Hari
Om
Monday is AUM-day; in search of meditation
SOLITUDE. Does
it serve a purpose for the meditator? Does it have to mean 'lonely'? We are
going to explore the writings of a number of notable contemplatives of various
backgrounds and explore the role of solitude in spiritual pursuit. These are
from a collection published by Chinmaya Publications.
Sri Aurobindo wrote;
Hard is it to be in the world, free, yet living the life of ordinary
men; but because it is hard, it must be attempted and accomplished.
The love of solitude is a sign of the disposition toward knowledge;
but knowledge itself is only achieved when we have a settled perception of
solitude in the crowd, in the battle and in the mart. Asceticism is no doubt
healing, a cave very peaceful, and the hilltops wonderfully pleasant;
nevertheless, do thou act in the world as God intended thee.
You must remain and grow always more and more deeply quiet and
still, both in yourself and in your attitude to the world around you. If you
can do this, the saadhana is likely to go on progressing and enlarging itself
with a minimum of trouble and disturbance. You
must gather yourself within more firmly. If you disperse yourself constantly and go out of the inner circle, you will constantly move about in the
pettiness of the ordinary outer nature and under the influences to which it is
open. Learn to live within, to act always from within, from a constant
communion with Self. You must persist and establish the habit of living in your
inner being, which is your true being, and of looking at everything from there.
There is no disturbance in the depths of the ocean, but above there
is the joyous thunder of its shouting and its racing shoreward; so is it with
the liberated soul in the midst of violent action. The soul does not act; it
only breathes out from itself, overwhelming action.
