Silence

 

Pythagoras says: ‘Learn to be silent. Let your quiet mind listen and absorb.’ A quiet mind produces wonderful results. What Pythagoras said is very relevant to all our lives. The silence that we need to spend time with is not the silence of depression, heartbreak, fatigue or even staring at photos of happier times and going through texts sent by your friends on how your ex is enjoying without you. Silence is about creating an ambient around yourself where you are just happy to be by yourself. The presence or absence of others won’t disturb you if you are internally silent.

Speaking about a tranquil mind Anshul Chaturvedi says that silence should allow your mind to settle. In this silence, you give place to yourself to know what you are knowing, thinking and feeling at the present moment. The traffic police imposes a fine on us if we take calls while driving, hence learning from this we must fine ourselves for indulging in unnecessary and trivial things that land us in tension and depression.

Ramakrishna speaks of a picturistic idea where the still mind is like a tranquil pool which reflects the moon in all its grandeur. The common man’s mind is like a pool which is constantly in a whirlpool, the water never gets an opportunity or a chance to settle down. Due to this it is unable to reflect and present what’s above. Growth takes place only when we absorb and listen. Sometimes we must put a pause to our communication with others. We need to do something better with our time rather than only waste it by unnecessarily communicating with others.

We need to live in solidarity, at the same time we shouldn’t be too obsessed with our friends but give them their due space and respect. When it is fun time with friends it is fun time with friends, when its work time it is work time. We can’t afford to make our work an extension of our personal and emotional equations. Nowadays all of us interrupted by messages on various social sites which don’t allow us to concentrate on our work or disturbs our moments of silence and stillness. 

All this needs to be cut down. We need to avoid unnecessary waste of time conversations. We need to force our minds so that we deal square with what we need and when we need it. S. Radhakrishnan commenting on Bhagwad Gita 6: 10 says ‘In a world which is daily growing noisier, the duty of the civilized man is to have moments of thoughtful stillness.’ What he means is that we need to create a sacred space in the midst of a concrete jungle.

Silence and single minded focus are the two sides of the same coin or two wings of a bird. The achievement of one makes the achievement of the other possible and easy. Whatever be the situation outside, be it noisy, filthy, confusing etc we need to create an inner silence which will be of great help and benefit to us.