India Herald Houston, USA 5th October 2007
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Words create reality and none other - reality that man has accepted as absolute. It is not actions that create reality, though man is convinced they do, because actions are thoughts too and not a physical reality in life. Words uttered as audible speech or heard in the mind as thoughts have gained status as absolute reality. But man has yet to define what reality could be of which he is convinced. That ideas expressed in words, written or spoken, and thoughts, heard in the mind, are constantly changing and being challenged between men and women does not diminish their standing as reality, as it should, because reality would demand eternity and unchangeability as characteristics of reality. But everything that appears in life is neither eternal nor unchanging: everything and anything is temporary and changing, including man, his thoughts and his words. Once expressed, words create the real world of which man is conscious and in which he lives. But could this world be real, and does this real world of man exist in life, as life is light, which is energy transforming every moment from one form to another?
Man’s strategy for life and for living and even to seek enlightenment is, however, set in words, and a conviction in the reality of his controlling outcomes is established. Strategies and outcomes require time for their existence and so man becomes dependent on time. This dependency can only lead to a conviction in the succession of events and actions, which it does, and man is further dragged into a world of reality. His constant use of words in everyday life spins a web of reality about which he either feels elated, excited and enriched, and he makes decisions, choices, plans and prays for experiencing such reality, or he feels deflated, defeated and depressed and, yet again, he makes decisions, choices, plans and prays (so he is made to think, while these words too happen in both instances) to avoid experiencing such reality. But man has not yet determined whether either experience is real or illusory. Could such experiences be real and do they exist in life, as life is light, which is energy transforming every moment from one form to another?
The reality in the words ‘I love you’ is laid bare as illusory when the consequences of love are examined. If love were real the consequences should be either dire or rewarding and not both. But experience teaches man that love is a novel form of Russian roulette, and religion is not far behind, to caution man against the pitfalls of human love. Love, emphasised by words as real, falls apart due to words yet again, when they convey disloyalty or distrust, since the benchmark for love is loyalty and trust. The broken love, however, which should not break were it real, attains real love status by mere mention that disloyalty and distrust were not meant. This could only mean that words that convey disloyalty and distrust also mean loyalty and trust. If so, how real could any meaning be, one has to wonder. Similar is the paradox with any word referring to religion, spirituality, science, and everyday life, and not just those of love.
Thus is the reality of life determined, which is however not beyond doubt and falsehood, but is also certain and truthful, and were the life determined real it should either be false or real and not both. Nevertheless, the reality of man lies within the compass of time and action. If life were in time, could it ever be eternal, because eternity would not allow time within it? Though this reality does not provide satisfaction or happiness beyond the temporary, man is quite unable to allow life itself within this compass, and how could he, as time does not exist in life as a physical entity? Time is a thought too and, for this reason, it is wise to understand that the mind functions in time while life transforms from one form of energy to another in the timeless and thoughtless ‘now’. Man is yet to understand that the movement of the body, therefore, cannot be dependent on mind, while the movement of thoughts does depend on time, for time too is a thought. And whenever time exists, death will be an accompaniment, which compels man to live in the compass of death! It is a paradox that to man death is reality, while at the same time he acknowledges that the reality created by words is alive - and how could it be because, if death were real, everything real has to be death. Could death be real and could it exist in life, as life is light, which is energy transforming every moment from one form to another?
Life is alive; life is life itself. It is a continuous flow of energy that expresses itself in and as every manifestation and movement that appears and disappears, from the smallest to the largest, from the simplest to the most complex. Life manifests a magical, optical and auditory illusion of reality to which man needlessly either wishes to be bonded or from which he desires to escape while, every moment, life slips by, of which he is unaware, just because he is conscious of words. Through words man indulges in a desperate hunt for an identity, which is always in the making but never made. Life expresses itself as words and as mind, as an illusory manifestation of sound, with its extensive retinue of mood, attitude, expectation, desire, hope, despair, judgement, religion, spirituality, belief systems, etc., and as ego. No matter what the expression or manifestation, life is its energy, transforming every moment from one form to another.
Life never disappoints life – it cannot - nor can it be controlled or moulded to fit the strategies and outcomes of the illusory mind of man. And if life appears to be under control or has been moulded and, therefore, could be in the future too, it is just that life at precise moments unfolds with such accuracy that its movements and words give an impression of control and mouldability. Life is unpredictable and very intelligent – providing solutions exactly and precisely as needed to the illusory world of words that pour forth problems; life is spontaneous - not giving advance notice of its movements and yet creating actions which, though illusory, appear real in the world of words that generate copious situations; life is uncontrollable, making provision to man’s needs and necessities, although illusory, with miraculous generosity. To follow life is to be alive; to look back into mind and heed the allure of words is to be dead! Who would choose illusory death? Who would choose the illusory, which dies, and not the real or absolute that is eternal? Man seems to, for he opts for words to guide him through life, and towards the absolute, but could the illusory dead guide man in life or towards the absolute is a question man has to ponder with honesty, if he wishes to realise reality or who he or she really could be. The realisation that the real or the absolute cannot be known or realised through words is enlightenment or reality.
© Copyright V.S. Shankar, 2007
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