Natural Life

 I have been listening to people speak about loneliness. This status, one would think, does not apply to “successful” people. But wonder of wonders! These people are also not devoid of loneliness. Which means loneliness is a state much deeper than worldly success can remove.

We presume fame, wealth and power can prevent loneliness. We also think people who always prefer to be among crowds are not lonely. Or people who are always on social media are connected and happy. Not true either.

Then what is it? If we take the Advaita Vedanta perspective, I need to believe that “I AM THAT”. But in our mechanical lives and away from nature, we don’t realize that modern amenities and modern life has cut us away from natural life. There was a time when we were connected to creation.

I remember that growing up, we were nature’s children. Walking barefoot on grass, and on pebbles, gardening, making garland and jewelry from flowers, running out to play in the rain, climbing trees to eat the fruit straight from there … connected with everything including people. Life had a tremendous value! And we were connected.

Today, we are separatist as people. We are also untrustworthy because we wear masks. We say one thing but mean another. We are not empaths. We know everyone has challenges and ups and downs but we don’t want to listen. We don’t want to sympathize. We don’t know how to come out of ourselves to help another. Everything has to be a quid pro quo.

Maybe , this very attitude tends to isolate each one of us. The ones who ARE empaths perhaps should not expect that quality from others. We are basically selfish creatures, ironically, left to work towards our evolution when we struggle with our regressive separatist tendencies.

They say Kaliyug is a good ground for quick evolution, that chanting also has multiple benefits. There was a joke on this, that if, in your ignorance, you said “Mara” instead of “Ram” you would still get the benefits.

Who knows! Only God knows. One thing is certain. Loneliness if used correctly, can definitely be beneficial to our evolution. If we can change our tracks. And last but not the least, abject loneliness has been known to be the cause of ailments like dementia.

Surekha Kothari

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