Ultimate Aloneness – In Gita Verse 18.6 All these activities should be performed without attachment or any expectation of result. They should be performed as a matter of duty, O son of Pṛthā. That is My final opinion.
What is Krishna’s opinion regarding without attachment or expectation of result? He means the search: how to be one with the total universe. And if it is possible to be one with the total universe, then one is lonely without the feeling of loneliness.
All our attachments are because of feelings of loneliness.
In my Bhagavad Gita Verse 16.16, blog I wrote – Non-attachment is our self-nature, we are born with it. So it is strange that in life, we all become victims of attachment and aversion.
Self-nature is aloneness. If I am left utterly alone, away from men and things, from ideas and images; if I am in total aloneness, will I be attached or averse in that state? No, both attachment and aversion are utterly irrelevant to aloneness, because they are reflections of relationship. Once I am out of all relationships I am all alone – unattached and untouched.
Loneliness is not aloneness.
The KAIVALYA UPANISHAD inquiry into the ultimate freedom is an effort to know the secret of total loneliness without feeling lonely. Man can be lonely because others are not present. In that case, even in loneliness, the absent crowd is present. But one can be alone, so totally fulfilled, so totally oneself, that the other is not felt – not even as an absence. The other is not. When the other has dissolved totally, absolutely, you become free.
By freedom, the UPANISHADS means not a political thing, not a social thing, not even a psychological thing; by total freedom, they mean a spiritual, basic, ultimate freedom. One becomes so fulfilled that the whole universe is felt not as an other, but as oneself. Really, one has to go deep into it. We feel the other because we are unfulfilled: We feel the other as THE OTHER because we are unfulfilled. Once we are fulfilled, the other is dissolved. In a fulfilled mind there is no feeling of the other. Totally fulfilled, the universe and you become one.
This is the search: how to be one with the total universe. And if it is possible to be one with the total universe, then one is lonely without the feeling of loneliness. This phenomenon is known as KAIVALYA: loneliness without feeling lonely.
This UPANISHAD is concerned with this ultimate aloneness, what Plotinus has called, “a flight of the alone to the alone.” This is the flight; this is what Plotinus means.
This is the flight, but this flight begins with a prayer. Nothing religious can begin without a prayer.
Really, whatsoever begins with a prayer is religious, because a prayerful mind means many things – much is implied in a prayerful mood. One: man is not enough; alone he is not enough. Alone he is helpless, alone he cannot go on this flight, a divine support is needed.
The support of the total is needed, the support of the whole. Unless the whole supports man, man cannot proceed, because we are not something separate from the whole. We belong to it as an organic part, not as a mechanical part. A mechanical part can be pulled out from the whole, but not an organic part. My eyes are part of me, organically one with me. If my eyes are pulled out, they will not be eyes then, because they can only be eyes when I am seeing through them. My eyes, out of me, will be just dead. Even to call them eyes will be wrong, because they cannot be called eyes if they are not seeing. My eyes see only when they are one with me.
This is organic unity: parts are not parts, they cannot be parted, so they are not parts. In an organic unity the part behaves as a whole. In a mechanical unity, the part behaves as a part.
If you pull my eyes out, the eyes will not be eyes – not only that, I will not be a see-er, because how can I be a see-er without the eyes? Eyes pulled out will be dead eyes; without eyes I will be a dead see-er. Eyes and me exist in an organic unity. The eyes are not my part, they ARE me. I am not something apart from my eyes, I AM my eyes.
This is what I mean by organic unity. Man exists in his wholeness as an organic unity; that’s why prayer is meaningful. Prayer only means alone, helpless, I am nothing. I cannot even move, I cannot even be, so help me. The total is invoked through prayer. The whole is invoked, the whole unity is called forth: Help me; only then I can proceed, only then this inquiry will be possible.
Prayer means this: a call for help from the whole. Prayer also implies that unless the whole desires it, it is futile, unless the whole helps it, it is not even desirable. So first, the whole, must be with me.
Unless the whole is with me, my efforts are futile, and not only futile, they may be even dangerous.
They may even be against me.
Man is ignorant. He can go on a search which is meaningless; he can ask for things which are not really for his benefit; he can ask for things which will prove poisonous to himself; he can desire his own death; he can desire his own destruction. The Whole must be asked first. The whole must be taken into confidence, so to speak.
The whole must be with me; only with the whole with me, can I go anywhere. And the going will never be harmful to me or to anyone else. This is one thing to be understood.
For Krishna to do all the activities without attachments and expectations of results means prayer.
Prayer means, the whole is significant; I am nothing, I must ask permission, and I must ask for help. If my prayer is answered, only then is any step to be taken. And with a prayerful start man never goes astray; the very prayer changes the whole consciousness. The very mood creates a surrender, creates a surrendering mind, a surrendering consciousness. The very prayer creates in you, not a fight with the universe, but a love.
Tags: Ultimate Aloneness
