14. Question: How can one go alone and yet experience oneness?

Sri Chinmoy: First of all, we have to know the difference between being lonely and being alone. Loneliness we can feel even when we are amidst hundreds of so-called friends or even when we are among real friends. If we do not feel the presence of God inside our heart, then we are bound to feel loneliness no matter how many friends or how many hundreds and thousands of people are around us.

To go alone does not mean to have indifference or aloofness. To go alone means that the hour has struck for us. Now we have to run toward our Goal without waiting for our dear ones, whose hour has not struck. If somebody's hour strikes one minute before yours or one minute after yours, it is not your responsibility. When your hour strikes you go, and if it so happens that at the same time somebody else's hour strikes, then you can go together. But if someone starts before you or after you, that does not mean that you will not be able to establish your oneness with him. You can easily feel your oneness with the ones who are ahead or behind and you can maintain your oneness while going alone. You are alone because nobody is right alongside you. But someone is behind and someone is ahead, and you can easily experience the feeling of oneness as long as they are walking along the same road and towards the same destination.