Abhyasa : Loneliness
2011-05-14 18.47.48 : Photo Credit : Satya Sarada Kandula : All Rights Reserved
Every human of all ages, many dogs and I don’t know which other animals.. all suffer from loneliness.
People like to be with other people and don’t generally like being alone. While like-minded and loving company is most desired, many people will make do with just any human being, or at least human faces and voices over television and radio, or human conversations over IM and facebook.
The manas needs to know that there are other manas-es out there and that they regard this manas with liking and approval. We look for playmates, team mates allies and even soul mates! Many people pretend to be other than what they are just so others will accept them. They do anything to “fit in”. A lady I know counsels cancer patients to overcome her loneliness.. it benefits them and it benefits her.
In spite of all these efforts and sacrifices, we often find ourselves alone and through no fault of ours. Sometimes we miss specific people we love and sometimes in this modern day and age with everyone busy with things like jobs and exams we miss just any human company. Many people become workaholics or plain alcoholics to avoid loneliness.
Yet, sannyasis and painters and musicians and thinkers and writers as well as people who are sad often demand that they be left alone. They leave their families and go off to new and/or lonely places.
There are times when we want to be left alone too, to study, think, write, practice our skills, contemplate on problems and meditate on the divine.
This post is about loneliness, when you want either specific or general company that you can’t have.
A lot of people that I talked to said that they try to distract themselves by doing other things they like.
These other things could be
- Eating “comfort foods”.. (sounds risky and unhealthy.. though dieting when you are alone may be bad idea too.)
- Exercise (dancing, swimming.. anything you can do by yourself)
- Cooking
- Singing
- Cleaning
- Chanting mantras or Slokas
- Reading Novels or Studying TextBooks
- Writing Novels or Textbooks or Blogs or Poetry
- Gardening
- Praying
- Meditating
- Visiting Temples
- Yoga and Pranayama
I think Yoga and Pranayama are awesome cures for loneliness and feelings of rejection. As well as Meditation.
The advantage of these is that they cure loneliness in a fundamental way in that they connect your manas with an illumined divine loving chitta (consciousness). These give you the “company of divinity” and destroy your loneliness in the same or even better way than a human manas or presence can. Because Devi and Purusha are always there. You could also have something in (every) room or on your person that reminds you of divinity. This is easy in India since every truck, barber shop and milk packet has a divine emblem on it and every person or institution is named after a divine or spiritual being.
While Yoga and Pranayama require a 3 hour gap after eating, dhyana (or meditation) requires no infrastructure at all and both are good for your health.
So what am I saying? I am saying that Engaging your manas with your chitta, destroys loneliness gives bliss. The final solution to loneliness is not another ephemeral human manas, but the consciousness, the Isa according to whose will everything happens. People move away and come back, your pragnya, your citta is always with you…
This is what I think. I hope it helps someone.
