Is Solitude Blissful? Is It Really True?

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There is a famous quote – ‘Solitude is bliss’. But is there any truth in this?

Many people have tried to find bliss by being alone or retreating to a quiet place to experience bliss. But for how long does it last? Even if you were to escape to the Himalayas – the lofty mountains, the mind comes along with you. It will continue to trouble you and that too even more when you are alone and have nothing to do.

The nature of the mind is to constantly think. This is what the mind does. When a thought sprouts into the mind, human beings become one with it. The thought could be good or bad. If the thought is pleasant, we like it and become happy. And if the thought is bad, then we have resentment and as a result, either experience dislike or are negatively influenced.

The source of Bliss is the Soul, and not solitude

Bliss lies in the Soul. The inherent nature of the Soul is bliss. Regardless, if one is in a crowded shopping mall, train station or football match, the bliss prevails naturally. The Soul never experiences pain, misery or suffering.

While the mind is constantly running from one thought to another, the Soul is unmoving, motionless and still. The Soul is separate not only from the mind, but from the body, the speech and everything other than the Soul that we identify with. The function of the Soul is to only ‘know and see’ each and every circumstance in life that arises and passes away moment to moment, equanimously.

Whether we are in a crowd or in solitude, the function of the Soul is constantly on-going, and it is this knowing and seeing that yields sheer bliss.

However, the Soul cannot be seen and owing to the layers of ignorance piled over it, we cannot experience it.

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The Soul is our real Self

But owing to our ignorance, we wrongly believe the body, or the name given to identify this body, as our real Self. Gnani is the Enlightened One, whose own Soul is awakened, and He has the power to awaken others’ Soul too. He can bestow upon us the knowledge of the Self as he is completely detached from the mind, body and ego. He is always in a constant steady, motionless state and bliss.

Only such Living Gnani is able to give us the taste of experience of Soul (Self-Realization)!!!

Thus, the experience of the Soul (the Self) state is attained only through the enlightened being (Gnani Purush). Thereafter, in the awareness of the Soul, the bliss will prevail naturally and spontaneously, regardless of where you are, who you are with, whether alone or in solitude, in every circumstance.

So, until we try to experience bliss whilst remaining in our current state of the self – i.e. believing the ego, name and body to be our real self, we will never succeed, whether we are alone, in solitude or in a crowd, because they are by their inherent nature unsteady and constantly moving. Only when Gnani Purush unites us with our real Self, through Self-realisation, our wrong belief of ‘who am I’ is fractured and the right belief that ‘I am a pure Soul’ sets in.

Gradually, by following the words of the Gnani Purush, as our awareness of the Soul strengthens, day after day in all events, we begin to learn to maintain separation between the Self (Soul) and the body, mind and the ego. Consequently, the bliss of the Self will naturally flow. It will prevail irrespective of whether the circumstances are favourable or unfavourable, whether we are in solitude or in a crowded place.