Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
10th December 2014

Essence and Uncertainty

No matter how knowledgeable man or woman is, they are nevertheless uncertain in daily life or about life in general. They may be certain about what they will do in daily life, but are nevertheless sometimes uncertain in daily life too. Why is this?

Firstly, we have to be clear what is man or woman uncertain about? Man or woman is uncertain about the details of daily life. Man or woman is certain about the broad details of their daily life, but not the precise details of every moment of their daily life. This makes man or woman uncertain.

For example, man or woman is certain about their daily work at office or at home. In the office man is certain of his day’s work, but he is nevertheless uncertain of the precise work that does happen to him every moment. He is certain of the broad details of his work, but not the precise detail of work in every moment.

If man actually does what is done in every moment, he should be certain but not uncertain of every moment. But man is uncertain of every moment. Life reveals the details of work that do happen every moment, and leaves him uncertain of the next moment. Man has no clue as to how his day happened at the office every moment; he just takes it for granted that he did what happened in the day in the office.

Similarly, a woman is certain of the work in her house, but she is nevertheless uncertain of the precise work that does happen to her every moment. She is certain of the broad details of her work, but not the precise detail of every moment. If a woman does what is done in every moment, she should be certain, but not uncertain. But the woman is uncertain of every moment. Life reveals the details of work that do happen every moment, and leaves her uncertain of the next moment. A woman has no clue as to how her day at home happened every moment; she just takes it for granted that she did what happened in the day at home.

This only implies that although man and woman are uncertain of every moment of their daily life, life reveals every moment of any circumstance they find themselves to be in in daily life.

The enlightened realise that the uncertainty of every moment of life is the certainty of life and therefore live their lives. The enlightened are certain that life will happen the way it is meant to happen, so they are patient in every moment of life with whom they live, meet and are associated.

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

Editor’s Note:
Understanding that uncertainty is the certainty that man and woman crave is a classic conundrum. For the conditioned mind, for which knowledge and knowing is the ultimate goal, this conundrum may seem a bridge too far, albeit illusory. Yet what is revealed by the wisdom of Dr. Shankar, and is proclaimed by the enlightened, is that the uncertainty of every moment of life is the certainty gifted by life to every man and woman. The realisation that what is meant to happen in life will happen is the transformative touchstone.
Julian Capper. UK.

German Translator’s Note: 
Uncertainty is the essence of life, Dr. Shankar reveals in this article. To understand this, means to live life as it is. But man searches in vain for certainty within his mind. The mind wants to know, how the future looks like, what and when something happens. This desire is based on the assumption that you can know whether the outcome is good or bad, if only you know what will happen next. But is this true? Even if we knew what happens next, we would still not know how it will continue. The certainty which the mind gets from knowing the future obviously leads to further uncertainty instead of certainty. However, the wise have proclaimed: To understand the uncertainty of life as the only certainty, means trust in life as it is meant to happen. 
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.

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