The need for a companion is inbuilt in nature and stems from a number of reasons. In material nature it provides richness and completeness to each aspect. The solitary mountain is surely enriched by the rivers that flow from its peaks and silent austere heart thereby creating manifold possibilities of life. The vast ocean gazes towards the sky and reflects its light so that it can nurture countless creatures in its bosom. The earth moves around the sun to build rainbow colours and fill its body with the moods of seasons. The moon and the stars are woven together as a neckline around the vast body of the Unseen. The sun and the rays, the earth and the material energy, the moon and its cooling powers, the river and the bed upon which it flows are all signs and symbols of eternal companionship that exists in creation. It tries to reproduce imperfectly the truth of the Creator and His creative Power that builds creation, the Lord and His Shakti.
In animals when life just begins its journey this takes the form of sexual attractions through which nature fulfills her purposes of perpetuating the lower creation. We find this in human beings too who are caught in this inferior play of nature whence a man and a woman are attracted towards each other purely for physical reasons of outer charm, appearance and physical strength and bodily shape and form. But as one ascends to a slightly higher type the attraction is towards the psychological make or qualities such as the capacity to feel and care or the brilliance of the mind and the intellect. Often it is the attraction of the head and the heart, the analytical and the intuitive, the scientific and the artistic side, the left and right side of human existence so to say for mutual completeness.
All these are still lower forms of companionship where each one feels supported through sharing and becomes complete with the other. Each such relationship brings out some aspect or the other in our nature. But since the lower nature remains like a jigsaw puzzle with pieces scattered here and there the fulfillment and completeness never comes. Something is always missing.
To find this missing piece we have to first undertake the journey in the opposite direction. We need to go within, go through the phase of solitary journey of the alone to the Alone until we discover our secret soul. With this discovery and the soul’s touch our nature arrives at the fullness ot indirectly seeks through the need of a companion. When we are still labouring in lower nature this need is actually the need for discovering our own soul that alone can complete and fulfil us. Since no one human being can fulfill this unless he himself has realised his soul, we see this tendency for multiple friendships each bringing out some aspect within the other.
It is only after this discovery whereby the needs and desires for someone to share our life with is gone that we enter into another type of companionship that can hasten each other’s evolution by mutually supporting the spiritual evolution, by strengthening each other’s spiritual energies, by further enhancing the aspects of each other’s nature that have already been discovered. Of course not all may have a companion at this stage. Our spiritual ascension does not need a companion, but since life has an inward and an outward movement a companion at this stage can help through complementarity whereby one of the partner is more inward oriented while the other takes charge of the outward aspects. This is what we see symbolised in the stories of Vishnu and Lakshmi, Shiva and Parvati, Brahma and Saraswati, Krishna and Radha. Sometimes one assumes the inward role, sometimes the other as both are complete in themselves. Their individual evolution is completed in a way. But for the purposes of work in the world it is better if the pair comes together, no more as man and woman but as the Lord and Shakti, the Master of yoga and his Power that executes and organises in details. When this happens the original plan is complete. Two human lives have come together to replicate perfectly upon earth the eternal truth of the Lord and His Shakti. This kind of perfect relationship does seem to be part of the intended plan of the Divine in creation. But like all evolution and progress it is a long labour and a real adventure journey fraught with all the dangers and delight of the unexpected.
