Aloneness and Loneliness

"Aloneness and loneliness are two completely different states. In the spiritual sense, aloneness is togetherness with the whole universe. It is not frightening, but utterly joyful and blissful. T is a state of contentment, without any outer cause. Though you are alone, your spirit dances with existence.
Aloneness is meditation and a highly spiritual state, because in aloneness you merge into everything. Once you attain to spiritual aloneness you will be alone wherever you are, even in a crowd. You will be nothing and also in everything.
However, loneliness is the opposite state to aloneness. In loneliness you miss something or somebody. It is scary and depressive. These feelings arise because you are unconsciously facing your own Self
     When nobody is around, you unconsciously sense the echo of your own self. The quieter your surroundings are, the louder and clearer the echo becomes. When you get scared, you pay more attention to it and as you become more attentive, it becomes even clearer and louder. You become so alert and attentive that you can hear your heartbeat as loud as a drum. This way it becomes a vicious circle!"

"We may rationalise the fear of loneliness and think it has various reason - for instance, in early childhood we were left alone too often - but such reason are only partial; eventually all fear have only one source: the fear of death.
    Fear of loneliness arises because, we don't want to face ourselves and see the fact that death is coming closer every moment. And therefore we like distracting company, but everybody in our company has a similar problem and just pretends to be happy and to like socialising.
    When people celebrate their birthday, they throw a party and get drunk. Mostly they cannot even enjoy their own party. Unconsciously they try to forget that they are one year closer to their death and one more year of their life is lost. O they unconsciously celebrate their victory of surviving another year. These feelings are in the unconscious mind, so if you point it out to them they will think you are mad."


Excerpts from the book "From Fear to Enlightenment" by Mahadevi