The Dark Night of the Soul.
The deepest transformation always comes through darkness 🌌
🌌 Chapter 8: The Dark Night of the Soul
After the night of the divine sign, Aarav expected clarity.
He expected peace.
Instead, he found darkness.
Not around him—but within him.
The next morning, when he sat to meditate, his mind was not calm. It was louder than ever before. Thoughts crashed into him like waves. Doubts he had never felt before began to rise.
What if this is all in your mind?
What if you are losing yourself?
What if there is nothing waiting for you at the end?
He opened his eyes, breathing heavily.
The peace he had felt was gone.
In its place was emptiness. Heavier than before.
He went to find the old man, but he was nowhere in the village.
Hours passed.
Then days.
The old man had disappeared.
Aarav was alone.
Panic slowly began to grow inside him.
Had he been abandoned? Had he failed?
The mountain no longer felt warm and welcoming. Now it felt distant. Silent in a different way. Not peaceful—but indifferent.
That night, Aarav sat at the base of the mountain.
"I came," he whispered into the darkness. "I followed the call. Why am I alone now?"
There was no answer.
Only silence.
For the first time since arriving, Aarav felt anger.
He had left his home. His family. His old life.
For what?
Nothing.
Tears filled his eyes.
He felt foolish. Lost. Broken.
The peace he had tasted now felt like a cruel illusion.
His mind screamed at him to leave. To return to his old life. To forget everything.
He buried his face in his hands.
"I don't understand," he said softly.
The wind moved gently around him.
And then, something unexpected happened.
He realized he had nothing left to hold onto.
No certainty.
No guidance.
No promises.
Only himself.
And the silence.
For the first time, Aarav stopped searching for answers.
He stopped resisting the pain.
He stopped trying to become something.
He simply sat.
Broken.
Empty.
Present.
Hours passed.
Slowly, he became aware of his breathing.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
The pain was still there.
But he was no longer fighting it.
He was watching it.
Accepting it.
And in that acceptance, something began to change.
The darkness did not disappear.
But it lost its weight.
It became space.
Still.
Silent.
Endless.
A quiet understanding arose within him.
He had not been abandoned.
He had been left alone to discover that he was never truly alone.
The presence he had been searching for was not outside him.
It was within him.
It had always been there.
Tears fell from his eyes again.
But this time, they were not tears of pain.
They were tears of release.
Far away, unseen in the shadows, the old man watched.
And he smiled.
The hardest part of the journey was complete.
Aarav had faced not the mountain.
But himself.
And he had not turned away