A T-shirt was embossed with the following statement: "Most people speak because they find speech more tolerable than silence". A blanket generalization, doubtless, hut maybe there's a great truth in it. For the distressed, though they are apparently silent, they could be screaming inside. If so, speaking does offer easy distraction from turmoil within. The Bhagavad Gita says (17.16) that mauna is a form of austerity — that is, mauna or silence not only in speech but in mind as well.
Mauna is not merely the inability to speak or the reluctance to speak; it is calmness of mind that enables you to hear the guiding voice of God within.
Certainly, both speech and silence have their utility for speech is a powerful and essential means for communication. Social reformers and others have galvanized people into action with the power of speech. On the other hand, seekers have introspected in silence in order to get closer to enlightenment. Could we then conclude that speech is a vehicle for social transformation and silence, for individual transformation?
There's another, intriguing but higher dimension, of sound beyond silence. Let's visualise our quest for happiness as movement on the y-axis of a mathematical model of life. We are all eternal spiritual beings, but because of spiritual amnesia, we are mis-identiiying ourselves with our temporary physical body. Physical activity—beginning with speech — makes us forget our natural spiritual joyftitness, and plunges us in anxiety and misery tiU it falls flat on the negative y-axis. Material inactivity — beginning with physical silence—checks our preoccupation with the temporal and offers relief, but it alone does not revive spiritual memory So it falls on the origin — the zero point — on the y-axis. But spiritual activity — beginning with spiritual sound — cures us of amnesia by linking our consciousness with God, enlightening and enlivening Us with divine wisdom and bliss. Hence it falls on the positive y-axis. A maths novice might think that the positive and negative axes are identical. Similarly a spiritual novice might assume spiritual and physical sounds to be identical. But the difference can be understood if only we try A spiritually immature person unaware of spiritual values sees no difference between ordinary physical sound and extraordinary spiritual sound.
Physical sound agitates our mind, spiritual sound pacifies it. The former aggravates and perpetuates amnesia; spiritual sound alleviates and eradicates it. Physical sound entangles us, spiritual sound liberates us.
What makes a sound spiritual? It is its connection with the supreme being, who resides on the positive infinity of the y-axis. St John states: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God", hi Vedic tradition, hymns, verses, songs, mantras, bhajans and kirtans take seekers to higher realms of enlightenment and fulfilment. The greater the connection of sound with God, the greater its spiritual potency Therefore, the most powerful spiritual sound is the Holy Name of God. Through group meditation on the sound of the holy Name or sankir-tan, seekers can relish divine bliss and also share it with others. Thus spiritual sound offers us a unique vehicle for simultaneous individual and social transformation. The writer is a member of ISKCON.
DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in the Article above are Author’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."
Courtesy: The Times of India: The Speaking Tree
A T-shirt was embossed with the following statement: "Most people speak because they find speech more tolerable than silence". A blanket generalization, doubtless, hut maybe there's a great truth in it. For the distressed, though they are apparently silent, they could be screaming inside. If so, speaking does offer easy distraction from turmoil within. The Bhagavad Gita says (17.16) that mauna is a form of austerity — that is, mauna or silence not only in speech but in mind as well.
Mauna is not merely the inability to speak or the reluctance to speak; it is calmness of mind that enables you to hear the guiding voice of God within.
Certainly, both speech and silence have their utility for speech is a powerful and essential means for communication. Social reformers and others have galvanized people into action with the power of speech. On the other hand, seekers have introspected in silence in order to get closer to enlightenment. Could we then conclude that speech is a vehicle for social transformation and silence, for individual transformation?
There's another, intriguing but higher dimension, of sound beyond silence. Let's visualise our quest for happiness as movement on the y-axis of a mathematical model of life. We are all eternal spiritual beings, but because of spiritual amnesia, we are mis-identiiying ourselves with our temporary physical body. Physical activity—beginning with speech — makes us forget our natural spiritual joyftitness, and plunges us in anxiety and misery tiU it falls flat on the negative y-axis. Material inactivity — beginning with physical silence—checks our preoccupation with the temporal and offers relief, but it alone does not revive spiritual memory So it falls on the origin — the zero point — on the y-axis. But spiritual activity — beginning with spiritual sound — cures us of amnesia by linking our consciousness with God, enlightening and enlivening Us with divine wisdom and bliss. Hence it falls on the positive y-axis. A maths novice might think that the positive and negative axes are identical. Similarly a spiritual novice might assume spiritual and physical sounds to be identical. But the difference can be understood if only we try A spiritually immature person unaware of spiritual values sees no difference between ordinary physical sound and extraordinary spiritual sound.
Physical sound agitates our mind, spiritual sound pacifies it. The former aggravates and perpetuates amnesia; spiritual sound alleviates and eradicates it. Physical sound entangles us, spiritual sound liberates us.
What makes a sound spiritual? It is its connection with the supreme being, who resides on the positive infinity of the y-axis. St John states: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God", hi Vedic tradition, hymns, verses, songs, mantras, bhajans and kirtans take seekers to higher realms of enlightenment and fulfilment. The greater the connection of sound with God, the greater its spiritual potency Therefore, the most powerful spiritual sound is the Holy Name of God. Through group meditation on the sound of the holy Name or sankir-tan, seekers can relish divine bliss and also share it with others. Thus spiritual sound offers us a unique vehicle for simultaneous individual and social transformation. The writer is a member of ISKCON.
DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in the Article above are Author’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."
Courtesy: The Times of India: The Speaking Tree