Solitude is the
state of mind, being alone not even thoughts rising and disturbing mind, but
with one’s self apart from the company of others. It does not mean being lonely
apart from the company of others. There is much difference between being Alone
and being Lonely. One who is Alone with his self never suffers
loneliness.
Ego is the root cause of the environment in which a jiva finds himself, which may result in painful loneliness of Mind whereas, a Jivanmukhta, who has transcended individual ego and merged in universal consciousness, always is in tune with, always in the bliss of SELF which is always and eternally alone.
One who is lonely apart from the company of others does not know what it is to be Alone, being receptive, reflective and meditative, conscious on one's identity with one's self, concerned with one's self alone to the exclusion of all else which is not self. It is only in absolute silence and absolute loneliness that one experiences the Prime Existence.
Pure existence, therefore, is the not an object to be inquired through intellectual quest. It is a perennial existence having no such thing as beginning, if there is anything like Beginning, and no end, if there is anything like end.
It is existential to be experienced, here and now, not later going anywhere else from here. When one experiences, there are no words to embellish, words come later when it has to be communicated to others.
Everyone knows God but being too familiar with him everyone seeks him somewhere else than in his close vicinity. Only when who is receptive and responsive to the eternal Sound, remaining alone being silent and quiet, without being conscious of even one’s own self then the doors open and you experience, become aware. Then one will see receptive and responsive to the eternal Sound Aum, not as something expressed by the seers in words but as experienced by the seer.
The sage who sees, hears, thinks and understands in this manner, though alone, never experiences loneliness since he revels in the solitude of his self as being in everything, even when he is in the sylvan forests as he is in the midst of boisterous and rowdy crowd.
Whereas one who is not aware, not being conscious that the self within and the self in others is identical, suffers loneliness let alone in silence of the forests but also in the midst of his relatives and associates.
Only one who is consciously aware of the comprehensive all-pervasive nature of the Supreme Self, reaches out to others. Then he could remain Alone in solitude in the presence or absence of crowd, experiencing an expansion of his self to reach out to all comprehensive Self.
While He is in 2ND Chapter of Ashtavakra Gita as far as talks uploaded in Youtube is concerned, now a days, frequently, he speaks and sends smaller talks to very few sadhakas on many other verses from later chapters of Ashtavakra Gita.
In the 1st verse, Sage Ashtavakra speaks “Oh! Rajan, the Sadhaka who is contented, having perfect control over senses, remaining in solitude, and takes pleasure in the supreme Brahman residing as a soul in him, would achieve the fruit of wisdom and Yoga.
“One has attained Knowledge and reaped the fruits of yoga…” Yoga means the recognition of this one-ness, coming to this union.
“…who is content, purified of attachments and at home in solitude.” We’ve looked at this aspect often now, where we saw that attachment is the sense of division, the sense of separation. ‘I am an object therefore, I need other objects to complete me, and they must be mine’. The ‘me’ and the ‘mine’ is the play of attachment.
To give an illustration, a tree is conceived in the mind or perceived by the sense organs. A tree cannot be cognized or perceived unless it is isolated by descriptive or definitive characteristics from other things which are not trees. There are non-trees in the world, and therefore trees become perceptible. If the whole world is just a tree only, there cannot be a perception of a tree.
So even mental cognitions are relatively construed in the sense that the description the mind prepares within itself in respect of its own object is also relatively connected to other objects. The character of a particular object is that particular feature which is abstracted from the total possibility of features and distinguishable from the features of other objects.
Physically we are not independent, and mentally also it is not possible to entertain totally independent thoughts. There is relativity reigning supreme not only in the material world but also in the mental world. What other world is available to us if it is not psychophysical in the end?
What is this great spiritual search for that which is all-in-all, the be-all and end-all of all things? The Supreme Being glorying in itself, beholding itself through itself, the Almighty, as we call it, the endless infinite Existence, the timeless Eternity, the Bliss supreme, knows only itself.
It does not know anything other than itself because other than itself, nothing can be. Nothing other than itself can be because infinitude is the nature of the Ultimate Reality. That which has something second to it, external to it or equal to it is a finite being because the externality spoken about is nothing but the description of the finitude of that particular thing.
God, the Supreme Being, the Almighty, the Ultimate Reality, cannot be finite. Hence, it cannot have that difficulty of relating itself to things outside it by cognition, perception, etc.
“…at home in solitude.” So, one who has found himself to be the Source of everything doesn’t need the company of another; and neither is averse to the company of another.
The idea of loneliness or togetherness itself is not that meaningful now because you see that You are the container of All There Is.
Such a sage is ever alone, existing in and as SELF which is always alone. Brahman, existing prior to creation or when He mysteriously willed to create this universe or after the creation emerged, even while creation folds itself during each pralaya and even when the creation evolves again, irrespective of all this, is ever alone.
God is ever alone. A realized sage is ever alone. The external environment, all the experiences which this world rushes to him, fail to disturb that aloneness of SELF, which is now His spontaneous existence, SAHAJA STITHI.
Again, the state of such a seer who is ever in Kaivalya / Alone ness of Self IS explained by Ashtavakra in another verse thus:
"Just like an elephant who takes in only Sallaki leaves and rejects neem leaves, how so ever fresh the neem leaves may appear, the Seer is satisfied only in alone ness of SELF, AND rejects all the glitter/attraction that samsara offers to him. "
The neem leaf (samsara) may look fresh, green but after eating, it leaves you only with bitterness (misery).
The Sallaki leaf may not appear attractive (Alone ness of SELF) , it may not be sought by many who prefer green, fresh neem leaves( samsara) but still, the experience/the state upon absorbing the same ( SELF) gets one, the highest level of satisfaction !!!!!!
That is why, Sankara says,
Ekanto saukmaasyatama
(One should cherish
satisfaction in solitude.)
Love.
