Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
7th May 2017
Matter
“Fire, air and water”
Solid matter is made up of atoms and so too liquid and gas. Therefore, matter exists as solid, liquid and gas. A solid matter in turn could exist as liquid or gas when enough heat is applied to solid matter.
Heat is fire and, since every atom of solid matter is light, it implies that light is fire as well. When fire, which is naturally present in the atoms of a solid matter, is increased, the application of the heat or the fire to any matter would convert a solid matter into liquid or gas.
If light were not heat or heat were not light, applying heat would neither increase the heat present in solid matter nor convert solid matter into liquid or gas. That a solid matter can be converted into liquid or gas is evidence that heat is light.
Liquid too is made up of matter, which is the atoms present in any liquid. Liquid like solid can exist as gas when enough heat is applied to liquid. The same principle of light as heat applicable to solid refers to this phenomenon as well.
Gas too is made up of matter, which is the atoms present in any gas. Gas, like liquid or solid, can exist as a vapour when enough heat is applied to gas. The same principle of light as heat applicable to solid and liquid refers to this phenomenon as well.
Vapour is present in the atmosphere, which disappears due to the heat present in the atmosphere. Vapour eventually remains as light in the atmosphere. Matter too exists in light and as light, because every atom of matter is light and not matter. This implies that matter is an illusion of light.
This indicates that fire, air and water together appear as matter. Moreover, because matter is an illusion of light, it implies that even fire, air and water are an illusion of light as well.
This further indicates how fire, air and water that exist could have come to exist. Consciousness is light that appears as illusory fire at lesser intensity of light or heat. Illusory fire at lesser intensity of light or heat appears as illusory air.
Similarly, illusory air at lesser intensity of light or heat appears as illusory water. This implies that fire, air and water are an illusion of light. Everyone and everything that exists in this world is solid, liquid or gas/air.
The understanding that fire, air and water make what appears to be matter, leads to a deeper understanding that matter is an illusion of light. This is what the enlightened have declared that the world, man and mind is illusory.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2017
Editor’s Note:
The world which each one of us experiences every day is indisputably real: ‘of course it’s real’. Furthermore, no-one who has witnessed the eruption of a volcano, for example, would doubt its reality, in which matter present in the heart of the volcano has been converted into liquid – a blazing stream of lava – by the application of heat. The wise, however, reveal that both the experiencer and the witnesser are an illusion of light. Understanding that this is so is life’s supreme gift.
Julian Capper, U.K
German Translator’s Note:
What the enlightened have declared, that the world, man and mind is illusory, is explained here onwww.academy-advaita.com for the first time in detail. It is an opportunity to understand daily life deeply without the need of superficial statements that all is illusion. Superficial statements only lead to superficial understanding, which is knowledge, deep explanations of the statements, such as how matter is an illusion of light, leads to deep understanding, which is wisdom. In the way matter by application of heat becomes liquid, the mind of man becomes – through deep explanations, which are the heat so to speak – fluid again concerning the beliefs which are so real for the mind itself.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.