Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
13th December 2016
Life is Illusory
“Optical and Auditory”
The enlightened have proclaimed that life is illusory. The proclamation is difficult to understand because daily life to the conditioned mind is real and not illusory.
The images of subjects and objects seen and recognised in daily life are real to the conditioned mind and not illusory.
So how could man understand that life is illusory? The only option is to examine and validate to understand the subject and the object seen in daily life. The understanding could be later applied to vegetation and animal kingdom.
Sight: What is seen outside is a label of an image of subject or object. Every atom of the subject or object seen outside is however light. The function of the eye is to receive light-waves from the outside. The light-waves reach the brain whose every atom is light as well.
The same phenomenon happened to the primitive man as well. Light-waves that entered the primitive man’s eyes from outside evolved initially as colours and later as illusory images in the mind. These images evolved as visual, illusory memory.
Later, light in the illusory, coloured images evolved as sounds in the mind. Sounds further evolved as illusory letters and then as illusory words. Illusory, visual memory eventually evolved to form auditory memory of illusory knowledge. The movement of the illusory knowledge evolved and were precisely superimposed on the illusory images of light. The ego soon evolved to believe the superimposed words on illusory, light images within the mind as actuality or reality.
As life evolved the ego further, the ego believed that the illusory images of light existed outside as reality or actuality. But what existed outside was just light and not images of colour, reality or actuality. Therefore, what is seen outside as a reality or actuality is imagined images of coloured lights with superimposed, illusory words. This implies that what is seen outside is illusory, but is believed to be real or actual.
The above phenomenon is evident in a new-born child. The new-born child is first attracted to colours (visual memory as images) and later to sounds. As evolvement progresses the child responds to singular words (memory as knowledge). Later the child identifies images outside wrongly, which indicates the movement of words in memory, for example: a cat is identified as a dog, but to the child it is neither right nor wrong. When the movement of words from memory are precisely superimposed on images, correct identification begins which, on repeated praise from parents that the identification is right, the child’s mind is conditioned to right and wrong.
Speech and thought: Different sounds strike the eardrum and not words. The sound-waves travel through the auditory nerve as light signals to the brain. These sound-waves as light signals evolve as illusory letters and finally as illusory words.
When man speaks he utters phonemes of sounds, but these sounds are heard as illusory words in the brain. Therefore, spoken sounds are heard as illusory words. This means that spoken words are not only illusory sounds but are also heard as illusory words. Similarly, thoughts are illusory transformation of illusory, subtle sounds.
Similarly, emotions too are thoughts and not reality or actual. This also implies that sensations are thoughts and not reality or actuality. The thoughts of sensations give rise to an illusion of reality or actuality due to illusory duality.
Man knows only through words that a real action, word or thought has actually happened, only after it happens and never before it actually happens. Man knows as thoughts what he can do, speak or think, but does not know through thoughts the precise moment or the precise action that he will do, speak or think. He only comes to know through thoughts after the action, word or thought happens with certainty. This implies that man is not the doer, speaker or thinker, though they do happen, albeit illusory. Life, therefore, is an illusion and not a reality.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2016
Editor’s Note:
The wise have made it clear that the mind of man is conditioned. This is no fault; it is as it is meant to be. That life is an illusion, that what is heard or seen in life is an illusion, that what is thought or experienced emotionally is an illusion cannot be appreciated by the conditioned mind. This is no fault.The wise are declaring in this article that penetration of this illusion is possible only through examination and validation. Thus, careful reading of this article reveals beautifully how this penetration is happening. What a gift for man!
Julian Capper, U.K
German Translator’s Note:
In this sharp insight into how life evolves as man thinking of a real world outside, Dr. Shankar provides a short version of his book “The Evolution Of Mind“, in fact it is all he has to say to humanity in a nutshell. For deeper understanding the book is highly recommended. It explains in detail every aspect of man’s mind as how it is illusory and why. To understand the evolution of the mind is the key to trust and patience with everything and everyone appearing in our illusory minds.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.