Courage going Inwards

 

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Courage going Inwards

One needs great courage to go inwards in life. Primarily it is a flight from the alone to the alone, it is like going deeper and deeper into one’s aloneness. We grow up in such a way that we are accustomed to people all the time – at home, school, college, office and so on. We are surrounded by people so much so that we completely forget the joy of being alone; hence there is always the fear of being left alone.

That is why religions exist, nations exist – it is because of fear and not because of any love. How many people actually yearn for God? We don’t know anyone from any religion who has that kind of craving, what we do know is that people like to go through the motions of going to temples, churches, mosques and so on, because that is the socially accepted thing to do.

But people are afraid of being left alone; they have to be part of some crowd — a political crowd, a social crowd, a religious crowd; any crowd will do, but they are dependent on the crowd. They feel good when they are surrounded by people; they start feeling shaky, scared when they find there is nobody and they are alone. That is the fear that grips you when you are lost in a jungle or in a desert where, as far as you can see, there is nobody. That utter aloneness creates great fear because we are conditioned by the crowd, for the crowd, as part of the crowd. We are not brought up as individuals. We are brought up as small units of a great mechanism called the society, the nation, the church.

Meditation is the only phenomenon where there is no possibility of meeting anybody, where you have to go alone, totally alone. Hence only very courageous people can enter into the world of meditation. That is why so few people have ever entered, why so few people have ever become enlightened.

Secondly, when we move inwards, we do not have any map to guide us – we have maps for everything else, milestones showing you the way, lighthouses guiding you at sea, radio communication to help if we get lost and so on – help is always available – but not when we move inwards!

But when we move inwards, the people who have gone in cannot leave any footprints for anybody. It is impossible, because everybody’s inner territory is so different that Swamiji’s footprints won’t help us and if we follow Swamiji’s footprints literally, we will never find ourself, in fact, there is a greater chance of us getting lost

Each individual is unique, so unique that we have to discover ourself all alone; hence great courage is needed. This is the greatest adventure in life, and one who goes on this adventure is blessed.