Aloneness Is Not LonelinessThough we are all human beings, we have built walls between ourselves and ourneighbors through nationalism, through race, caste, and class - which again breedsisolation, loneliness.

Now a mind that is caught in loneliness, in this state of isolation, can neverpossibly understand what religion is. It can believe, it can have certain theories,concepts, formulas, it can try to identify itself with that which it calls God; butreligion, it seems to me, has nothing whatsoever to do with any belief, with anypriest, with any church or so-called sacred book. The state of the religious mindcan be understood only when we begin to understand what beauty is; and theunderstanding of beauty must be approached through total aloneness.

Only when themind is completely alone can it know what is beauty, and not in any other state.Aloneness is obviously not isolation, and it is not uniqueness. To be unique ismerely to be exceptional in some way, whereas to be completely alone demandsextraordinary sensitivity, intelligence, understanding. To be completely aloneimplies that the mind is free of every kind of influence and is thereforeuncontaminated by society; and it must be alone to understand what is religion -which is to find out for oneself whether there is something immortal, beyond time.