This friend, who is the husband of my friend (https://selfrealization.blog/2023/11/27/my-friend-rashmi-chaterjee/), with both of whom and their son and brother I spent a very enjoyable nearly 3 weeks recently in Delhi, drinking many cups of tea and coffee in a day, when I did not realize the passing of time, SMSed me just now, “Watching Match and missing you.”
The context?
On that Delhi trip, he and I watched and enjoyed watching many an ODI and T20 between India and West Indies, discussing and admiring the unbelievable talent that India has nowadays in cricket, and also how in many other sports stars are rising as was demonstrated in the recent Asian Games in Japan, discussing about Abhishek Sharma’s ability to hit 6s at will and how he will soon overtake some records of Rohit Sharma The Hit Man, how Rohit possessed this pure talent where he could hot shots over the ropes with sheer timing and no effort at all, how 5 different international standard cricket teams can be formed in India now, …
In this context, I reminded my friend about Swami Vivekananda’s prediction about the future of India (https://www.swamivivekananda.guru/1897/02/20/the-future-of-india):
In 1897, Vivekananda stated that India would achieve freedom from British colonial rule within 50 years through an unexpected or unusual turn of events, a prediction realized in 1947.
He foresaw the 21st century belonging to India, predicting that the nation would rise from centuries of degradation to become a major global force in economics, technology, and geopolitics.
He believed India’s primary contribution to the world would not be through military might or conquest, but through spiritual strength, philosophy, yoga, meditation, and Vedanta, rescuing humanity from excess materialism.
He predicted that independent India would first embrace Western material prosperity and modern organization to elevate its people out of poverty, while Western nations would eventually turn to India’s spiritual wisdom to find lasting peace.
This friend loves, in addition to cricket, takes a keen interest in politics (slightly right-leaning with a disdain for the Khan Market gang) and loves Bollywood songs, especially Kishore Kumar, and he told me how it was distatsteful of Kumar Sanu to have tried to claim superiority over Kishore Kumar, who is the Original KK.
The Current Context of My Social Isolation
Now, on seeing his SMS in the context of my social isolation period that I have entered into, it makes me pause and try to respond to assuage his all-too-understandble feeling of missing a friend.
I wonder how I can makes him make sense of my decision.
Let me see if I can go philosophical on him. Here goes:
The friendships, loves, relationships that we enter into in our all too short life here on earth are no doubt valuable and give us joy.
Far be it from me to be cyncial about such human interactions like a typical sanyasi would, like say Sankaracharya does in his Bhaja Govindam.
But, at the same time, maybe I can say this: I being someone who has been pursuing the truth since almost the age of 10 or earlier, and having pursued it almost single-mindedly in obsessive manner, and having gone through many intense and close friendships almost on a daily basis throughout my life, including with the opposite gender (though more with them since last 5 years), including the few times my heart beat faster at the sight or thought of someone special (yeah, of the opposite gender), and now having turned 62, I seem to have been sort of satiated with all such relationships (though since last 5 years I have felt a need for companionship), and I am finding it difficult to drink from the same fountains that others seem to be doing, and now that not much holds my fascination, I feel it is time I withdrew into a solitary phase where I can pursue the truth in a more consistent manner.
Mixing and interacting with others to an extent also imbalances me somewhat, especially given my Bipolar self, which is also the reason I have had to quit the WhatsApp groups of my school, college, and med school.
