“Non duality or Advaita cannot be known. Duality or Dvaita can be understood to be non-duality"
Dr. Vijai S Shankar
Essence and Free Will of Action
By Dr. Vijai S Shankar
Man believes he has free will, and he is convinced that free will enables him to do what he wishes to do in his daily life. What is free will related to? Free will is related to actions, spoken or written words and thoughts because man is convinced that he has a free will to do what he wishes to do, to speak, to write and to think. To do, speak, write and to think are actions and actions involve movements of the body. The enlightened have, however, proclaimed that what is meant to happen will happen and no force on earth can stop it from happening. Also, what is meant not to happen will not happen and no force on earth can make it happen. This appears to contradict man’s belief in free will. An explanation is, therefore, required to make the enlightened proclamation clear to man… read further
Gerard Benerink, Netherlands
Wonderful article!! As Dr. Shankar said before, you know what has be done only after it happens, never before. You are right, a very strong belief to be the doer, but daily life if observed honesty let you see that the enlightened are very right that man is not the doer.
For some time now I have been pondering on Life and reality. I have listened to many CD's, and read most of your books, numerous times. I came to the conclusion that the whole of Life is nothing more than a hologram, which could explain why Life appears so real but in actuality is not. Then one day the focus appeared to change. I can see where the dreaming state and the waking dream are the same, created by "me". Not "me" Celia, who is not the doer, thinker or speaker, but that Being who is everything and everywhere simultaneously, which is what I really am. Maybe some call it God, I no longer know. Could it possibly be that space is God, and we are all living in what could be called the Mind of God, the dream of God, or perhaps the imagination of God, in which case nothing is real in the way we usually think of as real? Could everything physical and non-physical, throughout the whole cosmos be the stuff that dreams are made of? It somehow makes sense to me, but I could be totally wrong of course. Does it really matter? maybe not, but these thoughts appeared for me - all in the dream of course. I would dearly appreciate your input and guidance, if only to achieve some clarity on this matter. Thanking you.
Response to Celia: AOA
Dear Celia,
That which is everywhere and reflects as everything including, life, movie and a dream is light. God is light and light does not have a mind. God/light reflects an illusory mind. If God/light has a mind God/light would be no different than man. That which we think as real is illusory and not real. The physical and non-physical are illusory reflections of light, because they are seen in a movie and a dream. Dream is seen and understood as thoughts, just as daily life and a movie.
Shankar
Letter to AOA:
Sigrid, Munich.
Thank you so much for continuing these brilliant articles on the website. They keep me on fire and support the journey inwards. Whatever I come to read - be it the articles or in one of your books - I recognise your love, care and concern for us and this touches me really deeply. So I can't help but expressing my gratitude over and over again! With love and best wishes
