Choose seclusion for awareness

Life is like a bullet train. It passes by so fast that we barely see what it is like. Most of us live life without awareness, mostly on instinct. We are led by events in life, instead of us leading the events. We tend to think we are making progress in life, believe we are enjoying it and compare ourselves with others to make us happy. But life has its turns and twists.

We never have a feeling of lasting bliss. In the hustle and bustle of life, we do not get time to ponder over what makes us go through such spells of sufferings and what is a permanent solution for that.

Scriptures point out that once in a while one should go to a beautiful, pure, natural and secluded place and spend time there with oneself. This is the time when you introspect about your situations in life and about your personal growth. Your mind has to be free from day to day hassles in order to do such innovative thinking.

Going away from routine life is good for creative solutions, which is why most progressive companies and even government of Gujarat has annual retreats for senior officials once every year, where out-of-box thinking is encouraged for organisational goals. We need this seclusion for personal goals as well, which is not necessarily a family vacation. No television, no computers, no cellphones and no newspaper too.

The practice of Vipasana, where one has to remain in seclusion for 10 days, has been found to be a life-changing experience by most people. In Vipasana, one is not even allowed to talk for all these 10 days. You can really experience the silence of mind in such a situation. Silence on the outside is not important. Even in the most peaceful atmosphere our mind is crowded with thoughts.

One has to make one's mind quiet in order to experience bliss which is at the core of our inner self. Apart from bliss, one can also have creative visualisation during this period, which is very productive for progress in life. Long spells of silence and seclusion help us in achieving the goal of making our mind quiet.
I

know one of the most successful people of Gujarat who used to go for such seclusions every year at a place where not a soul would be around. He called this 'Maro mane malavano karyakram' (My time to meet with myself). What a nice way to put it? No wonder he is at the pinnacle of success now. Incidentally, he is also a person who gets a lot of transformational ideas which bring about a paradigm shift in the outside world. Progress for him becomes an automatic process. He has no dearth of life-changing ideas.

It is not easy to remain in seclusion. Some people go crazy if they have to face such loneliness. Loneliness is different from being alone. The latter is a process chosen by self in which one finds pleasure. Loneliness, on the other hand, is a feeling of not being wanted. The more extrovert a person is, the greater is the need for him to be in company of people. Only rare ones can feel happy and wanted, even in absence of others. It comes with real understanding of what life is.
 

The author is an IAS officer of Gujarat cadre