Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD India Herald Houston, USA 23rd September 2009 |
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The spiritual term oneness brings forth scorn amongst the scientific elite. However, it gets the backing of the spiritual enthusiasts and propagators as well. The irony of it all is that the scientists prove oneness, but are not aware that they do, while the spiritualists claim oneness, but fail to understand the significance of it, for their preaching and propaganda contradict the significance of oneness.
Oneness has caused more confusion than duality. This is because oneness has not been understood clearly. It has remained abstract – a sort of fairy-tale land to the intelligent. Even those who believe in its possibility are more prone to accept duality rather than oneness.
Man definitely longs for oneness, but prefers duality if given a choice. He wishes to have oneness, no doubt about that, provided oneness is obtained only through duality. This could never be possible for duality cannot render oneness, as oneness is already the case in every moment.
If oneness means one and this oneness is truly one, it means it just cannot be even two. If oneness were real, then it should be present in every moment in life. This means that oneness is the moment that is and, if the moment is oneness, it obviously would be eternal, and that is what the moment is.
But the moment is never realised as oneness or eternal because of time. In time the oneness appears diverse and multiple. Man believes that in order to obtain oneness he has to destroy his ego, and the thought of not being present is frightening to him. He is frightened because he believes that without his ego neither he nor his family will survive.
Man fails to understand that there is no need to obtain oneness for, if oneness is real, it needs to be present everywhere in every moment and, therefore, there would be no need to obtain it. Man needs to understand that the oneness is already obtained in the moment.
This goes to prove how little man has understood life and his mind as well. Every effort by the religious and the spiritualists preserves the ego under the disguise of destroying it. The very effort to destroy the ego, and there are many, is food for its survival.
To add to the confusion of it all, man is seen vigorously trying his best to practise spiritual techniques that promise to destroy his ego. The same man is also seen praying to the almighty for his survival in this world.
Man who believes that oneness is all there is, his approach to daily life contradicts this belief. This includes the religious men too, and they are not an exception, when they should be to set an example to the layman.
How has man to understand oneness? It is not enough to believe in it, yet be convinced by the choice of what is in time and the decisive power of free will, both of which exist in time and time alone.
Therefore, it is best to understand the role of time in this world of choice and free will. Every man knows, understands and accepts that the world and everything in it is made up of five elements, namely fire, air, water, earth and space and time (ether).
Space and time is not mentioned as the first element to appear by creation, whoever the creator may be. Space and time is last in the list of five elements, suggestive that it was created as the last of the fundamental five elements. No man disputes this line-up.
It is also believed that man was created by the almighty, the view held by the religious clan. Man is also believed to have evolved from animals, the view so dear to the theoretical propagandists of evolution by natural selection.
Taking the cue from these two widely accepted beliefs, it is fair to say that it is highly improbable that vegetation and animal kingdom could have existed without the presence of space and time. Space and time would be required by vegetation and animal to survive.
How could vegetation have existed without the presence of man to plant it? How could animals have been created without the presence of space and time? Even God would have needed space and time to create animals.
If God did not need space and time to create matter, vegetation and animals, where would the need be to create space and time just for man? God could very well have created man without space and time if matter, vegetation, animals and the world were created without space and time.
Time, if observed carefully, exists only if man thinks of it. Man knows time only when it is thought of and not otherwise. Time is, therefore, a thought and not made up of substance. This would entail the five elements, including man, being just a thought and not made up of substance.
If everything is a thought, it means that that which is physical is just a reflection and not real. This fits in very well to understand oneness, since the world and everything in it, including man, is in thought-form. The proof of that is that the entire world disappears during the sleep-state, only to reappear in the waking state when thinking comes into operation.
Thoughts are nothing but subtle sounds, while words are gross sounds. Both thoughts and words happen to man as an auditory illusion of sound, and he does not make them. Therefore, all forms of matter, vegetation, animals and man are an optical illusion of light and every form of knowledge, action and situations are an auditory illusion of sound.
If anyone believes that he is enjoying oneness, understand that it is duality that he is enjoying as a thought and not oneness, which is a timeless and thoughtless state. If any man enjoys the illusory state of the mind, understand that he is oneness.
He can enjoy only if an understanding has happened to him that the world, man and mind are illusory and this understanding reveals oneness.
The moment contains the oneness and is the oneness and man is in this moment, which is eternal oneness. No man can teach or give oneness to the other.
Oneness means that nothing is created but is just a reflection of light. A reflection is not in parts but always exists as one. It means that life is ‘one’ very intelligent play of light and sound, and that is exactly what life is – ‘Oneness’.
© Copyright 2009 V. S. Shankar
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