Yogananda’s speaker in “I Am Lonely No More” from Songs of the Soul no longer senses himself as a solitary being adrift on a sea of danger but instead realizes that his beloved Divine Self accompanies him everywhere he goes, “For Thou art always there.”
“I am not lonely in the chamber of solitude”
The speaker expresses and celebrates his freedom by stating that he is not lonely when he is, indeed, alone “in the chamber of solitude.” His awareness of the Divine as an integral part of his own self allows him to be conscious that the Lord is always with him.
The speaker then insists that “amidst an uproarious crowd” he finds that he can, in fact, be lonely because the presence of the Divine Reality, so palpable in silence, is hard to realize in a noisy, boisterous group of people. Colorfully, the speaker says that in such a place the silence of the Divine “slips away / Like a startled, fast-footed large-eyed deer.”
“When I found Thee not”
Before he realized the nature of his oneness with the Divine, the speaker was plagued by thoughts that declared him to be an isolated individual, resulting in the negative state of loneliness. In this desperate state, he lamented, “Alone I came from the unknown / And alone I must depart into the unknown.”
“Finding Thee, I have learned”
Since finding that he is eternally united with the Divine, the speaker asserts that he has “learned / To make mine own Thee alone.” And no matter where he travels whether it be “On the lonely wayside of life / Or on its crowded thoroughfare,” he is now always aware that he has a Divine Friend Who accompanies him; the reality of his Higher Self secures him and relieves the dull human heart ache the leaves the sense-bound mind feeling alone and isolated.
“For now I behold the unseen links”
The speaker has become aware of “the unseen links / In front of and behind this life, / Hidden in post-mortem and prenatal chambers.” He understands that his life is not just one chance occurrence that holds no meaning while offering only a miserable display of unanswerable questions; he now comprehends that his life is part of a cosmic divine plan wherein he can play his part in God’s infinite drama.
“From my Known-One I came”
The speaker, through meditation and spiritual effort, has come to understand and realize that he comes from the Divine, he lives in the Divine, and he will “dive” into the Divine after he leaves his physical body. Referring to the Divine as “my Known-One,” he confirms his divine knowledge.
“Away from Myself I was lonely”
So simply and so beautifully, the speaker avers that before he had met the “big Self,” he was, in fact, afflicted with loneliness, “But since my little self met the big Self, / I am lonely no more.”
 |
