The Importance of Being Alone
A sincere disciple, a seeker,
one day put a question to me: “If I have to enter the Absolute today, what sadhana should I practice?” My
answer to this question was: “You have to melt into liquid and become one with
everything, if you want to enter the Absolute today.” The main sadhana to enter the Kingdom of God
is detachment – freedom from attachments. But our attachments are very severe.
We are self-deluded people, under the notion that we have no attachments.
One of the essential
conditions the seeker of yoga is called upon to bear in mind is ekantavasa – sequestration,
solitude. These days, wrong notions are driven into people’s minds by
inexperienced teachers who say that we can be in the midst of a city and yet
practice sadhana. Though this sounds fine as
a theory, it is a total impossibility in practice. The ancient masters said
that solitude is necessary.
Withdrawal, immersion, and
rising up, were the three processes in the practice of yoga given by Sri
Aurobindo, the great yogi. In the beginning, withdrawal, renunciation is
necessary. Though withdrawal is not the ultimate aim of yoga, it is a very
necessary part of yoga. Isolation is done even in medical treatment, though it
does not mean that we have to be isolated forever, throughout our life. The
purpose of isolation is to cure us of our illness, and when we are healthy, we
can move among others.
The mind is accustomed to
enjoyments through the senses every moment of our lives. But will it be
possible for us to be renunciates, to withdraw ourselves from externals of this
world called samsara, by yoga, which
is the reverse process – movement along a return current.
The first thing that we have
to do, therefore, is to find time to be alone. We were not born into this world
with friends, with husbands, wives and children, with bank balances or
relations of any kind. As we came, so we go. The truth is revealed when we are
born, and also when we go. The untruth is in the middle, when we are completely
muddled in our heads.
A great thinker and mystic
once put it in a beautiful style: The path of spiritual is the flight of the
alone to the Alone. It is not a multitude going to God. It is very important to
remember that we are alone in this world even at this very moment. It is a
false notion that we have got many friends and relations around us, bringing
about a sense of satisfaction to the ego-ridden individuality.
The very fact that we regard
other people as ‘others’ shows that they are unrelated to us essentially. Otherness
is the feature which disconnects everything from everything else. A subject
cannot be connected to an object, because there is no means of connection.
Do we feel happy when we are
alone, or do we feel miserable when we are alone? If we have a substance of our own, we will be
happier the more alone we are. This is the test of progress in spirituality.
Our real nature is Aloneness.
The Supreme Aloneness is God Himself. That Universal Supremacy of Aloneness is
reflected in our daily lives and calls for recognition every day and every
moment.
The practice of yoga is an
attempt at gradual extrication from involvements, beginning with externals
first, and moving internally later on. This “resort to a secluded place” is the
first thing in yoga; posture, pranayama, and meditations come
later on.
Take a determination; make a
vow: “For one hour in a day, I shall not speak to people.” Be alone, read the
Gita, chant a mantra, even sing and dance or do whatever you like. Gradually,
the time should be increased. If you can sit in one posture for three hours
continuously, you are said to have attained asana
jaya – perfection in asana. If
you can be alone for three hours continuously, it is a great achievement and
you can be said to have mastered the technique of aloneness.
After you learn to be alone
physically, the next step in yoga is to try to be psychologically alone.
Psychological aloneness is a more difficult technique than physical aloneness. It
is mental solitude that we are finally seeking through physical aloneness or
solitude in the beginning. From the state of physical detachment, you come to a
state of mental detachment. Just like freeing your cloth from the clutches of
thorns in a jungle, this personality, which is mind and body combined, has to
be freed from the clutches of attachment gradually – first through detachment
physically, and then detachment psychologically.
So, in the beginning, it is
necessary to be free from the atmosphere of physical temptations, attractions,
attachments, etc. Nobody can control the mind. But a protracted limitation
placed upon physical movements in the wrong direction will be highly
contributory to the more important practice that you have to embark upon –
namely, the freedom of the mind from thinking of objects and attaching itself
to objects.
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