Silence and Aloneness

 

Photo Credit: QuoteFancy

Silence and Aloneness

Aloneness is one of the fundamental experiences as we enter into silence. In silence there is nobody else, we are simply alone. The deeper our silence, thoughts disappear, emotions will be gone, sentiments will be gone - just pure being, a flame of light, burning alone. One can get scared because we are so much accustomed to living with people — in the crowd, in the marketplace, in all kinds of relationships.

We may not be aware that in all these relationships - with friends, with our husbands, with our wives, with our children, with our parents - we are basically trying to avoid the experience of aloneness. These are strategies so that we are always with somebody.

It has been well established psychologically that if a person is left alone in isolation, after 5-7 days he/she starts going insane. The person starts talking to him/herself, talks to the walls as the person starts trying to establish a relationship with anything that is visible – walls, pillars, doors etc. The person creates a hallucination and establishes a relationship.

Just stand by the side of the road and watch people going from the office to the house, and we will be surprised. They are alone — although there is a crowd all around - but they are talking to themselves. They are making gestures; they are telling somebody something… because the crowd around them is not related to them. They are alone in the crowd, so they are trying to create their own illusion. Maybe they are talking to their wife, to their boss - there are many things which cannot be said but right now they can say them. In front of the wife, they cannot say it, but in this crowd, where everybody is engaged in his own thing, everybody is doing his own thing, they can say things to the wife. Nobody is listening, and at least one thing is certain - the wife is not there! But they need the wife, they need someone to talk to.

Either we are mad or not. If we don’t know aloneness, there is something of madness in us. Only pure aloneness gives us a clean sanity. We don’t need the other; the dependence on the other is no more there, we are enough unto ourselves. Language is meaningless because language is a medium to relate with the other. The moment we are no longer dependent on the other, language is meaningless, words are meaningless.

In one’s silence - when there are no words, no language, nobody else is present - one is getting in tune with existence. This serenity, this silence, this aloneness will bring one immense rewards.

It will allow us to grow to our full potential. For the first time we will be individuals, for the first time we will have the touch and the taste of freedom, and for the first time the immensity, the unboundedness of existence will be ours with all its blissfulness.

So, whatever happens in silence - either sadness or aloneness - remember, in silence nothing wrong can ever happen. Whatever happens is going to enhance the beauty of it, deepen the charm of it; anything that happens will bring more and more flowers, more and more fragrance to it.