Insightful newsletter of Drishtikone - Issue #76: Loneliness and the Oneness
Relationships occur when awareness of self is deficient. The importance of relationships in one’s life underscores the depth of ignorance of her/his self that one has.
This self. This being. This piece of life is complete. It is at once the atom and the cosmos. The wave that is one, infinite and complete.
Quantum entanglement, physicists call it. The constant, real-time communication and oneness. A quantum state, for sub-atomic particles (pair or group), where none can be described independently of the state of the others. And, that includes the particles which are separated by a large distance - even across the Universe!
When we are fundamentally entangled, communicating, one with everything that is in this existence, how can we be alone?
At the quantum level when you are one with all - not in theory, but actual reality - and yet at the gross level you are alone and separated from all, then it means you have created a sense of life where the gross is far greater than the subtle.
Loneliness is not a disease. It is deluding the self into believing something that negates the Truth.
A Truth of this existence that is ours to experience and be. A Truth that drives the cosmos.
But fails at the doors of our hearts. Ironically.
“Loneliness is absence. Because you don’t know your aloneness, there is fear and you feel lonely, so you want to cling to something – to somebody, to some relationship – just to keep the illusion that you are not lonely. But you know you are, hence the pain.” ― Osho, Next Time You Feel Lonely.
Roughly 35.7 million Americans live alone. And it is a big crisis.
Loneliness has health implications. 60% of Americans felt lonely even before the COVID-19 pandemic situation. That would have only increased!
It can also be difficult to untangle whether loneliness is a symptom or a cause of a larger health issue: does someone withdraw socially because they’re depressed, or do they become depressed because they’re lonely? In any case, studies show chronic loneliness has clear links to an array of health problems, including dementia, depression, anxiety, self-harm, heart conditions and substance abuse. People without social support also have lower chances of full recovery after a serious illness than people with a strong network, studies show. The health consequences of loneliness are often likened to the effects of smoking 15 cigarettes a day—and far more common. While the most recent data show just 14% of American adults and about 5% of high school teenagers smoke cigarettes, a January report from health-insurer Cigna suggested around 60% of American adults felt some degree of loneliness, even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. (Source)
Loneliness not just impacts health and how the mind impacts the body. But loneliness can even impact gene expression. The ability of the body to respond to virus attacks is lowered.
University of Chicago researchers found that loneliness triggers changes in gene expression, specifically leukocytes, the immune system cells that are involved in protecting the body from viruses and bacteria. Researchers found that chronically lonely people have an increased expression of genes that are involved with inflammation, and a decreased expression of genes involved in antiviral response. (Source)
loneliness epidemic in India too
But loneliness is not a crisis only in the West. It is a major issue even in India. Although credible data is hard to find, some studies have been done to ascertain the problem in India.
A nationwide survey which included 15,000 participants from 300 districts of 25 states and union territories of the country reported that 47.5% of elderly people reported being lonely. The prevalence of loneliness was higher among the elderly residing in urban locality, with a prevalence of 64.1%. The factors which were shown to be associated with loneliness included living alone or living with spouse only (compared to living with children), poor health, and lack of social interactions. (Source)
Different surveys are also saying that it is not just the old, but also the young who are impacted by loneliness. And, it is increasing the incidence of mental disorder - with high incidence of anxiety and depression.
In 2004, the National Sample Survey Office reported that 4.91 million people in India were living alone and suffered from loneliness. More recently, the National Mental Health Survey of India (2015-16) reported that high suicidal risk is an increasing concern in India; that children and adolescents are vulnerable to mental disorders; and, mental disorders, including depression and anxiety, affect nearly 10 per cent of the population. In 2016, the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in partnership with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung conducted a survey of the attitudes, anxieties and aspirations of India’s young population (aged 15-34 years). The findings, released in April 2017, revealed that 12 per cent of the youth reported feeling depressed often, and 8 per cent said they felt lonely quite frequently. (Source)
For a country which valued the life of sanyas and yogis living alone on the mountains and in the forests or in the caves, we have now come to become a society where people are either afraid or depressed by being just by themselves. Being alone was a major act by many spiritual seekers and still is. Loneliness is something that has inflicted those who have lost the ability to be quiet within.
keeping the lingam alive
Work of a priest in the temple is not to care for any devotees or give prasad. His/her job is to take care of the deity or the lingam. A consecrated space with proper Prana Pratishtha needs proper care. Providing that care - which ensures the prana is alive in that deity and lingam - is a priest’s job!
Badavi linga temple is one of the temples in Hampi, Karnataka. Hampi was one of the greatest city that mankind has ever seen. The regressive Bahmani Sultan, who could not stand such progressive civilization, unleashed destruction on the Vijaynagar empire and destroyed the city. This temple had been closed for 450 years. Hari sivanesan, its called Badavi linga temple at Hampi, karnataka.
86 year old K N Krishna Bhat, has been upkeeping the temple and the linga since 1980, when the temple was reopened.
Shri KN Krishna Bhat, 86 years old, cleans & does puja to Shivlinga
confluence of art and physics
Self-taught artist Shanthi Chandrasekar has an exhibit called “Cosmic Design,” on display at Fermilab’s art gallery.
Some of her inspirations include theories of inflation (the rapid expansion of the early universe) and multiverses (multiple universes) - which had her create eggshell-like forms of handmade paper; or Four dimensions – three of space, and one of time - to make a painting with white and black spirals. Very interesting work indeed.
Behind the “Cosmic Design” | symmetry magazine
Artist Shanthi Chandrasekar explains the mixture of art and physics in her new gallery exhibit at Fermilab.
the phenomenal tippe top
A tippe top is a kind of top that when spun, will spontaneously invert itself to spin on its narrow stem.
It has often fascinated the greatest of minds in the physics world. Here you see two Physics Nobel Laureates - Neils Bohr and Wolfgang Pauli watching it in fascination.
Have you ever heard about the Tippe Top?
It is a toy formed like a top that, when spun, will spontaneously invert itself to spin on its narrow stem. The Tippe Top has, ever since its invention, fascinated Nobel Laureates such as Niels Bohr and Wolfgang Pauli, pictured. https://t.co/RfY1sNQ6dq
The whole trick is played by the top because of its need to spin right under the center of mass.
When a tippe top spins, because of the switcheroo trick the curve pulls, the point of the object that touches the ground is not below the center of mass. It is below the center of the curve, slightly to the side of the center of mass. The object still must spin around the center of mass, though, so the contact point of the top gets dragged around in a circle. The motion of the spinning top pushes that contact point down and to one side. Anyone who has dragged an object along the ground knows the feel of friction. It counteracts the force one puts on the object. If the spin of the top is pushing the contact point down and to the side, the ground is pushing the top up, and to the opposite side. The top feels a force pushing up and backwards.
Read through this article for a more detailed explanation. Isn’t this fascinating? A small toy that’s baffled the best of physics brains!
Why the humble tippe top baffled physicists and statesmen
Tippe tops flip themselves over when spun. The toy was a physics puzzle that fascinated at least two Nobel Prize Winners and one of the Allies’ greatest strategists in World War II.
nota bene
Crores of Indian COVID-19 immune: Despite the increasing COVID-19 infections, data from private lab chain Thyrocare study conducted with 60,000 antibody tests across 600 pin codes is raising hopes, is indicating that 18 crore Indians may already be immune to the coronavirus. (Source)
Sex trafficker jailed for good: Sonu Punjaban, an infamous name in flesh trade, was on Wednesday handed 24 years in prison. Announcing the verdict, in the case pertaining to the prostitution of a minor, a Delhi court noted Punjaban was unworthy of living in a civil society. (Source)
Linkedin for espionage: Ph.D. student in Singapore, Jun Wei Yeo, used Linkedin to recruit govt US employees to collect Intelligence on behalf of Chinese officials. He created a fake consultancy in 2018 and posted job advertisements to lure the US military and government employees with security clearance. He has been arrested. (Source)
Genetic mutations passed down from Neanderthals have been linked to enhanced pain sensitivity. Evolutionary geneticists found that the ancient human relatives carried three mutations in a gene encoding the protein NaV1.7, which conveys painful sensations to the spinal cord and brain. They also showed that in a sample of British people, those who had inherited the Neanderthal version of NaV1.7 tend to experience more pain than others. (Source)
mediator in middle east!
Oman, situated at the crucial and strategic Strait of Hormuz, has fashioned itself into the Switzerland of the Middle East. It is one of the few countries in the Middle East, which has never experienced a terrorist attack. The Omani government is run by a royal dynasty which uses benevolent authoritarianism, providing generous social programs for its citizens’ loyalty. (Source).
The country has successfully played the role of mediator in the Middle East where it has hosted the Israelis while backing Palestinians; worked both with Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Unfortunately, most of us have not even heard about this country and its ways. Here is a great video to get acquainted.
Oman, the Switzerland of the Middle East