Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD. India Herald Houston, USA 22nd April 2009
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“Mind’s Hunger”
In a world that is without cause or effect could the word ‘more’ mean anything? It surely has a meaning, but could the meaning be real? It just cannot be real in a causeless and effect-less world. The world is said to be a singular process of uncontrollable and unpredictable sophistication, which happens eternally and spontaneously. The enlightened have proclaimed that the world is illusory and who could deny the proclamation of the enlightened? Nevertheless, the word ‘more’ is present in the mind of man and logic says that to be successful in life man should aim for ‘more’.
The mind questions in order to find as many ways as possible to have ‘more’- more of just about anything that is available in the world. These have invariably become the must-haves in life. They range from food, clothing, housing, family, money, power, pride etc.: the sky is the limit for some and not for others. The word ‘more’ and its meaning strengthen the belief that man is the doer. Once again, how could he be a doer in life which is pure energy? Life sophisticates and the word ‘more’ is a camouflage to its power of sophistication.
The word ‘more’ is a very handy tool utilised by life to give man, illusory though he may be, a character. Man who has more is known to be greedy and is scorned upon by the moralists and religious and, therefore, he is advised not to be greedy, but to shun materialism. This is the trend of thoughts in man and this trend has remained ever since he thought he was a doer.
Man believes he is the doer and so, through available means, he sets about becoming materialistic, and the objective is to have ‘more’. Avarice and greed are preached as the grades the ego gets at school-evil, but man believes these, not realising why God or life would have made them. No boy or girl is proud to have these grades on their report-card or to show to their parents or neighbours, or to speak about to their friends. The grades exist in every individual in spite of advice - religious or peer-based. They slip or seep into the mind like spilt mercury. Man has no control over their presence, though he would very much love to have.
But why are they present in man? When such grades started and how they have been maintained are questions to be understood first before looking into answers for them. Man and religion have become good friends and together they strive to strike against the evils of materialism. It is admitted that the world manifested is an evil world. Could God or life manifest one?
Religion is first off the block to preach about the effects of more, avarice and greed. It says in no uncertain terms that these certificates from college-evil are a one-way ticket to hell. Man lives in fear of entering hell, yet he is unable to live without having more. But religion and God included are unable to prevent the destruction of war. The aim of war is to cause more damage than could ever be imagined.
The word ‘more’ is the focus of destruction brought in by war. Victory is guaranteed by maximum destruction. Places of work that manage the utility, commerce, healthcare, education, entertainment, law and order and agriculture are the industries which man so much wants to get destroyed. The emotional trauma to children and adult alike is incomprehensible. Prophetic words such as ‘thou shalt not kill’ seem to fall on deaf ears for a man in chase of ‘more’ destruction. But how does he include all these in a world that is supposed to be illusory and not real?
Destruction is in the process of sophistication, without which construction cannot take place. Destruction is a pre-requisite for construction to take place and vice versa. War is a process of destruction so that construction may happen. It does not mean that man can therefore wage war to destroy so that construction may happen: it is not man who decides destruction or construction. It is life that decides, and the decision is in the process of sophistication and not separate from it.
Life is very precise and war too is precisely in its place. The mind cannot comprehend the logic of life because life has none. Logic is in the mind and for the mind; it is not in life or for life. The mind cannot report life and has never done so. The mind is made to provide an illusory interpretation of life.
Man loves to possess and the more the better. He is taught to possess more and this is the advice of many to as many. It starts in school to have better grades and to perform well - to get ahead in life, so to speak. Man is advised to be ambitious and aim for the stars. To have a dream and chase it is the mantra of present-day man.
The trait to possess, preserve and prevent loss is deeply rooted in man’s mind. The need to survive induced primitive man to collect. He collected out of necessity for he had not yet discovered the terrain he lived in. Man migrated and discovered mother earth. Mother earth, on the other hand, presented him with its gifts of food. Taste was the first sensation to induce him to have more.
The stomach was the focus for the mind in primitive man. School-hunger taught him to have more and preserve food in ways he could. Life has since sophisticated tremendously in preserving food, be it in the supermarket or home. Man moves about the world efficiently and comfortably by land, water or sky.
Food is close to hand and made easy to carry across the desert, over long distances or even into outer space. How could man complete expeditions of mammoth proportions without having more? Even to the present day hunger is paramount for man because hunger is deeply rooted in the mind.
As life sophisticated the focus shifted from the stomach to the mind. Man soon began to hunger for knowledge. He wanted more knowledge ever since he got a taste of it. The taste of knowledge gripped him as did the taste of food. So, the search for food and the quest for knowledge ran parallel to each other, and it is so even to the present day.
More knowledge guarantees man the comforts of life, and so it is believed. But no matter how knowledgeable man has become from the time the first thought entered his mind, he is not happy - far from it. So what other knowledge or how much more would be required for him to be happy, and happiness is what the word ‘more’ promises?
In every generation, whatever man knew was more for that particular generation, and no generation has rendered man happy. And what guarantee is there that some more knowledge would usher in the world of happiness that he so desires? No matter how much man possesses, he is no different from a man who has less. Anger is present in man who has much; the anger is in fact ‘more’ too.
Man gets upset, depressed and feels lost if he loses some part or parts of the ‘more’ he has come to have. If more were real, how could it become less? But it surely does and so man thinks. Little does he remember that he came into this world empty-handed and, if he has anything, however little it may be, it is more than being empty-handed. Life has been giving man every moment and that is more as it is.
Life has sophisticated tremendously so far, and the process of sophistication is eternal: man can only wonder at the shape of things to come. But, no matter what, the world will always be illusory, for the world cannot become real just because of sophistication.
Life gradually progressed from primitive living and sophisticated into societies, and family life took shape, and the mind followed suit. Into every generation life instilled the desire to collect, and this has progressed as materialism in present-day man. Life will continue to do so eternally.
It is important to understand that life manifests the illusory world. It has to maintain the illusory world and it can do so only if an illusory man believes the world is real. One of the many ways is to make illusory man believe that he is the doer, and this is achieved through the word ‘more’ - and so the mind is made to think of ‘more’.
Life is very intelligent and, though it is the giver and the taker, it has made man believe that he, as an individual, can take and can also give. Life has manifested God as a thought in the mind whom man thinks he can approach to have more of anything that he wants. In a way this keeps him in relationship with God as the almighty. Pray more to get more is the spirit of the game called ‘have more.’ Little has man wondered if he ever had less.
What right has man to demand more? Is being man the qualification required to deserve ‘more’? Has man invented life that he feels he deserves ‘more’ from it? If he had manifested life and the world then the argument would be justifiable. But he has not done so and, therefore, every moment in life is a stroke of luck, if not anything else. Man gets so much and that even without asking or deserving it.
This belief further convinces man as the doer because, when he cannot get what he wants, he can always ask for divine help. Even the prayer and the request convince him as the doer. He is yet to understand that thinking, speaking and the doing happen to man and he does not bring them about.
Why has life made such a world happen? The world is what it is and it is so, but not for any man. The enlightened being becomes life and realises the illusory nature of the world, man and mind. The enlightened being is not a man - he is life itself.
What is meant to come to you will come. It has always been so and will always be so. It is the maxim of life; it is life for what it is. What you have has come to you and you have not got it. It has come to you in a mysterious way which is beyond logic, rhyme or reason. In understanding this man transcends into life.
No man is greedy, and there is no point in thinking that one is. Man is not materialistic in the real sense of the term. Greed reflects the state of energy that is for the moment. Greed happens so that man may understand that he is not the doer. Greed reflects man as an individual so that he may understand that he is not. Life teaches every moment that it makes life and all that is in it, including thoughts, and it is not man who makes them.
Anything and everything in this world is in relation with each other and this relationship is in a singular flow. So, anything that man has with him is meant to come to him. Man is a caretaker in its journey. The journey is singular and not separate from each other. This is one of the many meanings of oneness of life. If this understanding happens to man, he will begin to respect and admire life for its intelligence.
Whatever you may have in terms of thoughts and possessions, whatever may be the content of speech and whatever you may come to do is precise and perfect beyond right or wrong for the moment. Man believes that what he has in any moment is not enough and therefore he seeks more. Understand that ‘more’ is less than much more and much more reverts to being less and not enough.
© Copyright 2009 V. S. Shankar
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