“All the birds have flown up and gone,
A lonely cloud floats leisurely by.
We never tire of looking at each other,
Only the mountain and I.”
In merely one stanza, Li Po described the void of endless loneliness. Which loneliness we are suffering from? Is it by choice or by compulsion? Even Tolstoy has underlined the significance of loneliness. “It is when man is alone, away from the influence of other men and their acts that he can work on himself. It is in solitude that he must correct his thoughts, driving out the bad and stimulating the good.”
How strange it is that we love loneliness and hate passionate companionship? The reasons are not so complex as are perceived. We are never alone, mind well. Our thoughts are always leading us to random directions.
Let us see what William Hyde has to say about this: “Live in the first person, criticizing yourself, rather than finding fault with others. Live in the singular number caring more for the approval of your own conscience that for the applause of crowd.”
Many critics and historians believe that the spontaneous tradition of individualism aroused out of the aesthetic interpretation of beauty through expressions like poems, paintings, sculptures etc. All these great artists were doing that for their own pleasure and not for crowd as enumerated above.
So basic premise to start and establish a probable hypothesis must support the loneliness. Let us start a brief voyage to understand what the ‘isolated harmony’, ‘musical solitude’...many facets of unique, single, loneliness!!!
“How wonderful to wander in the woods or to have blessings of solitude amidst magnificent mountains and gorgeous valleys! How beautiful even a small hut by the side of a valley, amidst of rustic charm all around!” Nature is best teacher what we can imagine of. Many species of birds and animals prefer to live alone than in herds. Humans are most socialized species, some say. Some counter this argument.
All great initiatives in history of mankind have been the guiding witness to the defense of solitude. Creativity demands isolation. Generation and delivery of valuable art and performance requires concentration to take birth. Mad focus and alert observation are matter of the consistent engagement and hard work which is to be done when we are alone. It is always said that it is better to be alone than in bad company.
Loneliness preserves purity. Conservation, preservation, maintenance of tradition continue if institutions build the stand alone human resources independent in infrastructure and isolated from influence of external thought process which can affect the commitment of the members.
Why there is need to judge or investigate loneliness? There may be two reasons. Either current mental state is unable to attain the calm of loneliness due to practical or any other reasons or there is a real need and resolve to understand loneliness as a value and as a precursor to the emerging chain reaction of developments in life in recent future. Both statements can be either true or false.
“No one to share my feelings, my soul always wept,
The sorrows passed away, but the pain is still kept,
The whole wide world, alone I roam
and live in a lonely room, in a lonely home ,
Will there ever be someone, someone by my side?
But now it is too late because long back I died.”
-- -Nutty Always
Introvert innocence is always attributed to the purity of the mind. It is very challenging to preserve these attitudes in real-time world. But loneliness provided the breathing passage for that construction of foundation necessary to erect a monument of logical thought process.
What is philosophy? It is silent investigation of the abstract nature of environment around our culture. Russel says that it is a place where rigidity of theology and objectivity of science cannot claim the privilege to comment upon. This means that this is the area where science and religion fails. To acquire the art to interpret this essence of culture, silence is must. How silence will come if we hate isolation? Rene Descartes says, “I think, therefore I am!” Therefore, thinking a powerful process of synthesis derives all of it`s energy from the lonely search of self.
We are discussing here about loneliness not out of compulsion but out of choice. As a individual what a term of loneliness may signify? It may signal complete isolation from current, social structure so as to go away from civilized habitat. We are not discussing loneliness.
Let me ask you a question, do are you afraid of loneliness just like death? To understand this we go back in history to listen to Khalil Gibran:
“Death, my death, my solitude and my aloofness,
You are dearer to me than thousand lives
and sweeter to my heart than all world glory.
Death, my death, my bold companion,
You shall hear my songs and my cries and my silences.
And none but you shall speak to me of the
beating of wings and urging of seas
and of mountains that burn in the night
and you alone shall climb my steep and rocky soul.”
We can’t say who can found rest where...What is the basic question? Does loneliness provides security? Or is it the result of lack of those? If we can answer these questions satisfactorily then our exploration on this issue will bear some fruits.
A big full stop to communicate is not loneliness. Rather it involves peace of mind because in isolation there should not be any lust for attachment. But why we are more sad, envy, jealous, worried when we are alone? Therefore we have to change the definition of being alone. Isolation with detachment from society still searching for the answers which whole world is asking. Isolation may not necessarily lead towards luxurious life but also it might not lead towards certain contemplative life having no struggle. Normally we cherish our desire in isolated daydreaming when desire is unqualified for the realization in our life due to some extraordinary difficulty.
When the distance between desire and possibility of realization widens, we run away from other pleasures of life so as to nurture our grief in isolation. Because we have created an image of unrealized dream in our mind. We are not ready to accept the facts. So, we offer for signatures on surrender papers.
Ego raises the morale of the argument. Ego also diminishes the individual assessment in a distinctly biased fashion. Isolation is masterpiece example of determined efforts to reflect individualism with an inbuilt ego. Ego is neither good nor bad. Ego is the design of personality. Refusing to sign the accord of independence is the open invitation to check the validity of loneliness because very few are capable to be vindicated on this stand.
To remain isolated is not the goal and sole objective. We cannot cheat ourselves by querying the hallmarks of loneliness. We can use that solitude for the larger goal of life as an instrument, as a catalyst rather than an obstacle. Therefore we can justify loneliness only if we have larger objective for which we are striving every day, second by second. Let we join to solve this deadlock in understanding of this ever pervading experience.
Beauty of Loneliness: “A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will. Solitude is not to be measured by miles of space widening man and his fellows but by degree of commitment to the silence which decides the result of work.”
Loneliness is not isolated chamber. It is a tightrope walk in a dark leading to the gateway of enormous challenges having potential of joy.
“Moon is lonely, sun is so; why life on earth always glow?” It is very important to know about this aspect of life. We cannot imagine companionship without loneliness. It is only loneliness which gives true meaning of companionship. Someone has said, “I was in the crowd still, I was alone.” I cannot stop myself without mentioning movie ‘Caste Away’.
Everyone has every right to be alone. None should question that right. Value of freedom is spirit as propounded by many revolutions throughout history. Every value comes along with some responsibility. Is loneliness a value or is it illusion? Is it distant dream or it is blessing?
Essential spirit of the life is to strive for thousand dreams even if they are not realized after thousand efforts. Loneliness is best, long lasting companion. When everyone comes into this world, gets married with loneliness. Should we get divorced with loneliness for any reason? If we have achieved all glory, wealth, fame then the seeking of loneliness turns justifiable. Right now we having to relinquish except our ‘crown of silence’ i.e. Solitude.
Even if we relinquish solitude, it remains. I hope, this understanding of grief is colorful. This effort of writing is not invitation to mourning meeting. Rather this small childish literary voyage is a celebration of solitude. Great discourses are dominated by determination aroused out of deep thought process.
Why every festival has the communion, gathering? There may be hardly any festival which
celebrates solitude. I know one of such festival--Literature where solitude is given the due respect. Recognition of individual appetite to know, to share is very pleasant. Even mass media are also subsystems of vast river of literature.
We need not be alone all of our life. The moment we catch the finger of any writer you enter into the cave of silence to know what the words are saying. Our prejudices react more than our understanding of the subject. Always our concentration is vulnerable to number of external factors.
Concentration should be independent of any influence. We always live under some or other kind of influence. Why so? Because it is very difficult to be alone without any predominating viewpoint. Man is the victim of his situation. So it is hard to maintain balance between inherited dogma of influence and independent style of rational thinking.
We might remember the short poem of Soloman Grandy which we have recited in schooldays.
‘ Soloman Grandy’
Born on a Monday
Christened on Tuesday
Married on Wednesday
Took a ill on Thursday
Worth on Friday
Died on Saturday
Buried on Sunday
What a wonderful sketch of lonely life across the length of one week! What and how we want to be remembered? A person who spend all of his/her life investigating charm of innocent loneliness or a person who helped to build bridges of trust to establish a web of affection through the matrix of relationships? Which one will be more honorable for us to do? Which one will be more pleasurable for us; to engage in the consistent process of knowing the complexity of interdependence or to embed the singularity in our personality? Life is ready to give us whatever we deserve. Life is not ready to award anything which we really do not wish to be permanent. So let us embrace life in its full solitary engagement.
Engagement of silence with loneliness! How we can define peace of mind by loving the invincible will power generated by introspective self reflection. Is desire of peaceful mind a selfish one? Everyone will answer differently. At the same time the term loneliness is turning out to be virtue, value, reality. But, is it powerful reagent of happy life? We have to search for the answer for this question. Zero is alone, having null value. But when it joins the company of other digits it empowers and enriches others so as to live with certain dignity, pride and some recognition.
The area of loneliness is very abstract. I am really lacking to explore it because I have not practiced it. I only know that, “Great deeds are accomplished neither by infinite patience and perseverance. And this patience and perseverance will certainly be gifted by our lonely dedication to the work, cause and mission.
I could write this because I was alone without any other preoccupation of external thoughts. But inspiration to write was not motivation of being lonely. Let us walk few steps and understand solitude to it`s true spirit and significance. Solitude can transform our lives. Welcome to the kiss of the meditation…!
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