In a world obsessed with social interaction, true understanding of oneself arises from the stillness of solitude. It reveals the path to authenticity and deeper connection with the universe.
Loneliness frightens people. They are not willing to confront it or handle it. It disturbs their composure and estranges them. They prefer gregariousness to loneliness. A mob around us makes us forget our own selves and alienates us so much that when loneliness surfaces, our own self becomes a source of fear, and we feel strange and long for company. The hours of loneliness have become unmanageable for us. Unless we disentangle ourselves from the hustle and bustle of life, we cannot discover our lost selves, and its realms will remain unexplored throughout our lives, leading us to live inauthentic lives.
This world is absorbing and attracts us toward its charm and charisma, keeping us engrossed in its pageantry at the cost of our true selves. Martin Heidegger, in his book ‘Being and Time’, says that the world has entangled us and deprived us of our authentic being. We never devote time to explore our own being. The affairs of life occupy us completely, leaving us with no opportunity to meet ourselves. Alexis Carrel, in his book ‘Man, the Unknown’, says that while man has attained the pinnacles of progress in science and technology, he has hitherto failed to know himself. Man is bigger than the universe and contains astounding mysteries that await exploration. However, the world has engaged man so much that he never sits alone with himself to deliberate and meditate on his authentic being. His authentic being becomes the victim of the everyday hustle and bustle of life, estranging him from his true self.
Rousseau writes in his treatise on education, ‘Emile’, that a child should be home-taught until he becomes strong enough to escape the harmful effects of society’s bogus values and clings to his own authentic being. He even questions educational systems that teach children the wrong things, alienating them from their true selves by snatching their freedom and binding them in the chains of socially constructed stern laws. Shaheed Mutahhari says that bogus social values are highly detrimental to the ‘fitrat’ (authentic being) of a human being. They murder the inherent traits of a person and make him forget his assigned role in life. Every step he takes moves him further away from his divine stature, belittling him shamefully by trapping him in practices that ruin his potential and make his life a complete waste.
Wordsworth, in his poem ‘Ode on the Intimations of Immortality, says that we lose our connection with the divine when we are born into this world. The more we grow from childhood to adulthood, the more alienated we become from the divine source. Alienation has been caused by false social values, and we are not given time to reflect in loneliness to understand ourselves better. We are told to surround ourselves with friends, relatives, and other kin all the time. So, when we sit alone for some time, we feel estranged. We feel something strange happening to us, as if we are in a world where we don’t know anyone. We have forgotten ourselves to such an extent that confronting our own selves frightens us and makes us crave company.
The wisest people in the world were great loners who deliberated on the mysteries of this world in their solitude and came up with pearls of wisdom that stunned people. The great Sufis of the world attained awakening in their loneliness. They busied themselves in meditation and unravelled the secret doors of intellect. We have not understood the power of loneliness. Whenever we face a serious dilemma in life and fail to resolve it, we sit alone, think over it, and eventually find the solution. Loneliness helps us to understand the problems of life better. It is a blessing that should not be left unthanked or unappreciated.
We should promote loneliness as a divine blessing to understand ourselves better, and when we understand ourselves better, we understand the universe better. It improves our lives and fills them with joy and gratitude. This world is a very dangerous place. It wants to keep us busy with itself, snatching away our authentic being, which is our true wealth. Hazrat Ali says that man is a bigger universe, but we remain busy with trivial things and lose ourselves in the bogus charm of this world. He said that this world appeared before him three times, trying to deviate him from the right path, but he recognized it each time, abandoned it, and warned it to go and deceive someone else. “You cannot deceive me.” This is possible only when we understand the tricks of the world that deviate us from the right path and keep us busy with the pomp and show of life.
By Fida Hussain Bhat
az*********@***il.com