On Kahlil Gibran: Aloneness is the desire, destination, and death of loneliness

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

“Solitude has soft, silky hands, but with strong fingers it grasps the heart and makes it ache with sorrow. Solitude is the ally of sorrow as well as a companion of spiritual exaltation.”

-Kahlil Gibran (The Broken Wings)

Acharya Prashant (AP): “Solitude has soft, silky hands, but with strong fingers, it grasps the heart and makes it ache with sorrow. Solitude is the ally of sorrow as well as a companion of spiritual exaltation.”

-Kahlil Gibran

(Referring to the questioner) So, what Sushmita is asking is, “How solitude is related to sorrow?” First thing. Second, she is saying that what she understands from this quote is — solitude is related to aloneness.

‘Solitude’ here stands obviously not for Aloneness, but for the craving of the mind, to reach aloneness. In the sense that Khalil Gibran is talking about solitude here, solitude represents — loneliness. So, this presents us an opportunity to look into the relation between ‘loneliness’ and ‘aloneness’.