Living in solitude.

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

 

Living in solitude may be easy or difficult considering how you look at it. In today's world solitude is a scarce commodity. Thakur assures devotees by saying that one could practice solitude in the mind by meditating on God now and then and practicing detachment. While meditating we leave the world behind and get a taste of the great silence beyond.

 

However physical solitude is also necessary. While reading through the books on M, one comes across the fact that he used to often spend the nights out of his home sleeping with the beggars on the streets. Now why did he need to do that? Most of us do not realise that we are bound by many invisible forces and habits. Even a slight change in routine at home or a mistake of our close relatives whom we take for granted often disturbs us no end. External or physical solitude helps us identify those shortcomings and strive to eliminate them.

 

Most of us are very taken over by the concept of "home". When we go for pilgrimages seeking solitude we tire after some days and long to "return home". Once a direct disciple of Thakur, maybe Swami Turyianandaji, was meditating on the banks of a river in his premonastic days. Come evening he rose to "return home". Suddenly the thought struck him that he was a free soul and hence had no "home". He again sat down to meditate.

 

Even our body is a great deterrent to solitude. Our mind is even more so. We may physically distance ourselves from the world and yet carry it within us.

 

To overcome the obstacles to solitude we have to break the shackles of "home, body and mind". Let us imagine ourselves to be the inhabitants of Ramakrishna Loka. We have come to this world for a short visit. We have to again go back "home". This exercise would be akin to converting the unripe ego to a ripe ego. If we cannot overcome the concept of home then let us replace our earthly homes with Thakurs Ramakrishna Loka.

 

Love & Regards,

Jagannath.