Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
11th April 2016

Indivisible

“Mind divides the indivisible”

The mind divides opposites - time, one moment from the next and everything that exists in time and space in life - from one another, and this is readily accepted by logic and reason to be not only correct, but also true.

Man wishes, wants and seeks enlightenment as well, while the mind keeps dividing everything that exists in life from another. Man does not understand that if this division were correct and true, the enlightenment he longs for would be divided as well and a divided enlightenment is no enlightenment at all.

Man is not at ease with the dividing function of the mind. He is bound to it and, therefore, longs for enlightenment and desperately seeks it as well. Enlightenment, however, is indivisible, so how could man ever come to realise enlightenment is the question that needs to be addressed and understood by man?

It is important to understand what man is bound to. He is bound to what he opts for. Man only opts for what he likes and not what he dislikes. Like and dislike are, however, opposites and man knows what he likes because of its opposite dislike. If dislike did not exist man would not know what he likes or what like is. The opposite is also true: if like did not exist man would not know what he dislikes or what dislike is.

So how could enlightenment happen to man is the question? Life has given man a clue which, if pondered upon, reveals enlightenment. The clue is the understanding that has evolved in man that time and space are together and both are indivisible. If time and space were divisible and separate, neither time nor space would exist.

Man also understands that everything needs time and space to exist. But what he has not understood as yet is that opposites too would require time and space to exist and, as time and space are indivisible, so would opposites, which are in time and space, be indivisible too.

Man further understands that everything is made up of energy and there are different forms of energy. But what he has not understood as yet is that energy requires time and space to exist as well, no matter how many energies that there may be in life. This implies that energies are indivisible as well, just as time and space and opposites are indivisible.

Now, the most important aspect of this clue is that everything that exists in energy, time and space is known because of their opposites. Therefore, man is bound to half of the opposite and, once he understands that enlightenment is whole and not half, he would be grateful to opposites that enable him to understand the half he is bound to.

The enlightened understand that opposites cannot be divided, that they are whole together and that the division of the mind as thoughts is illusory and not real. The gratitude for opposites that enable man to live an illusory daily life and the understanding that life is indivisible reveals enlightenment.

Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2016

Editor’s Note:
Here is a remarkable insight into man’s plight and redemption. The most telling division for every human being that embraces all that he or she holds dear, including its opposite of does not hold dear or even dislikes, is the separation between life and death. On reading this article entitled ‘Indivisible’, the conviction that each of us holds, as the unavoidable truth, that death brings the curtain down on life and that dying is the inescapable outcome of living is instantly revealed. This is the illusory belief that brings fear to the heart. Understanding that opposites cannot be divided is the beginning of man’s salvation and the beginning of the pathway to eternity. The deepest respect and gratitude for the enlightened through whose compassion this is being revealed.
Julian Capper, UK.

German Translator’s Note:
Solitude, isolation, separation – this is what every man and woman dislikes so much. There is no fault in the dividing state of the mind in which most of us live every day. However, to be truly alive means to understand that life is indivisible and the division in daily life is illusory. This understanding, provided in Dr. Shankar’s article “Indivisible“, enables man to live a holistic, integral life, because life is in fact indivisible.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.


 

 

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