Silence Is Golden
Mind and Emotions Are Calmed
As We
Observe Mauna, Restraint of Speech
Oasis:
The French Polynesian
island of
Bora Bora, a
quiet
citadel
in the midst of the
central
South Pacific, the
ocean
called Peaceful.
Many think of silence simplistically, as just the
absence of noise, or not speaking words. But
silence, like
life itself, is more complex and subtle than
that. We all
seek silent moments, islands in the sea of
sound, to reflect upon
and reap the lessons from life’s experiences.
Usually our quest for
quietude is an outer search. We vacation to
paradise or hike into
the hills to escape the daily din. While
Hindu saints and scriptures
do emphasize the importance of serene
surroundings as an
aid to introspection, they stress more the
cultivation of silence
within. Outer peace is simply a means to help
us find inner silence.
Ultimately, we learn to maintain and enjoy
our innate serenity
regardless of the cacophony that surrounds
us. This is the basis
of the Hindu practice of mauna, the vow to remain silent, and it
is why some subdue speech altogether. Mauna is not the exclusive
province of the sage. Brilliant orators and
well-to-do intellectuals
have also chosen to curb their speech.
Mahatma Gandhi was
perhaps the most prominent public figure to
observe mauna. He
tamed his tongue every Monday, communicating
on that day only
through writing.
The late Swami Nirmalananda of Karnataka had
served the
Army Postal Service in Europe
during World War II. He later
held various government posts in India. He
travelled the globe
and studied well the world’s religions and
philosophies. In the
end, his burning search for truth culminated
in silence. “If you
desire to live in peace,” he said, “hear all
that falls on your ears,
see all that appears before your eyes,
realize that everything is in
accordance with the eternal law of nature,
and be silent.” He did
not speak for eleven years, and thereafter
spoke sparingly. When
he did, it was with clarity and conviction.
“Wisdom to me is not
a set of words, but freshness and emptiness
of the mind. Empty
the mind by self-observation, self-awareness
and inner attention.
Thus make the mind shine like a mirror. Then
nothing is seen or
known but the limitless radiance of eternity.
This is a wonderful
source of ever-renewed joy and inspiration
beyond words.”
Mauna is practiced in varying degrees by spiritual leaders,
ascetics,
aspirants and householders alike, throughout India and
abroad. Still, popular belief holds that the
vow of silence can be
followed only by ascetics and sages, that it
lies beyond the capability
of ordinary mortals. Hinduism Today correspondent, Choodie
Shivaram of Bangalore, dispels this
misconception, “I have seen
ordinary people observing mauna in daily life. A very orthodox
elderly cook in our house during my school
days strictly observed
mauna one day of the week. No matter how much we joked about
her stony silence, she never budged. So, too,
my great grand-aunt,
Kadakka, observed mauna on certain days of the week. She insisted
that we children keep perfect silence at
least during meals.
Of course, despite our valiant efforts, our
childish giggles could
not be contained.”
Choodie continues, “In my childhood, an old
friend of my father,
Shri Chandrasekhar, would chat with me and my
young friends.
I had not seen him for many years, and I was
shell-shocked last
year when he refused to talk to me. Only
later did I learn that
he was observing mauna. Now in his eighties, Chandrasekhar
spends most of his time at the Ramakrishna
Math. He has been
observing mauna for the past 17 years.
Although with a wife and
children, he speaks only for two hours on the
first of every month.
Even then, he is very choosy about to whom he
speaks, and how
much. Always clad in a white dhoti and half-sleeved white shirt, a
sling bag over his shoulder, simplicity is
his way of life.”
Choodie heard Chandrasekhar’s insights on his
singular talking
day last month: “Often people take me to be
some worthless being,
looking at my dress and silence. But it just
does not matter to me.
I began by talking for only one hour a day.
After about one year, I
began talking only once in a fortnight and
gradually made it once
a month. Now, I speak only two hours once a
month. I plan to give
it up totally. Besides talking, my communication
is limited to writ-
is only done when I have to pass on some
message or give instructions.
I do not communicate with anyone else. I’m
only a listener
now. Silence teaches you to listen.”
Prema Pandurang of Chennai is perhaps an
unlikely candidate
to have spontaneously taken a 41-day vow to remain mute. Prema
is a famous religious lecturer in South India.
She was a professor of English at Chennai’s
Presidency College for twenty-three years.
She told Hinduism Today’s publisher how
silence came to her. “For a long time, I had
been a speaker. One day I woke up and
said, ‘Now. Let me see how it sounds—how
it feels—if I don’t speak.’ It wasv not that
anything in the world disgusted me. It was
more the thought that there was so much
sound around me, and I was creating
most of it. I said, ‘Let me be in silence and
watch.’ ” Prema found the silence profound,
and wrote down her inspirations in a small
book, Reflection on Silence. She now continues
her silence every Tuesday.
As austere as maunis may seem, most still
shy away from the absolute vow. The strictest
observance of mauna, utter silence, can
seem unnatural to onlookers and impossible
for those wishing to attempt it. Such a
deliberate
denial of human interaction is a stark
withdrawal from a world structured and
sustained with words. In Sadhus,
The Holy
Men of India (1991, Brijbasi, New Delhi), author
Ramesh Bedi describes an encounter
with a most extreme mauni. “Sadhus who
take the vow of silence include those who
will condescend to communicate with others
by gesture or by writing things down
and also those who take the absolute vow
of silence, the kashtha mauna vow. Kashtha
means wood. So this is the vow ‘to be silent
like a log of wood.’ The kashtha mauna sadhu
will partake in no communication at all
with others. Only very penitential ones are
capable of undertaking this vow. One such
sadhu I encountered in 1938, in the foothills
of the Shivalak Hills off Haridwar, even
refused
to accept the fruits and edibles offered
to him. Having offered him a handful of
mulberries once, I returned the next week
to discover that these lay where I had left
them. He didn’t even look at them. Nearby
villagers would regularly bring offerings of
food, but the ascetic ate none of it, living
on
the wild fruits he found in the jungle.”
More common are those who observe
complete silence for shorter periods and
those who communicate through writing.
Baba Hari Dass of the Mount Madonna
Center of California currently “talks”
tersely through a book-sized
chalkboard. But even he abandoned all outward
expression for a
period. “I was in kashtha mauna for one year. I did not use anything
to communicate. There is always an advantage
in removing
the mind from worldly attachments, whatever
the means. Mauna
is one of the means.” Baba gave up speaking
over forty years ago.
Sri Tiruchi Maha Swamigal of Kailash Ashram,
Bangalore, undertook
mauna for two years while living in a cave in the region of
Tayumaneshwarar
Temple, Tamil Nadu. The purpose of his vow
was to “contemplate deeply upon his upcoming
divine mission.”
Swami tells stories of the many snakes
encountered in the cave. As
they passed him by harmlessly, he found that
even wild animals
are tamed by a true practitioner of mauna.
Quest
for quiet: To abruptly stop
speaking may be too stern a
step for most. But the benefits of mauna can
be obtained in less arduous ways (see the
Seven Sadhanas of Silence, pp. 280-281). If
you have the desire, dedicating some time
to silence can be easy. Dada J.P. Vaswani
advises, “First thing when you wake up in
the morning, observe silence for at least ten
minutes. This will help you to gather your
thoughts.” Sri Tiruchi Swami recommends
that people with busy schedules fix a day
or two in a week, or an hour or two in a
day, for mauna. He elaborated to Hinduism
Today, “An ordinary devotee can observe
mauna daily during, before or after the
morning worship (personal or communal)
for a duration of about one to three hours.
One can also be silent for one to three hours
during the evenings before or after sunset.
Silence can be practiced one or two days
a week while keeping aloof from one’s normal
schedules and activities. A visit to the
temple can become extra special by including
the discipline of not speaking. Also, one
can make the vow of silence a part of one’s
pilgrimage. All days are suitable for mauna.
The longer we can detach ourselves mentally
from daily trivials, the better.”
Recalling her own profound experience of
silence, Prema Pandurang implores, “There
is so much stress and tension today that
everyone
must observe silence—some time
away from mother, father, child and wife,
friends and everyone—at least a half-hour
every day with no telephone calls in some
corner of the house where one can see nature.
Just sit and silently think about what
you are doing. You’ll be different. It is
necessary.
It brings your high blood pressure
down, makes your pulse beat normally. You
start recollecting whatever you’ve done and
you start planning for what you’re going to
do. For this introspection you need silence,
and that is why for the past eight years I’ve
observed silence on Tuesdays.”
One of the foremost reasons to curtail
conversation is to conserve energy.
Abstinence
from speech transmutes the creative
energies of the mind in the same way that
sexual abstinence, brahmacharya, transmutes
the physical energies. Baba Hari
Dass explains, “We talk only by exhalation.
The more we talk, the more we have to exhale
and the more
life energy we lose. Energy is lost primarily
in two ways—by sex
and by talking. The origin of both sound and
sex is the muladhara
chakra at the base of the spine. When we
talk, we use tremendous
energy. This can be felt if you stop talking
for a few days and then
start talking again. The energy we preserve
through silence can
be used for meditation.”
A more mundane impetus for mauna is simply to stay out of
trouble. Chandrasekhar confessed, “I have
committed many mistakes.
I have been harsh to people and have hurt
many with my
speech. Finally, I realized the importance of
silence. In mauna, the
mind projects all of our faults. They come
like flashes. We begin to
look within and see our mistakes. This helps
us to rectify ourselves.
This can solve many of life’s petty problems.
The natural mind is
filled with compassion and Divinity. I think mauna is the first step
towards realizing God. It detaches us from
worldly pleasures.”
In this regard, Rev. Swami Satchidananda,
founder of Integral
Yoga Institute, shares a Sanskrit proverb—“Mauna kalaka nasti.”
He explains, “Mauna means silence; kalaka means problems
or quarrels and nasti means nonexistent. So this
saying tells us, ‘When you are silent, there
are no quarrels.’
By talking, we create problems because we do
not know how much to talk, how to talk, what
to talk
and when to talk. So, the immediate benefit of
mauna
is to avoid problems. The other benefits then
follow.
The silence of speech leads to the silence of
mind,
because if you decide not to speak, what good
are
thoughts? Every time a thought comes, you
cannot
express it with words, so the mind ultimately
says,
‘Alright, what is the point of my thinking?’
You
get into a thoughtless state. But there is
one more
mauna, the bodily silence. That means you don’t
move around. You stay in one place. That
helps
the silences of speech and mind also.”
Swami’s institute
holds occasional silent retreats where
participants
study yoga and meditation, all the while
remaining silent. During one retreat, he
jested in
his jovial way, “Observe all, but refrain
from talking.
I will do all the talking for you. Whatever
you
want to say, just leave it to me…I think you
cannot
talk too much about silence.”
The Ribhu Gita tells us, “Sitting in silence is the holy ablution.
Sitting in silence is the japa. Sitting in silence is the worship. Sitting
in silence is the highest. Read silently to
yourself about the
experience that all is Brahman. In a moment,
all the punya, merit,
which would result from a million asvamedha, horse sacrifices,
can be obtained” (verses 16.42
and 33.29).
Seven Sadhanas of Silence
Some silence is golden, others are silver and a lot prove
out
just to be heavy metal—copper, iron, zinc or
tin. A few
kinds of silence are brazen brass. Silence
can be learned.
Let’s begin at the bottom, by silencing the
brass. To do this there
is a sadhana, spiritual discipline, the first of the Seven Sadhanas
of Silence.
The brass sadhana is to conquer jealousy, which bemoans, “She
has more than I do. He gets everything he
asks for, while I get nothing
or very little. It’s unfair.” This noise goes
on daily in the mind of
those are in the jealousy chakra (sutala), located in the knees, which
has to stop spinning in the astral areas of
the inner mind to make
way for peace of mind. How do we do this? It
is easy. Just
begin to stop talking to yourself about what
is unfair.
Let all mental arguments go. Drop the
subject. Be
silent about the issue. Such a silence
provides a
place for harmony of minds, while too much
noisy
complaining about “me and mine” gives no room
for others.
The silence of tin is an even worse din. Have
you
ever heard a child beat on a tin can? That’s
how the
force of anger sounds, “clank, clank, clank.”
Not musical,
not melodious, not even nice. The noise of
anger, which
vibrates in the vitala chakra located in the thighs, has
to be quieted to enjoy even the smallest
sliver of silver
peace. How do we do this? Well, it is
expensive. A monetary
sum is paid for each outburst or even
unexpressed
wave of anger. A jar, labeled “anger
penance,” is established
in the shrine room, into which a monetary
sum is placed each time anger is
experienced—the
greater the expression, the larger the sum.
The money collected is
sent to the charity of one’s choice on the
first day of each month.
The silence of zinc comes next. It is
quieting the force of fear.
Yes, fear can produce a very noisy mind. But
it is not beyond being
controlled and courted into obeyance. Fear
creates. Often we create
what we fear and make it happen by fearing
that it might. We give
it that energy, that possibility in our life.
Fear vibrates in the atala
chakra, located in the hips. To bring fear under control is a powerful
accomplishment. How do we do this? One way is
through the
power of affirmation, reprogramming the
subconscious mind. An
affirmation is a series of positive words in
line with a visual concept
repeated time and time again. It can be
repeated mentally or, pref-
erably, verbally. Here is an effective
affirmation for overcoming fear.
“I am the complete master of all my forces.
My spiritual energies
govern and control the force fields wherever
I am for the highest
good. Through understanding, being a pure
soul, full of spirited
life, I am filled and thrilled with unlimited
power now and forever.”
While repeating this affirmation, visualize a
bright white protective
shell around your outer aura with a round
opening at the top. As you
persist, the trembling voice of fear will
desist.
Now, the silence of iron. Many of us have
strong memories,
which become stronger as years go by. As
strong as iron, they are
there, rusting away in the muladhara chakra at the base of the spine.
How do we silence memory? Write down or type
in your computer
all that you want to forget. Then burn up the
paper. Writing down
problems and burning them in any ordinary
fire brings them from
the subconscious into the external mind, releasing
the suppressed
emotion as the fire consumes the paper. The
memory still exists, but
it has lost its emotional power.
With the past thus stilled, we come to the
silence of copper. We
are climbing up the ladder of the chakras
when we try to silence
our reason, which in most of us is the noise
of asking rhetorical and
intellectual questions over and over again.
Questions that have no
answers. “Why did he do that? Does he not
know better?” And on
and on and on. It is important for seekers to
silence the tendency
to rationalize, to explain away, to excuse
and defend the ego. To
silence this svadhishthana chakra, located at the kidney level, some
basic yoga must be done to empower the higher self. Controlled
breathing, pranayama, helps harness and slow down the prana, energy,
that spins this chakra, as does hatha yoga. Sit quietly with the
spine in a straight line. Breathe naturally,
as a baby breathes, by using
the diaphragmatic muscles below the solar
plexus. Inhale. The
diaphragm pushes the stomach wall out, as the
lower lungs inflate.
Exhale. Relaxing the diaphragm, the air is
expelled. Then pull the
diaphragm in to push out the last bit of air.
Nine counts in, hold one,
nine counts out—this is a basic sadhana for the silence of copper.
With the intellect quieted a bit, we can seek
the silence of silver,
stilling the willpower located at the
solar-plexus manipura
chakra,
which spins constantly, being the nerve
center that interconnects all
the forces of the physical and astral bodies.
How to quiet willpower?
Competitiveness and aggression must stop, for
these direct the pranas,
or energies, down to the lower chakras. The force of willfulness
in its negative expression makes noises about
self preservation—
“Take care of me first and forget others.”
This can be counteracted
by the practice of speaking only that which
is true, kind, helpful
and necessary. The silver sadhana is to use willpower positively to
control the tongue, to be a helpmate to
silence by speaking little,
and never boasting of ambitions or attainments.
With the willpower subdued, the silence of
gold comes into
view—without the L, it is God. So get the L out of it. Here silence
is truly the voice of God. To quiet the anahata chakra, heart center,
of understanding, soul knowing, vision and
peaceful thoughts is not
to be a metaphysical know-it-all. It means
not being a prophet or
big ego in speaking about how others should
live, but rather silently
living the example of how one should be.
Then we come to the platinum vishuddha chakra, in the throat.
Here resides the force of divine love. Love
is understanding, forgiveness,
compassion and benevolent, selfless giving.
It is the chakra that
the yogis enter to be truly silent. Here they
cannot speak. Here they
feel good and fulfilled. True, writing on a
chalk board communicates
the essentials; other than that, in a room
alone such yogis are
silent. Not blank in consciousness. Silence
does not mean emptiness
as much as divine fullness. They are
all-seeing, for the vishuddha
chakra energies stimulate the third eye—the ajna chakra, the all-seeing,
never-sleeping sight of the soul. Here we are
truly silent. In a
room crowded with noise, we hear but a little
of it. In meditation
we soar beyond into the infinite of
infinities.
How to quiet the highest chakras, which are quietness itself?
The titanium metal of the ajna chakra of divine sight and the multifaceted
gems of the sahasrara chakra at the top of the head? Do
they speak, think, reason? Those who know and
have experienced
say no. These jivanmuktas are content in their silent knowing, not
knowing all that they know. Their
ever-watching presence on today’s
apparently hurting planet is an earned sukarma, good karma, for
the human race. They are the beginning and
end of all. They see
the cosmic panorama of which the Vedas speak. “He contains all
works, all desires, all perfumes and all
tastes. He encompasses the
whole universe; he is beyond speech and
beyond desires. He is my
atman within my heart, he is Brahman” (Sama Veda, Chandogya
Upanishad 3.14.4.4). “Now, what people call ‘the practice of silence’
is really the disciplined life of a student
of sacred knowledge, for only
by leading such a life does one find the
atman and meditate” (Chandogya
Upanishad 5.5.4.3).
When to be silent then? Astrologers have an
answer: one day
each week, on the day ruled by one’s current mahadasha planet—
i.e., Monday for Moon dasha, Tuesday for Mars, etc. Some astrologers
advise fasting and nonspeaking on that
karmically critical day.
If you don’t know such details of your
horoscope, an easy and pragmatic
alternative is on the same day of the week
you were born.
Enough said.
Speech needs company, silence
needs solitude. Speech wants
to conquer others, silence helps
conquer oneself.
Speech makes friends or foes, silence
befriends all. Speech demands
respect, silence commands it.
Speech is earth-bound, silence is
heaven-bound. Speech educates,
silence exalts. Speech is subjective,
silence objective.
Speech has regrets, silence none.
Speech has limitations, silence is
boundless. Speech needs effort,
silence a lot more.
Speech is human, Silence is Divine.
While speaking you are heard by
creatures, in silence you hear the
creator.
Silence leads to a stillness of the mind,
then to introspection, then to selfcleansing,
finally to liberation.
(Prema Pandurang)
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
(My
humble salutations to Sadguru Sri Sivaya
Subramuniyaswami
ji, Hinduism Today dot com for the collection)
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