Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
9th June 2017
Story
“Every moment”
A fairy tale begins with the line ‘once upon a time’ and ends with the line ‘they lived happily ever after’. The fairy tale is about the past and it is told in the present as the past.
Whatever happens in the present in life is only known with certainty after it happens and never before it actually happens. This implies that the past is known in the present as the present.
Also, whatever opinions we may have about others in the present in life, the opinion is only known with certainty after it happens and never before it actually happens. This implies that the opinion is in the past and is known in the present as the present.
A story is about the past, which implies that whatever happens in the present and the opinions is about the past and not about the present. This implies that a story actually about the present is absent.
This indicates that the conversation about what could happen, is happening or has happened in the present is a story and the opinions that we have about others in the present is a story as well. Both the story and opinions are illusory because a story is neither actually in the present nor is it an actuality in the present.
The mystery of life is that a story is told in every moment when humans talk. The story is a reality and an actuality as well to humans, while a story is in the past and not in the present.
Man is not aware as yet that he tells a story that is neither real nor an actuality in the present in life or in the mind. But yet he firmly believes and is convinced that his stories make him live life in the present.
Man is yet to understand that he tells stories every moment of life, but does not live life. Man is yet to understand that stories that he tells do not make him live life in the present, but the intelligence of life makes him live an illusory, daily life mysteriously.
This understanding, when it happens, makes a man or a woman wise in life. They cannot make the understanding happen either to him or to her, because they do not control evolution. That they can is a story as well.
Life mysteriously makes this wise understanding of the story of daily life happen to a man or to a woman. This wise understanding deconditions the mind that they do, can do and should do. An enlightened mind is deconditioned.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2017
Editor’s Note:
Every one of us, no matter what age, loves a fairy tale and understands that it is a fairy tale, not a real story. It is told over and over again for it delights all who hear it. A moment’s deep reflection, however - for there is only a moment in life - shows that every one of us has a story to tell, which is our daily life, and presents the reality of the life we believe we experience, albeit illusory. Thus, story-telling is revealed to be the continuous gift provided by life for man’s engagement until understanding happens. Such is enlightenment.
Julian Capper, U.K
German Translator’s Note:
The stories we tell each other make them and us happy or sad, elated or depressed, sometimes loving, sometimes angry. They are “our“ life and we are identified with the stories until we understand that they are “our“ life but not life as it is. Until then we live “our“ life as opposed to the “other’s“ lifes. The wise, however, live life together and not as mine and yours. The wise help us to understand the togetherness of life as it is in this article “Story“.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.