We humans are immensely drawn to physical contact, and its absence brings suffering. Man is a social being, and we seek one another's company and closeness. It has been shown that a deficit of touch can lead to psychological distortions. Technology opens a thousand ways to connect, and yet we suffer for want of physical contact. What is the cause of this? Perhaps the urge to believe only our eyes and our ears, our senses? Must we touch the other person before we believe that he is really there?
The need for physical contact is due to the presence of the soul, to its attraction, its subtle radiance. The radiance that surrounds man, the aura, is sensed by everyone, even by those who do not see it. This envelope carries a special charge of energy. Small children still lack the personal aura-envelope, which is why they are always nestling up to someone. They try to settle into the protective field of others, of their parents. Later the personal aura-envelope unfolds, and the more spiritually developed someone is, the larger and stronger the radiance of the aura. Generally the personal aura-envelope encircles the organism a span thick, but in exceptional persons its radiance may reach as far as a metre. People on the side of good and on the side of shadow alike may have this powerful radiance: the great saints have as large an aura-zone as murderers or warriors, and the aura in itself is no sign of spiritual development.
Yet the intensity of the aura matters too. We feel it at once in personal encounters. It is worth knowing that the radiance of a developed person suffuses his surroundings, even his personal belongings, the things he uses. This may also be the basis of the cult of relics. Indeed, the radiance, the influence of some people makes itself felt even through photographs, recordings or their printed writings. As though these indirect means, acting as a medium, summoned up the person.
And here we are not speaking of mere charismatic qualities. When an artificial image, a communication technique, stands behind someone's success and popularity, there is not necessarily any real substance. Charisma may dazzle the public, but the discerning sense the falseness. Charisma can also be an empty trick…
Why do we so love and so miss the physical presence of our fellow men? What do we find attractive in them? Often a shared vibration, a likeness, or indeed a marked difference, perhaps something inexplicable: etwas magnetismus…
Yajnavalkya resolved to withdraw from worldly life, and sought to divide his wealth. He wished to leave his wealth to his wife, but she asked him instead about the secret of eternal life.
– What should I do with something that does not make me immortal? My lord, tell me rather what you know of the path that leads to immortality!
Her husband began to teach her:
– The husband is dear not because he is a man, but because he is a soul. Nor is the wife dear because she is a woman, but because she is a soul. Nor are the sons dear because they are sons, but because a soul dwells in them. Indeed, not even wealth is dear because of material security, but because of the Soul. Nor is the world dear in itself, but on account of the Soul, just as the powers of nature or living beings are not dear in themselves, but because of the presence of the soul.
– Truly, it is the Soul that one must see, hear, understand, and in it one must become absorbed. And he who has seen, heard, understood the Soul and become absorbed in it knows the whole universe! (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.4.1–5.)
To the man who sees the soul, everything and everyone is dear, for even behind changing phenomena he is able to discover the abiding spiritual identity.