Commandment 12:
Learn to Be Alone!
Eleventh instruction is: Learn to be alone as far as possible. To be alone is different from being lonely. To be alone is to be ‘all-in-One’. It is the highest state of Be-ness. Only One is in all as many. It is only One Existence as many. It is One Awareness, the universal awareness. It is One Life, the universal life. Within One Existence, One Awareness and One Life, forms emerge due to the formations. One appears as many. For example, we have a huge hall here. We can easily build ten rooms within the hall. Then there are many rooms. But it is one hall only as many rooms. Matter divides and makes one as many. There is space in each room, thus there are ten spaces. But before the rooms are built, it was one space in the hall. There is space in the hall. There is space outside the hall. The space in the hall is but the space outside the hall only. Before we built this hall, it was one space only. After we built the hall, the one space is called inside space and outside space. This demarcation is due to emergence of the hall, emergence of matter. Matter divides. Matter is not only the matter that we see. There is subtle state of matter, subtler state of matter and subtlest state of matter.
Matter exists in seven planes. Beyond the seven planes it is hidden in pure awareness, in pure light, in pure existence. The hidden matter expresses and brings out One as many. We are 300 persons sitting in the seminar. We have our Existence, our awareness, our pulsating life, and our minds, our senses and our bodies. But in truth it is only One existing as 300, one awareness functioning in 300 units, one life functioning in 300 units. It is one mind as many minds. It is all One appearing as many. There is no other. This state is called Ananya, meaning ‘no other’. It is also called Advaita, meaning ‘not two’. It is all One. All that we see is within that. One as many is the real understanding. That is why the whole system is called ‘uni-verse’, meaning ‘One as many’: One as all, all as One. All that we see is in One. All in One is called ‘alone’. This is what Sanat Kumara informs us to learn. When it is explained as above it looks easy, but to hold it in one’s awareness is not so easy. Before we experience the One in all and all in One we need to learn to find the One in the other. Find the self in the other. Then there is no other. The brother is realised. Deeper association with the One in the other gives the understanding as One in two. This is the first step for realising the One in all. Mathematics tells you that 1 + 1 is 2. But spiritual mathematics tells, 1 + 1 is 1, it is only One as many. Learn to be with this thought. Then you are learning to be alone. The instruction is ‘learn to be alone’. This is the way to be alone.
Words can be misunderstood. “Words are whores”, says a Master of Wisdom. Words have limited capacity to express the intent. When the Lord says, “Learn to be alone”, it is mostly misunderstood as learning to be lonely. Then the whole teaching suffers an inversion, total inversion. To be lonely means to get circumscribed strongly, to get separated and to get divided. It is like an island, which disassociates with the mainland. Spirituality is all about union and unity. In the name of spirituality people separate themselves, try to be separative and try to be special. Then they suffer loneliness. They build walls around them in the name of yoga, in the name of discipline. They walk into darkness of ignorance and look for light. That is the trick of Kali Yuga.
That apart, one can be lonely for a while to establish in oneself the afore reached truth and to reinforce that truth in oneself. One can stay apart for a while and then come back with greater affirmation to practice to see the One in all and all in One. Sincere students can arrange time to be lonely once in a week to get into this reaffirmation. For this they are advised not to excessively associate with social activities such as public functions, dinners, gatherings and social entertainment. This looks antisocial, but it is not really so. Decidedly social parties are time killers to disciples. Time is the essence of all. They need to segregate from the worldly activity for a while before they get back effectively into the world. Discipleship is a process of incubation. The incubation is for transformation. The caterpillar gets into incubation before it transforms and comes out as butterfly. The disciples therefore need to incubate, not forever, but until the transformations happen. Transformation leads to transfiguration and transcendence. A transcendent one can work in the world and help the world far better than a worldly one. The former can affect the world. The latter gets affected by the world. Astrologically this process is said that the Leonine man disappears into the depths of Scorpio to be reborn as the heavenly man of Aquarius.
When you are with the world, try to see the One in all. When you are lonely, try to see all in One. If you do so, the practice of learning to be alone gets fulfilled in due course of time. Get composed in your loneliness, and experience the truth while with the world. Alternatingly ‘One in all’ and ‘all in One’ can be practiced when you are alone and when you are with the world. The true teachings of Raja Yoga do not recommend retiring into forests, mountains and valleys. What is sought to be gained in those places can be gained wherever you are. What is needed is attitudinal change but not change of placement. Generally people who go to such places as forests, mountains and valleys, need to make extra efforts for food, for bed and for living. Much time and energy is lost in travel and in arrangements. Instead a changed attitude is many times more helpful. You can see how the modern people utilise their weekends. The weekends are seen as time for relaxation. In the name of relaxation they indulge into extra physical activity going to sea beaches, playing games on the sea and on the beach, cycling, horse riding, sun bathing, eating fast foods etc. When they return home after the weekend we see them really weakened. The very purpose got inversed. Such is the modern mind. They look aged in the office on Mondays. You can clearly see that a person has been on relaxation exercise!!!
People fear to be lonely. They hold the fear of the unknown. Such ones cannot get into the path of discipleship. Discipleship demands that one should be daring enough. For the fearful ones also the doors of discipleship can be opened through long years of meditation upon the colour orange and the sound Ram.
Learn to be alone as far as possible, increasing this possibility year by year, eliminating the fear year by year.
… to be continued
Taken from the book
The Teachings of Sanat Kumara
Dhanishta Publications: dhanishta.org
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