Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD. Published on www.acadun.com The Netherlands 11th September 2009 |
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“Bindu and Naada”
Man knows that the world is made up of five fundamental elements: fire, water, air, earth space and time. He believes that everything is physical in space, including vegetation, animal kingdom and man, and that all exist in time.
Man believes that birth and death happen in space and time and he needs them to make his life, prolong it and prevent death. And all of these in turn involve the participation of the fundamental five elements.
In short, he believes that daily life, be it professional life, family life or social life is action-filled and can be controlled, shaped as per choice or decision. Man longs for a tailor-made life and who can blame him for that. It is a matter of choice after all and so he believes.
Despite choice, decision and free will man is unable to cut a design for himself, a tailor- made life. It appears that his design for a tailor-made life is dependent on others around him. It suggests that man’s life is not independent but dependent. It is an interdependent life that every man lives.
If life is interdependent, it can only mean that independency for man is not only far- fetched, but just plain impossible. The question arises whether man could ever live an independent life. Yes, he could the moment he understands that life is independent and not dependent on man.
What is it that makes life appear to be dependent? It is the presence of time that inflicts such a dependency: therefore, time is precious to man. He believes time should not be wasted. He is convinced time is precious for he believes it is required to achieve as much as his heart wants and desires and time is easily available, for it is present, so he believes, in life.
But has man ever wondered where time comes from? Has he wondered who could have put time in life for him to utilise it productively or to his own benefit? Man surely wakes up either on time every day or whenever he does wake up he goes about working his day the way he wishes and plans or to a routine.
This is possible because he believes there is time in life. His future is time-related and so he knows he has to make the best use of it. Man seems to be in a hurry, but he realises sooner or later that he has not enough time.
It is time and Newton’s laws of motion that convince man of cause and effect. Science plays a role in strengthening the illusion that man is the doer, speaker and thinker, and time, cause and effect convince man that he is the doer, speaker and thinker.
Man needs to understand that physics and the laws of mass and motion neither apply nor function in the architecture of microcosmic life nor in the macrocosmic life far beyond outer space.
Physics that man knows and depends upon for his livelihood operates only in between the macro- and the micro-cosmos. In this range, wherein man knows and knowledge prevails, the fundamental five elements are found everywhere, in the animate and inanimate as well.
The animate and the inanimate seem to function in time and are regulated by cause and effect. Life that is known by man appears to be harmonious if regulated by causes and effects that are constructive and disharmonious when the causes and effects are destructive.
Therefore, man’s life is governed to achieve the best effects and for that he plans and follows the best causes. If the desired effects are not forthcoming, he begins to determine and identify the cause of this.
Science further strengthens his belief that life is cause- and effect-orientated. But the enlightened, on the other hand, have proclaimed life to be causeless and effectless. How could man come to terms with the enlightened and science?
Man is inclined to trust science rather than the enlightened. This is to be expected for the conditioned mind is science-oriented and enlightenment is beyond the limitations of the conditioned mind.
Since the human body is in the timeless ‘now’, and not the mind, conclusions, opinions or interpretations of science cannot and do not hold any ground in life, but only do so to and in the mind. They are merely deceptive because they make the illusory appear real.
The question remains as to how man can understand that life is causeless and effectless. It is not enough for him to be told that life is causeless and effectless. The mind, which is science-oriented, needs explanation that life is causeless and effectless.
Medicine and the effects of it provide a good example to understand that life is indeed causeless and effectless. Medicines are known to cure and prevent diseases. Man is more than convinced about this fact, and it appears so too.
Medicine in the form of a capsule, tablet or liquid is ingested and the effects of it are either immediate or delayed. The effects may be the disappearance or the control of symptoms.
The disappearance of the symptoms is taken as the effects of the medicine ingested, which forms the cause. This acts as proof that life is cause- and effect-oriented, but life is more mysterious than this observation would suggest.
The ingested medicine does not work in isolation and this is to be understood. Every component present in the blood plays a role, in conjunction with the medicine, in bringing about the effect. The absence of the components would not result in the effects observed.
Now, in such a scenario, every component would be the cause in conjunction with the medicine. Therefore, medicine cannot be attributed to be the individual cause. The cause is always collective and not isolated.
If the medicine as the cause were real, it should cure anyone, man or animal: it does not cure one and all every time. If it does, well and good, and if it does not, too bad is the verdict.
Man is not the cause of ingesting the medicine either, though he may appear to be. Life is a journey, and everything in it, albeit illusory, is on a journey too. The medicine that appears as if man has ingested is on its journey too.
The medicine that is meant to be ingested will be ingested and no force on earth can stop the ingestion. Conversely, medicine that is not meant to be ingested will not be ingested and no force on earth can make it be.
Nothing in this world is isolated; everything is connected with each other for everything is made up of energy or a reflection of it. The world, man and mind are a reflection of light and sound. This is what makes life causeless and effectless.
Time, elements and man appear to exist independently, but they do not. They are merely an auditory and optical illusion of light and sound. Life remains causeless and effectless, beginningless and endless.
© Copyright 2009 V. S. Shankar
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