Good one! *ON LONLINESS EKANTHAM VEDAS AND B G ISCKON* *Since time immemorial, people have often feared isolation. Nobody likes to live isolated and, therefore, seek the constant company of people. Solitude is synonymous with loneliness – a lack of feeling that something is missing, a pain, a depression, a need, an incompleteness, an absence. They relate isolation to pitch darkness – a state of disconcerting.*
Given this, it is hard for many to believe that isolation can also be a strength – an idea of presence, fullness, aliveness, the joy of being, overflowing through the realization of the truth that you are complete in yourself and that nobody is needed to complete you, and that for you-you yourself are enough. *Krishna*, in *Bhagavad-Gita*, professes isolation as an essential characteristic of the wise who continually seek supreme wisdom. Such seekers of wisdom constantly live in solace and are detached from the general mass of people. They see in social isolation not because of any threat, but as an opportunity, for it provides them with a chance to analyze, contemplate, and meditate for better solutions, for the greater good. Bg. 6.5 उद्धरेदात्मनात्मानं नात्मानमवसादयेत् । आत्मैव ह्यात्मनो बन्धुरात्मैव रिपुरात्मन: ॥ ५ ॥ *uddhared ātmanātmānaṁ **nātmānam avasādayet **ātmaiva hy ātmano bandhur **ātmaiva ripur ātmanaḥ *What people often forget is that even people can make them lonely. Therefore, various *Vedic* scriptures suggest, one should learn to establish *a friendship with one’s self* through *EkaanthAM, *and then there’s no way for himself to feel lonely. One's own mind is the best friend and learn to live in meditation. *Krishna* also suggests that through *Ekaant *(Isolation) “An individual can elevate oneself by ones’ mind. The mind is the friend of the wise, and enemy of unwise.” And “For him who has conquered his mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his very mind will be the greatest enemy.” The mind is significant. It shapes not just the life of individuals but also of the society around him and, at times, even the world; this is truer with leaders. Leaders who seek to conquer the world without conquering their minds often end up becoming despots and, eventually, cause their destruction. History can testify to this fact. *Bhagavad-Gita* puts this in a much better perspective “An individual with the untamed mind while seeking his object of desire, develops an attachment to the sense object. From this attachment greed is born; from greed comes anger. From anger comes delusion, from delusion, comes bewilderment of memory. The bewilderment of memory affects decision making and through unwise decisions comes certain destruction.” However, “he who has controlled his senses and mind, being free of attachments and desire as well as aversion attains wisdom and attains a state of perpetual bliss.” *Ekaantham *– or isolation – is a power, which enables us to see how steady our mind is. A mind is not stable if it is agitated, when it feels lonely and longs for the company. Extreme desire for social acceptance, is among the various social problems of our society. People, who are perturbed when they don’t get adequate appreciation, from people or publicity, are indeed the ones with unsteady mind. For these unstable minds, the only way to live is to seek a way to find social acceptance – appreciation from their loved ones, citations from their superiors, testimonies from their peers, publicity in the media, and awards from the organizations. It doesn’t take a genius to recognize that these people, more often than not, are troubled souls. And when they assume the position of power, the situation can be even more troubling. By being with ourselves in isolation, we find, through contemplation and meditation, that which is quintessential for our progress – peace. If you have trouble with solitude, it’s apparent that you have trouble with yourself. Somewhere, deep within you are not at peace and, worse, may be even at war with yourself. If at all you seek to work, to make the world a better place to live in, you have ’to be peaceful within. It’s only with the light from our inner self that we can enlighten the outer world. KR IRS 17123 On Tue, 17 Jan 2023 at 17:50, Markendeya Yeddanapudi < [email protected]> wrote: > > > -- > *Mar*The Lonely Economic Man > > > > In free, lush, thick, healthy and rapturing nature, there is no scope for > any organism to feel lonely. Emotional denudation is the basic trait of the > economic man, the Newtonian machine, whose economic activity has become > today’s pandemic making the whole biosphere sick. In the natural rhythm, > among the Lithosphere, hydrosphere, troposphere and the Biosphere, every > organism, is part of the rhythm, where emotional loneliness has no scope. > > Thanks to the economic man, the mechanized homo sapien, who wants to feel > scientific, so emotionally disconnected to nature, as the emotional connect > is bias, the sin of science, the economic man does not want to relate, and > so has taken to the mad mechanical substitution of every feature of nature, > to remove feelings and emotions from nature. The objective of science and > technology is to mechanize nature completely, so that nature can be > dictated, by switching. Every machine gives the power and sense of > authority over nature, leading to the welding of authority as the boss of > nature. There are already the glorified and mad economic men, who want to > create daylight in the regions of the world where there is more night, and > also simply put a big screen round the earth so that the temperature could > be reduced. The very scheme of nature based on the natural thermodynamics > or the movement of molecules and atoms, that determine the climates and the > photosynthesis, is sought to be tampered. The economic man, the mad mutant > of the Homosapien, may do anything, create the GM organisms with say ten > legs instead of the two or four, many heads etc. > > Today, we no longer can emotionally communicate and relate to any other > organism of the Biosphere. Emotional loneliness is the basic feature of the > scientific attitude and temperament. The economic man, is of course in > continuous competition with the other economic men (the status of woman has > been slowly elevated to economic woman also), and competition does not > allow too much of emotional entanglement. > > Emotions today are for rhetoric not for real. The Robot poets and > essayists and story writers, are taking over, and they produce the perfect > pieces where editorial tampering is impossible. Gone are days when editors > butchered every writing and were publishing pieces, maimed, mutilated, > muted, mutated and changed by them, that too to only the favored few who > then walked as proud writers, though very often they found only their name > in the published piece while the remaining was changed totally-heading or > title,topic,every sentence… In the near future there will be no writers and > editors. Machines weave fantasies and dreams also. In the situation where > machines do every work, making every limb and organ redundant and so half > frozen, Robot Writers, Singers, Painters, Artists, Scientists, Doctors…, > will take over as the mechanical substitutes. > > When everyone is made redundant or useless, there will be time only to be > sad and lonely. Emotional loneliness and mechanization have the basic > inverse relationship. > > I look sadly at the tiny flower and the bee on it, fearing that tomorrow I > may find a machine as the tiny flower with the bee redundant. > > YM > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/CAL5XZoqVmqgmXxcdsrurgbWJpZKgY-%2B9a4b3Qqx%3DVKLBd0zbzg%40mail.gmail.com.
