More on 'Solitude'

We received a comment for the blog, ‘Message from the Gospel – 19. Solitude Is Necessary’ from Club106 on August 15, 2012. It said, “Very interesting thoughts.

I would be interested to hear what you and your readers think of a similarly themed article I just had published at Elephant Journal. ‘The Lost Art of Being Alone with God’  bit.ly/Qy1cm4.”

The readers may get the article by clicking on the link:

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/08/the-lost-art-of-being-alone-with-god/

The above-mentioned article has many beautiful quotes on solitude and brings out the main goal of solitude in these words: “How can we speak what we need to speak, what we want to speak,… if we can’t hear our own inner voice, and if we can’t hear the voice of God within us?

The purpose of meditation is just that – to hear our own inner voice, the voice of God within us. If we learn to listen to that voice, we will never take even a single wrong step.

It is worthy to ponder over the following words of Swami Vivekananda:

The ideal man is he who, in the midst of the greatest silence and solitude, finds the intensest activity, and in the midst of intensest activity finds the silence and solitude of the desert. He has learned the secret of restraint, he has controlled himself. He goes through the streets of a big city with all its traffic, and his mind is as calm as if he were in a cave, where not a sound could reach him; and he is intensely working all the time. That is the ideal of Karma-Yoga, and if you have attained to that you have really learned the secret of work.

Not only to commune with God, but also to achieve mental peace and balance, solitude is necessary. I have seen two types of people – one type gets irritated in a crowd and the other type becomes restless when left alone. But, according to Swami Vivekananda, the ideal man is the one who has self-control, one whose mind is calm.

Solitude gives us the best opportunity to calm our mind; and to realize and practice the presence of God within us. Therefore, the next time we are alone, let us not feel lonely or bored. Rather, let us rejoice that we have some time to be with ourselves. And make an effort to listen to the voice of God within.