Just now you said that negative thoughts increase when you don’t come to the Ashram for sometime. This happens when you lack Divine Love. You again feel depressed. This depression turns into self-pity. You start feeling that other people don’t like you and are shunning you. We identify and label loneliness but we don’t participate in it. We either tell everybody - ‘I’m lonely” or we bottle it up within ourselves.
But how many of us really look at loneliness and see what it is? Only when we do this will we realise the underlying cause for loneliness.”
Vasanth asked - “Pujya Guruji, I have found that one may be quite alone and yet not feel lonely. On the other hand we may be in the midst of a crowd of people whom we know and suddenly a wave of loneliness may engulf us.”
Shri Nimishananda Guruji said - “That’s very true. Loneliness is an internal state which can be triggered externally by a lack of rapport with other people. Let me share an experience that I had while travelling.”
A few of us were traveling in a car when it had a flat tyre in the middle of the night. All around us stretched endless estates. The night was pitch dark and the stars looked brilliant in the dark sky. Everything was absolutely still. The only sounds we heard were the chirping of crickets and the faint howling of jackals in the distance. The devotees were perturbed by this unexpected break in our journey.
One of them voiced what was in all their mind - “Pujya Guruji, we didn’t expect such a thing to happen when you are with us.”
Shri Nimishananda Guruji told them - “The Divine Mother wanted all of you to experience this stillness of the night. We are likely to be here for another hour at least. Just enjoy it.”
A little bewildered, they asked - “What shall we do, Pujya Guruji?” I told them to sit down and enjoy the starry sky till the driver replaced the flat tyre. I lay down on the ground and looked up at the stars that sparkled like jewels. Mother Earth was my bed and the sky was my blanket! What more could one ask for? The tyre was replaced and just as we started, we had another flat tyre. As we didn’t have a second spare tyre, we inflated it with hand pump and managed to reach a service station ten kilometers down the road. Though we had spent a couple of hours on a road that was very little frequented in the late hours of the night, there was no loneliness or fear. The heart overflowed with joy as usual. When you savour every moment, life is an ocean of Bliss.
When you don’t know how to enjoy each situation that comes your way, you start getting pressurised and feel that life is attacking you.”
This article is taken from the book Pratical Spirituality for Enriched Living by His Holiness Shri Shri Nimishananda Guruji