What does mystery mean?

Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.

Published on www.acadun.com

The Netherlands

8th March 2014

What does mystery mean?

Mystery means something that is difficult or impossible to understand or explain. Difficult means needing much effort or skill to accomplish, deal with or understand. Impossible means not able to occur, exist or be done.

This means that which is difficult can be done and comprehended, while that which is impossible can never be done or comprehended. If impossible were possible, it only means the impossible was actually difficult, but not impossible.

So a mystery that was difficult was not really a mystery - it was just a difficult puzzle waiting to be worked out. The present moment is a mystery, because man never knows what happens or will happen in the present moment. He comes to know what happens in the moments after the present moment, but never what happens in the present moment. Man can, therefore, never premeditate with certainty the present moment.

This means that the present to man is after some moments, but not the actual, present moment. To man the present is the whole day. Yesterday and the days gone by are the past and tomorrow and the days to come are the future. The future means, time still to come. This implies that the moments apart from the present moment are the future for they are still to come. Therefore, by definition, the moments still to come in the present are also the future.

Man can only imagine, hope, desire or expect what he would like to happen in the present moment, but can never be certain of it. He is anxious about the present moment, but never certain of it. And when the present moment happens nothing changes, because he still remains anxious about the present moment ‘now’. This means that man is anxious his entire life and not just about the future.

So what happens in the present moment ‘now’ which is actually the real present? In the present moment ‘now’ light-waves continuously, spontaneously, uncontrollably and unpredictably enter the eyes whenever they are open. Similarly, sound-waves enter the ears continuously, spontaneously, uncontrollably and unpredictably. Sound-waves too are light-waves at lesser speed. So basically light-waves enter the brain and mysteriously transform into sound first and later as letters and words with meanings in memory.

Interpretations happen spontaneously, uncontrollably and unpredictably in the present are not of the present moment, for they never happen in the present moment. Man comes to know an interpretation of life that has passed by and not the actual life of every moment. He believes the interpretation is life of every moment, but it is not. The mind therefore has no clue of what life is in every moment. Since life that is every moment can never be known by the mind, an interpretation of life that has passed by is necessarily illusory life and not life that is.

Every man has his own interpretation of life, because light and sound that get transformed into words and meanings are dependent on intellect, and intellect is different or similar, but never identical, in every man. This is the reason why interpretations of every man are different or similar, but never identical. They are personal and illusory and do not inform or confirm what life is.

So what does mystery mean? Mystery means the present moment or life can never be known by the intellect in the mind. The present moment and life is a realisation by intelligence, which is a gift of life to man.

Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2014

Editor’s Note:
In all the expressions of life that Dr Shankar has continuously been putting forward to his listeners and readers for many, many years, it has become increasingly clear that the power of interpretation is a remarkable facility that has been given to man. Not only is it highly prized as a valid measure of ability in a man or woman, but there is no other intellectual facility presently available. Interpretation’s status has in fact attained the status of reality. This status of reality, however, is giving way to the conviction that reality is not accessible through any intellectual or mental process. The life we lead, each one of us, whether we like it or not, exists beyond the mind and its conjuring. That this is so is dawning through the wisdom of the enlightened – the supreme gift for mankind.

Man can speak about the past only in the present. The past on the other hand is the present that has passed by, and the present that has passed by is the future which appears to the mind as the present. Therefore the future is the present and the past too.

How the future could be the present and the past as well, while man thinks otherwise, is indeed a mystery for man, which can never be worked out by logic and reason.

Dutch translator’s note:

Man likes to be in nature. The sound of birds in the forest, the smell of herbs or moist earth, the light which shines through the leaves and falls in bundles on the moss-grown path. Suddenly these observations of the moment before are put into words in the mind from memory. While putting into words in the mind, observations do come in but are not seen, heard, smelt, because in the mind we are busy with the moment before. Meanwhile the mysterious life just flows on and for this it doesn’t need any words.

Paula Smit, The Netherlands

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