Language of Silence

Silence is not an absence of sound; it is the presence of meaning. Two old men, friends of many years standing, would meet in each other’s house every day. They would sit in perfect silence for a couple of hours, and then the visitor would get up and leave, without a word of farewell.

The inevitable happened and, in the natural course of things, one of the old men died. “You must miss him a lot,” said a condoler to the survivor. “I do,” replied the bereaved friend. “What I particularly miss are the long conversations we used to enjoy with each other.”

The story suggests that there are forms of communication which don’t need the use of words. But more than that, it conveys a suitably wordless message that silence has its own subtle yet resonant vocabulary, if only we choose to learn its language. Silence is not an absence of sound; it is the presence of meaning. When Swami Vivekananda during his visit to the western world was introduced to the actress, Sarah Bernhardt, known for her beauty and her seductive laugh, someone asked him if he had heard the actress’s famous laughter. “No,” said Vivekananda. “But she heard my silence.” It is said that Bernhardt was profoundly influenced by her meeting with the eastern sage.

Learning to hear silence takes patience. A music composer who was congratulated on the elegant way in which he arranged the notes in his compositions replied, “The notes more or less take care of themselves; the difficulty lies in getting the silent bits right.”

In an age of increasing electronic chatter — 24x7 television, mobile phones, Twitter, SMSs — “getting the silent bits right” is becoming more and more difficult. And, for that reason, more and more necessary.

We don’t have to go become hermits in the Himalayas, or seek the solitude of desert wastes, to find silence. In fact, the trick is in finding silence in the midst of our everyday, work a day lives, in the middle of conversations with each other. Is this business of finding silence just another way of saying that we should turn a deaf ear to what others are saying to us? Quite the contrary. The true meaning of the language of silence lies not in exclusion but in inclusion; not in cutting oneself off from people or from what is around us, but in finding a different, deeper level of communication.

In legal terms, silence means consent. If, for example, you saw someone about to commit a criminal act and didn’t warn the victim or raise an alarm, a law court could take your silence to mean that you gave your consent to the act and as such were an accomplice to it. This is a negative interpretation of the consenting nature of silence. A positive interpretation of silence would be that it affirms a unity of consciousness as distinct from a duality. A seeker asked a spiritual master: “How can I transcend into the All?” The master made no reply. Every day, the seeker would ask the same question, and every day the master would maintain his silence.

(The organ of speech is a very great distracter of the mind. Too much talking indicates that the man is rajasic (restless). Talking makes the mind outgoing. Mouna (vow of silence) is almost death for the worldly man. It is a great blessing for the spiritual aspirant.

A worldly man always wants company and talk. This is his nature. Energy is wasted in this idle gossiping. Conserve this energy by mouna and utilise it for the contemplation of the divine. If you observe mouna for two months you will realise its advantages. Then you yourself will not leave the practice. If the organ of speech is checked then the eyes and ears come under control quite easily. Mouna develops will power. It checks the impulse of speech. It is a great help in the observance of truth and the control of anger. Emotions are also controlled and irritability vanishes. A mouni (one who observes mouna) uses measured words and his speech is very impressive. A mouni first thinks whether his speech will wound the feelings of others, what sort of impression it will make on the minds of others, and so on. He is careful in his speech. He is thoughtful and considerate. He weighs each word before it comes out of his mouth. He can stay for a long time in seclusion. Practise, Feel the joy and peace of silence for yourself.

If you wish to observe mouna, you should keep yourself perfectly occupied in japa (repetition of God's name), meditation and mantra-writing. Do not mix with others. Do not come out of your room frequently. The energy used for speech should be sublimated into spiritual energy. It should be utilised for meditation. Then only you will enjoy serenity, calmness, peace and inner spiritual strength.

During mouna introspect. Watch the thoughts. Then you will come to understand the ways of the mind and its workings. You can notice how the mind runs from one object to another in a moment's time. You will derive immense benefit from the practice of mouna.

Real mouna is silence of the mind. Physical mouna eventually leads to silence of the mind. Mouna of the mind is far superior to the mouna of speech. Mouna should come by itself. It must be natural. Forced mouna is only wrestling with the mind. It is an effort. If you live in truth, then mouna will come by itself, and there will be absolute peace.

“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent”. This silence beyond words that has been given different names on different signposts set up by spiritual masters to guide seekers. One of these synonyms for silence is meditation, another is prayer.

You don’t need to go to an ashram or a cave in the wilderness to meditate. You don’t have to go to a shrine to pray. You can do either in your home, or your place of work during a spare moment. Perhaps, best of all, like the two friends in the story, you can do either of them when deep in silent conversation with someone else who is you by another name, just as you are someone else by another name. And both are one in silence.

Silence is the best way to conserve once energy and to observe and channelize once thoughts. It really needs lot of strength to be quiet and not react.