Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
6th June 2017
Food
“Big picture”
A man or a woman wishes to understand the big picture of his or her daily life. This implies that they know that their respective, individual, daily life is a small picture. They not only believe that they do, but also what they should do in daily life.
So what could the big picture of daily life be which a man or a woman wishes to understand is a question that needs to be pondered deeply? Food gives a clue to understand the big picture of daily life.
Food is available from nature. Vegetarian or animal food is in nature and is evidence that proves it. Also, every atom in nature is light and so too every atom of vegetarian and animal food is light.
Now, plants get their daily food from the earth and become trees. Trees continue to get their daily food from earth, which is in nature as well. Neither plants nor trees do anything to get their daily food from earth.
Similarly, the species in the animal kingdom get their daily food from nature. The movements of the animal-kingdom species are precise and it appears that big animals hunt and the smaller species know where to get their daily food.
The big animals hunt and eat instinctively, which appears to the human intellect that the animals hunt and eat because they know how to hunt and how to eat. But this is not the truth. The big animals do not know that they hunt and that they eat or should hunt to eat.
Similarly, smaller species in the animal kingdom get their daily food instinctively, precisely when they are meant to get it. Just like the big animals, they neither know how to get their daily food nor that they should get food to eat. But, to the human intellect, it appears as if they know where to get their daily food, but this is not the truth.
Similarly, birds too get their daily food instinctively and precisely, just as the small species of the animal kingdom do get their daily food. For example, an eagle flying miles up in the sky swoops down on its prey on earth precisely. It is not possible for the eagle to know high up in the skies that its prey is on the ground and that it should hunt or that it does hunt in daily life.
Humans too like animals move about in daily life instinctively and precisely, but believe that they do an action. This belief is, however, not the truth. For example, humans believe that they can do an action and should do an action, but they are not aware that they do not know every movement of the action.
Similarly, humans precisely get their daily food if they are meant to get it and, when they eat, they do not know the exact movements involved in eating. Eating happens to humans instinctively, but they merely believe that they eat, which is not the truth.
This is the big picture of food that is eaten by humans. Similarly, everything that humans believe that they do and should do happens to them instinctively and precisely. The belief that they do and should do is not the truth.
The big picture of daily life is that everything that happens to a man or to a woman is precisely what is meant to happen to him or to her and that they neither do them nor should do them.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2017
Editor’s Note:
The environment in which man lives is presented in this article. Life has gifted man with an understanding of his environment that is supported by evidence and by knowledge that is indisputable to mind; mind, however, is conditioned.
That life provides so precisely and appropriately has yet to be understood by man – no such problem for the animal kingdom. It is as it is. Understanding that this is so is life’s supreme gift to mankind. This is enlightenment.
Julian Capper, U.K