moment when life began.
Therefore, even life requires a moment to be present in the moment. This signifies that life and moment are together and cannot be separated, just as time and space are together and cannot be separated.
Firstly, in a moment only a movement of a particular sound is present. The speed of the movement of sound is varied from minimum to maximum. The different speeds of sound and its movement happen in the moment by the intelligence in life.
Man does not make the speed of sound and its movement that is present in the moment. If man were able to make the moment in life, he would be able to make the speed and the movement of sound in the moment.
Secondly, in a moment only a single sound of a particular speed of movement is present. Neither more than one sound nor many sounds could be present in any moment.
A spoken word or a thought is made up of several letters. Since a spoken word or a thought is known in the moment, it signifies that a spoken word and a thought that is known in the moment is illusory and not an actuality in the moment. This is because only a singular sound, with its characteristic tone, is present in the moment and not an entire letter; neither an entire spoken word nor an entire thought.
Since only sound with its characteristic tone is present in the moment, it signifies that man neither speaks nor thinks a word in the moment, meaning he or he is neither a speaker nor a thinker in any moment of daily life, but merely believes that he or she can speak and think what he or she wishes or wants.
If man could make a moment and a complete letter, with its speed, in the moment in life, he or she could very well speak or think anything that he or she wishes to within and in the moment. But he can neither make a moment nor complete a letter to be in the moment. This signifies that man is neither a speaker nor a thinker. The speaking and thinking nevertheless happen, which is nevertheless illusory.
The enlightened have rightly proclaimed that what is meant to happen will happen and no force on earth can stop it from happening.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2018
Editor’s Note:
Speech and thought are faculties that may attract fame, respect and admiration for their human authors, both in their own times and far beyond. For example, statues have been erected in many cities in honour of the 16th century French philosopher and scientist Descartes, renowned for ‘cogito, ergo sum’: ‘I think, therefore I am’. Man’s predicament is to believe, with every ounce of his being, that it is he that speaks and that it is he that thinks. Until, that is, he or she is presented with the words of the wise and until understanding of those words matures. Such is the gift of this article; such is the gift of deep pondering.
Julian Capper, UK.
German Translator’s Note:
Speaking and thinking are a sign of higher evolvement. Matter, plants and animals don’t speak and think. Only humans do. Therefore what is spoken or thought by humans oftenly is more remembered and considered as what is done. Nevertheless speaking and thinking are a natural function of evolution and don’t happen by will and choice though it may appear as such. Dr. Shankar shows in this article how intelligent life is to make speaking and thinking appear as if influenced by man whereas it is both a manifestation of life, spontaneous, uncontrollable and unpredictable.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany