Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD. India Herald Houston, USA 28th January 2009
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“Make believe speaker”
Man is disturbed, heartbroken, disappointed, unhappy, saddened, angry, revengeful and upset as a result of lies. Lies evoke a wide range of emotions within man, so, surely, lies represent a pivotal ingredient that triggers such a wide range of emotions. Lies have tremendous implications and consequences on the outcome of personal relationships: between husbands and wives, between lovers, between friends, between colleagues at work, and lies are known to manipulate and are used to manipulate situations in every aspect of man’s life.
The implications and consequences of life are manifold. Lies shatter harmony in a family and they are the reason for discord. Things are never the same the moment lies surface within personality. Character comes under question and gets tarnished, sometimes beyond repair. Each individual never looks at the one he loves, respects or is devoted to with the same eye he did because of lies. Lies have the power to inflict a scar in the heart that never heals.
Man begins to doubt the one he loves once lies are exposed. Lies propagate arguments between husbands and wives and sometimes lead to eventual divorce. Lies are known to end engagements and marriages as well. They shatter the so-called trust in every kind of relationship. There is no end to the permutations and combinations of emotions involved due to lies and their outcome.
Some people are habitual liars, while some are not. No man is totally truthful, for can man honestly claim that he does not pretend? Is pretence not a polite lie? It certainly is, and how can it be denied? Does it mean that all men speak lies? Yes, it certainly means that, but man thinks that he is speaking the truth. Does it mean that no one can be trusted, as man believes that one who speaks lies cannot be trusted? Yes, it certainly means that. Life in the mind flows in distrust and not trust and, as long as man believes that duality is real, every word spoken will be a lie.
If everything that is spoken or thought is a lie, what could truth be to the mind? Truth to the mind is an accepted lie; unaccepted truth is a lie. Life is timeless and thoughtless and so a thought just cannot exist in life. Therefore, anything spoken about life would not be the truth. That is why the known is illusory and not real; that is why the truth can never be known.
Life is energy in continuous flow. Energy transforms every moment from one form to another and this process flows. This flow of transforming energy projects an optical and auditory illusion of the world, man and mind. Since a word is an illusory manifestation of sound, thinking that a word and what it represents is real, and being convinced that it is real, is a lie and not the truth.
A lie means untruth, false or illusory, with reference to an individual. Even the truth is a lie as truth cannot be spoken or known. A lie is needed for truth to exist so that man may recognise what truth is. Similarly, truth is needed for a lie to exist so that man may recognise what a lie is. If a lie can never be real, why is it manifested in this world? Each provides an ideal contrast for the other’s existence. A lie and truth are interdependent so that each can have a meaning. Without the presence of a lie, truth cannot exist; a lie exists because of truth. The enlightened beings have proclaimed that man is not the doer and so it cannot be man who created or manifested a lie.
It has to be the creator of the world who manifested or created a lie. Every man believes that God created the world and manifested it, although no man has or could have seen Him creating or manifesting it. It is the general belief that God created the world. Science has made it clear that the world is energy that is present everywhere, which would make energy God. This understanding is manifested by life or the energy which is God.
If God were the creator, and no man disputes this belief, it could only be God who could have created lies. Now why would God create lies? Could God know what a lie is? How could God know what a lie is when He is the absolute truth? Why would He make man speak lies? Every religion preaches that lies should not be spoken, and yet they do get spoken by man and also by the religious and the spiritual. As truth cannot be spoken by man, even if he wanted to, and whatever he speaks is untrue or a lie, how could he stop speaking lies when, whatever he speaks, would be a lie? It is because of truth that lies exist. Therefore, the best way to stop speaking a lie would be never to speak the truth. Lies spare no man, for any form of duality will be a lie. It will be false, unreal, because it is relative, temporary and dependent - not independent and absolute.
Though man knows that a lie should not be spoken, he nevertheless does speak a lie. He regrets having done so and vows that he will not in the future, but he does. If he were the speaker, he surely would not. Children get punished for speaking a lie and the punishment varies from mild to severe depending upon the severity of the lie. But man speaks lies too, so is there a guarantee that a child will not speak a lie when he grows up? If both man and child speak lies, and no generation is free of lies, what purpose could punishment serve or has it served? Life manifests this drama so that an understanding can happen to man that he is not the speaker, but life is, and speaking is an illusory manifestation of sound.
A lie, no matter how illusory, is required to delude man that the real exists and can be known. It is a lie that makes man search for absolute truth that is beyond the truth of everyday life. So, man searches for absolute truth or enlightenment only because he is troubled by lies. If it were not for lies, he would not be searching for the absolute truth nor would he know what truth is. A lie, therefore, is vital for man to search for absolute truth.
If lies were present alongside truth in everyday life, which man has the authority to declare which is the truth and which is false? If truth were present in life, and it were real, then the world would be truth and nothing but the truth. Similarly, if lies were present in life, and were real, then the world would be nothing but lies.
If the truth of everyday life were the truth, it would mean that truth can be known. Since duality would be present in this assertion, then truth would be relative and not absolute. If truth were relative, could it be the truth? Man needs to ponder. A lie is required for the drama of life to be manifested. An honest man knows that he cannot admit that he has never spoken a lie. A habitual liar too knows that he has spoken the truth sometimes. Therefore, in life, a lie is nothing but minimal truth and truth is nothing but a minimal lie.
A lie needs to be spoken by life so that truth can happen elsewhere to some man. Similarly, truth needs to be spoken so that a lie may happen elsewhere to some man. Life speaks truth and a lie at the same time at different places, and man cannot make this happen. Whenever life speaks the truth, a lie too is present at the same moment in the mind of man which he cannot recognise. If a lie were not present, man would not be able to recognise the truth that is spoken through him.
In the courtroom the accused and the witnesses for and against the accused have to take an oath that he or she will speak the truth and nothing but the truth. This implies that man has the potential to speak the untruth, what is commonly known as lies. Such an invitation to speak the truth and nothing but the truth opens the floodgates of manipulation. Life or God has manifested this courtroom drama so that man may understand that truth can never be known so that it could be spoken. Could any judge truthfully admit that he has never spoken lies? It is not that the legal system should not exist. It exists for life makes it sure that its existence brings about an understanding that the known is not the truth.
Lies are an integral part of duality and are very much needed so that man may be convinced that truth exists. Does it mean that truth cannot exist and stand as the truth by itself without the help of lies? The truth that is known by man cannot, but absolute truth does exist and is independent and eternal. It can never be known by the mind.
Lies are not the same as the false. The false does not insult an individual as much as a lie does. A lie may refer to spoken words or an action. Only through words are lies detected to have been spoken, and an individual is branded as a liar. An action does not convey that a lie has been spoken nor can an action convey a lie. Words are needed to establish a lie, without which a lie could never exist. To speak is also an action and words are needed to indicate that speech is an action.
Is death a truth or a lie? Death is the truth for man, but nothing dies in life: everything transforms in life from one form to another. This process of transformation appears as death to the mind. Life is required to maintain death as dead. Death is required for the sophistication of life to go on. Life is eternal because death is absent in life; death is merely a thought in the mind. To every man death is real, but it just cannot be. If death were real, it would be eternal; the dead body would not disappear. Death as an end in life and of life is untrue and so a lie, but man accepts this lie as the truth. Therefore, an accepted lie is the truth and so truth is a white lie. A lie is as much a truth as truth is a lie too.
There is no clear distinction between a lie and truth. No man knows or could know where truth ends and a lie begins, or where a lie ends and truth begins. A lie and truth are in the same moment. A lie has to exist in the same moment where truth exists for truth to exist and vice versa.
Life is real and the absolute truth and, since life is real and the absolute truth, it can never be known. If life can never be known by the mind, how can a lie exist in life? It just cannot: a lie is an illusory manifestation of sound that provides an ideal contrast for relative truth to exist, which is also an illusory manifestation of sound in the mind.
Lies strengthen the belief that man is a thinker, speaker and a doer. Lies are needed to maintain the individual as a thinker, speaker and a doer, while he is not. Since life is timeless and thoughtless, there is no possibility that a lie or truth could be spoken in life, nor could there be an action which is either true or a lie. Therefore, if a man denies that he has done an act, though it may appear he has, he is probably speaking the truth as he is not the doer, because life is a singular movement that is beginningless and endless, causeless and effectless. If a man is proven guilty, even though he may not have committed the act, is it not a lie to pass a judgment of guilt?
Lies remind man of the wisdom of the two words ‘Neti Neti’, meaning ‘not this not this’. This is life’s intelligence to reveal the truth by exposing what is not real or the untruth, the false, which is the same as lies. A lie is meant neither to degrade nor insult; it is merely a part of the drama of life - always illusory, but never real.
It is the ego that speaks lies and of lies. The ego is false, and every religion and spiritual ideology asserts this statement, so that anything that is spoken by the ego needs to be false or lies. Speaking happens just for the sake of speaking and not to emphasise or convey actuality or truth. Truth cannot be real as the world is illusory, neither can a lie be real for the same reason.
The enlightened beings have proclaimed that the world is illusory, so they surely would have understood that lies are illusory to make the proclamation. Man is not the thinker, speaker or the doer, so he cannot possibly speak a lie or the truth, even if he wanted to. The mind is a lie for it does not exist; no man has seen his mind to prove that it does. A lie, like any other thought, is an illusory manifestation of sound. This understanding is enlightenment.
© Copyright 2008 V. S. Shankar
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