There are some people who are ALONE in this world. By chance or by choice, they live by themselves. They don’t have a close knit family and maybe they’ve lead a transient lifestyle and their friends are spread out beyond their everyday residence. When asked to list an “In Case of Emergency Contact,” they struggle.
And they silently deal with this singularity because perhaps they believe it is just their dharma (the essential order of things)* yet they go about, letting each day unfold because they faintly believe that perhaps things will change?
But then at certain times life delivers a series of events that inflicts such a blow that causes them to spiral so far down a dark, black hole that they can’t find their way out of it. They don’t know how to get out of the shadows. In fact, there’s nothing else they want to do but immerse in it because they can’t advocate for themselves nor do they want to be a burden to anyone.
It’s in this physical and emotional gloom that there is an internal interrogation taking place, How did I get here? I don’t know what to do with all this sadness/anger/depression. What am I supposed to do to get out of this? I’m so overwhelmed I’m just going to sleep until I feel better.
Days go by and they don’t get out of bed. They don’t leave their homes…and no one notices…
This is the In-Between. They exist, but for spans of time they’re not living because they’re drowning in “I.”
I, I, I, I….the ultimate dimension for how their life is defined.
In the Bhagavad Gita in Chapter 12, The Way of Love:*
Arjuna asks, “Of the steadfast devotees who love you and those who seek you as the eternal formless Reality, who are the most established in yoga?”
Krishna answers, “Those who set their hearts on me and worship me with unfailing devotion and faith are more established in yoga.
Still your mind in me, still your intellect in me, and without doubt you will be united with me forever.”
The Sanskirt definition of yoga is “to yoke,” to join. For those who are going at it seemingly unaccompanied, it is our greatest challenge to work on uniting with the higher powers of the universe and strengthening that bond so that when you’re down in that black hole, a golden thread of assistance can somehow reach you.
You don’t have to be defined by “I”…
*Passages are from The Bhagavad Gita as translated by Eknath Easwaran.
