People have a very limited idea of enjoyment and even more limited idea of spirituality. Personally I feel the joy of being alone, with oneself exploring our depths, with Nature admiring her beauty and wonder so old and yet so fresh and young, with Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s books revealing to us wonder afraid wonder telling us all about ‘His Ways and His cunning’, and most of all being alone with Her as often as I can. Alas these joys are no more possible as Her work has taken over everything.
As to parties and drinks, i have some first hand experience of it being as part of the Armed Forces culture. I have found these gatherings the most boring of all and the discussions and chatter and the company the most mediocre, dull and drab where most are discussing trivial things or cracking crude jokes. So friends is fine but to have a host of friends and run around with them merry making like a wisp of wind is so silly. I am sharing all this to say that to each his own heaven.
On a more serious note there are different layers of humanity, one that is closer to the animal kind that takes joy in eating and mating. Another is more rakshasic and asuric whose joy consists in counting their wealth and flaunting their positions. A more human type of humanity follows the Burgeois ideal of a happy, comfortable life with family and friends, sparing the effort of thought and reflection or higher effort. There is also a higher humanity sensitive to deeper and higher things for whom soul-stirring poetry, refined music and subtly picturised cinema, thought-provoking literature, uplifting scripture, a deep bond of love is valued much more than fun parties where people drink and dance like monkeys and define themselves by their designer dress because they are not confident of themselves. Finally of course there are rare godlike ranges of humanity where silence speaks, winds chant, mountains invite, objects feel alive with a deeper consciousness and a sacred Presence is felt behind and within everything. The higher you rise in the scale, the lesser company you have, and the more you begin to discover the joys of being alone, in fact being alone even in a crowd.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
